World
Trump makes historic UAE visit as first US president in nearly 30 years

President Donald Trump on Thursday will soon land in the United Arab Emirates for his final stop in the Middle East this week in a visit that marked the first time a U.S. president has traveled to the nation in nearly 30 years, following President George W. Bush’s trip in 2008.
Trump, who has secured major business deals first in Saudi Arabia and then Qatar, is expected to announce more agreements with what has long been one of the U.S.’ chief trading partners in the region — though given recently announced trillion-dollar deals, it is unclear what more the Emiratis will agree to.
In March, the UAE pledged a $1.4 trillion investment in the U.S. economy over the next decade through AI infrastructure, semiconductor, energy and American manufacturing initiatives, including a plan to nearly double U.S. aluminum production by investing in a new smelter for the first time in 35 years.
President Donald Trump waves as he boards Air Force One to depart Al Udeid Air Base on his way to the UAE on Thursday, May 15, 2025, in Doha, Qatar. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
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On the eve of the president’s visit to the Middle Eastern nation, the State Department also announced a $1.4 billion sale of CH-47 F Chinook helicopters and F-16 fighter jet parts to Abu Dhabi.
However, lawmakers on Wednesday suggested they may block this sale amid concerns over direct personal business ties, as Trump’s crypto venture has also received a $2 billion investment by a UAE-backed investment firm.
“If I was a betting person, I’d bet that the Emiratis almost certainly kept some things in reserve for President Trump’s actual visit that can be announced when he’s on the ground in Abu Dhabi,” John Hannah, former national security advisor to Dick Cheney and current Randi & Charles Wax senior fellow at the Jewish Institute for National Security of America (JINSA), told Fox News Digital. “I wouldn’t be at all surprised if we see some new items unveiled or some additional details put out on some of the earlier announcements.”
“The UAE has clearly staked its future on being the Middle East leader in a wide range of 21st-century technologies, from AI to chips to space,” he added. “And of course, the shopping list for high-end weapons is almost limitless and always a possible deliverable for a trip like this.”
Increased scrutiny arose around Trump’s Middle East tour as engagement with all three nations holds personal value to him, given the Trump Organization’s luxury resorts, hotels, golf courses, real estate projects and crypto investment schemes in the region.

An infographic titled “Trump’s high-stakes Gulf tour,” created in Ankara, Turkey, on Tuesday. (Yasin Demirci/Anadolu via Getty Images)
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But all three nations also hold significant value to Washington, as they have become key players in some of the toughest geopolitical issues facing the U.S. and its allies.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar have been integral in facilitating U.S. negotiations when it comes to ending Russia’s war in Ukraine and hostage negotiations in the Gaza Strip.
While neither of these issues appeared to be top points of discussion in Trump’s visit to Saudi Arabia or Qatar, he may hit on geopolitical ties more heavily when it comes to the UAE, particularly given that Abu Dhabi is one of the few Middle Eastern nations that holds normalized diplomatic ties with Israel.
The UAE has ardently opposed Israel’s military operations in the Gaza Strip, has called for a two-state solution, and has rejected Trump’s “riviera plans,” instead favoring an Egypt-reconstruction alternative.

President Donald Trump, center, attends a photo session with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, United Arab Emirates Crown Prince Sheikh Khaled bin Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Kuwait’s Crown Prince Mishal Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and Gulf Cooperation Council Secretary-General Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi during the GCC Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Wednesday. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
But Abu Dhabi has also maintained relations with the U.S.’ biggest adversaries, including China, Russia and Iran, which could be a topic of conversation during Trump’s one-day visit.
“As everywhere on this trip, the headlines will likely be dominated by the dollar signs and deal-making,” Hannah said. “But I’m personally most interested in the geopolitical angle of trying to reset the U.S.-Emirati strategic partnership, especially in the context of America’s great power competition with China and to a lesser extent Russia, and regionally with Iran.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, left, appears with UAE National Security Advisor Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan at ADNEC Centre Abu Dhabi in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 19. (Reuters/Evelyn Hockstein/Pool)
Hannah explained that Trump’s visit to the UAE exemplifies a recommitment by the U.S. economically and militarily to support Abu Dhabi’s “stability, security, and success in a dangerous neighborhood” and could “pay real dividends going forward.”
“The UAE’s top leadership has come to believe that putting most of its eggs into the American basket was an increasingly risky bet as one president after another decided that the Middle East was a lost cause — nothing but ‘blood and sand’ as President Trump famously said in his first term — and the country needed to pivot its focus toward Asia,” he continued. “With a country as influential and resource-rich as the UAE, correcting that unhelpful perception and putting the strategic relationship back on a much more positive dynamic is an important goal.”

