Latest news with #Sukkar
See - Sada Elbalad
6 days ago
- Entertainment
- See - Sada Elbalad
"Sukkar 2" Gets Streaming Date
Yara Sameh The second entry of the Egyptian family musical film "Sukkar" will make its streaming debut exclusively on the "Shahid" streaming platform on Friday, June 6. The film draws inspiration from U.S. writer Jean Webster's epistolary novel 'Daddy-Long-Legs' and is touted as the Arab world's first musical film in the Western canon. 'Sukkar' features singer Hala Turk, who rose to prominence after being an 'Arabs Got Talent' contestant in 2011, in the lead role alongside a wide range of new young talents from the Arab world. The cast also includes Magda Zaki, Mohamed Tharwat, Reham Elshanawany, Yasmina, Mohamed Harby, Moataz Hesham, and others. The official logline for the film reads:"A beautiful day turns disastrous when the city is struck by a chickenpox outbreak, affecting children and workers at the orphanage. While a doctor develops a vaccine, the children seek help from a magician. Amid these events, Sukkar receives an invitation to the annual circus, where she uncovers a truth that turns her life—and the lives of her friends—upside down." The first entry hit cinemas across the Middle East and North Africa on October 12, 2023 by Beirut-based Empire Entertainment, which is one of the region's top movie distributors. It is scripted by Kuwaiti writer Heba Mishari Hamadai, helmed by Egyptian director Tamer Mahdy, and produced by Saudi-owned broadcasting powerhouse MBC Group in its first. 'Sukkar' also features original songs penned by Hamada and scored by Egyptian composer Ehad Abdel Wahed. The film's lead producer is Samar Akrouk, the group director of production at MBC Group, alongside MBC executive producer Lara Ghazal Nassif and MBC producer Alaa Awada, with executive producer Tamer Mortada and producer Mostafa Al Awadi from Egypt's Aroma Productions. read more New Tourism Route To Launch in Old Cairo Ahmed El Sakka-Led Play 'Sayidati Al Jamila' to Be Staged in KSA on Dec. 6 Mandy Moore Joins Season 2 of "Dr. Death" Anthology Series Don't Miss These Movies at 44th Cairo Int'l Film Festival Today Amr Diab to Headline KSA's MDLBEAST Soundstorm 2022 Festival Arts & Culture Mai Omar Stuns in Latest Instagram Photos Arts & Culture "The Flash" to End with Season 9 Arts & Culture Ministry of Culture Organizes four day Children's Film Festival Arts & Culture Canadian PM wishes Muslims Eid-al-Adha News Ayat Khaddoura's Final Video Captures Bombardment of Beit Lahia News Australia Fines Telegram $600,000 Over Terrorism, Child Abuse Content Arts & Culture Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban's $4.7M LA Home Burglarized Sports Former Al Zamalek Player Ibrahim Shika Passes away after Long Battle with Cancer Sports Neymar Announced for Brazil's Preliminary List for 2026 FIFA World Cup Qualifiers News Prime Minister Moustafa Madbouly Inaugurates Two Indian Companies Arts & Culture New Archaeological Discovery from 26th Dynasty Uncovered in Karnak Temple Business Fear & Greed Index Plummets to Lowest Level Ever Recorded amid Global Trade War Arts & Culture Zahi Hawass: Claims of Columns Beneath the Pyramid of Khafre Are Lies News Flights suspended at Port Sudan Airport after Drone Attacks
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
11x CEO Hasan Sukkar steps down
Hasan Sukkar, the founder of AI startup 11x, is stepping down from his role as CEO, Sukkar announced on LinkedIn this morning. Prabhav Jain, 11x's CTO, has been named the company's new CEO. Sukkar will move into a 'non-executive chairman' position, where he will work with Jain on 'strategic direction, product vision, industry relationships, and opening new market opportunities,' Sukkar wrote on LinkedIn, helping 11x in any way he can 'into the future.' 'I've spent a lot of time thinking about what it takes to go from a fast growing startup to an enduring enterprise grade scale-up, and I have realised that I love building from the ground up. It's in my bones,' Sukkar wrote on LinkedIn. 