FGM penalties in the limelight: Aside from wall-to-wall coverage of the latest in the Suez Canal (which we recap in full above), the legislative amendments that would impose harsher penalties for FGM was at the top of the talking heads’ agendas last night.

In the hot seat: The ultra-conservative Al Nour Party, which opposed the bill on the grounds that penalizing the practice hasn’t successfully eradicated it, party member and House representative Ahmed Hamdy told El Hekaya’s Amr Adib. Hamdy suggested that relying on community outreach would be more effective in ending the types of mutilation that disfigure or harm women, but maintained that his party believes (without a single shred of scientific evidence) there are some circumstances in which the practice is medically necessary. Hamdy also suggested that “medical opinions change,” which means that statements being made now indicating that FGM is never medically necessary “could be proven wrong” in the future (watch, runtime: 3:56).

We’ll leave Adib’s raised eyebrows and particularly high decibel level to speak on our behalf here and suggest that Mr. Hamdy can now go crawl back under the rock from whence he came. For anyone who needs a reminder, the practice is called mutilation, which isn’t exactly how one would expect to describe a normal medical procedure, OB-GYN Omar Abdel Aziz told Adib (watch, runtime: 0:47).

Also on the airwaves last night:

• The current uptick in covid-19 cases is mostly minor cases, but everyone should remain cautious regardless, professor of chest diseases at Kasr El Ainy Maisa Sharafeldin said. (Eman El Hosary on Masaa DMC | watch, runtime: 7:56)