Free Republic

While the Arab states make a hue and cry about Israel’s wrongdoings in Gaza, they themselves are not doing anything to help Palestinians in distress US Presidential aspirant, Nikki Haley has put the cat amongst the pigeons by asking some straight questions. She stated, “You're going to hear all those Arab countries vilify Israel for what's about to happen. You're going to hear all of them say, how dare you not do more for the Palestinian people?” and then posed bluntly, “But where are the Arab countries? Where are they? Where is Qatar? Where is Lebanon? Where is Jordan? Where...

After flying for more than 13 hours, passengers on an Emirates flight bound for Auckland, New Zealand, landed at the same Dubai airport from which they departed. Passengers boarded flight EK448 in Dubai on Friday, Jan. 27 around 10:30 a.m. local time, reported Fox Business. However, the pilot turned the plane around almost halfway through the 9,000-mile trip and landed back in Dubai just after midnight on Saturday, Jan. 28. The unusual situation occurred as a result of severe flooding at Auckland Airport, according to the outlet. Videos circulating on social media showed passengers wading through water inside the terminal....

Tom Barrack, Trump's longtime billionaire friend and 2016 fundraiser, has been acquitted on all charges related to accusations he lobbied Trump on behalf of the United Arab Emirates without registering as a foreign agent. He also stood accused of then lying to the FBI about those contacts. The jury deliberated for about two days at federal court in Brooklyn before finding Barrack not guilty. Prosecutors alleged Barrack had traded on his decades-long friendship with the then-president to give UAE officials access to and insider information on the Trump White House and 2016 campaign. Acting as a foreign agent without registering...

Sir Tim Clark, president of Emirates, appeared on Bloomberg Wednesday to blame the shambolic situation on the Biden administration which green-lit the 5G rollout without addressing the safety fears of the aviation industry first. 'I need to be as candid as I normally am and say this is one of the most delinquent, utterly irresponsible issue subjects, call it what you like, I've seen in my aviation career because it involves organs of government, manufacturers, science, etc. The notion that, for instance, the U.S. government should sell its franchise for all the frequencies for a large amount of money, somebody...

Jerusalem (AFP) — An Israeli-American delegation will fly on the first commercial flight from Israel to the United Arab Emirates on Monday after a landmark deal between the countries, officials said Friday. “An official Israeli delegation will go to Abu Dhabi on a direct El Al flight for the first time ever,” a spokesman for Israel’s national carrier said, noting the flight from Tel Aviv was set for Monday. Jared Kushner, top aide and son-in-law to US President Donald Trump, has confirmed he will be on the flight, alongside National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien.

Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon has returned to Israel after representing the Jewish State for nearly five years in the halls of the UN. Danon had to spend 14 days in quarantine upon returning to Israel from New York due to coronavirus restrictions. "It wasn't easy, but it's great to be in Israel," he said. Summing up his time at the UN, Danon told Arutz Sheva that "the UN is a very hostile place with a lot of hypocrisy against Israel, but still it's an important organization and we have to fight from the inside. I...

He insulted the currency and shared the video on social media. The Dubai Police have arrested a young man over a video that he posted on social media in which he can be seen insulting the UAE's national currency. In the viral video, the suspect can be seen pretend-sneezing and using a currency note to clean himself. He has been referred to the authority concerned for further action, the police said. The police said that the cybercrime law specifies a maximum fine of Dh1 million and a prison term for insulting the country or its symbols. The police also posted...

It’s been nearly an entire year since Emirates reopened recruitment for new cabin crew and since that time the airline has held hundreds of Open Day’s around the world. Emirates even trialled a brand new but short-lived recruitment process and partnered with a specialist aviation recruitment agency as it attempted to fill a massive hole in its cabin crew workforce. But as we fast approach 2019, has Emirates finally hired enough cabin crew? We ask that question because as many eager candidates will no doubt already have already noticed, the number of Open Day’s currently advertised on the official Emirates...

The New York City mayor's office says 10 people hospitalized after a large commercial jet arrived from Dubai have tested positive for influenza. Mayoral spokesman Eric Phillips tweeted on Thursday that some tests came back inconclusive on other viruses and will be re-administered. All 10 patients will be kept in the hospital as a precaution until the final results come in. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quarantined the double-decker Emirates aircraft holding 520 passengers Wednesday so it could evaluate about 100 of them. Some had complained about coughs, headaches, sore throats and fevers.

The world’s largest vertical farm is coming to Dubai. The indoor farm is a $40 million joint venture between Crop One Holdings and Emirates Flight Catering, who say it’s a way of producing pesticide-free crops while using a fraction of the water that traditional farming does. The produce will feed passengers of Emirates and other airlines at Dubai’s Al Maktoum International Airport. The farm will be built near the airport, eliminating trucking costs and emissions. But is vertical farming really as green as it seems? HOW DOES IT WORK? To feed a growing global population, which could reach 9.1 billion...

