More people joined sporadic demonstrations against Syrian President Bashar Al Assad on Monday in the mostly Druze governorate of Suweida, partly prompted by the sharp deterioration in economic conditions across regime areas.
The demonstrations in the region near the border with Jordan entered their second day as the exchange rate of the Syrian pound crossed the 3,000 pound barrier against the dollar, compared with 2,000 to the dollar last week.
The lack of response so far by a regime whose indelible hallmark for the last five decades has been to deal dissent an iron fist indicates possible hesitation among Mr Assad and his inner circle.
They might not want to employ the same violent tactics that crushed the initially peaceful demonstrators at the outbreak of the Syrian revolt in March 2011, as the economy today is far worse, and those who are suffering the deterioration include minority communities the Alawite-dominated regime regards as loyalist.
A citizen journalists’ site broadcast footage on Monday of young men and women chanting “Freedom, Bashar out” in main streets of Suweida city.
Suwayda24 said the demonstrations lasted one hour and although there were security cars, the forces stayed in their vehicles.
The demonstrators appeared to double in number from the 100 or so youngsters who marched in Suweida on Sunday, and they were joined by older people, the footage showed.
The marchers repeated the slogan “The people want the downfall of the regime”, which was the motto nine years ago of the peaceful Syrian revolt, itself inspired by the uprisings in Tunisia and across the region.
Almost two-third of Syria’s 600,000 Druze live in Suweida, an agricultural province. The country’s population is 19.5 million, according to the CIA Factbook.
The regime placated a significant proportion of the Druze in the last nine years by granting them de facto exemption from conscription, but the Druze armed actors in the governorate are not all pro-regime, and the community, as a whole, is heavily armed.
Mazen Ezzi, a Syrian political analyst who is in contact with some of the demonstrators, said the young people who started the protests had not expected that security forces would not crack down on them.
“The regime will respond. So far it does not know how,” Mr Ezzi said, adding that the any violent action by the regime would upset societal and military balances in Suweida that had worked in its favour.
In January, when the Syrian pound fell sharply to 1,400 to the dollar, demonstrations broke out in Suweida, but they were contained by the regime, which briefly forced merchants to reduce price of basic goods.
The currency downfall is mainly tied to the financial crisis in Lebanon and the economic repercussions of the coronavirus, as well as expanded US penalties against the regime.
But outrage in Suweida and in other areas under the regime’s grip appears to have been exacerbated by a feud that broke into the open last month between the president and his billionaire cousin, Rami Makhlouf.
The rift is revealing some of the extent of the billions of dollars in liquid assets that financiers say Mr Makhlouf has parked on behalf of Mr Assad in Syria and abroad.
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.
Water waste
In the UAE’s arid climate, small shrubs, bushes and flower beds usually require about six litres of water per square metre, daily. That increases to 12 litres per square metre a day for small trees, and 300 litres for palm trees.
Horticulturists suggest the best time for watering is before 8am or after 6pm, when water won't be dried up by the sun.
A global report published by the Water Resources Institute in August, ranked the UAE 10th out of 164 nations where water supplies are most stretched.
The Emirates is the world’s third largest per capita water consumer after the US and Canada.
Fitness problems in men's tennis
Andy Murray - hip
Novak Djokovic - elbow
Roger Federer - back
Stan Wawrinka - knee
Kei Nishikori - wrist
Marin Cilic - adductor
Lexus LX700h specs
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Fuel consumption: 11.7L/100km
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The past winners
2009 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2010 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2011 - Lewis Hamilton (McLaren)
2012 - Kimi Raikkonen (Lotus)
2013 - Sebastian Vettel (Red Bull)
2014 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2015 - Nico Rosberg (Mercedes)
2016 - Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
2017 - Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes)
ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
MATCH INFO
Uefa Champions League final:
Who: Real Madrid v Liverpool
Where: NSC Olimpiyskiy Stadium, Kiev, Ukraine
When: Saturday, May 26, 10.45pm (UAE)
TV: Match on BeIN Sports
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
UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
The Matrix Resurrections
Director: Lana Wachowski
Stars: Keanu Reeves, Carrie-Anne Moss, Jessica Henwick
Rating:****
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The biog
Favourite colour: Brown
Favourite Movie: Resident Evil
Hobbies: Painting, Cooking, Imitating Voices
Favourite food: Pizza
Trivia: Was the voice of three characters in the Emirati animation, Shaabiyat Al Cartoon
MATCH INFO
Red Star Belgrade v Tottenham Hotspur, midnight (Thursday), UAE
Our family matters legal consultant
Name: Hassan Mohsen Elhais
Position: legal consultant with Al Rowaad Advocates and Legal Consultants.
Yemen's Bahais and the charges they often face
The Baha'i faith was made known in Yemen in the 19th century, first introduced by an Iranian man named Ali Muhammad Al Shirazi, considered the Herald of the Baha'i faith in 1844.
The Baha'i faith has had a growing number of followers in recent years despite persecution in Yemen and Iran.
Today, some 2,000 Baha'is reside in Yemen, according to Insaf.
"The 24 defendants represented by the House of Justice, which has intelligence outfits from the uS and the UK working to carry out an espionage scheme in Yemen under the guise of religion.. aimed to impant and found the Bahai sect on Yemeni soil by bringing foreign Bahais from abroad and homing them in Yemen," the charge sheet said.
Baha'Ullah, the founder of the Bahai faith, was exiled by the Ottoman Empire in 1868 from Iran to what is now Israel. Now, the Bahai faith's highest governing body, known as the Universal House of Justice, is based in the Israeli city of Haifa, which the Bahais turn towards during prayer.
The Houthis cite this as collective "evidence" of Bahai "links" to Israel - which the Houthis consider their enemy.
Brief scores:
Manchester City 3
Aguero 1', 44', 61'
Arsenal 1
Koscielny 11'
Man of the match: Sergio Aguero (Manchester City)
RESULT
Everton 2 Huddersfield Town 0
Everton: Sigurdsson (47'), Calvert-Lewin (73')
Man of the Match: Dominic Calvert-Lewin (Everton)
The specs
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Brief scoreline:
Manchester United 2
Rashford 28', Martial 72'
Watford 1
Doucoure 90'
What is graphene?
Graphene is a single layer of carbon atoms arranged like honeycomb.
It was discovered in 2004, when Russian-born Manchester scientists Andrei Geim and Kostya Novoselov were "playing about" with sticky tape and graphite - the material used as "lead" in pencils.
Placing the tape on the graphite and peeling it, they managed to rip off thin flakes of carbon. In the beginning they got flakes consisting of many layers of graphene. But as they repeated the process many times, the flakes got thinner.
By separating the graphite fragments repeatedly, they managed to create flakes that were just one atom thick. Their experiment had led to graphene being isolated for the very first time.
At the time, many believed it was impossible for such thin crystalline materials to be stable. But examined under a microscope, the material remained stable, and when tested was found to have incredible properties.
It is many times times stronger than steel, yet incredibly lightweight and flexible. It is electrically and thermally conductive but also transparent. The world's first 2D material, it is one million times thinner than the diameter of a single human hair.
But the 'sticky tape' method would not work on an industrial scale. Since then, scientists have been working on manufacturing graphene, to make use of its incredible properties.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics. Their discovery meant physicists could study a new class of two-dimensional materials with unique properties.
