Hello! I am wanting help as to where to look for finding a job in the UAE as a firefighte paramedic. I am currently living in America and am in school to get my fire certifications and my paramedic certifications, but after that I am wanting to move to the UAE. I am fluent in Arabic, have some prior working history in America. If anyone would know where to look that would be much appreciated.

Today is February 19th, 2024.
Did you see what the high temperature is supposed to be for next Tuesday? Before you get your hopes up, it looks like it was just a glitch with the Apple weather app.
Here is what’s happening in the Twin Cities.

2 Officers, 1 First Responder Killed Responding to Domestic Violence Call in Burnsville

The Summary: A man armed with multiple guns opened fire at police officers inside a suburban Minneapolis home today. The incident, which occurred in Burnsville, left two officers and a firefighter dead. Another officer was injured but is expected to recover.
Details of the Incident: The gunman, barricaded inside the home with his family, engaged in a shootout with authorities. Negotiations lasted for hours before the suspect began firing. The suspect’s family, including two children, were able to leave the house unharmed. The suspect was found dead.
Victims: The fallen officers were identified as Paul Elmstrand and Matthew Ruge, both 27 years old. Additionally, Adam Finseth, a firefighter and paramedic, lost his life. Another officer, Sgt. Adam Medlicott, sustained injuries but is in stable condition.
“Today, three members of our team made the ultimate sacrifice for this community.” -Tanya Schwartz, Burnsville’s police chief
Community Response: The Burnsville community gathered for a candlelight vigil in front of City Hall on Sunday. In Minneapolis, a procession of law enforcement and first responders later accompanied the bodies of the officers and paramedic as they were driven to the office of the Hennepin County Medical Examiner.
Ongoing Investigation: The suspect’s name is expected to be disclosed following an autopsy planned for Monday. The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating.

Triumphant Homecoming for Jessie Diggins at World Cup 📷

The Summary: Olympic gold medalist and Afton native Jessie Diggins made a triumphant return to her home state to compete in the Stifel Loppet Cup at Theodore Wirth Park. Diggins finished on the podium in the Women's 10K on Sunday.
Emotional Return: For Diggins, competing in Minnesota held special significance, as it marked her first time racing in her home state since she was 19 years old.
“This whole weekend has been my career dream come true.”
American Success: On the men’s side, American Gus Schumacher shocked the field when he won the 10k race, becoming just the third American man to win a World Cup title.
Electric Atmosphere: A total of 40,000 fans attended the two days of racing. The rowdy fans created what several skiers called a "wall of noise" around the course. Loppet Foundation executive director Claire Wilson said she expects the foundation will discuss hosting another World Cup in the future.
❯ Check out this awesome photo – Minnesota ski fans showed out for the world cup!

How Much Does it Cost To Live in The Twin Cities?

The Summary: A recent report from the Economic Policy Institute (reported by Minnesota Reformer) revealed that a single person in the Twin Cities Metro must earn $47,442 annually, while a family of four needs at least $119,229 per year to afford basic necessities like food, housing, healthcare, transportation, and a cell phone.
Disparity Between Minimum Wage and Cost of Living: The minimum wage in Minnesota and Minneapolis, $10.85 and $15.57 respectively, falls well short of meeting these basic cost of living expenses. However, most households in Minnesota surpass the minimum income needed for survival, according to Census Bureau data.
❯ View the full report from the Economic Policy Institute here.

Politics

❯ Dean Phillips Campaign Layoffs: Democratic Rep. Dean Phillips of Minnesota announced Friday the layoff of a significant portion of his campaign staff amidst his 2024 presidential bid, citing fundraising challenges. Despite the setback, Phillips affirmed his commitment to the race, emphasizing polling numbers showing unfavorability of both Biden and Trump.
❯ Dead On Arrival: A DFL bill proposing Minnesota become a sanctuary state faced swift opposition from swing-district Sen. Grant Hauschild and Rep. Dave Lislegard, both DFL members. With their refusal to support the bill, its passage appears unlikely in the Senate or the House.

What Else We’re Reading…The Sauna Resurgence in Minnesota

The New York Times ran a feature article over the weekend about Minnesotan’s and their love for saunas. They talk about how The pandemic “turbocharged” the state’s sauna industry with many people building their own saunas and others opening sauna businesses. Read the full article that goes into the history of Minnesota’s sauna love and the most recent resurgence. Want to learn more? Axios recently ran an article about the new Sauna companies that have popped up.

Sports

Baseball Season Is Here: The Minnesota Twins reported to Florida for the start of Spring Training. Catch up on some of the top storylines heading into the season here. The Twins are currently projected to win 87 games and defend their AL Central crown
Back on Track: Both the Gopher men’s and women’s basketball teams snapped losing streaks this weekend with wins over Rutgers and Northwestern, respectively. Both teams are likely outside of the March Madness field, but a strong finish to the regular season and a Big 10 tournament run could change that.
PWHL Minnesota Loses: In battle of PWHL's top two teams, Minnesota fell 2-1 to Montreal.
All Star Weekend: In a relatively uneventful NBA All-Star weekend, Karl Anthony-Towns came up short in the 3 point contest while Anthony Edwards shot left-handed in the skills challenge. The Western Conference team, led by Wolves head coach Chris Finch, lost to the East in a final score of 186-211 (yes you read that score right).

Headlines From Around The Twin Cities

❯ Multiple Twin Cities based companies like Target and Medtronic have stopped posting and advertising on X (Star Tribune)
❯ The Legal Marijuana Now Party has enlisted a right-wing lawyer in a major party case (Minnesota Reformer)
❯ Minneapolis Civil Rights director, Alberder Gillespie, was fired over the weekend (Kare11)
❯ St. Paul teachers voted to authorize a strike. Both parties have expressed wanting to work out an agreement before a strike ensues (MPR)
❯ Minneapolis dumps concrete on former homeless encampment sites to discourage future encampments (Sahan Journal)
❯ St. Paul Schools' Joe Gothard named National Superintendent of the Year (WCCO)

Headlines From Greater Minnesota

❯ Lake Superior makes travel guide's annual 'No List' amid overtourism, pollution (Bring Me The News)
❯ Duluth’s Old Central High School Building has been converted into 122 mixed-income units (WDIO)
❯ The Minnesota Department of Revenue is set to reissue 128K tax rebate checks that have gone uncashed (WCCO)

The Final Word: Awesome weekend for the ski community

I was at Saturday’s World Cup ski races at Theodore Wirth and was so amazed at the amount of people in the crowd, the atmosphere, and the energy felt throughout the day.
I mean, come on, just take a look at these photos of the crowd. Let’s do it again soon, yes?
​

Hello, I am currently a Paramedic in America and will be going to the fire academy soon to get my fire 1, fire 2, and Hazmat certifications. I am planning to move to the UAE to become a firefighter after I get my certifications. I wanted to know where to go to become a firefighter in the UAE. After looking at the Emirate Fire and Rescue Company website online, it showed only supervisor spots available, but no base rank firefighte paramedic positions on the website. Ive tried looking around the internet including the DCD website and couldn't find anything related to firefighte paramedic job openings. Any advice or tips on where to find that job opening would be great.

