Region

DUBAI — The epic 30th anniversary edition of the iconic annual Dubai Shopping Festival (DSF) has been in full gear with a stellar line-up of out-of-this-world enchanting experiences, extraordinary entertainment, and dazzling daily sky spectacles.

Organised by Dubai Festivals & Retail Establishment (DFRE), this citywide celebration will continue to illuminate Dubai’s skies every night with a brand-new drones theme for the twice-daily drone displays at Bluewaters Island and The Beach, JBR starting from 27 December 2024 to 12 January 2025.

The new theme of celebrating Dubai will feature a stunning new display of visuals, vibrant colours, and dazzling light shows. The excitement will reach its peak with the return of the incredibly popular firework-drones show with pyrotechnics and skydivers on 11 January 2025, while the twice-daily drone shows will close the DSF season on 12 January 2025.

Presented by Emarat, DSF’s spectacular drone shows have become a standout sensation this edition, captivating both residents and visitors alike. Night after night, crowds gather to witness this awe-inspiring spectacle lighting up the skies above Bluewaters Island and The Beach, JBR.

With two breathtaking displays every evening at 8pm and 10pm, the show continues to enchant audiences from 27 December to 12 January, where it will unveil a brand-new theme, “Celebrating Dubai” and the city’s essence through a dynamic fusion of tradition and modernity.

Set to powerful beats and cutting-edge soundscapes, the mesmerising performance will integrate 2D and 3D drone formations into iconic Dubai landmarks, creating a visual masterpiece that honours the city’s spirit and innovation.

That is not all. The monumental 30th edition of DSF will see the return of the second show of the jaw-dropping firework-drone spectacle on 11 January at Bluewaters Island and The Beach, JBR, seamlessly blending pyrotechnics with cutting-edge drone technology, accompanied by jaw-dropping skydiving stunts and a phenomenal fireworks finish.

This groundbreaking spectacle will once again dazzle audiences at 8pm, transforming Dubai’s skyline into a canvas of vibrant colours and mesmerising formations in a way that will leave visitors spellbound.

Visitors will also be captivated by the dazzling Dubai Lights installations illuminating Bluewaters Island and The Beach, JBR. Seamlessly blending artistry with cutting-edge technology, these immersive displays promise to enchant audiences and perfectly complement the extraordinary tech-driven experiences defining this DSF season.

Visitors can navigate through the endless excitement of this year’s festival through the all-new digital DSF Map - an interactive online guide to explore all of the season’s iconic and only-in-Dubai experiences, festival favourites, ever-popular signature events, and brand-new additions waiting to be discovered across the city. 

Residents and visitors across the city can get rewarded for keeping up to date on all the DSF news on the Dubai Shopping Festival website.

The DSF 30th anniversary competition brings a thrilling chance to win an exciting prize worth a whopping AED 30,000 by simply registering their details on the DSF website. The winner will be announced on 12 January 2025. 

Dubai Shopping Festival is supported by Key Partners Dubai Islamic Bank and VISA, and Strategic Partners which include: Al Futtaim Malls (Dubai Festival City Mall & Festival Plaza), Al Zarooni Group (Mercato Shopping Mall), AW Rostamani Group, DHAM (Al Seef, Bluewaters, Ibn Battuta Mall, Nakheel Mall and The Outlet Village), Emirates Airline, ENOC, e&, Majid Al Futtaim (Mall of the Emirates, City Centre Mirdif, City Centre Deira), Merex Investment (City Walk and The Beach, JBR), and talabat.

DAMASCUS — New Syrian leader Ahmed Al Sharaa held talks on Monday with Ukraine's foreign minister, the official news agency SANA reported, weeks after Russian-allied president Bashar al-Assad was ousted from power.

"The leader of the new administration Ahmed Al Sharaa met with a Ukrainian delegation headed by Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga," SANA reported, without providing further details.

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country had sent its first shipment of food aid, 500 tonnes of wheat flour, to Syria.

Despite the war, Ukraine is one of the world's top wheat producers.

Rebels led by Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) launched an offensive on November 27 that saw them take a number of key cities in quick succession before seizing the capital Damascus 11 days later, sending Assad fleeing to Russia.

But despite Moscow's backing for Assad, Sharaa on Sunday noted the "deep strategic interests between Russia and Syria" in an interview with the Al-Arabiya TV channel.

"All Syria's arms are of Russian origin, and many power plants are managed by Russian experts... We do not want Russia to leave Syria in the way that some wish," Sharaa added.

GAZA STRIP, Palestinian Territories — The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said on Monday that 27 people were killed in the Palestinian territory in the past 24 hours, taking the overall death toll of the war to 45,541.

The ministry also said in a statement that at least 108,338 people had been wounded in more than 14 months of war between Israel and Hamas, triggered by the Palestinian group's October 7, 2023 attack.

Israel's military had killed approximately 20 Palestinians in a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza's Beit Lahia, and the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it left the area's last major health facility emptied of patients and staff.

Gaza health officials and the WHO said the raid forced the hospital out of service.

Since October 6 this year, Israeli operations in Gaza have focused on the north, where they say their land and air offensive aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

Gaza's civil defence agency said an air strike hit a hospital Sunday, killing at least seven people.

