It was not a good day for Information Minister Osama Heikal, who is still under fire, especially after he didn’t attend yesterday’s meeting at the House Culture and Media Committee that was set up to discuss the committee’s report on his policy statement. The minister reportedly said he had a “prior engagement,” which had committee member Nader Mostafa and Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa equally incensed. The committee was unanimous in its decision to reject Heikal’s policy statement, agreeing collectively that there was “not a single point” that was satisfactory, Mostafa said. Heikal could now be summoned for a formal inquiry, according to the MP (watch, runtime: 24:02). Moussa went on his own rant, saying that if Heikal were confident in his own performance, he wouldn’t have evaded the House meeting (watch, runtime: 10:51).

Egypt’s planned infrastructure development projects also earned some airtime last night, including the recently announced “New Delta” agricultural project, which will see some 1 mn feddans of desert land near our northwestern coastline reclaimed. Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 3:37) and Al Hayah Al Youm’s Lobna Assal (watch, runtime: 4:34) took note. Assal also noted President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s announcement regarding several new and developed ports that will be inaugurated within the next few months, including the Ain Sokhna, Damietta, and Abu Qir ports (watch, runtime: 3:10).