'I love 11x and believe in our mission deeply. We have a massive opportunity ahead. But sometimes, loving your company means knowing when to pass the CEO baton for the next leg of the race.' As TechCrunch previously reported in March, 11x at that time had been showing off customer logos on its website of companies that were not active customers, and one of those companies was threatening to sue over the matter. Other sources also told TechCrunch that the 11x product had issues and the company had struggled with customer retention. Some employees also described the startup as a grueling place to work. 11x has raised more than $70 million from investors, including a $24 million Series A led by Sarah Travel, a general partner at Benchmark, and a $50 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz. Joe Schmidt, the a16z partner part of the 11x deal, publicly doubled down on his support for the company and its CEO, posting on X in Mach that the firm loved 'Hasan and the entire team at 11x,' and that the 'team, product, and metrics are world class.' Tavel also posted on X saying, 'As a board member, I've seen the progress up close, and our conviction in the team and the opportunity is stronger than ever.' Last week, Tavel also announced she would be taking on the position of venture partner at Benchmark, a more limited role at the storied firm. A spokesperson for 11x sent a lengthy email explaining that the change was intended to put the right person in the CEO role for a new growth phase of the company. "Current CTO, fmr. Brex exec and 3-time founder Prabhav Jain is stepping into the CEO role, with Hasan Sukkar transitioning into a new role as Non-Executive Chairman," the 11x spokesperson wrote. "The move reflects 11x's growth: Over the last year, the company has evolved from a single product, single use-case company to a platform that powers hundreds of the world's leading GTM teams." Benchmark and a16z did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment. Charles Rollet contributed reporting. This article originally appeared on TechCrunch at
TechCrunch
05-05-2025
- Business
- TechCrunch
11x CEO Hasan Sukkar steps down
Hasan Sukkar, the founder of AI startup 11x, is stepping down from his role as CEO, Sukkar announced on LinkedIn this morning. Prabhav Jain, 11x's CTO, has been named the company's new CEO. Sukkar will move into a 'non-executive chairman' position, where he will work with Jain on 'strategic direction, product vision, industry relationships, and opening new market opportunities,' Sukkar wrote on LinkedIn, helping 11x in any way he can 'into the future.' 'I've spent a lot of time thinking about what it takes to go from a fast growing startup to an enduring enterprise grade scale-up, and I have realised that I love building from the ground up. It's in my bones,' Sukkar wrote on LinkedIn. 'I love 11x and believe in our mission deeply. We have a massive opportunity ahead. But sometimes, loving your company means knowing when to pass the CEO baton for the next leg of the race.' As TechCrunch previously reported in March, 11x at that time had been showing off customer logos on its website of companies that were not active customers, and one of those companies was threatening to sue over the matter. Other sources also told TechCrunch that the 11x product had issues and the company had struggled with customer retention. Some employees also described the startup as a grueling place to work. 11x has raised more than $70 million from investors, including a $24 million Series A led by Sarah Travel, a general partner at Benchmark, and a $50 million Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz. Joe Schmidt, the a16z partner part of the 11x deal, publicly doubled down on his support for the company and its CEO, posting on X in Mach that the firm loved 'Hasan and the entire team at 11x,' and that the 'team, product, and metrics are world class.' Tavel also posted on X saying, 'As a board member, I've seen the progress up close, and our conviction in the team and the opportunity is stronger than ever.' Last week, Tavel also announced she would be taking on the position of venture partner at Benchmark, a more limited role at the storied firm. Techcrunch event Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Exhibit at TechCrunch Sessions: AI Secure your spot at TC Sessions: AI and show 1,200+ decision-makers what you've built — without the big spend. Available through May 9 or while tables last. Berkeley, CA | BOOK NOW A spokesperson for 11x sent a lengthy email explaining that the change was intended to put the right person in the CEO role for a new growth phase of the company. 'Current CTO, fmr. Brex exec and 3-time founder Prabhav Jain is stepping into the CEO role, with Hasan Sukkar transitioning into a new role as Non-Executive Chairman,' the 11x spokesperson wrote. 'The move reflects 11x's growth: Over the last year, the company has evolved from a single product, single use-case company to a platform that powers hundreds of the world's leading GTM teams.' Benchmark and a16z did not immediately respond to a request for additional comment.
