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Monday, 30 April 2018

Mo Salah and the weather law on last night’s talk shows

The nation’s talking heads had only a couple things on their collective mind last night: Mo Salah’s dispute over image rights with mobile operator WE and the crazy weather spell that’s expected to last through the week.

On the Mo Salah bit, the issue is this: He has an exclusive sponsorship agreement with Vodafone. That hasn’t stopped state-owned mobile network WE from using his image—reportedly without his permission.

The dispute between Salah and Egypt’s Football Association (FA) over rights of use to his images for World Cup marketing will be resolved, Sports Minister Khaled Abdel Aziz promised in a tweet last night. He told Kol Youm’s Amr Adib that talks were ongoing with Salah’s manager to understand the issue and their demands, which they are willing to fulfill (watch, runtime: 9:13). Salah also confirmed on Twitter the issue was close to resolution, but had hours earlier tweeted that he was “insulted” by how state-owned mobile operator WE used his picture without first seeking rights, nearly costing him EGP 100 mn in penalties payable to his sponsor Vodafone.

Liverpool also expressed its disdain in a release, saying that Salah was in hot water with Vodafone after the FA “put his picture on their plane next to a different phone sponsor than the one he has a contract with.” Hona Al Asema’s Lamees Al Hadidi (watch here, runtime: 2:09, here, runtime: 4:51, and here, runtime: 3:46), Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary (watch, runtime: 7:14), Al Hayah Al Youm’s Khaled Abu Bakr (watch here, runtime: 4:56 and here, runtime: 2:58), and Adib all joined Liverpool in defending Salah’s position (watch, runtime: 20:00).

National weather service preparing law to punish those who traffic in “fake” weather news? The head of Egypt’s Meteorological Authority (EMA) Ahmed Abdel Aal was all over the airwaves last night to discuss a draft law being prepared that would make EMA the sole authority on weather forecasts in Egypt. The bill aims to penalize those who make unsanctioned weather predictions or spread false news about the weather. THERE ARE LITERALLY NO [REDACTED] WORDS.

Cairo and the northern coasts can expect light rains, but Upper Egypt and the Red Sea coast should prepare for some showers, Abdel Aal reminded the hosts on Hona Al Asema (watch, runtime: 2:29), Al Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 10:28), and Yahduth fi Misr (watch, runtime: 3:33). Cabinet Spokesperson Ashraf Sultan told Lamees (watch, runtime: 5:19) and Abu Bakr (watch, runtime: 4:36) that the state was working on reinforcing infrastructure to handle weather changes. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Sherif Ismail reportedly accepted the resignation of the head of the Cabinet’s Information and Decision Support Center (IDSC) in relation to last week’s flash floods, sources tell Youm 7.

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