Dubai: Alina Zareen Khan has one task every day – to help entrepreneurs from across the world set up their business in Dubai.It’s an easy pitch.“Dubai has one of the most flexible environments for businesses,” the Senior Business Setup Consultant, told Emirates 24|7.“Logistically speaking, the UAE is placed in such a way that it makes doing business easy from every part of the world, you also save a lot of money because of the tax exemptions, and because they have strong regulatory policies, you can set up in industries that perhaps are not as open in other parts of the world. Just look at crypto – there are Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA) regulations in place in the UAE and crypto is widely accepted,” she said.In just three years since she moved to Dubai to work in the field of business setup consultancy, Khan has helped hundreds of businesses establish themselves in the city.But the conviction with which she reaches out to her clients comes as much from her understanding of the market, as it does from her personal experience of how Dubai rewards consistency.Taking the chances life givesBack in 2023, as a fresh graduate working in New Delhi, India, when Khan first came across a job opening in Dubai while browsing online, she was doubtful.Her fiancé urged her to submit her résumé and see what happened.“I gave a video interview and received a job offer, but I still wasn’t sure.”It was her father who gave her the final push.“He told me, ‘Take it as a paid vacation. Go for two months, experience it and then decide whether you want to stay.’”So, at the age of 22, Khan boarded a flight to the UAE with no long-term plan and just one thought: “Let’s see where life is taking me.”The early struggleThe journey has been a huge learning curve for Khan. The first few days, she says, were ones she will never forget.Her first home in the UAE was in Sharjah, with her office in BurJuman Centre in Bur Dubai.Every morning, she woke at 4.30am, walked for 20 minutes to the nearest bus station, took a bus to Al Qusais in Dubai, hopped on a Metro to meet the 8.15am office login time. Taxi fares felt high, the meal plan didn’t taste as good as she’d have liked and every dirham was counted in.But even with the struggle, she could always see the potential of a bigger life.“I could see things happening. Clients were closing, money was coming in, so I was hopeful,” she said.A high return on investment for effortHaving completed three years this August in Dubai, that hope has paid off in ways that Khan finds hard to put in words. She’s earned multiple promotions, got married and now lives in her own apartment.“I bought my parents a home in India with whatever I could contribute, got them a new car, and made sure I funded my whole wedding all by myself. I always wanted to be independent,” she said.Dubai, she says, is a city that teaches the value of patience and resilience, then rewards it many times over.True to her business consultancy work, she puts it in terms familiar to any investor: “The return on investment for effort in terms of success is quite high.”Persistence paysAs someone who speaks to clients every day on why setting up their business in Dubai is a good idea, Khan said the one big lesson she’s learnt in the past three years is the value of consistency.“If you’re consistent, no matter what happens, you tell yourself that you’ll still do it tomorrow, you’ll still make that call, it pays off,” she said.“I had a client who I closed after 15 video calls. Consistency helps, whether in sales, in consultancy or in life,” she said.And as she continues to pitch the Dubai dream to clients, she says she is buoyed not just by her own experience of living the dream, but also by the endless ambition she sees around her every day.“I plan to stay here, keep helping people set up their companies in the UAE and relocate here, and who knows, one day I will have my own company, a setup of my own, built on trust, compassion, customer happiness, and client satisfaction,” she said.“This transition was just the learning phase. I always feel the earlier you struggle in life, the lesser you struggle. And Dubai actually makes you feel that the sky is the limit. So, this is just the beginning.”

Oakland, California: Meta Platforms will face a coalition of US state attorneys general in a California federal court trial beginning Wednesday over allegations that it designed Facebook and Instagram to be addictive for children and misled users about the safety of its platforms.The trial, which is expected to last seven weeks in Oakland, will examine claims brought by Colorado, Kentucky, California and New Jersey, as well as 29 states, that Meta intentionally engineered its platforms to keep young users engaged and unlawfully collected and used children's data in violation of federal law.Jury selection is set to begin on Wednesday, with opening statements scheduled for August 18.Meta founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Instagram head Adam Mosseri are expected to testify.Potentially huge financial stakesThe case represents the biggest test yet of youth social media litigation and could have major financial and operational implications for Meta.The company has said potential damages could reach $1.4 trillion, close to its current market value of about $1.5 trillion, although the attorneys general have not publicly disclosed the amount they may seek.In addition to damages, the states are asking the court to impose broad changes on Meta's platforms, including:Age restrictions for usersElimination of infinite scroll featuresRemoval of algorithms and AI models trained using children's dataLimits on notifications and engagement featuresChanges to content recommendation systems to prioritise wellbeing over engagementMeta rejects allegationsA Meta spokesperson said the company strongly disagrees with the claims and remains confident the evidence will support its position."We've listened to parents, worked with experts and law enforcement, and conducted in-depth research to understand the issues that matter most," the spokesperson said.Meta has consistently argued that it has invested heavily in youth safety features and denies allegations that it knowingly prioritised profits over children's wellbeing.The company has also argued that "social media addiction" is not a recognised psychiatric condition and therefore disputes claims that it misled consumers regarding addictiveness.Origins of the lawsuitThe case stems from a multistate investigation launched after disclosures by former Meta employee and whistleblower Frances Haugen.Haugen testified before a US Senate committee in 2021, alleging that Meta knew its products could negatively affect young users and understood ways to reduce those risks but chose not to implement sufficient changes.New Jersey Attorney General Jennifer Davenport said ahead of the trial: "Meta knows its platforms are harming children and teens but continues to keep kids addicted, as we've alleged in our lawsuit. Our kids are not data points to be monetised."A recent Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 85% of Americans believe social media can be addictive for children, while 61% said social media companies require stronger oversight.Part of wider legal battleThe lawsuit is one of more than 3,000 federal cases filed by states, school districts, municipalities and individuals against Meta, Snap, Alphabet's YouTube and TikTok parent ByteDance.Another group of more than 3,300 lawsuits is also pending in California state court.Meta has warned that the growing volume of litigation could materially affect its business and financial results.Recent court outcomes have increased pressure on the company. Reuters reported that juries in two previous cases ruled against Meta, while a New Mexico judge last week ordered the company to pay $567 million and make changes to its platforms after finding it had contributed to a children's mental health crisis in the state.Unusual trial structureThe case will be overseen by US District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers.The judge has adopted the unusual approach of empanelling an advisory jury, which will issue findings on specific questions selected by the court. While the jury's conclusions may guide the decision-making process, the judge is not required to follow them when issuing a final ruling.Legal experts say the trial could become one of the most consequential cases ever faced by a social media company."Big damage awards and judicial dictates about features both potentially pose existential threats to social media defendants," said Eric Goldman, professor and co-director of the High Tech Law Institute at Santa Clara University School of Law.