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Dubai celebrates Saudi national day with concert, fireworks and family fun events

UAE’s Dubai is set to celebrate Saudi Arabia’s 88th National Day on Sunday with a grandiose set of events sprawling across the emirate. (File/AFP)
Updated 20 September 2018
Arab News
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Dubai celebrates Saudi national day with concert, fireworks and family fun events

  • Visitors from Saudi Arabia will be welcomed with sweets, flowers and coffee upon arrival at the Dubai International Airport
  • Residents and visitors will be able to attend events and entertainment including a concert by regional stars and a firework show
Updated 20 September 2018
Arab News

DUBAI: UAE’s Dubai is set to celebrate Saudi Arabia’s 88th National Day on Sunday with a grandiose set of events sprawling across the emirate.

Visitors from Saudi Arabia will be welcomed with sweets, flowers and coffee upon arrival at the Dubai International Airport, while residents and visitors will be able to attend events and entertainment including a concert by regional stars and a firework show.

Amusement parks, hotels, malls, and landmarks will add to the excitement of the joyous occasion with special activities and numerous promotions. The strong relations between the UAE and the KSA have never been closer, where the residents of Dubai can expect to see some of the city’s most famous landmarks, Burj Khalifa, illuminated in the national flag of Saudi Arabia.

The line-up of events and activities to celebrate the National Day of Saudi Arabia in Dubai

Concerts

22 September, City Walk

For musical fun, head to City Walk in Dubai where two of the Gulf’s most popular singers will take to the stage as part of the Saudi National Day celebrations in Dubai. Saudi singer Dalia Mubarak and Emirati star Shamma Hamdan will perform some of their most popular hits in a special concert on the evening of September 22. With both artists enjoying huge popularity in the KSA and the UAE, the concert is sure to be a big hit, so don’t miss the fun!  The concert starts at 6.45pm.

Fireworks

23  September, La Mer

The urban beachfront development La Mer will celebrate the Saudi National Day with a host of activities, including a spectacular Saudi National Day-themed fireworks show on 23 September at 8.30pm.  Traditional Saudi folk dances and a display of supercars will also take place at this location from 20 to 23 September.

Events

Traditional band: 21 to 23 September

Saudi Arabian folk dancers will also perform at malls across the city, including The Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates, Dragon Mall, City Center Mirdif, Dubai Festival City Mall, and Al Seef.

Dubai Fountain: 21 to 23 September

The famous Dubai Fountain will ‘dance’ to songs by popular Saudi artists from 12 to 22 September, with a special display in tribute to the Saudi national anthem taking place on 23 September.

Dubai Mall: 20 – 23 September

Dubai Mall will roll out the red carpet during the Saudi National Day celebrations, offering visitors the opportunity to watch performances by a traditional band at the Souk Atrium,  Ground Floor and also enjoy Arabic coffee. There will also be give-aways to visitors including a booklet of vouchers, scarf and mementoes.

Dubai Festival City Mall: 20 to 23 September

Dubai Festival City Mall will host a Saudi National Day show at Festival Bay and an exclusive edition of IMAGINE, its record-breaking laser and light show.

The Beach: 20- 23 September

To celebrate the joyous occasion, The Beach will host a grand parade on 22 September at 6:00pm with horses marching along to Saudi national melodies. From 20 -23 September, the destination will screen a selection of award-winning short films by Saudi directors at Roxy Cinemas daily at 7pm and 8.30pm as part of the Saudi Cinema Weekend.

Dubai International Airport celebrations: 20 September

Dubai International Airport will accord a water salute to aircraft arriving from Saudi Arabia whilst flowers, Arabic sweets and coffee will be offered to Saudi visitors arriving in Dubai. Saudi national songs will also be played in the arrivals section of Terminals 1, 2 and 3.

Hotel offers

Hotels in Dubai are adding to the excitement of the joyous occasion of the Saudi National Day, as they prepare to welcome Saudi guests with promotions and discounts on room stays, as well as a variety of activities for children.

Address Hotels and Resorts: Enjoy additional complimentary nights from 23 to 30 September

Armani Hotel – Enjoy signature Italian hospitality in the heart of Downtown Dubai, from 23 to 30 September. Reserve an Armani guestroom or residence for 2, 3 or 5 nights to enjoy discounts of 10 %, 15% and 25%.

Renaissance Downtown Hotel – Avail a special ‘Sunday Night is On Us’ offer from 19 to 24 September. To redeem this promotion, a Saturday night must be included and the length of stay of the booking is for a minimum of 3 nights.

