There was a riot of automotive colour and sound at Abu Dhabi City Golf Club this weekend as the inaugural Street Meet event attracted hundreds of modified cars.
More than 300 custom vehicles invaded the lawns and car parks for the first motor event at the capital city venue.
The Street Meet 2018 champion was Jason Brown with his Mercedes-Benz E55 AMG, along with a host of other imaginative four-wheeled wonders – competitors travelled from as far as 400 kilometres away to take part.
Although this was the first official Street Meet, an ad hoc event on Yas Island in February run by organisers Glenn Navarro and Zingiber Umali attracted a similar number of cars.
As well as its petrol-powered attractions, the first Street Meet proper featured music, food and a host of car-accessory companies.
"Seeing the crowd and competitors enjoying the show was the best feeling," Navarro said. "For a competitor to travel 400 kilometres just to be at Street Meet gave me a feeling of overwhelming pride."
More Street Meet events are planned for later in the year. For more details when events are confirmed, visit www.instagram.com/streetmeetauh
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if you go
COMPANY PROFILE
Company name: Klipit
Started: 2022
Founders: Venkat Reddy, Mohammed Al Bulooki, Bilal Merchant, Asif Ahmed, Ovais Merchant
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Digital receipts, finance, blockchain
Funding: $4 million
Investors: Privately/self-funded
US federal gun reform since Sandy Hook
- April 17, 2013: A bipartisan-drafted bill to expand background checks and ban assault weapons fails in the Senate.
- July 2015: Bill to require background checks for all gun sales is introduced in House of Representatives. It is not brought to a vote.
- June 12, 2016: Orlando shooting. Barack Obama calls on Congress to renew law prohibiting sale of assault-style weapons and high-capacity magazines.
- October 1, 2017: Las Vegas shooting. US lawmakers call for banning bump-fire stocks, and some renew call for assault weapons ban.
- February 14, 2018: Seventeen pupils are killed and 17 are wounded during a mass shooting in Parkland, Florida.
- December 18, 2018: Donald Trump announces a ban on bump-fire stocks.
- August 2019: US House passes law expanding background checks. It is not brought to a vote in the Senate.
- April 11, 2022: Joe Biden announces measures to crack down on hard-to-trace 'ghost guns'.
- May 24, 2022: Nineteen children and two teachers are killed at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.
- June 25, 2022: Joe Biden signs into law the first federal gun-control bill in decades.
Confirmed bouts (more to be added)
Cory Sandhagen v Umar Nurmagomedov
Nick Diaz v Vicente Luque
Michael Chiesa v Tony Ferguson
Deiveson Figueiredo v Marlon Vera
Mackenzie Dern v Loopy Godinez
Tickets for the August 3 Fight Night, held in partnership with the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, went on sale earlier this month, through www.etihadarena.ae and www.ticketmaster.ae.
How to help
Call the hotline on 0502955999 or send "thenational" to the following numbers:
2289 - Dh10
2252 - Dh50
6025 - Dh20
6027 - Dh100
6026 - Dh200
ROUTE TO TITLE
Round 1: Beat Leolia Jeanjean 6-1, 6-2
Round 2: Beat Naomi Osaka 7-6, 1-6, 7-5
Round 3: Beat Marie Bouzkova 6-4, 6-2
Round 4: Beat Anastasia Potapova 6-0, 6-0
Quarter-final: Beat Marketa Vondrousova 6-0, 6-2
Semi-final: Beat Coco Gauff 6-2, 6-4
Final: Beat Jasmine Paolini 6-2, 6-2
THE BIO
BIO:
Born in RAK on December 9, 1983
Lives in Abu Dhabi with her family
She graduated from Emirates University in 2007 with a BA in architectural engineering
Her motto in life is her grandmother’s saying “That who created you will not have you get lost”
Her ambition is to spread UAE’s culture of love and acceptance through serving coffee, the country’s traditional coffee in particular.
UAE v Zimbabwe A, 50 over series
Fixtures
Thursday, Nov 9 - 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
Saturday, Nov 11 – 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
Monday, Nov 13 – 2pm, Dubai International Stadium
Thursday, Nov 16 – 2pm, ICC Academy, Dubai
Saturday, Nov 18 – 9.30am, ICC Academy, Dubai
Company Profile
Company name: Hoopla
Date started: March 2023
Founder: Jacqueline Perrottet
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 10
Investment stage: Pre-seed
Investment required: $500,000
Married Malala
Malala Yousafzai is enjoying married life, her father said.
The 24-year-old married Pakistan cricket executive Asser Malik last year in a small ceremony in the UK.
Ziauddin Yousafzai told The National his daughter was ‘very happy’ with her husband.
More on animal trafficking
Match info:
Wolves 1
Boly (57')
Manchester City 1
Laporte (69')
Film: In Syria
Dir: Philippe Van Leeuw
Starring: Hiam Abbass, Diamand Bo Abboud, Mohsen Abbas and Juliette Navis
Verdict: Four stars
Company profile
Name: Maly Tech
Started: 2023
Founder: Mo Ibrahim
Based: Dubai International Financial Centre
Sector: FinTech
Funds raised: $1.6 million
Current number of staff: 15
Investment stage: Pre-seed, planning first seed round
Investors: GCC-based angel investors
Diriyah project at a glance
- Diriyah’s 1.9km King Salman Boulevard, a Parisian Champs-Elysees-inspired avenue, is scheduled for completion in 2028
- The Royal Diriyah Opera House is expected to be completed in four years
- Diriyah’s first of 42 hotels, the Bab Samhan hotel, will open in the first quarter of 2024
- On completion in 2030, the Diriyah project is forecast to accommodate more than 100,000 people
- The $63.2 billion Diriyah project will contribute $7.2 billion to the kingdom’s GDP
- It will create more than 178,000 jobs and aims to attract more than 50 million visits a year
- About 2,000 people work for the Diriyah Company, with more than 86 per cent being Saudi citizens