Downtown business improvement district is proposed

Business News

If you build it, will they come?
Downtown Honolulu, once bustling with office workers who frequented eateries at lunchtime, has seen a downturn in office space occupancy since the start
of the COVID-19 pandemic, and needs revitalization, say businesses and developers.
But even if they build change, they fear people won’t come, so they would like to create a business improvement district to help with first sweeping out crime, grime and the
homeless.
It’s first objective: “Clean and Safe.”
“It’s great to have festivals and events, but they cost money,” Avalon Group CEO Christine Camp said. “We need to focus on cleanliness and safety. That’s what we have to start with.”
Two hundred stakeholders — residents, business and property owners, developers, government officials — filled the Laniakea YWCA auditorium last week to hear panelists touting the plan, with many weighing in.

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Angola and Israel want to leverage economic cooperation and increase business volume

Business News

Sebastião Francisco, who was speaking to journalists about strengthening trade and attracting Israeli investments to the country, highlighted that the volume of trade is below 300 million dollars, in statements made on the sidelines of the 2nd Economic Forum between the two countries promoted by Israeli embassy in Angola.
According to Sebastião Francisco, there is more interest on the Israeli side, but “there are difficulties in reconciling interests”.
“This incompatibility has to do with the organization, especially of our businesspeople. They (…) want to know with whom, in what and where they are going to invest. The projects that businesspeople present here are not always sufficiently structured to be accepted as a premise to place their investments”, said Sebastião Francisco.
The leader of the Angola/Israel Chamber of Commerce said that these businessmen are experienced and to invest in Angola they require “some stability in their partners”.
“That’s a very low number for the capital available in Israel for interest in Angola,” he said.
Angola and Israel, with diplomatic relations since 1993, develop cooperation in the areas of agriculture, health, education, aviation, construction, fisheries, diamonds, security, cartography and telecommunications, with great interest being shown in the pharmaceutical industry.
The official highlighted that the business environment in Angola has changed and is favorable to investment, a testimony that they intend to take to Israel “to motivate those who are there”.
Religious tourism, highlighted Sebastião Francisco, has brought a large number of Angolans to Israel, organized by churches and many on an individual level.
In turn, the Israeli ambassador to Angola, Shimon Solomon, said that the meeting’s main objective was to promote investment in the country, given the great interest on the Israeli side, as well as on the Angolan side.
The meeting brought together leaders and businesspeople from both countries to analyze existing Angolan investment policies and promote the presence of Israeli businesspeople in Angola.
“There are already businesses in several sectors, mainly in the diamond sector, but there is a lot to explore, for example the Lobito Corridor [railway infrastructure] which offers many opportunities that we can embrace”, he stressed.
Shimon Solomon considered that the greatest effort should be made by the Angolan side, with diplomatic relations between Angola and Israel being the best platform to promote new investments and improve the quality of existing businesses.

‘Anti-Sikh’ film Emergency pulled from Vue and Cineworld after Midlands protests

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

A controversial film dubbed ‘anti-Sikh’ was reportedly pulled from cinemas in the Midlands at the last-minute. Showings of Hindi movie ‘Emergency’ are understood to have been cancelled last week at Cineworld in Wolverhampton and Broad Street, Birmingham, as well as Vue at Star City. It came following protests over the newly-released film, which critics have…

asia Thailand’s visa waiver for Chinese tourists under fire after string of crimes

Travel

BANGKOK — Thailand’s visa waiver programme for Chinese nationals has come under scrutiny after the high-profile alleged kidnapping of a Chinese actor and similar crimes stoked worries over tourism and security.The incident involving actor Wang Xing was widely shared on Chinese social media earlier this month, prompting Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra to reassure Chinese tourists of their safety ahead of the Lunar New Year.

Tourism is a key driver of Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, which saw a record of 39.9 million visitors in 2019 before the pandemic hammered the sector.

In 2023, the government dropped visa requirements for Chinese arrivals, its largest source market, in a bid to boost the industry. Since then, foreign tourist arrivals have jumped by 26 per cent annually to 35.5 million, of which some 6.73 million travelled from China, up 91 per cent.

