The word on the street is that Lamees El Hadidi won’t be returning to our screens on Al Hadath this month: Sources told Masrawy last week that Al Kahera Alaan has been cancelled by Al Arabiya Al Hadath and that Lamees has left the channel. We had expected her to make her return this month after she announced in July that she — along with her other half Amr Adib — would be taking August off. Adib is due back in the studio on Friday night.

Until then, we’ll have to make do with Ahmed Moussa, who once again dominated the airwaves last night.

The end of the first wave or the beginning of a second? Moussa also spoke with Hany El Nazer, the former head of the National Research Center, who said that although there has been a slight increase in the number of covid-19 infections recently, this does not necessarily signal the beginning of a second wave. He advised citizens to maintain social distancing, mask wearing, and other safety measures, stressing that preventative measures are vital to ensuring the health system is not overwhelmed (watch, runtime: 19:56).

The government’s crackdown buildings that lack construction and other legal permits continued to get attention last night: Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa spoke with Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad to discuss the ongoing issue of land reclamation. Saad said that the newly-amended law is a “historic” chance for citizens to legalize the status of their buildings. He stressed that the government will start demolishing buildings put up without permits in cases where owners have not demonstrated seriousness in addressing violations on 1 October, and that cases could be referred to the military prosecutor’s office. Saad dismissed uncorroborated reports circulating on social media that the new reclamation law was unconstitutional and added that some 400k settlement requests have been submitted since the 15 September deadline was announced (watch, runtime: 33:33).

Latest on the Fairmont Hotel case: Moussa highlighted the public prosecution’s latest statement about the Fairmont Hotel [redacted] assault case. The prosecution said that authorities had detained three of the nine suspects for four days, then released each of them on EGP 100k bail. It added that it is taking action against the suspects who fled the country and were apprehended abroad (watch, runtime: 3:40).

Crowds at Cairo airport: Moussa spoke with Assistant Civil Aviation Minister Bassem Abdel Karim, who commented on video clips of crowded scenes at Cairo airport making the rounds on social media. Abdel Karim said that the video simply showed a congested quarantine center as two flights had arrived earlier than scheduled, causing some 650 passengers to check in to the center at the same time. He appealed to passengers to remain patient and adhere to social distancing guidelines (watch, runtime: 7:29).