Hassan Al Khawas, 55, his wife Zeina Alayn, 37, and daughter Sara, 14, drowned in Shoreham after getting into difficulties in the sea. Another daughter Sajad, 6, died a few days later in hospital.

Mr Al Khawas – who is known to relatives as Hossam – and his wife were British citizens born in the Rashidiya refugee camp in southern Lebanon, which shelters more than 30,000 displaced Palestinian families.

Sussex Police said the deaths are being treated as a tragic accident, with no third-party involvement.

A ceremony of condolences has been held in London and in the family home in Rashidiya. Hassan’s brother, Jalal Al Khawas, who lives in Rashidiya, told The National the family are now waiting for the repatriation to Lebanon.

“It’s important for us. His mother is old, she is over 90 years old, she wants to see him one last time,” he said. “She hadn’t seen him in a long time. She wants to see him. It has been very hard on her.”

Mr Al Khawas and his family had not been to Lebanon in three years because of the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, which particularly affects southern Lebanon. “He wanted to come and we told him not to, we told him to wait,” his brother said.

The family has been holding condolences in their home in Rashidiya camp while they wait for the bodies to arrive. Jalal said friends living in the UK had also come to comfort the family. “We’ve had Lebanese and Palestinians from London coming to our house. They were crying. Their wives were crying. They told us how Hossam always looked out for them,” he said.

The two girls, he said, “had lovely life”, with Sara attending Ellen Wilkinson School in West London. “They were doing well at school, their parents cared for them,” he said.

The couple’s two other children, a 15-year old girl and 10-year old boy, are being taken care of by uncles in London. Jalal said: “We will work on finding the right path for them. It will be better for them to stay in London.”

But he has huge concerns about the impact the tragedy night have on them. “We hope to help the children. They were witnesses to what happened. The boy saw his father drown. This is going to be very difficult for them,” he said.

There has been an increase in water-related deaths in the UK this year due to rising temperatures and a number of heatwaves. Nineteen people died in one week in May, many of them children and teenagers.

The latest deaths have had a huge impact on the community in Shoreham, who held a vigil on the beach for the family on Sunday. People came with paddle-boards and kayaks as part of a commemoration ceremony.

Among them was Wesley Horscroft, who attended on behalf of paddlers in the Kingston beach community.

He said he had originally planned to go out alone and “put some flowers on the water” to honour the family, before he decided to invite others. “It's kind of grown and a lot of people wanted to turn up to do the same,” he told the BBC.

Sara Al Khawas's school also paid tribute to the “sweet” and “well-liked” pupil. “Sara was a sweet girl, well-liked by staff and students, and she will be greatly missed,” a statement on the Ellen Wilkinson School website read.

“Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with her family, friends, and all those affected. We are also thinking of her sister and loved ones at this extremely difficult time.”

Naza has been added to the festival’s main competition and will have its world premiere on September 10. The late addition completes the 21-film line-up and makes it the only documentary feature competing for the Golden Lion.

“Shot at night on the rooftops of Tel Aviv, the film reveals in detail the systems behind Israel’s calculated mass killing of Palestinian civilians in Gaza,” the official synopsis states.

The title is a military acronym used by Israeli intelligence to indicate the number of civilians expected to be killed in a planned air strike, according to the filmmakers.

Naza draws on investigations published between 2023 and 2025 by Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine, Hebrew-language outlet Local Call and The Guardian. The production announcement does not specify which findings will feature in the documentary.

Abraham wrote several of those reports. One 2024 investigation, based on interviews with six Israeli intelligence officers, alleged that the military used an AI-powered system called Lavender to generate a list of 37,000 potential targets with apparent links to Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group.

The report claimed that officers performed only minimal checks on the system’s selections, with one saying he spent about 20 seconds reviewing each target. The report also alleged that suspected militants were frequently attacked inside family homes despite the expected civilian casualties. The Israeli military rejected the claims at the time.

Naza is produced by The Guardian and British producer James Wilson, with Jonathan Glazer as executive producer. Wilson and Glazer previously worked together on The Zone of Interest, which won the 2024 Academy Award for Best International Feature Film.

Abraham and Szor made No Other Land with Palestinian filmmakers Basel Adra and Hamdan Ballal. The documentary chronicles the struggle against the forced displacement of Palestinian communities in Masafer Yatta in the occupied West Bank and became the first Palestinian production to win an Oscar when it received Best Documentary Feature in 2025.

Naza joins a Venice programme that already includes two works by Palestinian directors. Ahmed Hassouna’s Gaza documentary Citizen Osama will screen out of competition, while Muayad Alayan’s Jerusalem-set drama Conversation With the Sea has been selected for Venezia Spotlight.

Tunisian filmmaker Kaouther Ben Hania, whose Gaza drama The Voice of Hind Rajab won the Silver Lion last year, will serve on the main competition jury. The 83rd Venice Film Festival runs from September 2 to 12.

The rising of this star in the southern sky is a celestial event tracked by astronomers across the Middle East. Symbolically, it marks the end of the extreme heat of peak summer and heralds the approach of cooler conditions. According to Arab folklore, the night “cools down” when “Suhail rises”.

Temperatures will remain warm during the day for several weeks but the evenings will gradually become cooler, and morning fog will be more noticeable.

Between 1991 and 2020, average temperatures in September ranged from 29°C to 39°C with a mean humidity of about 54 per cent.

Temperatures tend to drop noticeably in October, with an average minimum of 25.5°C and maximum of 35.8°C between 1991 and 2020. The winter period then follows, beginning in November.

January is traditionally the coolest month of the year in the UAE, with an average minimum temperature of 15.5°C and maximum of 24.3°C between 1991 and 2020.

Cultural history

The Suhail star is the second-brightest star in the night sky and the main anchor of the Drour Calendar, a historical calendar that divides the 365-day year into 100-day periods, which are subsequently divided into sub-periods of 10 days, called a Dur.

Known to astronomers as Canopus, the star once guided pearl divers, sailors and fishermen as they navigated on land and at sea.

The calendar itself is a traditional feature of Gulf heritage and was used to predict seasonal and weather changes long before modern meteorological systems were invented.

The Suhail star sighting is therefore deeply embedded in national culture. It signifies a period of renewal and relief, particularly from the extreme summer heat. It is also referenced in folklore and poems.

Because of high humidity levels exceeding 80 per cent, the star was not entirely visible on Monday, but it is expected to be clearly seen in the upcoming week.

The 35 megawatt/70 megawatt hours plant in Rochdale, near Manchester, will provide enough clean energy to power 35,000 homes a day. It follows the launch of another project in nearby Stockport in December, Masdar said on Monday.

Masdar is also developing two more projects in British cities Chesterfield and Cardiff, which will have a combined capacity of 150MW.

All four projects form part of Masdar’s £1 billion ($1.3 billion) investment commitment to BESS projects in the UK, as the government targets up to 27 gigawatts of battery storage by the end of this decade.

Financing for the four projects was successfully completed last month, with Masdar securing up to £97 million from SMBC and ING.

“As electricity demand grows and renewable generation continues to expand, battery storage is becoming an increasingly vital component of maintaining a secure, reliable and affordable electricity network,” said Husain Al Meer, executive director of global offshore wind & UK at Masdar. “Our continuing roll-out of our £1 billion pipeline reflects Masdar's long-term commitment to the UK.”

BESS solutions are critical to integrating renewables into modern electricity networks, providing flexible energy to the grid by storing energy in periods of low demand and releasing it at peak times. The technology helps to balance and stabilise the intermittent supply from renewable sources and helps to boost clean energy supply to the grid.

Masdar is also active in offshore wind projects in the UK. This includes a €5.2 billion co-investment with Iberdrola in the 1.4GW East Anglia Three offshore wind unit, which will power the equivalent of 1.3 million homes, and the 3GW Dogger Bank South offshore wind farm being developed in partnership with Germany’s RWE.

Masdar, jointly owned by Taqa, Adnoc and Mubadala, has developed projects in a number of countries with a combined capacity of more than 65GW.

The company’s global ambition is to reach 100 100GW of renewable capacity by 2030.

Last month, the company signed an agreement with Montenegro’s national power utility, Elektroprivreda Crne Gore, to develop two solar projects and a hydro energy storage project as part of its European expansion plans.

Although renewable energy is expanding rapidly, it is not growing fast enough to meet targets set for 2030, the International Renewable Energy Agency said last year.

Capacity needs to grow by at least 16.4 per cent annually until 2030 to achieve the tripling target pledged at the Cop28 climate conference in Dubai, the Abu Dhabi-based agency said in a report.

Eala, 21, surpassed the previous record of No 19 jointly held by Indonesia’s Yayuk Basuki and Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn.

The Filipina is set to take part in the singles and mixed doubles at the US Open, the fourth and final Grand Slam of the year.

She will team up with Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in the mixed doubles on Tuesday. They face the husband-and-wife team of Gael Monfils of France and Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.

The winner will advance to face either top-seeded Aryna Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic or Leylah Fernandez and Frances Tiafoe.

Eala has enjoyed another successful season, winning two singles titles: the Birmingham Open in June and the Mubadala DC Open in August. Her win at Birmingham made her the first Filipino player in history to win a WTA title.

Her best performance at this year's Grand Slams was a run to the fourth round at Wimbledon, which included a victory over defending champion Iga Swiatek.

The Manchester City and Norway striker, 26, traded his long ponytail for a buzz cut, sharing the transformation in an Instagram carousel captioned: “Short hair don’t care.” The post currently has 12 million likes.

The reaction went beyond fans. British and Real Madrid footballer Jude Bellingham simply commented: “No way.” Haaland also FaceTimed friends during the cut, including Oasis singer Noel Gallagher, who responded: “No way mate! When’d you get that done?”

On another call, former Swedish footballer Zlatan Ibrahimovic joked that he no longer recognised Haaland. “You lost a bet, or what? Block me and erase my number.”

Haaland’s former Manchester City manager, Pep Guardiola, had perhaps the most envious response. Stroking his own bald head, he said: “No way! You are lucky to have hair, I would love to have hair.”

The attention should come as little surprise. Recently, almost everything Haaland does has sent the internet into a frenzy. Already a superstar among football fans, this summer’s World Cup in America catapulted him to another level of fame, thanks not only to his performances on the pitch but his imposing stature, long blond hair, wildly valuable bag collection and seemingly endless ability to become central to a meme. By the end of the tournament, Haaland had become a global celebrity far beyond football.

Part of his appeal is that, as someone conversant in the vernacular of the online social age, Haaland seems entirely at ease on camera and instinctively understands how to manage his online presence. He is happy to be goofy, self-deprecating and, crucially, in on the joke.

It helps, of course, that he is also one of the world’s most acclaimed footballers. Were he not performing on the pitch, it is fairly safe to say there would be less tolerance for all the off-pitch fun.

But his willingness to appear unfiltered also matters. At a time when celebrities can have every public move co-ordinated by teams of publicists, lawyers, managers, stylists and social media experts, Haaland comes across as joyful, spontaneous and remarkably unguarded. His belly laugh while being insulted by Ibrahimovic, for example, revealed an appealingly unpretentious side.

Haaland’s new haircut – like most fresh cuts – will take a bit of getting used to but it has somehow already taken on the heft of a cultural hairstyle moment.

About 1.98 million people, or 94 per cent of the population, require proper shelter urgently in the enclave, a report led by the Norwegian Refugee Council and conducted through the Palestine Shelter Cluster shows.

The staggering figure was released days after Israel and the Board of Peace had agreed to establish two working groups on Gaza, one on disarmament and demilitarisation, and the second on sanitation, clean water and other public health issues.

However, Israel has insisted that the disarmament of militant groups must be completed before reconstruction, which is forecast to cost about $71 billion, begins in the Palestinian territory.

Meanwhile, the report found that residents and families are living amid flooding, pests, and unsafe buildings, while Israeli restrictions on materials hamper repairs.

Palestinian Akram Abu Humeideh, 42, begins his day before sunrise because of the heat in the tent he lives in. The displaced former teacher now lives in Al Mawasi in Khan Younis, in the south of the Gaza Strip, with his wife and four children.

He starts by queuing for water, then for food at a community kitchen before finding somewhere to charge mobile phones and batteries.

After that, Mr Abu Humeideh cleans around the tent and eventually tries to sleep despite insects and rodents.

“Living in a tent means losing all privacy and comfort; every day becomes an exhausting struggle just to secure the basic necessities of life," he told The National.

Filling water containers

His experience is shared by hundreds of thousands of Palestinians almost three years into the Gaza war, according to the report that paints a picture of a shelter emergency that goes far beyond the destruction of homes.

About 84 per cent of households were classified as living in “critical” or “catastrophic” conditions when researchers assessed their ability to perform basic domestic activities, including sleeping, cooking, washing, storing water, accessing lighting and coping with extreme temperatures.

All four governorates included in the assessment, North Gaza, Gaza, Deir Al Balah and Khan Younis, were classified in Phase 4, or Critical, under the Shelter Severity Classification system; Rafah and other areas deemed inaccessible or unsafe were excluded from the study.

The assessment was based on 1,951 household interviews conducted between June 14 and 28 and used a five-phase scale ranging from minimal to catastrophic.

Mr Abu Humeideh's youngest daughter Leen, 6, has grown up knowing war and life in a tent. “It breaks my heart when I see her going to fill water containers or carrying a pot to the community kitchen to collect food," he said.

The conditions described by Mr Abu Hmeideh are reflected across the Shelter Cluster assessment. About 65 per cent of assessed households are living in tents or makeshift shelters. Tents alone accommodate 54 per cent of households, while another 11 per cent are in makeshift structures.

The wonderful period

For families who have managed to return to their homes, the alternative is not necessarily safer.

Basel Abu Madi, 50, knows both realities. His family lived in a tent during the early stages of the war. When they returned to northern Gaza in January 2025, they found their three-storey home on Al Jalaa street still standing. Windows, doors, and some walls were damaged, but the structure remained largely intact.

“Our happiness was indescribable,” Mr Abu Madi told The National. “We moved back in and spent a period there that felt wonderful compared with life in a tent."

They stayed for about eight months. When Israel launched its Gaza city offensive in August 2025, the family was displaced to the south and returned to tents.

Two months later, after the October ceasefire agreement came into effect, they went home again. But this time, their house was almost gone. Only the first floor and part of the second floor of the three-storey building remained.

Over the following months, the family repaired what it could and moved back into the ruins. Mr Abu Madi now lives there with his family of eight, alongside his married son and his family of three.

“Living in the remnants of your home is extremely difficult,” he said. “There is the heartbreak you feel every time you remember what your house once looked like, how you used to live there, and then see what it has become.”

The mufti went on trial in the Fourth Criminal Court in Damascus in June. He was accused of using his position to encourage members of the former regime to crack down on anti-government protesters and supporting Russia and Iran's intervention in the Syrian civil war. He was also charged with “publicly supporting officers implicated in war crimes”, including the former head of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, Qassem Suleimani.

Hassoun, who is in his 70s, appeared in court three times in July and for a fifth hearing this month, where his testimony was heard, video evidence against him was presented and verified, and witness statements were taken, Sana reported.

“One witness said he and his family had been repeatedly extorted following his sister’s detention and had paid money and provided goods in exchange for Hassoun’s intervention,” the report said.

Prosecutors had demanded the death penalty for Hassoun. The current Syrian authorities under President Ahmad Al Shara have been carrying out trials of Assad-era officials, most of whom have been sentenced to death.

Most recently, former warlord Waseem Al Assad, a second cousin of the deposed dictator, received the death penalty for murder and torture committed during the civil war. He is the fourth member of the Al Assad family to be sentenced to death since the court in Damascus began issuing verdicts this month in cases related to the 2011-2024 war.

The same court earlier sentenced Bashar Al Assad and his brother Maher to death in absentia, along with their first cousin Atif Najib, for their role in the crackdown on public protests in Deraa, the cradle of the Syrian revolt, in 2011. The former dictator and his brother are in Russia after fleeing Syria when rebels seized power in December 2024.

Last week, Lebanon handed over an Assad-era general, Adel Issa, to Syria after he was arrested in the country. He once commanded Syria’s 17th Division before being transferred in 2015 to lead ground forces in Deir Ezzor until he retired the following year. He faces charges of torture and murder.

Five teams look to maintain their perfect start to the season, with Neom joining Al Nassr, Al Hilal, Al Ahli Saudi and Al Ettifaq on six points.

Ronaldo returns

Cristiano Ronaldo is officially off the mark for the 2026–27 season after registering a goal in Al Nassr's 4–0 win at Al Riyadh.

Ronaldo's race to 1,000 goals dominated much of the pre-season talk, but fans were made to wait to see the Al Nassr captain in action after he was given an extended break following his World Cup exploits with Portugal and his recent marriage to longtime partner Georgina Rodriguez.

He watched the opening-day win over Al Fateh from the stands, and was again left out as Nassr clinched a place in the last 16 of the King's Cup, courtesy of a 4-1 victory over Diriyah.

On Friday, he was introduced as a substitute in the 62nd minute, sporting a new haircut. Nassr already held a commanding 3-0 lead when Ronaldo received an Ayman Yahya pass, rolled past his marker and swept the ball past Milan Borjan in the Riyadh goal.

The five-time Ballon d'Or winner is now only 23 goals away from reaching the 1,000-goal milestone.

Season 2026/27: Cristiano has entered the scoresheet 🐐💛 pic.twitter.com/xkre3DN7kk

— AlNassr FC (@AlNassrFC_EN) August 22, 2026

It was his first run out under new Nassr coach Ange Postecoglou. Some had questioned whether Ronaldo was a good fit for the 'Angeball' approach, but the Australian was full of praise for his 41-year-old talisman after the match.

“His mentality is he always wants to play, but he made sure he did all the right things – at training he worked hard – and it was fantastic for him to get 30 minutes today," Postecoglou said.

“And he scores a goal, which just shows you the measure of the man.”

From there, Ronaldo flew to Paris to join world leaders Emmanuel Macron, the French president, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as the Esports World Cup, of which he is a global ambassador, drew to a close.

The jet-setter is expected back in Saudi Arabia for Nassr's next match: an away assignment to Al Ettifaq on Tuesday.

Nunez on the move, Reijnders set for debut

Darwin Nunez's loan move from Al Hilal to Diriyah has been confirmed. The Uruguayan striker, 27, had been linked with a move to Turkish club Trabzonspor to reunite with his former Liverpool teammate Mohamed Salah, but Diriyah's persistence paid off, and he is now in line to make his debut in Wednesday's clash against Al Kholood.

Joining Nunez in a new-look attack is Enzo Millot, the 24-year-old German midfielder, who joins on loan from Asian champions and Pro League rivals Al Ahli Saudi.

The third addition is Adil Boulbina, who joins from Al Duhail after a season in which the winger registered 20 goal contributions in 32 Qatar Stars League games, including 13 goals. Boulbina, 23, was part of Algeria’s squad at the summer World Cup.

وجيـهٍ تبـاشيـرهـا هـلّـت علـينـا🦅🤎

• «نونيـز، إينـزو، بـولبيـنة» بـ رفـقـة دروعـنـا 💪🏻⚔️ pic.twitter.com/G2drYxaNsV

— نادي الدرعية (@diriyahclub) August 23, 2026

One new arrival who got some minutes under his belt was Tijjani Reijnders.

The Dutch midfielder sealed a £52-million move to Al Qadsiah last week. The former Manchester City player was introduced as a second-half substitute by coach Brendan Rodgers, but he was powerless to prevent a 1-0 defeat to Al Ittihad.

"I came here to try and win trophies with my teammates – we're playing for four trophies, if I'm right," Reijnders told the SPL website.

"We want to win as many as possible, and we are all very eager to do that. And, personally, I hope I can help the team as much as possible with goals and assists.”

Summerville makes an immediate impact

No club has spent more this summer than the £60m (£55m plus £5m in add-ons) that Al Hilal paid to purchase Crysencio Summerville from West Ham United.

On his debut on August 14, Summerville won the second of Hilal's three penalties in the match against promoted Al Faisaly.

Ruben Neves converted, and despite a second-half fightback, Hilal ran out 4-2 winners.

His second SPL match, against Al Fayha on Thursday, was equally impressive.

The Netherlands international had a hand in the first of Hilal's three goals and fired a fizzing shot that Fayha goalkeeper Orlando Mosquera could only parry into the path of Sergej Milinkovic-Savic, who scored.

After Sultan Mandash doubled Hilal's lead, Summerville was given penalty duties when Theo Hernandez was bundled over in the Fayha box. Summerville, 24, opted for a Panenka penalty but fluffed his lines.

