Category Archives: United Arab Emirates

Israel orders more than 500,000 people to evacuate Beirut’s southern suburbs

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Instruction comes as Israel continues to bomb Lebanon and Iran, while Tehran launches retaliatory strikes

The Israeli military has ordered the entire population of Beirut’s southern suburbs to evacuate, as it continued to bomb Lebanon and Iran, while Tehran launched retaliatory strikes against Israel and US bases across the region.

An Israel Defense Forces spokesperson told all residents of Beirut’s southern suburbs – more than 500,000 people – to “save your lives and evacuate your homes immediately”, before Israel launched airstrikes on what he described as Hezbollah targets. The area covered by the order included several hospitals and government ministries.

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Fire caused by drone strike on US consulate in Dubai has been extinguished, officials say

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No injuries have been reported in the strike and fire, Dubai’s media office said on Tuesday

Authorities have ​put down ‌a limited fire near ⁠the ​US consulate ​in Dubai due to ​a ​drone strike, with no injuries reported, according to Dubai’s media office on Tuesday.

In a statement posted online, the media office said: “Dubai authorities have confirmed that a fire resulting from a drone-related incident near the US Consulate has been successfully contained.”

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Some flights depart Middle East amid travel chaos as US urges its citizens to leave region

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Select departures organised as US state department warns Americans to leave on commercial flights ‘due to safety risks’

Travellers stranded by a widening war in the Middle East began departing the United Arab Emirates onboard a small number of evacuation flights on Monday, as governments around the world worked to extract their citizens from the region.

Etihad Airways and Emirates, the airlines based in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, respectively, and the budget carrier FlyDubai said they would operate limited flights after the chaos and damaged caused by Iranian missiles and drones.

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RSF siege of El Fasher in Sudan has ‘hallmarks of genocide’, UN mission finds

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Report details harrowing 18-month occupation of North Darfur capital, showing destruction aimed at ethnic communities

The siege and capture of the Sudanese city of El Fasher by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces group last October bore “the hallmarks of genocide”, a UN-mandated fact-finding mission has said.

In a report detailing the harrowing 18-month occupation of the capital of North Darfur, investigators concluded that the RSF and allied militias deliberately inflicted conditions calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the Zaghawa and Fur ethnic communities.

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All the president’s millions: how the Trumps are turning the presidency into riches

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From Vietnam to the Balkans, Donald Trump’s family has launched a global dealmaking blitz since his re-election

A crusading prosecutor in the Balkans comes under pressure to drop a big case. Vietnamese villagers learn they are to be evicted. A convicted crypto kingpin in the Gulf receives a pardon.

All have one thing in common: they appear to be connected to the Trump family’s campaign to amass riches around the world. Since Donald Trump’s re-election a year ago, warnings that his use of presidential power to advance personal interests is corroding American democracy have grown ever louder. What is less understood – and perhaps even more dangerous – is the damage this is doing everywhere else.

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Why Trump’s lavish Saudi courtship leaves Israel on the back foot

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Pageantry and trillion-dollar promises reveal how Washington’s loyalties may be tilting toward the Gulf

The White House welcome bestowed on the Saudi crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman, was the most lavish of the Trump presidency, and a gaudily clear statement of its foreign policy priorities.

It was billed as a mere working visit, but it was more extravagant than any previous state visit. The president greeted the prince on the south lawn, the White House’s biggest stage. There were uniformed men on horses bearing flags and a flypast of fighter jets.

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UAE refuses to join Gaza stabilisation force without clear legal framework

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Decision reflects wider regional doubts about terms of US-drafted plan to disarm Hamas

Plans for a UN-mandated international stabilisation force charged with disarming Hamas inside Gaza face growing opposition after the United Arab Emirates said it would not participate because it did not yet see a clear legal framework for the force.

Israel has already ruled out Turkey joining the force, and King Abdullah of Jordan has said Jordanian troops will not join. Azerbaijan, once mooted as a contributor, did not attend a planning meeting in Turkey last week and said it would not contribute unless a full ceasefire was in place.

