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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Sylvie Claire / July 21, 2024
Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky spoke on the phone on Friday, with the former US president claiming to have promised the Ukrainian president to “end the war” between Ukraine and Russia should he return to the White House. “As your next president of the United States, I will bring peace to the world and end the war that has cost so many lives,” said the Republican presidential candidate.
Donald Trump frequently claims that he would be able to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine very quickly on his return to power, but never provides details of how he would achieve this. Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed the phone call, during which he congratulated the billionaire on his official nomination the previous day as the Republican Party’s presidential candidate.
Donald Trump’s frequent praise of Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as his criticism of other Nato countries, is causing concern among Ukraine’s Western allies. In February, he threatened that, if he returned to the White House, he would no longer guarantee the protection of Atlantic Alliance countries against Russia if they did not pay their share, even claiming that he would “encourage” Moscow to attack them. The former American president also used his power over the Republicans to block a $61 billion military aid package for Kiev for months in Congress, which was finally adopted at the end of April.
In his posting on X on Friday, Volodymyr Zelensky said he had “agreed with President Trump to discuss, in a face-to-face meeting, the steps to be taken towards a just and lasting peace” in Ukraine.
World News
Former Ukrainian far-right MP murdered in Lviv: “All leads are being investigated, including Russia”
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Steph Deschamps / July 21, 2024
In a message on Telegram, the Ukrainian National Police said she had succumbed to her injuries in hospital after being the target of an assassination attempt.
“I always say that no place is safe in Ukraine,” lamented Lviv mayor Andriï Sadovy, denouncing a ‘heinous murder’ and offering his condolences to the victim’s relatives.
According to the Ukrainian Prosecutor’s Office, the attack took place on Friday evening, at around 7.30pm, when an unidentified individual fired at Irina Farion, seriously wounding her in the head. “All surveillance cameras are being checked, witnesses are being interviewed and several districts (of Lviv) are being examined. All leads are being investigated, including the one leading to Russia”, reacted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on X on Saturday.
Interior Minister Igor Klimenko told a briefing in Lviv on Friday evening that the suspected killer could have been lurking around Irina Farion’s home for several days.
According to him, investigators are currently focusing on the possibility of a murder motivated by a “personal grudge” linked to the victim’s activities, but are not ruling out a “commissioned assassination” either.
The 60-year-old language teacher and linguist was a member of parliament for the nationalist Svoboda party between 2012 and 2014.
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Sylvie Claire / July 18, 2024
At least six people died in a shopping mall fire on Wednesday in Zigong, southwest China, and thirty others were rescued, China’s state broadcaster CCTV said. “Rescue teams are continuing their search,” the media outlet added.
Images broadcast by the channel and others shared on social networks show thick black smoke rising from a building overlooking a shopping street in this city 1,600 kilometers from the capital Beijing, in the southwestern province of Sichuan.
The fire broke out in the early evening in a shopping mall at the foot of a 14-storey building, CCTV reported.
“At 8:20 pm, the fire was extinguished and 17 people were rescued. Others are still trapped, and rescue operations are continuing”, said the station in an initial report on the situation.
Fires and other fatal accidents are frequent in China, due to the sometimes lax application of safety standards. In January, at least 39 people perished in a store fire in central China. According to the authorities, the fire started in the basement of a store when workers “broke the rules” during construction work. At the time, Chinese President Xi Jinping called for lessons to be learned from the disaster to prevent further tragedies. The same month, a fire in a residential building claimed at least 15 lives.
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