World
Amy Poehler Says ‘SNL’ Actors ‘All Played People We Should Not Have… I Misappropriated, I Appropriated’: Everything in Comedy Has an ‘Expiration Date’

Amy Poehler recently took accountability for her problematic “Saturday Night Live” characters while talking to former cast member Will Forte on her “Good Hang” podcast. Poehler said that every comedian who has appeared on “SNL” over the years has “played people that we should not have played” and “the part about getting older and being in comedy is you have to, like, figure out, ‘Oh, it’s like everything has an expiration date.’”
“There was even on [‘SNL50’], when they had that segment which was like, ‘Here’s all the ways we got things wrong,’ and they showed way inappropriate casting for people,” Poehler added. “We all played people that we should not have played. I misappropriated, I appropriated…I didn’t know.”
Poehler was referring to the “SNL50” sketch in which Tom Hanks introduced an In Memoriam segment calling out the many problematic jokes and sketches “SNL” has aired. The montage of poorly-aged bits includes jokes about sexual harassment and such infamous moments as Adrien Brody sporting dreadlocks and a Jamaican accent.
“Even though these characters, accents and … let’s just call them ‘ethnic’ wigs were unquestionably in poor taste, you all laughed at them,” Tom Hanks said in a winking moment at the audience. “So if anyone should be canceled, shouldn’t it be you, the audience? Something to think about.”
Speaking to Forte on her podcast, Poehler added: “The best thing you can do is make repairs, learn from your mistakes, do better. It’s all you can do.”
Watch Poehler and Forte’s full “Good Hang” conversation in the video below.
World
Israel weighs options to destroy Fordow if it has to go it alone without help from the US

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If President Trump decides not to order a strike on Iran’s main underground enrichment site at Fordow, Israel has a number of options to destroy Iran’s nuclear enrichment facility buried deep under a mountain south of Tehran.
One option includes sending elite Israeli Air Force commandos from Unit 5101, known as Shaldag, which, in Hebrew, means kingfisher, a bird known to be patient and dive deep under water to find its prey.
In September, members of this elite unit surprised the world by entering an underground missile factory used by Iran in Syria.
“There was a site that similarly looked like Fordow,” former Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin told Fox News in an exclusive interview. “Even though smaller, the Syrian facility produced advanced ballistic missiles, precise ballistic missiles using Iranian technology, as well as Iranian money.”
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“There was a site that similarly looked like Fordow,” former Israeli Military Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin told Fox News in an exclusive interview. (Amos Yadlin)
Israel attacked the site from the air a few times but was not able to destroy the site.
Unit 5101 (Shaldag) used the cover of darkness and diversionary airstrikes to enter the secret site, plant explosives and destroy the complex. Like Iran’s Fordow mountain complex south of Tehran, it was 300 feet underground.
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“The Air Force took care of all the guards around the perimeter, and Shaldag got in, and the place is gone, destroyed,” Yadlin said with a slight smile.
It’s not the first time Israel has had to plan to take out a secret nuclear complex against the odds and alone. In 1981, Israel flew a daring mission to bomb Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak.
Yadlin was one of eight young Israeli F-16 pilots who carried out the secret attack.

In 1981, Israel flew a daring mission to bomb Iraq’s nuclear reactor at Osirak. Yadlin was one of eight young Israeli F-16 pilots who carried out the secret attack. (Amos Yadlin)
“We didn’t have air refueling at that time. We didn’t have GPS. It was dumb bombs, smart pilot, but a very difficult operational mission when Iraq was in a war (with Iran). So, the state of alert was very, very high,” Yadlin recalled. He and the other pilots believed it might be a suicide mission, and they might not have enough fuel to return home.
More recently, retired Maj. Gen. Yadlin served as the head of Israel’s Military Intelligence in 2007, when Israel blew up a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor that the world did not know about. The White House at the time did not want to assist in the strike. Yadlin has seen history change after Israel has acted alone carrying out daring missions like the exploding pagers that killed most of the top commanders of Iran’s proxy in Lebanon, Hezbollah.
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In 2008, when it was determined that Israeli F-16s could not reach Iran’s nuclear sites, Yadlin ordered Mossad to come up with another way to take out Iran’s uranium enrichment at Natanz. Two years later, Israeli and American cyber warriors introduced Stuxnet, a malicious computer worm that caused thousands of Natanz centrifuges to spin out of control, setting back Iran’s nuclear enrichment.

More recently, retired Maj. Gen. Yadlin served as the head of Israel’s Military Intelligence in 2007, when Israel blew up a suspected Syrian nuclear reactor that the world did not know about. (Amos Yadlin)
The decision to strike Fordow, the crown jewel and heart of Iran’s nuclear program, is different, and Israel prefers the U.S. to use its B-2 stealth bombers and 30,000-pound bunker-buster bombs.
“Anybody who wants the war to be over soon, to be finished quickly, have to find a way to deal with Fordow,” Yadlin said. “Those who think that attacking Fordow will escalate the war, in my judgment, it can de-escalate and terminate the war.”
And it could serve as a deterrent to China and Russia, who will see the power and capability of the U.S. military’s unique capability.
Another option would be to cut power to Fordow. Without power, the centrifuges enriching the uranium could become permanently disabled.
When asked if Israel could take out Fordow without American B-2 bombers, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told Fox’s Bret Baier in an exclusive interview last Sunday, “We have quite a few startups too and quite a few rabbits up our sleeve. And I don’t think that I should get into that.”
World
MAGA is split over Israel and Iran. Which way will Trump go?

How did MAGA become Trump’s biggest opponent of a US strike on Iran? The Republican base is split over Trump’s rhetoric about getting involved in another foreign war. Conservative stalwarts like Tucker Carlson and Steve Bannon are pushing back. Could a US strike on Iran be a blow against Trump at home?
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