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As criticism grows, is UAE ready to walk away from Sudan’s RSF militia?

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After mass killings in El Fasher and four years on from a coup, UAE now admits its Sudan policy has gone wrong

The United Arab Emirates’ diplomatic machine is for the first time admitting to mistakes in its Sudan policy after suffering reputational damage over its support for the Rapid Support Forces, the Sudanese paramilitary group that has carried out mass killings in El Fasher since it captured the city late last month.

Speaking in Bahrain on Sunday, Anwar Gargash, the UAE’s senior diplomatic envoy, said the UAE and others had been wrong not to impose sanctions on the instigators of the 2021 coup – led jointly by the RSF and the army – that overthrew Sudan’s transitional civilian government.

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UN expert urged to investigate Lebanon over alleged torture of Egyptian-Turkish poet

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Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi has been imprisoned in the UAE for almost a year for criticising Emirati, Egyptian and Saudi governments

The UN special rapporteur on torture is being urged to investigate Lebanon’s role in the treatment of the Egyptian-Turkish poet and activist Abdulrahman al-Qaradawi, a dissident who has been imprisoned in the United Arab Emirates for more than 10 months over a post he made on social media.

Legal counsel representing Qaradawi filed a complaint to the UN rapporteur on Thursday, asking it to examine the situation.

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UK military equipment used by militia accused of genocide found in Sudan, UN told

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Exclusive: two dossiers of material seen by the security council raise questions over export of British arms to the UAE, which has been accused of supplying weapons to paramilitary RSF group

British military equipment has been found on battlefields in Sudan, used by the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group accused of genocide, according to documents seen by the UN security council.

UK-manufactured small-arms target systems and British-made engines for armoured personnel carriers have been recovered from combat sites in a conflict that has now caused the world’s biggest humanitarian catastrophe.

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Abu Dhabi royal family to take stake in TikTok US under Trump deal

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MGX, chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will take 15% stake, with social media firm valued at $14bn

The Abu Dhabi royal family is to take a stake in TikTok’s US business after Donald Trump signed an executive order brokering a deal valuing the social media company at $14bn (£10.5bn).

MGX, a fund chaired by Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, will take a 15% stake and gain a board seat when TikTok US is spun out.

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Gulf leaders call on Trump to rein in Israel after Qatar emergency summit

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Arab states say US should use its leverage and influence as they promise to ‘activate joint defence mechanisms’

Gulf leaders meeting at an emergency summit in Qatar have called on the Trump administration to use its leverage to rein in Israel following the unprecedented Israeli attempt last Tuesday to assassinate Hamas negotiators in Doha.

Speaking after the meeting of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the group’s secretary general, Jasem Mohamed al-Budaiwi, said: “We … expect our strategic partners in the United States to use their influence on Israel in order for it to stop this behaviour … they have leverage and influence on Israel, and it’s about time that this leverage and influence be used.”

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‘We don’t want to go’: Australian couple told to pay $3,500 to postpone flights amid Middle East volatility

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Experts say consumers are unlikely to have any legal rights to defer flights unless the airline’s fine print allows it

Sharon Latour and her husband are scheduled to fly through Abu Dhabi on an Etihad flight on Wednesday, just nine days after Iran launched a missile strike on a US base in nearby Qatar.

As of Friday, the Australian couple’s flight was still scheduled for takeoff despite the volatility in the region. Latour is upset that Etihad are insisting on charging her $3,500 to change their tickets if they want to postpone their trip until early next year.

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Leader in Kinahan drug gang extradited to Ireland from UAE

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Sean McGovern, wanted on charges of murder and directing organised crime, flown to Ireland in military aircraft

A leader of the notorious Kinahan organised crime group has been flown from the United Arab Emirates to Ireland in the first extradition of its kind.

An Irish military aircraft carrying Sean McGovern – who is wanted on charges of murder and directing organised crime – was due to land in Dublin amid heavy security on Thursday afternoon.

