After a wonderful hiatus, we resume our talk shows coverage with a painkiller and the overhaul of the bread subsidies system, which led the conversation on the economy in the airwaves.

Supply Minister Ali El Moselhy tells Hona Al Asema’s Lamees Al Hadidi that the ministry will pitch the House of Representatives on cutting bread rations to four loaves from five. We expect resistance from MPs, who are always out to score political points, despite the ministry suggesting that it would raise the allocation of goods on smartcards to compensate.

El Moselhy appeared to blame inefficiencies in the old smartcard and bread point systems on former minister Khaled Hanafy. The minister stressed that the system was unsustainable, especially since there are still moochers that need to be weeded out (watch, runtime 17:14).

House Agricultural Committee member Magdy Malak (who led the push in Parliament to oust Hanafy) also phoned in to remind Lamees that the bread subsidy system is riddled with corruption he claims cost the state EGP 37.2 bn (watch, runtime 3:50).

Al Hadidi then moved on to the two-hour blackout at Cairo International Airport’s terminal three on Thursday. Electricity Ministry spokesperson Ayman Hamza said was not the ministry’s doing or its responsibility, noting that the airport has access to several power lines. Al Masry Al Youm is reporting that the Prosecutor General’s office ordered an investigation into the cause of the outage (watch, runtime 4:45).

Over on Kol Youm, Amr Adib hopped on the rumor mill to revive the claim that former presidential candidate Ahmed Shafik will announce his presidential nomination. With only nine months left until the presidential elections, Adib reminds us all that we so far have a grand total of zero candidates. Shafik is the go-to name for a likely presidential candidate in the media when no name has officially been announced, usually to the surprise of Shafik himself (watch, runtime 4:21).

On Masaa’ DMC, Eman El Hosary interviewed Minya Governor Essam El Bedawy, who complained that his governorate is lacking in homes and jobs. He also discussed his development plans for the governorate, including upgrading sewage and sanitation infrastructure (watch, runtime 11:51).