Category: Talking Point

Water shortages and chronic underinvestment are emerging as direct constraints on artificial intelligence, energy systems, food production and urban expansion, sharpening pressure on governments and investors to mobilise far more capital for water infrastructure.The issue moved higher on the global investment agenda this week as about 50 chief executives, investors and philanthropy leaders met at the UAE’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York to examine how viable water projects can be moved from concept to financial close.The

G7 foreign ministers have called on Iran to stop arming and supporting Yemen’s Houthis, warning that the group’s military operations risk widening instability across the Middle East and disrupting international trade.The ministers of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States issued the demand after meeting on Monday on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. They condemned continuing Houthi strikes in Yemen and against Saudi Arabia and urged the movement to end military

Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company has identified Fount Trust as its ultimate parent above Royal Group Holding LLC, formalising the ownership structure that followed an earlier restructuring.IHC said on Monday that the change affects the legal ownership chain but does not alter its ultimate beneficial ownership, operations, strategy or business activities. Royal Group continues to exist and operate within the structure, while IHC remains governed by its board and managed by its executive team.Under the structure outlined by the company,

A United Nations-backed fact-finding mission has found reasonable grounds to believe United States forces committed war crimes in two February strikes in Iran, including an attack on a primary school in Minab that killed more than 150 people.The Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran said the strikes amounted to indiscriminate attacks that caused civilian deaths, injuries and damage to civilian objects. Its findings were submitted to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva as part of a wider report examining

Dubai has cleared an 80-kilometre Fourth Corridor road project linking Abu Dhabi, Dubai and Sharjah, adding a major new route intended to ease pressure on the emirate’s existing inter-emirate network.Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the UAE, and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, approved implementation of the project under directives from Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the

Abu Dhabi’s International Holding Company is moving to acquire an 80 per cent stake in Marlan Holding, giving the investment group a controlling position in the company behind UAE-based Marlan Space.The proposed transaction is being carried out through IHC’s wholly owned subsidiary International Tech Group SP LLC and remains subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions, the company said. Financial terms were not disclosed.Marlan Holding RSC Ltd is the holding company behind Marlan Space, an Abu Dhabi-based investor-operator focused

A US government cybersecurity episode involving ChatGPT is drawing attention to a wider governance problem: organisations are deploying artificial intelligence faster than they are assigning responsibility for what AI systems are allowed to do.The issue centres on CISA acting director Madhu Gottumukkala, who uploaded sensitive but unclassified government contracting documents to a public version of ChatGPT during July and early August 2025. The activity triggered automated security alerts and a Department of Homeland Security review after material marked for official

Mubadala Investment Company has agreed to acquire a significant minority interest in Luckin Coffee alongside controlling shareholder Centurium Capital in a transaction valued at about $1 billion, extending the Abu Dhabi sovereign investor’s exposure to China’s consumer sector.The transaction is structured through Success Cup Limited and is expected to give a Mubadala affiliate the right to nominate a director to Luckin Coffee’s board while it maintains an ownership threshold of at least 5 per cent on an as-converted basis, according

Iran will announce a new restricted maritime zone near the Strait of Hormuz and sign off a shipping corridor agreed with Oman within days, according to its top national security official.Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said the restricted area would begin at what Tehran calls the US Navy’s blockade line and extend into parts of the Gulf. He warned that vessels entering the zone would be placed on an Iranian sanctions list, but did not specify

Iran’s worsening fiscal squeeze is spilling into daily life as collapsing oil revenue, a record-low currency and surging prices force Tehran to balance military demands against the cost of keeping fuel, food and other essentials affordable.The pressure has sharpened after Iranian crude exports fell to roughly 260,000 barrels a day in August from about 1.7 million before the latest tightening of US economic pressure, draining the state’s main source of hard currency. The rial has slipped beyond two million to

Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Cairo for a state visit on Tuesday night, opening talks with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi as Beijing seeks stronger ties with a pivotal Arab partner amid questions over Washington’s regional role.Xi, accompanied by his wife Peng Liyuan, was received at Cairo International Airport by Sisi and Egypt’s first lady, Entissar el-Sisi. The visit is Xi’s first to Egypt in a decade and marks 70 years of diplomatic relations.The Chinese leader said on arrival that

President Donald Trump has dismissed concerns that the six-month conflict with Iran is depleting US firepower, describing the fighting as a comparatively small war even as American and Iranian forces exchanged strikes after about a month of reduced direct combat.“This is a relatively little war for us,” Trump told reporters on Monday. “This is not a big war.”Trump also rejected warnings that prolonged operations could leave the United States short of weapons needed for other contingencies. He said the country

Venezuela has insisted that its new 25-year energy agreement with the United States preserves state ownership of the country’s oil reserves, sharpening scrutiny of President Donald Trump’s claim that Washington has secured majority control over more than 65 billion barrels of Venezuelan crude.Interim President Delcy Rodríguez said the accord covers the development of 17 strategic oilfields and targets production of more than 1.5 million barrels a day, while eight additional greenfield blocks are planned under a wider expansion. She said

