Regional diplomacy was the order of the day on last night’s talk shows, with the talking heads diving into the latest on the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) and the situation in Libya.

Ethiopia’s announcement yesterday that it will begin generating power from the GERD should be met with sanctions from the international community to ramp up the pressure on Addis Ababa to reach an agreement on filling and operating the dam with Egypt and Sudan, Former Irrigation Minister Mohamed Nasr Allam told Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa. Allam also noted that Egypt can take the matter to the International Court of Justice if negotiations continue to hit a wall (watch, runtime: 15:57). We have more on the story in Diplomacy + Foreign Trade, below.

Efforts to end the war in Libya and create a unified government would be best served without Turkey’s intervention, the Arab League’s Permanent Observer at the UN Maged Abdel Fattah said in a phone-in with Al Hayah Al Youm’s Mohamed Sherdy. Ankara’s involvement in our western neighbor is part of its attempts to further its interests in the Eastern Mediterranean, Abdel Fattah said. The path forward for Libya must begin with a comprehensive agreement between warring factions for a ceasefire and the expulsion of all foreign forces and mercenaries from the country he said (watch, runtime: 27:39). Ahmed Moussa also took note of Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry’s participation yesterday in a ministerial meeting on Libya on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (watch, runtime: 8:10). Again, we have more on this in Diplomacy + Foreign Trade.

Back on the home front, El Hekaya’s Amr Adib looked at the ongoing reconciliation of building code violations, which has seen some 1.7 mn settlement requests so far, Local Development Ministry spokesman Khaled Kassem said. The majority of the violation settlement requests came out of Beheira, followed by Menoufia and Qaliubia, according to Kassem. Revenues from these settlements will be funneled into the Social Housing and Mortgage Finance Fund and help finance government investments in infrastructure, health, and education, he noted (watch, runtime: 9:20).

Day laborers are getting an additional EGP 500 monthly stipend through the end of the year from the Egyptian Zakat and Charity House, secretary general Mohamed Amr Lotfi told Masaa DMC’s Eman El Hosary. The government is already providing day laborers with a monthly payout, bringing the total monthly stipend to EGP 1,000 (watch, runtime: 5:10).

The House of Representatives also earned some airtime last night from Lamees El Hadidi and Mohamed Sherdy. Mostakbal Watan Secretary General Hossam El Kholy had an extensive conversation with Lamees to defend the party’s track record (watch, runtime: 26:51), while parliamentary hopeful Youssef El Husseiny discussed with Sherdy his candidacy for the House and the National List for Egypt coalition (watch, runtime: 25:25).