Record tourism figures: The nation’s talking heads last night covered a record number of tourist arrivals in 1H 2023, as well as the latest from yesterday’s House session.

Egypt welcomed over 7 mn tourists in 1H 2023, putting us on track to achieve the Tourism Ministry’s goal of receiving a record 15 mn tourists this year, according to a ministry statement. That’s a more than 40% increase on the 4.9 mn visitors we saw in 1H 2022.

“This is the best first half we’ve ever recorded, surpassing 2010,” Tourism Promotion Board chief Amr El Kady told Kelma Akhira’s El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 12:59). “So we are hoping that the full year results mark a new record for Egyptian tourism.”

Moussa comes to El Wazir’s defense: Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime: 31:31) backed Transport Minister Kamel El Wazir in defending our USD 400 mn loan from the World Bank to finance the construction of a railway line between the Port of Alexandria and the Sixth of October dry port. Some MPs yesterday criticized the loan, calling it another example of the government’s excessive borrowing. We have the full story in this morning’s Legislation Watch, above.

What’s the point of the new National Alliance for Civilian and Development Action? The alliance aims to maximize social and economic development, establishing its own development projects and supporting their implementation.“This alliance promotes the idea of volunteering, which is an idea that needs regulating … NGOs will have the option to join if they want to,” MP Mohamed Abou El Enein said in a clip shared by Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 10:53). The House of Representatives gave its preliminary approval to setting up the new alliance in its session yesterday — also covered in our Legislation Watch section.

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