Heard the one about the couple that divorced over a camel? How Al Jazira sports club fans turned to Twitter to keep from crying and the outpouring of hope – and tweets – in support of women on their day. It’s been an emotional week on social media. And one with very long hashtags.
Camel love
#Themanwhodivorcedhis wifeoveracamel had the twitterverse very divided. It was admittedly a bizarre story with the man reportedly divorcing his wife because of her stated love for a camel. The Saudi couple were visiting the woman’s family home in Riyadh and the man is said to have been” flirting” with his wife when she told him that she loved her father’s camel, Al Waleef, more than him. This infuriated the man and he proceeded to divorce her. Did he do right? Twitter wasn’t sure.
@dr_khalidalsaud tweeted: “This man is silly, he doesn’t want to handle his responsibilities. Does he think that women are a cheap product to trade which you can return and exchange.”
Said Abdullah @abdullah_alweet said he was right to end an “unworthy relationship”. And he added: “Thanks to the camel”.
Bushra @Rt_Besh1992 said she was utterly shocked: “Oh God, oh God, I hope these are only rumours, the world is becoming more shocking.
@i_brb, the Twitter handle of a Saudi Arabian man who calls himself Antonio, tweeted a jokey comment to the newly divorced wife: “You can snuggle with your camel at night.”
@MrAbdoon Othman commented on the absurdities of the reported sequence of events: “Ha Ha Ha the camel is the only sane one in this story.”
@Retwetkuwaity piously thanked God for the blessing of being born human and pointed out that “the best blessing is having a brain”.
It was not clear if this was a swipe at the main protagonists in the Saudi story.
Al Ain vs Al Jazira
Another long hashtag and very deeply felt. #Wewill bebackintheleadandAlAinwillcry was created by fans of Al Jazira Sports Club to defend their team – and console it and themselves – for losing the match with Al Ain 2-1 in the Arabian Gulf League.
Mohammed @HamOdElhammadi sarcastically tweeted a photo that highlighted some of the history of the emirates’ leagues. Al Ain have won 11 times and Al Jazira just once, he wrote.
He said: “They created such a long hash tag, they made me feel like they’ve been winning the league every two years. Check the difference between us and them.”
Said Ahmed @3inawy_AD tweeted: “Hahahaha such a funny hash tag, like its funny audience.”
Other Al Ain Club fans focused on the length of the hashtag as well.
@sho0o0_88 wrote: “Al Jazira hash tags are more than the number of its audience.”
@bujesm asked Al Jazira fans how they wound up with such a hashtag: “Which private tutor gave you this hash tag?”
Woman ... she’s life
In Arabic, just as much as in English, social media marked International Women’s Day, which fell on Sunday this year. Many highlighted the achievements of women around the world and many others called for gender equality.
@abeer_uae was one of many Twitter-users who congratulated “all women and mothers” on their special day.
@wadha909 tweeted a photo that showed the various stages of a woman’s life – girlhood through to marriage, motherhood and old age – and urged people to appreciate each phase and role: “ Your mother, sister, wife, daughter. She’s life.”
The diversity of women’s roles was quite a popular theme, with @MeeraAlajmani paying tribute to the sisterhood and the men who helped: “A tribute to each woman who excelled in her workplace, to every mother who made the effort to raise her kids and to every man who supported women.”
Dr Abdulsalam praised the UAE’s rulers for helping women achieve greater prominence than before: “We thank God and our rulers’ wisdom, that women in the UAE have gained their place and their rights.”
#arabictrending
Sarah Khamis is The National’s social media editor
salalawi@thenational.ae
On Twitter: @SarahKhamisUAE
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Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
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MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League semi-final, second leg
Real Madrid (2) v Bayern Munich (1)
Where: Santiago Bernabeu, Madrid
When: 10.45pm, Tuesday
Watch Live: beIN Sports HD
What can you do?
Document everything immediately; including dates, times, locations and witnesses
Seek professional advice from a legal expert
You can report an incident to HR or an immediate supervisor
You can use the Ministry of Human Resources and Emiratisation’s dedicated hotline
In criminal cases, you can contact the police for additional support
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Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
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Killing of Qassem Suleimani
How to play the stock market recovery in 2021?
If you are looking to build your long-term wealth in 2021 and beyond, the stock market is still the best place to do it as equities powered on despite the pandemic.
Investing in individual stocks is not for everyone and most private investors should stick to mutual funds and ETFs, but there are some thrilling opportunities for those who understand the risks.
