Egypt in the first week of #Tokyo2020 Olympics : 2 Bronze medals so far

On the fourth day of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics Egypt scored two medals in not more than 20 minutes.

Yup, Egypt scored the bronze medals in Taekwondo on Monday in less than 20 minutes to be precise.

Our fantastic Taekwondo fighter Hedaya Malak secured the first Tokyo medal for Egypt after beating Paige Mcpherson of USA 17-6 while competing for a bronze medal of the 67kg event.

After ten minutes of Malak’s victory, our Taekwondo fighter Seif Issa won the second bronze medal for Egypt after beating Andre Richard Ordemann of Norway 12-4 in the Men -80kg Bronze Medal Contests on Monday.

Seif and Hadeya with their medals in Tokyo "Getty" 

It was a relief after three days of ongoing and unfortunate losses and disqualification to have those bronze medals. 

20 minutes made millions of Egypt happy for real after huge disappointment in the first three days.

Now I am happy Hedaya Malak got a medal in Tokyo 2020. It is her second medal in the Olympics after her bronze medal in Rio 2016.

Happy Eid Adha 2021 in photos and video "Updated"

Happy Eid Adha from Egyptian Chronicles to all Muslims around the globe.

May Allah grant you happiness, satisfaction and peace.

Here are a couple of photos from Cairo today by talented and amateur photographers thanks to the amazing D O C U M E N T A R I E S Facebook page. 

At Amr Ibn Asa Mosque in Cairo during the public Eid prayer "Alaa Ahmed"

#GERD and beyond : After the second filing , what is the next move for Egypt and Sudan ? "Updated"

Ethiopia’s Irrigation Ministry announced on Monday that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam “GERD” finished successfully its second filing despite the objections of both Egypt and Sudan.

From three weeks ago, Ethiopia notified both Egypt and Sudan that it started the second filing already as the two Nile Downstream countries were heading into the United Nations Security Council on GERD talks for the second time.

Ethiopian irrigation minister Seleshi Bekele announced on Monday that the GERD reservoir reached an overtopping water level.

A photo of GERD released by Ethiopian Broadcasting Cooperation "EBC"
on Monday

“Currently, the incoming flow passes through both bottom outlets and overtopping” Bekele added in his statement on social media.

He added that the Blue Nile experienced extreme rainfall, the GERD reservoir was filled rapidly.

He did not mention numbers related to the quantity of water they got now.

According to previous statements of Ethiopian irrigation officials in the past month, the second filling should collect around 18.4 billion cubic metres of Blue Nile water, up from the 4.9 billion cubic metres withheld during the first filling last year.

Al-Aqsa Mosque storming : Because Radical Jewish Settlers Love to celebrate Eid with Muslim Palestinians “Just Kidding”

Earlier Sunday, Israeli Occupation Forces “IOF” and hundreds of radical Jewish settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque resulting in clashes that continued for hours between the Palestinians and the IOF for hours till late at night.

It started with provocation and rallies by the Jewish settlers around Al-Aqsa Mosque on Saturday with a clear intention that it was going to be a very long day ahead, they want to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque.

Those settlers were allegedly commemorating the Tisha B’ Av or the day the Mount Temple was destroyed through history.

Israeli Occupation Forces after storming Al-Aqsa Complex on Sunday
"Twitter"

The Jerusalemite Palestinians warned that those settlers were going to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque but nobody cared anymore in the Arab or international community.

Then at the Fajr prayer “Dawn prayer” earlier Sunday at Al-Aqsa Mosque complex. The attack started with the IOF storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex specifically at the Al-Qibli side of the mosque which is the main mosque in the complex at 5.37 am.

Ethiopia’s GERD to UN Security Council Part 2 : A Night to watch

Egyptians are waiting eagerly for what will happen in New York Thursday as the United Nations Security Council is going to hold a session on the latest developments of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam “GERD” dispute with Ethiopia per the request of Egypt and Sudan from last month.

It is like a football match in the Euro 2021 at least for me.

Both Nile Downstream countries went to the UNSC for the second time after last year as the talks with Ethiopia reached deadlock insisting to go on with the second filing of GERD (It did start filing the dam) again this year. It is a bit Deja vu but this time Sudan is with Egypt, unlike last year.

Tunisia, the only Arab non-permanent member of the UNSC in this session presented a draft resolution to the Council in coordination with the Arab bloc in the UN as well as Egypt and Sudan. I read the draft resolution and it is very balanced. (This is what both Egypt and Sudan want)

The draft resolution stipulates that Ethiopia ceases immediately the second filing of GERD which it started. It also called the three countries to resume negotiations at the joint invitation of the Chairperson of the African Union and the Secretary-General of the UN to finalize, within a period of six months, the text of a binding agreement on the filling and operation of the GERD.

GERD from above as seen by a satellite "Zoom.earth"

Both Egypt and Sudan have been demanding a timeframe for the talks after nearly wasting years in bottomless talks with Addis Abbas.

The resolution adds the required agreement should "ensure Ethiopia's ability to generate hydropower from the GERD while preventing the inflicting of significant harm on the water security of downstream states."

It urges the "three countries to refrain from making any statements or taking any action that may jeopardize the negotiation process.

#GERD : Ethiopia starts the second filing its grand dam , Egypt and Sudan already at the Security Council

From a couple of hours, the Egyptian Ministry of Irrigation announced that it received that an official letter from Ethiopia informing it that the second filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) has started already.

From its side, Egypt officially rejected categorically the unliteral action of Addis Ababa without reaching a legally binding agreement on the operations and filing policies of GERD.

In a reply letter, Egyptian Irrigation Minister Mohamed Abdel Ati expressed Egypt’s official rejection of the action.

Ethiopia's GERD by AFP 

Abdel Ati stated in the letter that the filing decision unliterally was considered a dangerous violation of the Declaration of Principles “DoPs” signed in Khartoum in 2015 between Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia.

The DoPs is an agreement signed between the three countries in March of 2015 that obliges Ethiopia to cooperate with Egypt and Sudan in filling and operating the dam.

It is also considered a violation of the transboundary water treaties and laws as well as agreements, the Egyptian minister said in his letter adding that Ethiopia should be committed to respect Egypt’s water interests and rights.

That Egyptian letter was sent to the current President of the UN Security Council too.

Coronavirus on the Nile: 17 months of COVID-19 in Egypt in graphs

Another monthly post as part of the COVID-19 coverage in Egyptian Chronicles.

This time it is a quick look into official COVID-19 numbers in Egypt after 17 months since its arrival to the country in February 2020.

An Egyptian senior citizen getting read for a jab "AFP"

Disclaimer: According to Minister of Health Hala Zayed in early January, the official numbers of cases represent between 10%-15% of the real number of cases worldwide Egypt included.

Here is the graph, it is interactive so you can click on it and click on the tabs to compare between 2020 and 2021.