The annual Davos meeting is not without its detractors. But those who label it an elitist gathering of the privileged overlook the World Economic Forum’s unique value. The ability to convene leaders in politics, business, humanitarian work – the heads of ICRC and UNHCR are regular attendees – cannot be overlooked.
On Tuesday, as they have done for decades, leaders from the worlds of politics and business will descend on the small Swiss town of Davos, united by the view that solving the world's major challenges requires co-operation. This year, more than 3,000 guests will attend the forum, among them dozens of heads of state and government, including Germany's outgoing chancellor Angela Merkel and new Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro.
It will not be the first time that they gather at a time when massive fractures divide the world and populism sweeps Europe and the Americas. Yet the agenda, entitled Globalisation 4.0, aims to create a more inclusive future. Davos has long pushed a pro-globalisation agenda, based on the belief that mutual understanding and common interests can be achieved in a globalised world – and that nations that look inwards will suffer.
But while that view prospered for decades, the global consensus has shifted and Davos today looks different from previous meetings as a result. Last year US President Donald Trump opened the conference, having swept to power on a message of economic protectionism. This year Mr Bolsonaro, who speaks fondly of Brazil's former military dictatorship, will introduce a loud, anti-globalisation voice to discussions. Meanwhile exponents of globalisation, like French President Emmanuel Macron and UK Prime Minister Theresa May, will not attend, plagued by their own battles to represent the will of the people in their nations.
The criticisms levelled at the exclusivity of the forum have grown louder in recent years. Nationalist bugles such as former White House aide Steve Bannon have taken aim at “Davos Man”, what political scientist Samuel Huntington called “gold-collar workers”, whose privilege prevents them from seeing the daily realities that millions face today. But with numerous challenges facing the world, Mr Bannon’s cries help no one.
What the world needs is a balanced debate around the future of globalisation, climate, automation and technology. This is not about perpetuating a repressive or exclusionary world order but creating a more inclusive future and providing a space for those who will determine the future to connect.
Davos aims to do just that. It ensures business leaders and politicians do not lose sight of their obligations to be responsible and responsive. Dialogue and the sharing of ideas are the only path out of protectionism and division and it is in forums such as Davos that the cross-fertilisation of ideas have the potential to breed and flourish.
But not only that – Davos can spur tangible progress. For heads of state, it is an opportunity to make important connections and secure support and investment for the good of their people. For all attendees, it is a reminder of the ways that the coming wave of technology, automation and artificial intelligence will fundamentally change the world we live in. In preparing their nations and realising the importance of these potent changes, the World Economic Forum plays a role few others can.
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
It has been claimed that the policies of the Ethiopian government, which took control after deposing Emperor Haile Selassie in a military-led revolution in 1974, contributed to the scale of the famine.
Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Challenge Cup result:
1. UAE 3 faults
2. Ireland 9 faults
3. Brazil 11 faults
4. Spain 15 faults
5. Great Britain 17 faults
6. New Zealand 20 faults
7. Italy 26 faults
Earth under attack: Cosmic impacts throughout history
- 4.5 billion years ago: Mars-sized object smashes into the newly-formed Earth, creating debris that coalesces to form the Moon
- 66 million years ago: 10km-wide asteroid crashes into the Gulf of Mexico, wiping out over 70 per cent of living species – including the dinosaurs.
- 50,000 years ago: 50m-wide iron meteor crashes in Arizona with the violence of 10 megatonne hydrogen bomb, creating the famous 1.2km-wide Barringer Crater
- 1490: Meteor storm over Shansi Province, north-east China when large stones “fell like rain”, reportedly leading to thousands of deaths.
- 1908: 100-metre meteor from the Taurid Complex explodes near the Tunguska river in Siberia with the force of 1,000 Hiroshima-type bombs, devastating 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
- 1998: Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 breaks apart and crashes into Jupiter in series of impacts that would have annihilated life on Earth.
-2013: 10,000-tonne meteor burns up over the southern Urals region of Russia, releasing a pressure blast and flash that left over 1600 people injured.
