It lasted 23 days, but it seemed longer. Twenty-four teams, originally, from New Zealand to Canada, from Argentina to Sweden. They played 52 games in 23 days, and many of us here in the UAE got quite used to having these kids around, and watching them on Al Jazeera, the Qatar cable station that carried […]

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Emiratis like their cars big … and bigger. Envision a highway grid jammed with the biggest SUVs made in Japan, the U.S. and Europe, and that’s pretty much what the roads here look like, in the Abu Dhabi-Dubai axis. A regular occurrence for anyone driving something less than a land yacht (loaded with all the […]

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The UAE does not observe daylight savings. No moving around of clocks here. The country is four hours ahead of Greenwich Mean Time the year round. That is not the case in the United States and western Europe, however, and that is handy, for those of us living here. In some ways. Not so good […]

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The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix went green shortly after 5 p.m., and 22 cars charged for the first turn. Sebastian Vettel got there first. And that was, effectively, the end of the race, though they went ahead and drove 55 laps anyway. So, where is Formula One racing, at this moment in history?

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This was the sports story of the day, here in Abu Dhabi. Kimi Raikkonen, former Formula One world champion, defending champion of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix … showed up a day late at the track here in the UAE today and dropped a bombshell. He said he has not been paid by his team, […]

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I love this story. And the timing is good, too. The Formula One guys are gathering in Abu Dhabi this weekend for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. So, we were looking for ways to localize the big motors story, and our sports columnist, Ali Khaled, came up with this 5-year-old Emirati kindergartner who races go-karts […]

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Sounds medical, yes? In print journalism, it has always meant how well and how predictably a newspaper is delivered, especially to its home subscribers. In the U.S., the circulation department was always seen as mildly disreputable, slippery characters leading a crew of people you might hope did not get on the same elevator as you […]

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Ever wonder what the inside of a modern newsroom in the UAE looks like? Feel free to have a look at this brief video done by a multi-media staffer, and you can see the interior of The National newsroom, as well as lay eyes on a couple of people you might know.

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Living and working in Southern California for three-plus decades, I am sure I did not adequately appreciate the enormous advantage conferred on those living with a few miles of the Pacific Ocean. Pacific Standard Time. Indeed, no time standard is as felicitous when it comes to presenting the day’s sports events as dear old PST […]

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So, Rihanna came to Abu Dhabi and performed Saturday night, and it only seemed as if half the sports staff attended the event — which went off well, according to The National’s reviewer … but not without some drama in the crowd, which was not entirely ready to deal with standing, mostly, on a hot […]

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