Three decades ago, Jordanian auditor Nada Ghazi was a teenager watching newlyweds King Abdullah II and Queen Rania being driven in a convertible through the streets of Amman.
Part of the 1993 event was broadcast on Jordanian state television, which dominated the airwaves at the time. There was no internet and Jordanians were dealing with the impact of a financial crisis, triggered four years before by the collapse of the dinar.
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“I was fascinated by public spectacles since I was young,” says Ms Ghazi. “I remember the queen. She had her hair nicely raised. The king was wearing a military suit.”
On June 1, Ms Ghazi will be in front of the television again to watch King Abdullah's 27-year-old son, Crown Prince Hussein bin Abdullah, marry his fiancée, Saudi architect Rajwa Al Saif.
The wedding, part of which will be broadcast live, is a rare opportunity for Jordanians to see members of the Hashemite monarchy up close on a family occasion.
When King Abdullah married Queen Rania, he was a commander in the military. He was appointed crown prince shortly before his father King Hussein died in 1999.
This has been a busy year for the royal family: Princess Iman, one of the king's four children and his eldest daughter, was married in March to Greek-Venezuelan Jameel Thermiotis, who works in finance in London.
Prince Hussein was appointed Crown Prince in 2018. King Abdullah holds all significant powers in the kingdom, but over the past few years, the Crown Prince has been given a higher profile, including travelling outside the kingdom on official missions.
He heads a foundation bearing his name, which focuses on finding jobs for young Jordanians. Unemployment is officially running at 23 per cent, one percentage point less than a record high last year.
The wedding will start with a religious ceremony at Zahran Palace in west Amman, a relatively affluent part of the city.
The palace is the same venue where Prince Hussein's grandfather, King Hussein, was first married in 1955 to the late Princess Dina. Prince Abdullah was also married at Zahran Palace.
After the union is religiously pronounced, Prince Hussein will then travel by car 15 kilometres farther west for a reception.
Ms Ghazi says she and her four sisters will gather at her mother's house in Jubeiha, a middle-class district in Amman, to watch the portions of the wedding that will be broadcast live.
Her sister Lina said they will order food.
“We are thinking of something Jordanian, like mansaf, since this will be a national occasion,” she said.
Many other Jordanians also plan to watch the wedding.
“I will be turning on the television for sure,” said Sana, a manager at an Amman bank.
“It is not every day that we get to see a historic occasion in Jordan.”
She recalled how she was glued to television when King Hussein died in 1999, with many of the world's leaders in attendance at his funeral.
“It is hard not to think of King Hussein when watching the wedding. He was so humble and he left such a legacy,” she said.
She pointed out that before King Abdullah got married, King Hussein went to ask on his behalf for the hand of the future queen when she was living with her family in north Amman.
Abu Raed, a mechanic who owns a small shop in east Amman, said he will probably join his wife and four children in watching the wedding on television, since June 1 has been declared a holiday.
“I will open the garage but most probably I will be done early, in time for the wedding,” he said.
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.
The biog
Age: 23
Occupation: Founder of the Studio, formerly an analyst at Cleveland Clinic Abu Dhabi
Education: Bachelor of science in industrial engineering
Favourite hobby: playing the piano
Favourite quote: "There is a key to every door and a dawn to every dark night"
Family: Married and with a daughter
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The Bio
Favourite place in UAE: Al Rams pearling village
What one book should everyone read: Any book written before electricity was invented. When a writer willingly worked under candlelight, you know he/she had a real passion for their craft
Your favourite type of pearl: All of them. No pearl looks the same and each carries its own unique characteristics, like humans
Best time to swim in the sea: When there is enough light to see beneath the surface
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
RESULTS
6.30pm Handicap (TB) US$65,000 (Dirt) 1,400m
Winner Golden Goal, Pat Dobbs (jockey), Doug Watson (trainer)
7.05pm Dubai Racing Club Classic Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (Turf) 2,410m
Winner: Walton Street, William Buick, Charlie Appleby.
7.40pm Dubai Stakes Group 3 (TB) $130,000 (D) 1,200m
Winner Switzerland, Tadhg O’Shea, Satish Seemar
8.15pm Singspiel Stakes Group 3 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,800m
Winner Lord Giltters, Adrie de Vries, David O’Meara
8.50pm Al Maktoum Challenge Round-1 (TB) $228,000 (D) 1,600m
Winner Military Law, Antonio Fresu, Musabah Al Muhairi.
9.25pm Al Fahidi Fort Group 2 (TB) $163,000 (T) 1,400m
Winner Land Of Legends, Frankie Dettori, Saeed bin Suroor
10pm Dubai Dash Listed Handicap (TB) $88,000 (T) 1,000m
Winner Equilateral, Frankie Dettori, Charles Hills.
WHAT IS A BLACK HOLE?
1. Black holes are objects whose gravity is so strong not even light can escape their pull
2. They can be created when massive stars collapse under their own weight
3. Large black holes can also be formed when smaller ones collide and merge
4. The biggest black holes lurk at the centre of many galaxies, including our own
5. Astronomers believe that when the universe was very young, black holes affected how galaxies formed
Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
Brief scoreline:
Liverpool 2
Keita 5', Firmino 26'
Porto 0
MATCH INFO
Fixture: Ukraine v Portugal, Monday, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: BeIN Sports
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
Scoreline
Swansea 2
Grimes 20' (pen), Celina, 29'
Man City 3
Silva 69', Nordfeldt 78' (og), Aguero 88'
The specs
Engine: 3.8-litre, twin-turbo V8
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The biog
Name: Fareed Lafta
Age: 40
From: Baghdad, Iraq
Mission: Promote world peace
Favourite poet: Al Mutanabbi
Role models: His parents
Read more about the coronavirus
'Project Power'
Stars: Jamie Foxx, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Dominique Fishback
Director: Henry Joost and Ariel Schulman
Rating: 3.5/5
'Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower'
Michael Beckley, Cornell Press
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
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- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
Defence review at a glance
• Increase defence spending to 2.5% of GDP by 2027 but given “turbulent times it may be necessary to go faster”
• Prioritise a shift towards working with AI and autonomous systems
• Invest in the resilience of military space systems.
• Number of active reserves should be increased by 20%
• More F-35 fighter jets required in the next decade
• New “hybrid Navy” with AUKUS submarines and autonomous vessels
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Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
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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.