It had no bearing on the outcome, with Nasser Al Dawsari adding a third to maintain Hilal's perfect start to the new campaign.

“We’ve started very strong in the league; very important away game as well,” he said. “So I'm happy with the three points today.”

“Obviously, the three points away from home, very important for us. We had some good attacks, but we need to finish them.”

On his penalty miss, Summerville added: “Oh yeah, I should have put it away, to [seal] the game as well.”

With Malcom having joined UAE club Al Jazira after his contract was terminated, coach Simone Inzaghi will look to Summerville to ignite Hilal's attack.

An electric winger who shone at this summer’s World Cup, playing in all four of the Netherlands' games, Summerville said he still had plenty more to offer.

“I know what I'm capable of,” Summerville said. “For me, it was a good game, like OK for me. But I know what I'm capable of; I know what I can do. So there's a lot to improve in my game, and I will go in the training ground and work on this.”

Fixtures

All kick-offs are UAE time.

Monday

Neom v Al Qadsiah, 8.40pm

Al Ittihad vs Al Hazem, 10pm

Tuesday

Abha vs Al Khaleej, 8.05pm

Al Taawoun v Al Fayha, 8.10pm

Al Ettifaq vs Al Nassr, 10pm

Al Shabab v Al Riyadh, 10pm

Wednesday

Al Faisaly vs Al Fateh, 8pm

Diriyah v Al Kholood, 10pm

Al Hilal vs Al Ahli Saudi has been moved to September 1.

HMRC will deploy valuation agents with the ability to demand entry to assess whether homes are worth over £2 million ($2.6 million) and so come under the high-value council tax surcharge, commonly known as the mansion tax.

The levy was introduced by former chancellor Rachel Reeves in last year’s budget and is due to take effect in April 2028, after a consultation ended in July.

Owners would be expected to pay £2,500 a year for properties worth £2 million to £2.5 million, and £3,500 for properties worth up to £3.5 million.

Properties between £3.5 million and £5 million would incur a charge of £5,000 annually, while those worth more than £5 million would face a £7,500 levy. The surcharge is separate from the council tax and would rise annually with inflation.

The Valuation Office, which is part of HMRC and is responsible for assessing council tax bands for homes in England and Wales, says inspections will be required where “attributes can only be confirmed internally or a re-measurement is required”. It is believed the unit is in line for additional resources to help it take on the new drive to raise extra revenue.

The opposition Conservative Party pointed out that the Valuation Office has hired an extra 493 staff over the past year, which they say is in preparation for a campaign to enforce the new tax.

Inspectors will carry out assessments, including the size and architectural style of homes. They will also look at the number of bedrooms, bathrooms and storeys.

Anyone who “intentionally delays or obstructs” a valuation officer carrying out their duties faces a £200 fine, ministers have confirmed. Failing to provide information without a “reasonable excuse” could result in a fine of up to £500.

“Hard-working families and pensioners face the prospect of HMRC tax inspectors snooping around their gardens and inside their homes, to justify hiking taxes on them,” said James Cleverly, the party's shadow housing secretary.

“Even homes which are below the new tax thresholds face these intrusive checks, with the threat of criminal prosecutions and fines if people refuse.”

Campaigners for the surcharge argue that house prices in expensive parts of London, such as Mayfair and Knightsbridge, have become even more inflated due to the number of second homes or investment properties. Some have highlighted properties where the owners rarely visit to make an argument for freeing up housing stock for local buyers.

Against this is a softening of the UK's prime property prices in face of the rising taxes. Advocates for overseas-based property interests point out a proportion of the absent owners are UK-tied individuals who have retained property in the UK despite setting up lives abroad. Even if the properties are rented out, owners are liable for the new tax.

A government spokesman said visits would take place by prior agreement with the property owner and in line with official guidelines.

“The public understands that we are addressing a longstanding unfairness, where a Band D home in Darlington pays more in council tax than a £10m mansion in Mayfair. The Valuation Office has extensive experience valuing domestic property, and will use a wide range of evidence to determine bandings.”

The Iranian rial was trading at about 2.02 million to the US dollar on the parallel market on Monday, according to Bonbast.com, which monitors unofficial exchange rates. That compares with 1.53 million rials to a dollar in early March, shortly after the war broke out.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has threatened Iran with an “economic D-Day”, saying Washington is entering the end game in the conflict. The US is planning “the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary”, he wrote in an article published on Monday in the Financial Times. He is due to hold a press conference at 9pm UAE time.

US President Donald Trump warned last week that countries aiding Iran would face economic implications. He did not name any specific nations.

Iran's rial has been under pressure since the war broke out on February 28, as the country struggles under the weight of existing sanctions and dropping exports.

Last week, the country's central bank chief said Iran was exporting no oil, warning that access to foreign exchange reserves has become more difficult after being blocked by the US.

“There is no doubt that we have restrictions on oil exports,” Abdolnaser Hemmati said on state television.

The Central Bank of Iran governor said he had spoken to counterparts overseas and was told revenue from oil sales had “fallen to zero”. He added: “The same thing has happened to us and it is a reality that we are not exporting oil.”

Iran is under growing economic pressure, with the war compounding inflation, currency weakness, energy shortages and sanctions, while damaging infrastructure and disrupting trade.

The country's economy is expected to contract by 5.4 per cent this year, according to the July outlook from the International Monetary Fund. Inflation is projected at about 70 per cent for 2026.

Can anyone challenge Arsenal?

If Arsenal started the season as strong favourites to retain their crown, then that feeling only grew as the weekend progressed.

The Gunners swept aside promoted Coventry City on Friday night and then sat back and watched as their rivals struggled.

Manchester City eventually beat Bournemouth 2-1 thanks to some magic from substitute Rayan Cherki, but for the most part looked like a team with plenty of issues to resolve.

150 - Fewest games to 150 wins by managers in the @premierleague:

Pep Guardiola (204)
José Mourinho (231)
Jürgen Klopp (237)
Alex Ferguson (247)
Mikel Arteta (249)

Relentless. pic.twitter.com/ipLgzmva86

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 21, 2026

The same goes for Liverpool, while Manchester United were even worse in their Saturday lunchtime defeat at Hull City.

Arsenal's stability and patient squad building paid off last season, and now looks even more valuable with so many of the Premier League's other leading clubs looking undercooked.

Are Aston Villa already in crisis?

The presence of Unai Emery and the optimal levels of performance he consistently elicits from his players meant there was not much talk of Villa struggling this term.

However, being walloped 4-0 at Brighton on the opening day really shone a light on the chaos of their off-season.

The Boss reflects on today's result against Brighton. pic.twitter.com/AeinLc3078

— Aston Villa (@AstonVilla) August 23, 2026

Villa have banked around £220 million selling Morgan Rogers, Ezri Konsa, Youri Tielemans and Lucas Digne, but are now deprived of their talents and could yet lose Ollie Watkins (to Al Hilal) and wantaway keeper Emi Martinez before the window shuts.

New faces have and will continue to arrive at the club, but it already looks a tall order to replicate the success of recent seasons.

Was Maresca sending a message?

City eventually got the job done against Bournemouth, but Enzo Maresca's first teamsheet was an eye-opener. The Italian's decision to use Marc Guehi in midfield was particularly curious, and he was certainly missed in defence as Abdukodir Khusanov and Ruben Dias endured a panicky first half.

Recognised central midfielders Mateo Kovacic, Nico Gonzalez and Matheus Nunes were all sat on the bench. The first two have been linked with moves away this summer, while Nunes is likely to come back into the side at right back. But, was Maresca sending a message that he is unhappy with his options?

🚨 BREAKING: Chelsea say deadline set at 5pm UK on Friday for Manchester City or any other suitors to send £120m net bid to sign Enzo Fernandez or 25yo staying this summer. #CFC say payment terms privately communicated to #MCFC + midfielder @TheAthleticFC https://t.co/jBB5zccpdf

— David Ornstein (@David_Ornstein) August 12, 2026

Ayyoub Bouaddi is on the way in, while it is well documented that Maresca would like the club to bring in Enzo Fernandez from his former club Chelsea. That could be one to watch in the final week of the transfer window.

Will Wirtz and Isak ever come good?

In the end, Liverpool will have been delighted to escape St James' Park with a draw on Sunday in a game that highlighted many of the issues Andoni Iraola must solve.

Full-backs Milos Kerkez and Jeremie Frimpong continue to struggle, creating an imbalance in the team. Newcastle ruthlessly exploited the space behind them, with Liverpool's midfield ragged and unable to cover. It's easy to see why former player Jamie Carragher has been imploring them to sign a specialist holding midfielder.

Again!
This midfield cannot work, I said it before a competitive ball was kicked. https://t.co/3Y5VPCI2aB

— Jamie Carragher (@Carra23) August 23, 2026

But perhaps even more concerning were the performances of Alexander Isak and Florian Wirtz. Isak continues to struggle for form and fitness since his club-record move from Newcastle, while Wirtz picked up where he left off last season – and not in a good way. For all his technical ability, the pace and intensity of the Premier League continues to unnerve the German international.

Howe waits in the wings

Nine of the 20 Premier League clubs begin the season with new managers, but that won't stop more from making changes if results dictate.

Eddie Howe will be waiting for a prime Premier League job, having left Newcastle in the summer.

Could he end up at Manchester United if Michael Carrick struggles in his second season? Saturday's opening defeat at Hull was definitely concerning.

We can announce that Eddie Howe has informed the club of his decision to step down as head coach.

The club has accepted Eddie’s decision and would like to thank him for his extraordinary contribution. 🖤🤍

— Newcastle United (@NUFC) July 31, 2026

David Moyes is in his final 12 months at Everton. What about Spurs? They were as bad as ever at Brentford, leaving Roberto De Zerbi unable to explain what was a disastrous opener for a big-spending club where failure is becoming ingrained.

It's a fair bet Howe will be back in football before the season is through.

Which new faces impressed?

The new season always means fresh imports, and the weekend was the first chance to have a look at some of them.

Christos Tzolis continued his fine start to life at Arsenal with another strong display against Coventry.

Amir Dedic and Lukas Hornicek enjoyed steady debuts for Newcastle, while Sean Steur was bright before being withdrawn.

Mamadou Sangare, a new @BrentfordFC hero ❤️ pic.twitter.com/zlqY4SuALL

— Premier League (@premierleague) August 22, 2026

Ipswich Town's new Brazilian striker Emersonn immediately got off the mark, but the debut of the weekend must go to Mamadou Sangare, Brentford's record signing, who shone as Tottenham were put to the sword at the GTech Community Stadium. The Mali midfielder, 24, joined from Lens for £40m and looks a real find.

“It would only be natural for the school expenses to increase, too,” the mother of a 10-year-old told The National.

Ms Augustine has budgeted accordingly – locking in tuition and transport costs early, then hunting for deals on everything from school bags to stationery - but her experience is one version of a story playing out in households across the UAE as the new school year approaches.

The conflict's disruption to Red Sea and Gulf shipping routes has added complexity to an already pressured back-to-school season. Retailers have worked to absorb the turbulence rather than pass it on to consumers.

Ashish Sood, chief supply chain officer at Landmark Group – which operates Centrepoint, Max Fashion and Emax – says inventory was committed months ahead of the season, with the group's Jebel Ali hub, which is capable of processing 300 million items annually, providing the operational flexibility to navigate shifting logistics.

“Customers should not have to deal with the complexity happening behind the scenes. Our focus is on making sure families can still find what they need for the new school year, at the value and quality they expect.”

Even so, some cost pressures have persisted. Ayat Adam, an Abu Dhabi mother preparing three children – aged seven, six and two – for the new year, has felt the pressure. “The prices really increased – the school uniform shirt was for Dh63 last year, this year it costs around Dh83.”

Her total back-to-school outlay so far stands at about Dh4,700, with a tablet purchase of approximately Dh1,300 still ahead and about Dh2,400 for extra-curricular activities for two children to follow. “The prices are dramatically increasing on everything while the income remains the same,” she said.

The conflict has also affected access to specialist equipment. For Niishhka Manglani, whose 15-year-old son is a student of determination, the most significant back-to-school cost this year is a standing frame at around Dh7,500. Sourcing it has been harder than in previous years.

“For us, because the therapy and equipment costs are so significant, everything else doesn't hurt us as much on the pocket. Equipment costs were already high but they are now higher because stock is limited and new [stock] isn't coming in as quickly.”

In addition to the standing frame, her family is managing therapy fees not covered by insurance, private tutoring for a pivotal year of IB assessment, and the logistics of accessible classrooms.

Uniforms add to the pressure

Uniform costs are their own closed system. Dubai mother Zubia Khan spent about Dh1,000 per child – for three children – on uniforms alone, not including shoes or accessories. Meanwhile, bus fares have increase to “Dh2,700 per term, two-way, and we live in the same neighbourhood as the school”. Bags and stationery for all three have added about Dh1,000.

Matthew Benjamin, founder of the sustainable uniform provider Kapes, believes prices are unlikely to fall. “Costs have gone up, which typically results in higher prices. However, the uniform industry is an artificial market. Suppliers buy as low as possible and sell extremely high; there is no price competition once under contract. So, although margins might be impacted, they are so high that it can be absorbed.”

For parents seeking an alternative route, he suggests “buying second-hand where possible”.

There is no advice I can really give, because parents can only buy from the exclusive supplier. Every year parents complain about prices, but the market is the market, and prices will continue to rise over time.”

Circularity and savviness

Research by Naseej, the UAE's national initiative for textile circularity, shows families are ready for the system to change. Some 43 per cent of consumers surveyed want recycled materials in school uniforms; 42 per cent want mandatory multi-set requirements abolished; and 29 per cent support school-led pass-down services, a figure that rises to 39 per cent among Emirati families.

Rodayna Ramez, a Canadian resident in Abu Dhabi and mother of three, tries to live by principles of circularity as much as possible. “With three kids, I pass uniforms down whenever they are still in good shape. It saves us a fortune on back-to-school shopping, and it gets the kids thinking twice before throwing perfectly good things away. It also teaches them to value what they have instead of always wanting brand new stuff, which we know as parents is a huge problem.”

Shraddha Barot Amariei, an entrepreneur with daughters aged three and seven, has also become more savvy. She’s held on to last year's uniforms, chosen complimentary school extra-curricular activities over paid ones and enrolled her younger daughter in a smaller nursery to help offset her older daughter's fees.

“Thankfully, some of the retail offers this year are really helping, though our income as a household is drastically affected this year, so even small expenses we are being very careful about.”

Shaheera Anwar, whose six year old starts Grade 1, repurposed unused stationery, skipped a uniform upgrade and kept her total under Dh500. “Uniforms cost at least Dh500 anyway and just saving that has been great.”

School fees are the main culprit

For most families, the weight of back-to-school spending rests less on geopolitics than the school fees themselves. Jola Chudy, a British PR consultant in Downtown Dubai, spent around Dh600 on replacement uniform items for her 12-year-old son this year.

“Honestly, as any parent in the UAE will say, it is always the school fees. We were very lucky that his father's work covered two terms per year of the school fees – at Dh25,298 per term, it's one of the more 'reasonably' priced top-tier British schools, but education is the big expense after rent or mortgage for most families and school fees take quite the dent.”

A recent survey by global financial technology platform Adyen of more than 2,800 UAE parents found 88 per cent feel financial strain when fees fall due, and half struggle to pay the full amount upfront.

Annual tuition at top-rated Dubai private schools runs from approximately Dh30,000 to over Dh110,000 per child per year. Transport, uniforms, devices and extra-curricular activities add a further Dh10,000 to Dh30,000, said Adyen’s head of the Middle East, Daumantas Grigaravicius.

“School fees represent one of the largest recurring household expenses for many families in the UAE, and for many parents, the challenge isn't just the total amount but the fact that it is often collected through only a few large lump-sum payments across the school year,” he said. “Where there’s room to improve for education providers is in how those fees are collected.

“Most schools still operate on a two or three-installment model. That structure hasn’t evolved with how families manage their finances today, and it creates pressure on both sides. Parents face cash-flow disruption at certain intervals, and schools deal with late payments and administrative complexity that a more flexible collection model could reduce.”

The Knowledge and Human Development Authority's decision to freeze private school fees in Dubai for the 2026-27 academic year is a welcome development – though everything around the fees also continues to rise.

The recall remedies range from software updates to warning labels and improved markings around door handles.

Beijing has introduced tougher safety requirements this year, as car makers, locked in a fierce price war, introduce technology in the world's largest vehicle market. China has also said it will ban concealed door handles from 2027, making it the first country to phase out a design popularised by ⁠Tesla and widely adopted by domestic Chinese electric vehicle makers.

Tesla did not immediately reply to a request for comment, while Geely and Xpeng ​declined to ⁠comment. Xiaomi said it did not have additional ‌information beyond the regulatory notice.

Leapmotor said it was committed to safety and that the upgrade involved only a warning label and the power-window control software. It said it was “managing and filing it in accordance with the recall process out of a sense of responsibility to our users”.

Most of the actions, classified as product recalls under Chinese regulations, target emergency mechanical door-release handles that regulators say may be hard to find or operate in a crash – a defect that has drawn scrutiny after several cases of passengers being trapped inside burning vehicles.

Chinese state media reported last October that the driver of a Xiaomi SU7 sedan died after a crash and fire because passers-by could not open the doors to pull him out.

Manufacturers, including Tesla and Xiaomi, will install warning labels free of charge to identify the handles, while most will also deploy over-the-air, or remote, software updates.

Tesla's recall is the largest, reflecting how many vehicles it has sold with this type of handle. It concerns 2.98 million imported and China-made Model 3, Model Y, Model S and Model X vehicles to be recalled from September 25, the company ​told the State Administration for Market Regulation, according to the regulator's statement.

The US car maker said mechanical emergency ‌door-release handles may be difficult to identify following a ⁠severe collision and electrical system failure, potentially hindering occupants' escape or rescuers' ​access.

Apart from Tesla and ‌Xiaomi, Leapmotor, Xpeng and Geely Holding, also announced their largest recalls on record, according to their filings to the regulator.

Xiaomi will recall about 390,000 vehicles, Leapmotor ⁠about 371,000 and Xpeng about 264,000.

The other companies that filed are undertaking much smaller recalls.

The cost of the ⁠actions may be limited, said Sam Fiorani, vice president of research firm AutoForecast Solutions. “Modern over-the-air updates reduce the costs and downtime associated with major recalls and even the physical work needed to be done will not be very costly compared to significant recalls of the past,” he said.

The door handles – which open via a key fob, smartphone or touch-sensitive panel – have also drawn scrutiny from US regulators. Last month, the US ​National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said it would consider new safety standards to address the risk of occupant entrapment in vehicles during electrical power failures. NHTSA said late on Friday that car makers have not notified the agency of plans to file a similar recall for the US market.

But Iran is already subject to one of the world's most extensive sanctions regimes, built up over decades and covering much of its economy.

The US has imposed punitive measures on Iran since 1979, aiming at the country's banking and financial systems, oil and petrochemical industries, shipping, aviation, military programmes, cryptocurrency networks and individuals and companies. US secondary sanctions also threaten foreign banks and companies that do business with sanctioned Iranian entities.

European and other sanctions

The sanctions extend well beyond Washington. The EU, UK, Canada and Australia maintain their own restrictions, while UN sanctions against Iran's nuclear and missile activities were reimposed in September 2025 through the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) snapback mechanism.

The UN measures include restrictions on arms transfers, sensitive nuclear materials and technology, ballistic-missile activity, asset freezes and other restrictions on designated individuals and entities.

The EU has imposed sanctions on Iran over its nuclear and missile programmes, military co-operation and the supply of drones and missiles to Russia. It has also introduced measures against Iranian officials, security forces and organisations over human rights abuses, repression of protesters, detention of European nationals and cyber attacks.

The UK's sanctions are aimed at Iranian weapons proliferation and the decision-makers involved, alongside broader measures against officials, security forces and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) over human rights abuses and the suppression of protesters.

Australia maintains sanctions on Iranian individuals and organisations, principally over human-rights breaches and the violent suppression of protesters.

Canada has put restrictions on designated Iranian individuals and their property and imposed an arms embargo and measures affecting Iran's oil and gas sector, oil-refining equipment, investment and services connected with Iranian shipping.

An economic D-Day is coming for Iran https://t.co/GwEYx9tZkY

— Financial Times (@FT) August 23, 2026

Ukraine has measures in place mainly focused on Iran's military support for Russia. In February, it designated the IRGC a terrorist organisation, citing repression inside Iran and the supply of Shahed drones to Russia.

The Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) continued blacklisting of Iran is not a conventional sanctions regime, but it creates another major obstacle to international finance by requiring banks to apply enhanced scrutiny to transactions involving the country.

And last week, the UAE declared it had halted “all trade, commercial exchange and financial transactions with Iran” due to the threat the country poses to the region.

Evasion efforts

The cumulative effect is an economy that has spent decades adapting to international isolation. Iranian banks face severe restrictions on international finance, while oil exports remain subject to extensive sanctions. Shipping companies, insurers and traders connected to Iranian exports can face penalties.

Tehran has developed ways to bypass the restrictions, using front companies, exchange houses, offshore accounts, opaque ownership structures and alternative financial channels.

Its oil trade relies on complex shipping arrangements, including ship-to-ship transfers and vessels with opaque ownership. Cryptocurrency has also become part of the system.

China remains a major importer of Iranian crude, while foreign intermediaries provide channels for Iranian businesses to reach international markets despite formal restrictions.

US measures have increasingly focused on the infrastructure used to evade sanctions rather than simply adding more Iranian entities to blacklists.

Naval blockade

In July, the US Treasury imposed sanctions on more than 100 vessels linked to Iran's shadow fleet, describing it as a covert logistics network that allows Tehran to keep oil revenue flowing. Washington has also targeted exchange houses, clandestine currency networks and cryptocurrency channels used to move money outside the conventional banking system.

Other financial tools remain available. Section 311 of the US Patriot Act allows the Treasury secretary to designate a foreign financial institution or jurisdiction as a primary money-laundering concern, potentially restricting its access to the US financial system. Such measures could target foreign institutions that continue to facilitate Iranian trade.

The wider sanctions regime also gives Washington and its allies scope to tighten enforcement. The focus is increasingly on foreign banks and companies willing to keep dealing with Iran, shadow-banking networks, cryptocurrency and exchange-house channels, oil buyers and intermediaries, and the vessels used to move Iranian exports.

The US is now also attempting to constrain the physical movement of Iranian oil. Its naval blockade of Iranian ports and pressure on the Strait of Hormuz have gone beyond traditional sanctions.

For the Trump administration, the problem is that much of the conventional sanctions toolkit has already been used. After decades of restrictions, Iran has built an economy around surviving them.

Manus Cranny, The National's geo-economics editor, cuts through the noise and presents insights from the stories making headlines around the world.

The four-team competition will be played at Etihad Arena on September 18-19 on Yas Island and will serve as the curtain-raiser to the new EuroLeague season.

Olympiacos, Fenerbahce, Real Madrid and Dubai Basketball will compete to become the inaugural champions.

The competition builds on Abu Dhabi's reputation as a hub for basketball in the region. The NBA has staged pre-season games in the UAE capital since 2022, while the relationship with EuroLeague goes from strength to strength.

Etihad Arena hosted the league's Final Four in May 2025, when Fenerbahce defeated Monaco to lift the title. It was the first time the finals had been held outside of Europe, and the event drew thousands of travelling fans to the UAE.

Saleh Mohamed Al Geziry, director general for tourism at the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi, said: “The first edition of the EuroLeague Basketball SuperCup is another milestone in Abu Dhabi's long-term partnership with EuroLeague Basketball and reflects our shared ambition to grow the game while creating world-class experiences for fans.

View this post on Instagram

“Bringing four elite clubs to Abu Dhabi to open the new season further strengthens the emirate's position as a global destination for elite sporting events, while generating lasting value for our visitor economy, local businesses and communities. As we continue to expand our international sporting calendar, events such as the SuperCup play an important role in inspiring the next generation of players and bringing global audiences to Abu Dhabi.”

The SuperCup will feature two games each day. On Friday, September 18, Olympiacos will take on Fenerbahce (6pm UAE), while Dubai Basketball will face Real Madrid (9pm). The tournament concludes the following day, with the third-place game at 6pm and the SuperCup final at 9pm.

Dejan Bodiroga, president of EuroLeague Basketball, said: “The launch of the EuroLeague Basketball SuperCup marks an exciting new chapter for European club basketball. We are delighted to partner with DCT Abu Dhabi for the inaugural edition of this competition, which will bring together some of the most successful clubs to celebrate the start of a new season. Abu Dhabi has demonstrated a strong commitment to basketball and to delivering exceptional international sporting events, making it the ideal stage for this new competition.”

Two-day packages for the event are already on sale, while single-day tickets will be available from August 31. Visit www.etihadarena.ae for details.

Spot gold was up 0.66 per cent at $4,646.52 per ounce, as of 11.20am UAE time, adding to gains of more than 5 per cent last week.

The dollar is at a multi-month low after the US announced last week that it would increase its bond buyback programme. A weaker US dollar makes gold more affordable for holders of other currencies.

"We see the current gold market being shaped by several forces at once rather than one isolated catalyst," said Naeem Aslam, chief investment officer at Zaye Capital Markets.

"[US President Donald] Trump’s warning that military intervention remains available, his comments on US control around the Strait of Hormuz, and the renewed breakdown in Canada trade negotiations all add to geopolitical and trade uncertainty," he said.

"Those developments matter because gold generally attracts stronger demand when investors face greater uncertainty around energy supply, tariffs, inflation, and the stability of global trade relationships."

White House Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said that the war in Iran is reaching the “end game", with the US set to unveil strong economic measures against Tehran on Monday.

“At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary," Mr Bessent said. “Our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains the tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone.”

He also warned that countries continuing to support Iran economically "would do well to consider the consequences of sustaining it”.

Gold has also benefited from softer monetary policy expectations over the short term, with markets betting that the Fed will maintain interest rates at its next meeting in September.

"The key gold-price question is whether safe-haven demand can continue outweighing the pressure from strong US growth and potentially higher real yields," Mr Aslam said.

"If geopolitical risk intensifies while the dollar and real yields soften, gold could remain well supported above the $4,600 area and retest recent highs. If trade tensions ease and strong services activity pushes yields higher, gold could consolidate without necessarily breaking its broader uptrend," he said.

Oil drops

Oil prices fell on Monday, after gaining over the past week, as markets awaited details about the US crackdown against Iran.

Brent, the benchmark for two-thirds of the world’s oil, had shed 1.41 per cent to reach $93.06 per barrel at 9.01am UAE time. West Texas Intermediate, the gauge that tracks US crude, was trading 1.65 per cent lower at $85.62 a barrel.

“Oil is retreating after two consecutive weeks of strong gains, with the move lower driven by a combination of profit-taking and geopolitical uncertainty around the US-Iran situation,” Noureldeen Al Hammoury, chief market strategist at Equiti Group, told The National.

“Mr Bessent is set to unveil details of a US economic isolation plan for Iran later today. Markets are in a wait-and-see mode ahead of the announcement, with uncertainty over scope and allied participation weighing on sentiment."

Meanwhile, Iran's Supreme National Security Council Secretary Mohsen Rezaei said Tehran could halt all oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz if the US proceeded with its plan, adding to oil market volatility.

Oil gained last week on supply concerns due to the war. Brent closed the week 6.6 per cent higher, while WTI rose 5.7 per cent.

The US-Iran war, which began on February 28, has roiled oil markets. Shipping across the Strait of Hormuz, a vital waterway for the transport of global crude, came to a virtual halt as Iran launched attacks on vessels crossing the channel.

Traffic fell from more than 100 vessels per day before the conflict to only single digits on some days, as shipowners exercised caution and avoided the channel as a safety measure.

Oil outlook

The trajectory of prices will depend on US measures, said Mr Al Hammoury. "A broad, allied-backed plan could tighten supply expectations and push prices higher," he said, while "a narrower or poorly received plan could extend today's pullback".

However, Iran's threat to block Arabian Gulf oil exports is a tail risk that markets are pricing cautiously. Any escalation at that end would be a sharp upside shock given the volume of crude that transits the strait, he added.

Investors will also be closely watching the Federal Reserve's annual symposium at Jackson Hole in Wyoming this week for forward guidance on interest rates that could affect oil markets and the dollar's trajectory.

Authorities reviewed market data and confirmed that no affected GreenWise products were imported or sold in the UAE, the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment said.

US grocery chain Publix announced a recall of four varieties of GreenWise organic frozen blueberries and mixed berries sold across eight states on July 29.

On August 18, the US Food and Drug Administration categorised the recall as 'Class 1', which the agency assigns to cases "in which there is a reasonable probability that the use of or exposure to a violative product will cause serious adverse health consequences or death".

The FDA reported that the 12 cases occurred in Florida and Georgia between May 11 and June 5. No deaths have been reported.

The recalled products were shipped to Publix stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia. Customers have been advised to discard these items or return them to Publix for a full refund. The affected products have expiry dates before February 9, 2028.

According to the FDA, E. coli is a group of bacteria that can cause severe stomach cramps, diarrhoea, and vomiting. In serious cases, it can lead to haemolytic uraemic syndrome, which may result in kidney failure and can be life-threatening.

We also examine high-level talks between Syria and Israel in Jordan, brokered by the US and aimed at stopping Israeli attacks and reviving negotiations on a security agreement.

Emirates airline has also resumed limited flights between Dubai and Kuwait after an extended suspension.

And Formula One says it remains committed to holding its 2026 season finale in Abu Dhabi, while Dubai has introduced an AI-powered system to track productivity across 32 government departments.

Trending Middle East is AI-assisted, using original reporting published in The National and curated and edited by humans.

Speaking to The Rest Is Politics: Leading podcast, which ​will air on Monday, Ceferin said he was not interested in succeeding Infantino despite growing uncertainty around the Fifa ⁠president's future.

"My credibility is much, much, much ​higher if ⁠I'm not interested in the position," Ceferin said.

Ceferin criticised the proposed World Cup investment project, describing it as a greater threat to the sport than the European Super League plan that Uefa successfully fought in 2021.

Ceferin said neither he nor Uefa had been informed about either the investment proposal or a separate Fifa Peace Prize, awarded in 2025 to US President Donald Trump, before they became public.

The ‌Uefa chief, who said he had had no contact with Infantino since controversy erupted over the abandoned ​plan to carve off the commercial rights to the ​World Cup and sell 20 per cent of them to private investors.

He suggested the Swiss administrator would likely face opposition if he stands again in March.

"There are two options," Ceferin said. "One option is that he realises that he doesn't have the support, and that's not only a political support of the ones who vote, but the political support of football community, the political support of fans, the political support of the players, former players, coaches.

"And the second option that he goes to the elections in March, but in that case, I think he will have a candidate against him. I don't know yet who."

Who could run against Infantino?

Fifa's November 18 deadline for candidates to stand in March's elections could see some prominent names run against Infantino and deny him a fourth (and third full) term as president.

Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa

The Asian Football Confederation (AFC) president is also Fifa’s senior vice president and has been one of the most outspoken critics of Infantino’s Fifa Forward Enterprise (FFE) plans, calling the proposals "totally unacceptable".

The AFC, along with Uefa and Concacaf, have been vocal in their opposition to Infantino's proposal to sell off stakes in future Fifa competitions.

On August 10, the three confederations released a joint statement, saying Infantino had broken trust “through deception” with the now-abandoned proposal and that he had “placed himself above the collective”. The statement called for a fully independent review of what had happened but stopped just short of openly calling for new leadership.

Sheikh Salman was defeated by the then newly appointed Infantino in the 2016 Fifa elections.

The 60-year-old Bahraini has held the AFC presidency since 2013, taking up the position after holding the same role with the Bahraini Football Association. He was elected for a fourth term in February 2023.

The Bahraini royal ran on a platform of larger tournament formats, like the expanded World Cup and revised regional cups, to give Asian teams more exposure.

Victor Montagliani

Montagliani is a vice president at Fifa and one of the frontrunners to challenge Infantino for the top job.

The Canadian is president of Concacaf, the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Association Football – a role he has held since 2016. His organisation played a key role in the hosting of the 2026 World Cup, jointly held in Canada, the US and Mexico.

Elected in 2016, Montagliani ran on the "One Concacaf" platform, pledging to restore institutional credibility and prioritise a football-first philosophy after years of corruption scandals.

Concacaf's 41 member associations rejected Fifa’s FFE proposal at a meeting earlier this month, and Montagliani, 60, is reported to be considering whether to join forces with Uefa and Concacaf to trigger a no-confidence vote in Infantino.

If 20 per cent of Fifa's 211 member nations (43 countries) make a request in writing, the Fifa Council must convene an Extraordinary Congress, according to Fifa's statutes.

Last week, he wrote a letter to Infantino asking him to stay away from a youth tournament in the Dominican Republic, saying his presence would overshadow the event due to mounting opposition to his leadership.

"As you may be aware, your proposed ​attendance has garnered significant media attention," Montagliani wrote.

"...the ‌media ⁠will focus on this situation, which will unfortunately significantly take away from the technical nature of the CFU youth competition."

Patrice Motsepe

The South African billionaire businessman is seen as an outsider to challenge Infantino.

The organisation he heads, the Confederation of African Football (CAF), has backed Infantino since the Swiss came under fire following Fifa's aborted FFE plans.

Motsepe, 64, said earlier this month that the CAF welcomed Fifa's admission that mistakes had been made and backed its commitment to review the process.

He added that Infantino's future should be decided through the ballot box at next year's elections, as others have called for him to step down.

"I personally support Gianni Infantino," said the CAF president. "He's not just a good friend; he's a loyal friend. He's loyal to Africa. I come from a background where when people have been loyal to you, you never stab them in the back."

Following a meeting with Uefa president Cerefin in Salzburg on August 13 to discuss Infantino's future, Motsepe told Sky News: "If you want to take him out, go for elections; let the 211 member associations decide. Do that and the vote will express whether they've got confidence in him or not."

Motsepe was elected CAF president in 2021 and won a second four-year term in 2025. His plans to expand the Africa Cup of Nations from 24 to 28 teams from the 2027 edition has been met with widespread approval while he has been credited with the commercial success of the 2025 tournament, securing broadcast distribution in over 85 international markets.

Brig Juma bin Suwaidan, director of the General Traffic Department at Dubai Police, said fines on some vehicles amounted to tens of thousands of dirhams, while several owners had not renewed their vehicle registrations for years.

“Driving an unregistered vehicle poses a serious risk to the safety of both the driver and other road users, especially if the vehicle has not undergone technical inspection to confirm its roadworthiness,” he said.

Brig bin Suwaidan added that traffic fines were not merely a means of collecting penalties but a tool to deter dangerous behaviour, discourage repeat offenders, and reinforce compliance with traffic laws.

He said the force will continue with its campaigns to seize vehicles because of traffic violations and expired registrations. He warned that, along with impoundment, drivers could face legal action and be prevented from making any vehicle-related transactions.

Before any action is taken, vehicle owners are contacted and urged to settle fines and renew their vehicle registrations, Brig bin Suwaidan said.

Campaigns are not only about impoundment but they are also designed to focus on raising traffic awareness and reinforcing driver responsibility, he added.

Ways to pay

He called on vehicle owners in Dubai to update their contact details with the Roads and Transport Authority and regularly review their traffic records, rather than waiting until fines accumulate and become difficult to settle.

Drivers have several ways of checking and paying fines, including the Dubai Police smart app, the website, self-service kiosks, and Smart Police Stations. There are also flexible instalment plans available, including through the Tabby service.

“These options help vehicle owners manage their financial obligations, settle accumulated fines, and avoid the legal and financial consequences of delayed payment,” he said.

The high-profile guests attended the closing ceremony of the Riyadh-founded tournament, which concluded after seven weeks of competition in the French capital.

Ronaldo, captain of Saudi Pro League club Al Nassr, is also the global ambassador for the Esports World Cup.

Prince Mohammed, who has been a driving force behind Saudi Arabia's ambitions to become a global gaming and esports hub, was also due to hold talks with Macron. The leaders were expected to sign deals and discuss alternative routes to the Strait of Hormuz and also oversee the signing of agreements in technology, transport, energy and health. They were also to convene the first meeting of the Franco-Saudi Strategic Partnership Council.

What is Esports World Cup?

Launched in Riyadh in 2024, the annual Esports World Cup is widely regarded as the largest esports event in the world by prize money and number of titles represented. The event evolved from the Gamers8 festival launched in 2022 and was formally established in 2023 by Prince Mohammed as part of the kingdom’s wider ambitions to become a global gaming and esports hub.

The 2026 edition of the Esports World Cup was moved to Paris amid regional instability. More than 2,000 players from 200 clubs and more than 100 countries competed across 24 games and 25 tournaments, with an overall prize pool exceeding $75 million, ranking it among the largest in esports history.

“Fans should view this as both a response to the current situation and a glimpse into the future,” Mike McCabe, deputy chief executive and chief operating officer of the Esports Foundation, told The National.

“From the beginning, our ambition has been to build the Esports World Cup into a global platform. Riyadh played a critical role in establishing the event and helping it grow into one of the largest esports competitions in the world, but we have always believed the model could travel,” McCabe said. He added that the Saudi capital remains “a central pillar”.

Who won the Esports World Cup 2026?

AG.AL claimed the 2026 Club Championship after French player Gwendal “Gwen” Duparc won the final Trackmania competition on Sunday.

The result took AG.AL to 5,300 points and ended Saudi Arabia's Team Falcons' hopes of winning the overall title for a third consecutive year. AG.AL received $7 million for winning the Club Championship, while Team Falcons finished second and collected $5 million.

The championship had remained undecided until the final day. Team Falcons entered the Trackmania play-offs leading with 4,600 points, but seven-time Trackmania world champion Carl-Antoni “Carl Jr” Cloutier was eliminated in the quarter-finals.

That opened the door for Duparc, who needed to finish third or higher to secure the overall championship for AG.AL. Instead, he won the event outright in front of his home crowd, collecting a further $130,000 individual prize.

The visit by the two leaders highlights the importance given by states to securing a foothold in the growing video games industry that is closely linked to AI. Their appearance began an official two-day visit by Prince Mohammed to the French capital.

“Faced with the region's challenges, France and Saudi Arabia have consistently promoted peace and stability together and will continue to co-ordinate their efforts to that end,” Mr Macron said on X.

At a ceremony at the Grand Palais, the French President handed the winner's trophy to Chinese team AG.AL, which won $7 million in prize money and dethroned the two-time Saudi winner Team Falcons. The trophy was brought on stage by footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, who plays for Saudi team Al Nassr.

Mr Macron described the French-Saudi partnership as “built through action: major projects, cutting-edge technologies, investments, and international events like the EWC in Paris”.

More than 2,000 players competed across 24 online games in the seven-week tournament that was organised by a Saudi non-profit organisation, the Esports Foundation.

France is “proud” to have hosted the event, Mr Macron said on X. “This success is the result of the ambition we share with Saudi Arabia to grow esports, bring our talents and our countries closer together,” he said.

While Europe has historically invested less in esports than the Gulf region or Asian countries such as South Korea, where its stars have celebrity status, the Esports World Cup's transfer outside Riyadh for its third event has cemented the industry's status as an international diplomatic tool.

The move to France, caused by worries over the impact of the US-Iran war, was a “natural fit”, two years after France hosted the Olympic Games, Andy Miah, chairman of science communication and future media at the University of Salford in the UK, told The National.

Creative innovation

“There's an element of wanting to stay ahead of the curve on a whole range of economic factors related to the creative industries,” Mr Miah said. “And esports themselves are a cauldron for creative innovation.”

Speaking before the Prince Mohammed's visit, an adviser to Mr Macron said that Riyadh was “very pleased” with its organisation in Paris, and that it was a “win-win for both our countries”.

They added that Saudi organisers had been thinking of moving the world cup abroad even before the start of the regional war, to give it a more “international” status.

Earlier this month, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund was among a consortium of investors that bought US video game company Electronic Arts for $55 million, in its biggest push yet into the global gaming industry as it accelerates efforts to diversify its economy beyond oil. EA is best known for franchises including Battlefield, The Sims and EA Sports FC.

This type of investment gives access to esports titles and future audiences.

“Esports is part of that new innovation economy that is very much focusing the minds of all sort of governments to try to make sure they can be part of that AI superpower that we're seeing underpin the future of all computing,” Mr Miah said.

US tech company Nvidia is among those developing AI chips and those used for gaming computers. “You can look at participation in the Esports World Cup as a route into becoming much closer to that AI superpower status,” Mr Miah said.

Flight EK857 departs Dubai International Airport at 2.55pm and arrives at Kuwait International Airport at 3.45pm local time.

It marks a limited resumption for one of Emirates’ key Gulf routes. Before the disruption, the airline operated four daily services to Kuwait – EK853, EK855, EK857 and EK859.

