For anyone trying to understand the widespread social anger seen in Sri Lanka in recent days, Gota-Go village is a good place to start. The steadily growing collection of tents pitched outside President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's office in the capital Colombo serves as a rallying point for thousands of people that have taken to the streets. On Monday, Christian nuns marched in protest by the site, as Buddhist monks and Muslim men joined nearby. All are expressing anger at high inflation, a lack of services and utilities, poor health care and a wider economic crisis.
Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, the President's brother, has offered to talk to protesters, but the situation is unlikely to improve soon. As of yet, no viable opposition can be found and faltering state institutions and wider mismanagement and corruption show no signs of abating.
Looming over all of this is an impending default on foreign debt repayments, which, if it happens, will worsen the crisis. The situation became more critical when the country's central bank governor said on Tuesday that Sri Lanka will temporarily suspend payments, so that its limited foreign reserves could be spent on essential imports.
Next week, the country will start talks with the IMF to ease the situation. More than Sri Lanka will be on IMF officials’ minds, however, as the fund confronts similar situations in emerging economies across the globe. The World Bank has said that as many as 12 developing countries could be unable to service foreign debt over the next year.
It is perhaps unsurprising. The World Bank also reports that Covid-19 caused global indebtedness to rise to a 50-year high. If the pandemic laid the groundwork, the war in Ukraine could become the perfect trigger for an acute crisis in a number of countries, as supply chains are further strained and commodity prices continue escalating. Developing economies account for 40 per cent of global GDP, heightening the risk of contagion to the rest of the world.
Without managing what they owe, at-risk economies will spend increasingly more of their already-low national income on debt repayments, not development. Once the burden becomes too great, escaping a vicious cycle of defaults becomes difficult. Lebanon, which defaulted in March 2020 and whose financial crisis continues to worsen, is a good example. The over-reliance on imports also makes the situation worse for many of these countries.
Solutions are complex and unattractive for corrupt or incompetent governments. At home, coffers need to be filled, often by raising taxes, which then have to be collected more efficiently from citizens and made harder to dodge by large companies profiting from lax regulation.
But outside their control are international financial systems that need to evolve to work better. First, expert-led advice should be offered early on to break unsustainable cycles and boost resilience in the face of unpredictable global crises. The operations of international organisations must also evolve. The IMF's debt service relief programme spent billions throughout the pandemic and helped 90 countries, hugely important in maintaining as much economic stability as possible. It should be extended as part of a longer-term assessment of where the world's economy is today.
It is clear that Covid-19 is still a health crisis, which is why it should still be considered an economic one, too. Gota-Go village might be a very local protest, but many of the problems that pushed people to set it up are replicated in a number of countries around the world. And if its organisers are not listened to, the ensuing economic instability from which they are suffering might go global, too.
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MOUNTAINHEAD REVIEW
Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
UK-EU trade at a glance
EU fishing vessels guaranteed access to UK waters for 12 years
Co-operation on security initiatives and procurement of defence products
Youth experience scheme to work, study or volunteer in UK and EU countries
Smoother border management with use of e-gates
Cutting red tape on import and export of food
Company%20Profile
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Places to go for free coffee
- Cherish Cafe Dubai, Dubai Investment Park, are giving away free coffees all day.
- La Terrace, Four Points by Sheraton Bur Dubai, are serving their first 50 guests one coffee and four bite-sized cakes
- Wild & The Moon will be giving away a free espresso with every purchase on International Coffee Day
- Orange Wheels welcome parents are to sit, relax and enjoy goodies at ‘Café O’ along with a free coffee
The specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 261hp at 5,500rpm
Torque: 405Nm at 1,750-3,500rpm
Transmission: 9-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 6.9L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh117,059
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
SPECS%3A%20Polestar%203
%3Cp%3E%3Cstrong%3EEngine%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ELong-range%20dual%20motor%20with%20400V%20battery%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPower%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E360kW%20%2F%20483bhp%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETorque%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3E840Nm%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETransmission%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESingle-speed%20automatic%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EMax%20touring%20range%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20628km%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3E0-100km%2Fh%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%204.7sec%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3ETop%20speed%3A%3C%2Fstrong%3E%20210kph%20%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EPrice%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3EFrom%20Dh360%2C000%3Cbr%3E%3Cstrong%3EOn%20sale%3A%20%3C%2Fstrong%3ESeptember%3Cbr%3E%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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.
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
Available: Now
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
How to turn your property into a holiday home
- Ensure decoration and styling – and portal photography – quality is high to achieve maximum rates.
- Research equivalent Airbnb homes in your location to ensure competitiveness.
- Post on all relevant platforms to reach the widest audience; whether you let personally or via an agency know your potential guest profile – aiming for the wrong demographic may leave your property empty.
- Factor in costs when working out if holiday letting is beneficial. The annual DCTM fee runs from Dh370 for a one-bedroom flat to Dh1,200. Tourism tax is Dh10-15 per bedroom, per night.
- Check your management company has a physical office, a valid DTCM licence and is licencing your property and paying tourism taxes. For transparency, regularly view your booking calendar.
Warlight,
Michael Ondaatje, Knopf
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Honeymoonish
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Real Madrid 1
Ronaldo (87')
Athletic Bilbao 1
Williams (14')
The 12
England
Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United, Tottenham Hotspur
Italy
AC Milan, Inter Milan, Juventus
Spain
Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Real Madrid
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Our legal advisor
Ahmad El Sayed is Senior Associate at Charles Russell Speechlys, a law firm headquartered in London with offices in the UK, Europe, the Middle East and Hong Kong.
Experience: Commercial litigator who has assisted clients with overseas judgments before UAE courts. His specialties are cases related to banking, real estate, shareholder disputes, company liquidations and criminal matters as well as employment related litigation.
Education: Sagesse University, Beirut, Lebanon, in 2005.
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History's medical milestones
1799 - First small pox vaccine administered
1846 - First public demonstration of anaesthesia in surgery
1861 - Louis Pasteur published his germ theory which proved that bacteria caused diseases
1895 - Discovery of x-rays
1923 - Heart valve surgery performed successfully for first time
1928 - Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin
1953 - Structure of DNA discovered
1952 - First organ transplant - a kidney - takes place
1954 - Clinical trials of birth control pill
1979 - MRI, or magnetic resonance imaging, scanned used to diagnose illness and injury.
1998 - The first adult live-donor liver transplant is carried out
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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
Where to submit a sample
Volunteers of all ages can submit DNA samples at centres across Abu Dhabi, including: Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Centre (Adnec), Biogenix Labs in Masdar City, NMC Royal Hospital in Khalifa City, NMC Royal Medical Centre, Abu Dhabi, NMC Royal Women's Hospital, Bareen International Hospital, Al Towayya in Al Ain, NMC Specialty Hospital, Al Ain
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From Zero
Artist: Linkin Park
Label: Warner Records
Number of tracks: 11
Rating: 4/5
Our legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
On racial profiling at airports
