By: Rowaida Mahmoud
Social media users spoke last week about US actor Robert De Niro being the first foreign investor in Ras El-Hekma; Meta’s social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads suffering a global outage and the world celebrating International Women’s Day.
Robert De Niro is 1st foreign investor in Ras El Hekma
“Nobu” restaurant chain founders announced that their hotel brand will enter Egypt by establishing two hotels by SODIC, the Egyptian real estate development company, one in Ras El Hekma and the other in El Sheikh Zayed City.
Nobu organised a special event, started on Tuesday and will run till March 12 to display the art of cooking.
“Nobu” is a Japanese restaurant chain, owned by the American actor Robert De Niro, film producer Meir Tepper and Japanese cooker Nobu Matsuhisa, and its headquarters is in Florida. Nobu has more than 30 branches across the world. De Niro is preparing to bring Nobu to the North Coast by 2026.
Facebook, Instagram, Threads suffer global outage
Meta’s social media platforms Facebook, Instagram and Threads suffered a global outage.
Many Facebook users were getting logged out of the platform and were unable to log back while Instagram users were unable to refresh their feeds and or post anything on the platform.
The social media platforms were back up after more than two hours of disruption.
Elon Musk trolled Meta, posting on X, “If you’re reading this post, it’s because our servers are working”.
Musk also posted a meme on Meta’s spokesperson Andy Stone, who informed Meta users about the disruption via X.
Google Doodle marks Taos Amrouche’s 111th Birthday
On March 4, Google doodle celebrated Algerian French singer and author Taos Amrouche, whose works help preserve the oral culture of the Kabyle people, a Berber ethnic group indigenous to northern Algeria.
The Doodle Icon depicts Amrouche in her stage costume.
Born in 1913 in Tunis, Tunisia, after her parents moved there from Algeria. Amrouche attended school in Tunis before moving to France in 1935 to attend university, Google Doodle said.
She collected and interpreted Kabyle songs with her mother and brother, a skill she would continue to use when she earned a scholarship to analyse Spanish and Berber music at the Casa Velasquez, an art institution in Spain.
Becoming more immersed in the oral traditions of the Kabyle people, she visited Algeria and began learning more about her ethnic heritage.
Her first novel, Jacinthe noir (Black Hyacinth), was released in 1947 and is considered one of the earliest books published by an Algerian woman. The book describes a Tunisian girl who belongs to two cultures.
Chants berbres de Kabylie, her first album, was very successful, leading her to create four more albums throughout the 1970s.
The stories and songs helped Amrouche document and preserve parts of her oral heritage, as well as connect with both her French and Kabyle identities, according to Google Doodle.
Google Doodle celebrates International Women’s Day
This week, Google’s doodle celebrated the international Women’s Day (IWD). Every year on March 8, world marks the International Women’s Day to celebrate social, cultural, economic and political accomplishments of women across the world.
The United Nations recognised the day for the first time in 1975. Several countries, including Cambodia, Guinea-Bissau and Ukraine, now celebrate IWD as a national holiday
Some said that holding the first Women’s International Democratic Federation (WIDF) in Paris in 1945 is the reason for the celebration. Other said the reason is that in 1856 thousands of women went on a strike in New York against inhuman conditions under which they were forced to work. The march achieved success; officials started to take the problem of the working woman into consideration.
Once again, on March 8, 1908, thousands of women who work on textile came out on a strike in New York, carrying crusty bread and roses and chose “Bread and roses” to be their march slogan.
They called for the reduction of working hours, having the right to vote.
The theme for this year’s Women’s Day is “Invest in Women: Accelerate Progress” with a focus on addressing economic disempowerment, while the campaign theme for this year is ‘Inspire Inclusion.’
New savings certificate from Banque Misr
Banque Misr on Wednesday announced the re-issue of ‘Ibn Misr’ savings certificate with up to 30 per cent interest as of March 6, 2024.
According to a bank statement, the certificate will offer annual returns up to 30 per cent in the first year, 25 per cent in the second year and 20 per cent in the third.
As for the certificate with quarterly returns, interest will be at 27 per cent interest rate in the first year, 23 per cent in the second year and 19 per cent in the third. The certificate with monthly returns will offer 26 per cent interest in the first year, 22.5 per cent in the second and 19 per cent in the third.
The ‘el-Qema’ three-year saving certificate will offer a fixed returns of 21.5 per cent annually.
Certificates can be purchased through the bank’s online and mobile banking platform BM online and Banque Misr ATMs.
Certificates can also be purchased at any of the bank’s more than 800 branches namtionwide.
