The airwaves were awash with random bits and pieces of news, none of which were business-related.

A draft law to settle building code violations approved by parliament’s housing committee (we have more on that in Speed Round, below) does not affect the government’s agricultural land reclamation campaigns, Rep. Alaa Wali said on Yahduth fi Masr. Wali noted that the settlements sanctioned by the bill would only be applicable to violations occurring before November 2017, and that any cases arising past then will be subject to significant finds. Wildcat building skyrocketed after the events of 2011, reaching around 3 mn by 2017, according to the head of the Housing Ministry-affiliated construction inspection authority (watch, runtime: 10:10).

Military Production Minister Mohamed El Assar talked about the upcoming EDEX 2018, Egypt’s first defense expo, which El Assar told Masaa DMC took over a year to put together. The event is expected to bring together some 373 companies from 41 countries in the defense industry, as well as several defense ministers and military chiefs of staff, he said (watch, runtime: 9:36).

Elsewhere on the airwaves last night:

• Egypt’s diplomatic relations with Saudi Arabia (watch, runtime: 4:82) and the rest of Africa (watch, runtime: 7:50 and runtime: 5:25) were the topics of two separate discussions on Al Hayah Al Youm and Masaa DMC;
• Development work at the Maspero Triangle is set to begin in January and should take around three years to complete, according to Cairo’s deputy governor Ibrahim Abdelhady (watch, runtime: 4:31);
• The Religious Endowments Authority’s revenues have reached an all-time high at EGP 1.21 bn, chairman of the authority’s board Sayed Mahrous said (watch, runtime: 3:18).