Regional politics, led by the death of former Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh at the hands of Houthi rebels, dominated the airwaves during an otherwise dull night.
Al Hayah Al Youm’s Tamer Amin spoke to the Yemeni Embassy in Cairo’s media advisor, Baleegh El Mekhlafy, who said that Yemenis are distraught over Saleh’s assassination yesterday (we have the full story in Speed Round, below). El Mekhlafy stressed that the General People’s Congress — the Arab nationalist political party currently ruling Yemen — must unite to continue fighting the Houthi uprising (watch, runtime: 3:59).
Over on Masaa DMC, Yemeni Tourism Minister Mohamed AbdelMajeed told Eman El Hosary that Saleh’s assassination proves that Yemen’s Houthi rebels are Iran’s puppets and Hezbollah’s offshoots (watch, runtime: 3:54).
Meanwhile, Kol Youm’s Amr Adib concerned himself with the awkwardness that will dominate the GCC Summit in Kuwait today, where the leaders of Bahrain, KSA, and the UAE will be in the same room with Qatar’s Tamim bin Hamad. Adib said Qatar signaled that it plans to abide by six of the Arab Quartet’s 13 demands, but will fight to keep Al Jazeera open (watch, runtime: 7:49).
Adib also had a chat with B-Tech Chairman Mahmoud Khattab about the company’s annual charity initiative to provide soon-to-be-married couples with electronic appliances they cannot afford and help furnish houses in a number of governorates (watch, runtime: 5:11).
Egyptian Federation for Reconstruction member Mohamed Abdel Raouf also phoned in to give Adib an earful about the rising costs of construction and installation of basic services such as electricity and plumbing (watch, runtime: 1:54).
TEN TV’s Amr Abdel Hamid spoke to a senior official at the Supreme Council for Universities about the state of university-affiliated hospitals, who said the facilities’ cumulative budget hovers around EGP 2.4 bn, of which EGP 1.3 bn comes out of state coffers (watch, runtime: 2:17). MPs have apparently been making a ruckus about university hospitals not providing quality services, which Higher Education Minister Khaled Abdel Ghaffar explained is a result of inadequate funding, according to Al Shorouk.
Hona Al Asema’s Lamees Al Hadidi, meanwhile, spent her entire episode paying tribute to Egyptian actress and singer Shadia, who passed away last week (watch, runtime: 1:48:09).