• Adrain Hirschmueller of the environment organization Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union, or NABU, shows the counting of beetles on a flower through a magnifying glass during a meeting with The Associated Press ahead of the start of the Citizen-Science-Projekts " insect summer" in central Berlin, Germany, Thursday, May 23, 2024. Set from May 31 to June 9 and Aug. 2 to Aug. 11, the environmental group has invited people to spend an hour counting the insects they see in a 10-meter radius (33-foot) radius and report what they see to NABU. (AP Photo / Markus Schreiber)
    Adrain Hirschmueller of the environment organization Nature And Biodiversity Conservation Union, or NABU, shows the counting of beetles on a flower through a magnifying glass during a meeting with The Associated Press ahead of the start of the Citizen-Science-Projekts " insect summer" in central Berlin, Germany, Thursday, May 23, 2024. Set from May 31 to June 9 and Aug. 2 to Aug. 11, the environmental group has invited people to spend an hour counting the insects they see in a 10-meter radius (33-foot) radius and report what they see to NABU. (AP Photo / Markus Schreiber)
  • Palestinians flee areas of Rafah amid renewed Israeli strikes. EPA
    Palestinians flee areas of Rafah amid renewed Israeli strikes. EPA
  • French police at the doorway of the Ministry of Agriculture after an activist of the environmental group 'Riposte Alimentaire' (Food Retaliation) threw a bucket of orange paint to protest for food sustainability in Paris. AFP
    French police at the doorway of the Ministry of Agriculture after an activist of the environmental group 'Riposte Alimentaire' (Food Retaliation) threw a bucket of orange paint to protest for food sustainability in Paris. AFP
  • Policemen carry away a woman from a protest encampment for Palestine, set up by students protesting the war in Gaza on the campus of the Vienna Univesity of Technology. AFP
    Policemen carry away a woman from a protest encampment for Palestine, set up by students protesting the war in Gaza on the campus of the Vienna Univesity of Technology. AFP
  • An Iraqi Yazidi man stands in front of a building destroyed during the 2014 attack by ISIS fighters in the village of Solagh in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq. AFP
    An Iraqi Yazidi man stands in front of a building destroyed during the 2014 attack by ISIS fighters in the village of Solagh in the Sinjar region of northern Iraq. AFP
  • Fatima Noor performing in a 'Wall of Death' stunt during an annual carnival at a Sufi shrine in Shah Jiwana, in Pakistan's Punjab province. AFP
    Fatima Noor performing in a 'Wall of Death' stunt during an annual carnival at a Sufi shrine in Shah Jiwana, in Pakistan's Punjab province. AFP
  • Employees working at the construction site of a grain storage project in Yancheng, in eastern China's Jiangsu province. AFP
    Employees working at the construction site of a grain storage project in Yancheng, in eastern China's Jiangsu province. AFP
  • People queue to cast their votes at a polling station during general elections, in Cape Town, South Africa. AP
    People queue to cast their votes at a polling station during general elections, in Cape Town, South Africa. AP
  • Children sit on top of a car in Noumea, France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia. Riots sparked by a constitutional reform project broke out this month. France has lifted a state of emergency across the territory after two weeks. AFP
    Children sit on top of a car in Noumea, France's Pacific territory of New Caledonia. Riots sparked by a constitutional reform project broke out this month. France has lifted a state of emergency across the territory after two weeks. AFP
  • Eunide Majeur Montis, the wife of mission director Judes Montis, cries after attending his funeral service in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. AP
    Eunide Majeur Montis, the wife of mission director Judes Montis, cries after attending his funeral service in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. AP
  • Buildings cover Gardi Sugdub Island, part of the San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast. About 300 Guna Indigenous families are set to relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. AP
    Buildings cover Gardi Sugdub Island, part of the San Blas archipelago off Panama's Caribbean coast. About 300 Guna Indigenous families are set to relocate to new homes, built by the government, on the mainland. AP
  • Horse riders perform during the 23rd Hassan II Trophy of Traditional Equestrian Arts (Tbourida) in Rabat, Morocco. EPA
    Horse riders perform during the 23rd Hassan II Trophy of Traditional Equestrian Arts (Tbourida) in Rabat, Morocco. EPA
  • Dorothea Barron, 99, who was a serving Wren at the time of D-Day sits in a Spitfire with pilot Jeremy Britcher at Biggin Hill Airport in Kent, England. AP
    Dorothea Barron, 99, who was a serving Wren at the time of D-Day sits in a Spitfire with pilot Jeremy Britcher at Biggin Hill Airport in Kent, England. AP

