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Sunday, 5 March 2023

Last Night’s Talk Shows: A new minimum wage + beware internet scams

The one theme during last night’s talk shows: money, be it the government raising wages, a bn-EGP investment scam, or last week’s fuel price hike.

Talk of wages was everywhere last night after President Abdel Fattah El Sisi unveiled a new round of social protection measures designed to aid the public amid soaring living costs. Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 17:26), El Hekaya (watch, runtime: 10:30), Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 14:15) and Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 1:29) all had coverage.

^^ We dive into the details in this morning’s news well, above.

One of Egypt’s biggest internet scams busted: Authorities have arrested people believed to be behind the fraudulent “investment” application Hoggpool, which stole a combined EGP 6 bn from thousands of Egyptians since its launch six months ago. The application advertised itself as an easy way to earn money through the mining of digital currency.

Bad news for the victims: The stolen money has “evaporated” and it is unlikely that the victims will get any of it back, information security expert Walid Abdel Maksoud told Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 7:18).

If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. The blame can be divided between naive internet users who failed to do their research before “investing” and the relevant authorities, Kelma Akhira’s Lamees El Hadidi said (watch, runtime: 3:27). There is no such a thing as making over a 100% interest from an investment, she said, voicing her disbelief that over 600k people fell victim to the scam. Masaa DMC (watch: runtime: 10:09) and Ala Mas’ouleety also had coverage (watch, runtime: 5:53).

Also on the airwaves last night:

  • Masaa DMC did its best to put a positive spin on last week’s fuel price hikes, inviting on Liquid Petroleum Gas Investors Association Chairperson Mohamed Saad Eldin who said that Egypt has the seventh-cheapest gasoline prices in the world (Masaa DMC | watch, runtime: 5:04).
  • A historic discovery: Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities Mostafa Waziri joined Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa to discuss the recently-uncovered hidden chamber inside the Great Pyramid of Giza. (Ala Mas’ouleety | watch, runtime: 2:32 | 4:07)
  • The great relocation: Some 9k public sector employees have relocated to the new capital, Khalid Abbas, head of the New Administrative Capital for Urban Development (ACUD), said. Abbas said previously that around 30k will be at the new capital by mid-March. (Al Hayah Al Youm | watch, runtime: 7:06)

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