The economy once again took center stage on the talk shows over the long weekend: The pundits spent plenty of airtime last night totting up the inflows to the high-yield 25% CDs introduced last week. Reassurances from President Abdel Fattah El Sisi on the state of the economy and moves to clear the logjam at ports also got top billing.

President Abdel Fattah El Sisi asked Egyptians in a Christmas address to “not worry” about the economic situation. “I can see that people are worried and afraid. I won’t say that this isn’t justified … we [the government] don’t hide anything from you,” El Sisi said during an address to the Christmas mass held at the new administrative capital’s Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ (watch, runtime: 9:36). “Don’t be afraid. God is with us. Do you think he will abandon us?” he added, stressing that the government is working to protect citizens from the global economic fallout of the war in Ukraine.

Have poultry prices peaked? The price of chicken and eggs should decline from mid-January after the government worked to release feed stuck at ports that had led to supply constraints and stoked inflation, head of the poultry producers’ union Mahmoud El Enany told Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 8:47). The government has worked to release 1.75 mn tons of livestock feed in the past 2.5 months, Agriculture Ministry official Tarek Soliman told El Hekaya’s Amr Adeeb, according to Shorouk News.

A facelift — but no ownership changes — for Giza Zoo: The Giza Zoo and adjacent Orman botanical garden will undergo major renovations worth EGP 1 bn, Agriculture Ministry Spokesperson Mohamed El Kersh told Al Hayah Al Youm (watchtime, runtime: 11:30) and Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime, 6:08). The National Authority for Military Production will renovate, operate, and maintain the zoo and garden in partnership with unnamed private firms, while the ministry will retain ownership of both sites, he added.

The renovated Giza Zoo will follow an “open-range” system with no cages, potentially paving the way for it to regain membership in the World Association of Zoos and Aquariums, which the zoo lost in 2004, ministry official Mohamed Raga’eegy told Lamees El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 8:58).