The surge in arrivals from China may have led to more illicit activity, especially along towns bordering Laos and Myanmar where criminal enterprises run scam centres and online gambling operations, said Senator Wanchai Ekpornpichit.

“The visa-free policy has increased transnational crime, partly from Chinese criminals who use Thailand as a base,” Wanchai said in parliament on Monday.

“We are becoming a hub for criminal activity… and it is impacting national security and tourism.”

Tourism Minister Sorawong Thienthong told reporters on Tuesday that there were currently no plans to review the visa waiver programmes.

Some Thai tourism industry groups have proposed cutting the visa-free stay for Chinese tourists from 60 days to 15 days.

“Chinese tourists spend about 7-8 days so it will not affect tourism,” said Adith Chairattananon, secretary-general of the Association of Thai Travel Agents, told Reuters.

Adith said he had discussed the proposal, which could help cut down criminal activity, with the head of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the country’s main tourism body.

Overseas fraud syndicates have duped Chinese citizens with promises of high-paying jobs and other inducements to trap them in telecom fraud dens in towns such as Myawaddy, on Myanmar’s border with Thailand, according to Chinese state media.

Thailand last year helped facilitate the transfer of some 900 Chinese nationals who had been trapped in scam centres in Myawaddy back to their country.

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Are you being watched? Soderbergh’s ghost voyeur movie taps strange truths

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Steven Soderbergh’s new film Presence this week heralds the return of a cinematic technique familiar to many fans of scary movies: the point-of-view shot. Viewing a scene through the eyes of an antagonist – such as the extended opening of John Carpenter’s Halloween – can be a chilling way of drawing viewers into the action, making us feel like we are both the watcher and being watched. When combined with sustained shots without an edit, we become eavesdroppers and voyeurs, lingering long past when the scene should have moved on. From Hitchcock’s Rear Window to Haneke’s Hidden, a camera that holds it gaze can fill us with a creeping sense of dread.Presence uses both tricks, telling us a familiar story (a family with baggage move into a haunted house) in an unfamiliar way. Told from the perspective of a ghostly presence, we witness every scene via the point-of-view shot, sweeping between rooms to hear intimate conversations and hovering over characters as they sleep. As the ghost we watch through upstairs windows, peer round closet doors, and recede into corners while scenes unfold.Presence feeds on our cultural intuitions and beliefs about ghostly entities (which are still, many suggest, more prevalent than many people might realise). But Soderbergh is also tapping into the mechanics of real-life experiences of “felt presence”, or the sensation that someone is close by without clear evidence. Far from just ghost stories, presences are a regular occurrence in sleep paralysis, bereavement and certain mental health and neurological conditions (such as schizophrenia, or Parkinson’s). Like other unusual experiences – such as seeing or hearing things that others do not – presences can occur frequently for many people without need for psychiatric care.View image in fullscreenAn obvious part of this is the feeling of being watched, and our fears of that happening. Despite viewing the story through the eyes of the ghost, we are thrown into the perspective of the family, as if we are the ones are under scrutiny and threat. In psychosis, feelings of presence are often difficult to disentangle from a wider paranoia that people are close by and surveilling you. In Parkinson’s this can occur as “Phantom Boarder” syndrome, in which people have a distinct feeling that someone is upstairs, or in another room. The fact that this occurs almost solely in homes and intimate spaces shows how entwined presences are with perceived spaces of safety. Here a feeling of presence is our most basic kind of burglar alarm, a signal of psychic boundaries that have somehow been transgressed.The science of presence is quickly evolving, but one common theme in many experiences is the role of the body. Without always being fully aware, we all experience a “bodily” self via the combination of our senses. This includes proprioception, or our sense of where our body is in space. It has been known for some time that we can change these processes experimentally, tricking the brain into thinking rubber hands or even whole other bodies belong to us. Presences are no different: by disrupting how the brain combines its sensory information, scientists in Switzerland have successfully evoked the uncanny feeling of a presence in otherwise healthy people.Ordinarily the sense of our own bodies remains undisturbed, but every night and every morning the transitions between sleeping and waking force our brains to renegotiate the bodily self. This is thought to be one reason why so many people with sleep paralysis experience unwanted, phantom intruders, although you don’t need full paralysis for uncanny things to happen around the boundaries of sleep. In Presence it is probably no accident that one of the first encounters with the ghost is when a character is sleeping. The story also emphasises the role of trauma in these experiences, which is described by one character as “opening a door” to a world beyond. Whether this happens via changes to our own bodies isn’t clear, but people who are exposed to adversity are much more likely to experience presences and other unusual phenomena.View image in fullscreenFilm-goers expecting jump scares and malevolent spirits from Presence may be disappointed, though. As the story progresses it becomes clear that the entity has a deep relation to all of the family, and its own tale to tell. This is a story of malevolence, but from unexpected quarters, and presence occurs alongside absence and distance: between husband and wife, parent and child, brother and sister. In this way the film offers something much closer to David Lowery’s A Ghost Story, in which we follow the spirit of a dead husband and the impact his death has on his wife. In situations of bereavement, endurance and survival, these experiences can bring comfort and fortitude; a sense of protection. Because ultimately presences are not simply about fear, and what might be watching us from the dark. Instead, they embody the complex emotions and relationships that we all carry with us, all of the time. Prof Ben Alderson-Day is the author of Presence (Manchester University Press), available in paperback in March. Presence is released in UK and US cinemas on 24 January