Vida Hotels & Resorts – A special offer from 23 to 30 September allows guests to enjoy additional complimentary nights with U By Emaar members earning additional U points for every stay.

Manzil Downtown - A special offer from 23 to 30 September allows guests to enjoy additional complimentary nights with U By Emaar members earning additional U points for every stay.

Aloft City Centre Deira – From 20 to 23 September, Saudi guests can enjoy complimentary upgrade to the next room type and also avail themselves of pre-loaded Magic Planet cards and Kabsa bowls for AED 40.

Sheraton Mall of the Emirates – From 20 to 23 September, Saudi guests can enjoy complimentary upgrade to the next room type and also avail themselves of tickets for Ski Dubai and Magic Planet.

Al Habtoor City - Guests staying at the V, Habtoor Palace and Hilton hotels at Al Habtoor City will receive 50% off their bill at any of the complex’s F&B outlets and spas. The great deal also extends to the La Perle by Dragone show, with those staying at the V, Habtoor Palace or Hilton hotel able to buy tickets to the award-winning spectacle for half price.

Full details of this year’s jam-packed calendar of events over KSA National Day can be found at www.dubaicalendar.com or follow @Dubai_Calendar, and #KSANationalDay for the latest information.

Topics: Saudi Arabia Dubai UAE saudi national day 2018

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New Zealanders save more than 30 stranded whales

Updated 25 November 2024
AP
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New Zealanders save more than 30 stranded whales

  • New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot and pilot whales are especially prolific stranders
  • New Zealand has recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840
Updated 25 November 2024
AP

WELLINGTON: More than 30 pilot whales that stranded themselves on a beach in New Zealand were safely returned to the ocean after conservation workers and residents helped to refloat them by lifting them on sheets. Four of the pilot whales died, New Zealand’s conservation agency said.
New Zealand is a whale stranding hotspot and pilot whales are especially prolific stranders.
A team was monitoring Ruakaka Beach near the city of Whangarei in New Zealand’s north on Monday to ensure there were no signs of the whales saved Sunday stranding again, the Department of Conservation said. The agency praised as “incredible” the efforts made by hundreds of people to help save the foundering pod.
“It’s amazing to witness the genuine care and compassion people have shown toward these magnificent animals,” Joel Lauterbach, a Department of Conservation spokesperson, said in a statement. “This response demonstrates the deep connection we all share with our marine environment.”
A Maori cultural ceremony for the three adult whales and one calf that died in the stranding took place on Monday. New Zealand’s Indigenous people consider whales a taonga – a sacred treasure – of cultural significance.
New Zealand has recorded more than 5,000 whale strandings since 1840. The largest pilot whale stranding was of an estimated 1,000 whales at the Chatham Islands in 1918, according to the Department of Conservation.
It’s often not clear why strandings happen but the island nation’s geography is believed to be a factor. Both the North and South Islands feature stretches of protruding coastline with shallow, sloping beaches that can confuse species such as pilot whales – which rely on echolocation to navigate.

Topics: wildlife New Zealand

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Cheating on your spouse is no longer a crime in New York, with the repeal of a little-known 1907 law

Updated 23 November 2024
AP
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Cheating on your spouse is no longer a crime in New York, with the repeal of a little-known 1907 law

Updated 23 November 2024
AP

ALBANY, N.Y.: New York on Friday repealed a seldom-used, more than century-old law that made it a crime to cheat on your spouse — a misdemeanor that once could have landed adulterers in jail for three months.
Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a bill repealing the statute, which dates back to 1907 and has long been considered antiquated as well as difficult to enforce.
“While I’ve been fortunate to share a loving married life with my husband for 40 years — making it somewhat ironic for me to sign a bill decriminalizing adultery — I know that people often have complex relationships,” she said. “These matters should clearly be handled by these individuals and not our criminal justice system. Let’s take this silly, outdated statute off the books, once and for all.”
Adultery bans are actually law in several states and were enacted to make it harder to get a divorce at a time when proving a spouse cheated was the only way to get a legal separation. Charges have been rare and convictions even rarer. Some states have also moved to repeal their adultery laws in recent years.
New York defined adultery as when a person “engages in sexual intercourse with another person at a time when he has a living spouse, or the other person has a living spouse.” The state’s law was first used a few weeks after it went into effect, according to a New York Times article, to arrest a married man and 25-year-old woman.
State Assemblymember Charles Lavine, sponsor of the bill, said about a dozen people have been charged under the law since the 1970s, and just five of those cases resulted in convictions.
“Laws are meant to protect our community and to serve as a deterrent to anti-social behavior. New York’s adultery law advanced neither purpose,” Lavine said in a statement Friday.
The state’s law appears to have last been used in 2010, against a woman who was caught engaging in a sex act in a park, but the adultery charge was later dropped as part of a plea deal.
New York came close to repealing the law in the 1960s after a state commission tasked with evaluating the penal code said it was nearly impossible to enforce.
At the time, lawmakers were initially on board with removing the ban but eventually decided to keep it after a politician argued that repealing it would make it seem like the state was officially endorsing infidelity, according to a New York Times article from 1965.

