Cultish obsessions

1

WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

THIS EVENING: Export Development Bank getting in on state privatization program? + InstaPay now works abroad

Good afternoon, wonderful people, and happy THURSDAY to us all. It’s a particularly sweet end to the week, as we’re halfway through Ramadan as we head into a weekend that promises to bring plenty of sunshine.

THE BIG STORIES TODAY

#1- Export Development Bank getting in on privatization program? The Madbouly government is reportedly looking at adding a secondary stake sale in the EGX-listed Export Development Bank to its rebooted privatization program, Al Mal reports, citing sources it says have knowledge of the matter.

#2- InstaPay now works abroad: The Central Bank of Egypt’s digital payments app InstaPay is now operational when being used outside of Egypt, according to a statement. The app — Egypt’s answer to Venmo — previously did not allow users to make payments through the digital network unless they were physically present in the country.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

KSA + Iran’s diplomacy breakthrough: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud and his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian met in Beijing today for the first time in more than seven years to discuss reestablishing diplomatic ties between the two countries, according to the Saudi Press Agency. The two discussed reopening their embassies, without specifying the timeline, and will move to resume flights between the two countries. This follows China’s peacemaking efforts which saw brokering a pact last month among the rival parties to restore diplomatic ties and reopen embassies.

The story is getting ink in the international business press this afternoon:Bloomberg | Financial Times | CNBC

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

Pachin battle continues: The bidding war for EGX-listed Paint and Chemical Industries (Pachin) continued yesterday after Eagle Chemicals again increased its offer in response to the improved bid by National Paint Holding lodged last week.
Fine gets Easy: Amman- and Dubai-headquartered hygiene products manufacturer Fine Hygienic Holding (FHH) has acquired Alexandria-based health and beauty company Easy.
Yesterday at the cabinet:Ministers approved new minimum wage tiers for public-sector workers and exempted thousands of tons of frozen poultry from customs duties.

? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

PSA #1- Start planning the next run of holidays:

Coptic Easter falls on Sunday, 16 April;
Sham El Nessim is on Monday, 17 April;
Eid El Fitr should land on or around Friday, 21 April (it’s still not clear what days will be official holidays);
Tuesday, 25 April, is Sinai Liberation Day, for which we’ll likely have a day off on Thursday, 27 April.

PSA #2- Need funding for a green project? You can now apply to the second round of the Smart Green Projects Initiative until the end of May, according to a Planning Ministry statement. Eligible projects must use technology solutions to address environmental issues, present evidence of feasibility or innovation, and provide a written acknowledgement that no awards have been received during the initiative’s first round, among other requirements. You can view the full list of criteria here and apply here.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- This weekend is going to be a toasty one: We’re going to see daytime highs of 34°C tomorrow and 36°C on Saturday, while tomorrow’s evening low is expected to be 16°C and Saturday’s will be 21°C, our favorite weather app tells us.

China goes to the WTO to complain about US chip restrictions + Scientists may have discovered another habitable planet outside our solar system

Beijing wants WTO intervention on US chip curbs: China has called on the World Trade Organization (WTO) to scrutinize Washington’s attempts to prevent it importing chip technology, Reuters reports. The Biden administration had imposed restrictions last year on the export of equipment required to manufacture semiconductors to China and had rallied several of its allies to introduce similar restrictions. The moves are designed to loosen China’s grip on the global chip industry, but China maintains these restrictions are in violation of “the fairness and transparency principles of WTO.”

A planet the size of Earth is emitting radio signals strong enough to be picked up from Earth, astronomers reported in research published in the Nature Astronomy journal this week. The planet has been named YZ Ceti b, after the YZ Ceti star it orbits. The rocky exoplanet — meaning it’s located outside our solar system — is the first instance where astronomers pick up radio waves from a body that is relatively small. Previously, only radio signals from large planets the size of Jupiter could be captured by scientists, as smaller planets are invisible.

Why is this discovery important? The existence of radio signals has tremendous repercussions. Simply, this means that the planet in question is equipped, so to speak, with a magnetic field — an absolutely necessary condition to sustaining life. Without a magnetic field, which can be likened to a sort of cosmic shield, the planet cannot protect itself from the constant shelling it receives from star particles, and is therefore incapable of supporting the existence of an atmosphere.

What’s next? Astronomers are now looking to develop — hopefully within the coming 10 years — radio telescopes that can advance the search for, and detection of, magnetic fields in space. “The search for potentially habitable or life-bearing worlds in other solar systems depends in part on being able to determine if rocky, Earth-like exoplanets actually have magnetic fields,” National Radio Astronomy Observatory Director Joe Pesce was quoted as saying by the BBC.

