Christin El-kholy

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi spent years presenting the New Administrative Capital as a symbol of Egypt’s future, a desert metropolis built to solve Cairo’s congestion woes and anchor what the regime calls the “New Republic.” Critics argued that its real purpose was not administrative efficiency, but a type of insulation from the Egyptian people. At this weekend’s inauguration of the Strategic Command headquarters, dubbed “the Octagon,” Sisi seemed to confirm that view.

Since its establishment in 1981, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has recorded violence against media workers worldwide. Its databases and reports are frequently cited by governments, courts, policymakers and the United Nations, an authority that rests on a deceptively simple premise: that CPJ can determine, consistently and neutrally, who counts as a journalist.

Late last week, Drake dropped a barrage of new releases with the kind of spectacle that we’ve come to expect from the rapper. In the run-up to the three-album and multiple music video drop, there were the usual livestreams and cryptic posts.