Soon after the deferral of George Mitchell's visit to the Middle East was announced, the diplomat suddenly landed in the region last week, a move that points to a small aperture opening up in the stone wall of the peace process, wrote Hussam Kanfani in the Palestinian newspaper Al Quds.
"The nature of that little aperture is not clear yet, but it seems very likely that Mr Mitchell's advisers, David Hale and Dan Shapiro, had briefed him on new developments and proposals, making him expedite plans to meet with Palestinian and Israeli officials."
There are two probable reasons for his shuttle diplomacy this time around. First, the US envoy may be carrying a message from Washington, urging Israel to respond to a list of US demands aimed at establishing Israel's commitment to the peace process.
But the second scenario is far more plausible. It has to do with some new "tortuous settlement" deal, which Mr Mitchell's advisers may have brokered between the two parties to the conflict.
The broad lines of this new deal have been circulated in the Israeli press a few days back. It mainly consists of a pitch by the Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreeing to the establishment of a provisional Palestinian state as long as talks about the status of Jerusalem are postponed.
"This is a proposal that would simply adjourn the crisis for several months."
Iraqi government officials have been trying to spread the idea that last Friday's bomb attacks in Sadr City and Al Anbar province, which left some 200 casualties killed and wounded, are some of the last desperate suicide operations to be undertaken by al Qa'eda, wrote Mazen Hammad, a columnist with the Qatari newspaper Al Watan.
"But this idea doesn't hit home with the Iraqis anymore. They've heard similar claims before whenever the US-Iraqi forces manage to kill an al Qa'eda member."
This last round of bomb attacks, which proved that al Qa'eda is still able to hit hard, however undermined its resources may be, comes at a time when Iraqi politicians are still stuck in the impasse of forming a government, six weeks after the parliamentary elections were held.
Now, amid concerns about the amount of time it will take parties and political blocs to form a new parliament and government, all sorts of extremists, most importantly al Qa'eda, are taking advantage of this political vacuum to ignite a sectarian war between the Sunnis and Shiites. This was further fuelled by the recent revelation of a prison in Mosul, now closed, where Arab Sunnis had been secretly detained.
Washington keeps saying that the recent unrest is not disrupting its plan to reduce its troops by 50,000 come August, not minding the fact that al Qa'eda's networks are still alive and kicking.
Egypt is celebrating the 28th anniversary of the liberation of the Sinai peninsula from Israeli occupation. The Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak gave a speech on the occasion last Saturday and the local newspapers have been teeming with columns and stories commemorating this remarkable achievement, wrote the London-based newspaper Al Quds al Arabi in its editorial.
The liberation of Sinai came at the cost of many Egyptian lives during combat, both in 1967 and 1973. But the peace treaties that ensued between Egypt and Israel are said to have undermined Egypt's leadership role in the region.
"The Egyptian people did not benefit that much from the recovery of Sinai and the Sinai communities perhaps even less."
Of course, Cairo has regained full control over its oil wells and gas fields in Sinai, but, by virtue of these peace treaties, such resources are sold to Israel at prices far below the international market rates.
Now, if the provisions of the said agreements prevent the Egyptian authorities from deploying additional troops in the area to make sure it remains an arms-free zone, one wonders why doesn't the Egyptian government play around these provisions by transferring millions of Egyptians to the western side of the Suez Canal to alleviate the increasing population density along the Nile banks?
Two weeks after the Somali Islamic Youth Movement placed a ban on music in radio stations across the country, Al Sayed Ould Abbah, a columnist with the Emirati daily Al Ittihad, wrote an article surveying similar "extremist practices" that have been intruding on many Islamic nations.
In Saudi Arabia, there are calls to demolish the Holy Mosque in Mecca and rebuild it in a way that ensures the separation of men and women. In Iran, as soon as the revolutionary government was formed in the late 1970s, it proceeded to ban musical recordings. In the Najaf region in Iraq, fundamentalist ideologues are preaching a strict way of life reminiscent of ancient times.
"Islam, in all these instances, is presented as an anti-life religion, which can only be maintained through isolation and austerity."
The writer criticised such proscriptions on the creative arts, arguing that the arts have always been intrinsic to Islamic culture and can be found in Islamic literature, poetry and mystical writings. As for gender mixing in public spaces, it is essential for the sustainability of any society.
"Mainstream sermons are actually contributing to diffusion of a culture of sorrow, fear and hatred." These must be replaced by a culture of joyfulness and hope.
* Digest compiled by Achraf A El Bahi
aelbahi@thenational.ae
The bio
Favourite book: Peter Rabbit. I used to read it to my three children and still read it myself. If I am feeling down it brings back good memories.
Best thing about your job: Getting to help people. My mum always told me never to pass up an opportunity to do a good deed.
Best part of life in the UAE: The weather. The constant sunshine is amazing and there is always something to do, you have so many options when it comes to how to spend your day.
Favourite holiday destination: Malaysia. I went there for my honeymoon and ended up volunteering to teach local children for a few hours each day. It is such a special place and I plan to retire there one day.
Company Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed
Profile of Udrive
Date started: March 2016
Founder: Hasib Khan
Based: Dubai
Employees: 40
Amount raised (to date): $3.25m – $750,000 seed funding in 2017 and a Seed+ round of $2.5m last year. Raised $1.3m from Eureeca investors in January 2021 as part of a Series A round with a $5m target.
