The death of Egyptian actress Ragaa El Gedawy dominated the airwaves last night. El Gedawy died in hospital yesterday, 40 days after testing positive for the coronavirus. Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime: 3:18), Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary ( watch, runtime: 2:32), AlKahera Alaan’s Lamees El Hadidi (watch, runtime: 1:34:00), and El Hekaya’s Amr Adib (watch, runtime: 8:13) all featured segments paying homage to the veteran actress.

GERD talks continue to bear little fruit: After three days of emergency talks Egypt and Ethiopia continue to disagrees on 90% of issues relating to the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), Irrigation Ministry spokesperson Mohamed El Sebaei told Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa (watch, runtime: 19:26). Each country held bilateral talks on the critical legal and technical issues blocking a resolution to the dispute during the first two days of the talks, and will continue negotiations in the coming days, El Sebaei said. Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary also covered the GERD negotiations (watch, runtime: 2:08).

US ambassador on Libya, GERD: El Kahera Alaan’s Lamees El Hadidi sat down for a wide-ranging interview with US ambassador to Egypt Jonathan Cohen (watch, runtime: 43:06). Among the highlights:

On military intervention in Libya: Cohen said the US is against any form of foreign interference in Libya, but understands Egypt’s security concerns about recent developments in the conflict. The US is calling for a ceasefire, compliance with the UN arms embargo and a return to UN-led negotiations. “The US and Egypt are in absolute agreement that there is no military solution to the Libya crisis,” said Cohen.

On the current state of GERD negotiations: Cohen praised Egypt for taking the dispute to the UN Security Council and came out against any moves by Ethiopia to unilaterally begin filling the dam. Although he cautioned that there remains weeks of hard work still to do to reach an agreement, he sounded a note of optimism that there is enough international support to break the deadlock.

Egypt’s potential as a regional energy hub: Egypt shows great potential for becoming a regional player in the energy sector, which has drawn interest from major US companies. During his time as ambassador, he has witnessed the agreement between Egypt and Israel for the gas pipeline run by Noble Energy, and the USD 6 bn agreement Bechtel secured for refining oil near the Suez Canal.