The best way to take the pulse of a new city is to read its local newspaper. Usually you find stories about city council disputes or the local teen talent competition. But there’s no place quite like Dubai, the shiny outcrop of the Middle East. From the first newspaper we picked up today, here are three actual headlines:

Owning cheetah and lion cubs is a popular status symbol in the UAE. But when they grow up and start acting out the carnivore tendencies, people have no choice but to donate them to zoos. “We used to have 33 lions and this is far beyond any logical number for a zoo collection,” says conservationist Myyas Al Qarqaz. The zoo now has 50