Does Musk care about X?

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WHAT WE’RE TRACKING TONIGHT

THIS EVENING: Egypt closes second Samurai bond issuance + It’s interest rate day

Good afternoon friends, it is finally Thursday. The news cycle has not ended yet as we are waiting, with bated breath, for the CBE’s next move from the MPC meeting that should conclude this afternoon.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

#1- Our second Samurai bond issuance has hit the market: Egypt successfully closed its second Samurai bond issuance, selling JPY 75 bn (c. USD 500 mn) of the JPY-denominated bonds in Japan, the Finance Ministry said in a statement today. Egypt closed its maiden Samurai bond issuance in March 2022, when it sold USD 500 mn of the securities.

Today’s issuance is part of the government’s efforts to diversify its sources of financing,extend the maturity of its debt portfolio, and drum up foreign currency, the statement reads. These efforts have seen FinMin close its maiden CNY 3.5 bn panda bond issuance in China less than two weeks ago.

#2- Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly inaugurated the new school complex at the Cosmic Village today, according to a cabinet statement. The complex includes Futures Tech and Regent British School, which are run by CIRA Education, as well as Westview International Language School (WILS) and Scholars International Language School (SILS), which are managed by Egypt Education Platform (EEP). The complex — which seeks to cater to middle-income families by offering affordable, quality education — is a joint venture between the Sovereign Fund of Egypt (SFE) and the private sector.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

Israel is pressing on with their ground invasion of Gaza as Biden is pushing the IDF for a pause, but just short of mouthing “ceasefire”. The heavy attack on the strip yesterday was met with counter offensives from Hamas as they relied on guerilla-war like tactics to resist the Israeli advances into the northern area of the city which is reportedly a Hamas stronghold.

The Palestinian death toll continues to rise as the number of lives lost has reached 9k since the fighting began on October 7.

Most of the western media is running the story — get more from Reuters, Financial Times, and the Associated Press.

HELP SUPPORT GAZANS-

Want to support relief efforts in Gaza, but don’t know how? We’ve got you. More than a mn people in Gaza have been thrown from their homes and every human being there lacks access to food, water, and fuel amid the most intense bombardment any population has endured this century. The charities we’re listing below are Egyptian organizations working on Gaza relief that we think you can trust if you want to make a donation.

#1- Egyptian Red Crescent Society is one of the nation’s leading providers of humanitarian and emergency medical services. The Egypt Red Crescent accepts donations in EGP online and is on Fawry with the service code 99981. You can also donate to the organization through this Banque du Caire account: 49/403/30 (EGP) or 1065/601/30 (USD — code: BCAIEGCX030).

#2- Egyptian Food Bank: The food bank has launched “Aid Gaza,” a hunger-relief campaign to supply essential food items to the people of Gaza. You can make an online donation through EFB’s website or the unified bank account number 888777 at every bank in Egypt. Do you live abroad? The EFB has a list of its verified accounts at major institutions (along with account numbers) here.

#3- The Mersal Foundation is a non-profit medical organization running medical aid convoys to Gaza. It is on Fawry using service code 9200 or you can donate through its EGP accounts at major national banks including CIB (100034654454), Banque Misr (5450001000003297), Emirates NBD (1019409332701), National Bank of Egypt (1953071376769426268), AAIB (1015996610010201), QNB (7352031181714268). The group lists other ways you can donate on its Facebook page.

#4- Lifemakers: The NGO, which has a record of providing medical, educational and social care services to Palestinians, has been helping to prepare aid convoys ahead of dispatch to deliver food, medical supplies, water, blankets, clothing, and other essentials to the besieged Gaza strip since the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war. Donate through the foundation’s website or use Fawry code 950. Lifemakers also accepts donations for Gaza relief in EGP via CIB (account 100034226827) and NBE (0773070478998401017).