Top Air Ambulance Providers in the UAE

When it comes to emergency medical care, air ambulance services play a crucial role in providing timely and efficient transportation for critically ill or injured patients. The UAE boasts several top-notch air ambulance providers who offer exceptional services catering to the evolving needs of the region.
Among these providers, Bluedot Air Ambulance stands out as a leading choice due to its commitment to excellence, cutting-edge technology, and highly trained medical professionals.

Bluedot Air Ambulance: Delivering Excellence

Bluedot Air Ambulance has established as a reliable and reputable air ambulance service provider in the UAE. The company is known for its unwavering dedication to delivering excellence in patient care and transportation.
One of the key differentiating factors of Bluedot Air Ambulance is its team of experienced medical professionals. The company employs a diverse team of doctors, paramedics, and nurses who undergo rigorous training to handle a wide range of medical emergencies. This expertise ensures that patients receive the highest level of medical care during their air ambulance journey.
In addition, Bluedot Air Ambulance utilizes state-of-the-art medical equipment and technology to ensure the safe and efficient transportation of patients. From advanced life support systems to specialized medical monitors, the company equips its aircraft with cutting-edge tools needed to provide critical care at high altitudes and throughout the entirety of the journey.

Air Ambulance Services in the UAE

The UAE offers a wide array of air ambulance services, each with its own unique features and specialties. These services cater to both domestic and international patients, ensuring that individuals in need receive swift and reliable medical transport.
Some common features offered by air ambulance service providers in the UAE include:
o 24/7 availability: Air ambulance services in the UAE operate round the clock to ensure immediate response to emergencies.
o Comprehensive medical care: These services offer a range of medical treatments and procedures during transport, tailored to the specific needs of the patient.
o Coverage for various emergencies: Air ambulances in the UAE are equipped to handle a wide range of emergencies, including cardiac cases, traumas, and neonatal care.
o Specialized transfer capabilities: Providers like Bluedot Air Ambulance have the ability to transport patients on ventilators, stretchers, and incubators, offering seamless care during transit.
o Medical escorts: Some air ambulance services provide medical escorts for non-emergency cases, ensuring patients receive professional care when traveling.

What Sets Bluedot Air Ambulance Apart?

While the UAE offers several top air ambulance providers, Bluedot Air Ambulance distinguishes itself in several ways:
o Highly trained medical staff: Bluedot Air Ambulance selects its medical professionals carefully, ensuring they possess the necessary skills and expertise to handle critical emergencies.
o Advanced medical equipment: The company's aircraft are equipped with cutting-edge medical equipment, allowing for efficient and effective care even at high altitudes.
o Efficient response time: Bluedot Air Ambulance prides itself on its ability to rapidly respond to emergency calls, ensuring timely medical transportation.
o Global reach: The company offers both domestic and international air ambulance services, ensuring patients can access comprehensive care regardless of their location.
o Transparent pricing: Bluedot Air Ambulance provides transparent and competitive pricing, ensuring patients and their families have a clear understanding of the costs involved.
Overall, Bluedot Air Ambulance sets itself apart as a leading choice for air ambulance services in the UAE due to its unwavering commitment to patient care, advanced medical equipment, and highly trained professionals. When it comes to critical medical transportation, Bluedot Air Ambulance is a reliable and trusted partner.

Gulfwalkin Alert times 15th January 2023
🚀 Gulf job vacancy
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia wanted 🛫 Free recruitment for DRI rolling mill steel plant maintenance 🛫 Hiring for Onshore offshore project 🛫 Oil and Gas construction project 🛫 Contracts Administrator require for oil & gas Co 🛫 Paramedic required for KKIA project 🛫 A leading construction company 🛫 Project manager hiring for Substation & transmission line projects 🛫 A reputed operation and maintenance company 🛫 A leading pipe manufacturing company 🛫 Engineering and construction company 🛫 Metal Fabrication industry 🛫 Hiring for a leading electronics manufacturing company
🇰🇼 Kuwait work permit 🛫 Urgent requirement for Rig project client interview shortly
🇦🇪 UAE visa 🛫 BMS Technician required for Airport project in Dubai 🛫 Semi Government facility management company 🛫 An international renowned catering company in Abu Dhabi 🛫 UK based tea manufacturing company 🛫 Requirement for Aramco project in Abu Dhabi
🇴🇲 Oman vacancy 🛫 Civil Draftsman requires for long term contracts 🛫 Fertilizer plant maintenance shutdown project 🛫 Electrical Technician required for steel plant 🛫 Hiring for Automobile garage
🇶🇦 Qatar job opportunity 🛫 One of the leading Engineering company 🛫 Reputed aluminum company 🛫 CCC for their NFE oil and gas project 🛫 Nasser S al hajri corporation industrial contractors
🇺🇿 Urgently required for a leading Engineering company in Uzbekistan, Shortlisting in progress, Client interviews in Mumbai and Delhi shortly
Download Gulfwalkin Alert Times PDF 👇
https://www.gulfwalkinalert.com/2023/01/today-gulf-job-requirements.html

Gulfwalkin Alert times 13th January 2023
🚀 Today Gulf job vacancy
🇧🇭 Bahrain naukri 🛫 Urgent requirement for leading food packaging products company
🇸🇦 Saudi Arabia wanted 🛫 Paramedic (EMT) hiring for Airport project 🛫 Process Engineer required for reputed Engineering company 🛫 Laundry attendant requires for al jabr laundry 🛫 Reputed operation and maintenance Co 🛫 Free recruitment for DRI rolling mill steel plant project 🛫 Salesman required for Food beverage company 🛫 Opening for steel industries 🛫 Leading Logistics & heavy lifting company 🛫 Substation & transmission line projects 🛫 Under smp contract Saoo 🛫 CV Selection for fast food restaurant 🛫 Engineering contracting company
🇶🇦 Qatar visa opportunity 🛫 Reputed oil and gas company 🛫 Commissioning Technician requires for oil & gas Co 🛫 Rigging Supervisor hiring for contracting construction Co
🇵🇱 Urgently required for a leading Korean plant construction company Poland. All candidates must have 6-7 years of experience in heavy industry
🇴🇲 Oman vacancy 🛫 One of the leading construction company 🛫 Requirement for Automobile garage 🛫 Construction management project
🇲🇾 Urgently required for a leading 5 star hotel in Malaysia, Shortlisting in progress, Client interview shortly in Mumbai
🇦🇪 UAE visa 🛫 Long term project for contracting company 🛫 A leading group of companies for their facility management division in Dubai 🛫 Shortlisting in progress for infrastructure project
🇷🇸 Free recruitment for Bechtel is one of the world's premier epc company for their infrastructure project in Serbia, Europe
🇰🇼 Kuwait Jobs 🛫 Housekeeping staff urgently requires for 3 & 4 star hotel
Download Gulfwalkin Alert Times PDF 👇
https://www.gulfwalkinalert.com/2023/01/urgent-requirement-for-gulf-and-europe.html