Mozakerat Zoug: A 40-something pilot’s midlife crisis

? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

Want another social drama? Watch Mozakerat Zoug(A Husband’s Diary) based on author Ahmed Bahgat’s book of the same title. The 15-episode series follows Raouf, a 40-something pilot going through a midlife crisis, played by drama heavyweight Tarek Lotfy. He is married to Shereen (Aicha Ben Ahmed), a precise, judgmental and unrelenting engineer who has her entire life mapped out to the smallest detail. They are parents of two children and their routine lives have left much to be desired and a lot left unsaid between them. Raouf begins to feel lonely and desirous of his youth, to the extent that he falls in love with a younger colleague and decides to get a divorce from Shereen. On the other hand, Shereen, who has always been a strong figure, has become vulnerable and with the guidance of others is encouraged to be less judgmental and open up to meeting new people. The last few episodes of the series follow the pair as they handle their lives after this break.

⚽ Today in the Egyptian Premier League: Al Ittihad Al Sakandary is hosting Future this evening at 9:15pm — the usual time for football matches during Ramadan this season. The Alexandrian team (36 points) is having a good season so far, sitting in fourth place in the league, four points behind third-place Pyramids. Future, meanwhile, is in second place with 42 points — a surprising feat considering this is only its second season in the top division — and is looking to knock Al Ahly out of the top spot in the league to ensure its qualification for continental championships.

Tomorrow, also at 9:15pm: Al Masry v Haras Al Hodoud and Aswan v Ceramica Cleopatra.

A handful of major European leagues kick off new gameweek tomorrow. The most important matches we’ll be keeping an eye on:

Salernitana v Inter Milan (Serie A — 5pm)
Lecce v Napoli (Serie A — 7pm)
Milan v Empoli (Serie A — 9pm)
Sevilla v Celta Vigo (La Liga — 9pm)

Saturday also promises to be chock-full of important football matches, chief among them the English Premier League’s Matchweek 30.

In the Premier League:

Manchester United v Everton (1:30pm)
Wolverhampton v Chelsea (4pm)
Nottingham v Brighton (4pm)
Brentford v Newcastle (4pm)
Leicester City v Bournemouth (4pm)
Aston Villa v Nottingham Forest (4pm)
Fulham v West Ham ( 4pm)
Southampton v Manchester City (6:30pm)

More than 200 Enterprise readers are competing for the top spot in the Enterprise Fantasy League — are you one of them? Join the competition for a chance to get one of our special prizes at the end of the season by clicking on this link or entering the code 8o4sut.

And in other major European leagues on Saturday:

Real Madrid v Villareal (La Liga — 9pm)
Nice v Paris Saint-Germain (Ligue 1 — 9pm)
Torino v Roma (Serie A — 6:30pm)
Lazio v Juventus (Serie A — 8:45pm)
Freiburg v Bayern Munich (Bundesliga — 3:30pm)
Borussia Dortmund v Union Berlin (Bundesliga — 3:30pm)

Don’t give up on your favorite Japanese dessert this Ramadan. At Momochi, you can still enjoy those plush, soft desserts with flavors like basbousa eshta, konafa mango, konafa cream, and mastic pistachio. Fancy a boba? Aside from your usual favorites you can also enjoy flavors such as sobia and berry hibiscus boba tea. Momochi has several locations in east and west Cairo: Mall of Arabia on the west side of town, and Flamingo Hypermarket, Point 90 Mall, and the Yard on the east side.

A show for all ages:Goha fe Rawabet by ACT Theatre Group adapts Goha’s famous anecdotes, along with other short scenes from Egyptian folklore with enduring messages. The production will kick off next Sunday, 9 April, with shows on Monday, 10 April and Tuesday, 11 April. Ticket proceeds will go towards public sector children’s hospitals. For more information, check out the event’s Facebook page, and for reservations through Ticketsmarche click here.

Expose yourself to some art and culture and walk around central Cairo: Qahrawya are organizing two separate “iftour” (iftar tour) events next month, which entail an art walking tour after sitting down for iftar together. The tours include one in Zamalek this Saturday, 8 April and one in downtown Cairo on Saturday, 22 April, both starting at 5:30pm.

Looking for an Easter activity for your little ones? Join Bookly Ever After next Monday, 10 April in Maadi. To register for the event and for more details click here.

