It was a mixed bag of nuts on the talk shows last night: The talking heads gave us more coverage of the government’s move to reduce fines for building violations and the upcoming covid vaccine trials, as well as info on the upcoming parliamentary elections and the plans to prevent Nile flooding.

National List for Egypt convenes ahead of House elections: Al Hayah Al Youm’s Lobna Assal highlighted the meeting of the National List for Egypt, which consists of around 12 parties that ran in the Senate election under one list, headed by the pro-government Mostaqbal Watan Party. They convened yesterday to discuss forming another unified list to run in the House of Representatives elections next month (watch, runtime: 2:52). Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary also covered the gathering, speaking with member Mahmoud El Qott, who talked up the breadth of views and ideologies within the organization and its influence on regular citizens (watch, runtime: 2:34), (watch, runtime: 3:07).

Covid-19 vaccine trials: El Hosary phoned Ihab Kamal, the director-general of the Health Ministry’s fever department, who discussed conditions to volunteer for the covid-19 vaccine trials. Participants must be over 18 years-old and must not have any chronic conditions or have previously contracted covid-19 (watch, runtime: 8:00).

Gov’t cuts fines for illegal construction in new cities: El Hekaya’s Amr Adib spoke with Nafisa Hashem, who heads the Reconciliation Law Inquiries Committee, to discuss fines for illegal construction in new cities, which the Housing Ministry yesterday reduced by 15-25% to encourage citizens to reconcile with the state (watch, runtime: 5:20). People settling violations in New Cairo and Sheikh Zayed will see their fines cut by 15%, El Shorouk and Sixth of October will be reduced by 20%, and buildings in another 24 new cities will receive a 25% discount. This comes a day after the government slashed fines by up to 70% in 23 governorates, and cut them to EGP 50 / sqm for buildings in rural areas.

Preparations ahead of Nile flooding: Adib spoke with Irrigation Ministry spokesperson Mohamed El Sebaei, who discussed the ministry’s efforts to get ahead of any possible Nile flooding which at this stage is limited to monitoring water levels. El Sebaei also mentioned that Egypt has submitted its statement on the latest Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam talks to the African Union ahead of the next round of negotiations (watch, runtime: 4:16).