Qatar has been under fire over hosting the FIFA 2022 World Cup. Former president Sepp Blatter earlier said that handing World Cup 2022 to Qatar was a "mistake". Also Read: This international airline to hire 10,000 staff amid FIFA World Cup preparationsPressure on Qatar is coming from a variety of sources, not only the football world. While some believe that athletes should take action and boycott the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, three-time Grand Slam champion Andy Murray disagrees. Also Read: Awarding Fifa World Cup 2022 to Qatar was a mistake: Former president explains whyNo matter their gender or sexual orientation, visitors to Qatar 2022 will be greeted and treated with respect, the event's organisers have said many times before.
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In the medical, nursing, and paramedical fields, the number of employment openings for skilled applicants is rapidly increasing. All of our students receive 100 percent free placement aid from Fortune Academy, a pioneer in the Prometric placement consultancy in Coimbatore of healthcare professionals. Fortune Academy, a separate division of our company, provides recruitment and placement services for healthcare professionals in India and overseas.
We ensure that all of our candidates who passed with good scores in different healthcare exams (OET, MOH, DHA, HAAD, NCLEX, ACLS& BLS, and all Prometric tests) get placed in many renowned hospitals and medical centers in the Middle East (UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain), the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and other European countries.
In the medical, nursing, and paramedical sectors, the number of employment openings for skilled applicants is continually expanding. All applicants who complete training at Fortune Academy will be automatically enrolled in Fortune Global Solutions. Candidates who pass with good grades will be shortlisted, and they will be notified of available jobs in India and overseas. All of these services will be provided at no additional cost. Our placement wing, which has ties with many hospitals, has supported many of our applicants in securing work in their selected countries.

Nasrullah wanted a job that would brighten her family's prospects. But her home in Indian-administered Kashmir, a Himalayan region haunted by decades of conflict, offered few opportunities. Moving abroad seemed like the only hope.
She contacted an agent, who promised her a paramedic job in Dubai. Armed with a year of experience in the field, she was confident. Setting aside nagging doubts about how the agent had secured a tourist visa for her rather than a professional one, she flew to the sparkling Gulf city last November.
"I was skeptical about it," Nasrullah recalled. "The agent, however, kept on assuring me that I was going for a well-paying job, and that the visa would be fixed later."
Upon arrival, her suspicions soon proved warranted. She found herself caught in a scam that has ensnared countless people, especially from Asia and Africa, who are lured to the Gulf by the promise of good jobs but wind up stuck in appalling conditions and menial work, such as domestic help.
"There are more Kashmiri girls coming into Dubai like this, and they get trapped here," said Rehana Rashid, who works as an investigator with a risk management company.
The women "are hesitant to speak up, fearing reprisals from the agents, and also feel it would be embarrassing for them to face their parents," Rashid said.
Sidhu Roop, an official with the Indian High Commission in Ajman, said such trafficking is common in the Gulf, though his office only recently encountered its first cases from Kashmir. "Recently five Kashmiri women came to us who were promised nursing jobs but were duped by the agents," he said. "They were distressed and we had to facilitate the immediate return of two of them."
In Nasrullah's case, upon arrival in Dubai she was told to go to the city of Ajman, where she met another agent. From there she was taken to cramped accommodation and told to stay until her documentation was complete.
It was an unhygienic single room with an overflowing toilet," she said. "There were already around 15 other girls living there." For nearly 20 horrific days, she was unable to contact her family. "There was no internet Wi-Fi connection, and I had no SIM card."
Nasrullah realized she was just one of many women who have been brought to the United Arab Emirates by such agents under false pretenses. She even found two other Kashmiri women who had been duped by the same agent and "sold" to a foreign agent.
"They basically lied to us about the job," Nasrullah said. "We were told that now we will have to work as a domestic help in different houses." She would "sit in a corner of a room and cry," thinking that she would never make it home.
It was during a trip to the hospital that she managed to get online and call her family -- and the agent who had tricked her. "I couldn't tell everything to my family, but I called my agent and threatened him that I would call the police if he didn't take me back home," she said. The threat worked. She was allowed to book a ticket and return to Kashmir.
Others are not so lucky
"They sell us to different agents and we have to live and work as per their wishes," she said. "One of the girls I know was beaten to a pulp by an agent after she had gone to market by herself. It was a hellhole."

https://asia.nikkei.com/Politics/International-relations/Kashmiri-women-lured-to-UAE-describe-labor-trafficking-hellholes

We're a Canadian family (2 kids ages 3 and 5); my husband has been a primary care paramedic for 6 years. We're from BC, but they pay their paramedics nothing, with almost no hope of a permanent full time job, so after a year or so of working there, we moved to Nova Scotia. He's been working full time here for 5 years now. I'm finishing my last year of a bachelor of education degree (I will be able to teach elementary school). Next year, we would like to take off for a year or two and work somewhere else in our current fields. We're not looking to make a ton of extra money, but hopefully the same what we would have made here (as a paramedic and a teacher), and a little adventure while learning about another culture. I've been looking at UAE and Saudi Arabia, as I believe these places may be our best bet for my husband to get a medic job, and I a teaching position? At that time our children will be starting kindergarten and grade 1.
I would really appreciate any recommendations about the process, or organizations which would help with this! Any advice? I'm hoping by this time next year, travelling will not be an issue with everyone being vaccinated etc. Thank you!

To start a Jaheziya training campaign, the Sheikha Fatima bint Mubarak Volunteer Programme and the Frontline Heroes Office are collaborating.
Jaheziya would guarantee that highly trained emergency and crisis response practitioners protect both civilians and inhabitants of the UAE. In a variety of possible scenarios, they will undergo specialized care and emergency management training, from infectious diseases and respiratory viruses to natural disasters, explosions and nuclear accidents.
The service will be open to all medical providers, paramedics, staff working in a wide range of emergency and crisis recovery facilities, and all specialists and volunteers on the Frontline Heroes Office list.
Source: https://www.khaleejtimes.com/news/uae-health/new-training-scheme-to-boost-uaes-emergency-response

It goes without saying that the Emiratis are a source of innovation and creativity. The pandemic has simply succeeded in stoking their imaginative ideas. Just try these wonders: Ateeq Alsuwaidi, a young Abu Dhabi Emirati photographer and astrophotographer, has created a robot that can be used to stop the spread of coronavirus in the country in the sterilization campaign. A volunteer with the Emirates Red Crescent, Mohammed Saeed Sultan Al Kaabi, a UAE national, built a solar-powered sterilization corridor that can be used at mosque gates or homes to restrict the spread of COVID-19.
Among other inventions, Emirati inventor Ahmad Abdullah Majan has designed a smart sports helmet and a smart elderly crutch. Young Adeeb Al Blooshi is another genius, who has built on numerous innovations, including his father’s prosthetic limb and his mother’s housework robot. Talking of robots, Hamad Issa Al Marzouqi, a biomedical engineering student at Khalifa University, has succeeded in innovating nursing robots that perform multiple nursing duties. A robot that tracks vital signs in the human body is among them. This is the first step in the implementation of an automated nursing system and the key to building a system of artificial intelligence for the country’s health sector. Before being examined by a doctor, the concept behind the robot is to speed up preparatory tests on a patient and ease pressure on the nursing staff so that the robot conducts an essential part of procedures at medical centres. Al Marzouki clarified that before the physical test, the robot monitors the health symptoms that a doctor or a paramedic wants to know. Those signs indicate the body’s basic functions, including temperature, pulse, breathing, and blood pressure.
It accurately tests all of these in the patient and directly passes them to the specialist doctor to improve the process of diagnosing the condition of the patient, he added. If an abnormal vital sign such as excess weight, elevated blood sugar and other symptoms is found, the robot ‘s second duty is to provide medical advice while the patient is waiting. He added that the “Medical Kit” for permanent health care is among his inventions in the health sector.
This bag enables access to the doctor by the patient in the best and easiest way. It offers instruments to calculate at any time the vital signs that the doctor wants. In addition, the bag is fitted with a medication kit and a device that alerts the patient to take the medicine at the prescribed time and to directly contact the doctor at any time, so that he can provide the patient with medical treatment at any time, Al Marzouqi added.
Source:https://www.gulftoday.ae/news/2020/11/01/emirati-student-designs-nursing-robots