Sky News AU
30-04-2025
- Business
- Sky News AU
'Atrocious' left-wing media bias letting Albanese off the hook for snide, dismissive comments that would have seen Dutton condemned on every news channel
If we are to believe the polls for the May 3 Federal Election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will win a second term. There will be several reasons why Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's campaign has not gained enough traction to win – and it has less to do with Mr Dutton and more to do with the media's biased coverage. Let us begin with the atrocious bias that was on display by ABC stalwart Sarah Ferguson towards Liberal Shadow Minister for Social Services, Michael Sukkar, where she asked him a question about how many houses the Liberal Party intended to build. When Mr Sukkar began by responding with their funding, Ferguson cut him off, then threw the question back to Labor's Housing Minister, Clare O'Neil. When Sukkar interjected, Ferguson had the audacity, the spite and the blatant bias on full display, to belittle Mr Sukkar by asking what his mother would think of him for interrupting, despite Ms O'Neil doing exactly the same thing. On Labor's campaign front, the media pack are cuddling up to Mr Albanese with bias on full display. They have stopped asking why Mr Albanese and Treasurer Jim Chalmers have blown the budget to almost a trillion dollars, stopped asking about the failed 'Yes' campaign, and stopped asking how much more the power bills will go up. There have also been no questions posed to Mr Albanese about the almost 22,000 wind turbines needed to hit their 2030 emissions targets. The wind turbines are proven to be environmentally destructive and are often placed in forested areas, which have to be cleared to position them in wind zones. The media are ignoring Labor's foolhardy promise of building a whopping 1.2 million new homes by 2030, when they have yet to build one that a single person has moved into. Mr Chalmers and Ms O'Neil might also like to explain how the 1.2 million fantasy homes will be built with 7,183 construction companies that have gone into insolvency since Mr Albanese became Prime Minister. Despite overwhelmingly favourable media coverage for Mr Albanese, there are now countless moments since the beginning of 2025 where he has become frustrated with reporters' questions to the point of rudeness, belittling, not answering the questions, or ignoring the reporter and pointing past them to shut them down. It makes Donald Trump's interjections with CNN look mild. Yet these exchanges between Mr Albanese and the press are barely canvassed in nightly bulletins on free-to-air news channels. If it was Mr Dutton, there would be condemnation from all corners – but more to that point soon. When asked a fair question on whether he would rule out doing deals with the Greens on changing negative gearing and capital gains tax, Mr Albanese berated the reporter, saying 'Yes. How hard is it for the fiftieth time', then belittled the reporter by saying he was a 'state' correspondent and therefore would not understand how the federal senate worked. For a so-called nice guy, Mr Albanese has shown his other side without the media scrutiny that would otherwise have seen Mr Dutton lambasted across every news channel. Just one interaction where Mr Dutton questioned an ABC reporter's inability to understand why Hezbollah was listed as a terrorist group, saw the exchange garner relentless headlines about Dutton's so-called blow up, with Greens Sarah Hanson Young then alluding to Mr Dutton being a misogynist. Where are her accusations now when Mr Albanese fires back at any female reporter who gets in his way? Looking past the Liberals, if any party has had a bad campaign, it is the Teals. Member for Wentworth Allegra Spender has revealed herself to be comfortable manipulating public opinion by paying an agency and a 'bunch of influencers' to spruik Ms Spender as a superhuman independent who is out there, selflessly working hard for her electorate. One media influencer in question is Milly Rose Bannister, who described Spender as 'a wicked-smart economist, mother, a daily five km queen and works in line with the values of her constituents who are real working people'. Spender had to confess the payments made to Bannister and the unnamed agency who Ms Spender has hired to frame her in such a positive light. Where is the outrage? Unrelated to this, Ms Spender had also set up seven new "corporate entities", without declaring them to the parliamentary Register of Members' Interests for almost a year. Then there was soon-to-be-booted Teal, Monique