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

Egypt opened the Rafah border crossing yesterday for the first time since the beginning of the conflict on 7 October, allowing a limited number of foreign nationals and seriously wounded Palestinians to leave the enclave.
The automotive rebound continues: Vehicle sales rose again in September to reach their highest level in a year.
There’s plenty more news from the nation’s red-hot securitization market, which has now seen the value of bonds taken to the market rise more than a third compared to the same time last year.

HAPPENING LATER TODAY- It’s interest rate day: The Central Bank of Egypt is expected to leave interest rates unchanged when it meets this afternoon, according to a majority of the analysts we surveyed this week.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Look for a high of 31°C during the daytime with a drop in the climes to reach 21°C in the evening. The temperature will continue to climb over the week reaching its highest point by Sunday. Hopefully by Monday the heat will break and we’ll be feeling weather that resembles fall — does that season even exist in Egypt?

The Book of the Dead is another artifact that reappeared in a museum after years of absence

This Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead has finally (and literally) seen the light of day.An exhibition at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles will be putting a version of The Book of the Dead — made up of 19 funerary scroll fragments — on display today. The museum has housed these scrolls since 1983, and have — for the past four decades — stored them in a dark vault due to their fragility, as papyrus is notoriously damaged by light. The exhibition will see seven of the scrolls on display until 29 January.

The scrolls fell into the museum’s hands through … a donation? The scrolls’ journey began with a British antiquarian by the name of Sir Thomas Phillipps. In the mid-19th century, he set out to own one copy of every book in the world, indiscriminately buying manuscripts from booksellers.

By the time of his death in 1872, he had accumulated 60k documents and 50k books. How he got a hold of these copies of the Book of the Dead scrolls is unclear. Nevertheless, his descendents auctioned off the collection gradually, and in the 1970s the scrolls were acquired by Hans P. Kraus, a New York book dealer, who then donated them to the museum.

Ownership of copies of The Book of the Dead was intended for ancient nobility and priests.Individuals of high status could commission copies of specific spells and even customize them to include their names. Two of the scrolls at the Getty can be traced back to women named Aset and Ankhesenaset, priestesses at the Karnak temple in Thebes. The scrolls are tattered, having been brutishly removed from their tombs during colonial raids of Ancient Egyptian burial sites.

The ethics of “artifact acquisition” has made headlines this past month, with the Museum of Natural History deciding to remove all human remains from public display, citing the immorality of looted graves, violated burial sites, and viewing ancient persons as objects.

The British Museum has also been under scrutiny since August, when it was reported that 2k items had been stolen from their collections. The scandal has prompted several countries to renew long-running petitions requesting that the museum return all stolen colonial artifacts, among them a petition for the return of the Rosetta Stone.

The museum has historically rejected all such requests, stating that they are better equipped to preserve and catalog the artifacts. This is the same museum that was not aware of 2k missing items until they were alerted by a Danish antiquities dealer who saw several artifacts auctioned off on eBay for a fraction of their worth — items that will most likely never be recovered.

Are women only destined for the kitchen?

? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
(all times CLT)

Lessons in Chemistry cooks up a feminist storm on Apple TV, with Brie Larson at the helm making her TV comeback as the brilliant chemist/chef boxing it out against 1950s patriarchal society.

The series jumps back to post-WWII America, where genius chemist Elizabeth Zott (Brie Larson) struggles to advance her work at a male-dominated research institute. Much like the reality of the fifties, Zott’s intellect is set aside as a female scientist was an absurd premise. Instead, she is designated to the lowly profession of lab chemist and coffee barista for her intellectually-inferior scientist peers who happen to be born with different genitalia that ensures that they get the resources and opportunities that Zott deserves to have.

She meets eccentric Dr Calvin Evans (Lewis Pullman) who is the only man who seems to meet her intellectually, and who also promises to support her research and cause. You guessed it: Sparks fly and she eventually becomes pregnant. The research center where she works decides to let her go to avoid a scandal. So, what does one do to feed herself and her baby?

