Zayed National Museum opened on Saadiyat Island today – a landmark years in the making and now finally welcoming its first visitors.
President Sheikh Mohamed inaugurated the museum on Tuesday evening during Eid Al Etihad celebrations in front of the institution, alongside the rulers and crown princes of the six other emirates, plus other dignitaries – in a display of unity at an event marking the foundation of a nation.
The museum stands as a monument that pays tribute to the legacy of UAE Founding Father, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, encompassing his leadership, vision and enduring humanitarian values, Sheikh Mohamed said at the opening.
He added that the museum connects the UAE’s rich past with its present and future, and serves as a gateway for people to explore and understand the country’s culture, heritage and traditions across generations. Find more here.
The ceremony featured numerous significant moments, including the debut of the UAE National Orchestra.
The debut performance of the UAE National Orchestra at the opening of Zayed National Museum. Photo: Ryan Carter / UAE Presidential Court
Sheikha Alia Bint Khalid Al Qassimi, managing director of the UAE National Orchestra, told me after the performance that the debut holds special meaning, as both the performance and the museum pay tribute to the late Sheikh Zayed, “who believed deeply in culture as a bridge between our heritage and the future”. Find more here.
The institution itself traces the region's history over the last 300,000 years. As Mohamed Khalifa Al Mubarak, chairman of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, said: “It's a museum of the history of the United Arab Emirates as a country and as a land.”
When you first walk in – as I said in last week's Arts Edit Live discussion – the foyer is genuinely awe-inspiring. I encourage you to experience it for yourself as soon as you can. For information on ticket prices, timings and more, find our guide here.
From right, President Sheikh Mohamed, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, and Sheikh Hamad bin Mohammed Al Sharqi, Ruler of Fujairah, at the 54th Eid Al Etihad celebrations at Zayed National Museum. Photo: Omar Al Askar / UAE Presidential Court
Inside, the galleries move from deep time to living memory with unusual clarity, as you'll see here.
To Our Ancestors begins more than 300,000 years ago with early stone tools. The narrative then shifts through coastal settlements and Bronze Age trade. The full-scale Magan boat, suspended in the atrium, sets the scale of the region’s maritime history. Through Our Connections traces how objects, languages and beliefs travelled through the Gulf from the Iron Age to the spread of Islam.
What stands out is how local the material feels. Many of the objects come from UAE archaeological teams, cultural organisations and families who have shared items tied to their own histories. The museum’s garden continues that approach outdoors – built around the ghaf tree and native landscapes that shape the country’s environmental story. Find more here.
The Magan boat replica at Zayed National Museum. Photo: Ryan Carter / UAE Presidential Court
Zayed National Museum also opens with a clear commitment to accessibility. Emirati Sign Language tours will be led by hearing-impaired guides. Step-free routes run throughout the building, and sensory-friendly programmes – including tactile tours and quiet mornings – will be held regularly. These are not add-ons, but rather are built into how the museum expects people to use the space. Find more here.
Taken together, this week marks a significant shift. For the first time, the UAE’s deep past, its early connections and the story of its unification sit under one roof – built for students, travelers, residents and researchers alike.
Zayed National Museum now begins the slower work of becoming a part of daily life: a place people return to for context, for memory and for a clearer sense of the country’s long, layered history.
Its opening is the start of that process. I'm honoured to be able to chronicle what will come next.
Soulja’s latest singles explore movement, displacement and the search for a distinct Sudanese sound. Photo: Empire Wana
When he is not touring or in the studio, Soulja can be found involved in what is akin to field research. Presently in Nairobi, the Sudanese rapper – real name Usama Ashraf – spends his evenings in clubs and music lounges in whichever city he is in, gauging what moves the dance floor.
If a particular song or deft mix from an artist or the DJ gets the room going, Soulja takes out his phone, where an app measures the tempo change. The readings are then filed into a growing archive that already includes Cairo and Dubai.
“It is a different way of doing things,” he admits with a chuckle. “But it is fascinating what people are drawn to, and in many ways, it is not what you think. The studio, with all its technology and great audio quality, can at times trick you into believing you have the right sound. But it is only when you are in the clubs that you get the truth immediately in real movement, and you know if a beat really works.”
As for the information gleaned from those nocturnal sojourns, Soulja predicts the Sudanese rhythm zanig could have the same effect as South Africa’s amapiano – a sultry mix of house, electronic beats and gospel keyboard chords – in becoming the next hot sound to be heard in Ibiza.
Zootopia's director Jared Bush studied Dubai's climate engineering to make the film. Photo: Disney
Zootropolis 2, known as Zootopia 2 in some countries, is a massive hit at the global box office – tallying a staggering $589 million during its opening weekend.
Perhaps part of its appeal comes from the fact that the filmmakers studied the globe – drawing key inspiration from Dubai.