News

Today's best photos: From beetle counting to an ex-Wren in a Spitfire

The National picks the most striking images from around the world

The National

May 29, 2024

  • English
  • Arabic

More from The National:

Tuesday's best photos: From Ed Davey's paddle boarding fall to cheese rolling

Monday's best photos: From a new Iranian parliament to farmers protesting in Brussels

Sunday's best photos: From skin-shedding cicada to Cannes Palme d'Or winner

Saturday's best photos: From a Naval Academy graduation to Cannes fashion

Friday's best photos: From a White House state dinner to the Pope's new biography

Thursday's best photos: From a star nursery to ex-chancellors in Berlin

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.
THE BIO

Bio Box

Role Model: Sheikh Zayed, God bless his soul

Favorite book: Zayed Biography of the leader

Favorite quote: To be or not to be, that is the question, from William Shakespeare's Hamlet

Favorite food: seafood

Favorite place to travel: Lebanon

Favorite movie: Braveheart

Best Academy: Ajax and Benfica

Best Agent: Jorge Mendes

Best Club : Liverpool   

 Best Coach: Jurgen Klopp (Liverpool)  

 Best Goalkeeper: Alisson Becker

 Best Men’s Player: Cristiano Ronaldo

 Best Partnership of the Year Award by SportBusiness: Manchester City and SAP

 Best Referee: Stephanie Frappart

Best Revelation Player: Joao Felix (Atletico Madrid and Portugal)

Best Sporting Director: Andrea Berta (Atletico Madrid)

Best Women's Player:  Lucy Bronze

Best Young Arab Player: Achraf Hakimi

 Kooora – Best Arab Club: Al Hilal (Saudi Arabia)

 Kooora – Best Arab Player: Abderrazak Hamdallah (Al-Nassr FC, Saudi Arabia)

 Player Career Award: Miralem Pjanic and Ryan Giggs

The alternatives

• Founded in 2014, Telr is a payment aggregator and gateway with an office in Silicon Oasis. It’s e-commerce entry plan costs Dh349 monthly (plus VAT). QR codes direct customers to an online payment page and merchants can generate payments through messaging apps.

• Business Bay’s Pallapay claims 40,000-plus active merchants who can invoice customers and receive payment by card. Fees range from 1.99 per cent plus Dh1 per transaction depending on payment method and location, such as online or via UAE mobile.

• Tap started in May 2013 in Kuwait, allowing Middle East businesses to bill, accept, receive and make payments online “easier, faster and smoother” via goSell and goCollect. It supports more than 10,000 merchants. Monthly fees range from US$65-100, plus card charges of 2.75-3.75 per cent and Dh1.2 per sale.

• 2checkout’s “all-in-one payment gateway and merchant account” accepts payments in 200-plus markets for 2.4-3.9 per cent, plus a Dh1.2-Dh1.8 currency conversion charge. The US provider processes online shop and mobile transactions and has 17,000-plus active digital commerce users.

• PayPal is probably the best-known online goods payment method - usually used for eBay purchases -  but can be used to receive funds, providing everyone’s signed up. Costs from 2.9 per cent plus Dh1.2 per transaction.

While you're here
More from this package
Updated: May 29, 2024, 1:22 PM
Photography