Mourning on the airwaves: The nation’s talking heads yesterday brought us coverage of the Cairo building collapse, which claimed 13 lives, as well as a disease outbreak in Qena that the Health Ministry is now treating as dengue fever.

A five-storey residential building collapsed in Cairo yesterday, leaving 13 people dead and injuring one, Deputy Governor of Cairo Hossam El Din Fawzy told Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi ( watch, runtime: 15:00) . Civil defense and ambulance personnel are still searching for victims in the rubble of the building in Hadayek El Qobba, while four nearby buildings have been evacuated, he added. A technical committee determined that the collapse was caused by a first-floor resident demolishing a base wall to expand the floor without receiving the necessary safety approvals. The resident has since been arrested, the public prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Compensation for the deceased: Social Solidarity Minister Nivine El Kabbag has decided to offer EGP 60k in compensation for each family, along with providing medical aid for those injured. Cairo Governorate is also offering some EGP 50k to families of the deceased and EGP 25k for those injured, Fawzy said. El Hekaya ( watch, runtime: 3:05), Masa’a DMC ( watch, runtime: 3:08), and Al Hayah Al Youm ( watch, runtime: 5:54 | 4:59) all have the news.

The collapse is getting international ink: The Associated Press, Reuters, AFP, Deutsche Welle, the National, and Al Monitor are all taking note of the news.

The Qena disease outbreak is looking like dengue fever: Officials are now treating the disease outbreak in a village in Qena as dengue fever, an infection transmitted through infectious mosquito bites, according to Al Watan reporter Ragab Adam ( watch, runtime: 5:38). The outbreak has so far affected 100-150 people in the area, he said. “This is our diagnosis at the moment … The mosquitoes responsible for the spread are of the aegypti breed . The disease has been present in the country before but what’s new is its spreading at this pace,” Ittihadiya health advisor Mohamed Awad Tag El Din told Kelma Akhira ( watch, runtime: 6:32).

Behind the spread: He pointed to the extreme heat and unsafe water collection methods to its rapid spread in the village. Most cases are mild, treated with the over-the-counter medication paracetamol, he said. “At the moment there is absolutely no need for worry. All cases have been very responsive to medication. In the future we may use vaccination,” he said. Health Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar was also on Ala Mas’ouleety to discuss the issue ( watch, runtime: 5:38).

Russia isn’t taking chances: The country has imposed tighter sanitary and quarantine rules on flights traveling from Egypt, it announced yesterday.

The Black Sea grain pact is no more: What does this mean for Egypt? Several of the nation’s talking heads discussed the likely impact of Russia’s decision to pull out of the grain export pact with Ukraine on Egypt, which is the world’s largest importer of wheat.

Now is not the time to panic, says Ashmawy:“I believe that it is too early to judge [how the situation will impact Egypt] … any supply chain disturbances affect prices. After the Russian announcement grain prices in global markets saw a 2.7% increase,” Assistant Supply Minister Ibrahim Ashmawy said during an interview with El Hadidi ( watch, runtime: 6:05). “ At the moment, Egypt has the necessary reserves for a number of commodities. Strategic reserves of wheat currently stand at six months, and we have over 22 points of wheat supply,” he added.

This will have global consequences: “If we go back to using this grain agreement or food security as a weapon in this war then we’ll have a major crisis,” economist Nasser Zouheir told El Hadidi ( watch, runtime: 4:29). Ashmawy also joined El Hekaya ( watch, runtime: 4:13), while Al Mas’ouleety ( watch, runtime: 5:30) had coverage.

El Forsa’s judging panel unveiled:El Hadidi’s startup competition show El Forsa has unveiled (pdf) the four judges who will decide the fate of the 30 startups that have made it this far into the competition: Cloudera founder and CTO Amr Awadallah( LinkedIn), as well as our friends our Omar Elsahy, general manager of Amazon Egypt ( LinkedIn), Edenred Middle East CEO Wael Fakharany( LinkedIn), and 500 Global partner Amal Enan( LinkedIn). El Forsa airs every Wednesday at 9 pm on ONTV.

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