Emilia Pérez is this year’s most controversial movie. But is it any good?

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

The binary idea of Emilia being caring, nurturing and empathetic, but in her earlier life being cruel, distant and careless, is just another case of perpetuating archaic gender tropes that radiate through this film.Aside from the deficiencies in the portrayal of trans people, the film also has a lot to answer for regarding its Mexican representation.Despite the movie being based in Mexico, most of the cast isn’t Mexican, with only one Mexican actress (Adriana Paz) in a supporting role. At times, the Spanish dialogue feels inauthentic, with many Mexican viewers saying they feel the film reinforces harmful stereotypes about Mexico.The film’s haphazard blending of the transgender experience of gender affirmation surgery and raising awareness for the victims of drug trafficking in Mexico makes for a disjointed, muddled mess.It is two different movies competing with each other and by splitting attention, each of these delicate and important subjects is ultimately betrayed. The result is a film that sadly feels rather soulless.Despite the overblown 132-minute screen time, the film spreads itself so thin across multiple themes that the viewer never feels satisfied.By the credits, all I could wonder was: who is Emilia Pérez for?Your guess is as good as mine. But with a slew of predicted Oscars awaiting the movie, I’m not sure the filmmakers need to care.Feature image: Saint Laurent Productions. Calling all Australians aged 18+! Complete our survey for a chance to win a $50 gift voucher.

One Year Since RBI Imposed Business Restrictions on Paytm: Where Does the Company Stand Now?

Business News

Almost a year since the Reserve Bank of India’s (RBI) regulatory curbs, fintech giant Paytm has had a 32.7% year-on-year decline in its income going from making Rs 2999 crore in December 2023 to Rs 2017 crore in December 2024. While the company has witnessed a major decline in revenue when compared to December 2023, quarterly, its income has improved by roughly 10% compared to September 2024 when it stood at Rs 1834 crore. 

This marks the conclusion of a turbulent year for the company given that in January last year, the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) issued an order banning Paytm Payments Bank Limited (PPBL) from carrying out a wide range of activities. This included accepting deposits, allowing for credit transactions, and UPI facilities. As 2024 came to a close, the company failed to reach pre-regulatory restriction figures. While the company’s revenue is declining, its loss after tax has reduced by 62.18% on a year-on-year basis, going from Rs 550 crore to Rs 208 crore as of December 2024. 

How did the restrictions impact Paytm in 2024?

Fall in monthly transacting users:

Immediately after the regulatory curb, Paytm had seen a 24% decline in its monthly transacting users (MTU) with its user base dropping from 104 million in January 2024 to 80 million by April 2024. Speaking about this decline back in April, Madhur Deora, President and Group CFO at Paytm had said that the company could only improve its MTUs when it gets new third-party application provider (TPAP) user onboarding commencement from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). 