States are not homogenous entities. They are composed of dozens of different interest groups and cliques, each with their own vision for what the state ought to do and what society ought to look like. In functioning states, these groups agree on more things than they disagree on--or at least, the powerful groups are able to monopolize power enough to keep dissident voices drowned out. Carefully crafted power sharing arrangements, usually aided along by some sort of common enemy or common mission, keep states functioning well enough to work as coherent actors in the international arena.
But these alliances are not set in stone. Like the sands of the Rub’ al Khali, they shift with the winds. One day, two factions may be the closest of allies. The next, one might overreach. One might think they have become too powerful to need to be held down by the commitments they’ve made to their erstwhile allies.
And what happens when they’re wrong?
Chaos.
Power in Saudi Arabia
On paper, the King of Saudi Arabia holds near-absolute power over the country. With no constitutional constraints, it would seem that the King (or more recently, the Crown Prince) enjoys unlimited power in Saudi society. There is no elected--nor even appointed--legislature to serve as a check on the King’s power. If the King wishes to permit women to drive, he need nearly decree it, and so shall it be.
Viewing Saudi Arabia through this lens, however, flattens the existing power dynamics in the country. The King’s absolute power is in practice constrained by the varied interest groups that help to lend legitimacy to the institution of the monarchy, such as (to name a few) the military, the House of Saud, and the religious establishment (the ulema).
The relationship between the ulema and the monarchy has been critical to the continued existence of the Saudi Arabian state. Starting with the 1744 alliance between Muhammad ibn Saud, the founder of the al-Saud dynasty, and Muhammad ibn ‘Abd al-Wahhab, the two groups have formed something of a symbiotic relationship. The House of Saud provides the Wahhabist movement with protection and propagates its beliefs, and in exchange the Wahhabist movement lends legitimacy to the monarchy.
The Grand Mosque Seizure; or, Why Saudi Arabia is the Way it Is
In November 1979, hundreds of armed religious militants took control of the Masjid al-Haram in Mecca--the holiest site in Islam. Their leader, Juhayman al-Otaybi, declared his brother-in-law, Mohammed Abdullah al-Qahtani, to be the *Mahdi--a redeeming figure in Islami prophesied to arrive on Earth several years before Judgement Day. For a period of two weeks, al-Otaybi and his supporters managed to maintain control of the Mosque. The ensuing assault led to the deaths of hundreds of fighters and pilgrims.
The Grand Mosque Seizure was, in part, a response to the growth of “western influence” within Saudi Arabia. Al-Otaybi condemned the West calling for the abolition of television and radio, the expulsion of non-Muslims, and the removal of women from the workplace. For al-Otaybi, the ruling al-Saud family’s refusal to resist this western influence had robbed them of their right to rule.
While al-Otaybi was ultimately unsuccessful in overthrowing the House of Saud, his insurrection did led to an important revelation for the Saudi monarchy: religious extremism was perhaps the single greatest threat to their continued hold on power in Saudi Arabia. Rather than restricting the power of the ulema in an attempt to curtail this threat, King Khalid dramatically expanded the role of the ulema and the religious police, surrendering some of the House of Saud’s power in exchange for additional stability and security. This state of affairs, with some tinkering, would remain the status quo for the next three decades.
Shifting Sands
Since the September 11th, 2001 attacks and the beginning of the Global War on Terror, the monarchy has taken significant steps to attempt to curtail the influence of the ulema. The monarchy has become much less tolerant of clerics that speak out against the monarchy, often arresting them (though these arrests are usually temporary, they are enough to scare the dissident clerics into silence).
The rise of Mohammad bin Salman in the mid-2010s accelerated this curtailment of the ulema’s power. Viewed as a youthful reformer, MbS has undone many of the laws that were put in place following the Grand Mosque Seizure: in 2018, he removed the ban on female drivers, while in 2021, he legalized gambling and the consumption of alcohol. While he was within his rights to do so--again, the monarchy has no formal restrictions on its authority--these actions flew in the face of the alliance struck between the House of Saud and the ulema.
Had the Crown Prince stopped there, conservative opposition to his rule might have been vocal, but nevertheless manageable. Resistance in this period was largely restricted to existing Saudi exile groups like Movement for Islamic Reform in Arabia and Hizb ut-Tahrir. A collection of senior clerics in Saudi Arabia rallied together to compose a new Memorandum of Exhortation--a call-back to the 1992 Memorandum written in the aftermath of Gulf War--condemning the Kingdom’s slide away from righteousness and towards western hedonism. The participating clerics were quickly stripped of their positions, arrested, or forced into exile, but their memorandum nevertheless made the rounds--especially in more rural, more conservative communities, where the monarchy had less power (relatively) than the ulema. Still, it spawned little but discontent whispers and prayers that someone would do something to set the Kingdom back on the righteous path.
But he didn’t stop there. No more than four months later, Saudi Arabia invited the Bahraini Shi’a cleric Isa Qassim to Saudi Arabia. By itself, this would have created a diplomatic incident--Qassim was, in essence, the leader of the Shi’a opposition to the Saudi-aligned Sunni ruling dynasty of Bahrain, serving as a persistent thorn in the side of the Bahraini royal family. The fact that the House of Saud was inviting him to Saudi Arabia not just as a guest, but paying for the construction of a Hawza (a Shi’a seminary), was nothing short of sacreligious.
The moment this news went public, conservative Saudi society flew into an outrage. How dare the monarchy collaborate with the radifa. Whatever control the monarchy had over the clergy melted away overnight, with most every Sunni cleric in the country denouncing the government’s support of the heretics in some form or another. Eight of the twenty-one members of the Council of Senior Scholars, the highest religious body in the country (and also one of the religious institutions most aligned with the House of Saud) resigned in protest. Among those resigning included several members of the al ash-Sheikh family, the foremost family of religious scholars and the direct descendents of al-Wahhab. Even Abdul-Rahman Al Sudais, the Imam of the Great Mosque of Mecca, issued a public denouncement of the government’s decision to fund the Hawza.
Protests broke out throughout the country, especially in Mecca, Medina, and the Nejd, and while Saudi security forces were able to break their resolve after a week or two of protests, their discontent did not dissipate. The Saudi government’s 2022 decision to invite sixteen new American military bases only reignited tensions. Overnight, Saudi Arabia went from having no American bases to being the country with the sixth most American military bases. That anger stayed, bubbling beneath the surface. Waiting for an outlet.
It finally found that outlet in 2022. At the opening ceremony of the new Hawza 'Ilmiya Dammam, a car bomb ripped through the crowd, destroying the largest building in the compound. When first responders arrived at the scene to treat the casualties, another suicide bomber--this one disguised as a first responder himself--detonated his vest, killing several dozen paramedics and security personnel. Several hours later, on the other side of the country in Jazan, a car bomber struck an under-construction American base, killing several Saudi construction workers (most of whom were migrant workers from South Asia or the Philippines), two American contractors leading the construction effort, and three American officers. Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for the attacks the next day.
In total, some eighty-four people, including three American servicemen, two American contractors, and forty Saudi nationals, died in the attacks, while another two- to three-hundred were wounded. Among those dead were several of the most important clerics of the new Hawza, including Qassim and the Pakistani marja’ Muhammad Hussain Najafi. The other Pakistani marja’ involved in the Hawza, Bashir al-Najafi, succumbed to his injuries a week later. The response from the predominantly Wahhabi Sunni clergy in the country ranged from silence (for those not willing to risk the ire of the monarchy) to celebratory (for those more dedicated to their faith than self-preservation). For the Saudi government, this was a concerning sign of what was to come. Older members draw comparisons between the current political moment and that of the 1990s, when outrage against the monarchy led to the formation of conversative opposition groups and an increase in terror attacks by groups like al Qaeda.
And indeed, their fears may be legitimate. Anti-American protests are becoming increasingly common throughout the country, with the country’s American embassies, consulates, and base construction sites under near constant siege by conservative protesters. The Sahwa movement, a peaceful Islamist group affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood opposed to American bases on the Arabian peninsula, has returned in full force after being all but crushed by government repression in the 1990s. Increasing numbers of Saudi clerics are issuing open criticisms and condemnations of the government and its recent activities, posing a serious challenge to the legitimacy of the rule of King Salman and the Crown Prince.
In a different world, the monarchy might have been able to find some way to placate these dissidents. The warnings were there. But once the genie is out of the bottle, it’s impossible to put it back in.
In April 2022, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman launched an unprecedented purge of the religious establishment and the non-ruling branches of the House of Saud. Over the course of 48 hours, Saudi security forces rounded up and arrested numerous prominent figures on corruption charges. While this was in and of itself insignificant--MbS had already used corruption arrests to establish his power in the House of Saud in the past--the scale of them was substantially larger than any previous arrests. Moreover, those royals detained through this process found themselves stripped of the rights and comforts they had come to expect during detentions like these: rather than the Ritz Carlton, they instead found themselves thrown into dank, musty jail cells, as though they were any other criminal. This was a signal to the rest of the House of Saud: Mohammad bin Salman would no longer tolerate anything even remotely resembling opposition to his agenda.
The Prince’s seizure of power did not end there. Later that week, King Salman announced that the Wahhabi religious clerics would no longer have any temporal power outside of the Holy Cities of Mecca and Medina. Saudi Arabia, according to the King, was going to become a more tolerant, progressive nation. Non-Muslims would have the same rights as Muslims for the first time in the Kingdom’s history.
As if this weren’t an insult enough to the religious establishment, the King then declared that the Kingdom would be holding an interfaith celebration in the city of Mecca. This celebration would mark the first time that non-Muslims were (legally) allowed entrance into the Grand Mosque in over a thousand years--flying in the face of a restriction that predated the House of Saud itself.
While King Salman’s decree robbed the Wahhabi religious establishment of its temporal power, it could never hope to so suddenly deprive them of their ability to sway the hearts and minds of the masses. Almost every cleric in the country, Salafi or Sufi, Wahhabi or Shafi’i, Sunni or Shi’a, immediately and unequivocally condemned the King’s decision to reverse a thousand years of tradition and allow non-Muslims into the holiest site of Islam. The Imam of the Grand Mosque resigned in disgust, stating that he would rather die than preside over kafirs gaining entrance to Holy City. Most of the Mosque’s clerics resigned with him.

