The UAE changes the weekend to compete with Saudi Arabia - Financial Times

  • Time:May 16
  • Written : smartwearsonline
  • Category:Article

British newspapers discussed the UAE's decision to change the weekend and its relationship to "competition with Saudi Arabia". The raging conflict between Russia and the West over Ukraine, Britain's handling of the Afghanistan crisis, and the discovery of a hidden omicron mutant that cannot be detected by normal PCR analysis.

The Financial Times spoke about the impact of the UAE's decision to change the weekend from Friday to Saturday and Sunday, and the economic dimensions of the decision, which will make the working week shorter.

The writer Simeon Kerr, from Dubai, said that the UAE will make the work week four and a half days, starting next January, to coincide with the official holiday for global markets "to boost the economy and attract expatriates."

This step is the latest in a series of changes in the UAE to make itself more attractive to expatriate employees, enhance its recovery from the Corona epidemic and better compete with Saudi Arabia, according to the writer.

He said changes have accelerated in the UAE since neighboring Saudi Arabia, which is implementing its own social and economic reforms, began attracting some of the businesses and sectors that have thrived for decades in the Emirates.

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The writer adds that Emirati officials have ignored concerns about increased regional economic competition. "The competition is good (what) it makes us strive to improve," one said.

The move, which the UAE says is the first global shift away from the standard five-day week, will apply to all federal emirates, which will work from 7.30 am to 3:30 pm from Monday to Thursday, and from 7.30 am until 12 pm on Friday .

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The UAE government said in a statement that the changes to the working week, which currently extends from Sunday to Thursday, aim to "enhance the balance between work and personal life and enhance social welfare, while increasing performance to enhance the economic competitiveness of the UAE."

The statement added that employees will be able to work from home on Fridays or arrange working hours on a flexible basis, and that the Friday sermon and Friday prayers will start at 1.15 pm in all seven emirates.

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The shift, which was first proposed earlier this year, has drawn criticism and resistance from some conservative segments. The government tried to contain the situation in May, describing news on social media of a change at the weekend as rumors and "fake news".

Officials plan to press ahead with the changes, as Abu Dhabi seeks to modernize its economy and diversify away from dependence on oil.

"The message being sent is clear: this is no longer an Islamic state, but an international state where all religions coexist," the writer quoted a senior businessman as saying.

Why does Putin care about Ukraine?

The Financial Times also has an article on the tension between Russia and the West over Ukraine and why Russian Vladimir Putin is interested in having his country in this neighboring country.

Writer Gedwin Rachman believes that the Russian president's historical nostalgia for the past and his fear of democracy is causing a new crisis.

The writer says that President Putin published an article of five thousand words last July entitled "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians", filled with declarations of eternal love for Ukrainians, along with threats of violence if there is no mutual love.

The writer adds that the Ukrainians are portrayed in various ways as blood brothers of the Russians and at the same time being neo-Nazis.

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Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine, mocked Putin's long article. But what it says seems deeply disturbing when read alongside the apparent preparations in Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine. Nearly 90,000 Russian soldiers, in addition to tanks and artillery, are now deployed near the Ukrainian border. Putin delivered a threatening speech last week, in which he warned the West against crossing Russia's "red lines," according to the writer.

The writer notes that US President Joe Biden's administration officials are aware that Russia plans to invade Ukraine "as soon as possible in early 2022." He says policymakers in Washington and London "fear that there is real aggressive intent in the Kremlin coming from the top of power there."

In search of the sources of Russian behavior, the writer says that Western officials refer to Putin's speech in July, which is a true expression of his established views, and emphasizes the ties of history, language, ethnicity and religion that link Russia and Ukraine, and that these links predate the Soviet Union for a long time.

In fact, Putin, accused of Soviet nostalgia, condemns the Soviet leaders who put the "most dangerous time bomb" in the framework of relations between Russia and Ukraine, by granting any part of the Soviet Union the right to secede from the union, according to the writer who pointed to Putin's words angrily. Russia has been robbed, indeed.

