President Abdel Fattah El Sisi dominated the agenda on the airwaves yesterday with the Al Hayah Al Youm and Masaa DMC covering his comments during a speech on Saturday and his decision over the weekend to pardon 30 prisoners, among them political activist Ahmed Douma.

Douma released: Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 3:00) and Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 2:34) both covered the president’s decision to pardon 30 prisoners, including political activist Ahmed Douma. More on this in Egypt in the News, below.

Gov’t to step up local food production: In a speech at the Egyptian Military Academy, the president defended the government’s economic record and attributed the ongoing crisis to the covid-19 pandemic and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In a bid to improve the country’s food security, the government will in the coming months begin cultivating another 3 mn feddans for agriculture, said El Sisi, qualifying that even with additional local production the country will still need to import large quantities of food to meet local consumption. Egypt’s annual consumption of wheat is expected to reach 20 mn tons, he said. Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 3:46) and Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 6:32) had coverage.

COVID WATCH- Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 7:22) and Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 16:05) both had updates on the new “Eris” covid-19 variant that is spreading across the world. The mutation, also known as BA.2.86, has not yet been detected in Egypt, Ittihadiya health advisor Mohamed Awad Tag El Din said.

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