Emirates suspended its Kuwait services amid regional security concerns and disruption to air travel in the Gulf. As recently as August 14, no Emirates-operated flights between Dubai and Kuwait were listed on the airline's website.

The Dubai-based airline had also suspended services to Bahrain, but began a limited return to that route on August 15 with one daily flight, down from three before the disruption.

Emirates' return to Kuwait means both of the UAE's major long-haul airlines are now operating limited services to the country.

Etihad also reduced its Kuwait operations during the recent unrest, with only one daily service operating by mid-August. EY653 departs Zayed International Airport at 8.10am local time, arriving at 9am local time in Kuwait.

Flights between the UAE and Kuwait have faced repeated disruption in recent weeks. Emirates, Etihad, Air Arabia and flydubai have all adjusted or cancelled services at various points, while Kuwait Airways and Jazeera Airways have continued to operate several daily flights between Kuwait and the UAE.

Airlines have continued to review their Gulf schedules as the security situation evolves, with passengers advised to check the status of their flights before travelling.

Although the massive expansion of Warner Bros World is still under construction, there is already promise that it will cast a powerful spell, as filings from Warner Bros suggest it will be unsurpassed by any land in any other theme park worldwide.

Site preparation work began in summer last year, nearly three years after it was first announced. There is good reason why the theme park is taking its time to get it right.

Warner Bros produced all eight films about the boy wizard along with the three Fantastic Beasts spin-offs, but its theme parks have never been home to lands based on them. That's because Warner Bros licensed the theme park rights to Universal in 2007, and it has made the most of them. All but one of Universal's seven parks is home to a so-called Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and they have become famous for their fastidious attention to detail.

The first of them opened in 2010 at Universal's Islands of Adventure park in Orlando and broke new ground with its movie-accurate recreation of the magical village of Hogsmeade.

Looking like a scene from a Christmas card, its main street is lined with shops and restaurants housed in cottages with sharply sloping roofs, carved wooden doors, and ornate iron signs swinging above them. Artificial snow is piled up in their gutters, smoke seems to billow from the chimneys on the roofs and the windows of the cottages are filled with moving models of colourful creatures from the films.

No stone has been left unturned. Food from the films is on offer while the shops sell bespoke merchandise which recreates the outlandish objects seen on the silver screen. There are maps, masks, hourglasses, furry books with eyes and, of course, wands – rows and rows of them.

The village stands in the shadow of Harry's alma mater, the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. The giant grey turrets of the Gothic castle soar into the sky and seem even taller than they actually are thanks to an old moviemaking trick called forced perspective, where the proportions of objects are reduced the higher up they are.

Hidden inside Hogwarts is a ride created to make fans feel as though they are actually in the films. Its seats are attached to a giant robot arm that glides along a rollercoaster track, giving the impression that they are riding on a broomstick next to Harry and co. It is joined by a rollercoaster with seats set into motorcycles and sidecars that at one point come to a standstill in the dark on a section of track, which then drops down on a giant lift.

The neighbouring Universal Studios Florida is the only park with a recreation of Diagon Alley, which has models of colossal characters embedded in its wonky buildings.

At the end of the street stands the imposing Gringotts bank, with its massive marble columns and gleaming chandeliers hanging from a domed ceiling. It is actually the queue area for an innovative rollercoaster that turns to face towering 3D screens, giving riders the impression they are being chased through the vaults of the bank.

The latest Potter attraction is Harry Potter and the Battle at the Ministry in Orlando's new Epic Universe theme park; the omnidirectional lift ride rises and falls as it roves around. The attractions and lands have won countless awards and are widely considered some of the best in the industry.

This might be because Universal's license agreement with Warner Bros states that the Harry Potter lands must be “at a first-class, world-class level for destination theme parks unsurpassed in quality by any other destination theme park worldwide”.

It also outlines the main conditions at the heart of Warner Bros's magic formula for ensuring their high standards. The only products that can be sold are ones from the Harry Potter stories; this means instead of Coca-Cola or Pepsi, the restaurants sell Harry's favourite tipple of Butterbeer, a non-alcoholic beverage flavoured like cream soda and butterscotch.

There are exceptions for “guest-convenience products”, such as sun cream, batteries and hand sanitiser, but even they can't have “advertising or promotional signage or other identification bearing the names or logos of the manufacturers ... within the themed area”. This restriction applies to any product that doesn't appear in the Potter franchise.

Universal isn't even allowed to use the logos or names of non-Harry Potter brands in advertising for the lands unless Warner Bros approves it, which is a general caveat for all these conditions. Warner Bros also has to approve any “artwork, design, logo, slogan, video element, audio element” as well as “any major concepts and plans for the themed area, rides, attractions and architectural designs”.

The Abu Dhabi agreement has not been made public, so it is not possible to know whether it contains the same conditions, but it is likely to be similar, as they are designed to protect Warner Bros.

However, Warner Bros World has a trick up its sleeve that Universal cannot match. Like the other parks on Yas Island, it is indoors, which shields guests from Abu Dhabi's seasonal heat but also enables the scenery to be more intricate than if it were outside, as there is no danger of it becoming damaged by wind, overgrown with foliage or faded in the sun.

The contents of the land haven't been announced, but it is rumoured to be the first one to feature both Hogwarts and Diagon Alley. What's for sure is that no expense is being spared, even on the merchandise.

This came to light in a Miral job advertisement last year for a retail product and graphic designer, whose duties include “the design of multi-category retail products to be developed and sold within the Harry Potter World expansion at Warner Brothers World Abu Dhabi.” It added that the objective was “delivering best-in-class merchandise”.

Potter products recently appeared in a repurposed shop in Warner Bros World, but it remains to be seen how long it will take for Miral to work its magic with the land itself.

In May, Entertainment + Culture Advisors, a consultancy working on the project, said in an advert that the land is expected to open in 2029, but Miral hasn't officially announced the timeframe. It has a lot to look forward to.

Talking to analysts in 2020, Brian Roberts, chief executive of Universal's owner Comcast, said that during the previous year “in some of our parks Harry Potter drove incremental attendance of about two million people.” That really is a magic touch.

Goals from Anthony Elanga and Joe Willock seemed to have given Matthias Jaissle a winning start to life as Newcastle manager, with Cody Gakpo having briefly levelled for the visitors in the second half.

Liverpool were given a late reprieve when substitute Victor Munoz was upended in the box by Lewis Hall to earn his side a penalty.

Dominik Szoboszlai stepped up to hammer the penalty into the roof of the net in the ninth minute of added time, ensuring Liverpool avoided their first opening-day defeat since 2012.

"It's probably not the result you want when you come in before the game but we definitely deserve this point and even more," Iraola told BBC Radio 5 Live.

"The team has never given up and we've recovered one point and probably the taste is better because we score in the last minute."

In a fixture famous for its dramatic twists, it was perhaps fitting that the match ended the way it did.

Fans of both sides had come together before kick-off to pay tribute to Kevin Keegan, who died last month at the age of 75.

A large tifo showing images of Keegan, along with the words "King Kev", was visible in one stand, while in the centre circle there was a moving mosaic of shirts left outside the stadium following the news of his death.

Simply stunning.@worflags 🖤🤍 pic.twitter.com/GIqo14wqdp

— Newcastle United (@NUFC) August 23, 2026

Keegan played for both clubs and managed Newcastle during the 1990s, bringing a brand of entertaining football that fans still yearn for today.

When the action got under way, it was Newcastle who struck first following a lightning counterattack that ended with Elanga coolly slotting past Alisson Becker in Liverpool's goal in the fifth minute.

Gakpo equalised with a long-range effort in the 55th minute, but Willock, who had only just come on to replace William Osula, restored Newcastle's lead with a fine finish from the edge of the box fewer than three minutes later.

It looked to be enough to give new Newcastle boss Matthias Jaissle a first win until Hall, who had an impressive game up to that point, stuck out a tired leg that sent Munoz tumbling in the area in injury time.

Szoboszlai steadied himself against the cacophony of the St James' Park faithful to fire beyond Lukas Hornicek in the Magpies' goal.

Securing a share of the points in the 99th minute 🎯 pic.twitter.com/0Sd8xpXU73

— Liverpool FC (@LFC) August 23, 2026

"I've liked a lot of the things I've seen from the team," Iraloa said. "There's definitely things to improve, like the goals, but I've seen a lot of things I've liked from the team. I've liked the energy, especially the players coming from the bench. I think we finished the game quite strong physically."

Szoboszlai praised the players who came off the bench, with Munoz, the Spain winger who had looked set to join Newcastle before an 11th-hour switch to Anfield, making a real impact.

"We will never give up. I can guarantee you that," . "We have to fight every time - all day long during the 90 minutes. Everybody who came off the bench also made an impact as well. We need the whole squad and we need to be ready."

It denied Jaissle a famous win on his Premier League debut. The German replaced Eddie Howe over the summer after guiding Al Ahli Saudi to back-to-back triumphs in the Asian Champions League.

Jaissle did not hold back when discussing the incident involving Hall and Munoz, insisting that the contact was insufficient to award a penalty.

Jaissle said: "For me, it was no penalty – it was a really soft one. If you give that, we will see many, many penalties. I don't think that Lewis can do anything else; he cannot just disappear on the field! It’s a really soft penalty. If you give these penalties, then you have to give a lot in this season and I’m not sure if that’s good for football."

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to unveil new measures on Monday to isolate Iran economically after months of inconclusive warfare. Officials in Tehran expect the sanctions to be aimed at Iran’s economic relations with third countries.

Mr Trump warned last week that any country that allows financial institutions, businesses or government entities to provide any type of support to Iran will itself face “tremendous economic consequences”.

“Oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies – it all needs to stop now,” he wrote on Truth Social. “You know who you are.”

He also said the US would carry out the “most ​crushing ‌economic operation” ⁠ever ​taken ​against a ‌country, targeting ⁠Iran with economic ⁠warfare and isolation.

His remarks came as a peace deal between the US and Iran, including the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz, remains elusive.

“With direct negotiations in limbo, the Trump administration seems to be moving from conventional to “secondary” sanctions, ie, threatening the imposition of sanctions or tariffs against third-party nations,” said Aathira Prasad, director of macroeconomics at Nasser Saidi and Associates. But she stressed that there are no details available on what the exact measures would be.

“The aim seems to be forcing global players such as China, India and Middle East nations to choose between trade links with Iran and access to the US market, hence increasing pressure on Iran’s export revenues, including non-oil.”

Iran’s main trading partners between January and October last year were China, with trade of $14.5 billion, Iraq ($10.5 billion), the UAE ($7.5 billion) and Turkey ($7.3 billion), according to Trade Data Monitor.

For the whole of last year, China reported $9.96 billion in total bilateral trade with Iran, although that amount does not include roughly $31.2 billion in unreported Iranian crude oil exports to China, according to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Iran’s trade data for this year, following the start of the war on February 28, is not publicly available.

On Thursday, the country’s central bank chief said Iran is currently exporting no oil. Abdolnaser Hemmati said Tehran faced severe restrictions on oil exports as Washington steps up economic pressure while efforts to resolve the war remain deadlocked.

“There is no doubt that we have restrictions on oil exports,” Mr Hemmati said on state television. He said he had spoken to counterparts overseas and was told revenue from oil sales had “fallen to zero”. He added: “The same thing has happened to us and it is a reality that we are not exporting oil.”

Meanwhile, the UAE on Tuesday said it was halting “all trade, commercial exchange and financial transactions with Iran” due to the threat Tehran poses to the region. The decision follows a spate of attacks on UAE-owned tankers and Tehran's rejection of talks with the US. Shortly before the statement, Iran fired two missiles at the UAE. One landed in Emirati territorial waters, while the second landed outside its territory.

“The United Arab Emirates remains firmly committed to safeguarding the integrity of the international financial system, in line with international law and the highest global standards,” said Afra Al Hameli, director of strategic communications at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The announcement represents a shift in the economic relationship between the two neighbours, which have maintained commercial ties despite long-standing political tensions in the region.

While the UAE announced the suspension of all trade activities with Iran before Mr Trump’s post, for other Gulf nations, “it is more likely that discussions will lead to a mix of diplomatic exemptions and stricter enforcement on specific goods”, said Ms Prasad.

“Banks and businesses will need to strictly enforce anti-money laundering (AML/CFT) frameworks to satisfy international compliance and avoid secondary US sanctions.”

Credible threat?

The latest threat is not the first from the Trump administration, which has been seeking to use economic measures to isolate and pressure Iran. In early February, before the war began, Mr Trump had signed an executive order imposing sanctions on Iran’s key trading partners, without specifying a rate. Mr Trump had first announced the tariff threat in January at a rate of 25 per cent. However, there is no clarity on whether it was implemented at all.

“The [Trump] administration has never shied away from deploying sanctions/tariffs unilaterally,” said Ms Prasad. “But, as seen before, any such move will face significant implementation hurdles, legal challenges and risks to US inflation. What we have seen is that these threats often serve as temporary leverage/bargaining positions than permanent barriers.”

She cited country-specific exemptions and grace periods with major trade partners, including China and other major allies after the Liberation Day tariffs.

China has responded to the latest US threat, saying sanctions and pressure would not work and called for a diplomatic resolution, Bloomberg reported.

Iran also hit back at the US. “Doubling down on failed policies will only bring further defeat – and enmity of Iranians,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X. “US economic terrorism threatens global economy and sovereignty worldwide.”

Salah joined the Turkish Super Lig club this summer on a two-year contract after leaving English giants Liverpool following nine trophy-laden years.

The Egyptian forward, 34, failed to find the net in his first two games - a 1-1 draw against Kasimpasa and a 1-0 defeat to Ferencvaros - but had a standout game against ⁠Basaksehir, bagging a brace and seeing two more goals ruled out.

Making his first league start after appearing as a substitute in Trabzonspor's season opener, Salah put his side ahead in the eighth minute, capitalising after Basaksehir goalkeeper Muhammed Sengezer failed to hold onto the ball.

Basaksehir's Eldor Shomurodov equalised from the penalty spot in the 19th minute, but Salah restored Trabzonspor's lead three minutes into the second half, bursting down the right, exchanging passes with Ernest Muci and slotting the ​ball into the far ‌corner.

Salah ⁠had a stoppage-time effort ​chalked off for a foul in ​the build-up, and another ruled out for offside ⁠when he found the empty net from long ⁠range with the goalkeeper upfield for a corner.

🎥 Mohamed Salah vs Istanbul Başakşehir FK

A wonderful performance by the Egyptian King as he scores his first goals in a Trabzonspor shirt 🇪🇬👑 pic.twitter.com/mf2lAOO7Dv

— Salah Updates (@SalahUpdates) August 23, 2026

Victory leaves Trabzonspor fourth in the Super Lig table on four points, level on points with Samsunspor and Galatasaray above them, and two points behind Genclerbirligi.

He will now turn his attention to Thursday's Europa League play-off second leg away ​to Ferencvaros. Trabzon must overturn a 1-0 deficit in Budapest to qualify for the Europa League group phase.

Defeat will see Fatih Tekke's side drop down to the Europa Conference League.

The photograph by Sathish Kumar is one in a series the artist is showcasing at Vantage Point 13 in the Photography Gallery in Sharjah. The exhibition, held annually since 2013, has moved to a new location. It will also take place once every two years moving forward.

These changes coincide with Vantage Point’s revised format. In previous runs, the exhibition presented works by dozens of artists at a time, from photojournalism and photo essays to experimental pieces. This year, it has commissioned six artists to each develop a singular, sprawling body of work within the realm of documentary photography.

These series often come from a very personal place.

Kumar’s Bond series, for instance, centres on his brother, who has been working in the Gulf for more than a decade. The photographs document his life with his family in the industrial city complex of Al Ruwais, Abu Dhabi. They show the family during a day out in a park, in a desert and in their apartment. The photographs are intimate, taken by a point-and-shoot camera. They could very well fill the pages of a family album.

But those images tell only one half of the story.

They are juxtaposed with photographs taken in Bengaluru, Kumar’s hometown in southern India. Many are from the construction site of the family’s house, showing rebar wires, foundational excavations and workers carrying building materials. They are taken with the same intimacy as the family photos, also with a point-and-shoot camera. Several of the photographs taken from the construction site are exhibition on cement block platforms, giving the presentation an industrial touch.

“With point-and-shoot photographs, people usually print them small,” says Sara Al Mheiri, who co-curated the exhibition with Osemudiamen Ekore. “We wanted to print them bigger and give them space. All the images are also printed on metal sheets.”

Like with many South Asian workers, Kumar sought employment in the Gulf spurred by the dream of building a house for his parents in their hometown. Sadly, Kumar’s parents died before that dream came to fruition, and they never saw their son’s sacrifice and determination materialise. One of the photographs in Bond evokes this poignancy, showing fruits, flowers and grains laid out over fabrics as part of the memorial ritual for his mother.

“A lot of Sathish’s work is not necessarily linear in the traditional sense of documentary,” Al Mheiri says. “It’s like you’re in a dream haze of capturing his life. That’s what we loved about his work. It was important for us in this exhibition to pick the right stories, but also be mindful of who is telling them and why.”

In Sirti Mara – translated from Arabic to You’re a Woman Now – Saudi artist Latifa Al Bokhari presents a series that explores seminal moments in a woman’s life in the region. One image shows a woman getting ready for a wedding, her hair tied in a spiralling, sequin-speckled bun. Another shows the gloved hand of a woman as she picks jewellery for her granddaughter. A woman flexes her biceps, facing away from the camera, her arms decorated with the floral designs of henna. Another close-up shows a pair of hands dyed red with the powdered leaves.

“We discussed in detail what it means to become a woman, and the memories we had,” Al Mheiri says. “Latifa gathered different women from her community, who all came together to be part of these photographs. You had artists, grandmothers … and you only see small glimpses that, if you are a Khaleeji woman, you will immediately resonate with.”

The photographs are printed on velvet and bordered by a minimal, walnut-coloured frame. One of the images, showing a woman oiling her hair, is presented as the reflection of a vanity table mirror.

“In Arab houses, we like to use velvet in sofas, curtains and so on,” Al Mheiri says. “We were talking about how velvet is usually considered to be a feminine material, so we thought it would be interesting to print on velvet and have these intense moments. Latifa also kept bringing up this memory of going to her mother’s vanity and looking in, so we also wanted to put an image in a vanity itself. Like a portal looking into a woman’s life.”

An experimental approach to documentary photography extends throughout the exhibition. Some artists indirectly capture the essence of their subjects. Beijing-born artist Guanyu Xu, for instance, photographs domestic interiors, overlaying found and personal images on the walls, doors and furniture. The result is a kaleidoscopic representation of a person’s life.

Xu’s photographs are presented in life-size scale, instilling the feeling that one can walk into these rooms or any of the images within. The diversity of textures within each image is also wonderful, contrasting grainy and wrinkled found images with the high resolution of the overall photograph.

In Escaramuza, meanwhile, Brazilian photographer Luisa Dorr focuses on an equestrian team and school in Mexico that trains female horse riders. The photographs show the artistry and physical demands of charreria, the country’s national equestrian sport, as well as the bond that the riders have with their horses.

The portraits of the women, in particular, are moving. The riders pose in serene and powerful stances, dressed in the vibrant garments inspired by Adelitas – the women who fought in the Mexican Revolution of the early 20th century.

The last two bodies of work, presented in the dark alcove of the gallery, amplify this revolutionary spirit.

In Endinastawis Anirsa (Lest We Forget), Ethiopian photographer Maheder Haileselassie presents collages of Arbegnoch fighters, who stood against the Italian occupation of Ethiopia between 1936 and 1941.

Haileselassie sourced the photographs from the archival Hamle 16 certificates, a government initiative that distributed land to the resistance fighters. The passport-like photographs are tiled within a light-box, coaxing out the facial features of its subjects from the worn images.

“These are the people who fought back, and they had to have these passport images and these documents to prove that they were part of the war, to get some land back,” Al Mheiri says. “Maheder works with archives in a really beautiful way, in a delicate way.

“This is not an easy topic, and we wanted to pay homage to the people who were part of this [struggle]. All that's left is these documents.”

Individual resistance informs the final series in the exhibition. In Permission to Narrate, Adam Rouhana travelled with a mobile studio across several cities in the occupied West Bank. His subjects included workers, artists, families, children, religious figures and community leaders.

The Palestinian artist asked those who took part in the project to consider how they wanted to be represented. In that sense it was a collaborative process – the photographer’s way of challenging external lenses that often minimised Palestinian identity to a few reductive tropes.

Each image is captioned with the subject’s name, age, city and occupation. Anwar Al-Zugher, 81, is a lorry driver from Hebron. He is photographed in a suit and keffiyeh. Yaqoub Al Atrash, 48, is a contractor also from Hebron. He is photographed with his horse, wearing a cowboy hat. There is nine-year-old Shahnas Abu Zard and 12-year-old Yousef Daqam. Both are from Jenin. One beams in her white dress, the other, wearing a basketball jersey, shows off his biceps.

“I’ve admired Adam’s work for a long time,” Al Mheiri says. “He shows Palestinian people in ways that are not necessarily what you see in the media. I'm really excited to see where this project goes next.”

Vantage Point 13 runs at the Photography Gallery in Al Manakh, Sharjah, until November 29

The combat of words, data and barrels continues. Ships sail through quickly in convoy, under cover of darkness, with transponders turned off.

Tactics for passage and defences for ships will continue to improve. The shuttling and escort operations may have achieved some success.

Major regional companies appear to have established shuttle services recently. Iraq does not have its own fleet, but President Nizar Amidi said on Saturday that Iran would allow “some tankers carrying Iraqi oil [to cross] the Strait of Hormuz”.

US Energy Secretary Chris Wright said the same day that more than 8 million barrels per day of oil were leaving the Strait of Hormuz, in addition to volumes flowing through the bypass pipelines in the UAE and Saudi Arabia. He had stated last week that 9 million bpd were sent out, while Axios reported on Wednesday that the US Navy was helping 10 million bpd to escape.

Mr Wright may indeed, as he suggests, have access to better data than commercial services. But analysts using satellites as well as ship-tracking are sceptical of his numbers. They suggest 4-6 million bpd is more probable, even if individual days might achieve higher amounts.

The story is not only about oil. Liquefied petroleum gas vessels appear to be joining the shuttle trade. Refined products such as fuel oil and naphtha, a light petrochemical feedstock, are beginning to appear. But many other important commodities, such as liquefied natural gas, fertilisers, sulphur, methanol and aluminium, need to flow freely.

Furthermore, there is clearly a concern over how sustainable the US military role is. The army has expended a large part of its precision munitions and missile interceptors. If high-intensity fighting with Iran erupts again, it may struggle to be so effective.

Its aircraft carriers appear overstretched and in need of lengthy recuperation. It has sent the last remaining carrier from East Asia, the George Washington, to the Middle East, leaving it unprepared for any Chinese challenge.

Yet the latest US financial measures are clearly directed against Beijing. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has promised to reveal the “toughest Iran sanctions in history” on Monday. On Thursday, US President Donald Trump threatened “tremendous economic consequences” for any country providing economic support to Iran. It could be asked, of course, why these were not tried earlier in the war, or indeed as an alternative to military action.

China is Tehran’s main trading partner, and the only country still buying significant amounts of its oil. Mr Bessent said that, “the Chinese get 50 per cent [of their] energy from ​inside the Gulf. So it would do them a big service to get with the programme". That might imply sanctioning the Chinese refiners who buy Iranian oil, or the banks who deal with them. Beijing could not kowtow to such economic diktats.

The UAE announced last Tuesday that it was suspending all trade and financial relations with Iran, after it detected two missile launches towards its territory.

The Iranian economy is in poor shape and getting worse. Unemployment is more than 9 per cent; inflation is above 80 per cent; shipborne oil exports are near zero.

But the suffering of ordinary people has not been a decisive factor for the leadership. This has a certain logic: making concessions now will only invite further US coercion, and probably a return to military strikes later on. The idea of impoverishing civilians in the hope that they would rise up successfully against an authoritarian regime did not work in Iran before, nor in Iraq under Saddam Hussein, nor Venezuela, nor Cuba.

If Iran has indeed “lost control” of the Strait of Hormuz, as US officials suggest, it is vulnerable, with its own oil exports continuing to be blockaded. It will have to try something different: a more intense campaign or a change of tactics against ships in the Gulf, or a return to direct strikes against energy sites, pipelines and loading ports.

Pressure works both ways. The US and global economy are not suffering anything close to Iran, but there is also much less appetite to endure hardship. Oil refining labours under great strain because of the simultaneity of the Hormuz disruption and the Ukrainian campaign against Russian refineries.

Crude oil prices remain quite moderate, although they are creeping up. They gained about 6 per cent last week, reaching more than $94 per barrel for Brent, the main global benchmark. But margins for refining that crude oil into diesel, the key industrial and commercial fuel, have reached extraordinary heights, a record $102.2 per barrel. Pre-war, typical margins were about $19.

Undamaged global refineries are running flat-out, with US utilisation rates of 97 per cent. That cannot be sustained forever: essential maintenance, accidents, or hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico will strike eventually.

China has also responded to the loss of Middle Eastern crude by cutting back refinery runs and oil product exports. What Beijing decides next will be crucial to the direction of oil prices.

Sanctions are not Mr Bessent’s only worry. A renewed and unnecessary trade spat with Canada portends more tariffs and inflationary pressures. Bond markets in developed countries suddenly seem to have woken up to high debt burdens and rising worries over inflation. As US national debt raced above $40 trillion, the dollar has weakened, and 30-year Treasury bond yields reached 5.25 per cent on Friday.

The analogy is not exact, but the situation is reminiscent of the 1956 Suez Crisis, when US economic threats forced indebted Britain and France to withdraw from Egypt and halt their efforts to overthrow Gamal Abdul Nasser, president at the time.

Ironically, that episode followed the successful 1953 coup in Iran, backed by Washington and London, which restored the Shah to power and Iran’s oil industry to western domination. Just as with last year’s “12-Day War” against Iran, and January’s operation to remove Venezuela’s President Maduro, winning one or two bets persuades the gambler to take even greater risks.

The Iranians are guessing where ships are in order to block or attack them. Analysts are trying to find them to gauge the economic impact. The US is talking up its success to reassure markets. This is not a bloodless paper exercise. A more realistic situation report may help diplomacy, not the alternating maximalism from each side that has made peace so hard to find.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, writing in The Financial Times on Monday, described the campaign in stark terms, saying: “At dawn begins an economic D-Day — the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary.”

A salvo of international measures against the Islamic Republic preceded the expected announcement, with France expelling Iranian diplomats, Washington ramping up pressure by targeting cash networks linked to Iran’s main proxy, Hezbollah, and the UAE suspending trade and financial ties with Tehran.

“Yes, I am scared,” said Farhad, a 42-year-old shop owner selling men’s clothing at Tehran’s bustling Valiasr Square, who is uncertain about his future. For him, the news is only the latest in a series of setbacks that have stifled his business.

Months of war with the US has taken its toll on the already battered Iranian economy, which has been weakened by decades of international sanctions and mismanagement. This has led to an erosion of Iranians’ purchasing power that is felt acutely by business owners like Farhad, who is now burdened with even more uncertainties.

So far, he has had to “worry about the war, American attacks, Israeli attacks, bombardments and protests”, he said. Now it is “even having things to sell”.

Mr Trump has said that any country whose financial institutions, businesses or government entities offer Iran a “lifeline” will face “economic consequences” of their own. He has called on allies to help “isolate and defeat” Tehran.

It came as the UAE, previously a trade and business partner, announced it had suspended all trade and financial ties with Tehran. The decision follows a spate of attacks on UAE-owned tankers and the country with two missiles last week.

Farhad, like many other Iranians, is reliant on imports from the UAE. However, the announcement represents a notable shift in the economic relationship between the two neighbours, which have maintained substantial commercial ties despite long-standing political tensions in the region.

In May 2024, the countries held their first Joint Economic Committee meeting in Abu Dhabi. They agreed to strengthen co-operation in tourism, transport, logistics, agriculture, renewable energy and other sectors, while seeking to boost trade and help businesses reach new markets.

Trade between the two countries has remained significant, with the UAE serving as an important trading partner for Iran. According to Iranian customs data, bilateral non-oil trade was worth tens of billions of dollars in recent years, with the UAE accounting for a substantial share of Iran's imports and exports.

Each escalation in the war has also increased shipping costs. That means both raw materials used for local production and imported foreign goods are more expensive, while Iranians’ purchasing power keeps falling.

Exacerbating the situation is Iran’s weakening currency. The rial dropped to a record low of more than 2 million against the US dollar on Monday, compared with 1.65 million before the conflict.

Iran's ⁠currency ⁠has ​dropped ⁠to a record low ⁠of ​more ⁠than ‌2,000,000 ​rials per U.S. dollar, two websites tracking ​the ‌free ⁠market ​rate ​showed ‌on ⁠Monday.

“Everyone keeps telling me that things are getting worse, because of the Emirates’ official announcement,” Farhad said. “In general, we are all scared. Go to the Grand Bazaar. Look at the shopkeepers’ faces. They’re all depressed.”

Food prices in Iran have risen consistently in recent years, driven by a weakening currency and rising inflation. The war and the ensuing US naval blockade have only made things worse, squeezing already dwindling oil revenue and affecting imports.

The prices of some staples have grown explosively in the past year, according to state data. Cooking oil, for instance, is up about 400 per cent to $1.78 for 810g, while meat costs up to $15 a kilo.

On top of the huge annual inflation of over 80 per cent, massive job losses have followed since the conflict began. According to the Donya-e Eqtesad newspaper, unemployment spiked to a four-year high of 9.1 per cent by early June, up from 7.5 per cent a quarter earlier.

Iran is currently exporting no oil, according to the country’s central bank chief, who warned that access to foreign exchange reserves has become more difficult after being blocked by the US. Abdolnaser Hemmati said Tehran faced severe restrictions on oil exports as Washington steps up economic pressure while efforts to resolve the war remain deadlocked.

“There is no doubt that we have restrictions on oil exports,” Mr Hemmati said on state television. The Central Bank of Iran governor said he had spoken to counterparts overseas and was told revenue from oil sales had “fallen to zero”. He added: “The same thing has happened to us and it is a reality that we are not exporting oil.”

In his threats, Mr Trump warned against providing Iran with “oil smuggling, swap lines, cash transfers, exchange houses, ship registries, front companies”, adding “you know who you are”.

Treasury Secretary Bessent said that economic pressure means that "we are going to all of our allies – and this is going to be the greatest co-ordinated economic isolation in the history of the world – and we are going to them and saying, ‘You are either with us or against us',” he told CNBC.

Rayan, who works in Iran’s pharmaceutical industry and regularly uses foreign exchanges in neighbouring cities for his clients’ payments, expects "further isolation", citing countries that used to allow Iranian financial activities limiting their activities until further notice.

"They’re waiting to see what happens … now that things are escalating,” Rayan said.

“It is quite the opposite. I would say things have accelerated,” Javier Cavada told The National.

Mitsubishi Power is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mitsubushi Heavy Industries and aims to lead the energy transition towards decarbonisation. The company has a presence in more than 30 countries including the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

Mr Cavada said Mitsubishi Power had seen an increase in demand, contract signings and negotiated bookings since the war began on February 28, a development he described as “a very clear signal … that this conflict will end at some point, hopefully very soon”.

“And the business will only be bigger. And what they want is to increase the certainty,” he said.

Mitsubishi Power has been in Saudi Arabia for 60 years. In October, it opened a facility in Dammam to assemble a heavy-duty gas turbine, seen as a landmark step towards the kingdom's Vision 2030 targets to reduce emissions and support Saudi talent.

In January, it secured an order to supply M701JAC gas turbines for a power and desalination project in Qatar which will be operational in 2028. It also has a large services workshop in the UAE.

“What we are doing is increasing the investment in the region, in the local community and in the local capabilities we have in these countries,” he said.

Another factor leading to this increase in demand for energy is AI, which Mr Cavada referred to as the “new kid on the block”.

McKinsey estimates that global spending on data centres could surpass $7 trillion by 2030. AWS, Microsoft, Google, Meta and Oracle – the so-called hyperscalers who are leading the AI buildout – are projected to lead more than $1 trillion in global AI investment this year.

These hyperscalers have been teaming up with Gulf-based companies in recent years as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar seek to position the region as an AI powerhouse.

The UAE has been investing heavily in AI and digital infrastructure while also attracting global partners such as Microsoft through its Stargate UAE project – alongside G42 – which will cost an estimated $1.5 billion. Saudi Arabia has its own AI ambitions, hosting more than 60 operational data centres in the kingdom since the launch of Vision 2030.

However, UN researchers warned in June that data centres were expected to consume twice as much power and water by 2030, driven by the surge in AI demand. The UN report found data centres consumed 448 terawatt hours of electricity globally and 4.5 trillion litres of water in 2025.

“AI is the biggest eater of reliable electricity that we have ever seen,” Mr Cavada said. “You require more thermal capacity, more nuclear capacity, more storage capacity.”

Mr Cavada said the energy demand driven by data centres and the stress that placed on electrical grids further strengthened the case for a diverse mix of resources including wind, solar, gas and renewables. All of these are needed to complete the puzzle, he said.

“That's what we call energy security – not relying on one single source and on one single party or one single technology,” Mr Cavada said.

He also believes that the recent investment powering the AI boom will soon touch every aspect of modern life.

“I believe that we are powering the future of society while powering AI,” Mr Cavada said.

While the Iran conflict remains a near-term focus, he said the company was looking at investments in the long term that would support decarbonisation work and ease some of the challenges the nascent technology posed.

He highlighted the Gulf, which he said was making “unprecedented” investment in gas while also moving ahead with implementing solar, wind, storage and sometimes nuclear energy to transition to a more flexible grid.

The challenge, he said, was balancing that growth with the stress it was placing on supply chains and the need to acquire the talent to manage these investments when they were up and running.

“The opportunities have the shadow next to them, and the challenges have their brightness next to them as well,” Mr Cavada said. “So it's not it's not black and white. It's pretty colourful today.”

Measures are likely to include punishing countries that trade with Iran; targeting countries and entities that help it circumvent sanctions; going after banks and financial infrastructure supporting its trade; and targeting its oil exports.

In response to the threat, Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi posted on X the history of US sanctions against Iran, saying: “We have seen this movie before.” Esmail Baghaei, a spokesman for Iran’s Foreign Ministry, said on X: “Iran has demonstrated over decades that it will not be strangled by these exhausted refrains.”

Despite the performative defiance in these remarks, Mr Trump’s “economic D-Day” declaration appears to have generated disquiet within the regime. Iran’s economy has already suffered severe damage due to the war and the US-imposed naval blockade, with Tehran estimating about $270 billion in infrastructure and industrial losses.

President Masoud Pezeshkian called for an end to the conflict while Iran still has leverage. Speaker of Parliament Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf was even more explicit, warning military strength alone cannot sustain a country “if people are hungry” and there is no economic growth.

The US should avoid making economic warfare an end in itself

These remarks matter, for they suggest some senior figures in Tehran recognise that the war is becoming economically unsustainable. The US should take advantage of that concern rather than simply seeking to deepen it.

It’s important to point out that Iran’s economy was in dire straits even before the war and the latest American sanctions. For years, corruption, mismanagement and Tehran’s use of its funds to fuel proxy wars elsewhere in the region – instead of providing for its own people – have taken a toll on the economy as well as the standard of living.

But the regime is now making matters much worse with its coercive behaviour in the Strait of Hormuz, laying sea mines and terrorising passing ships, thereby forcing various countries to use and build alternative routes and pipelines to continue trading with the rest of the world. The UAE announced an immediate suspension of trade with Iran after detecting two ballistic missiles towards maritime navigation in the area.

The US should avoid making economic warfare an end in itself. While using the stick, it can also offer a carrot. It has previously made clear what Tehran could gain from returning to serious negotiations: phased sanctions relief, renewed access to trade and finance, and a pathway towards return to economic normalisation in exchange for security commitments.

There is currently a narrow window for such a diplomatic outcome, but there’s no time to waste.

The ‌Freedom 250 ⁠Grand Prix began after ⁠US President Donald Trump completed a ceremonial lap in the presidential limousine and waved ​the green flag.

The race is the latest in a series of sporting events Mr Trump has used to celebrate the country and his second term, even as his approval rating has dropped to the lowest point since he returned to the White House in January 2025, and the US is at war with Iran.

Mr Trump opened the summer with a professional mixed martial arts bout on the South Lawn of the White House, then presented the trophy to Spain, the Fifa World Cup champions, a month later.

The unusual setting for an IndyCar race, with the US Capitol and Smithsonian museums as the ​backdrop, was not lost on the drivers.

"What an incredible place to do it," race winner Kyle Kirkwood told Fox Sports after his victory.

Arrow ⁠McLaren's ‌Christian Lundgaard finished second ​and Kirkwood's Andretti teammate Will Power completed the podium.

Alex Palou, of Chip Ganassi Racing, entered the race with six wins this season and a 133-point lead over Kirkwood. The four-time champion's afternoon was undermined by ​a drive-through ‌penalty, a ⁠slow pit ​stop and a late ​crash.

The bird, which weighed over 2kg, was locally bred in the UAE and was one of dozens of falcons auctioned ahead of this year's Abu Dhabi International Hunting and Equestrian Exhibition, which begins on August 28.

Falcon merchants and breeders bid huge sums throughout the auction on Sunday evening, with birds of prey bought for thousands of dirhams.

"You can see today how happy a falconer is when he finds his bird and buys it," said Mr Albalooshi. "Sometimes he doesn't even consider the price, especially if there are rounds and competitions ahead of him and support for the purchase."

Mr Albalooshi, who has a falcon farm in Dubai, said that falconry unites the Gulf. "This is our heritage, a Gulf heritage that no two people, rulers and people alike, would dispute. And we always preserve this heritage, we love it and support it."

For bidder Ammar bin Humaid Al Marri, falcons are an unbridled passion. His Instagram account focusing on falcons has more than 150,000 followers. He told The National before the auction started that he was looking to find a prized bird to add to his collection.

When asked how many falcons he owns, he laughed before saying: "I prefer not to say". His upkeep of this Emirati tradition is supported by government initiatives, which keep the tradition alive.

"I will participate and bid, and if we find the right one, God willing, we will take it," he said. "The exhibition, of course, includes the elite of falcons."

Fellow enthusiast Mansoor Mohammed said he was willing to spend up to Dh30,000 on a falcon on Sunday, but admitted they will likely fetch much higher prices.

Taking flight

There were seven birds up for grabs at Sunday night's auction. Jaber Battal Al Marar is a member of the committee which selects the falcons that are worthy of inclusion.

Falcons are selected by their size, weight and their feathers. There are typically between 30 to 40 falcons put forward, which are then whittled down to the select few who make the auction.

Mr Al Marrar is teaching his 13-year-old son all about falconry to keep the tradition alive. "This heritage is very important for all, not for only for me. You will see that next year a new generation will be coming to this auction," he said.

A long tradition

For 4,000 years, Bedouin in the UAE and the wider Arabian Peninsula have practised falconry as a form of hunting. It remains a popular sport and pastime and is a vital feature of the UAE’s identity.

In 2023, a prized falcon fetched Dh600,000 at an auction held during the exhibition. A year earlier, a bidder spent Dh1.01 million for a Pure Gyr American ultra-white falcon.

In addition to in-person falcon auctions, a secure online platform has been launched for the exhibition. The move aims to boost participation from local and international bidders.

The exhibition is to feature events displaying falconry, hunting, equestrian sports and fishing, as well as promoting environmental preservation and the UAE's culture.

The UAE Team Emirates-XRG rider was beaten in a sprint finish with Grand Tour debutant Matt Brennan (Visma-Lease a Bike) claiming the win ahead of Pau Miquel (Bahrain Victorious) after a thrilling finale into Manosque after a 214km ride from ⁠Monaco.

Five-time Tour de France champion Pogacar keeps hold of the leader's red jersey he claimed after winning the Stage 1 time-trial by just nine hundredths of a second on Saturday.

The Slovenian – looking to complete a clean-sweep of Grand Tour races by winning in Spain – now enjoys a nine-second lead over Wout van Aert (Visma – Lease a Bike), who moved up six spots, with teammate Brennan third in the overall standings a further second back.

Sitting in fourth place is Leo Bisiaux (Decathlon CMA CGM), who moved up two spots, and is now 12 seconds back, with Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-Bora-hansgrohe) now up to fifth, a further two seconds behind.

Mr. Matthew Brennan. 🏆#LaVuelta26 pic.twitter.com/9oqCeh1wZJ

— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) August 23, 2026

“We started off with the ambition of trying to get Wout in the red jersey today, and we said there's a nice opportunity to attack in the final, and Wout was really keen to do that,” said 21-year-old British rider Brennan, who takes control of the Best Young Rider's white jersey.

“So we had that plan, and I was always going to be in the background to sprint in case that sat up.