A mother from the U.K. claimed she was arrested and jailed in Dubai for drinking one glass of wine onboard an Emirates flight last month. On July 13, Dubai International Airport immigration officers arrested and jailed Ellie Holman, 44, and her 4-year-old daughter in a detention center as her flight landed in the Persian Gulf country following an eight-hour flight. According to Holman, she was arrested because she drank a glass of red wine with her meal onboard the flight from London. Holman told MailOnline that an immigration officer questioned her upon arrival and then instructed her to purchase a...

George Nader, a Lebanese-American businessman, has hovered on the fringes of international diplomacy for three decades. He was a back-channel negotiator with Syria during the Clinton administration, reinvented himself as an adviser to the de facto ruler of the United Arab Emirates, and last year was a frequent visitor to President Trump’s White House. Mr. Nader is now a focus of the investigation by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel. In recent weeks, Mr. Mueller’s investigators have questioned Mr. Nader and have pressed witnesses for information about any possible attempts by the Emiratis to buy political influence by directing...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Long-haul carrier Emirates purchased 40 American-made Boeing 787-10 Dreamliners on Sunday at the start of the biennial Dubai Air Show, a $15.1 billion deal certain to please U.S. President Donald Trump who has touted the plane's sales as a job creator in America. The deal appeared to surprise Boeing's archrival Airbus, whose staff had attended a long-delayed news conference and left the room just moments before the announcement. Airbus has pinned hopes of continuing production of its double-decker jumbo jet on Emirates, the world's largest operator of the aircraft which took delivery of its...

Yousef Otaiba ridicules Gulf ally in email exchange, betraying years of frustration at Riyadh old guard that coalesced into efforts to change it The UAE's ambassador to Washington described Saudi Arabia's leadership as "f***in' coo coo!", in one of a series of leaked emails that suggest years of Emirati frustration with Riyadh's old regime that has coalesced into a clear strategy to usurp it by bolstering the rise of the young Mohammed bin Salman. The messages, obtained by Middle East Eye through the GlobalLeaks hacking group, show Otaiba mocking Saudi Arabia to his Egyptian wife, Abeer Shoukry, over the Saudi...

President Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia and Israel as part of his first foreign trip is as historically significant as President Richard Nixon’s February 1972 visit to China and mission to Moscow two months later to sign the first Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty. Nixon’s visit opened diplomatic doors and made the Vietnam War an anachronism in the continuing Cold War confrontation with China and Russia, facilitating a more graceful (if still shameful) U.S. exit from Vietnam. Unfortunately, many in the American media ignored or downplayed Trump’s trip as an “arms sales” expedition rather than seeing it as a bold attempt...

Celebrating their success in retaining blue-collar jobs is one way Republicans are winning the votes of working-class Americans. Whew! For once, one of my predictions was correct: Donald Trump had a great visit to Saudi Arabia. It was a great visit for him, it was a great visit for the Saudis and the other Arab Gulf states, and—last but not least—it was a great visit for magical, glowing orbs. I want to spend a little time talking about one of the reasons why the trip went so well. I’ll warn you: This is a somewhat taboo subject for progressive foreign-policy...

ABU DHABI -- Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, will hold talks with US president Donald Trump in Washington on Monday. White House spokesman Sean Spicer said the meeting is aimed at deepening Washington’s cooperation with a key Middle East partner. The meeting is scheduled to take place a week before Mr Trump makes the first overseas trip of his presidency, to Saudi Arabia, Israel and the Vatican. The high-level diplomacy with Abu Dhabi and Riyadh underscores the reset in relations between the GCC powers and the US under...

The United Arab Emirates’ top diplomat on Wednesday came out in defense of President Donald Trump’s order temporarily barring citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States. The comments by Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the Gulf federation’s foreign minister, could help bolster the administration’s assertion that the directive was not intended as a ban against Muslims. The UAE minister said the U.S. was within its rights to take what he said was a “sovereign decision” concerning immigration — the first such remarks in support of Trump’s move from the Gulf Arab region — and he voiced...

Emirates Airline has retired its last Airbus A330 and A340 widebodies from active service, the carrier announced Thursday. The moves make it the only carrier in the world to operate a fleet of all Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s for its passenger flights. The recent retirement of A330 A6-EAK marked the culmination of Emirates’ plan to shed all 29 of its twin-engine Airbuses. The airplane joined Emirates in 2002 and had flown for more than 60,000 hours, traveling some 24 million nautical miles in 14 and a half years. Emirates also recently retired its last A340 quadjet. Manufactured in 1999,...

After a Dubai-bound Emirates jetliner from Thiruvananthapuram crash-landed in Dubai international airport on Wednesday, an amateur video has surfaced on social media which shows some passengers trying to save their belongings rather than their lives. Moments after all 300 passengers and crew were evacuated safely, an intense blaze engulfed the already-smoked-filled plane, killing a firefighter. It also brought the world's busiest international airport to a grinding halt for several hours. Source: Twitter In the video, a passenger can be heard shouting "laptop, laptop" even as others try to get their bags from the overhead storage bins before they evacuate the...