Ryan, member for Kooyong, whose husband took down Liberal candidate Amelia Hamer's poster and was caught right in the act – a cardinal sin by anyone, let alone a family member of an incumbent member of parliament. However, Ms Ryan's bad run had only just begun. Ms Ryan appeared on the ABC's Insiders and was asked whether the public should be made aware when a politician pays influencers to speak positively about them, like fellow Teal, Allegra Spender's had done. Ms Ryan appeared stumped by the question, obviously not wanting to throw mud at her fellow 'independent', and instead said that she didn't have an opinion on it, then went on to state that she would have to give it some thought. So much for bringing integrity to the parliament, to their position, and to the electorate they represent. Although the Liberal campaign has lacked some hard-hitting punches, Mr Dutton has barely put a foot wrong throughout his campaign, fielding far more aggressive questioning from a media pack who seem to have forgotten that he is the opposition leader and not the PM. The majority of the media want you to believe Mr Albanese's term was not that bad. Nothing could be further from the truth. The best chance to avoid another three-year catastrophe is to vote Mr Albanese and Labor out of office, together with the Teals and Greens. Mr Dutton, his competent shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price in a government efficiency role, will cut immigration, taking pressure off the housing and rental markets, cut hundreds of millions in wasteful spending, and cut fuel excise – all designed to put downward pressure on inflation. The alternative will be a cost-of-living crisis worse than the one Australia is already enduring. Robert Weir is a freelance journalist whose work has also been published in The Spectator Australia. He enjoys writing political, lifestyle, and environmental stories as well as film reviews
The Age
30-04-2025
- Politics
- The Age
Numbers man: What Liberal powerbroker Michael Sukkar really believes
Labor candidate Matt Gregg, who is trying to snatch the Victorian seat of Deakin from the Liberal Party powerbroker Michael Sukkar, reckons there are two sides to his opponent. There's the 'nice Michael' (even Sukkar's enemies say he's charming). This Michael showers cash to sports clubs in Deakin, the ultra-marginal seat that covers outer-eastern Melbourne suburbs such as Ringwood, Croydon and Mitcham. And the other Michael? He's the 'unusually conservative character' who uses phrases like 'common-sense values' aimed at a conservative audience, but never spells them out, says Gregg. 'The voters I speak to don't know where he sits on the more politically fraught or challenging issues. It just hasn't been part of his pitch to voters.' You've probably seen Michael Sukkar this election. He's the one at Opposition Leader Peter Dutton's shoulder during press conferences on the housing crisis. As the Coalition's housing spokesperson, Sukkar is in the middle of this election battleground. He's also been the one battling Housing Minister Clare O'Neil in several ding-dong debates. Their recent exchange on the ABC's 7.30 program was such a hot mess of contested numbers and interruptions on both sides that host Sarah Ferguson admonished Sukkar: 'What would your mother say, hearing you interrupt her?' Since taking Deakin from Labor in 2013, Sukkar has won the seat three more times. In 2022, when voters rejected the Morrison government of which he was a part, he suffered a 4.5 per cent swing against him. He holds on by 375 votes, making his the nation's most marginal electorate. If Sukkar loses his seat, the party and its conservative wing will lose a key factional man – an MP who often influences which Victorian Liberals get to go to Canberra and Spring Street. Sukkar, 43, is also very close to Dutton, several Liberal sources have confirmed – 'I wouldn't say we're blood brothers, but we're as close as you can get in politics, I suppose,' Sukkar tells me – and has been one of his key numbers men, manoeuvring behind the scenes to topple Malcolm Turnbull in 2018 (though it was Scott Morrison who eventually triumphed). 'He's obviously recruited a lot of members over the years, controls a lot of branches and is a very, very influential figure on the right of politics in Victoria,' Turnbull told 60 Minutes in 2021. Sukkar derives his power within the party from Mormon, evangelical and pentecostal groups, including former Family First supporters whom he and allies recruited as members (this masthead has published two investigations into Sukkar's knowledge of a scheme that involved the misuse of public funds for party purposes. A 2020 Finance Department probe found insufficient evidence of wrongdoing, but did not look at key evidence or call pivotal witnesses). 