SPECS
Engine: 4-litre V8 twin-turbo
Power: 630hp
Torque: 850Nm
Transmission: 8-speed Tiptronic automatic
Price: From Dh599,000
On sale: Now
The years Ramadan fell in May
Monster Hunter: World
Capcom
PlayStation 4, Xbox One
Company Profile
Company name: Namara
Started: June 2022
Founder: Mohammed Alnamara
Based: Dubai
Sector: Microfinance
Current number of staff: 16
Investment stage: Series A
Investors: Family offices
Company profile
Name: Yabi by Souqalmal
Started: May 2022, launched June 2023
Founder: Ambareen Musa
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: undisclosed but soon to be announced
Number of staff: 12
Investment stage: seed
Investors: Shuaa Capital
EMILY IN PARIS: SEASON 3
Created by: Darren Star
Starring: Lily Collins, Philippine Leroy-Beaulieu, Ashley Park
Rating: 2.75/5
More from Neighbourhood Watch
Zimbabwe v UAE, ODI series
All matches at the Harare Sports Club:
1st ODI, Wednesday, April 10
2nd ODI, Friday, April 12
3rd ODI, Sunday, April 14
4th ODI, Tuesday, April 16
UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
NYBL PROFILE
Company name: Nybl
Date started: November 2018
Founder: Noor Alnahhas, Michael LeTan, Hafsa Yazdni, Sufyaan Abdul Haseeb, Waleed Rifaat, Mohammed Shono
Based: Dubai, UAE
Sector: Software Technology / Artificial Intelligence
Initial investment: $500,000
Funding round: Series B (raising $5m)
Partners/Incubators: Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 4, Dubai Future Accelerators Cohort 6, AI Venture Labs Cohort 1, Microsoft Scale-up
How to invest in gold
Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.
A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).
Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.
Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”
Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”
Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”
By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.
You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.
You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.
About Takalam
Date started: early 2020
Founders: Khawla Hammad and Inas Abu Shashieh
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: HealthTech and wellness
Number of staff: 4
Funding to date: Bootstrapped
Company profile
Company name: Fasset
Started: 2019
Founders: Mohammad Raafi Hossain, Daniel Ahmed
Based: Dubai
Sector: FinTech
Initial investment: $2.45 million
Current number of staff: 86
Investment stage: Pre-series B
Investors: Investcorp, Liberty City Ventures, Fatima Gobi Ventures, Primal Capital, Wealthwell Ventures, FHS Capital, VN2 Capital, local family offices
KEY DATES IN AMAZON'S HISTORY
July 5, 1994: Jeff Bezos founds Cadabra Inc, which would later be renamed to Amazon.com, because his lawyer misheard the name as 'cadaver'. In its earliest days, the bookstore operated out of a rented garage in Bellevue, Washington
July 16, 1995: Amazon formally opens as an online bookseller. Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought becomes the first item sold on Amazon
1997: Amazon goes public at $18 a share, which has grown about 1,000 per cent at present. Its highest closing price was $197.85 on June 27, 2024
1998: Amazon acquires IMDb, its first major acquisition. It also starts selling CDs and DVDs
2000: Amazon Marketplace opens, allowing people to sell items on the website
2002: Amazon forms what would become Amazon Web Services, opening the Amazon.com platform to all developers. The cloud unit would follow in 2006
2003: Amazon turns in an annual profit of $75 million, the first time it ended a year in the black
2005: Amazon Prime is introduced, its first-ever subscription service that offered US customers free two-day shipping for $79 a year
2006: Amazon Unbox is unveiled, the company's video service that would later morph into Amazon Instant Video and, ultimately, Amazon Video
2007: Amazon's first hardware product, the Kindle e-reader, is introduced; the Fire TV and Fire Phone would come in 2014. Grocery service Amazon Fresh is also started
2009: Amazon introduces Amazon Basics, its in-house label for a variety of products
2010: The foundations for Amazon Studios were laid. Its first original streaming content debuted in 2013
2011: The Amazon Appstore for Google's Android is launched. It is still unavailable on Apple's iOS
2014: The Amazon Echo is launched, a speaker that acts as a personal digital assistant powered by Alexa
2017: Amazon acquires Whole Foods for $13.7 billion, its biggest acquisition
2018: Amazon's market cap briefly crosses the $1 trillion mark, making it, at the time, only the third company to achieve that milestone
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Klipit
Started: 2022
Founders: Venkat Reddy, Mohammed Al Bulooki, Bilal Merchant, Asif Ahmed, Ovais Merchant
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Digital receipts, finance, blockchain
Funding: $4 million
Investors: Privately/self-funded
The bio
Job: Coder, website designer and chief executive, Trinet solutions
School: Year 8 pupil at Elite English School in Abu Hail, Deira
Role Models: Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk
Dream City: San Francisco
Hometown: Dubai
City of birth: Thiruvilla, Kerala
In Full Flight: A Story of Africa and Atonement
John Heminway, Knopff
Director: Nag Ashwin
Starring: Prabhas, Saswata Chatterjee, Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Shobhana
Rating: ★★★★
The Sky Is Pink
Director: Shonali Bose
Cast: Priyanka Chopra Jonas, Farhan Akhtar, Zaira Wasim, Rohit Saraf
Three stars
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Xpanceo
Started: 2018
Founders: Roman Axelrod, Valentyn Volkov
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Smart contact lenses, augmented/virtual reality
Funding: $40 million
Investor: Opportunity Venture (Asia)
A QUIET PLACE
Starring: Lupita Nyong'o, Joseph Quinn, Djimon Hounsou
Director: Michael Sarnoski
Rating: 4/5
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
RESULTS
West Asia Premiership
Thursday
Jebel Ali Dragons 13-34 Dubai Exiles
Friday
Dubai Knights Eagles 16-27 Dubai Tigers
More from Armen Sarkissian
Simran
Director Hansal Mehta
Stars: Kangana Ranaut, Soham Shah, Esha Tiwari Pandey
Three stars
SPECS
Engine: Two-litre four-cylinder turbo
Power: 235hp
Torque: 350Nm
Transmission: Nine-speed automatic
Price: From Dh167,500 ($45,000)
On sale: Now