10 things to do today: See Madam Butterfly at Dubai Opera, head to the Imagine Science Abu Dhabi Film Festival, and more



Your daily guide to community and cultural activities across the Emirates for March 2, 2017, including performances, festivals, art exhibitions, film screenings, health and fitness events, talks, classes, workshops and family fun. Ellen Fortini rounds up 10 things to do today in the UAE.

Want to see your event listed here? Email us with the details and contact information at listings@thenational.ae

Al Ain

Cultural event

As part of the Visit Al Ain programme of events, Memory of the Emirati Song at Al Jahili Fort features young Emirati performers paying tribute to their forefathers with folk songs from the 1950s to the 1970s, and singing the words of original Emirati poetry.

Tonight, 8pm, Al Jahili Fort, Al Ain, www.visitalain.ae

Dubai

Art exhibition

Safwan Dahoul presents a new body of work, Miniatures, featuring images that are the size of one's hand and demand close examination, as though the viewer is peering into a secret world. Pictured: A detail of Dream142

Daily until Saturday, 10am to 6pm, today; noon to 6pm on Saturday (closed Fridays), Ayyam Gallery, Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz, Dubai, 04 323 6242, www.ayyamgallery.com

Abu Dhabi

Cuisine special

Experience the sounds and cuisine of New Orleans at The St Regis Bar. The city, nicknamed Nola and the Big Easy, will be represented at Nola Week with live daily performances by Ptah Brown Duo (pictured, Ptah Brown), featuring jazz, soul and blues music, plus a ­handcrafted menu reflecting the city’s Cajun, Creole and French roots with jambalaya, grills and crawfish etouffee.

Daily until Monday, from 8pm, from Dh70 per dish, The St Regis Bar, Nation Tower, Corniche, Abu Dhabi, reservations at 02 694 4553, restaurants.abudhabi@stregis.com

Abu Dhabi

Art exhibition

Catch the opening of But We Cannot See Them: Tracing a UAE Art Community, 1988-2008. This group exhibition is made up of works by visual artists, writers and filmmakers who ­encouraged a culture of experimentation. Despite a flourishing contemporary-art community in the early 1990s, curators visiting the UAE concluded that none existed because of the lack of public venues. The community is now being presented as influential in the country's artistic history. Pictured: Cardboard and Coir by Hassan Sharif

Opens today, then runs daily until May 27, noon to 8pm, Mondays to Saturdays (closed Sundays), NYU Abu Dhabi Art Gallery, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, 02 628 8000, www.nyuad-artgallery.org

Abu Dhabi

Science festival

Imagine Science Abu Dhabi Film Festival opens today. See a series of feature films – including the Emirati film Honey Rain and Dust (pictured) – and short films, the ­sci-art exhibition ­Spectrum, a panel discussion, ­artist talks and more in a programme designed to improve understanding of science through film.

Daily until Saturday, various timings, free with registration, NYU Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, register at www.imaginesciencefilms.org

Abu Dhabi

Military demonstration

Watch the first live public demonstration by the UAE Armed Forces at The Union Fortress on the Corniche. The joint ­exercise celebrates and features all branches of the military, including the Presidential Guard, Joint Aviation Command, the Navy, the Air Force, the Air Defense and the Army. See freefall jumps from an aircraft, submarines, ­helicopters, rescue simulation, an F16 fly-by and more.

Today, from 4.30pm, free, Union Fortress, Corniche, Abu Dhabi, www.unionfortress.ae

Abu Dhabi

Concert

Enjoy a rock-electronic concert by French musician, author and composer Olivier Daguerre, presented by Alliance Française Abu Dhabi. Songs include Carmen, Notre amour était presque parfait and Pour deux.

Tonight, 7.30pm, Dh40 for Alliance Française Abu Dhabi members; Dh50 for non-members, Alliance Française Abu Dhabi, near Irish Embassy, Abu Dhabi, www.800tickets.com

Dubai

Art exhibition

In Landmarks II, Syrian artist Thaier Helal experiments with a variety of media in an attempt to recreate the physical attributes of natural settings such as mountains, deserts, rivers and lakes. Pictured: Creation

Daily until Saturday, 10am-6pm, today; noon-6pm on Saturday (closed Friday), Ayyam Gallery, Alserkal Avenue, Al Quoz, Dubai, 04 323 6242, www.ayyamgallery.com

Dubai

Performance

Madam Butterfly is at Dubai Opera. The Welsh National Opera present the Giacomo Puccini opera, which takes place in Nagasaki. A young Japanese woman named Butterfly and her American naval-officer husband experience cultural differences that result in devastating consequences.

Daily until Saturday, 8pm today and tomorrow; 3pm on Saturday, from Dh300, Dubai Opera, Downtown Dubai, www.dubaiopera.com

Dubai

Ballet screening

Get tickets to catch a screening of a live performance of The Sleeping Beauty by The Bolshoi Ballet as performed in Moscow in honour of the 90th birthday of ballet's master Yuri Grigorovich. With music adapted by Tchaikovsky and the original Charles Perrault fairy tale, the classic follows Princess Aurora, who is cursed to fall into a deep sleep on her 16th birthday, only to be awoken by her true love after 100 years.

March 10 and 11, 3.30pm, Dh35, Novo Cinemas, Ibn Battuta Mall and Festival City Mall, Dubai, www.novocinemas.com

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MATCH INFO

Uefa Champions League quarter-final, second leg (first-leg score):

Manchester City (0) v Tottenham Hotspur (1), Wednesday, 11pm UAE

Match is on BeIN Sports

Sinopharm vaccine explained

The Sinopharm vaccine was created using techniques that have been around for decades. 