While NPCI had allowed Paytm to migrate users from its @paytm UPI handle to other banks’ UPI handle back in March, the company could not begin providing UPI services to other companies till October 2024. Even after the commencement of user onboarding, the transacting user base is lower than it was in April 2024 at 72 million. However, just like revenue, on a quarterly basis the company has been able to improve its MTUs with its transacting users growing by 5.8% since September 2024. 

Reactivating inactive merchants:

While merchants did not leave Paytm amidst the RBI order, initially, the number of active merchants on Paytm declined. Between January and March 2024, the company’s active merchant base was reduced by 1 million, which is roughly 10% of its total merchant base as Paytm was waiting to migrate merchants to its partner banks. By July, the company was trying to get closer to January levels with the company “focusing on redeploying devices from inactive merchants to new merchants”. As 2024 came to a close, the company has continued this strategy. “We expect this strategy to continue for the next 1-2 quarters. This is leading to higher revenue per merchant and lower capex [capital expenditure],” the company said in its January 2025 earnings report.

Merchant device subscription costs yet to fully recover:

With fewer active merchants, the company’s subscription per device also fell during the first quarter of 2024. As of March 2024, the company made Rs 90 per device per month, this was a major decline from the previously reported merchant subscription revenue of between Rs 100-500. At the time, the company expected this figure to bottom out at Rs 80 by June 2024 and fully recover by December 2024. 

As of December, Paytm’s overall merchant subscriptions have reached 1.17 crore. While the company has not clarified how much it is making per device this quarter, when a CLSA representative asked the company whether rental income per device was in the Rs 90-100 range, Deora said that this figure was “slightly higher” than how much Paytm was actually making per device. Suffice it to say, the company is yet to reach the same revenue per device that it had pre-January 2024. 

Source: Paytm’s earnings report December 2024

DLG loans’ impact on financial services revenue:

In the quarter ending on December 31, 2024 (Q3FY25), Paytm had a financial services revenue of Rs 502 crore, a 17.29% decline on a year-on-year basis compared to December 2023 where it stood at Rs 607 crore. While the company’s financial service revenue may have declined when compared to the same quarter last year, this is the best the segment has performed throughout the year. 

“Higher Financial Services revenue was on account of higher share of merchant loans, higher trail revenue from Default Loss Guarantee (DLG) portfolio, and collection efficiencies,” the company says. For context, financial services segment consists of equity broking, insurance and credit products, such as merchant and consumer loans. A default loss guarantee (DLG) is a type of agreement between banks and non-banking financial institutions where the non-banking institution compensates the bank for the losses they may incur by selling loans through the institution. The company’s board approved providing DLG loans in October 2024, it explained that the DLG segment leads to higher revenue throughout the loan’s lifecycle because the company factors in all the costs of the DLG upfront while most of the revenue from the loan (primarily interest income) comes in later. 

“We continue to see increased interest from lenders to partner using the DLG model for both Merchant and Personal Loans, which will help to increase disbursements with the existing partners and expand partnership[s] with new lenders,” the company says. The outstanding assets under management (AUM) for the DLG loan segment as of December 2024 was Rs 4,244 crore, which is a 155.84% increase in outstanding AUM compared to September where this figure stood at Rs 1651 crore. “The DLG Book is doing well, in fact, slightly better than the rest of our book. Sometimes some books do better, sometimes some books do slightly worse. I wouldn’t necessarily draw a pattern there,” Group CFO Deora explained. While Deora advises against drawing a pattern, as of December 2024, 80% of the loans that merchants have with Paytm are DLG loans. 

Expanding and contracting business segments:

In the first quarter after the RBI’s regulatory action (March 2024), Paytm emphasised that it would “focus on the core of the business, which is payment business and cross-selling of financial services business.” It has since reiterated this sentiment across other quarters as well. Paytm’s payments business is Rs 1059 crore, which although an improvement from the past two quarters, is not up to the pre-restriction levels of Rs 1730 crore at the end of December 2023. 

Trump’s Flurry Of Executive Orders Upend Biden’s Tech Policies

Technology

US President Donald Trump entered the Oval Office on January 20 and issued a flurry of Executive Orders (EO), many of which repealed actions taken under his predecessor Joe Biden. MediaNama looks at some of these orders, especially the ones concerning the nation’s tech and digital policies.

