We start this morning’s talk shows roundup with the question: Where in the world is Lamees El Hadidi? She’s been gone for so long we thinking of turning that question into a board game. As for the lesser half? Well, he took to twitter to call for cell phones to be banned at schools for kids of a certain age. Good to see Amr Adib keeping busy.

The China-Africa Cooperation Forum continued to dominate coverage on the airwaves for the third straight day, with nothing new or interesting being said by the many pundits who could not find people with whom to play chess with in the park.

The government will buying locally produced rice this harvest season at a price of EGP 4,400-4,700 per tonne, Al Shorouk reports. It’s not yet clear how much the Egyptian government is seeking to purchase. The harvest season runs between 15 September and 15 November. Agriculture Export Council head Mostafa Al Nagari told Hona Al Asema that the price will see very few takers among farmers as it is lower than the market price of EGP 4,850-5300 (watch, runtime: 9:14).

The Trump administration’s steel tariffs have led to a reduction of steel prices locally, claims Mohamed Hanafi, the head of the metal industries division of the Federation of Egyptian Chambers of Commerce. He told Hona Al Asema that the tariffs had boosted production and supply leading to a decline in prices across the board. Local production had grown to 12 mn tonnes annually while consumption reached 7.5 mn tonnes per annum.

Furthermore, he claims that Egypt’s real estate market is stagnant, which has led to a decline in demand on building material including steel (watch, runtime: 1:50:00).

A social media campaign calling for boycotting vegetables and fruits in protest of high prices is gaining steam, claims Mahmoud Al Askalani, the head of an NGO that routinely protests anything whose price has gone up. He tells Yahduth fi Masr that despite acknowledging that a rough summer and pesticides have indeed impacted cultivation, the prices remain unreasonably high (watch, runtime: 3:14). A little scurvy is a small sacrifice for a few EGP saved, we say.

Autumn has hit Sinai pretty hard, with heavy rains pummelling the site of St. Catherine and causing some flooding in the area, Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary said. Irrigation Ministry spokesman Youssry Khafagy said the ministry has taken strict safety measures in the St. Catherine region over the years in preparation. He said the ministry had set up an early warning system as well as dam, barriers and artificial lakes nationwide. Egypt will still need to spend EGP 9 bn to bring anti-flooding measures up to speed, Khafagy said (watch, runtime: 8:57).