Spain was struck last week by the worst terrorist assaults in the country since the 2004 Madrid train bombings. Early evening on Thursday, the driver of a white van crashed into pedestrians on Las Ramblas, a tree-lined thoroughfare in the heart of Barcelona that draws millions of tourists each year. The next morning, Spanish police foiled a second vehicular attack in the seaside town of Cambrils, 70 miles from the site of the first. Thirteen people were killed in Barcelona. At least a hundred people were injured. ISIL stepped forward to claim responsibility even before the shock had registered.
This was the eighth act of vehicular terrorism in Europe alone over the last year: Nice, Berlin, London, Stockholm and Paris have all hosted similar scenes of carnage. Further afield, a car was recently deployed in the United States by white supremacists to terrorise and kill anti-fascist activists. Before that, a woman was killed by a mentally ill man who barrelled his car into pedestrians in New York's Times Square. For killers of all hues, the weaponised automobile is suddenly the vogue.
It may be impossible to deter a man, and the perpetrators of these attacks are invariably men, who has decided to turn a car or a van or a truck into a death machine. But questions are invariably being asked about whether anything might have been done to minimise, if not prevent altogether, the loss of lives in Barcelona last week. Such questions stem from our tendency to ponder the "what-if" in the aftermath of every tragedy and horror. The fact that vehicles have repeatedly been repurposed to deliver death, destruction and chaos by terrorists ought to impel urban planners and city designers to seek out ways in which to minimise risks in key tourist and generally busy areas.
But ordinary people, too, must accept that 100 per cent security is an illusion in our societies. When all is said and done, what is left is our humanity. And that, more than anything else, is our greatest defence against the ravages of ISIL and the chauvinism and intolerance of the resurgent American and European right. The latter are already seeking to exploit the Las Ramblas attack for their own profit.
But the Spaniards – like the French, the Germans, the Swedes and the British before them – have demonstrated that they will not allow themselves to be consumed by hate. Almost a century ago, George Orwell called Las Ramblas the "dividing line" between the factions in the Spanish civil war. Some of those divisions still persist. But on Friday, less than 24 hours after the attack in Barcelona, tens of thousands of people gathered in the Ramblas and sang of unity. There could not have been a more stirring affirmation of humanity – or a more emphatic rejoinder to the purveyors of hate – than this.
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Moon Music
Artist: Coldplay
Label: Parlophone/Atlantic
Number of tracks: 10
Rating: 3/5
UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
RESULTS
5pm Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (Turf) 1,600m
Winner Thabet Al Reef, Bernardo Pinheiro (jockey), Abdallah Al Hammadi (trainer)
5.30pm Handicap (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner Blue Diamond, Pat Cosgrave, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6pm Arabian Triple Crown Round-1 Listed (PA) Dh230,000 (T) 1,600m
Winner Hameem, Adrie de Vries, Abdallah Al Hammadi
6.30pm Wathba Stallions Cup Handicap (PA) Dh70,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner Shoja’A Muscat, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7pm Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 (T) 1,200m
Winner Heros De Lagarde, Szczepan Mazur, Ibrahim Al Hadhrami
7.30pm Handicap (TB) Dh100,000 (T) 2,400m
Winner Good Tidings, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi
Inside%20Out%202
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EA Sports FC 25
Developer: EA Vancouver, EA Romania
Publisher: EA Sports
Consoles: Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4&5, Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S
Rating: 3.5/5
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Joker: Folie a Deux
Starring: Joaquin Phoenix, Lady Gaga, Brendan Gleeson
Director: Todd Phillips
Rating: 2/5
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Company%20Profile
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Abramovich London
A Kensington Palace Gardens house with 15 bedrooms is valued at more than £150 million.
A three-storey penthouse at Chelsea Waterfront bought for £22 million.
Steel company Evraz drops more than 10 per cent in trading after UK officials said it was potentially supplying the Russian military.
Sale of Chelsea Football Club is now impossible.
Best Foreign Language Film nominees
Capernaum (Lebanon)
Cold War (Poland)
Never Look Away (Germany)
Roma (Mexico)
Shoplifters (Japan)
The%20specs
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The Lost Letters of William Woolf
Helen Cullen, Graydon House
BRAZIL%20SQUAD
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Jigra
Starring: Alia Bhatt, Vedang Raina, Manoj Pahwa, Harsh Singh
The specs
Engine: 1.6-litre 4-cyl turbo
Power: 217hp at 5,750rpm
Torque: 300Nm at 1,900rpm
Transmission: eight-speed auto
Price: from Dh130,000
On sale: now
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
New schools in Dubai
The%20Genius%20of%20Their%20Age
%3Cp%3EAuthor%3A%20S%20Frederick%20Starr%3Cbr%3EPublisher%3A%20Oxford%20University%20Press%3Cbr%3EPages%3A%20290%3Cbr%3EAvailable%3A%20January%2024%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
STAR%20WARS%20JEDI%3A%20SURVIVOR
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Overall head-to-head
Federer 6-1 Cilic
Head-to-head at Wimbledon
Federer 1-0 Cilic
Grand Slams titles
Federer 18-1 Cilic
Best Wimbledon performance
Federer: Winner (2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012)
Cilic: Final (2017*)
Read more from Mina Al-Oraibi
if you go
The flights Fly Dubai, Air Arabia, Emirates, Etihad, and Royal Jordanian all offer direct, three-and-a-half-hour flights from the UAE to the Jordanian capital Amman. Alternatively, from June Fly Dubai will offer a new direct service from Dubai to Aqaba in the south of the country. See the airlines’ respective sites for varying prices or search on reliable price-comparison site Skyscanner.
The trip
Jamie Lafferty was a guest of the Jordan Tourist Board. For more information on adventure tourism in Jordan see Visit Jordan. A number of new and established tour companies offer the chance to go caving, rock-climbing, canyoning, and mountaineering in Jordan. Prices vary depending on how many activities you want to do and how many days you plan to stay in the country. Among the leaders are Terhaal, who offer a two-day canyoning trip from Dh845 per person. If you really want to push your limits, contact the Stronger Team. For a more trek-focused trip, KE Adventure offers an eight-day trip from Dh5,300 per person.