Delaying The TikTok Ban:

Trump issued an EO delaying the implementation of the “Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act,” which was passed by the US House of Representatives last year under Biden. The Act specifically targeted ByteDance, the Chinese parent company of the popular social media app TikTok, and other “foreign-adversary” controlled applications. Citing national security concerns, the law forced ByteDance to either sell off TikTok or have it practically banned in the United States.

True to his earlier promise, Trump signed an EO delaying the ban, pending a review of the cited national security concerns. He instructed the US Justice Department to not implement the Act and restrain from imposing any penalties for violations indefinitely. He also prohibited states and other private parties from enforcing the Act independently.

TikTok went offline temporarily in the US after the Supreme Court denied a last-ditch appeal made by the company. It became accessible only hours later, however, as Trump announced on Truth Social about his plans to rescind the ban. App stores still aren’t willing to take that risk, as TikTok remains unlisted for both Android and iOS users.

All is not well for TikTok, however, as an EO might not be enough to save the app. Experts interviewed by NPR stated that Presidential Orders don’t technically change an act of Congress and may be challenged in court. This might be why both Google and Apple are playing it safe, as the law would hold them liable for billions of dollars in fines. Meanwhile, the hawks are circling—both Instagram and X have moved into the three-minute video content segment, a category once dominated by TikTok in the US, while Amazon-funded AI company Perplexity seeks a merger with TikTok US.

Rescinding Biden’s EO On Safe AI:

Trump began his Presidential term by rolling back almost 80 Biden-era EOs, many of which contained measures to combat climate change, manage refugees and promote social equality. The White House stated that Biden had embedded “unpopular, inflationary, illegal, and radical practices” into the administration.

One of those Orders also included a 2023 direction from Biden outlining measures for ensuring AI safety and security, citizen privacy, equity, protection of consumers and workers’ rights, and promoting innovation.

Biden’s EO contained a number of provisions meant to regulate the use of AI, including requiring developers of powerful AI systems to share safety test results with the government. It also regulated the use of AI by the defense establishment and mandated the creation of a cybersecurity program. The order also contained provisions protecting the privacy rights of American citizens and prohibited AI-enabled discriminatory practices, alongside measures to protect workers from AI-induced job insecurity and promote fair competition.

Trump had his own policy on AI, having issued an EO all the way back in February 2019 that promoted investment in AI. He also laid down another EO the next year, encouraging government agencies to integrate AI into their operations.

Here’s which child is probably parents’ favourite, according to science

Science and Health

Have you ever looked around the dinner table and wondered which of your siblings your parents liked the most? If you’re the youngest son, look away now.A new meta-analysis published in the journal Psychological Bulletin has revealed that eldest daughters are more likely to receive preferential treatment from their parents.
Researchers studied 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and 14 databases to evaluate how the birth order, gender, temperament and personality traits – such as extraversion and neuroticism – of 19,469 participants were linked to parental favouritism. 
Though researchers expected to find that mothers favoured daughters and fathers favoured sons, the study found that both mothers and fathers were more likely to have a daughter as their favourite child.
When looking at birth order, parents were more likely to give older siblings greater autonomy, which researchers recognised as preferential treatment. They also classified favouritism as being shown through how much money parents were spending on their children, as well as how much control they exerted over them.
Of the personality traits evaluated, children who were responsible and organised were awarded with more favourable treatment. This suggests that parents may find these children easier to manage and may respond more positively.
The study found that both mothers and fathers were more likely to have a daughter as their favourite child. – Photo credit: Getty
“For decades, researchers have known that differential treatment from parents can have lasting consequences for children,” said lead author Dr Alexander Jensen, an associate professor at Brigham Young University, US.
“This study helps us understand which children are more likely to be on the receiving end of favouritism, which can be both positive and negative.”
Jensen and his team also found that siblings who received less favourable treatment tended to have overall poorer mental health and more strained family relationships.
“It is important to note that this research is correlational, so it doesn’t tell us why parents favour certain children,” Jensen continued. “However, it does highlight potential areas where parents may need to be more mindful of their interactions with their children.”
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