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Sunday, 18 December 2016

Last Night’s Talk Shows

Hona Al Assema’s Lamees El Hadidy began with the news that investigators of the EgyptAir’s MS804 crash found traces of explosives on the victims’ remains. Civil Aviation Minister Sherif Fathy phoned in to confirm. “We still can’t say that there was a bomb on plane… We have to wait for the Prosecutor General’s Office to conclude its investigation.” Fathy was adamant that the crash could not have been maintenance-related (watch, runtime 13:59).

The head of the risk department at Misr Insurance, Hussein Attallah, told the talk show host that his company will cover the insurance costs for the incident regardless of the investigation’s outcomes. “Whether it’s a bomb or anything else, we will compensate the victims’ families.” Attallah said. El Hadidy was curious if Misr Insurance intends to ask France for compensations in light of recent updates, to which he replied that “traces of explosive traces are enough for us to undergo such a procedure” (watch, runtime 48:13).

El Hadidy also spent some time criticizing the Ikhwan’s denunciation of the execution of Islamist terror leader Adel Habara. She broadcast recorded phone calls in which Habara admitting to committing terrorist acts in Egypt (watch, runtime 7:32). El Hadidy ended her episode with the weekly 4+1 debate, which discussed fuel prices and military trials (watch full debate here, runtime 36:34).
Amr Adib also delved into EgyptAir’s findings on flight MS804 and kicked-off Saturday’s episode of Kol Yom with exclusive pictures from the crash. The pictures show parts of the right wing and the engine, which Adib said suggests the plane might have exploded prior to crashing into the water (watch, runtime 7:55). Adib said that he hopes the matter doesn’t escalate into a “fight between Egypt and France” (watch, runtime 0:47). Adib spent some time going through the French press’ reactions to the findings (watch, runtime 14:13). The Civil Aviation Minister also spoke to Adib and said that the plane’s black box didn’t record any sounds of explosions, adding “but that doesn’t confirm or deny anything to us” (watch, runtime 15:43).

For the second half of his episode, Adib aired a report on the Egypt Can conference (watch, runtime 5:28) and again applied his mad journalism skills to the price of chicken, which he can’t seem to drop (watch, runtime 3:02). We beg his dietitian to allow him one KFC meal per week.

Are fertilizer prices rising? Al Hayah Al Youm’s host last night held up what she claimed was a signed ministerial decision that would hike the price of fertilizer — a document of which Cabinet spokesman Ashraf Sultan denied any knowledge. “I haven’t seen any official decision issued by cabinet regarding the matter,” he said during a phone interview, adding that the decision is still being considered. Companies and farmers, however, claim they have received the official notice (more on that in Basic Materials + Commodities) (watch, runtime 4:17).

Yahduth Fi Masr’s Sherif Amer and Ibrahim Eissa were off last night.

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