In Egypt, dozens of activists have been arrested in a series of sweeping raids in recent days. The arrests came as Egyptians took to the streets to protest an agreement to hand over control of two islands to Saudi Arabia. Critics say the islands belong to Egypt and that their transfer is linked to the billions of dollars the Saudis have given to support Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s government. The arrests and raids come amid a nationwide crackdown against human rights activists and press freedom advocates. We speak with Egyptian filmmaker and writer Omar Robert Hamilton, who says Saudi Arabia’s strategy is to counteract democratic movements in countries surrounding it.

In Egypt, seven men are facing imminent execution based on confessions that human rights activists say were extracted under torture. Six of the men are recent college graduates who were arrested in 2014 along with more than a dozen others. While their testimony was captured on camera, the men say they were beaten, shocked with electricity and hung in painful positions and then provided with written testimonies they were forced to read. They were sentenced to death last month on terrorism charges after a military trial. In other news from Egypt, dozens of activists have been arrested in a series of sweeping raids in recent days.

The arrests and raids come amid a nationwide crackdown against human rights activists and press freedom advocates. Over the past few weeks, the Egyptian government has blocked access to at least 93 news sites, including Al Jazeera, Huffington Post’s Arabic website, the self-publishing platform Medium and the local independent news site Mada Masr. We speak to the Egyptian film director and writer, Omar Robert Hamilton. In 2011, he co-founded the Cairo-based Mosireen media collective, which worked to film and document the Egyptian revolution. Hamilton’s debut novel is just out, titled “The City Always Wins.”