The talk shows went footy mad last night after the country’s opening match at Afcon 2024, but our nation’s hosts also found time to cover Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly’s comments on the economy and price hikes in supermarkets.

A grueling draw: Last night’s hosts were the least impressed with the national football team’s performance against Mozambique, which ended in a 2-2 draw only after the team narrowly snapped one “point from the heavens,” said Ala Masouleety’s Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime: 3:11). Sports commentator Tamer Badawi joined Ahmed Moussa in blasting the national team for their poor performance on the pitch and said they had no excuses. The match also received wall-to-wall coverage on El Hekayah (watch, runtime: 4:59), Masa DMC (watch, runtime: 1:40), and Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 5:01).

Madbouly under fire: Prime Minister’s Moustafa Madbouly’s recent remark that government will get out of this “stifling” economic crisis within six years was picked up by Kelma Akhira host Lamees El Hadidi, who questioned the PM’s earlier remarks in November that is was only a “passing” crisis (watch, runtime: 5:11). Al Waraqa Al Qalam’s Nashat Al Dahi took a more combative tone and described his comments as “shocking and disappointing to business circles” (watch, runtime: 2:35). Cabinet spokesperson Mohamed El Homsani also took to the airwaves to defend Madbouly’s statement, telling Said Ali (watch, runtime: 5:49) that the government is “coordinating with the CBE to bring down inflation by 2025 to less than 10% … as international institutions estimate that global inflation will [de-accelerate] during 2025.”

Adib takes aim at commodity price hikes: On his show El Hekayah, Amr Adib criticized retailers for repeatedly hiking prices and blaming the exchange rate (watch, runtime: 3:20 | 3:18). “Retailers are pricing poultry and eggs at [an exchange rate of] EGP 70 against the USD … the price of a pack of white cheese jumps by EGP 20 on a weekly basis,” Adib told his viewers. Adib also covered inspections monitoring gold traders that led to the arrest of one of the country’s most prominent gold traders. Ala Masouleety also had the story (watch, runtime: 4:52).

ALSO ON THE AIRWAVES-

  • “We can see our Palestinian brothers close to the separating wall. It’s becoming like the Berlin and the [Trump] wall, seeing our brothers” across the border struggling to survive, said Amr Adib. Former UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Gaza Jamie McGoldrick demanded that border crossings be opened in more locations than Rafah to help move aid into the enclave. (El Hekayah | watch, runtime: 10:48) (Masa DMC | watch, runtime: 7:01)
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