Banana taped to a wall sells for $6.2 million in New York

Updated 21 November 2024
AFP
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Banana taped to a wall sells for $6.2 million in New York

  • Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun forks over more than six million for the fruit and its single strip of silver duct tape
  • Given the shelf life of a banana, Sun is essentially buying a certificate of authenticity that the work was created by Maurizio Cattelan
Updated 21 November 2024
AFP

NEW YORK: A fresh banana taped to a wall — a provocative work of conceptual art by Italian artist Maurizio Cattelan — was bought for $6.2 million on Wednesday by a cryptocurrency entrepreneur at a New York auction, Sotheby’s announced in a statement.
The debut of the edible creation entitled “Comedian” at the Art Basel show in Miami Beach in 2019 sparked controversy and raised questions about whether it should be considered art — Cattelan’s stated aim.
Chinese-born crypto founder Justin Sun on Wednesday forked over more than six million for the fruit and its single strip of silver duct tape, which went on sale for 120,000 dollars five years ago.
“This is not just an artwork. It represents a cultural phenomenon that bridges the worlds of art, memes, and the cryptocurrency community,” Sun was quoted as saying in the Sotheby’s statement.
“I believe this piece will inspire more thought and discussion in the future and will become a part of history.”
The sale featured seven potential buyers and smashed expectations, with the auction house issuing a guide price of $1-1.5 million before the bidding.
Given the shelf life of a banana, Sun is essentially buying a certificate of authenticity that the work was created by Cattelan as well as instructions about how to replace the fruit when it goes bad.
The installation auctioned on Wednesday was the third iteration — with the first one eaten by performance artist David Datuna, who said he felt “hungry” while inspecting it at the Miami show.
Sun, who founded cryptomoney exchange Tron, said that he intended to eat his investment too.
“In the coming days, I will personally eat the banana as part of this unique artistic experience, honoring its place in both art history and popular culture,” he said.
As well as his banana work, Cattelan is also known for producing an 18-carat, fully functioning gold toilet called “America” that was offered to Donald Trump during his first term in the White House.
His work is often humorous and deliberately provocative, with a 1999 sculpture of the pope stuck by a meteor titled “The Ninth Hour.”
He has explained the banana work as a critical commentary on the art market, which he has criticized in the past for being speculative and failing to help artists.
The asking price of $120,000 for “Comedian” in 2019 was seen at the time as evidence that the market was “bananas” and the art world had “gone mad,” as The New York Post said in a front-page article.
The banana sold on Wednesday was bought for 35 cents from a Bangladeshi fruit seller on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, according to The New York Times.
Sun has hit headlines in the past as an art collector and as a major player in the murky cryptocurrency world.
He was charged last year by the US Securities and Exchange Commission for alleged market manipulation and unregistered sales of crypto assets, which he promoted with celebrity endorsements, including from Lindsay Lohan.
In 2021, he bought Alberto Giacometti’s “Le Nez” for $78.4 million, which was hailed by Sotheby’s at the time as signaling “an influx of younger, tech-savvy collectors.”
Global art markets have been dropping in value in recent years due to higher interest rates, as well as concern about geopolitical instability, experts say.
“Empire of Light” (“L’Empire des lumieres“), a painting by Rene Magritte, shattered an auction record for the surrealist artist on Tuesday, however, selling for more than $121 million at Christie’s in New York.

Topics: art

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Farmer in Argentina gets jail term for killing penguin chicks

Updated 21 November 2024
AFP
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Farmer in Argentina gets jail term for killing penguin chicks

  • The sheep farmer was found guilty of destroying nests and killing chicks while clearing land along the Punta Tumbo nature reserve
  • In his defense, he said he had no choice but to clear the land as the state had failed to set up an access route to his property
Updated 21 November 2024
AFP