Zott trades her lab coat for an apron, seemingly conforming to the standards of the time when women would only take center stage in cooking shows. Instead, she begin to use the show as a platform for female equality and often dubfounds her producers — men of course — as she is able to share her excellence in chemistry — beating them at their own game.

If you enjoy the 1950s TV series pantheon, then this show is one to your collection.Alongside Mad Men and Marvelous Mrs Maisel, the show really pokes the sore that is gender and race discrimination in America.

The cast of Lessons in Chemistry have, well, chemistry…Pullman (son of Bill Pullman) and Larson could not have been well-matched in their awkwardness and passion when it comes to science. Aja Naomi King portrays Harriet Sloane, a member of Evan’s community, socially active and who also happens to be black is played with grace and energy.

Watch this eight-episode lesson on women’s history on Apple TV to see how female chefs rewrote the scripts handed to them in their plight for independence.

The Discreet Charm of the Pillars of Society is playing tonight. Directed by Ahmed El Attar, brings together two families objecting to their children’s marriage. The play is on stage at 8pm at Falaki Theater as a part of the Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival (D-Caf). You can click here to check out the event. Tickets are available on D-CAF’s website.

The exhibition Forever Is Now is back again at the Pyramids, open 9am until 4pm daily through 18 November. Book your ticket here or buy one on arrival.

Cairocomix festival is back, kicking off this coming Friday, 3 November, and running through Sunday, 5 November, at the Mahmoud Mokhtar Cultural Center. There is no admission fee. You can explore the program here.

Great Symphonies III x Cairo Opera House. The Cairo Symphony Orchestra headed by the maestro Ahmed El Saedi will be performing at the Main Hall, Cairo Opera House next Saturday, 4 November. The concert will start at 8pm sharp. Book your ticket here.

Music enthusiasts, this one’s for you: The annual Cairo International Jazz Festival is still going at AUC’s Tahrir campus and will continue until Friday, 3 November. More here.

Sayed Ragab x Lina Chamamyan x “El hekaya b aswatna”. TV personality Mahmoud Saad will host actor Sayed Ragab and singer Lina Chamamyan live on stage at Theatro Arkan, Sheikh Zayed, on Thursday, 2 November at 8:30pm. You can book with Tazkarti.

Mahmoud Saad will also host comedian Ahmed Helmy on Saturday, 4 November, followed by a concert featuring Wust El Balad, also at Theatro Arkan. Click here to reserve your tickets.

Looking for adventure? Get into the spooky spirit with night hiking in Wadi Degla with the Egyptian Wild Animals Service (EWAS) on Friday, 3 November.

Russia’s Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra is coming to Egypt for the first time, with three concerts scheduled in Cairo and Alexandria. The Cairo concerts are scheduled for Sunday and Monday (5 and 6 November) at the Cairo Opera House in Zamalek, while the Alexandria concert will follow on Tuesday, 7 November, at Sayed Darwish Theater. You can book your tickets for the concerts from here, here and here.

The Christmas Charity Bazaar will bring on the season’s warmth on Saturday, 1 December at All Saints’ Cathedral, Zamalek. The bazaar will start from 10:30am until 4pm. Note, the event’s revenues will be given to a variety of charitable organizations in Egypt.

Kurtz-Phelan invites policymakers and thought leaders along to discuss the forces and dynamics at play when considering the global geopolitical scene. The bimonthly podcast tackles the same range of relevant and interesting topics you can expect to read in the magazine along with incisive and thoughtful analysis.

One episode touched upon how rising technological advancements — including revolutionary tools like ChatGPT — make up for labor scarcity in some nations and can adversely affect immigration. It is this examination of the interplay and synergy between various forces and how they create new realities that make the conversation so compelling and contemporary.

Lewis recently published this book just as the trial of the subject of Going Infinite, Sam Bankman-Fried, is facing fraud charges. The now-disgraced young crypto b’naire, who is now faces years in prison following the collapse of his cryptocurrency exchange FTX and affiliated hedge fund Alameda, is described in the book as having the demeanor of a child pretending to care when his parents ask him to say hello to their friends.