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What can victims do?
Always use only regulated platforms
Stop all transactions and communication on suspicion
Save all evidence (screenshots, chat logs, transaction IDs)
Report to local authorities
Warn others to prevent further harm
Courtesy: Crystal Intelligence
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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Eoin Morgan (capt), Moeen Ali, Jofra Archer, Jonny Bairstow, Jos Buttler (wkt), Tom Curran, Liam Dawson, Liam Plunkett, Adil Rashid, Joe Root, Jason Roy, Ben Stokes, James Vince, Chris Woakes, Mark Wood
French Touch
Carla Bruni
(Verve)
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Tonight's Chat on The National
Tonight's Chat is a series of online conversations on The National. The series features a diverse range of celebrities, politicians and business leaders from around the Arab world.
Tonight’s Chat host Ricardo Karam is a renowned author and broadcaster with a decades-long career in TV. He has previously interviewed Bill Gates, Carlos Ghosn, Andre Agassi and the late Zaha Hadid, among others. Karam is also the founder of Takreem.
Intellectually curious and thought-provoking, Tonight’s Chat moves the conversation forward.
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Transmission: Single-speed automatic
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Dates for the diary
To mark Bodytree’s 10th anniversary, the coming season will be filled with celebratory activities:
- September 21 Anyone interested in becoming a certified yoga instructor can sign up for a 250-hour course in Yoga Teacher Training with Jacquelene Sadek. It begins on September 21 and will take place over the course of six weekends.
- October 18 to 21 International yoga instructor, Yogi Nora, will be visiting Bodytree and offering classes.
- October 26 to November 4 International pilates instructor Courtney Miller will be on hand at the studio, offering classes.
- November 9 Bodytree is hosting a party to celebrate turning 10, and everyone is invited. Expect a day full of free classes on the grounds of the studio.
- December 11 Yogeswari, an advanced certified Jivamukti teacher, will be visiting the studio.
- February 2, 2018 Bodytree will host its 4th annual yoga market.
Sheikh Zayed's poem
When it is unveiled at Abu Dhabi Art, the Standing Tall exhibition will appear as an interplay of poetry and art. The 100 scarves are 100 fragments surrounding five, figurative, female sculptures, and both sculptures and scarves are hand-embroidered by a group of refugee women artisans, who used the Palestinian cross-stitch embroidery art of tatreez. Fragments of Sheikh Zayed’s poem Your Love is Ruling My Heart, written in Arabic as a love poem to his nation, are embroidered onto both the sculptures and the scarves. Here is the English translation.
Your love is ruling over my heart
Your love is ruling over my heart, even a mountain can’t bear all of it
Woe for my heart of such a love, if it befell it and made it its home
You came on me like a gleaming sun, you are the cure for my soul of its sickness
Be lenient on me, oh tender one, and have mercy on who because of you is in ruins
You are like the Ajeed Al-reem [leader of the gazelle herd] for my country, the source of all of its knowledge
You waddle even when you stand still, with feet white like the blooming of the dates of the palm
Oh, who wishes to deprive me of sleep, the night has ended and I still have not seen you
You are the cure for my sickness and my support, you dried my throat up let me go and damp it
Help me, oh children of mine, for in his love my life will pass me by.
Western Clubs Champions League:
- Friday, Sep 8 - Abu Dhabi Harlequins v Bahrain
- Friday, Sep 15 – Kandy v Abu Dhabi Harlequins
- Friday, Sep 22 – Kandy v Bahrain
Gulf Under 19s final
Dubai College A 50-12 Dubai College B
Gulf Men's League final
Dubai Hurricanes 24-12 Abu Dhabi Harlequins
Team Angel Wolf Beach Blast takes place every Wednesday between 4:30pm and 5:30pm
New Zealand 15 British & Irish Lions 15
New Zealand 15
Tries: Laumape, J Barrett
Conversions: B Barrett
Penalties: B Barrett
British & Irish Lions 15
Penalties: Farrell (4), Daly