A gas station burned to the ground in Dubai the other day. Created quite the scene. Black smoke over the city, etc. A few days later, The National came back with a story that probably surprised almost no one who drives in the UAE. Refueling Your Car Is Treated Too Casually in the UAE. No […]

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We are still playing soccer, here in the UAE, and the conditions get steadily more unbearable as we descend into the hell of a Gulf summer. The final competition in domestic soccer this season is the President’s Cup, which is not as big a deal as winning the league but ranks as the second-best thing […]

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The Burj Khalifa, tallest building in the world, opened in Dubai in January of 2010. I was working in news at The National, back then, and I edited the “grand opening” story the night of January 4. Almost four-and-a-half years later … I finally went inside the Burj. And rode the elevator up to the […]

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Brad Friedel, the 43-year-old American goalkeeper, said today he will retire from soccer when Tottenham’s season ends next weekend. That will end the professional career of probably the most-respected U.S.  player, in England — and perhaps around the world. Friedel, however, was never quite as popular at home as he came to be in England […]

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Being overweight is a major issue in the UAE. That was brought home again today by a story in The National noting that 45.1 percent of the women in the UAE are clinically obese, according to 2015 World Health Organization figures. Men here aren’t doing very well, either. The WHO numbers suggest 33.8 percent of […]

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This is a very Dubai story. An appeal to people with more money than common sense, people who believe wretched excess is the only kind worth pursuing. The kind of people who like to live in Dubai. For sale on Dubai’s leading retail website: One Airbus A340 jumbo jet, capable of carrying more than 300 […]

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We love our cars in the UAE. Yes, we do. The bigger and more muscular (or the sleeker and faster), the better. A 19-year-old Emirati recently decided to show what he could do at the wheel of his 4×4, turning donuts at an open road. He then compounded his silliness by posting the road mania […]

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“Park the bus.” I don’t know how far back in soccer history the term goes, but the first time I remember noting it was in regards to Jose Mourinho‘s Inter Milan side in 2010. I believe it referred specifically to Mourinho’s tactics in the second leg of the 2010 Champions League semifinals versus Barcelona. Inter […]

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Some sports fans might be amused at the topics that come up on a sports desk while producing a newspaper. Arguments, declarations, declamations … it’s like being in a sports bar 365 days a year. And today’s topic? The ugliest athletes. Any sport.

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In the past year or two, the National Football League has been dragged into conceding concussions are a bad idea. Having your brain bang around inside your skull … turns out it’s bad. But we are finding that concussions are nearly inevitable in the game, and with more and more evidence/opinion seeming to suggest that […]

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