The Situation on the Ground

The country has exploded into massive protests, attended by millions of people across the country. There are near-constant masses of people in the streets of Saudi Arabia’s major cities, while construction work on the proposed Church in Riyadh has been unable to continue due to the hundreds, if not thousands, of protesters surrounding the site at all times. Every day, their grip on Saudi society seems to slip further. Saudi Arabia has long relied on the cooperation of the religious establishment to quash dissent and break up protests. With that alliance shattered by King Salman’s recent actions, Saudi Arabia has had a harder time containing these protests than ever before. There are frequent reports of Saudi security personnel collaborating with the protesters, often sneaking advance warning of police crackdowns to protesters or allowing protest leaders to slip away from arrest warrants.
This environment has allowed numerous critics of the government a new lease on life, as dissent is simply too large and too widespread for the government to crack down on all dissidents at once. One major resurfaced critic of the Saudi government has been the Muslim Brotherhood. Once an ally of the Saudis, the Muslim Brotherhood was declared a terrorist organization in 2014, after its Egyptian leadership was deposed in the 2013 coup d’etat. Since then, the group’s Saudi Arabian leaders were forced to flee into hiding in Qatar, Iraq, and, to a lesser extent, Bahrain. While the Muslim Brotherhood itself is not Wahhabist, and has many doctrinal disputes with the leading branch of Islam in Saudi Arabia, it has nevertheless made significant inroads into Saudi society over the past several months. As clerics and Saudi conservatives have become convinced that monarchy is unable to deliver the Sharia-adherent society they so desire (and worse, that they have little ability to coerce the monarchy into doing so), many have turned towards the Muslim Brotherhood and its promises of democracy. If nothing else, at least the system promoted by the Muslim Brotherhood would allow them to vote out incompetent royals like Mohammad bin Salman!
While many of these groups are not openly violent and are content to continue peaceful (if still terribly disruptive) means of protest against the government, other groups are not. Saudi intelligence is reporting a large surge in the membership numbers of extremist groups like Al Qaeda, Islamic State, and their affiliates. These groups are able to tap into the discontent that has manifested in Saudi society, using the more peaceful groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Sahwa Movement as a front for radicalizing and recruiting disenfranchised and disgruntled Saudi conservatives. Saudi intelligence suspects that the Kingdom’s sky-high youth unemployment rate--about 25 percent in 2019--has not helped matters, with many of the new recruits coming from the under-30 age group. Saudi intelligence suspects that the growth of these dissident and jihadi groups has also been assisted by covert funding from Qatar and the Qatari nobility (and in the case of the Muslim Brotherhood only, from Turkey as well), though as of yet, they have been unable to find concrete proof.
Perhaps the most major opposition to Saudi rule, though, comes from the Wahhabi clerics that once lent so much legitimacy to the Saudi monarchy. Wahhabi clerics that had erstwhile been major supporters of the Saudi government took to every venue available to them--the pulpit, the streets, the internet, the radio--and loudly and repeatedly condemned the actions of the King and the Crown Prince, declaring that they had strayed from the path of the righteous and no longer had the moral authority to lead. Throughout the country, these Saudi intelligence and security forces have been overwhelmed trying to track down and arrest all of the clerics that have broken the law--either by insulting the King, calling for the death of unbelievers, or some other crime. Increasingly, they find that the public is providing a great deal of assistance in avoiding security personnel, providing housing, food, and other essentials that allow the clerics to go to ground and avoid arrest. Worse still, upper levels of the Saudi security apparatus have reported that their subordinates are, in some cases, simply refusing to carry out these arrest orders.
Finally, elements of Saudi intelligence loyal to the Crown Prince himself are reporting rumors that should have Mohammad bin Salman very concerned. The recent instability in Saudi Arabia has led several members of the House of Saud to think that they could do a much better job running the country than this upstart reformer. While intelligence is unable to pinpoint exactly who is a threat to Mohammad bin Salman at this time, they have managed to suss out that there are ongoing talks between some members of the House of Saud and some members of the religious establishment that a palace coup might be the best way to ensure that their interests are protected. King Salman and MbS go away, the House of Saud can continue with its graft and corruption, and Sharia law and the power of the Wahhabis comes back. It’s a win for everyone.
In short, Mohammad bin Salman faces a great number of issues that must be addressed--quickly--if he is to retain power.

