Football, football, football, no pharma strike, football
As we expected, the African Cup of Nations final was on everyone’s mind last night, and the talking heads were no different.
Hona Al Assema’s Lamees Al Hadidi sums up our thoughts perfectly on the national team’s performance: “We never expected to reach this stage in the championship … we are winners anyway.” Sports writer Essam Shaltout called her to say that there is no shame in winning the silver medal (watch; runtime: 10:49). Lamees interviewed football analyst after football analyst to discuss the team’s performance (watch, runtime: 57: 02). Kol Youm’s Amr Adib echoed Lamees’ sentiment (watch, runtime: 5: 48), leading us to wonder: Can an echo be louder than the original sound? Doesn’t this somehow contradict the laws of physics?
Before the match, Al Hayah Al Youm went for the tear-jerker, interviewing relatives of the players, including Ahmed Fathy’s family (watch; runtime: 6:11), Essam El Hadary’s mother (watch; runtime: 4: 25), and Mohamed Elneny’s uncle (watch; runtime: 4: 02) and others.
Al Hayah Al Youm, didn’t just end it with football, hosting Pharmacists Syndicate official Ayman Osman to discuss the victory of its lobbying (nagging) campaign to get the Health Ministry to approve set profit margins for pharmacists following the meds price hikes (details in Health + Education). Osman announced that the Syndicate cancelled its strike planned for 12 February (watch; runtime: 3:03).
Yahduth fi Masr’s Sherif Amer continued to delve into the case of the alleged Louvre-stabber Abdullah El-Hamahmy. Security sources tell him that the suspect has a criminal record and that initial investigations showed that he twice visited Turkey. Still, Amer’s sources claim the man had no official political ties. Two of his relatives were arrested last week, they added.