But beyond the eccentric, nonchalant attitude is a young man who managed to be taken seriously. Even the author himself admits he was “totally sold.”

The book misses what actually went down in FTX and a breakdown of cryptocurrency. If you are looking for a great story, then this book will hit the mark thanks to both the subject matter and Lewis’s skills as a storyteller. But we think it could have been a far more potent read with a more in-depth analysis of what went wrong at FTX or a broad argument about cryptocurrency in general, as one WaPo reviewer put it.

What the markets are doing on 2 November 2023

The EGX30 rose 0.9% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 2.9 bn (20.4% above the 90-day average). Foreign investors were net sellers. The index is up 55.1% YTD.

In the green: Qalaa Holdings (+7.6%), Juhayna (+5.6%) and CIRA Education (+3.8%).

In the red: AMOC (-2.0%), Abu Qir Fertilizers (-1.1%) and Credit Agricole (-1.0%).

What has Musk done to X?

THE LATEST ON X: X’s value has plummeted 55% from USD 44 bn - when Elon Musk bought it a year ago, to USD 19 bn now, based on the stock plan issued to employees, according to Fortune. Was it Musk’s changes to policies and lack of moderation that put X in hot water with fine s and ultimatums from several watchdogs. Or is it that X is not even on the CEO’s priority list? Given the several projects that he has started that have nothing to do with the formerly beloved platform.

BY THE NUMBERS– Compared to last year’s numbers, there have been 13% less users, and employee numbers dropped from 7.5k people to 1.5k people (which can be argued is a cost-saving measure by Musk).

But Musk awarded employees equity, anyway…at USD 45 per share of the USD 19 bn valuation. This comes as part of the company’s equity compensation plan based on the fair market value per share determined by the Board of Directors, aka Mr. Musk himself, Fortune adds. Aiming to model X's compensation plan after SpaceX, Musk is allowing employees to cash out a portion of their shares, the Verge reports.

This payout does not dissuade from the fact that he is in USD 13bn in debt,he also lost advertiser revenue and is racking up interest of around USD 1.2 bn per year from the said debt.

The unbridled content is undermining the platform. Unlike Twitter, which was heralded as the go-to platform for news and free-expression,studies have shown an increase in harmful posts on X. Researchers even found a rise in “racist and ethnic slurs” and an increase in engagements with troll users.

To add fuel to the fire… incidents like the Israeli war on Gaza and the Russian war in Ukraine highlighted the platform’s descent deeper into misinformation with its changes to its policies, explains Tim Chambers of Dewey Square Group, a public affairs company that tracks social media quoted in the New York Times.

One of the unhappy watchdogs is the EU’s Digital Services Act, this body has criticized Musk for his platform’s engagement with Kremlin-linked (Russian propagandists) accounts, which increased by 36% on X after Musk removed mitigation, and warned about the circulation of violent or extremist content.

But Musk is unruffled. He continues to defend his platform stating that these activities are exaggerated and that he aspires to share the real-time truth, even if it isn’t too pleasant, the New York Times added.

Oh, remember that Premium subscription? It didn’t curb unwanted users. In fact it allowed, and still allows, anyone with USD 8 to spare to get the blue checkmark, video and audio call feature and the X feed advantage to share misinformation, explains Bloomberg. It only managed to persuade between 950 k to 1.2 mn users, anyway, — 1% of X’s user base — resulting in less than USD 120 mn in annual revenues from the subscription services. Even Fidelity, who invested USD 300 mn in the acquisition of X, has lowered its value by 65%.

With the above track record, it makes sense that 67% of advertisers are spending less on their content on X, according to Sensor Tower, cited in Bloomberg. Even Merck & Co, Hilton Worldwide, and AT&T left months after Musk took the helm.

