In Egypt, the Egyptian-British writer, philosopher and political prisoner Alaa Abd El-Fattah is poised to escalate his hunger strike into a water strike when the COP27 climate summit gets underway on Sunday. Abd El-Fattah has already been on a hunger strike for more than 200 days to demand his freedom, after he was jailed over much of the last nine years for his role in the 2011 revolution that ousted Egypt’s longtime dictator Hosni Mubarak. Alaa’s sister, Mona Seif, spoke from London Thursday after meeting with Britain’s Middle East minister and the British foreign secretary earlier this week. 

Mona Seif: “Once he starts the water strike, the body can only sustain itself so much, so we are talking about a few days in which either the U.K. government has to step up what they are doing, and the U.K. government and the Egyptian government have to agree on a solution to that situation, or we are going to lose Alaa in prison.”

Another of Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s sisters, Sanaa Seif, says she plans to attend the COP27 talks next week. Click here for our coverage of Alaa Abd El-Fattah’s case.