Peter Garnry, head of equity strategy at Saxo Bank, says the 20 best-performing US and European stocks have delivered an average return year-to-date of 148 per cent, measured in local currency terms.
Online marketplace Etsy was the best performer with a return of 330.6 per cent, followed by communications software company Sinch (315.4 per cent), online supermarket HelloFresh (232.8 per cent) and fuel cells specialist NEL (191.7 per cent).
Mr Garnry says digital companies benefited from the lockdown, while green energy firms flew as efforts to combat climate change were ramped up, helped in part by the European Union’s green deal.
Electric car company Tesla would be on the list if it had been part of the S&P 500 Index, but it only joined on December 21. “Tesla has become one of the most valuable companies in the world this year as demand for electric vehicles has grown dramatically,” Mr Garnry says.
By contrast, the 20 worst-performing European stocks fell 54 per cent on average, with European banks hit by the economic fallout from the pandemic, while cruise liners and airline stocks suffered due to travel restrictions.
As demand for energy fell, the oil and gas industry had a tough year, too.
Mr Garnry says the biggest story this year was the “absolute crunch” in so-called value stocks, companies that trade at low valuations compared to their earnings and growth potential.
He says they are “heavily tilted towards financials, miners, energy, utilities and industrials, which have all been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic”. “The last year saw these cheap stocks become cheaper and expensive stocks have become more expensive.”
This has triggered excited talk about the “great value rotation” but Mr Garnry remains sceptical. “We need to see a breakout of interest rates combined with higher inflation before we join the crowd.”
Always remember that past performance is not a guarantee of future returns. Last year’s winners often turn out to be this year’s losers, and vice-versa.
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
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.
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
Zimbabwe v UAE, ODI series
All matches at the Harare Sports Club:
1st ODI, Wednesday, April 10
2nd ODI, Friday, April 12
3rd ODI, Sunday, April 14
4th ODI, Tuesday, April 16
UAE squad: Mohammed Naveed (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Ashfaq Ahmed, Shaiman Anwar, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Chirag Suri, Mohammed Boota, Ghulam Shabber, Sultan Ahmed, Imran Haider, Amir Hayat, Zahoor Khan, Qadeer Ahmed
List of alleged parties
May 15 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'work meeting' with at
least 17 staff members
May 20 2020: PM and Carrie attend 'bring your own booze'
party
Nov 27 2020: PM gives speech at leaving do for his staff
Dec 10 2020: Staff party held by then-education secretary
Gavin Williamson
Dec 13 2020: PM and Carrie throw a flat party
Dec 14 2020: London mayor candidate Shaun Bailey holds staff party at Conservative
Party headquarters
Dec 15 2020: PM takes part in a staff quiz
Dec 18 2020: Downing Street Christmas party
Zayed Sustainability Prize
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
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 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
KILLING OF QASSEM SULEIMANI
Huddersfield Town permanent signings:
- Steve Mounie (striker): signed from Montpellier for £11 million
- Tom Ince (winger): signed from Derby County for £7.7m
- Aaron Mooy (midfielder): signed from Manchester City for £7.7m
- Laurent Depoitre (striker): signed from Porto for £3.4m
- Scott Malone (defender): signed from Fulham for £3.3m
- Zanka (defender): signed from Copenhagen for £2.3m
- Elias Kachunga (winger): signed for Ingolstadt for £1.1m
- Danny WIlliams (midfielder): signed from Reading on a free transfer
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'Top Gun: Maverick'
Rating: 4/5
Directed by: Joseph Kosinski
Starring: Tom Cruise, Val Kilmer, Jennifer Connelly, Jon Hamm, Miles Teller, Glen Powell, Ed Harris
The specs
- Engine: 3.9-litre twin-turbo V8
- Power: 640hp
- Torque: 760nm
- On sale: 2026
- Price: Not announced yet
Points about the fast fashion industry Celine Hajjar wants everyone to know
- Fast fashion is responsible for up to 10 per cent of global carbon emissions
- Fast fashion is responsible for 24 per cent of the world's insecticides
- Synthetic fibres that make up the average garment can take hundreds of years to biodegrade
- Fast fashion labour workers make 80 per cent less than the required salary to live
- 27 million fast fashion workers worldwide suffer from work-related illnesses and diseases
- Hundreds of thousands of fast fashion labourers work without rights or protection and 80 per cent of them are women
Sholto Byrnes on Myanmar politics
More on Coronavirus in France
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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