Jordan's King Abdullah II on Thursday said he is seeking qualitative changes to the kingdom’s political system amid socio-economic turmoil.
The country has been ruled by the Hashemite monarchy for the past 100 years.
The king formed a mostly loyalist committee to come up with proposals for political reform centred on the 130-member parliament, which has little power in Jordan.
Last week, a tribal political figure called on his followers to challenge the monarch’s authority, prompting the largely pro-government parliament to remove him.
“We are intent on making a qualitative jump in the political and parliamentarian life,” the king said in a letter to the committee’s chairman, former prime minister Samir Al Rifai.
According to the royal court, the committee will be made up of 92 members, led by Mr Rifai.
Jordan is in a recession and unemployment is officially at a record 24 per cent. The government said last year it had increased the social assistance budget as more people sought support.
Several independent committees were formed to submit proposals for political reform since the king succeeded his father, the late King Hussein, in 1999. These were established mostly in times of political and economic uncertainty.
Power is concentrated with the king. Parliament, which is dominated by tribes, is a forum for government-sanctioned criticism. Jordan's tribes are also a main component of the security forces and largely employed by the state, as opposed to the private sector.
The king said the committee’s mission was to “modernise the political system” and come up with proposals for a new election law for the legislature.
Parliamentary seats are largely allocated to outlaying electoral districts that have relatively small populations.
The king instructed the committee to “give recommendations on modernising legislation that governs local government and enlarge the base of participation in decision-making”.
He did not give details but said he wanted to see a parliament based on blocs “with programmes” and progress “in the way the executive branch exercise its powers”.
On Monday, the monarch ordered an end to the current session of the sitting parliament.
The ruling came a day after parliament removed Osama Al Ajarmeh, a tribal deputy from the urban and agricultural region of Naour, south of Amman.
In a street address to his followers last week, Mr Al Ajarmeh made disparaging remarks about the king and called on his supporters to disobey the monarch.
At the end of April, the king released 16 tribe members from other regions who the authorities implied were involved in sedition.
The 16 were linked to Prince Hamzah bin Hussein, a half-brother of the king, who had sought to court the tribes.
__________
King Abdullah attends JAF ceremony
__________
A large proportion of Jordan’s tribes declared their allegiance to the Hashemites when King Abdullah I, the great grandfather of the current king, founded what would become the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan with British support in the early 1920s.
The tribes are concentrated mainly in the centre and south of Jordan. But a large proportion of the country’s population of 10 million people is of Palestinian origin.
The kingdom's Palestinian populations are mostly concentrated in urban areas in northern and central Jordan. Most of their ancestors fled the conflict that erupted after the creation of Israel in 1948 and during the 1967 war.
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THE BIO
Favourite book: ‘Purpose Driven Life’ by Rick Warren
Favourite travel destination: Switzerland
Hobbies: Travelling and following motivational speeches and speakers
Favourite place in UAE: Dubai Museum
South Africa v India schedule
Tests: 1st Test Jan 5-9, Cape Town; 2nd Test Jan 13-17, Centurion; 3rd Test Jan 24-28, Johannesburg
ODIs: 1st ODI Feb 1, Durban; 2nd ODI Feb 4, Centurion; 3rd ODI Feb 7, Cape Town; 4th ODI Feb 10, Johannesburg; 5th ODI Feb 13, Port Elizabeth; 6th ODI Feb 16, Centurion
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Jetour T1 specs
Engine: 2-litre turbocharged
Power: 254hp
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The story in numbers
18
This is how many recognised sects Lebanon is home to, along with about four million citizens
450,000
More than this many Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA in Lebanon, with about 45 per cent of them living in the country’s 12 refugee camps
1.5 million
There are just under 1 million Syrian refugees registered with the UN, although the government puts the figure upwards of 1.5m
73
The percentage of stateless people in Lebanon, who are not of Palestinian origin, born to a Lebanese mother, according to a 2012-2013 study by human rights organisation Frontiers Ruwad Association
18,000
The number of marriages recorded between Lebanese women and foreigners between the years 1995 and 2008, according to a 2009 study backed by the UN Development Programme
77,400
The number of people believed to be affected by the current nationality law, according to the 2009 UN study
4,926
This is how many Lebanese-Palestinian households there were in Lebanon in 2016, according to a census by the Lebanese-Palestinian dialogue committee
Company profile
Date started: 2015
Founder: John Tsioris and Ioanna Angelidaki
Based: Dubai
Sector: Online grocery delivery
Staff: 200
Funding: Undisclosed, but investors include the Jabbar Internet Group and Venture Friends
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West Brom 2 Liverpool 2
West Brom: Livermore (79'), Rondón (88' )
Liverpool: Ings (4'), Salah (72')
The five pillars of Islam
Multitasking pays off for money goals
Tackling money goals one at a time cost financial literacy expert Barbara O'Neill at least $1 million.