'The various religious tribes support him in his electorate, but their real power comes from helping him influence the outcomes of preselections,' says a senior Liberal Party member who would not be named. In 2017, Sukkar abstained from the same-sex marriage vote. How conservative, indeed how religious, is Michael Sukkar? This is not easy to answer. Sukkar, whose cardiac arrest at age 26 prompted him to increase his pro bono work as a tax lawyer, is rarely specific when talking about his religious beliefs or conservatism. He spoke most clearly about them in a 2021 podcast with Hope City Church, an evangelical mission in his electorate. Sukkar is a Maronite Catholic, a Lebanese form of the faith. (A well-known critic of immigration levels, the MP's father came to Australia as an 18-year-old.) Sukkar told the young church pastors that while he would never impose his beliefs on others; his guiding light was to 'defend the values and institutions that have stood the test of time'. He named these institutions as the family and the church, and said that in his past eight years in parliament, 'those traditional values and institutions have probably come under attack more than ever'. Sukkar declined to be interviewed in person but made himself available for a 45-minute phone chat. He is, as many people told me, charming. But I found myself wondering whether his religious supporters, and some of the party's economic hardheads, really knew his beliefs – and if they did, would they be disappointed? Later, I thought about what Matt Gregg said. Are there two Michaels? And if so, which Michael did I get? One of Sukkar's key concerns is parental control over the values their children are taught at school. 'I was one of the first critics against the Safe Schools program,' he says, referring to the 2016 controversy. But what about now? What should I worry about as a parent? He ducks this question. 'It's not just about curing any perceived issues that are there now, but it's also about guarding against encroachments in the future … It's about every aspect of our society and whether it strengthens or weakens families … I just don't think the family gets spoken often about in Australian politics. I think it's a bit of an inconvenience, a bit of an afterthought.' When social conservatives talk about families, they often have in mind the heterosexual, nuclear type straight out of Leave it to Beaver. So what does Sukkar mean by 'family'? 'Well, it's all families,' says Sukkar, who has two young sons with wife Anna. 'I mean anyone raising a child. If you're raising our next generation of citizens, that's one of the most important jobs in our society. 'I don't think we should see people as units of economic activity.' Michael Sukkar, Liberal MP 'I'm surrounded by a lot of mothers who are doing everything. They're juggling a career, they're juggling raising children. They're juggling the sports commitments and all the other things. In conversations, I think the component of their life that's devoted to others, which is typically their children, I just don't think it's celebrated as it could be.' This is interesting territory because many voters, particularly women, might agree with Sukkar there. It's the sort of argument ABC journalist Annabel Crabb marked out with her 2014 book Wife Drought. The economy was built by and for people who had wives at home. The political sphere was built for people with wives. Caring for children is, as Sukkar says, an afterthought in the world of career, mortgages and daily economic survival. Wow, I think, is Michael Sukkar something of a … feminist? If we really put children first, I say to Sukkar, we'd probably have a different economy: mothers and fathers wouldn't be constantly squeezing in kids around everything else. 'And that's where fundamentally I'm probably a bit of a weird beast,' Sukkar says. 'I don't think we should see people as units of economic activity. I think often the way in which our economy is managed, and the policies that flow from that, just treat us like commoditised units of economic activity and that offends me.' This is not the sort of talk Sukkar's friends at the conservative HR Nicholls Society would appreciate. Late last year, the society launched a blueprint to remake Australia's industrial relations system, including scrapping awards and making it easier to sack people in small businesses. The 107-page document mentioned flexible work once. Sukkar was the keynote speaker at the blueprint's launch and, while he was careful not to endorse what he called the society's 'wishlist', he criticised Labor's right to disconnect laws, designed to improve work-life balance (and which Dutton vowed to repeal), and named working from home a 'very poor public sector practice'. 