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It was a mixed bag on the airwaves last night, with the nation’s hosts covering news of a government plan to continue work on Suez Canal’s expansion, the death of Arish University student Naira Salah, and the Gaza ceasefire talks underway in Cairo
Egypt set on doubling the Suez Canal: The government has conducted preliminary studies on a project to duplicate the remainder of the Suez Canal to better support two-way traffic, Suez Canal Authority boss Osama Rabie said at the 2024 Marlog conference yesterday, adding that the studies have been presented to President Abdel Fattah El Sisi (watch, runtime: 2:17). Engineering consulting companies ACE Moharram Bakhoum and Dar Al Handasah are working on the feasibility studies and identifying what partners the government can work with before the matter is once again raised to the president, Rabie said. “There are around 80 kms across the Suez Canal that have not yet been duplicated — 50 kms in the north and 30 kms in the south,” Rabie explained.
The Suez Canal will consist of two 192-km channels, Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa said (watch, runtime: 6:33). The project seeks to enhance safety and eliminate choke points like the one that crippled traffic for six days in 2021 when the Ever Given container ship ran aground. It also aims to increase the number of ships crossing the canal and reduce transit time to about nine hours, Moussa said.
The first day of ceasefire negotiations in Cairo ended in “positive” discussions, Kaswaa El Khelaly said on Fi El Masa’a Ma’ Kaswaa (watch, runtime: 2:33). All four parties who were in attendance — Egypt, Qatar, the US, and Hamas — agree on the importance of reaching a ceasefire before Ramadan, she said. Negotiations are set to resume today (watch, runtime: 1:05).
The Public Prosecution ordered the detention of two defendants in the death of Arish University student Naira Salah on charges of threatening to disclose private information and violating the victim’s privacy. The first defendant allegedly threatened to leak private messages obtained illegally from Salah’s phone and sent them to the second defendant, who in turn threatened to share them on the WhatsApp group of Salah’s class. The story got airtime on El Hekaya (watch, runtime 9:40) and Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime 7:17).