That's how much Ms O'Neill, a distinguished professor at Rutgers University in the US, figures she lost by starting saving for retirement only after she had created an emergency fund, bought a car with cash and purchased a home.
"I tell students that eventually, 30 years later, I hit the million-dollar mark, but I could've had $2 million," Ms O'Neill says.
Too often, financial experts say, people want to attack their money goals one at a time: "As soon as I pay off my credit card debt, then I'll start saving for a home," or, "As soon as I pay off my student loan debt, then I'll start saving for retirement"."
People do not realise how costly the words "as soon as" can be. Paying off debt is a worthy goal, but it should not come at the expense of other goals, particularly saving for retirement. The sooner money is contributed, the longer it can benefit from compounded returns. Compounded returns are when your investment gains earn their own gains, which can dramatically increase your balances over time.
"By putting off saving for the future, you are really inhibiting yourself from benefiting from that wonderful magic," says Kimberly Zimmerman Rand , an accredited financial counsellor and principal at Dragonfly Financial Solutions in Boston. "If you can start saving today ... you are going to have a lot more five years from now than if you decide to pay off debt for three years and start saving in year four."
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Specs
Engine: 51.5kW electric motor
Range: 400km
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Engine: Electric single motor (96kW), twin motor (106kW) and twin motor performance (106kW)
Power: 333hp, 449hp, 680hp
Torque: 480Nm, 670Nm, 870Nm
On sale: Later in 2025 or early 2026, depending on region
Price: Exact regional pricing TBA
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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Who are the Sacklers?
The Sackler family is a transatlantic dynasty that owns Purdue Pharma, which manufactures and markets OxyContin, one of the drugs at the centre of America's opioids crisis. The family is well known for their generous philanthropy towards the world's top cultural institutions, including Guggenheim Museum, the National Portrait Gallery, Tate in Britain, Yale University and the Serpentine Gallery, to name a few. Two branches of the family control Purdue Pharma.
Isaac Sackler and Sophie Greenberg were Jewish immigrants who arrived in New York before the First World War. They had three sons. The first, Arthur, died before OxyContin was invented. The second, Mortimer, who died aged 93 in 2010, was a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma. The third, Raymond, died aged 97 in 2017 and was also a former chief executive of Purdue Pharma.
It was Arthur, a psychiatrist and pharmaceutical marketeer, who started the family business dynasty. He and his brothers bought a small company called Purdue Frederick; among their first products were laxatives and prescription earwax remover.
Arthur's branch of the family has not been involved in Purdue for many years and his daughter, Elizabeth, has spoken out against it, saying the company's role in America's drugs crisis is "morally abhorrent".
The lawsuits that were brought by the attorneys general of New York and Massachussetts named eight Sacklers. This includes Kathe, Mortimer, Richard, Jonathan and Ilene Sackler Lefcourt, who are all the children of either Mortimer or Raymond. Then there's Theresa Sackler, who is Mortimer senior's widow; Beverly, Raymond's widow; and David Sackler, Raymond's grandson.
Members of the Sackler family are rarely seen in public.
Like a Fading Shadow
Antonio Muñoz Molina
Translated from the Spanish by Camilo A. Ramirez
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Dhadak
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Stars: 3
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Lamsa
Founder: Badr Ward
Launched: 2014
Employees: 60
Based: Abu Dhabi
Sector: EdTech
Funding to date: $15 million
Lexus LX700h specs
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Power: 464hp at 5,200rpm
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Transmission: 10-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
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PROFILE OF INVYGO
Started: 2018
Founders: Eslam Hussein and Pulkit Ganjoo
Based: Dubai
Sector: Transport
Size: 9 employees
Investment: $1,275,000
Investors: Class 5 Global, Equitrust, Gulf Islamic Investments, Kairos K50 and William Zeqiri
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
OPINIONS ON PALESTINE & ISRAEL
INDIA%20SQUAD
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Zayed Sustainability Prize
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First Job: Abu Dhabi Department of Petroleum in 1974
Current role: Chairperson of Al Maskari Holding since 2008
Career high: Regularly cited on Forbes list of 100 most powerful Arab Businesswomen
Achievement: Helped establish Al Maskari Medical Centre in 1969 in Abu Dhabi’s Western Region
Future plan: Will now concentrate on her charitable work
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The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
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Asia Cup 2018 Qualifier
Sunday's results:
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Tuesday fixtures:
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Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
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