World News
In Dubai, temple of luxury, free bread distributors for the poorest
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Steph Deschamps / September 27, 2022
In the face of soaring inflation, free bread machines for the poorest have appeared in Dubai, a wealthy Gulf emirate where millionaires, influencers and poor migrant workers live side by side.
The city, which imports almost all of its food, has not escaped the soaring prices, a global trend exacerbated by the war in Ukraine.
In front of one of the ten vending machines installed this week in supermarkets, Bigandar carefully observes the touch screen allowing him to choose between Arabic bread, sandwich bread or chapatis (Indian pancakes).
The credit card reader is not used to pay but to make donations.
A friend told me that there was free bread, so I came”, tells AFP this young Nepalese who did not want to give his full name.
Like millions of Asian immigrants, he came to try his luck in the city of excess, located in the United Arab Emirates.
According to the Dubai Statistics Centre, the food price index rose by 8.75% in July, on an annual basis, while the cost of transport jumped by more than 38%.
The initiative on bread machines was initiated by the foundation of the ruler of Dubai, Mohammed ben Rashid al-Maktoum.
The idea is to reach out to disadvantaged families and workers before they come to us,” director Zeïnab Joumaa al-Tamimi told AFP.
Any person in need can now get a package of four reheated rolls, in less than two minutes, just “by pressing a button”, she said.
The United Arab Emirates, a rich oil state, has a population of nearly 10 million people, about 90% of whom are foreigners, middle-class expatriates and mostly poor workers from Asia and Africa.
– Aid reserved for Emiratis –
Less rich in hydrocarbons than the capital Abu Dhabi, Dubai relies on this army of workers to build skyscrapers or to support the services sector, from real estate to luxury tourism, for which it is known.
Employed as a car washer for three years, Bigandar says he is paid three dirhams (0.84 euro cents) per vehicle, and relies on tips from customers to generate 700 to 1,000 dirhams a month (between 195 and 280 euros).
“My employer covers housing and transportation, but not food,” he says.
In a sign of the growing difficulties of the foreign workforce, a rare strike was held in May by delivery workers demanding better wages in the face of rising fuel prices.
In July, the authorities announced a doubling of social assistance, but only for the handful of Emirati families with incomes below 25,000 dirhams per month (about ‘7,000), considered to be disadvantaged households. This aid does not include foreigners.
“We are living in a particular economic situation, because of inflation and the rise in interest rates,” Fadi Alrasheed, a Jordanian executive who has been an expatriate in Dubai for 20 years, told AFP.
There are many people with low salaries who, with the rising cost of living, can no longer meet all their needs,” he said, welcoming the free bread initiative.
According to the latest UN report on the state of migration in the world, the United Arab Emirates is home to nearly 8.72 million migrants, mainly from India, Bangladesh and Pakistan.
Hentley and Partners counted more than 68,000 millionaires and some 13 billionaires in Dubai, ranked the 23rd richest city in the world.
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Eva Deschamps / October 31, 2023
Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas on October 7, 63 employees of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) have already lost their lives in the Gaza Strip. Ten aid workers have been killed in the last 72 hours, according to this new toll released by the agency on its website on Monday.
At least 22 UNRWA staff were also injured. Since October 7, 44 UNRWA facilities have also been destroyed. Of its 22 health centers, only nine are still operational, the UN agency said, warning that the provision of health care is made even more difficult by the very low fuel supply.
The UN agency had previously reported that several of its warehouses had been looted. “Due to the very limited aid available and overcrowded shelters, growing tensions are being reported within the displaced communities,” it stressed. Some 672,000 refugees are living in 149 UNRWA facilities across the Gaza Strip, “in increasingly difficult conditions”. “The ability to provide vital assistance was further hampered by the 36-hour communications blackout between October 27 and 29”, UNRWA added.
In all, an estimated 1.4 million people have been displaced in the Gaza Strip. Over 120,000 of them have taken refuge in public buildings such as hospitals and schools.
“The aid currently available is insufficient to meet the most basic needs of displaced people and the communities hosting them”, warns the UN agency.
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Sylvie Claire / October 31, 2023
This research into mammal reproduction in space could prove crucial for future solar system exploration missions.
Mouse embryos were grown on board the International Space Station (ISS) and developed normally, according to a Japanese study published in the scientific journal “iScience” on Saturday, October 28.
This is “the very first study to show that mammals might be able to thrive in space”, claim Yamanashi University and the Riken National Research Institute.
The researchers, including Teruhiko Wakayama, a professor at Yamanashi University’s Center for Advanced Biotechnology, and a team from the Japanese space agency Jaxa, sent frozen mouse embryos aboard a rocket to the ISS in August 2021. The astronauts thawed the embryos at an early stage, using a specially designed device, and cultured them on board the station for four days.
The experiment “clearly demonstrated that gravity had no significant effect”, noted the researchers. After analyzing the blastocysts (cells that develop into fetuses and placentas) that were returned to their laboratories on Earth, they observed no particular changes in the state of DNA and genes.
“In the future, it will be necessary to transplant blastocysts grown in microgravity on the ISS into mice to see if the mice can give birth,” in order to confirm that the blastocysts are normal, say Yamanashi University and the Riken Institute.
This research could prove crucial for future space exploration and colonization missions. As part of its Artemis program, NASA plans to send humans back to the Moon to learn how to live there in the long term, and to prepare for a trip to Mars in the late 2030s.
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Steph Deschamps / October 25, 2023
The world’s oldest dog died last weekend in Portugal. Bobi, a purebred Rafeiro de l’Alentejo, was 31 years and 165 days old, reports the British public broadcaster BBC on Monday.
Last February, Bobi entered the Guinness Book of Records as not only the oldest living dog, but also the oldest dog of all time.
The old record had been held for almost 100 years by Bluey from Australia. He died in 1939 at the age of 29 years and five months.
Bobi has spent his entire life with the Costa family in the village of Conqueiros, near the west coast of Portugal.
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