As the Fifa World Cup kicks off in Qatar, diehard football fans in Iraq are gathering at cafes and open spaces to watch the games, enjoying free access to live streams and nice weather.
A privately owned internet provider has the football covered in Baghdad after setting up a giant screen in an open space to show all games. Cafes across the country are also packed with fans.
At the courtyard of the city's Town Centre Mall in the upscale commercial hub of Mansour, Iraqis are enjoying the games in temperatures around the 20ºC mark – down from the blistering summer heat usually associated with a summer World Cup.
It is the first World Cup to be held in the Arab world and the second held entirely in Asia after the 2002 tournament in South Korea and Japan.
The championship, which started on Sunday, ends on December 18.
Uniformed waiters briskly navigated the packed fan zone set up by Earthlink, serving the fans food, drinks and shisha.
Nearby, a man distributed tickets to a sweepstake for the winning team in the tournament, offering tablets and computers for the winners. The tickets offered for free as a promotion for an app for online learning.
Young people and families sat on fluffy bean bag chairs littered around the screen, with some huddled over wooden and metal tables from nearby cafes and restaurants.
“The atmosphere is amazing and the weather is fabulous,” Abdullah Al Qaisi, a 25-year-old construction contractor, told The National.
“I feel very proud to see an Arab country hosting the World Cup. It’s a success for all Arab countries and hopes one day Iraq will be able to host the tournament.”
The atmosphere among the fans was quiet during the subdued first half of the Senegal-Netherlands match.
But it changed in the second half, as Mr Al Qaisi and other fans held their breath when the teams started to push deeper.
Cody Gakpo opened the scoring for the Netherlands in the 84th minute with a header at the end of a brilliantly timed run. Substitute Davy Klaassen scored in the 99th minute.
The fan zone offers construction worker Abbas Salam from Baghdad's Jihad area a chance to enjoy the games. He arrived with his two friends.
“We can’t afford to pay the [private] encrypted channels to watch the matches,” said Mr Salam, 16, as he was putting a tick mark under the Brazil flag in the raffle.
Football is Iraq's most popular sport, followed by basketball and swimming, a poll for the Independent Institute of Administration and Civil Society Studies research group in Iraq found.
Around 77 per cent of Iraqis say they are following the World Cup tournament matches, with Argentina topping the list of teams supported by Iraqis, followed by Brazil and Qatar.
Iraq did not qualify for the 2022 Fifa World Cup after losing to Iran 1-0 in June.
However, Iraq will host the eight-team Arabian Gulf football tournament in January for the first time since 1979.
The 25th Gulf Cup will be held in the southern city of Basra from January 6 to 19, when Iraq will be joined by Kuwait, Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Yemen.
Many Iraqis see it as a sign of their country's recovery after years of conflict, political and economic crises and uneasy relations with Gulf neighbours.
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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
Planes grounded by coronavirus
British Airways: Cancels all direct flights to and from mainland China
Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific: Cutting capacity to/from mainland China by 50 per cent from Jan. 30
Chicago-based United Airlines: Reducing flights to Beijing, Shanghai, and Hong Kong
Ai Seoul: Suspended all flights to China
Finnair: Suspending flights to Nanjing and Beijing Daxing until the end of March
Indonesia's Lion Air: Suspending all flights to China from February
South Korea's Asiana Airlines, Jeju Air and Jin Air: Suspend all flights
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.
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'Peninsula'
Stars: Gang Dong-won, Lee Jung-hyun, Lee Ra
Director: Yeon Sang-ho
Rating: 2/5
What is the FNC?
The Federal National Council is one of five federal authorities established by the UAE constitution. It held its first session on December 2, 1972, a year to the day after Federation.
It has 40 members, eight of whom are women. The members represent the UAE population through each of the emirates. Abu Dhabi and Dubai have eight members each, Sharjah and Ras al Khaimah six, and Ajman, Fujairah and Umm Al Quwain have four.
They bring Emirati issues to the council for debate and put those concerns to ministers summoned for questioning.
The FNC’s main functions include passing, amending or rejecting federal draft laws, discussing international treaties and agreements, and offering recommendations on general subjects raised during sessions.
Federal draft laws must first pass through the FNC for recommendations when members can amend the laws to suit the needs of citizens. The draft laws are then forwarded to the Cabinet for consideration and approval.
Since 2006, half of the members have been elected by UAE citizens to serve four-year terms and the other half are appointed by the Ruler’s Courts of the seven emirates.
In the 2015 elections, 78 of the 252 candidates were women. Women also represented 48 per cent of all voters and 67 per cent of the voters were under the age of 40.
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Benefits of first-time home buyers' scheme
- Priority access to new homes from participating developers
- Discounts on sales price of off-plan units
- Flexible payment plans from developers
- Mortgages with better interest rates, faster approval times and reduced fees
- DLD registration fee can be paid through banks or credit cards at zero interest rates
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SPECS
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Padmaavat
Director: Sanjay Leela Bhansali
Starring: Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone, Shahid Kapoor, Jim Sarbh
3.5/5