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LONDON: The stand-up comedian Shawn Chidiac’s first challenge upon arriving in London last week was getting used to looking right before crossing the road. However, when he finally did, he bumped into a cyclist who swore at him and sped off.

Chidiac, who is based in the UAE, swore back angrily at the cyclist, an act he would not do in Dubai but felt compelled to since he was on an island where 57 percent of people swear most days. He was in the UK to perform “Laughing in Translation,” his first solo stand-up comedy show since he became a full-time comedian and content creator in 2023.

With over 645,000 followers on his page on Instagram, he is one of the best up-and-coming Arab comedians. Chidiac’s parents are, indeed, divorced, and the audience at the nearly sold-out show at Shaw Theatre needed no reminder of this. Some of them were eager to share with him that their parents were also divorced.

In a previous conversation with Arab News, the comedian said he likes “connecting as many people as possible through (comedy stories about my) upbringing. Whoever has lived in the Gulf will have a similar story or narrative in their minds.”

Before delving into his childhood and adult life experiences in Dubai, he guided the audience through a brief inner journey, using the commanding, deep voice of an Indian yoga guru, asking them to close their eyes, take a deep breath, and exhale. The audience — mostly young people, some of whom were Arabs or had Arab roots — struggled to maintain a sense of calm.

One of Chidiac’s comedic qualities is his ability to perform personas and accents inspired by the people he interacts with or has witnessed throughout his life in the Gulf, which became a melting pot of nationalities, languages, religions, and cultures. He was born in Canada to a family originally from Lebanon, but they later moved to Dubai, where he was primarily raised by his mother.

He told the crowd that he went to the Speaker’s Corner in Hyde Park, expecting an English narrator dressed in a three-piece suit, similar to those he had seen in “Downton Abbey” and other historical TV dramas. Instead, he encountered a man from Punjab complaining about the increasing number of immigrants in the UK.

Thanks to the “Chinese DVD man” who roamed the neighborhoods of Dubai, Chidiac was able to keep up with the latest comedy shows and newly released films that his classmates were watching while he attended an expensive school where he was the poorest student. As he was known, the “Chinese DVD man” always had a secret compartment in his suitcase, which did not contain action, racing, or historical movies but another, unnamed genre that sold out quickly.

Chidiac told Arab News that such stories “(come from) the people I know and see, and the things I do, and my interaction with them. So, the more interaction I have, the better it is, which is hard because I’m a massive introvert.”

His interactions in Dubai span many nationalities and cultures. Whether in hospital, where he recently endured the ordeal of kidney stones and had to communicate with a Filipino nurse and an Egyptian doctor, or on a horse riding date with a British woman, which unexpectedly landed him in the sand. When the doctors presented him with options for removing the kidney stones, he chose the shockwave lithotripsy. “As an Arab, I chose the explosives,” he said.

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump will decide in the next two weeks whether the US will get involved in the Israel-Iran air war, the White House said on Thursday, raising pressure on Tehran to come to the negotiating table.

Citing a message from Trump, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters: “Based on the fact that there’s a substantial chance of negotiations that may or may not take place with Iran in the near future, I will make my decision whether or not to go within the next two weeks.”

The Republican president has kept the world guessing on his plans, veering from proposing a swift diplomatic solution to suggesting the US might join the fighting on Israel’s side. On Wednesday, he said nobody knew what he would do. A day earlier he mused on social media about killing Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, then demanded Iran’s unconditional surrender.

The threats have caused cracks in Trump’s support base between more hawkish traditional Republicans and the party’s more isolationist elements.

But critics said that in the five months since returning to office, Trump has issued a range of deadlines — including to warring Russia and Ukraine and to other countries in trade tariff negotiations — only to suspend those deadlines or allow them to slide.

“I think going to war with Iran is a terrible idea, but no one believes this ‘two weeks’ bit,” Democratic Senator Chris Murphy said on the social media platform X. “He’s used it a million times before to pretend he might be doing something he’s not. It just makes America look weak and silly.”

Leavitt told a regular briefing at the White House that Trump was interested in pursuing a diplomatic solution with Iran, but his top priority was ensuring that Iran could not obtain a nuclear weapon.

She said any deal would have to prohibit enrichment of uranium by Tehran and eliminate Iran’s ability to achieve a nuclear weapon.

“The president is always interested in a diplomatic solution ... if there’s a chance for diplomacy, the president’s always going to grab it,” Leavitt said. “But he’s not afraid to use strength as well I will add.”


BYPASSING CONGRESS?
Leavitt declined to say if Trump would seek congressional authorization for any strikes on Iran. Democrats have raised concerns over reports on CBS and other outlets that Trump has already approved a plan to attack Iran, bypassing Congress, which has the sole power to declare war.

Leavitt said US officials remained convinced that Iran had never been closer to obtaining a nuclear weapon, saying it would take Tehran just “a couple of weeks” to produce such a weapon.

Leavitt’s assessment contradicted congressional testimony in March from Trump’s intelligence chief, Tulsi Gabbard.

She said then that the US intelligence community continued to judge that Tehran was not working on a nuclear warhead.

This week, Trump dismissed Gabbard’s March testimony, telling reporters: “I don’t care what she said. I think they were very close to having one.”
On Wednesday, Trump lieutenant Steve Bannon urged caution about the US joining Israel in trying to destroy Iran’s nuclear program.

Israel bombed nuclear targets in Iran on Thursday and Iran fired missiles and drones at Israel after hitting an Israeli hospital overnight, as a week-old air war escalated and neither side showed any sign of an exit strategy.

Leavitt said Trump had been briefed on the Israeli operation on Thursday and remained in close communication with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. She said Iran was in “a deeply vulnerable position” and would face grave consequences if it did not agree to halt its work on a nuclear weapon.

Iran has been weighing wider options in responding to the biggest security challenge since its 1979 revolution.

Three diplomats told Reuters that Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi have spoken by phone several times since Israel began its strikes last week.