Catch Medhat Saleh on Wednesday, 12 April at 9:30pm at the Cairo Opera House as performs some of his hits along with Arabic favorites.Hazem Shaheen, one of the Middle East’s best oud players,will be performing on Friday, 14 April at 9pm at Rawabet Art Space. To book tickets check out the event’s Facebook page.

Enjoy Egyptian Project’s bedazzling live performance at Skas restaurantover sohour on Friday, 14 April. For more information or to reserve click here.

Learn more about popular Egyptian folk sayings at a unique location on Saturday, 15 April at 8pm in MASQ - Maq’ad of Sultan Qaitbey. Through storytelling with Nesma Medhat, a director, author, and founder of several projects focused on reviving Egyptian folklore, you will be guided through Egyptian heritage using a unique method.

Have a laugh at BigBang’s stand-up comedy night at Room Art Space and Cafe in New Cairo on Saturday, 15 April at 8:30pm with the performance starting at 9pm. For more details about the line-up and tickets check out their Facebook event page.

Catch Irtigalia on Sunday, 16 April for a night of improvisation at Room Art Space and Cafewhere the Irtigalia performers take their direction from you, the audience. To book tickets check out their event pagefor more information.

!_Anchor07_ ! Is it a trend or a cult in disguise?Sounds Like A Cult dives into the modern cults we all just follow blindly, from diet culture, online dating, Starbucks, and the Kardashians. The podcast offers listeners a great chance to reevaluate some of their daily obsessions, be it celebrity culture, small guilty pleasures like essential oils, or a healthy habit that people take just a tad too far — like Crossfit or minimalism. Reassess your priorities and scroll through the many many episodes hosts Amanda Montell and Isa Medina have put out — you’re bound to find one you’ll relate to.

The Angel Makers is an investigation into a series of murders at the hands of an impromptu group of female vigilantes. Awardwinning journalist Patti McCracken transports us to a village in Hungary where a chilling true-crime story claimed the lives of 160 men — at least — in the 1920s. The mastermind behind the deaths? Auntie Suzy, a midwife who provided women with vials of arsenic to dispose of abusive husbands and fathers. But what began as alleged self-defense quickly escalated into a string of unbridled murders to do away with “inconvenient” situations in order to accelerate inheritances and do away with ill relatives and more. The killings took place over 15 years before someone realized something abominable had been taking place.

What the markets are doing on 6 April, 2023

The EGX30 fell 1.8% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 407.8 mn. Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is up 14.5% YTD.

In the green: Ezz Steel (+3.4%), Juhayna (+2.7%) and Sidi Kerir Petrochemicals (+0.8%).

In the red: Egypt Kuwait Holding - EGP (-3.7%), CIB (-3.2%) and Abu Qir Fertilizers (-3.0%).

For better or for worse, AI is changing the artistic and creative world

Is AI changing the face of creative labor? The web has been awash with AI-generated art in recent months. Photo-editing appLensa, which lets users create ethereal digital paintings of themselves in a variety of genres like fantasy and sci-fi, has taken social media by storm, with over 4 mn people downloading the app within just the first five days of December. Art generatorMidjourney creates complex photorealistic or fantastical images of whatever the user fancies following just a few words of description, gaining traction as what Bloomberg calls “the architect’s favorite artificial intern.” In a popularvideo challenging AI to come up with a “a better Drake song than Drake,” ChatGPT andUberduck were used to deepfake a humorous song contending that the rapper doesn’t like beans — in his own voice and style.

The technology has hit home for some artists…: Leaning into the unlimited abstractions and freedom from practical constraints afforded by Midjourney, Egyptian LA-based designerHassan Ragab uses the tool to dream up strikingly fanciful architecture that pays homage to Alexandria, his hometown. The art nouveau that characterizes some of the city’s downtown architecture permeates his images. “These days, it’s hard to implement your ideas unless you’re a very famous architect,” he tells Bloomberg. “This tool is a great way to explore new visual libraries for architecture, instead of just going on doing what we always do.”

…And earned others awards: At the Colorado State Fair’s art competition in August, game designer Jason M. Allen took home the first prize for emerging digital artist for Théâtre d’Opéra Spatial, an image he generated through Midjourney. The artwork, which took more than 80 hours to complete, was no simple matter of “smashing words together and winning competitions,” he told CNN. After creating a preliminary version of what he envisioned, he tweaked his prompt to produce 900 iterations. Of those, he chose three to edit in Photoshop and run through resolution-enhancing software Gigapixel AI, arriving at his final submissions for the competition.