“That's exactly what happened; the guys in front sat up, Christophe [Laporte] did a great job of guiding me all the way through the hecticness of that, and I'm super happy to finish it off.

“Hopefully it's not the last one, because it's nice. Again, the boys worked all day really well, really gave it 100 per cent and believed in both of us so we could achieve something successful today. I'm really happy to start off this way.”

Ethan Hayter (Soudal-QuickStep) was part of a small early breakaway and looked destined to take the overall lead when he won the final intermediate sprint for six bonus seconds.

💥 POGI VS. WOUT! What epic battles these two bring us 😍

🤝 El gran duelo tardó poco en llegar. Primera ronda entre POGI y WOUT 🥊#LaVuelta26 pic.twitter.com/lq5DaDnmUW

— La Vuelta (@lavuelta) August 23, 2026

But as the race funnelled into Manosque, he found himself badly positioned towards the back of the stretched-out peloton.

With around 1.5km remaining it appeared that Pogacar and Van Aert would fight it out ​for the stage victory but Pogacar ‌stepped off the gas ⁠and it was Van ​Aert's unheralded teammate Brennan who seized the ​moment ‌to claim his biggest career win.

Monday takes the riders into the French Pyrenees with a mountain finish in Font Romeu near the Spanish border.

Stage 2 result

1. Matthew Brennan (Team ⁠Visma-Lease a Bike) 4:47:47

2. Pau Miquel (Bahrain Victorious) ”

3. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team ⁠Emirates-XRG) ”

4. Mads Pedersen (Lidl-Trek) ”

5. Hugo Hofstetter (NSN Cycling ​Team) ”

General Classification

1. Tadej Pogacar UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 4:58:40

2. Wout van Aert (Team ​Visma- Lease a Bike) +9

3. Matthew Brennan Team Visma-Lease a Bike) +10

4. Leo Bisiaux (Decathlon CMA CGM Team) +12

5. Finn Fisher-Black (Red Bull-BORA hansgrohe) – +14

Dr Food - real name Georges Dib - has more than 8.5 million followers on his food channel on TikTok and sells a line of branded confectionery and pastries.

His business dealings have been under scrutiny since at least 2024, when a Lebanese judge issued an arrest warrant relating to "manufacturing, trafficking and smuggling drugs abroad". The judge, Ziad Al Daghidi, subsequently filed charges.

A Syrian suspect was also being sought after sweets and food items were seized at Beirut's Rafic Hariri International Airport. Authorities said they were "stuffed with drugs" intended for export to the Gulf.

On Sunday, Lebanon's Internal Security Forces announced they had arrested Dr Food in a raid on his home in northern Lebanon's Akkar governorate. They said there were two warrants out against him.

The arrest followed a month of surveillance, the security forces said. "The suspect would film his content and then deliberately leave his place of residence, frequently changing the vehicles and phone numbers he used in an attempt to evade surveillance and prevent the authorities from locating him," they said.

"However, following continued investigative efforts, the responsible unit succeeded in locating and arresting him." Reports last month said a life sentence had been issued against Dr Food, but he was not in court to hear it. He continued to post videos on TikTok.

Dr Food's personal life has also come under scrutiny. In 2022 he married a fellow social media personality who posts under the name Shrouq Sunshine and has almost twice his TikTok following.

On Sunday, her Instagram account shared images of a "divorce party" after the relationship ended. Dr Food's most recent post appeared to address claims of violence against her, saying he had "documents and evidence" he was willing to present in court.

Along with Syria and Iraq, Lebanon has been hard-pushed to stamp out a drugs trade supplying Gulf markets in recent years.

In January, Lebanese authorities dismantled a drugs lab in Baalbek after an intelligence tip-off provided by Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Interior. Last September, they seized 64 million Captagon pills and 79 barrels of chemicals in one of Lebanon's largest drugs busts.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said his country was facing “an all-out economic, military and security war”, as the US prepares to announce new sanctions.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is expected to unveil new measures on Monday to isolate Iran economically after months of inconclusive warfare. Officials in Tehran expect the sanctions to be aimed at Iran’s economic relations with third countries.

Mr Pezeshkian acknowledged that Iran faced a series of economic problems relating to water, energy, banking and sanctions. However, he added, Iranians have surprised the world with their “resilience and solidarity” after adversaries “expected mounting pressure to destabilise Iran”.

Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, urged countries in the region not to “join the US in its economic war”, days after the UAE last week suspended all commercial exchange with Tehran.

Mr Bessent has described the new sanctions as the toughest so far. The shift to economic warfare comes as Washington and Tehran show few signs of returning to negotiations, despite the efforts of mediators Pakistan and Qatar.

Hopes were raised of an end to the war when the US and Iran signed a framework agreement in June, opening a 60-day window for peace talks.

The ceasefire collapsed last month after Tehran resumed attacks on shipping in the Strait of Hormuz and Washington restarted air strikes on Iranian territory. The 60-day deadline for talks expired last week.

A U.S. Sailor monitors flight operations aboard USS John Finn (DDG 113) as the guided-missile destroyer sails in the Arabian Sea and enforces the U.S. blockade against Iran. As of Aug. 23, U.S. forces have redirected 70 commercial vessels, disabled 3 and boarded 2 to ensure… pic.twitter.com/p1NmNbosqJ

— U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) August 23, 2026

Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, is expected to visit Tehran today, while Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived yesterday in Paris for talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.

With shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz at a standstill, talks in Paris today are expected to focus on plans to expand oil pipelines.

“There are options for bypassing the usual routes through alternative port networks,” an adviser to Mr Macron said. “There are also existing projects involving pipelines – whether new construction, capacity upgrades or twinning – in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere.

“A great many initiatives are at various stages of development. The goal, naturally, is to identify which ones are most strategic for the countries involved – and where we can position ourselves and our companies – so we can work together to secure financing and bring these projects to fruition.”

This month, Saudi Aramco said it was considering an expansion of its East-West pipeline as the conflict widened again to include Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping.

US President Donald Trump restored a naval blockade of Iranian ports after the conflict resumed in July. US Central Command said on Sunday it had redirected 70 commercial vessels, boarded two and "disabled" three under the blockade.

Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani led the Syrian delegation, which included the heads of the General Intelligence and Military Intelligence services. The official Syrian news agency Sana reported the talks on Monday, citing a diplomatic source.

Peace hopes were cast into doubt last week when Israel bombed a military airfield in northern Syria, claiming Turkish forces were operating there. Israel also occupies territory in southern Syria and periodically carries out attacks.

The meeting focused on establishing practical mechanisms to halt Israeli attacks, arrests and targeting operations, Sana reported. The sides also discussed reviving negotiations towards a security agreement and a possible broader future agreement.

Mr Al Shibani, though, told Reuters in an interview that a “historic opportunity” remained open for an agreement between Israel and Syria.

“We believe there should be contact, especially with a party that constantly threatens the security of Syria,” he said. “But if this contact doesn’t bring results, then we ​don’t need it. We do not trust Israel currently.”

The fallen Syrian regime of Bashar Al Assad was a close ally of Israel's foes Iran and Hezbollah. The new government under President Ahmad Al Shara has expressed willingness to talk to Israel while condemning many of its actions.

🔵Foreign Ministry to SANA:
A high-level Syrian delegation headed by the foreign minister and including the heads of the General Intelligence and Military Intelligence services held a meeting on Sunday with a high-level Israeli delegation, under US mediation and hosted by Jordan.

— SANA English (@SANAEnOfficial) August 23, 2026

The US has been leading a push for a security deal that has so far proven elusive.

Sana said Jordan hosted the latest meeting under US mediation, with Damascus insisting that any security arrangements must respect Syria’s sovereignty, territorial integrity and sovereign rights.

Syria also called for Israeli forces to withdraw to the lines held before December 8, 2024, and for the reactivation and full implementation of the 1974 Disengagement Agreement.

It reiterated that the occupied Golan is Syrian territory, while saying its final status was premature to discuss.

The talks also addressed efforts to bridge differences between Turkey and Israel and prevent tensions between the two countries from spilling over into Syrian territory, Sana reported.

Meanwhile, Tom Barrack, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy to Syria, has suggested that Israel may have tried to provoke a confrontation with Turkey as a political calculation ahead of elections.

In an interview with podcast host Mario Nawfal, Mr Barrack described the high tensions between Turkey and Israel. He said Israel conducted a strike on a military airfield in eastern Idlib last week, even though diplomatic communication was happening through a backchannel shortly before the attack.

One theory was that “the Israelis were baiting the Turks”, he said, tying this to a possible “very aggressive but maybe a well-received pre-election concept”. Israel is due to hold a general election on October 27. Mr Barrack stressed he was presenting theories, not determinations.

Mr Barrack said the US assessment was that there was no such Turkish troop movement towards the base. “We all did our due diligence, we went back to our respective intelligence agencies. The answers we got were 'no, this is not happening',” Mr Barrack added.

The McLaren driver, who won in Hungary last time out before Formula One's summer break and started in pole position on Sunday, came home 11 seconds ahead of title-race leader Kimi Antonelli with his Mercedes teammate George Russell third.

Max Verstappen's hopes of winning the final race on his home turf of Zandvoort were ended following a high-speed crash on the opening lap that resulted in a red flag.

Antonelli took the lead from Norris at the restart but the reigning Formula One champion would fight back before going to take the chequered flag.

“A tough race,” said Norris. “Yesterday I said we needed to out on a bit of a show for everyone for the final race here. I made it tough for myself today but a good race, well fought.

Max Verstappen crashes out at Zandvoort 🎥

Here's what happened 👇#F1 #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/cu1R80ISZv

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 23, 2026

“Probably one of my better wins, we had to fight for it. The pace was very strong and we managed things well. Over the moon, very happy. Nice to win the final race in Zandvoort.”

Antonelli's teammate Russell obeyed ‌orders to let the Italian – on fresher tyres – through late in the ​race as the teenager increased his championship ​lead to 59 ⁠points.

Russell and Lewis Hamilton are both tied in second place on 183 each following the Ferrari driver's fourth-place finish.

Hamilton's teammate Charles Leclerc finished fifth with Oscar Piastri sixth and Liam Lawson, a stand-in for injured Isack Hadjar, seventh for Red Bull.

Every F1 race at Zandvoort since the circuit returned to the calendar in 2021 after a 36-year absence has been won from pole, and Sunday's will keep it ​that way as the last for the foreseeable future.

“It was a very intense race, I managed to get the lead, the I just didn't have the feeling with the car,” said Antonelli.

Bortoleto spinning, Hulkenberg approaching at speed 😱

How did the two Audis avoid crashing into each other? 🫣#F1 #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/Yei6hdMpT5

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 23, 2026

“It was sliding a lot, Lando passed me and I knew I had no chance after that. George was a great team player, happy for him to hold on to P3 as well.”

When asked whether he could now be in the running to challenge Antonelli for the title, Norris – who is 59 points behind the leader – said: “It sounds boring but one race at a time. There's no point thinking that far ahead, I need to concentrate on having a nice little break. Two great weekends but we need to reset and learn as much as we can.”

Russell, with help from a further late virtual safety car due to debris on track, managed to hold off Hamilton off to take the final podium position.

“These two [Norris and Antonelli] were very quick at the beginning and Lando was just exceptionally fast towards the end of the race so it was tough to hold on in those old tyres.

“I'm happy to be standing here on the podium because It could have gone either way … It's been a strong weekend overall so I'll take the positives.”

That's back-to-back wins for Lando 🏆🏆

“The fight is still on,” says the reigning world champion 💪#F1 #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/FAX5SO6oaK

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 23, 2026

In an interview with podcast host Mario Nawfal, Mr Barrack described the high tensions between Turkey and Israel. He said Israel conducted a strike on a military airfield in eastern Idlib last week, even though diplomatic communication was happening through a backchannel shortly before the attack.

One theory was that “the Israelis were baiting the Turks”, he said, tying this to a possible “very aggressive but maybe a well-received pre-election concept”. Israel is due to hold a general election on October 27. Mr Barrack stressed he was presenting theories, not determinations.

ISRAEL ALMOST STARTED A WAR WITH TURKEY, AND NO ONE, NOT EVEN TRUMP, SAW IT COMING…

Israel’s strike in Syria almost started a war with Turkey, and Trump’s Special Envoy just gave me an extraordinary account of how it happened

According to Ambassador Tom Barrack, Israel… pic.twitter.com/2rwudobQIL

— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) August 21, 2026

He said that in the days ahead of the Israeli strike on the runway at Abu Al Duhur military airfield, initial intelligence suggested there might have been some Turkish military movement into the base, which would have been concerning for the US, given the tensions between Ankara and Israel.

The Turkish presidency has called the Israeli allegations “untenable” and “intended to legitimise” Israel’s “unlawful” action at the base, without ruling out any potential deployment.

Mr Barrack said the US assessment was that there was no such Turkish troop movement towards the base. “We all did our due diligence, we went back to our respective intelligence agencies. The answers we got were 'no, this is not happening',” Mr Barrack said.

Nonetheless, Israel proceeded with the attack after an Israeli “commander in the field somewhere said we are going to make sure that doesn't happen, and we're going to take out the runways”.

“What they [Israel] didn't do is tell us, or tell Turkey,” he said.

Mr Barrack said there may have been a miscommunication between Israel's intelligence service and the military. He said Israel, which destroyed much of Syria's air force after the Assad regime collapsed, wanted a “clear line of sight to Iran”.

“They don't want the risk of defensive radar or offensive ability to deter or intervene in the necessity that they need to move against Iran,” he said. He stressed that the situation could easily have escalated when the Turkish military saw Israeli jets crossing Syria towards the Turkish border without knowing why.

“Thank goodness calm heads really came to the moment of the day,” he said. “It was one of those moments where I think, for many of us, our whole life went in front of us.”

Six others were reported injured, some of them seriously, in the attack on Al Zawaida. In a second strike, Israeli forces bombed a shelter near the north-south Salah Al Din Road in central Gaza, official Palestinian media said.

Photos showed a column of smoke over central Gaza in the aftermath of Israel's attacks. Palestinian medics said the child had died of injuries sustained in the strike on the warehouse.

The Israeli army said it had struck a Hamas commander and a weapons manufacturing site, without providing evidence. It said the weapons factory was housed in an aid distribution point.

The attacks are the latest to pierce the 2025 ceasefire in Gaza that curtailed Israel's onslaught on the Palestinian territory. With the peace process stalling, the US this month sought to inject some momentum by sending President Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner to hold talks with Hamas and Israeli leaders.

Israel agreed with Mr Kushner to form new working groups on Gaza's disarmament and humanitarian needs, but there was no major breakthrough on the peace process. The Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected a US-backed plan for a phased withdrawal from Gaza.

In a spate of new attacks last week, Israel bombed a seaside cafe in Gaza city, leaving six people dead, and killed nine more people in an attack on police personnel the next day. The UAE joined seven other Arab and Islamic nations in condemning Israel for rejecting renewed peace efforts.

Five convoys carrying 800 tonnes of aid sent from the UAE entered Gaza this week. The aid, which included food, medicine and materials for shelter, was sent on 75 lorries as part of the Emirates' Operation Gallant Knight 3 campaign.

The supplies were sent to meet the "essential needs and strengthen the humanitarian response inside the Gaza Strip", state news agency Wam reported on Sunday.

The new system uses AI and data to monitor the efficiency of 32 different government departments, it was announced on Sunday.

“The adoption of the Workforce Productivity Measurement System across the Government of Dubai represents a strategic milestone in the advancement of government work and reflects Dubai’s vision to build a government driven by data and advanced analytics,” said Abdullah Ali Bin Zayed Al Falasi, director general of the Dubai Government Human Resources Department.

“It supports the development of policies, enhances performance efficiency, and enables government entities to make more accurate, proactive and impactful decisions.

“The system’s impact extends beyond measuring productivity. It establishes a unified methodology that enhances resource allocation, improves the quality of services and supports sustainable institutional performance, in line with Dubai’s vision to build a more agile, efficient and future-ready government.”

The new system enables government entities to “regularly monitor productivity indicators and analyse the relationship between resources and outputs, helping enhance planning efficiency, improve institutional performance, and provide accurate insights to support decision-making”.

The system provides a unified government framework for measuring workforce productivity and analysing the relationship between human resources, financial resources and government service outputs, according to a statement from the Dubai Government on Sunday.

The introduction of the measure, across 32 different government departments, comes after a pilot scheme was first implemented on a limited number of government entities.

The use of the system in the pilot phase "has contributed to building an integrated knowledge base drawing on the analysis of millions of data points".

The move is the latest step in the country's adoption of AI in its operations.

Earlier this year, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai, reviewed a project to see half of UAE government services using AI agents within two years.

Sheikh Mohammed said every federal employee would be trained to master AI, creating the “world’s strongest capabilities in AI-driven government”.

In June, the UAE unveiled a federal body to harness AI and public data with a mission to build “the government of the future”.

The exchange began when Emirates posted images on X of its U-Dream Headrest, showing the adjustable design in its upright and folded positions.

"Headrest down and ready for take-off," the Dubai airline wrote. Ryanair's verdict was considerably shorter: "hate it".

The low-cost airline accompanied its response with an edited image showing its mascot sitting in one of the Emirates seats. Emirates then hit back. "Looks like someone's enjoying the legroom ...", it responded, sharing Ryanair's post.

Looks like someone’s enjoying the legroom... https://t.co/m6Q0hDWu5P

— Emirates (@emirates) August 22, 2026

The exchange attracted plenty of attention online, with social media users joining in with their own jokes about the contrasting passenger experiences offered by the two airlines.

For Ryanair, the response is very much on-brand. The airline has become known for its irreverent social media presence, and regularly pokes fun at passengers, itself and its competitors.

It also isn't the first time rival airlines have taken their competition online.

Last month, British Airways and Norwegian made a playful wager ahead of England and Norway's Fifa World Cup quarter-final. The airlines agreed that whichever country lost would have its national carrier replace its Instagram profile picture with the rival airline's logo for 24 hours.

After England's 2-1 victory, Norwegian honoured the bet and temporarily swapped its logo for that of British Airways. The exchange also attracted other airlines, including Malaysia Airlines and Austrian Airlines, which joined the conversation with jokes of their own.

Ryanair has also previously set its sights on British Airways. In 2019, after a BA flight intended for Dusseldorf mistakenly landed in Edinburgh because of a flight-plan mix-up, Ryanair posted an image of the book Geography for Dummies, writing: "Hey British Airways, we have a present for you."

What are Emirates' new economy headrests?

The subject of Ryanair's attention, the Emirates' U-Dream Headrest, was officially unveiled in July after an early glimpse of the unusual design went viral.

Part of Emirates' Safran Seats Z400 economy seat, the leather headrest features padded side wings that fold inwards to support a passenger's head and neck while sleeping. It can also be moved vertically and tilted to accommodate passengers of different heights.

Emirates describes the design as a world-first and says it has been independently tested and certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency.

"The U-Dream changes the game if the person wants to sleep, by supporting the neck in full. No more neck pillows needed," Emirates president Tim Clark said when the product was unveiled.

The headrests are already available on some of Emirates' Airbus A350 aircraft, with the airline planning to introduce them across its A350 fleet.

They will also come pre-installed on Emirates' Boeing 777X aircraft, and the airline plans to retrofit them across most of its Airbus A380s and Boeing 777s from 2027.

The new bridge measuring 102 metres is at Mushrif National Park and will connect several sections of a mountain biking trail into one continuous section.

It is part of Dubai’s programme to integrate wellbeing, outdoor recreation and active lifestyles into everyday life while strengthening the range and quality of experiences available across the city’s parks and public spaces, the emirate's municipality said on Sunday.

“The new bridge represents a significant addition to Mushrif National Park and transforms the mountain biking experience by creating a continuous connection between two sections of the trail," said Bader Anwahi, chief executive of the Public Facilities Agency at Dubai Municipality.

"Mountain bikers can now continue their journey without having to stop and cross a road used by vehicles, providing a safer, smoother and more enjoyable experience through one of Dubai’s most distinctive natural environments.

#DubaiMunicipality has opened a new 102-metre bridge at Mushrif National Park, creating a continuous and safer mountain biking journey through Dubai’s largest forest and adding a distinctive new feature to one of the emirate’s leading nature and recreational destinations.

The… pic.twitter.com/71eqhDf43H

— بلدية دبي | Dubai Municipality (@DMunicipality) August 23, 2026

“Our approach to developing Mushrif National Park goes beyond adding individual facilities. We are creating an integrated outdoor destination where adventure, nature and active lifestyles come together.

"This bridge strengthens that experience and adds a new landmark to Dubai’s largest forest, giving residents and visitors another reason to explore and engage with the park," he added.

The bridge was developed with the park’s natural environment in mind, enhancing accessibility and movement while preserving the distinctive character of Mushrif National Park, the municipality said.

It features two dedicated lanes, one for mountain bikers and another only for hikers. The end-to-end mountain biking journey across the bridge spans a total of 182 metres.

Questions had been raised over December's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix because of regional tension caused by the Iran war.

In March, F1 called off races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, although the former has since been rescheduled for October 4 and will be staged in Malaysia.

Mr Domenicali had previously suggested the 2026 season finale could be moved to Europe, with Imola touted as a potential venue, were it not possible to hold races in Qatar on November 29 and Abu Dhabi on December 6.

However, speaking to Formula One's official website at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, the 61-year-old Italian insisted F1 was fully committed to finishing the season in the Middle East in line with the original schedule.

“The calendar is confirmed. There are still a few tickets to be sold in Abu Dhabi … and we stay focused on delivering the calendar we promised at the beginning of the year,” Mr Domenicali said.

“The preparations are on course, there are still a few tickets in Abu Dhabi to be taken, and everything is progressing very, very well,” he added.

Saood Abdulaziz Al Hosani, undersecretary of the Department of Culture and Tourism Abu Dhabi, said hosting the race since 2009 has been a source of pride and that he looked forward to the event returning in December.

“Hosting Formula 1 since 2009 has been a testament to our ambition to bring the world together through exceptional experiences and major international events,” he said. “The Abu Dhabi Grand Prix creates meaningful opportunities for our tourism, hospitality and events sectors and we are proud to build on this long-standing partnership. We look forward to welcoming international F1 fans once again for the conclusion of a thrilling season.”

Saif Rashid Al Noaimi, chief executive of organisers Ethara, said preparations at Yas Marina Circuit are progressing well. Andrea Bocelli, Zara Larsson, Lewis Capaldi and Imagine Dragons are among the musical acts confirmed for the annual concerts, with more artists expected to be revealed in the coming weeks.

View this post on Instagram

“As promoter of the Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, our focus is firmly on delivering another outstanding season finale this December,” said Mr Al Noaimi.

“Building on our recognition as Formula 1’s Promoter of the Year, we are working closely with Formula 1 and our partners across Abu Dhabi to deliver an exceptional experience for fans, teams, drivers, officials and partners. Preparations are progressing across every aspect of the event, and we look forward to welcoming the Formula 1 community back to Abu Dhabi.”

Ethara added that “ticket availability is now limited” and encouraged fans to head to abudhabigp.com to explore remaining options.

The celebration started in the US in 2004, when the animal advocate and pet lifestyle expert Colleen Paige chose the date to mark the anniversary of the day her family adopted her first dog from a shelter.

More than two decades later, it is a good excuse for a pet-friendly staycation.

Across the UAE, a growing number of hotels are making room for four-legged guests, including beachfront resorts, desert retreats and city-centre spots. Some offer little more than a bed and bowl, but others go considerably further, with welcome treats, dedicated dining areas and, in one case, a resident Saluki.

Here are some to check out.

Hotel Indigo Dubai Downtown

Hotel Indigo Dubai Downtown is marking the occasion with its Pet-Friendly Stay Experience, available until August 31. Rates start at Dh500 and include dedicated in-room amenities and outdoor dining, where dogs can accompany their owners.

The hotel’s most charming resident is Sawyer, a rescued Saluki adopted from the Stray Dogs Centre in October 2025. He is now the hotel’s unofficial ambassador, greeting guests and lending a personal touch to the lobby.

The relationship with the Stray Dogs Centre runs deep. After staff fostered two abandoned Huskies three years ago, the hotel developed a continuing partnership with the organisation, supporting fundraising and donations.

During the current promotion, Dh200 from every pet stay is donated to the centre, helping fund the rescue and rehabilitation of abandoned animals.

Movenpick Resort Al Marjan Island

This property in Ras Al Khaimah takes the pet-friendly resort concept to the beach, with designated accommodation and access to outdoor areas near the chalets and shoreline.

There are designated pet-friendly rooms – primarily beachfront chalets – with up to two dogs permitted per room and a maximum weight of 35kg. There is an additional Dh250 charge per pet, per night, together with a refundable Dh500 security deposit.

The welcome is practical but considered – the specialised rooms are equipped with beds and treats and the outdoor setting allows dogs more freedom than they would find in a city hotel. The main indoor dining areas are off-limits, however.

JA Hatta Fort Hotel

JA Hatta Fort Hotel in Hatta offers mountains rather than marina views, and a landscape in which dogs can enjoy the outdoors, with certain caveats.

Up to two dogs can stay in designated pet-friendly rooms, chalets or cabins. Beds, bowls and pet-friendly menu options can be requested, while owners can dine with their dogs in designated outdoor areas such as the Palm Tree Garden, or opt for room service.

Dogs must be on a lead at all times, however, because the property is home to free-roaming wildlife including deer, goats and birds. The reward is a country-style escape where walks come with considerably more scenery than the average urban dog park.

Aldhafra Resort, Vignette Collection

For those who prefer a weekend in the desert to one in the city, Aldhafra Resort, Vignette Collection sits on the edge of the Empty Quarter, in Abu Dhabi, surrounded by dunes and seemingly endless desert.

Dogs and cats are welcome for Dh70 a day, with a deep-cleaning fee of Dh350. Rooms overlook the desert, and the resort offers a mix of family activities, desert experiences, spa treatments and Arabian and international dining.

Rates start at Dh550 a night. For a pet owner, the appeal is obvious, as the desert's vast expanse is great for dogs who need to stretch their legs. For any dog with less-than-perfect recall, however, it's best to either keep them on a (long) lead or fit them with a tracker to keep everyone safe.

InterContinental Residences Dubai Business Bay

For longer stays, InterContinental Residences Dubai Business Bay offers a more residential solution. Guests staying for 30 nights or more can bring dogs and cats, with a Dh500 cleaning fee per room.

Ideal for new arrivals to the city looking for a temporary home as they find their feet, the residences overlook Burj Khalifa, Dubai Canal and the city skyline, while the Guest Experience and Front Office teams provide personalised service and treats for four-legged residents. Rates start at Dh439 a night.

W Abu Dhabi – Yas Island

Built around the famous Yas Marina Circuit – home of Formula One's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix – W Abu Dhabi allows dogs weighing up to 18kg to stay for a non-refundable Dh350 fee.

Canines can spend time in the pet-friendly lobby and designated green spaces, while several nearby restaurants along Yas Marina and Yas Bay welcome them outdoors. Pets will enjoy a welcome pack of a comfortable pet bed, food and water bowls, and can order from a specialised in-room “PAW” menu.

A dog-sitter can also be booked in advance. Microchipping is required, and guests must present an up-to-date vaccination card at check-in.

Vida Beach Resort Umm Al Quwain

For those who want to swap the city for the sound of the sea, Vida Beach Resort Umm Al Quwain occupies a quieter stretch of the Gulf coast, where the pace is distinctly more languid.

Small dogs weighing up to 10kg are welcome in designated areas of the shoreline, where they can swim and play in the sea. At Stage2 and Origins, they can also accompany their owners on the terraces for a meal or a snack.

Pet-friendly rooms come equipped with beds, bowls and toys for Dh150 per stay, with an additional Dh50 per pet per day for cleaning. Proof of vaccination is required at check-in.

From relatable, grounded stories like Vilkkanundu Swapnangal (1980) and Jacobinte Swargarajyam (2016), to larger-scale productions such as Feroz Khan’s Yalgaar (1992) and Pathaan (2023), there is no shortage of Indian films that have used the UAE as either a backdrop or a place to transform into another location in the Gulf.

Directed by Vysakh, who joins the acclaimed star Prithviraj Sukumaran 15 years after the former’s debut Pokkiri Raja, Malayalam action thriller Khalifa: The Ruler joins the club, with parts of it set in Fujairah and Dubai, and outside an unidentified airport that looks most like the exterior of Sharjah’s terminal.

In Khalifa, Sukumaran plays Aamir Ali, an ambitious fashion entrepreneur who is drawn into a life of crime after his family is put in jeopardy.

The cast is strong, with Prithviraj particularly impressive, bringing both physicality to the action sequences and emotional depth to Aamir's transformation from ambitious entrepreneur to a man driven by quiet vengeance. His foil is Harris Basheer, played by Neil Nitin Mukesh, an actor who captivates every time the narrative shifts to him.

Among the character actors who have incredible screen presences, however, Suresh Oberoi stands tall as Seittuji, a mentor for Aamir. Last seen in the controversial action-drama Animal, Oberoi has a lot more to chew on, even if it just requires him looking sharp and delivering dialogue with the coolest demeanour you can find outside of the film’s protagonist.

Bit of a shame then that for all of his fascinating aura, there’s very little you get to know about his character.

This isn’t exactly a bad thing for the movie itself; the focus of Khalifa lies squarely on the criminal history of Aamir’s family, which you get to know about slowly as the story progresses in boundless style, both aural and visual.

It’s a sprawling old-school crime thriller that makes sure it places all its building blocks as patiently as possible across its 160-minute runtime and makes its archetypal Indian story of an unwitting civilian thrown into crime to save his family a whole lot more fun to watch.

The UAE-set sequences are filmed with plenty of bite, with an extended 4x4 and buggy chase recalling the chaotic desert action of Vikram Bhatt’s Awara Paagal Deewana. But thankfully, the film doesn’t rely on its UAE setting alone.

Cinematographer Jomon T John makes striking use of dramatic contrasts in light and colour. It’s more a stylistic flourish than the work of Santosh Sivan in Mani Ratnam’s Dil Se…, but there’s an unmistakable enthusiasm behind it.

The narrative is bolstered by film editor Chaman Chacko’s tightly wound final cut, with a generous helping of non-linear storytelling designed to keep viewers guessing. This can work, but the number of times the back-and-forth set-up/pay-off structure appears in the final act threatens to harm more than help and could have been done away with.

Where the edit falters, Jakes Bejoy’s soundtrack more than makes up for it in its sheer presence. Featuring an eclectic blend of hip-hop, Indian semi-classical and dramatic dark overtones, Bejoy’s work has the kick needed to work perfectly in tandem with the film’s emotionally diverse moments.

Khalifa fills the void left by the stylish, larger-than-life Bollywood action thrillers of the 2000s, recalling films such as Anubhav Sinha’s Dus (2005), Sanjay Gadhvi’s Dhoom: 2 (2006) and Abbas-Mustan’s Race (2008).

While critical reception around this specific subgenre of movies is all over the place, one thing is clear: they are a lot of fun to watch on the big screen, packing in everything from one-twist-to-rule-them-all to stylish action setpieces in which the protagonist walks to the camera in super slow-mo while vehicles explode behind them.

Action thrillers like Khalifa, in which style is substance, desperately need a comeback. With charismatic, dependable leading men like Prithviraj, there’s a lot more fun to be had from a filmmaking perspective.

The film is the cinematic equivalent of wearing a leather jacket and sunglasses – flashy, excessive and unapologetically cool. It knows exactly what kind of film it wants to be, and provided audiences do too, it's a great time at the movies.

The PMF, also known as Hashd Al Shaabi, is an umbrella organisation of mostly Shiite paramilitary groups integrated into state security, with several factions backed by Iran. The groups were formed during Iraq's war against ISIS.

Changes to the PMF legislation would effectively institutionalise a parallel security apparatus with a multi-billion-dollar annual budget while leaving its leadership structure largely unchanged, said Michael Knights, head of research at Horizon Engage, a New York-based strategic advisory firm.

“This poses significant risks given that some PMF factions are led by figures designated as terrorists by the US,” Mr Knights told The National.

“It's not that the PMF law changes a lot – instead it freezes things and makes positive change less likely,” he said.

Mr Knights said the proposed law would not make any meaningful change within the PMF but would instead lock in the status quo and make future reform less probable.

“It is serious enough that the US threatened to tank the Iraqi economy last time the law was nearly passed,” he said.

Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi is under pressure from the US to disarm the militias by September 30. It's the same date given to US troops to leave the country in a 2024 agreement between Baghdad and Washington.

During the last few weeks, there has been an increase in tension and an escalation of threats between the government and Iran-backed militias over disarmament.

The move might be difficult to make. The militias, with Iranian financial and military support, have become formidable forces that can rival the national army in firepower. They are also deeply enmeshed in Iraq's political, economic and social fabric, building business networks and winning seats in parliament and the government.

They call themselves the Resistance and are a key pillar of Iran's network of regional proxy ⁠forces. They have claimed responsibility for dozens of missile and drone attacks on Israel and US forces in Iraq and Syria since the Gaza war began in 2023.

'Dangerous move'

An Iraqi official told The National that the existing law governing the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) provides the force with a legal framework but leaves key issues concerning personnel and its administrative structure unresolved.

“This is why there is a push for the service and retirement legislation; it has been postponed by former governments. The law will give the PMF a permanent, legally protected status as a parallel armed institution inside the Iraqi state,” said the official.

“This is a dangerous move; it would further tighten Iran's grip on Iraq,” he said.

The current draft was approved by the government of former prime minister Mohammed Shia Al Sudani in February 2025 and referred to parliament.

It was stalled due to disputes over retirement provisions and “Washington's disapproval”, said the official.

The renewed push for the legislation comes as several senior Iranian officials visited Baghdad last week. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Speaker of the Iranian parliament, was in the Iraqi capital for a three-day official visit that began on Wednesday.

PMF chairman Falah Al Fayyadh said on Thursday that Iraqi Prime Minister Ali Al Zaidi was expected to submit the PMF law to parliament “soon, following the completion of certain amendments,” the state-run Iraqi News Agency reported.

“The [new] PMF law covering service, retirement, and organisational structure will be submitted within the next two weeks,” he said.

Mr Al Fayyadh said that “the process of [political] disengagement from the PMF, must proceed according to well-studied plans and a safe transition that guarantees the stability of the institution.”

Global oil export routes have been reshaped by Iran's effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz after the US and Israel launched their war on the country in February. About 20 per cent of global crude oil was shipped through the narrow waterway before the conflict.

"This is an important topic," an adviser to Mr Macron said, discussing alternative routes to the Strait before the Crown Prince's visit.

"There are options for bypassing the usual routes via alternative port networks...There are also existing projects involving pipelines — whether new construction, capacity upgrades, or twinning — in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere."

The Crown Prince officially begins his two-day visit to Paris on Sunday night by co-hosting with the French President the closing ceremony of the Esports World Cup. It is the first time that the event is being held outside Saudi Arabia. Mr Macron and the Crown Prince most recently held talks in person in December 2024, when the French President travelled to Riyadh.

Bilateral meetings and a business forum are to be held on Monday, during which the Iran war and its regional repercussions will be at the top of the agenda. "It's difficult to see a way out" of the conflict, which has been dragging on for months, Mr Macron's adviser said.

New export routes

The French leader scored a short-lived diplomatic victory when US President Donald Trump signed an interim agreement – described as a memorandum of understanding – with Iran aimed towards ending the war at Versailles Palace outside Paris, on the heels of the G7.

A few weeks later, Mr Trump declared the agreement "over" when Iranian attacks on commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz resumed. Iran-US peace talks are currently in limbo.

Earlier this month, Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil-exporting company, said it was studying an expansion of its East-West pipeline, which connects Abqaiq in the east to Yanbu on the Red Sea, and the establishment of new export routes, after Yemen's Houthi rebels joined Iran's pressure campaign on maritime transport in the region by launching attacks against Saudi oil infrastructure.

Alternative routes include the Sumed pipeline that stretches from the Gulf of Suez to Alexandria on the Mediterranean Sea and the UAE's Habshan–Fujairah pipeline, often referred to as the West–East crude oil pipeline.

"A great many initiatives are at various stages of development," the adviser to Mr Macron said. "The goal, naturally, is to identify which ones are most strategic for the countries involved – and where we can position ourselves and our companies – so we can work together to secure financing and bring these projects to fruition."

They added that while they would not give further details on ongoing work on alternative routes, "this work with the Saudis is quite advanced".

"It has been a driving force behind our bilateral relations with countries in the region over the past few months, and it is work we will continue to pursue in the months ahead," they said.

While Europe is not involved in the regional conflict, France, along with the UK, has led efforts on the continent to co-ordinate diplomatic initiatives to de-escalate tension in the Gulf. In June, Oman's leader, Sultan Haitham, visited Paris and London to hold talks on securing maritime routes. At the time, Marseille-based shipping giant CMA CGM signed a $500 million deal to help structure new logistics corridors in Oman.

The adviser to Mr Macron said that this had contributed "significantly" to efforts to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, since Omani ports are not in the Arabian Gulf but instead face the Arabian Sea. Oman and Iran share territorial waters in the Strait of Hormuz and have been trying to strike a deal on navigation through the area.

The aid, which included food, medicine and materials for shelter, was sent on 75 lorries as part of the Emirates' Operation Gallant Knight 3 campaign.

The supplies were sent to meet the "essential needs and strengthen the humanitarian response inside the Gaza Strip", state news agency Wam reported on Sunday.

The campaign continues "to prepare aid convoys through the UAE humanitarian aid logistics centre in Al Arish under an integrated system that includes receiving, sorting, preparing and dispatching assistance, supporting the continued flow of humanitarian aid into Gaza and ensuring it reaches those in need", Wam added.

The continuing aid deliveries are aimed at alleviating the suffering of the Palestinian people and supporting their urgent humanitarian needs.

The operation reaffirms the UAE's continued humanitarian and relief efforts in support of the Palestinian people, reflecting the country's longstanding humanitarian approach and values of solidarity and humanitarian responsibility, said Wam.

Continued support

Since the launch of Operation Gallant Knight 3 in response to the outbreak of the Gaza war in October 2023, the UAE has been at the forefront of aid delivery and humanitarian assistance.

Earlier this month, it passed 1,000 days of continuous support, with more than Dh14.2 billion ($3.89 billion) of aid sent.

That funding has helped set up a floating hospital in Egypt and two medical centres in Gaza and has brought thousands of medical patients, including many suffering from cancer and war-related injuries, to the Emirates to receive care.

State news agency Wam said the latest efforts confirmed the UAE’s “continued humanitarian mission aimed at alleviating the suffering of the brotherly Palestinian people… reflecting the UAE’s firm approach to giving and humanitarian solidarity.”

In addition, the UAE's Step of Hope programme, set up in June to help civilians who lost limbs during the war, has fitted prosthetic limbs for 72 Palestinian amputees since the launch of the campaign.

Official media quoted a security official as saying the bomb attack occurred on Saturday aboard a bus carrying members of the Internal Security Forces on a road near the city of Al Tal, north of Damascus. Last month, security personnel fired in the air and detained two dozen people to quell protests in the area.

The unrest broke out over allegations that officials were allowing a landowner with connections to the authorities to dig a well and giving him preferential treatment, amid water shortages in the capital and surrounding areas.

The authorities were following up on the circumstances of the bomb attack, the official said, without elaborating. Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Jordan condemned the attack, describing it as terrorism.

On August 6, a bomb exploded in a taxi van in the mixed Jaramana suburb of Damascus, reportedly killing two people. An investigation has been opened, but no official findings have been announced.

Since the toppling of the former regime, attacks on Syrian security forces have largely focused on eastern desert areas where mobile ISIS formations operate. The group was largely defeated in Syria after a US-led campaign from 2014 to 2019.

In November last year, the US admitted Syria to its anti-ISIS coalition, marking a landmark development in the rapid improvement of ties since militants led by now-President Ahmad Al Shara deposed the former regime in December 2024. Turkey, a main backer of the current government, played a major role in Assad's demise.

Regional security sources say ISIS may have moved its operations closer to Syrian urban areas from the eastern Badia region since Assad's ousting. On August 8, the government said its forces killed two ISIS members who had attempted to target the Damascus suburb of Saida Zeinab with a bomb. The two men were masked and were monitoring roads leading to civilian and military installations in the area, the interior ministry said.

The US and other powers have been cooperating with the new authorities on stabilising the country. However, major security and political issues remain unresolved, particularly revenge attacks against those who collaborated with the former regime, and the future of ethnic and religious minorities in the east and south of the country after government military campaigns in the two areas.

In the south, Israel has been mounting incursions into Syrian territory after setting up a de facto security zone last year, adjacent to the occupied Golan Heights, beyond a demilitarised area stipulated in a 1974 deal.

