More than a week into the Abu Dhabi Festival and true celebrity is about to descend on the capital. I'm not talking stars on the level of Kristof Penderecki or Wynton Marsalis, eminent though those artists no doubt are. I'm talking manufactured-by-Simon-Cowell degrees of fame, here. American Idol big. Special-guests-of-Barbra-Streisand big. Are they not men? No. They are Il Divo.
The multinational quartet of opera and quasi-operatic singers is indeed coming to the Emirates Palace on Friday, bringing their repertoire of upscale pop ballads, their monochrome wardrobes and, presumably a row of stools from which to judiciously raise a clenched fist or shake a head more in sorrow than in anger.
Personally, I have no use for an opera boyband. As a 30ish male arts reviewer with a predilection for noisy experimental music it may be that I'm not part of the target demographic. There's only room for one eurotrash dreamboat in my heart and that's Antoine de Caunes. For now let's just shrug and say that 90 bajillion people can't be wrong and neither can Oprah Winfrey.
Besides, insofar as the Abu Dhabi Festival has a mission to educate, Il Divo deserve a place on the bill. The fantasy writer Terry Pratchett tells a story about how a librarian once thanked him for all he had done for literature. "They come in looking for your stuff," she told him (or words to that effect), "and leave with a proper book." Il Divo might serve a similar gateway function: a warbly cover of Mariah Carey's Hero leads to Nessun Dorma and who knows where you might end up? Hoovering up Caruso 78s and trying to build a concert hall in Peru, no doubt. For those about to popera, Cultural Calendar salutes you.
A more scholarly approach to the classical canon is to be found at Dubai's Ductac this week. From Here to There is a concert exploring the formal links between Arabic music, Spanish song and Italian opera. Off the top of my head the route from A to B seems pretty clear but I can't figure out how to get to C. One looks forward to an enlightening evening.
Showing the way are the conductor GianLuca Marciano, the singers Monica de Rosa McKay and Marc Heller, and the oudist Khalid Mohammed Ali. The performance includes the premiere of an Arabic composition written especially. It all sounds like a very interesting exercise.
Back in Abu Dhabi, there's plenty going on for those who can't stick opera, pop or not. The festival makes a rare foray into ballet with a show by the principal dancers from the American Ballet Theatre, the Bolshoi Theatre and the Mariinsky Theatre.
The Puccini Festival Orchestra will be accompanying them on a caper through highlights from Tchaikovsky, Chopin, Auber and Khachaturian. This column has been known to cavil at how little dance goes on the UAE; here's a world-class event right in the capital.
Adach, meanwhile, has cleverly pre-empted Cultural Calendar's gripe that we never seem to see any Colombian folk acts in these parts. Cimarron combine harps, funny-sized guitars, percussion, big dresses, tap shoes and the kind of unsmiling charisma that made Christina Ricci seem like the right kind of trouble back in 1998. Come and fall in love with them on the Corniche on April 1. No fooling.
Finally, a couple of art shows that merit a passing mention. The Salwa Zeidan gallery has a collection of paintings and sculptures by the French artist Baudoin Tasle d'Heliand, whose name this column plans to appropriate if ever it has to fight a duel. D'Heliand seems to go in for splashy, wiry-looking images of angelic beings, seen from above.
Meanwhile a show by the art photographer Leon Chew will have opened at the National Theatre yesterday.
Chew goes in for cleverly lit images of detritus and industrial spaces, plus, to the delight of this 30ish male arts reviewer with a predilection for noisy experimental music, commissioned portraits of Mark E Smith and Throbbing Gristle. The Abu Dhabi show probably skews towards the former, but one can dream.
HWJN
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The President's Cake
Director: Hasan Hadi
Starring: Baneen Ahmad Nayyef, Waheed Thabet Khreibat, Sajad Mohamad Qasem
Rating: 4/5
if you go
The flights
Etihad, Emirates and Singapore Airlines fly direct from the UAE to Singapore from Dh2,265 return including taxes. The flight takes about 7 hours.
The hotel
Rooms at the M Social Singapore cost from SG $179 (Dh488) per night including taxes.
The tour
Makan Makan Walking group tours costs from SG $90 (Dh245) per person for about three hours. Tailor-made tours can be arranged. For details go to www.woknstroll.com.sg
Heather, the Totality
Matthew Weiner,
Canongate
Fatherland
Kele Okereke
(BMG)
SERIE A FIXTURES
Saturday (All UAE kick-off times)
Cagliari v AC Milan (6pm)
Lazio v Napoli (9pm)
Inter Milan v Atalanta (11.45pm)
Sunday
Udinese v Sassuolo (3.30pm)
Sampdoria v Brescia (6pm)
Fiorentina v SPAL (6pm)
Torino v Bologna (6pm)
Verona v Genoa (9pm)
Roma V Juventus (11.45pm)
Parma v Lecce (11.45pm)
What is dialysis?
Dialysis is a way of cleaning your blood when your kidneys fail and can no longer do the job.
It gets rid of your body's wastes, extra salt and water, and helps to control your blood pressure. The main cause of kidney failure is diabetes and hypertension.
