President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s sit-down this weekend with Joe Biden was the lead story on the talk shows last night. See Diplomacy, below, for chapter and verse.

MEANWHILE: Health minister denies new covid hospitals. The Health Ministry has not set up new covid isolation hospitals, acting Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar said in a phone-in with El Hekaya’s Amr Adib (watch, runtime 3:27), denying a statement that has been circulating in the local media. Egypt has been seeing a rise in its weekly covid figures, currently sitting at around 35 new covid cases a day and five covid-related deaths every day, he said. Ministry spokesperson Hossam Abdel Ghaffar also denied the reports in an interview on Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 11:27).

The news comes as covid cases ramp up in Canada, the United States and much of Europe on the back of the highly transmissible BA.4 and BA.5 variants.

Tags: