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Monkeys And Vodka: Clubbing in Dubai

A chic nightclub in the glittering, moneyed Gulf city of Dubai, has found itself in very hot water for allowing a monkey onto its premises. The concern? Animal abuse.

Photos showed the monkey attached to a leash and wearing a t-shirt. One image showed the monkey being force-fed vodka.

Dubai nightclub's pet monkey causes major animal rights backlash - http://t.co/a0MZne8r96pic.twitter.com/PRA6LEcYTl

— Al Bawaba News (@AlBawabaEnglish) February 4, 2014

Angry patrons of various nationalities have since posted furious rebukes on the "Vanity" night club's Facebook page. An Australian woman living in Dubai summed up much of the sentiment: "Not a place where I would like to go, where idiots gather to see an animal suffer!!!"

Here's what the nightclub Vanity had to say for themselves.

This strange spectacle has brought to the fore various uneasy aspects of Dubai's modern identity: its role as a major economic center fueled by cheap labor and oil money; its infamous offerings for upscale night-life and sometimes over-the-top luxury (indoor ski slopes, and the like); and its position as home base to a population of foreigners that overwhelm the well-off minority of comparably conservative local Emiratis, who generally tend to keep to themselves.

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Geopolitics

How Russia And China Are Trying To Drive France Out Of Africa

Fueled by the Kremlin, anti-French sentiment in Africa has been spreading for years. Meanwhile, China is also increasing its influence on the continent as Africa's focus shifts from west to east.

Photo of a helicopter landing, guided a member of France's ​Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maneuver by members of France's Operation Barkhane in the Sahel region

Maria Oleksa Yeschenko

France is losing influence in its former colonies in Africa. After French President Emmanuel Macron decided last year to withdraw the military from the Sahel and the Central African Republic, a line was drawn under the "old French policy" on the continent. But the decision to withdraw was not solely a Parisian initiative.

October 23-24, 2019, Sochi. Russia holds the first large-scale Russia-Africa summit with the participation of four dozen African heads of state. At the time, French soldiers are still helping Mali, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Chad, and Niger fight terrorism as part of Operation Barkhane.

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Few people have heard of the Wagner group. The government of Mali is led by Paris-friendly Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, although the country has already seen several pro-Russian demonstrations. At that time, Moscow was preparing a big return to the African continent, similar to what happened in the 1960s during the Soviet Union.

So what did France miss, and where did it all go wrong?

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