Follow the latest news on the 2024 Paris Olympics
In what is becoming another established Olympics tradition, Google has started releasing its latest series of Doodles marking various sports throughout the Paris Games.
These are the seventh Games celebrated by Google, having started with Sydney 2000.
In addition to the sport-specific themes, expect to see other aspects of the competition highlighted from notable milestones to those celebrating the Olympic humanitarian and egalitarian values.
The Paris Olympics run until August 11. Here are all of this year's Google Doodles released so far.
July 26: Paris Olympics begin
Google’s first Olympics-themed doodle during this year's event pays homage to the grand sporting competition and host city. The image has five birds showcasing different Olympic sports on the Seine, in homage to athletes' floating parade as part of the opening ceremony.
July 27: Skateboarding
For the first day of the competition after the opening ceremony, Google highlighted the skateboarding event taking place at Place de La Concorde.
The Doodle highlights the acrobatic twists and turns of the sport, which made its debut at Tokyo 2020, which took place in 2021 due to Covid-19.
July 28: Football
With football one of the few competitions kicking off before the opening ceremony, the popular sport shined with its own Doodle of two birds playing the game on a Parisian street corner.
July 29 to 30: Artistic gymnastics
To mark one of the most fierce competitions of the Games, an animated Doodle has a bird doing a flawless axle jump on a windowsill. As for the judge, a sophisticated house cat, the routine was rated a perfect 10.
July 31: French cultural figures and Olympic sports
Google launched the latest update of its Most Searched Playground, a game in which users try to spot as many features of Paris and the Olympics in a park. These include the city's landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower and the Seine as well as the gymnastics and water polo.
August 1: Surfing
After making its debut as part of Tokyo 2020, surfing is back. However, this time, the competition is being held on the beaches of Tahiti in French Polynesia. The Doodle features a sea turtle, a venerated animal in Tahitian mythology and considered a sign of good fortune and longevity.
August 1: Olympic diver Sammy Lee
The Doodle celebrates the career of diver Sammy Lee, who became the first Asian-American man to win a gold medal for Team USA (at the 1948 Olympics in London). He repeated the feat four years later at the Helsinki Games. Sammy Lee died in 2016 aged 96.
August 2 to 3: Sailing
Sailing has been part of the Olympics since the inaugural competition in 1896. For this year's Games, the event takes place at the Marseille Marina in southern France. Running until August 8, this year's competitions include the men's and women's single-handed dinghy and the mixed-foiling catamaran races.
August 4: Rings
Depicting the reverse butterfly, one of the most challenging moves on the rings at the artistic gymnastics competition, the animation pays tribute to the Olympic sport taking place at the Bercy Arena. The rings have been part of the Olympics since the inaugural games in 1896 in Athens.
August 5 to 6: Artistic swimming
With three birds dancing in synchronised form in a water fountain in a Parisian park, the Google Doodle pays tribute to the artistic swimming competition. It is a combination of water acrobatics and music. Contested in both duet and team formats, the panel of judges base their scores on several criteria, including the level of difficulty, artistry, synchronisation and execution.
August 7 to 8: Climbing
With the Google bird valiant striving to overcome a statue of its own image, the latest Doodle celebrates climbing. Returning for the second time, medals will be rewarded for competitions including speed climbing.
August 9 to 10: Breaking
A bird executing one of the main breakdancing moves "down rock" to a blaring boombox celebrates the new Olympic sport of breaking. Making its debut in Paris, the competition will take place on August 9 and 10 at outdoor venue La Concord and feature dancers from countries such as the US and Papua New Guinea.
August 11: Closing Ceremony
The conclusion of the Paris 2024 Olympics and its closing ceremony is being marked with a special Doodle. Set at the Stade de France, amid celebrations and fireworks, the doodle features the now-familiar bird standing on the highest of three podiums, merrily leaping and flailing its wings in victory. The two birds standing beside it on shorter pillars are less animated, but seem no less jovial, holding up bouquets. Other birds are cheering from the nearby rooftops and the Eiffel Tower looms in the background. The Doodle is a fun way to say au revoir to Paris Olympics, at least until the Paralympics begin at the end of the month.
Specs
Engine: Electric motor generating 54.2kWh (Cooper SE and Aceman SE), 64.6kW (Countryman All4 SE)
Power: 218hp (Cooper and Aceman), 313hp (Countryman)
Torque: 330Nm (Cooper and Aceman), 494Nm (Countryman)
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh158,000 (Cooper), Dh168,000 (Aceman), Dh190,000 (Countryman)
The candidates
Dr Ayham Ammora, scientist and business executive
Ali Azeem, business leader
Tony Booth, professor of education
Lord Browne, former BP chief executive
Dr Mohamed El-Erian, economist
Professor Wyn Evans, astrophysicist
Dr Mark Mann, scientist
Gina MIller, anti-Brexit campaigner
Lord Smith, former Cabinet minister
Sandi Toksvig, broadcaster
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.