But the opposition is strong: Allen’s prize sparked vehement backlash on Twitter, with artists voicing concerns about being displaced by AI. “We’re watching the death of artistry unfold before our eyes,” one Twitter user wrote. “If creative jobs aren’t safe from machines, then even high-skilled jobs are in danger of becoming obsolete. What will we have then?”

Jitters are growing over AI art’s violation of intellectual property: These open-source programs are trained on mns of publicly available images scraped from the internet, including copyrighted work, according to the Independent. They essentially “harvest the stylistic DNA of individual artists,” often without consent or credit. Some lament that AI-generated images go as far as to contain warped traces of the original artists’ signatures. “We could say that, ethically, it’s stealing,” CBC quotes Polish Dungeons and Dragons illustrator Greg Rutkowski as saying. Rutkowski’s name has been directly used to create images more than 93k times on text-to-image generatorStable Diffusion.

The muddled relationship between art and AI has culminated in court battles: In January, stock image supplier Getty Images, which has more than 135 mn copyrighted images under its belt, filed a copyright claim against Stable Diffusion developer Stability AI for having unlawfully used mns of images to train its models, theFinancial Times reports. While Getty has licensed its images to other AI firms, it claims that Stability AI did not seek licensing rights. The lawsuit is a landmark case; the decision of the UK high court, awaited keenly by the likes of Google, will set a precedent for the legal rights and limitations of firms building AI. In the US, a class-action suit has been filed against Stability AI, Midjourney, and DeviantArt by three artists whose work had been used to train the firms’ AI systems.

But AI firms are standing their ground: Prisma Labs, the company behind Lensa, maintains that while “AI produces unique images based on the principles derived from data … it can’t ideate and imagine things on its own,” it wrote on Twitter. “As cinema didn’t kill theater and accounting software hasn’t eradicated the profession, AI won’t replace artists but can become a great assisting tool.”

THE ENTERPRISE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

APRIL

7 April (Friday): Massar Egbari concert at 9:30pm, Cairo Opera House.

7 April (Friday): Backpacker Iftar/Suhour, Wadi Degla.

8 April (Saturday): Iftour iftar and Zamalek tour with Qahrawya, Downtown Cairo.

9-11 April (Sunday-Tuesday): ACT Theatre Group performs Goha fe Rawabet at 9pm, Rawabet Art Space.

10 April (Monday): Bookly Ever After kids’ event.

12 April (Wednesday): Medhat Saleh concert at 9:30pm, the Cairo Opera House.

14 April (Friday): Hazem Shaheen concert at 9pm, Rawabet Art Space.

14 April (Friday): Egyptian Project live performance at 9pm, Skas Restaurant, El Obour.

15 April (Saturday): Nesma Medhat folk storytelling performance at 8pm, Maq’ad of Sultan Qaitbey.

15 April (Saturday): BigBang stand-up comedy night at 8:30pm, Room Art Space and Café.

16 April (Sunday): Coptic Easter.

16 April (Sunday): Irtigalia improv performance at 9pm, Room Art Space and Café.

17 April (Monday): Sham El Nessim.

21-26 April (Friday-Wednesday): LaLiga Egypt Football Camp, Xanadu Hotel, Makadi Bay, Hurghada.

22 April (Saturday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

22 April (Saturday): Iftour iftar and Downtown tour 5:30pm, Downtown Cairo.

25 April (Tuesday): Sinai Liberation Day.

27 April (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Sinai Liberation Day (TBC).

MAY

1 May (Monday): Labor Day.

1 May (Monday): Backstreet Boys at 7pm, ZED East, New Cairo.

4 May (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Labor Day (TBC).

12-15 May (Friday-Monday): Egypt Fashion Week.

JUNE

10 June (Saturday): Thanaweya Amma examinations begin.

28 June-2 July (Wednesday-Sunday): Eid El Adha (TBC).

30 June (Friday): June 30 Revolution Day.

JULY

18 July (Tuesday): Islamic New Year.

20 July (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Islamic New Year (TBC).

23 July (Sunday): Revolution Day.

27 July (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Revolution Day.

SEPTEMBER

26 September (Tuesday): Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

28 September (Thursday): National holiday in observance of Prophet Muhammad’s birthday (TBC).

OCTOBER

6 October (Friday): Armed Forces Day.13 October- 20 October (Friday-Friday): The sixth edition of El Gouna Film Festival (GFF).

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2023: The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Sections

About

Privacy & Support

Get EnterpriseAM daily