"Seven martyrs and several injured people, including critical cases, have been recovered following the Israeli strike on the upper floor of Al-Wafaa Hospital in central Gaza City," a civil defence agency statement said.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the hospital was still in use.

"The Al-Wafaa Hospital is partially operational, providing care to patients with physical disabilities," the ministry's director general, Munir Al Barsh, told AFP.

"The hospital had been rehabilitated and was getting ready to receive patients. Had it not been targeted by Israeli shelling today, it would have been ready to fully reopen in the next few days," he said.

The United Nations humanitarian agency, OCHA, said that on Tuesday the Israeli military had also "reportedly entered the Indonesian Hospital, ordering patients, caregivers and staff to evacuate to Gaza city." 

The same day, "military tanks reportedly attacked the third floor of the eastern wing of the Al Awda Hospital, causing panic", following previous air strikes that damaged the facility, OCHA said.

CAIRO — The Sudanese government rejected on Sunday a report backed by the United Nations which determined that famine had spread to five areas of the war-torn country.

The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) review, which UN agencies use, said last week that the war between Sudan's army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces had created famine conditions for 638,000 people, with a further 8.1 million on the brink of mass starvation.

The army-aligned government "categorically rejects the IPC's description of the situation in Sudan as a famine", the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The statement called the report "essentially speculative" and accused the IPC of procedural and transparency failings.

They said the team did not have access to updated field data and had not consulted with the government's technical team on the final version before publication.

The IPC did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.

The Sudanese government, loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, has been based in the Red Sea city of Port Sudan since the capital Khartoum became a warzone in April 2023.

It has repeatedly been accused of stonewalling international efforts to assess the food security situation in the war-torn country.

The authorities have also been accused of creating bureaucratic hurdles to humanitarian work and blocking visas for foreign teams.

The International Rescue Committee said the army was "leveraging its status as the internationally recognised government (and blocking) the UN and other agencies from reaching RSF-controlled areas".

Both the army and the RSF have been accused of using starvation as a weapon of war.

The war in Sudan has killed tens of thousands of people and uprooted over 12 million people, including millions who face dire food insecurity in army-controlled areas.

Across the country, more than 24.6 million people, around half the population,  face high levels of acute food insecurity.

GAZA STRIP, PALESTINIAN TERRITORIES — Gaza's civil defence agency said an air strike hit a hospital Sunday, killing at least seven people, while Israel said it had targeted militants at the no longer functioning facility.

"Seven martyrs and several injured people, including critical cases, have been recovered following the Israeli strike on the upper floor of Al-Wafaa Hospital in central Gaza City," a civil defence agency statement said.

Israel's military said it had carried out a "precise strike" targeting members of Hamas's aerial defence unit operating from a "command and control centre in a building that served in the past as the Al-Wafaa hospital".

"The building does not currently serve as a hospital," the military said.

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said the hospital was still in use.

"The Al-Wafaa Hospital is partially operational, providing care to patients with physical disabilities," the ministry's director general, Munir al-Barsh, told AFP.

"The hospital had been rehabilitated and was getting ready to receive patients. Had it not been targeted by Israeli shelling today, it would have been ready to fully reopen in the next few days," he said.

The strike on Al-Wafaa Hospital came a day after the military ended a raid on Kamal Adwan Hospital in northern Gaza; an assault the World Health Organisation reported left the facility empty of patients and staff.

The military also detained the hospital's chief, Hossam Abu Safiyeh, saying he was suspected of being a Hamas militant.

Since October 6, Israel's operations in the Palestinian territory have focused on northern Gaza, where it says its land and air offensive aims to prevent Hamas from regrouping.

However, the military has also carried out air strikes and shelling in other areas of Gaza as it presses on with its campaign against the militants.

SANAA — A fresh air strike hit Yemen's rebel-held capital Sanaa on Friday, the Iran-backed Huthis said, after they claimed to have carried out new attacks on Israel amid mounting hostilities.

The strike comes a day after Israeli air raids hit Sanaa international airport and other targets in Yemen, as the head of the UN's World Health Organization was preparing to fly out from the Huthi-held capital and injuring a UN crew member.

"I heard the blast. My house shook," one Sanaa resident told AFP late Friday.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the latest strike, but Yemen's Huthi rebels blamed it on "US-British aggression".

There was no immediate comment from Israel, the United States or Britain.

In addition to targeting Israel with missiles and drones, the Huthis have also attacked commercial shipping in the Red Sea, a vital trade route, in a solidarity campaign with Palestinians after war erupted in Gaza in October 2023.

Their attacks prompted reprisal strikes against Huthi targets by the United States and sometimes Britain.

Earlier Friday, the Huthis said they fired a missile at Ben Gurion Airport outside Tel Aviv and launched drones at the city and a ship in the Arabian Sea.

Israel's military said a missile launched from Yemen had been intercepted "before crossing into Israeli territory."

Sirens sounded because of possible falling debris after the interception, it said.

The Huthis have stepped up their attacks against Israel since late November's ceasefire between Israel and another Iran-backed group, Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Israeli "aggression will only increase the determination and resolve of the great Yemeni people to continue supporting the Palestinian people", a Huthi statement said Friday.