BEUNOS AIRES: An Argentinian farmer was given a three-year prison sentence for animal cruelty Wednesday, likely to be commuted, after being found guilty of killing over 100 Patagonian penguin chicks.
The sheep farmer from the southern province of Chubut was found guilty last month of destroying dozens of nests and killing chicks in 2021 while clearing land along the Punta Tumbo nature reserve, home to one of the main colonies of Magellanic penguins on the Atlantic coast.
The farmer is unlikely to be incarcerated as Argentina’s penal code recommends alternatives to prison for a first conviction and sentences up to three years.
Prosecutors had requested a four-year sentence.
Environmental group Greenpeace, the complainant in the case, had welcomed the farmer’s conviction as “an important step for environmental justice.”
The farmer argued there was no choice but to clear the land as the state had failed to set up an access route to his property, or boundaries between his farm and the reserve.
The Magellanic Penguin is listed as a species of “least concern” on the International Union for Conservation of Nature’s Red List, meaning it is not at risk of extinction even though numbers are in decline.

Topics: Argentina animal cruelty penguins Greenpeace

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SpaceX fails to repeat Starship booster catch, as Trump looks on

Updated 20 November 2024
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SpaceX fails to repeat Starship booster catch, as Trump looks on

Updated 20 November 2024
AFP

BOCA CHICA: SpaceX’s Starship megarocket blasted off on its latest test flight Tuesday, with President-elect Donald Trump joining Elon Musk to witness the spectacle firsthand in the latest sign of their ever closer ties.
But the Republican leader was deprived of the chance to see the booster stage caught in the launch tower’s “chopstick” arms, an engineering marvel demonstrated by the company last month and one he personally lauded during his election victory speech.
Instead, the colossal Super Heavy first stage made a more subdued splashdown in the Gulf of Mexico. Company representatives cited unmet technical criteria, dampening the triumph of an event attended by a bevy of Trump-world figures, including Donald Trump Jr.
Earlier, Trump greeted Musk warmly on Tuesday afternoon, sporting a red MAGA hat as the pair headed off to watch from the control tower of the company’s Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas, where the rocket blasted off at 4:00 p.m. local time (2200 GMT) on the sixth test flight for Starship.
SpaceX founder and CEO Musk has been a constant presence at Trump’s side since the incoming president’s election victory, joining him at a meeting with Argentina’s President Javier Milei and even at a UFC bout.
Trump’s decision to travel to Musk’s home turf was the latest sign of the growing alliance between the billionaire duo, which has raised questions over possible conflicts of interests given SpaceX’s lucrative contracts with NASA and the Pentagon.
Tuesday’s launch marked the quickest turnaround between test flights for the world’s most powerful rocket, a gleaming, 121-meter-tall (400-foot) stainless steel colossus central to Musk’s ambition of colonizing Mars and making humanity a multiplanetary species.
Musk aims to launch the first uncrewed missions to the Red Planet as early as 2026, coinciding with the next “Mars transfer window” — a period when the journey between Earth and Mars is at its shortest.
NASA is also counting on a specialized version of Starship to ferry astronauts to the lunar surface later this decade under its Artemis program.

Elon Musk speaks with U.S. President-elect Donald Trump (R) and guests. (Getty Images/AFP)


Flight six of Starship was seen as a test of whether SpaceX’s first booster catch was pure precision or relied on a stroke of luck after Musk — perhaps inadvertently — disclosed how close the last flight came to disaster.
In a clip posted to X showcasing his gaming chops in “Diablo IV,” sharp-eared fans caught an employee briefing him that the Super Heavy booster was “one second away” from a system failure that could have spelled catastrophe.
Starship’s upper stage will make a partial orbit of Earth, reenter the atmosphere and splash down in the Indian Ocean a little over an hour later, but this time in the daylight, providing clearer visuals for analysis.
Key milestones include reigniting Starship’s Raptor engines for the first time in space and trialing new heat shield materials. The flight also carries Starship’s first ever payload — a stuffed banana — and serves as a swan song for the current generation of Starship prototypes.
With twice the thrust of the Saturn V rockets that powered Apollo missions, Starship is the most powerful rocket ever built. Musk has already teased that its successor, Starship V3, will be “3X more powerful” and could take flight within a year.
The flight comes as Musk is riding high on Trump’s November 5 White House win, having campaigned extensively for the returning Republican leader, as well as donating staggering sums from his own fortune to the cause.
His loyalty has paid off. Musk has been tapped to co-lead a new “Department of Government Efficiency” — or DOGE, a cheeky nod to the meme-based cryptocurrency Musk loves to promote.
That in turn has led to concerns Musk could engage in “self-dealing” as the CEO is poised to straddle the line between government insider and corporate titan.
Critics worry he could sway regulatory decisions to benefit his six companies, including SpaceX and its marquee Starship program, which has faced launch delays linked to an environmental review the company called “superfluous.”

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