Last Night’s Talk Shows: High-speed rail + social security lead the conversation on the airwaves
On the talk shows last night: The high-speed rail network was back in the conversation after President Abdel Fattah El Sisi met with representatives of the company that could snag the contract to operate the line, while time was made to discuss the new support going to ration card holders from next month.
President El Sisi urged the Transport Ministry to finalize contracts with German railway firm Deutsche Bahn which is lined up to operate and manage the first phase of the high-speed rail network, which will run 660 km between Ain Sokhna and Marsa Matrouh and will be finished during the second half of 2024. This came during a meeting between the president and company officials yesterday. Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 3:51) spoke with head of the General Authority for Roads and Bridges Hossam El Din Moustafa, who discussed the importance of the railway for upgrading the country’s transport networks and facilitating freight shipping. DMC (watch, runtime: 1:16) and Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 2:57) also took note of El Sisi’s sit-down.
Social security measures including the addition of five new key food staples to ration cards as of September also got some attention, with Adel Abdel Aziz, managing director of the General Company for Wholesale Trade, giving a rundown of the measures on Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 3:34). We have more on this in this morning’s Radar section, below.
Also on the airwaves last night:
- A new list of political prisoners will be pardoned within days, presidential pardon committee member Kamal Abu Eita said. (Masaa DMC | watch, runtime: 7:14)
- Pope Tawadros II talked about the tragic fire at the Abu Sefein church in Imbaba. (Masaa DMC | watch, runtime: 1:23)
- A 280 km portion of the Egypt section of the Cairo-Cape Town highway has already been constructed, with the full 1150 km road set to be completed by 2024, General Authority for Roads and Bridges Hossam El Din Moustafa said. (Ala Mas’ouleety | watch, runtime: 6:05)