It was another busy night on the airwaves as the nation’s talking heads covered the latest from Sudan, a proposal to calm the rally in the gold market, and the Cleopatra controversy.
First up, the latest from Sudan: Violence continues in central Sudandespite an ongoing ceasefire between the country’s army and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), Al Qahera News reporter Mohamed Ibrahim told Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 7:30). Khartoum residents are facing power cuts that could last days on end, he said.
Pro-Burhan vibes: “The conflict in Sudan won’t end except with the end of the RSF,” Sudanese researcher Salah Khalil told El Hekaya’s Amr Adib (watch, runtime: 0:43), adding that he expects the conflict to be resolved “within days.”
At the border:Masa’a DMC (watch, runtime: 6:51) reported on the situation at the Egyptian-Sudanese border as thousands of people flee into Egypt to escape the fighting.
The Queen Cleopatra controversy makes it onto the airwaves: Netflix’s upcoming Queen Cleopatra docuseries has been widely criticized here at home for its depiction of Cleopatra as black. “It’s not about whether Cleopatra was black or white, it’s about the fact that there are people trying to take over our Egyptian culture and attributing it to other cultures,” Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi said (watch, runtime: 1:54). “We’ve always known that Queen Cleopatra was of Greek heritage and not black,” Hussein Abdel Basir, head of the Archaeology Museum at the Bibliotheca Alexandrina, said during a phone-in with Masa’a DMC (watch, runtime: 8:05).
We could get a more authentic version soon: State-owned media giant United Media Services’s documentary channel has announced its plans to produce its own documentary depicting the life of Queen Cleopatra. “Egyptian history is constantly being subject to attempts of distortion and falsification,” Sherif Saeed, head of the documentary channel, told Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 7:36).
More on the Supply Ministry’s plan to calm gold prices: Earlier this week Supply Minister AliEl Moselhy said that the Supply Ministry is planning to allow expats to import a certain amount of gold into the country without paying customs — a move which policymakers hope will help to hold down the price of the precious metal which has soared over the past year due to economic uncertainty. The decision would allow expats and Egyptians coming from abroad to bring up to 150 grams of gold into the country custom-free, a move which will “significantly help stabilize gold prices in the local market,” Nagy Farag, an advisor to the Supply Ministry on gold told Ala Mas’ouleety last night (watch, runtime: 11:51).
Gold prices have more than doubled over the past year as the currency crisis and wave of inflation push Egyptians to put their savings into gold. “It’s all about supply and demand,” Hani Milad, head of Fedcoc’s gold and jewelry division, told El Hekaya (watch, runtime: 9:14).
Japanese PM in town: Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida kicked off his three-day visit to Egypt yesterday, with a meeting with President Abdel Fattah El Sisi, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly and a number of other officials. Fumio kicking off his Africa tour with Egypt reflects the strength of the Egyptian-Japanese relations, former foreign minister Mohamed El Orabi told Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 9:49). Masa’a DMC (watch, runtime: 1:19) and Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 4:11) also had coverage. We have the details of the visit in this morning’s Diplo section, above.