Headlining the talk shows last night: President Abdel Fattah El Sisi’s inauguration of a handful of national infrastructure projects and his formal launch of the nationwide healthcare program.

Third of July Tunnel, universal healthcare: The president inaugurated a tunnel running under the Suez Canal to connect south Port Said to Sinai, which has been named the Third of July Tunnel. Industrial complexes in Port Said’s El Raswa, the 30th of June highway running parallel to the Suez Canal, and the formal inauguration of the state-sponsored healthcare services were also part of El Sisi’s day, Al Hayah Al Youm’s Khaled Abu Bakr reports (watch, runtime: 5:54).

Suez Canal tunnels to improve East Port Said Port utilization: The Third of July Tunnel is the latest of a series of passages running underneath the canal that will reduce the journey time to and from the canal’s west and east banks from 12 hours to only a few minutes, Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) head Yehya Zaki tells Yahduth Fi Misr’s Sherif Amer (watch, runtime: 55). This will increase container traffic in the port, and benefit industrial activity in the zone, he said.

Healthcare system gets props from WHO director-general: World Health Organization Director General Tedros Adhanom congratulated El Sisi and Egypt for launching the health insurance system, Hona Al Asema’s Reham Ibrahim says (watch, runtime: 8:17). “I’m really sorry that I can’t be with you in Port Said today for this very historic moment,” Adhanom said in a recorded message. “The Universal Insurance Law [or Universal Healthcare Act] passed last year is a major step forward,” he added.

Tiba-1 finally headed into space: Egypt’s first communication satellite, Tiba-1, launched yesterday from the French Guyanese town of Kourou after repeated delays due to technical problems, Abu Bakr reported (watch, runtime: 5:48). You can watch the satellite taking off here (runtime: 4:52).

Egypt’s T.J. Henderson sits down with Sherif Amer: Amr Ezzat, a 13-year-old child genius who was barred by Cairo University from attending lectures, has now been allowed entry and will be studying third year university courses. Ezzat sat down for an interview with Amer after he was brought to the nation’s attention by the media earlier this week (watch, runtime: 2:03).