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%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20%20<p>Qatar is mourning the tragic loss of 13 lives following the June 21 explosion and fire at the Barzan local gas supply facility in Ras Laffan Industrial City. </p><p> </p><p>The deceased were of Indian and Pakistani nationalities, while 66 others of Qatari, Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Kenyan, Ghanaian, Tanzanian, Nigerian, and Nepalese nationalities sustained injuries. None of the injured are in life threatening condition, according to Minister of State for Energy Affairs His Excellency Saad bin Sherida al Kaabi. </p><p> </p><p>Speaking to the media Monday, al Kaabi, who is also president and CEO of QatarEnergy, extended condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of those who lost their lives. </p><p> </p><p>Al-Kaabi said QatarEnergy extends its heartfelt condolences to the families, friends, and colleagues of those who lost their lives, and prays for the swift recovery of those injured. QatarEnergy pledges its full support to those affected by this tragedy, he also said. </p><p> </p><p>The minister stressed that the incident was an operational accident and not sabotage or hostile in nature. He explained that the Barzan plant had been shut since December 2025 for urgent maintenance and was restarted only two days before the accident. </p><p> </p><p>“The fire was quickly and fully extinguished by QatarEnergy Emergency Response Team and Qatar Civil Defence,” he noted. </p><p> </p><p>Despite the tragedy, al Kaabi emphasised that QatarEnergy’s LNG facilities, Ras Laffan Port, and logistical operations remain unaffected. </p><p> </p><p>“We have ample supplies of gas to make up for the loss from different projects and different capabilities that we have. So we don’t see any shortage. It will not affect anything regarding exports. It will not affect anything regarding our local requirements,” he said. </p><p> </p><p>Clarifying damage assessment and repair timelines, al Kaabi differentiated the Barzan incident from the earlier attack on QatarEnergy’s LNG trains at Ras Laffan, which involved proprietary cryogenic units requiring “three to five years” to replace. </p><p> </p><p>“It’s a different gas plant and a different area of the plant that was damaged,” he explained, underscoring QatarEnergy’s commitment to transparency in announcing definitive timelines once investigations are complete. </p><p> </p><p>He also dismissed concerns about environmental impact, confirming that “there is no loss of containment and there’s no environmental impact.” </p><p> </p><p>In its official statement, QatarEnergy said work is underway to assess the damage to Barzan and neighbouring facilities. It reiterated that LNG facilities, Ras Laffan Port, other logistics operations, and export capabilities remain unaffected as a result of the explosion and fire.</p>%20%20%20%20<p>Related%20Story</p>
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An time out to the cinema isn’t almost about seeing a film, this can be a complete sensory revel in, with a large display and large snacks. An epic movie calls for the panoramic widescreen, thunderous encompass sound, embarrassingly massive packing containers of lollies and large buckets of popcorn that by no means style the similar at house.
Right through the historical past of cinema, on the other hand, popcorn has been each scorned as a messy lowbrow distraction and hailed as a profit-making saviour for a floundering movie trade.
Popcorn as an historical snack meals
Popcorn is likely one of the oldest meals we nonetheless eat as a snack, with archaeological proof from Peru, circa 6,700 years in the past.
Bernabé Cobo, a Jesuit missionary in Peru within the early seventeenth century, seen popcorn being made via the area people, toasted till it burst – eaten as a confection referred to as Pisancalla.
French explorers within the Nice Lakes area of North The us in 1612 noticed the Iroquois other people heating corn kernels in a clay pot stuffed with scorching sand till they popped – and added them to a soup.
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Colonists followed the follow within the Americas, both the use of an enclosed cord mesh basket over open flame, or a horizontally fastened skinny steel cylinder became with a hand crank in entrance of a fireside.
First bites on the fairground
In 1885, a brand new steam-powered automated popcorn device used to be invented in Chicago via Charles Cretors cooking kernels in a mix of vegetable oil and animal fats.
He exhibited his invention on the International’s Truthful in Chicago in 1893, and via 1900 he had switched to electrical energy, and machines shifted from boulevard carts to stores.
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C. Cretors & Corporate steam powered popcorn device, photographed round 1905.
Wikimedia Commons
Popcorn and peanuts have been already common at fairgrounds when shifting footage joined the lineup of entertainments on be offering, and the snacks adopted the target market into the theatre.
The cinema advanced from fairground appeal to a vacation spot in its personal proper in 1896. Nickelodeons (a nickel for admission, and odeon manner theatre in Greek), or “penny gaffs” in Britain, presented affordable viewing venues.
By way of the Twenties, homeowners attempted to ascertain movie theatres as extra delicate areas, “movie palaces” with carpets and furniture usually related to intellectual leisure.
Buyers munching on popcorn or peanuts didn’t fit the delicate atmosphere of the brand new architecturally designed areas. The noisy crunch of snacks additionally interfered with staring at a silent movie.
An reasonably priced luxurious
In 1927 the primary movement image with sound, The Jazz Singer, opened in New York. “Talkies” revived the film industry, and popcorn used to be much less of a loud distraction with a movie’s soundtrack.
The Nice Despair within the Nineteen Thirties intended many luxuries have been past the achieve of most of the people, however a film price ticket used to be nonetheless reasonably priced, and a 5-cent bag of popcorn drew audiences into the theatres, boosting gross sales.
To begin with, cinema homeowners leased house within the foyer or outdoor to distributors, till they realised that the cash in margin for popcorn used to be over 70%.
All the way through the second one global battle, rationing of sugar intended that many forms of sweet weren’t to be had or was pricey.
Popcorn used to be an inexpensive change and intake went up 300%.
Popcorn’s sidekicks
Popcorn within the cinema is common around the globe, with a candy and savoury divide, continuously drawing on native flavours.
Highly spiced masala blends are common in India; Eastern popcorn might come with bits of umami-rich seaweed; caramel popcorn dominates the Chinese language marketplace.
And whilst popcorn is obviously a prime personality, ice cream is a trusty sidekick within the film snack combo.
In Australian cinemas within the Nineteen Thirties, “ice cream matinees” gave a loose ice cream “bucket” to each and every kid attending. Along with those cups of ice cream, “Eskimo pies” – chocolate-coated blocks of ice cream – have been a well-liked deal with served from trays via usherettes walking throughout the aisles of the theatre on the period.
An usherette for Higher Union Theatres, Sydney, photographed in 1946.
Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales
Ice cream cones dipped in a troublesome chocolate coating debuted in Australia within the Forties however didn’t seem in film theatres till the early Nineteen Eighties.
The choc most sensible stays an very important merchandise for moviegoers in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand, however it’s unknown past Australasia.
Some native choices, on the other hand, aren’t simply diversifications on acquainted favourites.
Salty Dutch liquorice is a sweet-meets-savoury style that now not everybody acquires, however roasted ants in Colombia are a next-level delicacy on the motion pictures.
Hormigas culonas (translated actually as big-bottomed ant) are a species of leaf-cutter ant, Atta laevigata. In Colombia’s Santander area the ants are a luxurious merchandise, the caviar of Colombia. The legs and wings of the queen ants are got rid of and the our bodies are roasted to create a crunchy, high-protein meals providing as a lot journey to your snack as at the display.
However whether or not or not it’s popcorn or ants, the meals we consume at the hours of darkness whilst we watch a film is an very important component of attending the cinema for many of us.
The aroma of the butter topping and the crunch of the choc most sensible are sensory reviews that, like the massive display, simply aren’t the similar at house.
