Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are continuing to campaign for women's education. AP Photo
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are continuing to campaign for women's education. AP Photo
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are continuing to campaign for women's education. AP Photo
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are continuing to campaign for women's education. AP Photo

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry team up with Malala to mark International Day of the Girl


Selina Denman
  • English
  • Arabic

Meghan Markle and Prince Harry will join activist Malala Yousafzai in marking International Day of the Girl on Sunday, October 11.

The trio will team up for a virtual conversation that will be streamed online on malala.org, as well as the Malala Fund's social media platforms and YouTube channel. Topics will include the importance of a girl's right to a fair education, and why the Covid-19 outbreak has has a disproportionate effect on education opportunities for young women around the world.

Malala Yousafzai displays her medal during the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony in Norway, on December 10, 2014. AFP
Malala Yousafzai displays her medal during the Nobel Peace Prize awards ceremony in Norway, on December 10, 2014. AFP

Nearly 130 million girls were out of school before the pandemic begun — and it is estimated that an additional 20 million girls may have their education cut short because of it, according to the Malala Fund.

The not-for-profit organisation has been working to ensure that girls continue learning during the Covid-19 crisis, and is investing an additional $3 million in grants to education organisations in the countries where it works.

Earlier this year, Malala graduated from Oxford University, having survived being shot in the head by a Taliban gunman at the age of 15 in her native Pakistan. She went on to become the youngest-ever Nobel Peace Prize winner in 2014.

Markle has long campaigned for female education and frequently spoken out about how a lack of access to education is the single most important barrier to gender equality. In celebration of Prince Harry’s birthday in September, the couple donated $130,000 to Camfed, a pan-African nonprofit that supports the education of young women and girls.

“When a woman is empowered it changes absolutely everything in the community,” Markle has said.

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Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia

UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri

Gothia Cup 2025

4,872 matches 

1,942 teams

116 pitches

76 nations

26 UAE teams

15 Lebanese teams

2 Kuwaiti teams

Sri Lanka-India Test series schedule
  • 1st Test India won by 304 runs at Galle
  • 2nd Test India won by innings and 53 runs at Colombo
  • 3rd Test August 12-16 at Pallekele
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Ruwais timeline

1971 Abu Dhabi National Oil Company established

1980 Ruwais Housing Complex built, located 10 kilometres away from industrial plants

1982 120,000 bpd capacity Ruwais refinery complex officially inaugurated by the founder of the UAE Sheikh Zayed

1984 Second phase of Ruwais Housing Complex built. Today the 7,000-unit complex houses some 24,000 people.  

1985 The refinery is expanded with the commissioning of a 27,000 b/d hydro cracker complex

2009 Plans announced to build $1.2 billion fertilizer plant in Ruwais, producing urea

2010 Adnoc awards $10bn contracts for expansion of Ruwais refinery, to double capacity from 415,000 bpd

2014 Ruwais 261-outlet shopping mall opens

2014 Production starts at newly expanded Ruwais refinery, providing jet fuel and diesel and allowing the UAE to be self-sufficient for petrol supplies

2014 Etihad Rail begins transportation of sulphur from Shah and Habshan to Ruwais for export

2017 Aldar Academies to operate Adnoc’s schools including in Ruwais from September. Eight schools operate in total within the housing complex.

2018 Adnoc announces plans to invest $3.1 billion on upgrading its Ruwais refinery 

2018 NMC Healthcare selected to manage operations of Ruwais Hospital

2018 Adnoc announces new downstream strategy at event in Abu Dhabi on May 13

Source: The National

UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
Start-up hopes to end Japan's love affair with cash

Across most of Asia, people pay for taxi rides, restaurant meals and merchandise with smartphone-readable barcodes — except in Japan, where cash still rules. Now, as the country’s biggest web companies race to dominate the payments market, one Tokyo-based startup says it has a fighting chance to win with its QR app.

Origami had a head start when it introduced a QR-code payment service in late 2015 and has since signed up fast-food chain KFC, Tokyo’s largest cab company Nihon Kotsu and convenience store operator Lawson. The company raised $66 million in September to expand nationwide and plans to more than double its staff of about 100 employees, says founder Yoshiki Yasui.

Origami is betting that stores, which until now relied on direct mail and email newsletters, will pay for the ability to reach customers on their smartphones. For example, a hair salon using Origami’s payment app would be able to send a message to past customers with a coupon for their next haircut.

Quick Response codes, the dotted squares that can be read by smartphone cameras, were invented in the 1990s by a unit of Toyota Motor to track automotive parts. But when the Japanese pioneered digital payments almost two decades ago with contactless cards for train fares, they chose the so-called near-field communications technology. The high cost of rolling out NFC payments, convenient ATMs and a culture where lost wallets are often returned have all been cited as reasons why cash remains king in the archipelago. In China, however, QR codes dominate.

Cashless payments, which includes credit cards, accounted for just 20 per cent of total consumer spending in Japan during 2016, compared with 60 per cent in China and 89 per cent in South Korea, according to a report by the Bank of Japan.

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