PM — Instagram vs. urban surveillance reality

Good afternoon, wonderful people. We’re off to a medium-quiet start to the workweek here on the home front, while the rest of the world is still very much in weekend mode.

THE BIG STORY TODAY

Fintech fund Nclude capital reaches USD 105 mn with second round of funding: Nclude, the high profile fintech fund launched by Dubai-based VC Global Ventures has closed its second round of funding, bringing its total capital to USD 105 mn with participation from local and foreign investors, a source with knowledge of the matter confirmed to Enterprise, without disclosing who the investors are. The investors will be announced soon, our source told us.

THE BIG STORY ABROAD

There’s no single story driving the conversation in the international business press this afternoon. The Financial Times’ lead story remains unchanged from this morning’s survey of economists, which sees the Fed raising rates beyond 4% and holding them there into 2024. Reuters, the Wall Street Journal, and CNBC are all covering (albeit with varying degrees of prominence) a UK Defense Ministry briefing that expects Russia to ramp up its attacks on civilian targets in Ukraine.

HAPPENING NOW-

Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly is in London to attend Queen Elizabeth II’s funeral, joining world leaders and heads of states at Westminster Palace, according to a cabinet statement.

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

• The Central Bank of Egypt is likely to raise interest rates when it meets on Thursday in a bid to tame inflation and support the local currency, according to our regular interest rate poll.
• B Investments has not yet decided on whether to preempt Adnoc’s bid to acquire TotalEnergies Egypt, saying it is “not in a position to respond” by a 15 September deadline, citing “unresolved legal issues related to the validity of the transfer notice” from current owner TotalEnergies Marketing Afrique.
• ​​The government wants to attract private sector investment to state-owned Heliopolis Hospital under a wider plan to open up the healthcare sector to private-sector players.

*** It’s Inside Industry day — your weekly briefing of all things industrial in Egypt. Inside Industry focuses each Sunday on what it takes to turn Egypt into a manufacturing and export powerhouse, ranging from initial investment and planning to product distribution, through to land allocation to industrial processes, supply chain management, labor, automation and technology, inputs and exports, regulation and policy.

In today’s issue: As part of the government’s continuing consultations on its state ownership policy document, the wood and furniture industry had its turn late last month to share its thoughts on the privatization plans for the industry. We look at how industry players want the state to proceed with its ownership status in the sector.

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FOR TOMORROW-

EFG Hermes One on One kicks off in Dubai, making it the first time since the start of covid-19 that the world’s premier frontier and emerging markets investor conference has taken place in person. The conference runs through the end of the week until Thursday.

???? CIRCLE YOUR CALENDAR-

HSBC is hosting an energy transition webinar series next Tuesday-Thursday, 27-29 September. The series will look at the “latest climate analysis in relation to the global energy market and transition to net zero” in six different sessions covering energy security, what is required to ensure the success of COP27, financing and investment needs for the energy transition, and the scaling up of renewables in the region, among other topics. You can register for the series here.

Intellectual property strategy coming this week: Egypt will launch its intellectual property strategy this Wednesday, Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly said on Wednesday, according to a cabinet statement. World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) Director-General Daren Tang will make an appearance at a ceremony being put on to launch the program, the PM said.

Winter is coming: Shops will shift to winter hours on Friday, 30 September, Youm7 reports. Shops and malls will close one hour earlier at 10pm (11pm on Thursdays, Fridays and national holidays) while cafes and restaurants will shutter at midnight rather than 1am. The government first introduced seasonal retail opening hours in 2020.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Expect the weather to remain more or less on par with today, as our weather app tells us the high will be 32°C and the low will be 24°C.

It’s not just about watching foreign shows — subtitles are becoming trendy. More viewers, especially younger ones, use closed captioning tools on their streaming and social media apps such as Netflix and TikTok videos, the Wall Street Journal reports. While closed captions, which display text in the same language as the audio, have long been important for hearing-impaired people, they have become a must-have for many people who don’t suffer hearing loss. They assist them in understanding audio and allowing them to multitask, several people told the WSJ. Some 70% of Gen Z respondents (aged 18 to 25) and 53% of millennial respondents (aged up to 41) reported watching videos with text most of the time in a recent study by language-learning app Preply cited by the journal. In comparison, just slightly more than a third of older respondents said they watch subtitled-content.

Why do they do it? There are several reasons for turning on subtitles or captions, including the desire to learn a new language or the inability to understand a speaker's accent or mumbled words. (Not to mention the viewers who just want to know the dialogue that’s happening as they munch on noisy snacks.) All the tech giants are catching up: Netflix, Apple, Google, Meta, and Tiktok have all increased on-device auto-captioning options in recent years. According to a Netflix representative, the number of people using captions and subtitles has more than doubled since 2017.

