It is as we feared: The top stories on Egypt in the international press this morning are echoes from the jail sentences handed to leaders of the Press Syndicate and the alleged plot to assassinate President Abdel Fattah El Sisi (including confirmation, it seems, that former police officers were involved), and news that Nubians continue to demonstrate the designation of their ancestral homeland as part of the 1.5 mn land reclamation project. The Associated Press’ take on the Nubian story is getting particularly wide pickup and leads with the blocking of the main road between Aswan and Abu Simbel.

Worse, in many ways: The Times of London is reporting that “Egypt’s hospitals [are] turning [the] sick away in cash crisis” (paywall), writing that “Egypt’s public hospitals will have to halt 80 per cent of their work and turn away patients if a drugs shortage continues, doctors have warned. Patients are dying because they cannot access medicines. Families are turning to the black market for supplies, where prices are ten times as high, or trying to source them from abroad. The cost of imports soared after the central bank floated the Egyptian pound, causing it to halve in value.”

The GCC press is also piling into the healthcare story, with Gulf News quoting an industry association official as noting, “It is impossible for pharma companies to continue importing medicines while their prices remain unchanged after the EGP flotation. “The only way out of the current crisis is to move up prices of medicines, especially as there are no local alternatives to some imported drugs such as blood derivatives and pregnancy-related injections.” Health Minister Ahmed Rady rejected as “unacceptable” what he called “pressure” by drug suppliers on the government to jack up prices.