With its grotesque mix of business and military tomes alongside cheap gadgets and cuddly toys, Borders looks like a shop designed by Victoria Beckham and Albert Speer. Stephen Lock / The National
With its grotesque mix of business and military tomes alongside cheap gadgets and cuddly toys, Borders looks like a shop designed by Victoria Beckham and Albert Speer. Stephen Lock / The National

From the desk of Frank Kane: no more Borders run



I've always loved bookshops, but never really appreciated Borders in the UAE, until now.

With its grotesque mix of business and military tomes alongside cheap gadgets and cuddly toys, Borders looks like a shop designed by Victoria Beckham and Albert Speer (as has been said of somewhere else, I believe).

The Borders outlet in the Dubai International Financial Centre, however, had some saving graces, once you got past the dusty ranks of remaindered editions by Sir Richard Branson and Warren Buffett.

It was handy for my DIFC office, the Dome cafe next door. It had some decent books, comparatively well ordered. (Although I had a giggle at the inclusion of Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist in biography.)

Most important, a journalist could buy the essentials of the trade there: newspapers and magazines, notebooks and pens.

I don't know if it's to do with the troubles of Borders in the United States (now bust and sold), but the DIFC branch has been closed for the past couple of months.

With the exception the Financial Times, which you can pick up free virtually anywhere in the Gate vicinity, it's now impossible to buy those must-have journo accessories.

Just try buying a pen in the DIFC. If you want a Montegrappa rollerball in solid gold and black jet, it's yours for a mere Dh68,000 (US$18,511); or you could slum it with a Cartier ballpoint for Dh3,500. But a Bic for Dh1? I couldn't find a single outlet selling such a thing.

In the end, I went into Spectrum ("Digital print solutions") and asked an assistant if the store had such a thing as a pen. "No sir, we don't use pens," she answered.

Come back Borders DIFC, all is forgiven.

---

The last time Turkey stood astride Europe, the Middle East, North Africa and Central Asia was probably in 1683, when the Ottomans lost the battle of Vienna and their empire began a 250-year slide arrested only by Mustafa Kemal Atatürk.

But the founder of modern Turkey would be proud of the achievement his successors will mark in June, when the World Economic Forum will take place in Istanbul.

This is not the big Davos bash at which I had such fun this year, but one of the mini-WEFs intended as curtain-raisers and agenda-setters for the main event in Switzerland next January.

Nonetheless, it is a pretty impressive achievement by Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish prime minister, to have grabbed so much territory under the sway of his three-day conference by the Bosphorus.

The vast area, which covers three continents, is bizarrely referred to by the WEF as a "key mega-region of the future". Not to mention the past, of course, as the cradle of much of what is referred to as "world civilisation".

Some of Davos-kind are muttering that maybe the Turks have been allowed to grab just a little too much.

My WEF mole in Dubai tells me: "They're all talking about it. How did they get Europe and Central Asia? They're calling it the Ottoman economic forum, and suggesting it's all because Erdogan stormed offstage at Davos in 2009. They had to give him something to get the Turks fully back into the WEF fold".

Speculation is rife that the Chinese will make a concerted effort to grab back Central Asia at the "Summer Davos" in Tianjin in September. But they'll have to slug it out with the Russians.

I'm persisting with Twitter, despite still not really getting the point.

However, I am addicted to the @GSElevator tweets, especially in the current climate at Goldman Sachs.

Supposedly tweeted from conversations overheard in the elevators at Goldman's New York HQ, they give you a comical but convincing twist on life at the "vampire squid", all big egos with bigger wallets.

For example: "On our anniversary, I send my wife flowers with a congratulations card."

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New Zealand 21 British & Irish Lions 24

New Zealand
Penalties: Barrett (7)

British & Irish Lions
Tries: Faletau, Murray
Penalties: Farrell (4)
Conversions: Farrell 
 

How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

Scoreline:

Manchester City 1

Jesus 4'

Brighton 0

The specs

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Indoor cricket in a nutshell

Indoor cricket in a nutshell
Indoor Cricket World Cup - Sept 16-20, Insportz, Dubai

16 Indoor cricket matches are 16 overs per side
8 There are eight players per team
9 There have been nine Indoor Cricket World Cups for men. Australia have won every one.
5 Five runs are deducted from the score when a wickets falls
4 Batsmen bat in pairs, facing four overs per partnership

Scoring In indoor cricket, runs are scored by way of both physical and bonus runs. Physical runs are scored by both batsmen completing a run from one crease to the other. Bonus runs are scored when the ball hits a net in different zones, but only when at least one physical run is score.

Zones

A Front net, behind the striker and wicketkeeper: 0 runs
B Side nets, between the striker and halfway down the pitch: 1 run
C Side nets between halfway and the bowlers end: 2 runs
D Back net: 4 runs on the bounce, 6 runs on the full

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SCHEDULE FOR SHOW COURTS

Centre Court - from 4pm (UAE time)
Angelique Kerber (1) v Irina Falconi 
Martin Klizan v Novak Djokovic (2)
Alexandr Dolgopolov v Roger Federer (3)

Court One - from 4pm
Milos Raonic (6) v Jan-Lennard Struff
Karolina Pliskova (3) v Evgeniya Rodina 
Dominic Thiem (8) v Vasek Pospisil

Court Two - from 2.30pm
Juan Martin Del Potro (29) v Thanasi Kokkinakis
Agnieszka Radwanska (9) v Jelena Jankovic
Jeremy Chardy v Tomas Berdych (11)
Ons Jabeur v Svetlana Kuznetsova (7)

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COMPANY PROFILE

Company: Bidzi

● Started: 2024

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● Based: Dubai, UAE

● Industry: M&A

● Funding size: Bootstrapped

● No of employees: Nine

What are the GCSE grade equivalents?
 
  • Grade 9 = above an A*
  • Grade 8 = between grades A* and A
  • Grade 7 = grade A
  • Grade 6 = just above a grade B
  • Grade 5 = between grades B and C
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  • Grade 1 = between grades F and G
Company profile

Date started: January, 2014

Founders: Mike Dawson, Varuna Singh, and Benita Rowe

Based: Dubai

Sector: Education technology

Size: Five employees

Investment: $100,000 from the ExpoLive Innovation Grant programme in 2018 and an initial $30,000 pre-seed investment from the Turn8 Accelerator in 2014. Most of the projects are government funded.

Partners/incubators: Turn8 Accelerator; In5 Innovation Centre; Expo Live Innovation Impact Grant Programme; Dubai Future Accelerators; FHI 360; VSO and Consult and Coach for a Cause (C3)

How to help

Donate towards food and a flight by transferring money to this registered charity's account.

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To ensure that your contribution reaches these people, please send the copy of deposit/transfer receipt to: juhi.khan@daralber.ae

COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Almnssa
Started: August 2020
Founder: Areej Selmi
Based: Gaza
Sectors: Internet, e-commerce
Investments: Grants/private funding
Company%20Profile
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