Egypt’s pound hit a record low against the dollar on Wednesday after its central bank hiked interest rates by 600 points and devalued the currency.

The steps were meant to facilitate an agreement with the International Monetary Fund, which is expected to confirm the extension of its current $3 billion financial support package for Egypt.

The Egyptian pound was trading at roughly 50 to the dollar following the announcement, from 30.85 previously, according to LSEG data. The country’s key interest rate now stands at 27.25%, the central bank said Wednesday.

The development “shows that policymakers are committed to the turn back toward economic orthodoxy. This is likely to pave the way for an IMF deal within hours,” James Swanston, a Middle East and North Africa economist at London-based Capital Economics, wrote in a research note.

“This appears to be a positive step for Egypt on the path out of its current crisis,” he wrote.

This is a breaking news story, and it is being updated.

Airlines have seen a drop in bookings in the weeks following the start of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, and some expect it to cut into their future profits.

According to travel analytics firm ForwardKeys, international flight bookings were 20% below 2019 levels in the three weeks following the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas against Israel on Oct. 7, and 5 percentage points below the period of three weeks prior to the attack.

The terrorist attack killed some 1,200 people and saw a further roughly 240 taken hostage, triggering the most ferocious Israeli response that the region has ever seen. Israel’s aerial bombing campaign and subsequent ground offensive in Gaza has killed more than 11,000 people, according to health authorities there.

In the days following the attack, major airlines suspended or reduced flights to Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in Tel Aviv. But air travel demand to and from other countries and regions was noticeably affected, too.

In the three week period before Oct. 7, ticket issuance from the Middle East was just 3% below 2019 levels, according to ForwardKeys data, illustrating the steady recovery of the sector from the Covid-19 pandemic. In the three week period after Oct. 7, by contrast, ticket issuance from the Middle East was 12% lower than 2019 levels, marking a difference of 9 percentage points.

But the biggest drop in terms of international departures was in flight ticket issuance from the Americas, which was actually up 6% from 2019 levels in the three weeks before the attack, and fell to 4% below those levels in the three weeks after, totaling a drop of 10 percentage points.

International arrivals to the Middle East meanwhile plunged by 26 percentage points in that time frame, with the biggest drops by country being Israel, followed by Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Lebanon. ForwardKeys draws its data from the International Air Transport Association’s industry-wide ticketing database which includes major international carriers, but does not include budget airlines like easyJet or Ryanair.

Stateside, at least one major airline made a profit warning concerning the war.

United Airlines in mid-October said that pricier jet fuel and a halt to its Tel Aviv flights due the Israel-Hamas war would eat into its profits in the last three months of the year. United had more service to Israel than any of the U.S.-based airlines with links from Washington, D.C.; Newark, New Jersey; and San Francisco, accounting for 2% of its capacity.

The fourth-quarter guidance for United was “bleak and worse than our estimates,” Helane Becker, an airline analyst at TD Cowen, wrote in a note following the carrier’s earnings estimate. “Given the projections that this will be a long war we are looking at the lower end of the forecast range and assuming no service by year end.”

The United Arab Emirates’ national airline, Abu Dhabi-based Etihad Airways, continues flying to Israel. It began flying its Abu Dhabi-Tel Aviv route in April of 2021, roughly eight months after the signing of the Abraham Accords, which normalized relations between Israel and the UAE.

“It’s impacting,” Etihad CEO Antonoaldo Neves said of the Israel-Hamas war, speaking to CNBC’s Dan Murphy at the Dubai Airshow on Monday. “Our demand to Israel is still there. But it’s not as big as it was in the past.”

“We keep flying, very safe. I follow up every day, every day. And we just hope it gets over soon. For the sake of everyone involved in this conflict.”

“I’ll not tell you it’s not impacting … And when things are back to normal, I’m sure that everyone’s going to remember that Etihad was not driven only by profits,” Neves said.

“We have our obligation as a transportation company, to be there when we make money and when we make less money. So that’s the approach we take, as long as it’s safe, we’re going to keep flying.”

Dubai’s flagship Emirates Airline, meanwhile, was optimistic about future demand.

“As far as the business is concerned — look, we have been in a part of the world that has seen for the last 35 years a lot of geopolitical issues,” Tim Clark, president of Emirates Airline, told CNBC.

“I won’t be smug and say we’re impervious to issues, because this is a really difficult issue for the Middle East to deal with.”

“But as far as our bookings are concerned, they remain robust,” he said. “We will always get what we call a certain flakiness in the Asian markets where, you know, they get a little bit concerned … But generally, so far, so good, we’re looking very strong.”

Clark pointed to upcoming events that will bring visitors to Dubai like the COP28 climate summit in early December as well as Christmas and New Year.

In a demonstration of its long-term optimism, Emirates Airline on Monday kicked off the first major deal of the 2023 Dubai Airshow with an order for 95 Boeing aircraft at a value of $52 billion.

“A lot of other things are going on in Dubai and Dubai itself is hugely potent city now, global metropolis, which is bringing in business,” he said.