Government Pockets Dry Up

(Written by Erhard)
Saudi Arabia has been largely discounting oil export revenues to favor stronger relationships with its allies. This was destined to cause problems when $200 Bn, over 90% of total Saudi exports, come from revenues off of the oil they export. These oil revenues are so critical to the Saudi economy, that cutting off the revenue would send the economy into recession. The targets of these discounts were namely strong Saudi allies like the US, UK, Australia, India, Japan, and many more who are all known to be heavy oil consumers. Saudi Aramco, one of the largest companies on Earth by revenue, had shored up many of its accounts and had begun selling off assets to private investors and other companies just to keep itself afloat. The company, a state-owned enterprise, had to consult the government for this, but had really no other way to save itself. There were rumors in the company of bankruptcy, in one of the most profitable organizations, and layoffs had begun. Of the 76,000 employees, the company quickly shrunk down to 40,000 to recoup the losses. Oil prices across the world had never ever been lower. Fuel across the US was reporting record prices of $1.12 per gallon, which made consumers very happy while the Saudi economy was doing damage control, preparing for an implosion. It would seem the only way the company could recover would be to cut oil operations to slow the quantity to the market, and jack up the price to 20% over market value, effectively eliminating the discount and charging premiums to those who formerly had discounts. If implemented, the US consumer’s dream would be short-lived as they would approach prices of $4.15 per gallon, but would likely save the economy.

The Paper Tiger

A recent series of arrests has also brought to light an unanticipated vulnerability in the Saudi security establishment. Early in 2022, the Ministry of Defense announced plans to double the number of active-duty personnel in the Saudi Land Forces in a period of just two years. Assuming no retirements or fatalities (something that is hard to assume, given the ongoing Saudi intervention in Yemen), the Royal Land Forces will have to hire over three hundred people per day. Meeting this requirement in a country without conscription has required a massive increase in recruitment targets, coupled with a corresponding decrease in the standards used in hiring. In essence, anyone with a warm body that can hold a rifle and walk is being allowed into the military. Moreover, the massive increase in junior enlisted personnel has further taxed the brass’s ability to maintain discipline and unit cohesion: the army’s absenteeism rate has sky-rocketed, as there are simply too many recruits and too few skilled officers and NCOs in order to adequately enforce punishments.
While the drop in Saudi Arabia’s combat capacity that this has caused is concerning on its own, far more concerning is the fact that not all of the recruits to the Saudi military have the country’s best interests at heart. A recent arrest of an Al Qaeda member in Riyadh revealed that numerous terrorist organizations, as well as other dissident organizations, have infiltrated substantial amounts of their members into the newly-expanded Saudi military. If left unchecked, these cells will pose a significant threat to the security of Saudi Arabia, and will be able to use their military training to greatly improve the efficiency of their parent organizations in the future. Moreover, it will give their parent organizations access to classified intelligence on Saudi (read: American) weapons systems, and likely lead to some of these systems ending up in the hands of militant groups in countries like Yemen.
Similarly worrying is the monarchy’s deteriorating control of the Saudi Arabian National Guard. Separate from the traditional command structures of the Saudi military, the SANG has long served as the anti-coup, counter-insurgency, and counter-protest wing of the Saudi security establishment. It is comprised of a mixture of (largely conservative) tribal militias and personnel recruited from the Wahhabi religious establishment. Traditionally, these affiliations have helped protect the government from coups by the more liberal-minded military. In this instance, where the threat to the regime’s existence comes from conservative, religious parts of society, the loyalty of the National Guard has been called directly into question. Some worry that the ousted clerics and the more conservative elements of the House of Saud have compromised the integrity of the SANG, and may be able to use it in order to depose the current ruling family. Whatever the case, most agree that something needs to be done--and soon.

Issues Abroad

Naturally, when things go badly in a country as large as Saudi Arabia, they have a tendency to spill over into their neighbors. Below is a brief summary of some of the spillover effects in neighboring countries.
The United Arab Emirates
While the United Arab Emirates has long been the most “progressive” of the Gulf States, it is not without hardliners and conservatives. The country’s recent decision to decriminalize gay marriage has been met with considerable criticism from the country’s right-wing. Outrage against this decision--coupled with, Emirati intelligence suspects, but cannot prove, some assistance and funding from Qatar--has led to a revival of Al Islah, the UAE-branch of the Muslim Brotherhood. The US presence in the UAE at Al Dhafra Air Base has also under scrutiny as the Sahwa Movement has spread across the border into the UAE, but so far, the movements are still content to resort to peaceful protest.
Bahrain
The death of Isa Qassim has sent shockwaves throughout Bahraini society, worsening already-existing tensions in the Shi’a-majority, Sunni-dominated nation. An important leader of the Shi’a community and political movement on the island, Qassim served as a constant voice for peace, frequently working to curtail the more militant wings of the Shi’a rights movement and channel them into peaceful activities like protest and, before the suspension of the legislature, voting. His martyrdom (and indeed, he is viewed as a martyr now in Bahrain) on Saudi territory has led to a great deal of suspicion in the Shi’a community of Bahrain, with many believing that Saudi security forces let the assassination occur in order to eliminate one of the peninsula’s largest Shi’a opposition leaders. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant: enough people believe it that the new leaders of the opposition who have risen to fill the void have become more convinced that the only way to have their demands met is through violence. In the future, Shi’a opposition groups on the island will be more likely to turn to violence in order to have their demands met.
The royal family has become increasingly skeptical of Saudi Arabia’s commitment to their continued existence and independence following its actions in Qatar. While they are not brave enough to stand up to Saudi Arabia (yet) owing to their proximity to the country, the Royal Family is deeply uncomfortable with the Saudi coup in Qatar. In essence, it appears to the Royal Family that Saudi Arabia will abuse the Crown Prince’s marriage ties in order to replace other leaders of the GCC as punishment for working against Saudi interests. Given the marriage ties between the grand daughter of the King of Bahrain and the Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, Bahrain considers itself to be at heavy risk of one of these new “succession coups.” As such, Bahrain has started to (quietly) search for new allies to help guarantee its security against an aggressive Saudi Arabia.
Iraq
The death of Grand Ayatollah Basheer al-Najafi on Saudi territory at the hands of Sunni jihadists has led to a dramatic flare-up in sectarian tensions in Iraq. As one of the Big Four clerics in the holy city of Najaf, al-Najafi was one of the preeminent leaders of the Shi’a faith. Candlelight vigils and other mourning ceremonies have been held throughout the country to mark the passing of one of Shi’a Islam’s greatest minds, while anti-Saudi sentiment has been further cemented in the country.
tl;dr

• Saudi Arabia has dramatically curtailed the powers of the religious establishment, and broken a thousand-year-old prohibition on non-Muslims entering the Holy City of Mecca
  
• There are massive conservative protests in Saudi Arabia. The largely conservative security establishment is sympathetic to these protests, hampering the Saudi response.
  
