Iftar at The Address
The Address Dubai Marina is hosting one of the larger iftars in town. Its Arab-style buffet held in the decorated Constellation Ballroom serves up to 400 people a night, so you're guaranteed plenty of choice. Afterwards, shisha, traditional games and an à la carte suhoor menu are all available in the Terrace Tent. For reservations, call 04 436 7777 or email dubaimarina@theaddress.com.
New cooking website
Cooking with My Mom is a new web series created for Yahoo! Maktoob for Ramadan. The weekly eight-minute episodes feature the chef Eva Halasa Rihani (who has previously appeared on Sabah Al Khair Ya Arab on MBC1) teaching her 17-year-old daughter Emily how to prepare simple recipes such as atayef, chicken fatteh and babaganoush. The episodes have English subtitles and you can also access the recipes in written form. Visit maktoob.ramadan.yahoo.com.
Home-style Filipino food
Among the Filipino expat community, Nipa Hut at the Admiral Plaza hotel in Bur Dubai has developed something of a following. If you fancy sampling home-style Filipino dishes at a very reasonable price, then its daily buffet runs from noon to 10pm and costs Dh49 per person (children under six eat for free). For more details, visit www.admiralplazahotel.com.
Chinese tea ceremony
Royal China Dubai is currently inviting customers to experience a traditional Chinese tea ceremony when they dine at the restaurant in the evening. With a large selection of types and blends (we like the sound of ginseng oolong), the tea is served tableside by hostesses who have been trained in the ritual of the tea ceremony. Royal China, DIFC, 04 354 5543, www.royalchinadubai.com.
Tradition at Al Manzil
In Old Town Dubai, Al Manzil hotel is offering what it calls "a taste of tradition" at iftar. The buffet at Conservatory Restaurant is priced at Dh160 and will be served until 11.30pm. The Courtyard, meanwhile, is serving North African and Middle Eastern dishes and will be open until 3am during Ramadan. For bookings, call 04 428 5888 or email restaurants@almanzilhotel.ae.
Game Of Thrones Season Seven: A Bluffers Guide
Want to sound on message about the biggest show on television without actually watching it? Best not to get locked into the labyrinthine tales of revenge and royalty: as Isaac Hempstead Wright put it, all you really need to know from now on is that there’s going to be a huge fight between humans and the armies of undead White Walkers.
The season ended with a dragon captured by the Night King blowing apart the huge wall of ice that separates the human world from its less appealing counterpart. Not that some of the humans in Westeros have been particularly appealing, either.
Anyway, the White Walkers are now free to cause any kind of havoc they wish, and as Liam Cunningham told us: “Westeros may be zombie land after the Night King has finished.” If the various human factions don’t put aside their differences in season 8, we could be looking at The Walking Dead: The Medieval Years.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