“So with all of that, notwithstanding the difficulties of the Middle East at the moment, I think we will be okay.”

— CNBC’s Leslie Josephs contributed to this report.

Some Western media outlets are facing backlash from Iranian activists over headlines printed Sunday saying that Iran was abolishing its “morality police.” 

The news – an interpretation of a comment by an Iranian official during a press conference – turned out to be anything but clear cut. The country’s state media has since denied it. Many Iranian anti-government activists now feat it will distract from three days of major strikes around the country. 

So what happened?

Iran’s Attorney General Mohammad Jafar Montazeri, when asked over the weekend about why the country’s “morality police,” or Gasht-e Irshad, had become inactive, replied: “The morality police had nothing to do with the judiciary, and the same institution that established it has now shut it down.”

He added that “the judiciary will continue to supervise social behaviors.”

The question reflected the experience of many Iranians who say they have not seen the morality police on the streets since anti-government protests across the country began in mid-September. They were triggered by the death of 22-year-old woman Mahsa Amini while in the custody of the morality police after she was arrested for allegedly wearing her headscarf improperly.

This branch of the police is responsible for enforcing Iran’s mandatory headscarf law and other strict measures that disproportionately affect women. 

But when several Western media outlets such as the Wall Street Journal and New York Times seized on the quote to run headlines saying that Iran’s morality police had been abolished, Iranian activists and country analysts responded with a torrent of criticism. The attorney general’s statement has no effect on actual policy, they said, and he has no authority over that particular branch of law enforcement. 

What’s more, the higher branches of Iran’s government have not confirmed it, and Iranian state media has denied any abolition of the morality police. 

“No official in the Islamic Republic of Iran has confirmed the closure of the Irshad Patrol,” an article from Iranian state-run Arabic language outlet Al Alam said Sunday evening.

It added that “the maximum impression that can be taken” from Montazeri’s comment is that the morality police and his branch of government, the judiciary, are unrelated. 

Many of the Iranian protesters and those supporting the demonstrations overseas fear the headlines are misleading and create a false impression that Iran’s hardline Islamic government is making genuine concessions to the protesters.  

Instead, the government has announced several more executions of people who took part in the protests. Rights groups say that more than 450 people have been killed in the state’s crackdowns so far, while Iranian officials say more than 300 have been killed in the unrest.

Several Iranian activists and researchers used the words “misleading,” “fake news” and “shame on you” in their social media posts criticizing certain major Western outlets for their headlines claiming the morality police had been abolished.

“So amazing how many news outlets are going with the ‘Iran abolishes morality police’ line based on a convoluted quote from one official,” Borzou Daragahi, the international correspondent for The Independent, wrote on Twitter. “In reality morality police have been inactive since protests started, but there is no substantive news on their future.” 

“Reports that Khamenei’s regime has abolished the ‘morality police’ are fake news,” Kasra Aarabi, the Iran Program lead at the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, wrote in a Twitter post Sunday. “This disinfo was propagated today to distract media attention from the 3 days of major protests in Iran which begin tomo. Why did mainstream media ignore this context?”

Nicole Najafi, a writer and activist, wrote in an Instagram post: “The laws and punishments concerning women have not changed. Even if they did abolish the morality police, this is meaningless, because Iranians want the regime gone … it’s like Putin saying he offered a free dinner to Ukrainian soldiers as a peace offering. NO DICE.”  

Protests have rocked Iran for more than 70 days now in what has become the biggest challenge to the government in decades. Unlike previous protest movements in Iran directed against issues like elections, living standards or a specific law, the current demonstrations are directly demanding the removal of the Islamic Republic, which was installed as a theocratic government following Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979.

Iran’s protest movement on Monday started a concerted effort to hold three days of strikes, with reports of thousands of businesses closed in several parts of the country. Footage posted to social media shows rows of shuttered shops. Teachers, factory workers and students are staging strikes and sit-ins as well, according to London-based outlet Iran International. CNBC has not been able to independently confirm the footage. 

“Nationwide strikes, particularly in key sectors, could be used to put time on the side of protestors while creating chaos and financial issues for the state,” Behnam Ben Taleblu, an Iran expert and senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, told CNBC.  

Coordinated efforts for organized strikes are growing in Iran. Leaflets and graffiti are increasingly used to highlight important protest and strike days. 

If the attorney general’s comments convey one thing, Ben Taleblu said, it’s “the imperative of keeping up domestic and foreign pressure against the Islamic Republic. And nobody understands this better than the Iranian people, who have been bravely protesting for almost three months now and are looking to amplify street power with strike power.” 

The strikes are key for the protesters because any idea of real concessions from the government is likely a pipe dream, says Arash Azizi, an Iranian historian and analyst. 

“There have been signs that some in the regime are thinking of giving some concessions including relaxing hijab (headscarf) laws,” Azizi said. “This is not surprising given the unprecedented nature of the revolutionary movement in Iran.” 

“But,” he added, “these are unlikely to go far since the leader, (Ayatollah) Ali Khamenei, has long not been interested in concessions, and knows that significant concessions can do the opposite of defusing the movement; they can encourage it further.”