Politics dominated much of the airwaves last night, with Sherif Amer of MBC Masr’s Yahduth fi Masr focusing on which young detainees could be released as part of President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s parole initiative. Amer noted that none of the most influential activists now behind bars — including Alaa Abdel Fattah and Ahmed Doma were included in the list (watch the full episode here; runtime: 47:22). The names of those who will be released apparently been forwarded to prison officials, but no one is out yet. (Most of those being paroled were convicted of having violated the protest act; the Supreme Constitutional Court is expected to issue a verdict on its constitutionality of the amendments to the law passed by parliament on 3 December, Youm7 reports.)

Ibrahim Eissa dedicated a portion of his show to lambasting Prime Minister Ismail for thanking the Egyptian people for accepting the reform agenda. The fact that there were no protests on 11 November doesn’t mean the people have accepted the reforms (watch; runtime: 3:28)

Things are not that bad (yet): Health Ministry spokesperson Khaled Mogahed denied allegations by the deputy head of the Egyptian Medical Syndicate Mona Mina that the ministry informed doctors that they should reuse syringes, in an interview on Al Hayah TV’s Al Hayah Al Youm with Tamer Amin (watch; running time: 19:03). “The ministries of health and military production are now cooperating on a USD 17 mn factory to produce 50 mn syringes per annum,” Mogahed said. Mona Mina herself later called in to say that her statements were (wait for it) taken out of context, “misunderstood and generalized.”

Amin had led the episode with an interview with former Oil Minister Osama Kamel on fuel subsidies. The key message: The ministry is on-point when it says this year’s subsidy bill will rise to EGP 65 bn from the EGP 35 bn set out in the budget.

Amr Adib dedicated the first part of last night’s episode of Kol Yom (ONTV) to reporting on the fire in the Faggala district in Ramses in Downtown Wednesday evening. The 18-engine blaze raged for four hours, causing massive traffic jams (watch; running time 9:49). Adib also covered the 3aza (memorial prayers) of screen legend Mahmoud Abdel Aziz. None other than Alaa Mubarak was spotted attending the gathering by Al Hayah Al Youm’s Tamer Amin (watch, runtime: 0:16).

Adib also highlighted the “Tour n’ Cure” hepatitis C medical tourism campaign launched by Prime Pharma in cooperation with the Civil Aviation Ministry (watch: running time: 3:21), following that with updates on his donation drive for the Abou El Rish Children’s Hospital. Bait Al Zakat, the Egyptian Food Bank, the National Bank of Egypt and Faculty of Engineering Cairo University have all pledged to help out (watch; runtime: 31:33)

Atter Hanour, head of the Egyptian Rural Development Company (which manages the 1.5 mn feddan project) was interviewed on CBC’s Momken. The company wants to include young farmers in the program with funding through the central bank’s SME initiative, he said. (watch; runtime: 16:00).

Lamees El Hadidy was apparently off last night.