Mubarak’s military funeral takes the spotlight on Egypt’s airwaves
Former president Hosni Mubarak’s military funeral was all over the airwaves. Among those with coverage: Al Youm's Lobna Assal (watch, runtime: 8:31), Masaa DMC’s Ramy Radwan (runtime: 6:50), Min Masr’s Amr Khalil (runtime: 6:49), and Yahduth Fi Misr’s Sherif Amer (runtime: 2:54). We have more on this in Speed Round, below.
Ethiopia’s deicision to skip out on what was hoped to be the final round of GERD talks was also a popular topic, with Assal (watch, runtime: 1:13 and runtime: 1:47), Radwan (runtime: 2:22) and Amer (runtime: 3:15) all taking note. We recap the story in this morning’s What We’re Tracking today section, above.
Arbitration might be Egypt’s only course of action: If Ethiopia continues to be “intransigent,” Egypt could be forced to resort to arbitration over the GERD issue, political science professor Moataz Billah Abd El Fattah tells Assal. He suggests that Addis Ababa believes the US doesn’t have Ethiopia’s interests at heart, making it more stubborn in the negotiations (watch, runtime: 7:03).
Cigarette maker Eastern Company will not be charging beyond the official price list published by the Tax Authority, Radwan reports (watch, runtime: 4:26). Amendments to the VAT law enacted earlier this week raised sin taxes on all tobacco products, but the government said the new rates will not affect prices as vendors were already overcharging customers.