News circulating over the weekend that Egypt is exporting stray cats and dogs caused a ruckus on the airwaves last night. For context: House Rep. Maria Azer had proposed several weeks ago that Egypt should export stray animals to Asian countries where these animals are consumed as food. A spokesman from the Agriculture Ministry’s General Organization for Veterinary Services denied that the ministry’s role in these exports extends beyond issuing health certificates for the animals, according to Youm7.

The latest (unconfirmed) reports suggest that ‘independent exporters’ are indeed exporting the animals, with the debate now being over whether they’re being sold as pets or for food. Please don’t get us started on whether there’s a country out there interested in importing stray animals from us, let alone whether this is a good idea. That way lies madness.

The alleged export of the animals will have a negative impact on Egypt’s image abroad and ultimately pinch the nation’s tourism inflows, Rep. Mona Mounir said. According to Mounir, the government has already begun receiving messages from foreigners seeking to take legal action to end the practice, which she said is unconstitutional. Animal rights activist Mona Khalil, meanwhile, slammed the discrepancy in reports on whether or not the Agriculture Ministry is spearheading the exports (watch, runtime: 17:24).

Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary took the time to encourage better treatment of stray and domesticated animals (watch, runtime: 7:48).

Education Minister Tarek Shawki discussed the launch of a new EGP 200 mn education fund (we have the details in Health + Education, below) on Hona Al Asema, where he noted that the CBE and Religious Endowments Ministry have each pledged EGP 100 mn per annum for the fund. The fund was included in the Madbouly Cabinet’s policy program, which Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly presented to the House of Representatives, Shawki said (watch, runtime: 7:06 and runtime: 4:06). Former Financial Regulatory Authority Sherif Samy and journalist Ahmed Al Gamal also phoned in to list the various benefits of the fund (watch, runtime: 56:30).

The one-year anniversary of the El Rawda Mosque attack was on Amr Adib’s mind last night. The El Hekaya host tipped his hat to officials who are currently overseeing the development of the town after the incident (watch, runtime: 10:26).

Speculation that Turkey has bugged several countries’ embassies in Ankara in the wake of the Khashoggi murder also had Adib concerned that Egypt’s embassy is under Turkish surveillance (watch, runtime: 3:25).