Will turning X into a market place be its saving grace? In an attempt to restore the social media platform to its former glory, Musk is proposing to make money by changing the platform to an ‘everything app’, through a “shopping and payments” feature, but it is yet to be seen. He even voiced his intention to take X public, but he claims that he needs to bring the company back to USD 44 bn, the value at which he bought it earlier this year, reports Bloomberg.

Or does X really not matter to Mr Musk? Despite his open displeasure with AI the b’naire did not stop him from setting up xAI, which aims to “understand the true nature of the universe.” He also set up Neuralink to plant microchips into quadriplegic patients' brains to communicate through computers.

And then there is Optimus, a “robot humanoid” designed to do “anything that humans don’t want to do” and let’s not forget that he’s also planning to go to Mars, or what he calls the red planet, by 2026.

THE ENTERPRISE ENTERTAINMENT CALENDAR

NOVEMBER

26 October - 18 November: Forever Is Now Exhibition, Pyramids of Giza.

12 October-5 November: D-CAF (Downtown Contemporary Arts Festival), Downtown, Cairo.

26 October - 3 November (Thursday-Friday): The 15th Annual Cairo International Jazz Festival at AUC’s Tahrir campus.

26 October-5 November (Thursday-Sunday): Cairo Jazz Festival at AUC Tahrir.

2 November (Thursday): Sayed Ragab x Lina Chamamyan x “El hekaya b aswatna, Theatro Arkan, Sheikh Zayed.

3-5 November (Friday- Sunday): Cairocomix Festival, Mahmoud Mokhtar Cultural Center, Zamalek.

4 November (Saturday): Edward Said Memorial Lecture at AUC Tahrir.

4 November (Saturday): Ahmed Helmy interview, Theatro Arkan, Sheikh Zayed.

4 November (Saturday): Great Symphonies III concert, Cairo Opera House, Zamalek.

5-6 November (Sunday-Monday): The Russian Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra concerts, Cairo Opera House, Zamalek.

7 November (Tuesday): The Russian Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra concert, Sayed Darwish Theatre.

10 November (Friday): Tamer Ashour’s concert, Zed Park Sheikh Zayed.

11 November (Saturday): El Gouna Half Marathon 2023, El Gouna.

11 November (Saturday): Russell Peters stand-up comedy show, The Marquee Theatre, Cairo Festival City Mall.

14-15 November (Tuesday-Wednesday): Destination Africa Expo at Royal Maxim Palace Kempinski.

15-24 November (Wednesday-Friday): Cairo International Film Festival (CIFF).

16 November (Thursday): ELFIT Sports and Fitness Games at New Capital Sports City.

25 November (Saturday): Masr El Gedida Carnival at Maryland.

26 November (Sunday): Souad Massi concert at Tap East.

DECEMBER

1 December (Friday): Cairo Fun Festival by Bike Zone Egypt in Heliopolis.

1 December (Friday): The Christmas Charity Bazaar, All Saints’ Cathedral, Zamalek.

EVENTS WITH NO SET DATE

2023: The inauguration of the Grand Egyptian Museum.

Q1 2024: Opening of the newly developed Pyramids Plateau in Giza.

2024

JANUARY

7 January (Sunday): Coptic Christmas.

25 January (Thursday): Revolution Day.

APRIL

9 April (Tuesday): Eid El Fitr (TBC).

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

MAY

1 May (Wednesday): National holiday in observance of Labor Day (TBC).

5 May (Sunday): Coptic Easter.

6 May (Monday): Sham El Nessim (TBC).

JUNE

15-19 June (Saturday-Wednesday): Eid El Adha (TBC).

30 June (Sunday): June 30 Revolution Day (TBC).

JULY

7 July (Sunday): National holiday in observance of Islamic New Year (TBC).

23 July (Tuesday): Revolution Day (TBC).

SEPTEMBER

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

OCTOBER

6 October (Sunday): Armed Forces Day.

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