'You can't force people to have a child' Loading But what about the 'wishlist' of his religious allies in the party? Many of those churches would like to see a winding back of abortion rights. I ask Sukkar about his stance on this. 'Well,' he says, clearing his throat. 'It is not a federal issue.' But he believes the best possible care should be given to anyone contemplating an abortion. 'Do I want to see more abortions in our society? No, absolutely not,' he says. Does he support a woman's right to choose? 'I don't think you can force people, for a whole host of reasons, to have a child they don't want to have … I don't think that's worked anywhere in the world where it's been enforced.' A senior Victorian Liberal Party member told me he believed Sukkar was probably not overly religious, that it was just advantageous for him to appear religiously conservative as it played well to his party constituents. When I put this to Sukkar, he agreed he wasn't overly devout and didn't get to church as often as he would like. 'There are a lot of people out there who are just a lot more devout than I am.' Sukkar insists the role of faith in the Victorian Liberal Party is 'massively over-egged' (though three of his recent preselection picks have all been pastors, preachers or lifelong members of Baptist or pentecostal churches, including Kyle Hoppitt for the Senate and state parliament's Nicole Werner and Renee Heath). The party members and MPs from these churches are not about policing behaviour, he says, they just want fewer taxes on small businesses. 'We don't have little conclaves of people and Bible readings.' Sukkar says he works 'harmoniously' on party matters with the other two senior Victorian Liberals: Wannon MP Dan Tehan and Senator James Paterson. He leaves out Senator Jane Hume, another senior Victorian. In 2021, this masthead revealed texts between Sukkar and his allies denigrating Hume for, in Sukkar's words, an 'indulgent' and 'quite frankly bizarre' post she'd made in 2018 about juggling family life and politics. 'That wasn't a nice thing to say,' he tells me. But if that's the most egregious thing found in 'thousands' of his text messages, he says, then it proves he typically says nice things about people. Sukkar says that he'd long ago decided getting involved in the Victorian party's 'internecine wars' was a waste of time. 'I do take that job as a dad really, really seriously. So I promise you, I don't have time for all that internal bullshit.' Sukkar is hated in the Labor Party. This election, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described him as arrogant, and last year, Sukkar was officially the worst-behaved parliamentarian, ejected from the chamber 16 times for disorderly conduct – yet it is doing little to challenge him in Deakin. In Victoria, Labor is putting its money into defending the seats it holds, so Matt Gregg's campaign is decidedly low key. On my trips to Deakin, I saw no Labor advertising, but spotted two anti-Labor billboards, two Sukkar corflutes and his face adorning a bus stop. 'He's spending more money than someone who's confident would,' says Gregg. Good on the stump What do Deakin voters think of their MP? One Ringwood mum tells me she is still disappointed he abstained from the same-sex marriage vote. She mentions his 2017 comment that getting a 'highly paid job' was the 'first step' to home ownership. 'He seems to be able to do all these things and continually get voted in because he's at every school, every sports event, just everywhere advertising [himself].' Meanwhile, one anti-Sukkar local politician begrudgingly admits he is 'very good on the stump' and 'greets everyone by name'. Suzy Stojanovic, a former local councillor, says Sukkar is 'very charismatic' in person, but appears to have done little to address housing affordability, climate policy or help domestic violence victims. Stojanovic, a domestic abuse survivor advocate, says Sukkar is on good terms with the Men's Shed but, as far as she knew, has not been to any of the Community Houses, 'where a lot of the women are'. Loading At Ringwood's Eastland shopping centre, I find Joe, 90, who says: 'I think he is a good man.' Joe voted for Albanese last time, but this time it's hard to choose. 'Food prices,' he says. 'It's a factor for everybody.' That's something that's difficult to fix – for both Michaels.