That early world-building work also involved looking at how the UAE creates controlled environments within a hot climate – something the team used as a reference point while imagining how Zootropolis could plausibly house extreme biomes in one city.
“We looked at Dubai quite a bit for the technology behind how you would manipulate an environment and make something that’s in a hot weather environment be cold,” Bush says. “That was really fun for us.”
For the sequel, locations that had been left on the drawing board for the first film finally found a purpose. The team wanted to test its lead characters in spaces that were never meant for them.
“We knew that we wanted to tell the story that pushed on Nick and Judy,” Bush says. “They’re the heart and soul of our story, and we wanted to continually push them and push them out of their comfort zones.”
That meant placing them in environments built for bodies nothing like their own. “A place like Marsh Market, which is made for semi-aquatic and marine mammals, would be very odd for them to try to visit,” he says. “It made them feel uncomfortable.”
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Micro-retirement is not a recognised concept or employment status under Federal Decree Law No. 33 of 2021 on the Regulation of Labour Relations (as amended) (UAE Labour Law). As such, it reflects a voluntary work-life balance practice, rather than a recognised legal employment category, according to Dilini Loku, senior associate for law firm Gateley Middle East.
“Some companies may offer formal sabbatical policies or career break programmes; however, beyond such arrangements, there is no automatic right or statutory entitlement to extended breaks,” she explains.
“Any leave taken beyond statutory entitlements, such as annual leave, is typically regarded as unpaid leave in accordance with Article 33 of the UAE Labour Law. While employees may legally take unpaid leave, such requests are subject to the employer’s discretion and require approval.”
If an employee resigns to pursue micro-retirement, the employment contract is terminated, and the employer is under no legal obligation to rehire the employee in the future unless specific contractual agreements are in place (such as return-to-work arrangements), which are generally uncommon, Ms Loku adds.
FINAL SCORES
Fujairah 130 for 8 in 20 overs
(Sandy Sandeep 29, Hamdan Tahir 26 no, Umair Ali 2-15)
Sharjah 131 for 8 in 19.3 overs
(Kashif Daud 51, Umair Ali 20, Rohan Mustafa 2-17, Sabir Rao 2-26)
The company offers payments/bribes to win key contracts in the Middle East
May 2017
The UK SFO officially opens investigation into Petrofac’s use of agents, corruption, and potential bribery to secure contracts
September 2021
Petrofac pleads guilty to seven counts of failing to prevent bribery under the UK Bribery Act
October 2021
Court fines Petrofac £77 million for bribery. Former executive receives a two-year suspended sentence
December 2024
Petrofac enters into comprehensive restructuring to strengthen the financial position of the group
May 2025
The High Court of England and Wales approves the company’s restructuring plan
July 2025
The Court of Appeal issues a judgment challenging parts of the restructuring plan
August 2025
Petrofac issues a business update to execute the restructuring and confirms it will appeal the Court of Appeal decision
October 2025
Petrofac loses a major TenneT offshore wind contract worth €13 billion. Holding company files for administration in the UK. Petrofac delisted from the London Stock Exchange
The two riders are among several riders in the UAE to receive the top payment of £10,000 under the Thank You Fund of £16 million (Dh80m), which was announced in conjunction with Deliveroo's £8 billion (Dh40bn) stock market listing earlier this year.
The £10,000 (Dh50,000) payment is made to those riders who have completed the highest number of orders in each market.
There are also riders who will receive payments of £1,000 (Dh5,000) and £500 (Dh2,500).
All riders who have worked with Deliveroo for at least one year and completed 2,000 orders will receive £200 (Dh1,000), the company said when it announced the scheme.
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
Two months before the first round on April 10, the appetite of voters for the election is low.
Mathieu Gallard, account manager with Ipsos, which conducted the most recent poll, said current forecasts suggested only two-thirds were "very likely" to vote in the first round, compared with a 78 per cent turnout in the 2017 presidential elections.
"It depends on how interesting the campaign is on their main concerns," he told The National. "Just now, it's hard to say who, between Macron and the candidates of the right, would be most affected by a low turnout."
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
Nigel Farage told Reform's annual conference that the party will proscribe the Muslim Brotherhood if he becomes Prime Minister. "We will stop dangerous organisations with links to terrorism operating in our country," he said. "Quite why we've been so gutless about this – both Labour and Conservative – I don't know. “All across the Middle East, countries have banned and proscribed the Muslim Brotherhood as a dangerous organisation. We will do the very same.” It is 10 years since a ground-breaking report into the Muslim Brotherhood by Sir John Jenkins. Among the former diplomat's findings was an assessment that “the use of extreme violence in the pursuit of the perfect Islamic society” has “never been institutionally disowned” by the movement. The prime minister at the time, David Cameron, who commissioned the report, said membership or association with the Muslim Brotherhood was a "possible indicator of extremism" but it would not be banned.
