It was all about the gov’t’s new social protection package last night: The talking heads spent their night diving deeper into the latest package of social protection measures announced by the Madbouly government. The measures include raising the minimum wage for public sector employees to EGP 3k and keeping electricity prices on hold for an additional six months. We have the full story in today’s Economy section, above.

Where’s the private-sector minimum wage hike? The state was supposed to meet with private sector players this month to discuss raising its minimum wage from EGP 2.4k to EGP 2.7k per month, but the meeting has been postponed given how businesses have been struggling, National Council for Wages member Magdy El Badawy told Salat El Tahrir (watch, runtime: 6:00). “We hope over the coming period to apply similar measures [raising the minimum wage] to private sector employees,” he said.

The timing of these measures will help cushion the current price shock and any further price hikes in response to global economic conditions, Sen. Emad El Din Hussein told Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 11:37).

Helping hand: “We know how difficult the global economic crisis has been on citizens and therefore the state took action and will continue to take action,” Cabinet spokesman Nader Saad told Salat El Tahrir (watch, runtime: 3:02 | 3:09). The news also got airtime from Al Tasea (watch, runtime: 8:20), Ala Mas’ouleety (watch, runtime: 4:58), and Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 3:08).

The state’s Ebdaa initiative has helped 1.5k factories go legit by helping them get their licenses or finish necessary paperwork. Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 7:25) had the story.

The Egypt-UAE golden jubilee: Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly and Planning Minister Hala El Said helped kick off a three-day event celebrating 50 years of Egyptian-Emirati ties. Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 3:30) and Al Tasea (watch, runtime: 2:50) had the story.