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How Donald Trump’s ‘historic’ Gulf state deals benefit a handful of powerful men

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The deals stand to enrich tech CEOs substantially by opening up new audiences for their products

On his tour of the Middle East this week, Donald Trump announced a slew of multibillion-dollar tech deals with the leaders of Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar. With the sale of the US’s most advanced technology, he also sold the American model of the industry that made it: enormous amounts of power concentrated in the hands of a few men.

The announcements poured in last week: the US and the United Arab Emirates agreed on Abu Dhabi as the site of the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the US. The deal reportedly allows the UAE to import half a million Nvidia semiconductor chips, considered the most advanced in the world for the creation of artificial intelligence products. Saudi Arabia struck a similar deal for semiconductors, obtaining the promise of the sale of hundreds of thousands of Nvidia Blackwell chips to Humain, an AI startup owned by its sovereign wealth fund. Cisco said it had signed a deal with a UAE AI firm to develop the country’s AI sector. The agreements also directed some investment by Saudi firms into US technology and manufacturing. Amazon Web Services and Qualcomm likewise announced deals on cloud computing and cybersecurity.

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‘Very disturbing’: Trump receipt of overseas gifts unprecedented, experts warn

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White House remakes foreign policy under pay-for-access code that critics say could violate US constitution

Former White House lawyers, diplomatic protocol officers and foreign affairs experts have told the Guardian that Donald Trump’s receipt of overseas gifts and targeted investments are “unprecedented”, as the White House remakes US foreign policy under a pay-for-access code that eclipses past administrations with characteristic Trumpian excess.

The openness to foreign largesse was on full display this week as the US president was feted in the Gulf states during his first major diplomatic trip abroad this term, inking deals he claimed were worth trillions of dollars and pumping local leaders for investments as he says he remakes US foreign policy to prioritise “America first” – putting aside concerns of human rights or international law for the bottom line of American businesses and taxpayers.

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Trump hails trade deals as he wraps up Gulf trip – US politics live

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President claims he has made agreements worth more than $200bn with the UAE

David Hogg believes the Democratic party not only needs better messengers – it needs stronger fighters.

“The base of the party, they just want us to do anything,” the 25-year-old Florida activist and Democratic National Committee (DNC) vice-chair said in an interview last week. “They feel alone, they feel isolated, they feel unheard, and they feel like they’re not being fought for.”

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Trump agrees deal for UAE to build largest AI campus outside US

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Agreement that would give Gulf country better access to advanced AI chips raises concerns over Chinese influence

The United Arab Emirates and the United States have signed an agreement for the Gulf country to build the largest artificial intelligence campus outside the United States, one of several deals around AI made during Donald Trump’s visit to the Middle East.

But the agreement has also raised concerns, since it would have faced restrictions under the previous administration over Washington’s fears that China could access the technology.

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Trump announces more than $200bn of deals between US and UAE

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Pledge to strengthen ties with Gulf state includes a $14.5bn agreement with Boeing, GE Aerospace and Etihad Airways

Donald Trump has announced deals totaling more than $200bn between the United States and the United Arab Emirates, including a $14.5bn commitment among Boeing, GE Aerospace and Etihad Airways, as he pledged to strengthen ties between the US and the Gulf state during a multiday trip to the Middle East.

The White House said on Thursday that Boeing and GE had received a commitment from Etihad Airways to invest $14.5bn to buy 28 US-made Boeing 787 and 777X aircraft powered by GE engines.

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Middle East crisis live: Trump says US should turn Gaza into ‘freedom zone’ as more than 100 killed in Israeli strikes

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US president’s reported comments in Qatar come as scores killed in a second consecutive night of heavy bombing

Gaza’s civil defence agency has said that the death toll from Israeli strikes overnight into Thursday is up to 82 people, updating a previous toll.

“The number of martyrs from Israeli airstrikes on Gaza has risen to 82 after the occupation targeted several homes in northern Gaza,” civil defence spokesperson Mohammad al-Mughayir told AFP, after the agency earlier reported at least 50 dead (see 8.27am BST).

We’re getting close to maybe doing a deal without having to do this … there [are] two steps to doing this, there is a very, very nice step and there is the violent step, but I don’t want to do it the second way.

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