Sherif Ismail’s passing topped the agenda on the airwaves last night: Most of the nation’s talking heads dedicated segments to remembering former PM Sherif Ismail, who passed away yesterday following a battle with illness.

Ismail, who had a three-year tenure as PM between 2015 and 2018, was praised by the media: Ala Mas’ouleety’s Ahmed Moussa said Ismail led the government at a “difficult time”, describing him as a “dedicated” man to the country (watch, runtime: 7:13). Ismail assumed responsibility as PM at a “difficult period” economically and amid a spike in terrorism, Kelma Akhira’s Lamis El Hadid said (watch, runtime: 2:56). The former PM’s passing also got a mention from Masa’a DMC (watch, runtime: 1:01).

No World Youth Forum this year: This year’s World Youth Forum has been called off on the back of the global economic turmoil, according to a statement (pdf) from the forum’s administration yesterday. They said the decision not to go ahead with the event comes amid global crises “which resulted in humanitarian and economic repercussions that have become additional burdens on the shoulders of states, governments, and citizens.” The news was covered by Masaa DMC (watch, runtime: 1:14) and Al Hayah Al Youm (watch, runtime: 7:24), which talked to forum spokesperson Sarah Badr about the decision (watch, runtime: 6:25).

The continuing crisis in the automotive sector was back in the conversation: Automotive expert Mahmoud Khairy was on El Hekaya discussing the reasons behind the crisis facing the automotive companies. “The problem now is that there are piling up cars at ports … cars that had customers already pay deposits to book,” he said. He said the market was currently seeing a recession, estimating the prices of economy cars at near EGP 500k (watch, runtime: 0:38).

2022 was a year to forget for auto firms: Car sales fell more than a third in 2022 due to import curbs introduced by the central bank to address the country’s foreign-currency shortage.

Also getting a mention: The US shooting down a suspected Chinese spy balloon was covered by El Hekaya (watch, runtime: 3:59) and Kelma Akhira (watch, runtime: 3:01).