Paatal Lok season two
Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy
Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong
Rating: 4.5/5
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.
Meydan race card
6.30pm: Maiden Dh 165,000 1,600m
7.05pm: Handicap Dh 185,000 2,000m
7.40pm: Maiden Dh 165,000 1,600m
8.15pm: Handicap Dh 190,000 1,400m
8.50pm: Handicap Dh 175,000 1,600m
9.25pm: Handicap Dh 175,000 1,200m
10pm: Handicap Dh 165,000 1,600m
Oppenheimer
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I Feel Pretty
Dir: Abby Kohn/Mark Silverstein
Starring: Amy Schumer, Michelle Williams, Emily Ratajkowski, Rory Scovel
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Cricket World Cup League 2
UAE squad
Rahul Chopra (captain), Aayan Afzal Khan, Ali Naseer, Aryansh Sharma, Basil Hameed, Dhruv Parashar, Junaid Siddique, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Jawadullah, Muhammad Waseem, Omid Rahman, Rahul Bhatia, Tanish Suri, Vishnu Sukumaran, Vriitya Aravind
Fixtures
Friday, November 1 – Oman v UAE
Sunday, November 3 – UAE v Netherlands
Thursday, November 7 – UAE v Oman
Saturday, November 9 – Netherlands v UAE
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How to report a beggar
Abu Dhabi – Call 999 or 8002626 (Aman Service)
Dubai – Call 800243
Sharjah – Call 065632222
Ras Al Khaimah - Call 072053372
Ajman – Call 067401616
Umm Al Quwain – Call 999
Fujairah - Call 092051100 or 092224411
Specs
Engine: Duel electric motors
Power: 659hp
Torque: 1075Nm
On sale: Available for pre-order now
Price: On request
The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
The design
The protective shell is covered in solar panels to make use of light and produce energy. This will drastically reduce energy loss.
More than 80 per cent of the energy consumed by the French pavilion will be produced by the sun.
The architecture will control light sources to provide a highly insulated and airtight building.
The forecourt is protected from the sun and the plants will refresh the inner spaces.
A micro water treatment plant will recycle used water to supply the irrigation for the plants and to flush the toilets. This will reduce the pavilion’s need for fresh water by 30 per cent.
Energy-saving equipment will be used for all lighting and projections.
Beyond its use for the expo, the pavilion will be easy to dismantle and reuse the material.
Some elements of the metal frame can be prefabricated in a factory.
From architects to sound technicians and construction companies, a group of experts from 10 companies have created the pavilion.
Work will begin in May; the first stone will be laid in Dubai in the second quarter of 2019.
Construction of the pavilion will take 17 months from May 2019 to September 2020.
Profile box
Founders: Michele Ferrario, Nino Ulsamer and Freddy Lim
Started: established in 2016 and launched in July 2017
Based: Singapore, with offices in the UAE, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand
Sector: FinTech, wealth management
Initial investment: $500,000 in seed round 1 in 2016; $2.2m in seed round 2 in 2017; $5m in series A round in 2018; $12m in series B round in 2019; $16m in series C round in 2020 and $25m in series D round in 2021
Current staff: more than 160 employees
Stage: series D
Investors: EightRoads Ventures, Square Peg Capital, Sequoia Capital India
Young women have more “financial grit”, but fall behind on investing
In an October survey of young adults aged 16 to 25, Charles Schwab found young women are more driven to reach financial independence than young men (67 per cent versus. 58 per cent). They are more likely to take on extra work to make ends meet and see more value than men in creating a plan to achieve their financial goals. Yet, despite all these good ‘first’ measures, they are investing and saving less than young men – falling early into the financial gender gap.
While the women surveyed report spending 36 per cent less than men, they have far less savings than men ($1,267 versus $2,000) – a nearly 60 per cent difference.
In addition, twice as many young men as women say they would invest spare cash, and almost twice as many young men as women report having investment accounts (though most young adults do not invest at all).
“Despite their good intentions, young women start to fall behind their male counterparts in savings and investing early on in life,” said Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, senior vice president, Charles Schwab. “They start off showing a strong financial planning mindset, but there is still room for further education when it comes to managing their day-to-day finances.”
Ms Schwab-Pomerantz says parents should be conveying the same messages to boys and girls about money, but should tailor those conversations based on the individual and gender.
"Our study shows that while boys are spending more than girls, they also are saving more. Have open and honest conversations with your daughters about the wage and savings gap," she said. "Teach kids about the importance of investing – especially girls, who as we see in this study, aren’t investing as much. Part of being financially prepared is learning to make the most of your money, and that means investing early and consistently."
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Jawan
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre six-cylinder turbo
Power: 398hp from 5,250rpm
Torque: 580Nm at 1,900-4,800rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed auto
Fuel economy, combined: 6.5L/100km
On sale: December
Price: From Dh330,000 (estimate)
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