Tens of thousands of people gathered in Sanaa Friday to protest against the Israeli strikes and express solidarity with Palestinians.

"The equation has changed and has become: [targeting] airport for airport, port for port, and infrastructure for infrastructure," Huthi supporter Mohammed al-Gobisi said.

"We will not get tired or bored of supporting our brothers in Gaza."

Airport damaged 

Despite the damage at Sanaa airport, flights resumed at 10:00 am (0700 GMT) on Friday, Huthi Deputy Transport Minister Yahya Al Sayani said.

"The airport tower has been directly hit in addition to the departure lounge and airport navigation equipment. The attack resulted in four dead until now and around 20 wounded from staff, airport and passengers", Sayani said.

Israel's military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether they knew at the time that WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus was there.

The strikes left the top of the control tower a bombed-out shell, and large windows in the airport building were shattered.

Sanaa airport, which reopened to international flights in 2022 after a six-year gap, offers a regular service to Jordan's capital, Amman, on the Yemenia airline.

Israel's attack came a day after the rebels claimed they fired a missile and two drones at Israel.

In his latest warning to the Huthis, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the military would "continue until the job is done".

"We are determined to cut this branch of terrorism from the Iranian axis of evil," he said in a video statement.

Yemenis depend on aid 

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres denounced the escalation in hostilities, and said bombing transportation infrastructure threatened humanitarian operations in Yemen, where 80 percent of the population depends on aid.

Tedros was in Yemen to seek the release of UN staff detained for months by the Huthis, and to assess the humanitarian situation.

On Friday he said that a member of the UN's Humanitarian Air Service "who was injured yesterday due to the bombardment underwent successful surgery and is now in stable condition".

He later posted on X that he had safely reached Jordan with his team, including the injured colleague who he said needs further treatment.

A witness told AFP that Thursday's raids also targeted the adjacent Al-Dailami air base. Strikes also targeted a power station in Hodeida, on the rebel-held coast, a witness and Al-Masirah TV said.

Following previous rebel attacks on Israel this year, Israeli strikes twice hit Hodeida, a major entry point for humanitarian aid to the country ravaged for years by its own war.

On December 19, after the rebels fired a missile towards Israel and badly damaged a school, Israel struck targets in Sanaa for the first time. 

Huthi media said those strikes killed nine people.

 'Iranian weapons' 

Israel's latest targets included "military infrastructure" at the airport and power stations in Sanaa and Hodeida, as well as other facilities at Hodeida, Salif and Ras Kanatib ports, an Israeli statement said.

Huthis used the targeted sites "to smuggle Iranian weapons into the region and for the entry of senior Iranian officials", the statement said.

Similar strikes in September followed a rebel claim to have targeted Ben Gurion Airport. At the time Israel also said it targeted sites used to "transfer Iranian weaponry".

On December 21, Israel's military and emergency services said a projectile fired from Yemen wounded 16 people in Tel Aviv.

The Huthis control large parts of Yemen after seizing Sanaa and ousting the internationally recognised government in September 2014.

DAMASCUS — A senior official from Libya's UN-recognised government met Syria's new leader Ahmed Al Sharaa on Saturday and discussed issues including diplomatic relations, energy and migration.

"We expressed our full support for the Syrian authorities in the success of the important transitional phase," Libyan Minister of State for Communication and Political Affairs Walid Ellafi told reporters after the meeting.

"We emphasised the importance of coordination and cooperation... particularly on security and military issues," he said, while they also discussed cooperation "related to energy and trade" and "illegal immigration".

Syrians fleeing war since 2011 and seeking a better life have often travelled to Libya in search of work or passage across the Mediterranean on flimsy boats towards Europe.

Ellafi said they also discussed "the importance of raising diplomatic representation between the two countries".

"Today the charge d'affaires attended the meeting with me and we are seeking a permanent ambassador," he added.

Power in Libya is divided between the UN-recognised government based in the capital Tripoli and a rival administration in the east, backed by military strongman Khalifa Haftar who also controls the south.

Representatives of Haftar's rival administration in March 2020 opened a diplomatic mission in Damascus.

Before that, Libya had not had any representation in Damascus since 2012, following the fall and killing of longtime dictator Moamer Kadhafi in a NATO-backed uprising. 

It was not immediately clear whether the charge d'affaires had been appointed since Sharaa's Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS) and allied factions toppled Assad on December 8 after a lightning offensive.

Also on Saturday, images published by Syrian state news agency SANA also showed Sharaa meeting Bahrain's strategic security bureau chief Sheikh Ahmed bin Abdulaziz Al-Khalifa.

No details of the discussions were provided.

On December 14, top diplomats from eight Arab countries including Bahrain called for a peaceful transition in Syria with United Nations and Arab League support following Assad's overthrow.

A day earlier, the official BNA news agency reported that Bahrain's King Hamad had told Sharaa that his country was ready to "continue consultations and coordination with Syria".

Damascus's new authorities have received envoys from across the Middle East and beyond since taking control as countries look to establish contact with Sharaa's administration.