One of the reasons he wants to take back Ukraine is that he sees it as a failed state, misled by foreign plotters. He notes that the West is playing a "dangerous geopolitical game" and intends to use Ukraine "as a springboard against Russia," according to the writer.

Rachman says Putin clearly uses this argument to portray Russia's invasion of Ukraine as defensive, and to avoid conflict, the Russians demand explicit guarantees that Ukraine will never join NATO.

Britain " failed " in Afghanistan

The writer Raphael Behr, in an opinion article in the Guardian, criticized the performance of the British government headed by Boris Johnson, and what he described as failure, whether in Afghanistan or the internal files.

The writer said that the government's use of the army in missions inside Britain, worse to rescue or help in crises, should not be a regular thing.

He added that for someone stranded in an isolated place due to bad weather, seeing soldiers is a good thing, but this would not be very welcome.

After a maneuver by 300 soldiers in rural parts of north-east England and Scotland to check on people at risk in the wake of Storm Irwin, Britain's Ministry of Defense said they were involved in "reassuring the public".

The writer criticizes this and says that it would be a positive thing in a more authoritarian regime, but in Britain the image of soldiers in this case is not necessarily a sign of healthy policy nor should the deployment of the army to save the civilian authorities from a taboo, but it should not be routine.

In October, when petrol deliveries stopped, the military was brought in for the stated reason to drive fuel trucks, but the real reason was to intimidate truck drivers and show the government was in control, and the Defense Ministry also said it was "to reassure the citizens."

The writer pointed out that there are some jobs in peacetime that need trained military personnel such as bomb disposal, and sometimes politicians need to use the military to prove that they are in control.

In 2000, military drivers were on standby during fuel protests. Military forces also intervened to provide security for the 2012 Olympics when private security companies failed. Military intervention is often a measure of the severity of natural disasters such as floods.

According to the writer, the Corona epidemic led to increased military assistance to civilian authorities and soldiers set up field hospitals, transported people and protective equipment, provided logistical support for testing and vaccination programs, and army medics were on the clinical front lines.

Although Britain is not the only country that has relied on its armed forces in the crisis, there is a difference between occasional overtime and work to save a situation that civil authorities cannot deal with due to stress.

This interference raises alarm and concern about the work of the British government, as happened in the evacuation of Kabul in Afghanistan, says the writer, who expressed his belief that London “failed to manage the operation and was “disrupted and chaotic,” according to the testimony of a whistleblower before a parliamentary inquiry.

Raphael Marshall, a former official in the British Foreign Office, described the scene in the ministry as a model of institutional and individual failure at all levels.

Dominic Raab, then Secretary of State and now Minister of Justice, was obsessed with indecisive control, caring more about coordinating papers and files than reading them, and there was delay in taking action on cases of desperate Afghans seeking asylum from Taliban retaliation.

Hidden Omicron Dynasty

In The Guardians, we also read a report on the "hidden" dynasty of Omicron, which is difficult to trace, by writers Ian Sample and Peter Walker.

And the report quoted that scientists have identified a “hidden” version of Omicron that cannot be distinguished using PCR tests that public health officials publish to obtain rapid results for the spread of the new mutant around the world, and it is treated as the normal Corona virus and not the new mutant, and therefore it is not possible to determine the extent its spread.

The discovery came as the number of cases of the original omicron variant detected in Britain rose by 101 to 437 in one day, and Scotland announced a return to work from home.

The 'hidden' mutant has many mutations in common with the original omicron variant, but lacks a specific genetic change that would allow lab-based PCR tests to find possible cases.

What is interesting is that the “hidden” mutant is only scientifically discovered as a corona virus through all the usual tests, but it can be identified as an omicron variant through genetic tests, but potential infection cases are not distinguished by routine PCR tests that give faster results, according to the writers.

The authors quote the researchers as saying that it is too early to know whether the new form of an omicron will propagate in the same way as the original standard omicron, but that the "hidden" variant is genetically distinct and may therefore behave differently.