Hala Okeili was two minutes away from her house when the Beirut blast tore the city apart on August 4. The explosion site was a mere 500 metres away from where she lived, and her first thought was that her husband, house help and their cat had likely all perished.
Despite being so close to her destination, reaching home was a struggle, surrounded as she was by rubble and injured people. When she finally made it – by which time she had learnt that her husband was alive but severely wounded – Okeili found her home completely damaged.
“I could not comprehend what had happened to us. I knew my husband was hurt, but I could not get there to help him for the first few hours. I also did not expect that the house would be gone entirely – with no facade and lots of blood. Everything was destroyed. I did not even think of my yoga studio at that time,” says Okeili, a corporate lawyer and founder of Sarvam Yoga studio.
“I went into survival mode for three days and immersed myself in saving what I could. Simultaneously, I was trying to find an operating room for my husband.”
Hospitals in Beirut were overwhelmed with casualties, and Okeili’s house help and cat were not found for 48 hours. “Nothing can ever explain what we felt and lived through during those days.”
While Okeili was in hospital for her husband’s surgery, her friends spent the day cleaning and fixing her house. “If it were not for Lebanese solidarity, we would have lost all hope. Humanity is all we have left,” she says. "My mother, my best friend and four men I hired were working like machines, under pressure because there was a possibility that the building would collapse."
Towards the end of the day, an exhausted Okeili called for help from her balcony to a young man in the street.
"Suddenly, 15 young boys and girls lined up at my door. They assisted us and then went to support someone else.”
Such random acts of kindness turned out to be a guiding light for Okeili, with the solidarity she experienced first-hand giving her the strength to carry on.
She decided to rebuild her yoga studio, which was also destroyed in the blast. Her friends helped her set up a GoFundMe campaign, and donations started pouring in from around the world. “I cannot believe how generous people have been. Without their support, we would not reopen. We would not even find hope.”
In order to repay such kindness, Okeili began conducting free classes, both from a rooftop in Ras Beirut and via Zoom, to give thanks to the people who stood by her. “The free classes were just a small token of my appreciation. The community has been very generous to us, so I wanted to return the love.”
Okeili reopened her studio this month. “It took longer than expected because of the enormous amount of destruction, but we’ve freshened it up with lighter colours in the hope for new beginnings.
“If it were not for yoga, I would have lost my mind. To have your husband severely injured and lose your house, all your belongings, your business and your husband’s business in the blink of an eye could drive anyone mad,” says Okeili.
“The explosion left us with scars that will take a long time to heal. We lost trust in our country. We are left with fear and anxiety. Our city feels different, looks different.”
Having said that, Okeili is planning to stay in Beirut for the foreseeable future. “My life is here. Let us see what happens with Lebanon.”
One in nine do not have enough to eat
Created in 1961, the World Food Programme is pledged to fight hunger worldwide as well as providing emergency food assistance in a crisis.
One of the organisation’s goals is the Zero Hunger Pledge, adopted by the international community in 2015 as one of the 17 Sustainable Goals for Sustainable Development, to end world hunger by 2030.
The WFP, a branch of the United Nations, is funded by voluntary donations from governments, businesses and private donations.
Almost two thirds of its operations currently take place in conflict zones, where it is calculated that people are more than three times likely to suffer from malnutrition than in peaceful countries.
It is currently estimated that one in nine people globally do not have enough to eat.
On any one day, the WFP estimates that it has 5,000 lorries, 20 ships and 70 aircraft on the move.
Outside emergencies, the WFP provides school meals to up to 25 million children in 63 countries, while working with communities to improve nutrition. Where possible, it buys supplies from developing countries to cut down transport cost and boost local economies.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Abu Dhabi Grand Slam Jiu-Jitsu World Tour Calendar 2018/19
July 29: OTA Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan
Sep 22-23: LA Convention Centre in Los Angeles, US
Nov 16-18: Carioca Arena Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Feb 7-9: Mubadala Arena in Abu Dhabi, UAE
Mar 9-10: Copper Box Arena in London, UK
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Sole survivors
- Cecelia Crocker was on board Northwest Airlines Flight 255 in 1987 when it crashed in Detroit, killing 154 people, including her parents and brother. The plane had hit a light pole on take off
- George Lamson Jr, from Minnesota, was on a Galaxy Airlines flight that crashed in Reno in 1985, killing 68 people. His entire seat was launched out of the plane
- Bahia Bakari, then 12, survived when a Yemenia Airways flight crashed near the Comoros in 2009, killing 152. She was found clinging to wreckage after floating in the ocean for 13 hours.
- Jim Polehinke was the co-pilot and sole survivor of a 2006 Comair flight that crashed in Lexington, Kentucky, killing 49.
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French Touch
Carla Bruni
(Verve)
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Nayanthara: Beyond The Fairy Tale
Starring: Nayanthara, Vignesh Shivan, Radhika Sarathkumar, Nagarjuna Akkineni
Director: Amith Krishnan
Rating: 3.5/5
WOMAN AND CHILD
Director: Saeed Roustaee
Starring: Parinaz Izadyar, Payman Maadi
Rating: 4/5
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Name: Peter Dicce
Title: Assistant dean of students and director of athletics
Favourite sport: soccer
Favourite team: Bayern Munich
Favourite player: Franz Beckenbauer
Favourite activity in Abu Dhabi: scuba diving in the Northern Emirates
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants
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How Beautiful this world is!
Volvo ES90 Specs
Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Biography
Favourite drink: Must have karak chai and Chinese tea every day
Favourite non-Chinese food: Arabic sweets and Indian puri, small round bread of wheat flour
Favourite Chinese dish: Spicy boiled fish or anything cooked by her mother because of its flavour
Best vacation: Returning home to China
Music interests: Enjoys playing the zheng, a string musical instrument
Enjoys reading: Chinese novels, romantic comedies, reading up on business trends, government policy changes
Favourite book: Chairman Mao Zedong’s poems
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
More on Quran memorisation:
BIGGEST CYBER SECURITY INCIDENTS IN RECENT TIMES
SolarWinds supply chain attack: Came to light in December 2020 but had taken root for several months, compromising major tech companies, governments and its entities
Microsoft Exchange server exploitation: March 2021; attackers used a vulnerability to steal emails
Kaseya attack: July 2021; ransomware hit perpetrated REvil, resulting in severe downtime for more than 1,000 companies
Log4j breach: December 2021; attackers exploited the Java-written code to inflitrate businesses and governments
'Tell the Machine Goodnight' by Katie Williams
Penguin Randomhouse
MATCH INFO
What: 2006 World Cup quarter-final
When: July 1
Where: Gelsenkirchen Stadium, Gelsenkirchen, Germany
Result:
England 0 Portugal 0
(Portugal win 3-1 on penalties)
UAE SQUAD
Mohammed Naveed (captain), Mohamed Usman (vice captain), Ashfaq Ahmed, Chirag Suri, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Imran Haider, Tahir Mughal, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed, Fahad Nawaz, Abdul Shakoor, Sultan Ahmed, CP Rizwan
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
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