Artificial intelligence adoption has spread across Gulf businesses, but only a small minority are converting deployments into measurable financial gains, exposing a gap between experimentation and value creation.About 84 per cent of organisations in the Gulf Cooperation Council use AI in at least one business function, up from 62 per cent in 2023, according to a McKinsey survey conducted with the GCC Board Directors Institute. Yet only 11 per cent qualify as “value realisers”, meaning they have scaled AI and

Venezuela is considering leaving OPEC as its energy relationship with the United States deepens, raising fresh questions over the producer group’s cohesion only months after the United Arab Emirates ended nearly six decades of membership.No final decision has been taken in Caracas, but the possibility of withdrawing from the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has figured in discussions involving Venezuelan and US officials. Such a move would carry powerful symbolism because Venezuela was one of OPEC’s five founding members

Kuwait and Pakistan have signed a new defence co-operation agreement expanding military training, operational co-ordination and security assistance as Gulf states reassess their strategic relationships during the prolonged Iran war.The Protocol Agreement-2026 was signed on Thursday, August 27, during Kuwaiti Defence Minister Sheikh Abdullah Ali Abdullah Al-Saleem Al-Sabah’s visit to Pakistan. Defence Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif signed for Pakistan after talks focused on bilateral security ties and the changing regional environment.The agreement broadens a defence framework established in 2023 and

Washington’s expanding economic offensive against Tehran is threatening to squeeze China’s access to discounted Iranian crude after war, blockades and maritime attacks sharply reduced flows through the Middle East’s main energy chokepoints.Chinese imports of Iranian crude moving through the Strait of Hormuz averaged about 530,000 barrels a day in July and August, down roughly 36 per cent from the first half of 2026 and 72 per cent below their October 2024 peak. Purchases have fallen about 48 per cent since

Washington has sanctioned the Wellbred commodities group and businesses spanning Singapore, the UAE, Switzerland and France, expanding pressure on a global commercial network linked to Iranian oil trader Mohammad Hossein Shamkhani.The measures designate Singapore-based Wellbred Capital Pte Ltd, UAE-based Wellbred Trading FZCO and Switzerland-based Wellbred Trading SA. La Nivernaise de Raffinage SAS, a French cooking-oil refinery controlled by Wellbred Trading SA, has also been placed under sanctions.The action forms part of a broader campaign launched by the Trump administration on

Iran is preparing for a sharp escalation in US economic pressure as President Masoud Pezeshkian says the country is fighting an “all-out economic, military and security war” and Washington readies another sanctions package.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to outline the measures on Monday, with the Trump administration signalling that the campaign will seek to isolate Tehran from international trade and financial networks. The measures are expected to extend pressure beyond Iranian companies and institutions by targeting foreign businesses,

Oil prices extended gains on Wednesday as fading prospects for a settlement in the Iran war intensified concerns over supplies moving through the Strait of Hormuz, keeping Brent crude above $91 a barrel.Brent crude futures rose 26 cents to $91.28 a barrel in early trading, marking a fourth consecutive session of gains, while US West Texas Intermediate crude advanced 37 cents to $85.31. Brent had settled at $91.02 on Tuesday, its highest close in more than three weeks, after

Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz remained severely restricted on Tuesday as vessel movements stayed in single digits, while another ship was struck by an unidentified projectile and diplomatic efforts to ease the US-Iran confrontation remained deadlocked.Preliminary ship-tracking data showed six commodity vessels crossed the waterway on Monday, three entering the Gulf and three leaving. That was only a modest increase from the weekend and remained well below the 10-day average of 11 ships. Updated tracking figures recorded three

President Donald Trump has ordered the Pentagon to substantially scale back joint military exercises with South Korea, linking the decision to his relationship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and Seoul’s refusal to support Washington’s military campaign against Iran.Trump announced the move hours before the annual Ulchi Freedom Shield exercise was due to begin on Monday, August 17. The drills nevertheless started as scheduled, with South Korea confirming that the programme was proceeding while the Pentagon assessed how the

Businesses across the UAE that use music commercially will face a new licensing regime from December 2026, bringing restaurants, hotels, shopping centres, gyms, airlines and broadcasters within a standardised system for paying music copyright and related-rights fees.The Collective Management in Music Guide establishes a framework for licensing the public and commercial use of protected music. It will apply to restaurants, cafés, hotels, floating hotels, shopping malls, fitness centres and airlines, as well as radio and television stations, concerts and comparable

OPEC crude production climbed sharply in July as Gulf producers restored output disrupted by the Iran war and restrictions on tanker movements through the Strait of Hormuz, extending the oil market’s recovery from severe supply losses earlier this year.Production by the 11-member Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries increased by about 1.17 million barrels per day from June to 19.85 million bpd. Iraq recorded the largest monthly increase, followed by Kuwait, while Iran also raised supply despite renewed constraints