An Emirati probe journeys into outer space

IT CERTAINLYBBCUNUAEUAEUAE looks like a video made by a hostage: a nervous close-up filmed in a dark room. On February 16th the broadcast smuggled messages from Sheikha Latifa, a daughter of Dubai’s billionaire ruler, Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum. The princess has twice tried to flee the emirate, accusing her father of abuse. He denies the allegations. Her second escape, in 2018, ended with her being seized off a yacht in the Indian Ocean. Now she alleges she is being held under house arrest, in what she terms “solitary confinement” without medical care. The ’s top human-rights body said it would raise her case with the United Arab Emirates (), of which Dubai is part.The tapes overshadowed what was supposed to be a triumphant moment for the . On February 9th a probe called Hope finished its seven-month journey of 493m km (306m miles) to Mars. Its arrival in Martian orbit made the ’s space agency only the fifth to reach the red planet, and the first from the Arab world. After two months of course corrections and instrument calibrations it will begin to study Mars’s atmosphere, with the first batch of data due for release in September.