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Gulf Countries Assess Damage from Record Rainfall, Compensates those Affected

Gulf countries continue to survey the damage and compensate those affected from the record rainfall. (Oman News Agency)
Gulf countries continue to survey the damage and compensate those affected from the record rainfall. (Oman News Agency)
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Gulf Countries Assess Damage from Record Rainfall, Compensates those Affected

Gulf countries continue to survey the damage and compensate those affected from the record rainfall. (Oman News Agency)
Gulf countries continue to survey the damage and compensate those affected from the record rainfall. (Oman News Agency)

The Al-Matir depression, which swept the Gulf region over the past two days, has caused human losses and massive material damage.

The Sultanate of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain announced the end of the depression and that work was underway to reopen roads, assess the damage to infrastructure and public and private properties, and provide the necessary support to all those affected.

On Thursday, the Center for Emergency Management in Oman announced that rescue teams will continue to search for missing persons after the number of victims reached 19, most of them students.

The rainy weather condition in Oman, which was accompanied by flooding and thunderstorms, led to serious damage to public and private property.

The Regional Center for Climate Change in Saudi Arabia announced the start of a comprehensive climate study of the depression that affected the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, its causes, and the extreme rainfall resulting from it. In a statement, the center said the study will also cover “the role of climate change” with efforts being coordinated with affected countries.

The center’s spokesman, Hussein Al-Qahtani, explained to Asharq Al-Awsat that the recent rainfall was higher than usual, which requires more research to study.

He stressed that that indicators of climate change were evident in several Saudi cities, such as Al-Namas, which witnessed hail falling in higher quantities than usual this year, in addition to other cities that saw the same situation last year, such as Taif, Buraidah, and Khamis Mushait.

He also confirmed that all climate studies presented by the National Center of Meteorology indicate that Saudi Arabia will see stronger climate phenomena in the coming years.

Last year, scientists at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) published a report that provided a comprehensive analysis of climate change and its consequences on the Arabian Peninsula.

The report said climate change could lead to higher temperatures and an increase in the severity and frequency of droughts, affecting agricultural and food production and leading to an increase in flash floods such as those witnessed in the region this week.

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$344 for a Coffee? Scottish Farm is Selling UK's Most Expensive Cup

This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)
This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)
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$344 for a Coffee? Scottish Farm is Selling UK's Most Expensive Cup

This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)
This undated handout photo shows farmer and owner of Mossgiel Organic Farm Bryce Cunningham, right, giving a bottle of milk to barista Jacob Smith, as they pose outside The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow, Scotland. (Mossgiel Organic Dairy via AP)

It's an enormous price to pay for a little cup of coffee, but the man behind the pitch promises it won't leave a bitter taste behind as it comes with the sweetner of a share of a dairy farm.
A Scottish dairy is offering what it bills as the UK's most expensive cup o' joe: 272 British pounds ($344) for a flat white — a double shot of espresso topped with a layer of steamed milk and a fleeting work of foam art, The Associated Press reported.
The costly cup is actually a perk for purchasing shares in Mossgiel Organic Dairy's crowdfunding campaign to enlarge its sustainable operation and produce more milk. Investors who buy 34 shares in the farm get a certificate for a flat white that can be redeemed starting this weekend at one of 13 coffee shops in Scotland that use the dairy's milk.
“This coffee costs nearly 80 times the price of an average flat white in the UK — but it’s much more than just a lovely drink,” said owner Bryce Cunningham. "We know it sounds crazy, but when you break it down, it’s a pretty good deal. How much is the future of farming worth?”
The price tops the eye-watering 265 pounds that Shot London, a coffee bar in the posh Mayfair and Marylebone neighborhoods, charged for a flat white made with rare beans from Okinawa, Japan. The Telegraph reported in April that it was the most expensive coffee in Britain.
Before launching the coffee promotion, Cunningham had already raised more than a third of the 300,000 pounds he is seeking from small investors as he tries to get a 900,000 pound loan that will help him double operations and expand out of Scotland and as far as coffee shops in London.
Shareholders receive other rewards, too, such farm tours, milk delivery discounts and invites to special events. But investors are also given a standard warning that they could lose some or all of the money they invest — except for the coffee.
The tenant farm in Mauchline, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Glasgow, was worked in the 18th century by poet Robert Burns, who penned “Auld Lang Syne" and many other well-known works. Burns, who is considered the national poet of Scotland, wrote while working in the fields there for two years and his face graces each glass bottle of Mossgiel milk.
Cunningham, a former service manager for Mercedes-Benz, took over the operation in 2014 after his father and grandfather died in 2014 from terminal illnesses.
The collapse of milk prices that year and other problems forced him to sell off most of the herd and reinvent the business as an organic farm. He uses a process to “brew” the milk, instead of pasteurize it, that he said gives it the creamer taste and texture of raw milk without the health risks.
Todd Whiteford, one of the owners of The Good Coffee Cartel in Glasgow that is serving the costly cups, said they’ve been using Mossgiel's milk for several years. Despite “outrageous offers" from competitors to switch, he said other milk producers can't match the quality and consistency that makes for “rounder, smoother and sweeter” cappuccinos, lattes and flat whites — and better coffee art.
“Theirs is the best. I’ll argue with anyone about that,” Whiteford said.
Anyone who splashes out to buy a Mossgiel coffee, though, will be getting the same cup other Coffee Cartel customers can purchase for 3.10 pounds. But Cunningham says there will be a taste of virtue with every posh cup.