CAIRO (AP) — The Egyptian pound is sliding against foreign currencies, inching nearer to 50 per U.S. dollar after a recent hike in subway fares and fuel prices.
The currency reached 49.16 to the U.S. dollar Tuesday, the Central Bank of Egypt posted on its website.
In June and July, the Egyptian pound ranged between 47 and 48 to the dollar after it floated in March and lost around 60% of its value, down as low as around 30 to the dollar.
The new exchange rates come a week after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) completed its third financial review of Egypt, allowing the government to draw $820 million. That amount is part of a $8 billion bailout loan intended to support Egypt’s ailing economy, slowed by a shortage of foreign currency, skyrocketing inflation, and turmoil in the Red Sea due to attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels.
“The Egyptian authorities’ recent efforts to restore macroeconomic stability have started to yield positive results. Inflation remains elevated but is coming down. A flexible exchange rate regime remains a cornerstone of the authorities’ program,” the IMF said last week.
Egyptians have grappled with a soaring inflation, including an announcement late last month by the Petroleum Ministry that fuel prices would increase by about 10%.
The last fuel price increase occurred in March with the government attributing price hikes to rising costs of fuel due to attacks in the Red Sea and a depreciation of its currency.
Houthis have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea in retaliation against Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza. Oil, natural gas, and grain among other products travel through the sea routes separating Africa and the Arabian Peninsula en route to the Suez Canal, where 12% of the world’s trade typically passes.
Subway fares in Cairo also officially increased as of last week, according to the National Authority for Tunnels, which administers and operates the Cairo metro. Increased fare prices now range between 2 to 5 Egyptian pounds.
Egypt reached a deal with the IMF this spring to more than double the size of its bailout to $8 billion. The price hikes have been deemed necessary to meet conditions set by the IMF for further assistance to the country.
FILE - Egyptians walk past an exchange office in Cairo, Egypt, Wednesday, March 6, 2024. The Egyptian pound is sliding against foreign currencies, inching closer to EGP 50 to the U.S. dollar on Monday, Aug. 5, after a recent hike in subway fares and fuel prices. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two people who prosecutors say were motivated by white supremacist ideology have been arrested on charges that they used the social media messaging app Telegram to encourage hate crimes and acts of violence against minorities, government officials and critical infrastructure in the United States, the Justice Department said Monday.
The defendants, identified as Dallas Erin Humber and Matthew Robert Allison, face 15 federal counts in the Eastern District of California, including charges that accuse them of soliciting hate crimes and the murder of federal officials, distributing bombmaking instructions and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.
Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, and Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho were arrested Friday. Humber pleaded not guilty in a Sacramento courtroom Monday to the charges. Her attorney Noa Oren declined to comment on the case Monday afternoon after the arraignment.
It was not immediately clear if Allison had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.
The indictment accuses the two of leading Terrorgram, a network of channels and group chats on Telegram, and of soliciting followers to attack perceived enemies of white people, including government buildings and energy facilities and “high-value” targets such as politicians.
“Today’s action makes clear that the department will hold perpetrators accountable, including those who hide behind computer screens, in seeking to carry out bias-motivated violence,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, the Justice Department's top civil rights official, said at a news conference.
Their exhortations to commit violence included statements such as “Take Action Now” and “Do your part,” and users who carried out acts to further white supremacism were told they could become known as “Saints,” prosecutors said.
Justice Department officials say the pair used the app to transmit bomb-making instructions and to distribute a list of potential targets for assassination — including a federal judge, a senator and a former U.S. attorney — and to celebrate acts or plots from active Terrorgram users.
Those include the stabbing last month of five people outside a mosque in Turkey and the July arrest of an 18-year-old accused of planning to attack an electrical substation to advance white supremacist views. In the Turkey attack, for instance, prosecutors say the culprit on the morning of the stabbing posted in a group chat: “Come see how much humans I can cleanse.”
A 24-minute documentary that the two had produced, “White Terror," documented and praised some 105 acts of white supremacist violence between 1968 and 2021, according to the indictment.
“The risk and danger they present is extremely serious," said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department’s top national security official. He added: “Their reach is as far as the internet because of the platform they’ve created.”
Telegram is a messaging app that allows for one-on-one conversations, group chats and large “channels” that let people broadcast messages to subscribers. Though broadly used as a messaging tool around the world, Telegram has also drawn scrutiny, including a finding from French investigators that the app has been used by Islamic extremists and drug traffickers.
Telegram's founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, was detained by French authorities last month on charges of allowing the platform’s use for criminal activity. Durov responded to the charges with a post last week saying he shouldn’t have been targeted personally and by promising to step up efforts to fight criminality on the app.
He wrote that while Telegram is not “some sort of anarchic paradise,” surging numbers of users have “caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.”
Associated Press reporter Trân Nguyễn contributed from Sacramento, California.
FILE - The Department of Justice seals is seen during a news conference at the DOJ office in Washington, May 16, 2023. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
