President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s weekend decision to increase the minimum wage to EGP 2,000 for state employees still dominates the airwaves. Al Hayah Al Youm’s Khaled Abou Bakr pointed out that only a “relatively financially healthy” government would agree to bear an added EGP 60 bn (c. USD 3.5 bn) in annual burden, calling the decision “historic” (watch, runtime: 3:22). Abou Bakr and co-host Lobna Assal also cheered El Sisi’s parallel decision to increase minimum pension payouts to EGP 900 (watch, runtime: 3:22).

The automatic fuel pricing mechanism taking effect today, which will see the price of 95-octane held at EGP 7.75 per liter through 2Q2019, was the second most popular topic. El Hekaya’s Amr Adib gave his two cents, setting the stage for his rant with his patented, “I want to talk to you, folks, about an important matter” (watch, runtime: 2:01). Oil Ministry spokesperson Hamdy Abdel Aziz, meanwhile, phoned in with Hona Asema’s Reham Ibrahim to talk technicalities (watch, runtime: 4:27). We have more in the Speed Round, below.