The new social security measures and El Sisi’s trip to Beni Suef dominated the talk shows yesterday:

#1- All the nation’s talking heads covered the new package of emergency financial measures announced by the president yesterday. House Planning Committee Chair Fakhri El Fiqi dropped into Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 11:12) to discuss the measures while in an interview on Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 10:18), Journalists' Syndicate head Khaled El Balshy called on all news outlets to pay journalists the new minimum wage. Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 3:20), Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 6:24) and El Hekaya (watch, runtime: 3:03) also had coverage.

#2- El Sisi’s Beni Suef visit: Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 9:47), Masaa DMC (wat ch, runtime: 3:44), and Ala Masouleety all dedicated airtime to cover the president’s visit to Beni Suef yesterday, where he visited a village to inspect ongoing infrastructure projects under the Decent Life Initiative, did some photo ops with the locals, and announced the new social support measures in a speech.

#3- It’s mid-September — so why are the blackouts getting longer? The cabinet spokesperson said in July that the near two months of rolling blackouts cuts would end by the middle of September under the worst case scenario as the summer temperatures cooled and electricity demand fell. Unfortunately, though, the opposite seems to be happening, with a number of places around the country last week reporting longer-than-usual and unscheduled blackouts.

Lamees El Hadidi wasn’t particularly happy: “You cannot ask the citizens to endure without being transparent with them,” said El Hadidi, criticizing the government’s lack of transparency around the worsening blackouts (watch: runtime: 6:10).

Oil prices to blame, says El Sisi: In his speech yesterday, the president blamed rising global oil prices and the FX shortage for the continued electricity disruption. Oil prices reached new 10-month highs last week, with Brent futures edging towards USD 95 a barrel.

Yes, but: The Finance Ministry reportedly recently took out new hedging contracts that lock in crude purchases at USD 75-80 a barrel.

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