“This is an inactivated vaccine. Simply what it means is that the virus is taken, cultured and inactivated," said Dr Nawal Al Kaabi, chair of the UAE's National Covid-19 Clinical Management Committee.

"What is left is a skeleton of the virus so it looks like a virus, but it is not live."

This is then injected into the body.

"The body will recognise it and form antibodies but because it is inactive, we will need more than one dose. The body will not develop immunity with one dose," she said.

"You have to be exposed more than one time to what we call the antigen."

The vaccine should offer protection for at least months, but no one knows how long beyond that.

Dr Al Kaabi said early vaccine volunteers in China were given shots last spring and still have antibodies today.

“Since it is inactivated, it will not last forever," she said.

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Day 4, Dubai Test: At a glance

Moment of the day Lahiru Gamage appeared to have been hard done by when he had his dismissal of Sami Aslam chalked off for a no-ball. Replays suggested he had not overstepped. No matter. Two balls later, the exact same combination – Gamage the bowler and Kusal Mendis at second slip – combined again to send Aslam back.

Stat of the day Haris Sohail took three wickets for one run in the only over he bowled, to end the Sri Lanka second innings in a hurry. That was as many as he had managed in total in his 10-year, 58-match first-class career to date. It was also the first time a bowler had taken three wickets having bowled just one over in an innings in Tests.

The verdict Just 119 more and with five wickets remaining seems like a perfectly attainable target for Pakistan. Factor in the fact the pitch is worn, is turning prodigiously, and that Sri Lanka’s seam bowlers have also been finding the strip to their liking, it is apparent the task is still a tough one. Still, though, thanks to Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed, it is possible.

Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
Naga
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The White Lotus: Season three

Creator: Mike White

Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell

Rating: 4.5/5

Greatest Royal Rumble match listing

50-man Royal Rumble - names entered so far include Braun Strowman, Daniel Bryan, Kurt Angle, Big Show, Kane, Chris Jericho, The New Day and Elias

Universal Championship Brock Lesnar (champion) v Roman Reigns in a steel cage match

WWE World Heavyweight ChampionshipAJ Styles (champion) v Shinsuke Nakamura

Intercontinental Championship Seth Rollins (champion) v The Miz v Finn Balor v Samoa Joe

United States Championship Jeff Hardy (champion) v Jinder Mahal

SmackDown Tag Team Championship The Bludgeon Brothers (champions) v The Usos

Raw Tag Team Championship (currently vacant) Cesaro and Sheamus v Matt Hardy and Bray Wyatt

Casket match The Undertaker v Rusev

Singles match John Cena v Triple H

Cruiserweight Championship Cedric Alexander v Kalisto

Specs

Engine: Dual-motor all-wheel-drive electric

Range: Up to 610km

Power: 905hp

Torque: 985Nm

Price: From Dh439,000

Available: Now

The fake news generation

288,000 – the number of posts reported as hate speech that were deleted by Facebook globally each month in May and June this year

11% – the number of Americans who said they trusted the news they read on Snapchat as of June 2017, according to Statista. Over a quarter stated that they ‘rarely trusted’ the news they read on social media in general

31% - the number of young people in the US aged between 10 and 18 who said they had shared a news story online in the last six months that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate

63% - percentage of Arab nationals who said they get their news from social media every single day.

The 100 Best Novels in Translation
Boyd Tonkin, Galileo Press

Real estate tokenisation project

Dubai launched the pilot phase of its real estate tokenisation project last month.

The initiative focuses on converting real estate assets into digital tokens recorded on blockchain technology and helps in streamlining the process of buying, selling and investing, the Dubai Land Department said.

Dubai’s real estate tokenisation market is projected to reach Dh60 billion ($16.33 billion) by 2033, representing 7 per cent of the emirate’s total property transactions, according to the DLD.

ESSENTIALS

The flights

Emirates flies from Dubai to Phnom Penh via Yangon from Dh2,700 return including taxes. Cambodia Bayon Airlines and Cambodia Angkor Air offer return flights from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap from Dh250 return including taxes. The flight takes about 45 minutes.

The hotels

Rooms at the Raffles Le Royal in Phnom Penh cost from $225 (Dh826) per night including taxes. Rooms at the Grand Hotel d'Angkor cost from $261 (Dh960) per night including taxes.

The tours

A cyclo architecture tour of Phnom Penh costs from $20 (Dh75) per person for about three hours, with Khmer Architecture Tours. Tailor-made tours of all of Cambodia, or sites like Angkor alone, can be arranged by About Asia Travel. Emirates Holidays also offers packages. 

NO OTHER LAND

Director: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham, Rachel Szor, Hamdan Ballal

Stars: Basel Adra, Yuval Abraham

Rating: 3.5/5

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 
RESULTS: 2018 WORLD CUP QUALIFYING - EUROPE

Albania 0 Italy 1
Finland 2 Turkey 2
Macedonia 4 Liechtenstein
Iceland 2 Kosovo 0
Israel 0 Spain 1
Moldova 0 Austria 1
Serbia 1 Georgia 0
Ukraine 0 Croatia 2
Wales 0 Ireland 1

The smuggler

Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple. 
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.

Khouli conviction

Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.

For sale

A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.

  • An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
  • A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
  • A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950