• The threat of terrorist attacks in Saudi Arabia has increased dramatically
  
• So far, two Al Qaeda attacks have led to the destruction of the Hawza in Dammam (and the death of three very important Shi'a marja') the death of 84 people (including forty Saudi nationals, three American servicemen, and two American contractors), and the injury of another two- to three-hundred
  
• Saudi Arabia is facing a massive revenue crisis due to its heavy discounting of oil exports
  
• There is large resistance to the rule of MbS and King Salman within conservative circles, with some suspecting that they will not be in power for much longer.
  
• Smaller conservative protests are occurring in the UAE
  

I'm looking into some jobs in the UAE for next year, namely Dubai and Abu Dhabi but can't seem to find any information about the different skill levels, scope of practice, etc to find out what role to apply for.
I see lots of jobs for "Paramedic" and "Advanced Paramedic" but nowhere does it explain what those roles are equivalent to internationally. I'm a UK based HCPC Registered Paramedic with a BHSc in Paramedicine.
Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Good morning from the UK.
It’s another pleasant spring day here in middle England. There is a fair amount of traffic going past my front door due to the nearby 3M plant, the birds are singing in the trees and a pleasant breeze is wafting through my back door. You can almost forget there’s a pandemic going on but there is of course and it continues to have all sorts of effects. At time of writing for example, there are currently only four Airbus A380s airborne - two for British Airways en route to storage in France, a China Southern flying home from LA and a Lufthansa one en route from Bangkok to Auckland to bring some more of the German backpackers home. The biggest story of all at present though is the hospitalisation of the UK prime minister Boris Johnson as he continues to fight off the virus. Johnson is said to be a non-smoker (complications from the virus are substantially more likely for smokers and vapers); hopefully he’ll fully recover in due course.
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Virus news in depth

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Cyclone Harold hits Vanuatu - at time of writing the Pacific island is currently being hit by category 4 cyclone Harold with sustained wind speeds near the centre of 135mph (approx 225 kmh). Communications are down as a result and damage and casualties are currently unknown. Vanuatu is one of the few countries in the world that does not have any confirmed cases of the virus, but there are fears that were an outbreak to occur its health system would struggle to cope. Vanuatu was already in a state of emergency, with borders closed to international arrivals, a curfew, and gatherings of more than five people banned but the government lifted some of these restrictions as the cyclone approached in order to allow people to gather at mass evacuation centres, with a local UNICEF representative saying it was a question of prioritising the greatest threat to life. The storm is expected to weaken slightly over the two next days but could come very close to Fiji and Tonga. The Guardian has more here (but it’s definitely a category 4 not a 5 as the Guardian is suggesting).
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Austria hopes to begin reopening from next week - Reuters reports that Austria plans to reopen smaller shops from next week in its first step to loosen a lockdown that has slowed the spread of the coronavirus, as long as the public continue to observe the lockdown broadly. Chancellor Sebastian Kurz told a news conference that since Austria had acted earlier than most countries, that gave it the ability to reopen shops sooner as well. If all goes well, it will reopen non-essential shops of less than 400 square metres and DIY shops on April 14, followed by all shops and malls on May 1, he said.
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Virus news in brief

Source unless specified is today’s Guardian live blog.
Several tigers and lions have tested positive for Covid-19 at a New Yorks’ Bronx zoo and have mild symptoms. They’re believed to have caught the virus from a worker who wasn’t showing symptoms yet. All of the animals are expected to fully recover whilst the worker is “doing OK”. More on that one here.
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More than 460,000 companies closed down in China in the first quarter says the South China Morning Post. More than half of them had operated for less than three years. The closures comprised of businesses whose operating licenses had been revoked, as well as those who had terminated operations themselves, and included 26,000 in the export sector, according to Tianyancha, a commercial database that compiles public records. At the same time, the pace of new firms being established slowed significantly. From January to March, around 3.2 million businesses were set up, a 29 per cent drop from a year earlier.
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Israel is struggling to get its ultra-orthodox Jewish community to comply with social distancing, wearing of masks and avoidance of large gatherings says the Guardian. Undercover police were forced to disguise themselves as ultra-orthodox jews to infiltrate a synagogue; when they entered and found a large congregation more police came in to break the gathering up only to find the worshippers had re-assembled an hour later forcing them to this time hand out fines. Attempts by police to enforce quarantine restrictions in religious neighbourhoods of Jerusalem have led to sometimes violent standoffs with paramedics being hit with rocks.
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Scotland’s chief medical officer, Catherine Calderwood, has quit after facing intense criticism for breaking her own rules to twice visit her second home during the coronavirus outbreak. In a statement issued on Sunday night, more than seven hours after insisting she would carry on, Calderwood said she had again discussed the controversy with Scottish first minister Nicola Sturgeon and concluded her position was untenable.
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Switzerland is facing a shortage of the raw material needed to make disinfectant to tackle Covid-19, after the country abandoned its emergency reserve of 10,000 tonnes of ethanol two years ago, newspaper Tages-Anzeiger reported (story is in German) on Monday. Switzerland keeps emergency stockpiles of everything from coffee, wheat, rice and cooking oil. In 2018, the country ended its longtime practice of stocking ethanol as part of efforts to privatise the country’s alcohol market, the Swiss newspaper said.
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Italy has reported its lowest death toll in two weeks, Spanish fatalities have dropped for the third straight day, Germany’s recorded four straight days of drops in newly identified cases and France has also recorded its fewest deaths in a week. “The curve has started its descent and the number of deaths has started to drop,” said top Italian health official Silvio Brusaferro, adding the next phase could be a gradual easing of a strict month-long lockdown.
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Belgium - For the first time since the start of the epidemic, more Coronavirus patients left hospital (504 people) than arrived (499), according to the latest data released on Sunday. In a video address to the nation released on Sunday evening, Belgium’s prime minister said the process of exiting the lockdown would be gradual, warning that the lifting of movement restrictions (currently planned for April 19th) may be extended until 3rd May. Echoing the FT editorial yesterday, the Belgium prime minister offered brief thoughts about a changed society after the pandemic passes. “A long process of reconstruction awaits us. It is clear that there will be a before and after Covid19, whether in the way of looking at our relationship with others, or the functioning of society more generally” she said.
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In case you missed it last week, Suzanne Hoylaerts (90), a Belgian woman, made headlines across the world after she died of the new coronavirus (Covid-19) after refusing ventilator treatment. “You do not need to put me on a ventilator. Keep it for the younger patients, I have had a beautiful life,” she said to the doctors, according to VRT (link).
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Singapore has put nearly 20,000 migrant workers under quarantine for two weeks after a growing number of coronavirus infections were detected in their dormitories.
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Japanese prime minister Shinzo Abe has pledged to craft an “unprecedented” stimulus package to respond to the downturn inflicted by Covid-19, with a draft document referring to the pandemic as the “biggest crisis” the global economy has faced since World War Two. Abe’s government is to pledge to take “all steps” encompassing fiscal, monetary and tax policies to battle the deepening fallout from the coronavirus in a stimulus package to be approved on Tuesday, a draft document reviewed by Reuters showed.
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Supply chain news in depth

