Trump’s Mercenary Back-Channel to Russia

Nine days before Donald Trump’s inauguration, the United Arab Emirates arranged a secret meeting between Blackwater founder Erik Prince and a contact close to Russian President Vladi­mir Putin, according to the Washington Post. The January 11th meetup, an attempt to open a back-channel line of communication between Putin and Trump, took place in the Seychelles islands. Erik Prince, who donated $250,000 to the Trump election effort, is still in the army-for-hire business, providing private security services for the UAE, and lives part-time in Abu Dhabi. His sister, Betsy DeVos, is currently Secretary of Education.

More:

“Blackwater founder held secret Seychelles meeting to establish Trump-Putin back channel,” Adam Entous, Greg Miller, Kevin Sieff and Karen DeYoung, Washington Post

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The Google Camel

How do you take Google Street View photos of the Arabian desert? You can’t cruise the dunes in a camera-mounted car without damaging the delicate sand structures, so you put your camera on a camel. A female dromedary, actually (one hump, not two) named Raffia.

Dubai Fights Obesity With Mineral Supplement

These are fat times in the Emirates of the Persian Gulf. Rising rates of obesity are blamed on fast food and sedentary lifestyles. Dubai is using the very prosperity that caused the problem to solve it, rewarding successful dieters with gold. During the next month the ‘Your Weight in Gold’ initiative will give registered dieters a gram of gold for each kilogram they lose, and the top 3 losers get a gold coin apiece.

This is the month of Ramadan in the UAE and the rest of the Muslim world, a month of fasting, so you might think that dieting would be no big deal. You would be wrong. The ritual fast is confined to daylight, and the nights are marked by Iftar, the communal feast.

Good luck, Dubai dieters. Go for the gold!

More:

“Dubai paying citizens gold to lose weight in fight against obesity,” Rheana Murray, New York Daily News

“Reduce weight and win gold in Dubai,” Emirates 24/7

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Image by Mike Licht. Download a copy here. Creative Commons license; credit Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Comments are welcome if they are on-topic, substantive, concise, and not boring or obscene. Comments may be edited for clarity and length.

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