There are two kinds of dialysis — haemodialysis and peritoneal.
In haemodialysis, blood is pumped out of your body to an artificial kidney machine that filter your blood and returns it to your body by tubes.
In peritoneal dialysis, the inside lining of your own belly acts as a natural filter. Wastes are taken out by means of a cleansing fluid which is washed in and out of your belly in cycles.
It isn’t an option for everyone but if eligible, can be done at home by the patient or caregiver. This, as opposed to home haemodialysis, is covered by insurance in the UAE.
Sustainable Development Goals
1. End poverty in all its forms everywhere
2. End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture
3. Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
4. Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all
5. Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls
6. Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
7. Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all
8. Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
9. Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation and foster innovation
10. Reduce inequality within and among countries
11. Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable
12. Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns
13. Take urgent action to combat climate change and its effects
14. Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
15. Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss
16. Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels
17. Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalise the global partnership for sustainable development
Who's who in Yemen conflict
Houthis: Iran-backed rebels who occupy Sanaa and run unrecognised government
Yemeni government: Exiled government in Aden led by eight-member Presidential Leadership Council
Southern Transitional Council: Faction in Yemeni government that seeks autonomy for the south
Habrish 'rebels': Tribal-backed forces feuding with STC over control of oil in government territory
Will the pound fall to parity with the dollar?
The idea of pound parity now seems less far-fetched as the risk grows that Britain may split away from the European Union without a deal.
Rupert Harrison, a fund manager at BlackRock, sees the risk of it falling to trade level with the dollar on a no-deal Brexit. The view echoes Morgan Stanley’s recent forecast that the currency can plunge toward $1 (Dh3.67) on such an outcome. That isn’t the majority view yet – a Bloomberg survey this month estimated the pound will slide to $1.10 should the UK exit the bloc without an agreement.
New Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly said that Britain will leave the EU on the October 31 deadline with or without an agreement, fuelling concern the nation is headed for a disorderly departure and fanning pessimism toward the pound. Sterling has fallen more than 7 per cent in the past three months, the worst performance among major developed-market currencies.
“The pound is at a much lower level now but I still think a no-deal exit would lead to significant volatility and we could be testing parity on a really bad outcome,” said Mr Harrison, who manages more than $10 billion in assets at BlackRock. “We will see this game of chicken continue through August and that’s likely negative for sterling,” he said about the deadlocked Brexit talks.
The pound fell 0.8 per cent to $1.2033 on Friday, its weakest closing level since the 1980s, after a report on the second quarter showed the UK economy shrank for the first time in six years. The data means it is likely the Bank of England will cut interest rates, according to Mizuho Bank.
The BOE said in November that the currency could fall even below $1 in an analysis on possible worst-case Brexit scenarios. Options-based calculations showed around a 6.4 per cent chance of pound-dollar parity in the next one year, markedly higher than 0.2 per cent in early March when prospects of a no-deal outcome were seemingly off the table.
Bloomberg
The fake news generation
288,000 – the number of posts reported as hate speech that were deleted by Facebook globally each month in May and June this year
11% – the number of Americans who said they trusted the news they read on Snapchat as of June 2017, according to Statista. Over a quarter stated that they ‘rarely trusted’ the news they read on social media in general
31% - the number of young people in the US aged between 10 and 18 who said they had shared a news story online in the last six months that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate
63% - percentage of Arab nationals who said they get their news from social media every single day.
JERSEY INFO
Red Jersey
General Classification: worn daily, starting from Stage 2, by the leader of the General Classification by time.
Green Jersey
Points Classification: worn daily, starting from Stage 2, by the fastest sprinter, who has obtained the best positions in each stage and intermediate sprints.
White Jersey
Young Rider Classification: worn daily, starting from Stage 2, by the best young rider born after January 1, 1995 in the overall classification by time (U25).
Black Jersey
Intermediate Sprint Classification: worn daily, starting from Stage 2, by the rider who has gained the most Intermediate Sprint Points.
RESULTS
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LIVERPOOL%20TOP%20SCORERS
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What the law says
Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
Result
Qualifier: Islamabad United beat Karachi Kings by eight wickets
Fixtures
Tuesday, Lahore: Eliminator 1 - Peshawar Zalmi v Quetta Gladiators
Wednesday, Lahore: Eliminator 2 – Karachi Kings v Winner of Eliminator 1
Sunday, Karachi: Final – Islamabad United v Winner of Eliminator 2
Bundesliga fixtures
Saturday, May 16 (kick-offs UAE time)
Borussia Dortmund v Schalke (4.30pm)
RB Leipzig v Freiburg (4.30pm)
Hoffenheim v Hertha Berlin (4.30pm)
Fortuna Dusseldorf v Paderborn (4.30pm)
Augsburg v Wolfsburg (4.30pm)
Eintracht Frankfurt v Borussia Monchengladbach (7.30pm)
Sunday, May 17
Cologne v Mainz (4.30pm),
Union Berlin v Bayern Munich (7pm)
Monday, May 18
Werder Bremen v Bayer Leverkusen (9.30pm)
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