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Tomini crew refuse to offload cargo in Bangladesh over fears of contracting coronavirus - Splash 247 reports that Last week, the ship’s Indian captain took the decision to invoke Master’s Authority under the International Safety Management Code and applicable Safety Management System, refusing to offload his cargo at Chittagong Port for fear that his ship could be infected with the coronavirus via the 60-odd local stevedores who would normally board the vessel in order to offload cargoes. The flag state administration, the Marshall Islands, has been asked by the owners, UAE-based Tomini Shipping, to mediate, while the master and 21 crew have come up what they state are the only workable solutions for the safe offload of the cargo. The charity Human Rights at Sea (HRAS) has been in direct contact with owner’s representatives, P&I interests, the flag state administration, and passed information to the charterers. “The safety, health and wellbeing of our seafarers is our number one priority and our management and technical teams are in constant communication with all our seafarers supporting them and their families as we navigate the complicated challenges the COVID 19 pandemic presents,” Tomini Shipping stated in an email to HRAS, insisting in a later statement: “We have adhered and complied with every regulation, addressed all the concerns raised by Tomini Destiny and are currently working with the relevant maritime authorities and bodies.” According to MarineTraffic, as of Monday afternoon local time the ship remains at anchor in the Bay of Bengal and the master has erected razor wire around the vessel to ensure no one can board it.
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Liners brace for worst case scenario: $23.4bn combined full year losses - Splash 247 is also reporting that shipping company losses are likely to extend to $23.4bn. The volume loss alone from the 212 blanked (cancelled) sailings so far will cost the top 15 carriers more than $6bn in 2020, rendering the industry loss-making in 2020, reversing the $5.9bn profit the top 15 carriers managed combined last year. Sea-Intelligence warns however that a failure to prevent a simultaneous rate collapse could lead to the liner industry losing a “staggering” $23bn in 2020. In their worst case scenario where the 10% volume loss for the full year is combined with the same level of losses on rate levels as the carriers themselves reported in 2009, liners could lose an unprecedented $23.4bn in 2020. By comparison, the combined profits for the top 15 carriers for the past full eight-year period was $20.9bn. Container shipping was warned at the end of February, even before the full effects of the global coronavirus contagion had been factored in, that liner bankruptcies are highly likely. The potential for liner bankruptcy is at its strongest in the 10 years that US consultants AlixPartners have been tracking this specific data set in a report published on February 28.
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Forwarders accuse $13/kg freighter airlines of 'profiteering' from Covid crisis - The Loadstar reports that airfreight rates for medical supplies have hit more than $13 per kg, causing some forwarders to claim that freighter airlines are “profiteering” from the Covid-19 crisis. Forwarders have said that while various carriers offering new belly-freighters were chartering for about $6 or $7 per kg, normally the whole aircraft needed to be booked, necessitating a 40-50 ton shipment. For freighter operations, or smaller shipments, prices have surged to upwards of $13 per kg for medical supplies, while general cargo – often being bumped – is being shipped for $7-$8 per kg. One forwarder said: “General freight is being offloaded, but there is a huge surcharge for medical goods. It’s absolutely disgusting and immoral. And all requires a pre-payment. It is taking about 10 days to move masks, and some have been sub-standard. “The other problem is that, if there is a surplus in the end market, it’ll be hard to re-sell the masks, which are only worth about $10,000 for 10 tons but customers, mostly governments, are paying $120,000 for 10 tons to be delivered. It’s distressing and sad to profiteer from death. And everyone is doing it.”
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Supply chain news in brief

Workers at the UK container port of Tilbury have created their own tribute to the UK’s national health service (NHS) by rearranging 137 containers to read “♥ NHS” (link).
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N95 masks ordered by Amazon are now starting to arrive, says the company. They are either donating to healthcare workers on the front lines or making them available through Amazon Business to healthcare and government organizations at cost.
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Qatar airlines is ramping up cargo flight availability to multiple destinations says Freightwaves. The airline is using all-cargo aircraft and passenger planes in cargo-only mode to meet high demand for moving fresh produce and meat, pharmaceuticals and general cargo in Australia, India, Kuwait, Oman and the Netherlands.
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Engine maker Cummins Inc. is suspending production at three additional plants in southern Indiana until at least May 4 or whenever production resumes at its major truck manufacturing customers. “A couple thousand” production employees are being temporarily laid off because of the coronavirus pandemic. They will retain health benefits for up to 90 days but will not be paid, spokesman Jon Mills said (link).
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Splash 247 reports that crew changes and ship deliveries in Japan will become more difficult due to the Japanese government issuing extraordinary travel bans on Friday covering 73 nations, including the Philippines. Filipinos make up close to three quarters of all crew on the Japanese merchant fleet, the world’s third largest shipowning nation. The travel ban also applies to another big crew source, China, but not India, meaning crew managers could be making urgent calls to Indian seafarer centres this week. Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism has stressed the bans extend to seafarers and aircrew.
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Also from Splash247 (link) - in a circular, the UAE’s Federal Transport Authority has said it will ease restrictions on crew swaps in the country. The first stage of the lifting of restrictions would be aimed at seafarers with a resident visa, crew on laid up passenger ships, crew with medical issues and for those who need to leave on compassionate grounds. The FTA will allow crew to leave so long as the signing off crew must be well for the last 14 days before leaving the ship and has not been in contact with a known or suspect case of Covid-19 in those 14 days. An airline ticket must also be shown.

Donations

Several asked if they can send me $/£/€ via Patreon (in some cases because I've saved them time or money, others for no reason at all). I don't need the cash (that's lovely though) but food bank charities are getting really hit hard with all this panic buying. Please consider giving whatever you'd have given me to a foodbank charity instead:
UK: https://www.trusselltrust.org/
France: https://www.banquealimentaire.org/
Germany: https://www.tafel.de/
Netherlands: https://www.voedselbankennederland.nl/steun-ons/steun-voedselbank-donatie/
Italy: https://www.bancoalimentare.it/it/node/1
Spain: https://www.fesbal.org/
Australia: https://www.foodbank.org.au/
Canada: https://www.foodbankscanada.ca/
USA: https://www.feedingamerica.org/
Thanks in advance for any donations you give. If there's foodbank charities in your country and it's not listed above, please suggest it and I will include it going forward.

So am thinking of moving to New Zealand to further my education/ learning on EMS, might take a diploma in paramedics or Masters depending on the situation. Do you guys have any insights on what EMS/ being an EMT there in New Zealand like?
Am currently working in UAE as an EMT for 6 years. studied and worked in the Philippines also.