An Instagram versus reality art installment shows ubiquity of urban surveillance: Belgian artist Dries Depoorter, who used AI to cross-reference Instagram influencers’ posts with open street camera surveillance footage from EarthCam, shows how easy it is to locate people by combining AI with publicly available data points, reports Bloomberg. Depoorter’s two-minute video project, “The Follower,” has since been removed from YouTube due to a copyright claim by EarthCam. Depoorte’s past works have dealt extensively with subjects like surveillance, privacy, social media and machine learning.

???? ON THE TUBE TONIGHT-
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Do Revenge is a mash-up of 90s teen movies with a dash of Hitchcock: The snappy Netflix dark comedy is set at a prestigious school in Miami and features students dressed up like they’re on the set of Clueless, with cool kids lounging by the fountain in typical Scream style, and we get an inside look at the various subcultures at the high school, a la Mean Girls and 10 Things I Hate About You. The movie centers on Drea (Camila Mendes), a high-achiever with the sole goal of getting into Yale, who makes over social misfit Eleanor (Maya Hawke). Meanwhile, the show’s only adult character, the high school principal, is played by the ultimate 90s teen star: Sarah Michelle Gellar. The plot is a spin on Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train, in which a killer convinces an anonymous stranger to “switch” murders with him so that the police will treat both crimes as random and never catch either of them. But instead of murder, the goal here is shame: Drea and Eleanor plot to trade revenge missions on their high school tormentors so that no evidence will trail back to them. Our verdict: Do Revenge is a fun, Gen Z-inspired remake of the sassy adolescent classics of the 1990s, and is worth tuning into when you’re looking for some light streaming after a long day (watch trailer, runtime 2:39)

⚽ Zamalek begins its African Champions League journey at 5pm with a game against Chad’s Elect Sport in the first leg of the preliminary round. The return match will be held in Cairo a week later.

English Premier League: Gameweek 8 concludes today, and the league resumes in October as the players go on their international break. Everton’s match against West Ham kicks off at 3:15 pm — just a few minutes after we hit “send” on this issue — while the match between Brentford and Arsenal wrapped up earlier with a score of 3-0 for Arsenal.

La Liga: The Madrid derby between Atletico and Real kicks off at 9pm. Also today: Villarreal faces Sevilla at 4:15pm, and later at 6:30pm Real Betis plays Girona and Real Sociedad plays Espanyol.

It’s a big day in Serie A: You don’t want to miss Italy’s two giants Milan and Napoli facing off at 8:45pm. The two teams are in the lead after six rounds, at 14 points each, along with Atalanta who faces Roma at 6pm. Roma is currently in fifth place with 13 points. Monza v Juventus kicked off at 3 pm and the teams are currently battling it out on the field as we dispatch.

For fans of France’s Ligue 1, we recommend tuning into Lyon v Paris Saint-Germain at 8:45pm.

????EAT THIS TONIGHT-

Start the week with a worthy sugar rush at West Cairo’s Süss: Sometimes all you need is a no-nonsense destination to satisfy your sweet tooth cravings, and we recently came across all the treats we could possibly need at 6th of October’s Süss. The pastry shop offers some of the most innovative dessert options, starting with their Iced Pistachio Croissant or Oreo Leche Croissant (or just a tasty regular ol’ plain one if you’re so inclined). Next up, the menu boasts a sugary take on Japanese sushi, including white chocolate sushi, mastic sushi, or cheesecake sushi. The restaurant also offers fettuccine crepe and ice cream pizzas that are worth feasting on. Süss is located at Melanite Mall.

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Frank Sinatra fans, head to Zamalek’s Sawy Culture Wheel tonight at 7:30pm for The Sinatra Show with Gaby Bishara and listen to a live performance of all your favorite tunes.

‏Zamalek Art Gallery is kicking off the 2022-23 Art season with Wisdom of Shadows. Innocence of Light: The one-of-a-kind exhibition by renowned artist Mohamed Shaker will showcase his most recent Assemblage series, along with paintings chronicling his extensive artistic voyage. The artworks will be on display through 10 October.

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The host of Crime Junkie makes her writing debut with a gripping psychological thriller: In All Good People Here, a journalist who gets obsessed with the unsolved death of her childhood neighbor — and the disappearance of another girl 20 years later — discovers her hometown’s dark secrets. With her debut novel, the reigning true crime podcast queen Ashley Flowers has created a gorgeously winding trip, with beautifully-developed characters that kept us on the edge of our seats the entire time. We love a good thriller or murder mystery, and enjoy trying to figure out the puzzle before the book is over — at least three times while reading All Good People Here, we were absolutely certain we had it all figured out, only to find that we were dead wrong.

The EGX30 fell 3.1% at today’s close on turnover of EGP 1.27 bn (25.2% above the 90-day average). Local investors were net buyers. The index is down 18.3% YTD.

In the green: QNB Alahly (+7.0%), CIRA (+1.6%) and Oriental Weavers (+0.5%).

In the red: Fawry (-9.1%), GB Auto (-8.7%) and Heliopolis Housing and Development (-8.4%).