News

SpaceX Inspiration4 Tourists Share Incredible Photos Of Earth

While the views from the large glass cupola were spectacular, the three-day expedition was not without its challenges.

Published

5 years ago

November 16, 2021

Joanna Melki

Inspiration4

In September, four space tourists spent three days circling the Earth on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship, and Inspiration4 has published magnificent new photographs shot by the crew.

The photographs show stunning views of the Earth below, including unusual angles of the Sun peaking up from beyond the horizon, bordered by the spacecraft’s large glass dome as a protective cover.

Inspiration4

The photos taken from Inspiration4 can be downloaded in high resolution from Flickr, which is a huge improvement over the slow stream of selfies and blurry in-orbit shots we were getting at the time.

Also Read: SpaceX To Launch The Arab World’s Most Advanced Satellite In 2023

While the views from the large glass cupola were spectacular, the three-day expedition was not without its challenges. For example, when the crew adjusted to life after launch, the onboard toilet began to malfunction, and at least one of the crew members got space sick.

Inspiration4

Despite the challenges, the high resolution photographs prove once and for all that the sights from hundreds of kilometers above the Earth’s surface are indeed breathtaking.

News

Egypt’s Mobile Wallets Are Booming, But Cash Still Has Power

Egypt’s telecom regulator says $57.6 billion moved through more than 57 million wallets in six months. And one operator handled 77% of the value.

Published

4 days ago

September 12, 2026

Nour Nasir

egypt's mobile wallets are booming but cash still has power

Egypt’s mobile wallets handled EGP 2.96 trillion ($57.6 billion) in transactions in the first half of 2026, according to the National Telecom Regulatory Authority – a 56% rise on the EGP 1.90 trillion ($36.9 billion) recorded a year earlier. Transactions grew faster still, up 62% to 2.22 billion, while registered wallets climbed 23% to 57.01 million.

On one reading, that is exactly what Egypt’s regulators have been pushing for: a payments system that runs through telecom-linked wallets rather than banknotes. But the same data shows how far cash still reaches into it. Cash withdrawals made up just 12% of the transactions taking money out of wallets, yet 75% of the value withdrawn or spent.

Money arrives mostly from bank accounts: transfers through InstaPay accounted for 78% of deposit transactions and 58% of the value deposited, while incoming remittances from abroad made up 3% of deposit transactions but 10% of their value. Once inside, it largely moves between wallets – wallet-to-wallet transfers accounted for 54% of all transactions and 67% of total value, with mobile and internet top-ups a distant second at 25% of volume. In effect, the wallet is serving as a transfer layer: the place money passes through between the bank account and the banknote.

That layer also runs predominantly through one operator. Vodafone Cash held 53% of registered wallets and 57% of active ones, but handled 69% of transactions and 77% of their value. Its nearest rival, e& money, held 23% of registered wallets but 14% of transaction value; Orange Cash 20% and 8%; WE Pay 4% of wallets. How many of the 57.01 million are active is not stated.

Also Read: Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Adoption is rather uneven in other respects. Men held 38 million wallets, or 67% of the total, against 19 million held by women. Users aged 26 to 45 accounted for half of all wallets, and Cairo alone had 10.6 million, or 19% of the national total, with Giza next at 6.5 million.

The NTRA says it is continuing to work with telecom operators on the regulatory framework for wallet services, part of a wider effort to expand electronic payments and financial inclusion. Its own figures show that effort succeeding on the way in. On the way out, three-quarters of the value still leaves as cash.