On Saturday, Israeli forces attacked a car in the nearby town of Beit Jinn. The authorities said it was a civilian vehicle and that the attack wounded several people. The Israeli military said the target was a terrorist who was in the "final stages" of preparing attacks.

A Washington drive to forge peace between Syria and Israel has stalled, while relations between Turkey and Israel have deteriorated in the last three years over Palestine, Lebanon, and Israel's intervention in Syria.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani expected negotiations with ​Israel over security to resume soon, he told Reuters in an interview on Sunday.

Shipments are forecast to drop by more than 14 per cent year-on-year to about 1.07 billion units in 2026, mainly due to soaring component costs, consultancy Counterpoint Research said in a report.

That figure is substantially below the 1.2 billion shipped in 2023, which at the time was the lowest in almost a decade, spurred by economic uncertainty and high inflation that hit consumer sentiment.

Shipments rose 4 per cent to 1.21 billion in 2024, and 3 per cent to 1.25 billion in 2025.

The main culprit for the expected decrease this year — which is making that sentiment worse — is the cost of chipsets and memory units, Hong Kong-based Counterpoint said.

Chip prices have soared due to high demand driven by data centres, amid the artificial intelligence boom. This, in turn, has been passed along the supply chain.

As consumers are balking at higher costs, imminent further increases in the prices of new phones, especially flagships, would limit options for buyers, Hong Kong-based Counterpoint said.

The pressure from higher manufacturing costs points to a pattern that could linger in the longer term, Counterpoint principal analyst Yang Wang said.

“The 2026 decline reflects more than temporarily weak demand. Higher component costs are pushing manufacturers to remove products and configurations that are no longer economically viable, particularly at lower price points," he said.

Apple raised the prices of some of its Macs and iPads in June, and is widely expected to do the same for its next iPhones, expected to be revealed next month. Google, Motorola, Nothing and OnePlus, as well as mid-tier majors Oppo, Realme, Vivo and Xiaomi, have also announced increases.

"The common thread is higher memory and storage costs, alongside tariffs, currencies and increasingly sophisticated components, which suggests that price hikes could continue over the next few product cycles," Charu Chanana, chief investment strategist of Denmark's Saxo Bank, told The National.

"However, this will not be uniform inflation across every device. Premium manufacturers with strong brands can pass on more of the cost. Mass-market producers may instead reduce storage, delay launches or accept weaker margins because their customers are more price-sensitive."

Samsung Electronics, the world's biggest mobile phone maker, raised the prices of its new-generation Galaxy Z foldables. That Apple and Samsung, the smartphone industry's top players which have robust supply chains, were forced to increase prices shows the extent of manufacturing pressures.

A regional Samsung executive acknowledged the challenges to The National, but stressed that the company is working with operators and retailers to provide flexible payment plans for its devices. Apple does not comment on market speculation.

But Seoul-based Samsung is on pace to reclaim the lead in smartphone shipments this year, with its share pegged to rise 0.8 per cent to 22.6 per cent, Counterpoint said. That would edge out Apple, which finished 2025 on top, by a very slim 0.1 per cent.

The top six Chinese mobile phone makers - Huawei Technologies, its former unit Honor, Oppo Group, Transsion Group, Vivo and Xiaomi - are forecast to comprise 45.4 per cent of the market this year. Oppo's other brands include OnePlus and Realme, while Transsion has Infinix, Itel and Tecno in its fold.

Counterpoint expects Samsung to "significantly" outperform the broader market, owing to its wide geographic reach and supply chain depth. The company is also one of the world's top chip makers, which gives it more reliable access to memory and semiconductor supplies. Samsung kept its lead in Middle East smartphone shipments in the second quarter, Omdia said in a report last week.

These factors give Samsung "more flexibility to secure supply, redirect products between markets and maintain availability", Mr Wang said.

"Samsung may accept some pressure on profitability to capture volume share, but that trade-off should still leave it better positioned than most competitors during the downturn."

Counterpoint expects the smartphone market to remain under pressure in 2027 before rebounding more strongly in 2028; it is unclear when chip prices will go down, as AI demand is expected to remain elevated for the foreseeable future.

"Affordability will recover more slowly because higher-cost inventory must first move through the channel," Mr Wang said.

With this expansion, the company is now operating throughout the community’s designated street parking areas.

Parkonic has been operating in Silicon Oasis since early this year and the most recent expansion came into effect on Thursday, August 21.

According to the operator, there are two kinds of parking areas in the district: P107, which functions as a paid car park 24 hours a day, and P112, where parking is paid between 8am and 10pm and free between 10pm and 7.59am.

The amount you have to pay for parking depends on the time of day. In each zone, the charge is Dh4 per hour from the start of the paid period until 4pm. It then increases to Dh6 per hour between 4pm and 8pm. In P107, the rate goes back to Dh4 per hour between 8pm and midnight, while in P112 it is Dh4 per hour from 8pm until 1am.

Parking is free on Sundays and public holidays.

Motorists can find out the applicable parking hours by checking the zone code displayed on the nearest parking sign. Signs identify the areas as either P107 or P112.

Parkonic added that its app's integration with Salik gives motorists another method of payment when using the extended parking network.

Parkonic expansion

Parkonic has expanded its services to several areas in Dubai. Paid parking was introduced at Wafi Mall earlier this month, with the company saying the system provides three free hours each day, after which there is a charge of Dh15 for the period for the fourth hour, and Dh10 for each additional hour or part of an hour.

Before that, Discovery Gardens changed to paid on-street parking on January 15. Residents who park in on-street parking areas must have an active Parkonic parking tenancy; if they do not, they will be charged at the visitor rate.

Yas Marina in Abu Dhabi also features a ticketless, barrier-free Parkonic smart parking system using automatic number plate recognition. Rates are Dh20 for the first hour and Dh10 for each subsequent hour, with automatic deductions via Salik or payments via SMS or the app. Dine-in guests get three hours free, and gym users get up to six hours free upon validation.

More paid parking to come

Mohamed Al Ali, chief executive of another operator, Parkin, told The National earlier this week that Dubai drivers could expect to see an extension of paid parking as the city continued to evolve.

Parkin currently operates 268,300 paid parking spaces across Dubai, up more than a quarter from 211,500 a year ago as new areas have been brought under its management.

“Parking is reaching every single person here,” he said. “We can see continued urban expansion, changing mobility patterns, and the growing expectations for smarter and more seamless services.

“Parking is a service, as simple as that. This is what you are paying for, that service in an advanced city. As the city expands, our parking spaces will expand with it.”

The new tariffs ordered by US President Donald ⁠Trump cover hundreds of Canadian goods, including plywood, liquor, electrical equipment and hockey gear. They affect about 5 per cent of Canada’s exports to the US.

Mr Carney said Canada would respond “dollar for dollar”, aiming at US steel, dairy, appliances, agricultural equipment, pulp and paper, electronics and other goods.

“In the coming days, we will release the details of these new tariff measures,” Mr Carney said. The duties will come into effect on September 8.

In response, Mr Trump accused Canada of seeking the advantages of being a US state without actually being one. "Canada wants the benefits of being a state, without being one! They have also charged our great farmers, for many years, massive amounts of tariffs. No more!" he wrote on Truth Social.

The Canadian move follows three days of intensive negotiations that both governments had hoped would produce a deal and avert the new US tariffs.

Instead, talks broke down late Friday. Mr Carney blamed Washington, saying its final proposals were “uneconomic, unfair” and undermined the benefits Canada would receive from an agreement.

“This was not our choice,” Mr Carney said. “We were ready and close to having a comprehensive agreement that would be fair to both countries.”

The Prime Minister said the US then introduced demands involving Canadian sovereignty, the French language, and Quebec and Canadian culture.

“That is not acceptable. That would never be acceptable,” Mr Carney said. He added that Canada would not compromise on protecting its languages or culture.

Mr Carney said Washington also sought restrictions on Canada’s ability to negotiate future trade agreements with other countries. “We cannot accept what they have offered, and we will not give what they have asked,” he said.

The US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer gave an opposite account, accusing Canada of making new demands and backing away from commitments reached during the negotiations.

Mr Greer called the collapse “a missed opportunity for Canada to partner with the United States” and said Washington was moving ahead with measures responding to Canadian retaliation.

Trade pact threatened

The breakdown came after Mr Trump briefly delayed his tariffs to give negotiators more time. That three-day window had raised hopes of a deal before the new duties took effect Saturday.

The new US tariffs are being imposed under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a rarely used provision giving the president authority to impose duties on countries considered to be discriminating against US commerce.

The measures exclude some of Canada’s most important exports to the US, including oil, potash and critical minerals. Canada remains the largest foreign supplier of crude oil and petroleum products to the US.

The new tariffs nevertheless add to existing US duties on Canadian steel, aluminium, timber and cars. The combined pressure threatens to deepen the strain on Canada’s economy and hit vulnerable industries.

Mr Carney said Ottawa would introduce support measures for affected workers and businesses. The government has already committed billions of dollars to help companies withstand the broader tariff dispute.

Canadian business groups warned of a difficult period ahead. The effects are expected to be particularly severe in machinery and electronics, plastics and rubber, furniture, wood, paper, chemicals and cosmetics.

The dispute has affected negotiations to renew the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Mr Trump earlier this year declined to renew the treaty in its current form.

Mr Carney said the latest escalation “calls into question” the future of the continental trade pact.

You’re at war when you get attacked. We got attacked.

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

The Canadian leader also used the collapse to argue for a fundamental shift in his country’s economic strategy.

“America has changed,” Mr Carney said, recalling his earlier warning that US commitments could no longer be taken for granted. “Its signature was written in pencil.”

He said Canada would accelerate efforts to diversify its trade and reduce its dependence on the US.

“Building at home and diversifying trade abroad is not our Plan B,” Mr Carney said. “It has been our Plan A from the start.”

Asked whether Canada was now in a trade war with its largest trading partner, Mr Carney offered the bluntest description yet.

“You are at war when you get attacked,” he said. “We got attacked.”

The escalation comes as Washington and Tehran show little sign of returning to negotiations, despite continuing diplomatic efforts and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian calling for the war to end.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the planned sanctions amounted to an attempt by Washington to impose its authority on independent states. “Such secondary sanctions find no foundation in international law,” Mr Baghaei said on social media.

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent is due to announce the measures on Monday after threatening to impose “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran.

US President Donald Trump has also warned countries against providing Tehran with “any type of lifeline”, putting particular pressure on China, which buys more than 80 per cent of Iran’s seaborne oil exports, Kpler data shows.

The pressure is already being felt in Iran, where the central bank governor said last week that the country’s oil exports had effectively fallen to zero and access to foreign currency had become increasingly constrained.

“There is no doubt that we have restrictions on oil exports,” Governor Abdolnaser Hemmati said on state television. He said counterparts overseas had told him revenue from Iranian oil sales had “fallen to zero”. “The same thing has happened to us and it is a reality that we are not exporting oil.”

We tell all countries around us: do not join the US in its economic war, otherwise, we will regard you as an enemy.

Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council

Mohsen Rezaei, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said countries co-operating with Washington would be regarded as enemies and could have their interests attacked.

“We tell all countries around us: do not join the US in its economic war, otherwise, we will regard you as an enemy,” Mr Rezaei said in an interview broadcast on state television.

He warned that co-operation could halt oil exports throughout the Gulf. “Not a single drop of oil will leave the Gulf or the Strait of Hormuz,” Mr Rezaei said, adding that Iran could also attack other routes used to export oil.

He said the strait would remain closed until Washington changed course, while insisting Tehran retained responsibility for managing the waterway.

Pakistan bid to revive diplomacy

Maritime traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has already fallen dramatically.

On Saturday, Iraqi President Nizar Amidi said Iran had granted permission for several Iraqi oil tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, after repeated requests from Baghdad as the waterway remained disrupted by the regional conflict.

The disruption is forcing Gulf states to consider alternatives to the waterway. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman travelled to France, where he was expected to discuss alternative maritime routes, pipelines and regional rail projects with President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday.

Diplomatic contacts were continuing alongside the threats. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said he spoke by telephone with Pakistan’s army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, about regional developments and ways to strengthen peace, stability and security.

The call came as Iran said Pakistan's army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, would visit Tehran on Monday at the head of an official delegation, as Islamabad seeks to help advance regional peace and security.

The immediate negotiating environment remains hostile, however. Washington said it would impose further economic pressure after a 60-day period to reach an agreement expired on Monday. The understanding reached through mediators had included significant concessions to Iran in return for allowing ships to pass freely through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran's President has struck a markedly different tone from Iran’s security establishment. “It is better to end the war today, when we are in power and dignity and the whole world acknowledges our victory,” Mr Pezeshkian said.

He also defended the earlier negotiations with Washington, describing the resulting memorandum as a major agreement reached with Iran’s “dignity” and “strength”.

The sanctions could test Washington’s relationship with Beijing as much as its pressure on Tehran. China is Iran’s dominant oil customer, meaning measures targeting buyers, shipping companies or financial intermediaries could directly affect Chinese trade.

Washington has urged Beijing to co-operate, while China has called for diplomacy and opposed unilateral pressure.

For Iran, sanctions combined with restricted oil exports threaten deeper economic damage after months of conflict. For Gulf states, the continuing disruption of the Strait of Hormuz is exposing the risks of relying on a single maritime chokepoint for energy exports.

It took Toney just five minutes to break the deadlock as he capitalised on some great work by new Armenian midfielder Eduard Spertsyan to sweep home.

It was 2-0 in under 10 minutes as Galeno was chopped down in the box and Toney dispatched the spot-kick.

The third arrived in spectacular fashion as Francisco Trincao scored his first goal in Saudi football. The Portugal winger picked up the ball 30 yards from goal and let fly with an unstoppable left-footed strike. Trincao then set up Toney for his third, with the Ahli striker powering home a shot after being fed inside the box.

It was his sixth SPL hat-trick, and he now has 58 goals in 64 games since his move from Brentford.

Elsewhere, Al Kholood scored three first-half goals and then held on to beat Al Taawoun 3-2. Scottish defender Jack Hendry scored the only goal as Al Ettifaq won 1-0 on the road at Al Fateh.

Ronaldo bags goal number 977

On Friday, Cristiano Ronaldo got his season up and running with his 977th career goal as he came off the bench to help Al Nassr to a 4-0 win over Al Riyadh.

Ronaldo was back in the match day squad for the first time since the World Cup and his recent wedding, but was named on the bench by new boss Ange Postecoglou.

The 41-year-old came on in the 62nd minute with his side already cruising at 3-0 up, thanks to goals from Abdulelah Al Amri, Angelo Gabriel and Joao Felix.

Ronaldo then scored a terrific goal as he collected a low cross and lost his man in one movement before sweeping the ball home.

The effort moved him closer to the 1,000-goal milestone and was his 130th goal for Al Nassr in all competitions.

“I said after last game that it was important for Cris to take his time to come back, because he was very, very busy obviously in the off-season,” Postecoglou said.

“His mentality is he always wants to play, but he made sure he did all the right things – at training he worked hard – and it was fantastic for him to get 30 minutes today.

“And he scores a goal, which just shows you the measure of the man.”

In parallel, he is co-founder of Golchi, the travel-bottle start-up that raised more than $400,000 from 5,000 backers on Kickstarter.

In his spare time, he’s a strategic mentor at Founder Mode Bootcamp, a 12-week accelerator programme helping youngsters aged 13 to 20 to launch and fund companies.

The Delhi-born engineer spent 12 years in the US before relocating to Dubai with his family in December 2024. Today, he earns around Dh2.5 million ($680,000) a year across his corporate salary and a diversified portfolio of US equities, bonds, gold and real estate investments.

How did money feature in your childhood?

I was born into a middle-class family, so money was always highly valued. My parents instilled a great level of discipline in my sister and me in terms of how you value money, how you use it to unlock convenience in life – but more than that, how you actually use it to upgrade yourself, upskill yourself and continuously evolve.

We never felt that we were squeezed, but we never felt opulent either.

But things have changed, with the power of education and skill-building. Money has always been, and I think it'll always be, based on a value system, an important equation in our life. We never felt that we were squeezed, but we never felt opulent either.

But things have changed, with the power of education and skill-building. Money has always been, and I think it'll always be, based on a value system, an important equation in our life.

What was your first job? What did you earn?

I am a civil engineer by training. I went to the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur – IIT Kanpur – and my first job out of college was designing bridges and highways. I did that for six months.

That first job gave me a cash flow I had never seen in my life before. I was earning close to $500 a month back in the day. It was in India, so at that age, when you’re in your early 20s, that meant a lot.

Did you face any early financial challenges?

I won't say we had any sort of hardship but, given financial resources were limited, we learnt very early in life how to stay within our means and how to optimise – where to spend and how to save money.

We learnt the art of getting the maximum value out of money at a very early stage. And one realisation I had is that money will come and go, but the skills you develop, the personality you develop, will stay with you for the rest of your life and will keep unlocking your earning potential. That's actually part of what drives Founder Mode Bootcamp. We want to give teenagers the opportunity to learn a new trade, upgrade themselves, upskill themselves and launch new, innovative ideas in the market.

How do you earn money now?

I had a very early realisation that I wanted to be operating at a more strategic front – figuring out how to grow a business, how I add scale, how I take a business to the next level. That's what took me to my MBA at Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management.

I now have my regular corporate income, which is one of the most stable and healthy cash flows we have. And we have diversified investments – stocks, bonds, gold and some passive real estate – a mix designed both for long-term wealth creation and near-term cash flow generation.

The idea is that even if we decide down the road that we want to pull the plug on the job and completely immerse into entrepreneurship, we have a safety net of regular cash flow to sustain us while we break through something. The boot camp is pre-revenue at this stage, so it's not yet contributing to that picture.

Would you describe yourself as a spender or a saver?

My wife would have a very different opinion but at least what I believe is I'm somewhere in the middle. Given what I shared about money being a very important part of my early childhood, I do tend to save for future needs – retirement, the kids' education, things that require a significant amount of investment. But I also believe in investments that give me my time back, that give me convenience, that help me upgrade and upskill.

What has been your best investment?

I would answer that on two fronts. The money we have invested in the US equity market – it has been a recurring investment and, given the way the US equity market has appreciated, it has given me a very strong, risk-adjusted return.

On a more personal front, last year we got a Louis Vuitton bag for my wife. It made her really happy and I'm really proud of that.

What financial advice would you give your younger self?

Three things. One, money should never be the driver – it should always be an outcome. The driver should be what really unlocks your passion, what you want to pursue. Get really good at something and money will be an obvious outcome.

I'm at a stage in my life where a lot of the materialistic pleasures are already taken care of. But experiences do matter

Two, always be passionate about doing something of your own. Even if you don't think of that as a long-term plan, I think everybody should try entrepreneurship once in life to actually make an informed decision.

And three, we never know when we might actually have a rainy day, so always save for your worst possible day.

What luxuries matter to you?

I'm at a stage in my life where a lot of the materialistic pleasures are already taken care of. But experiences do matter. Spending time with the family, taking them to new experiences, making sure the kids have access to new places, going on holiday together – things that help me explore the world across new dimensions.

The Slovenian, bidding to win the only Grand Tour to elude him, broke the heart of Britain's Ethan Hayter to win the 9.4km individual time trial by 0.09 seconds.

Rolling down the start ramp out of Monte Carlo's glitzy ​casino, UAE Team Emirates star Pogacar tore ‌around the ⁠narrow and twisty ​course and made ​up ‌time late on to snatch ⁠the victory.

Britain's Josh Tarling finished ⁠an emotional third fastest having decided to race eight days after the death of ​his brother Fin at the Volta a Portugal.

For the 27-year-old Pogacar, it was his 36th Grand Tour stage victory, adding to the six Giro d’Italia and 26 Tour de France stage wins in his illustrious palmares. Returning to the Vuelta for the first time since his third-place finish as a Grand Tour rookie in 2019, he tops the general classification after the first day of racing.

Tadej Pogacar, 𝑷𝒓𝒊́𝒏𝒄𝒊𝒑𝒆 𝒅𝒆 𝑴𝒐́𝒏𝒂𝒄𝒐

El marciano. Una vez más. Rebaja el tiempo de Hayter en nueve centésimas y se enfunda el primer maillot rojo.#LaVuelta26 #LaCasadelCiclismo pic.twitter.com/qas3sLAkjU

— Eurosport.es (@Eurosport_ES) August 22, 2026

Pogacar said: “It’s a weird feeling to win the opening time trial by such a small margin. I was not expecting it. And this red is a really nice colour. For sure, I think I gained that 0.09 seconds when we passed in front of my apartment, because that was the most technical part of the course. I walk and cycle there every day. Even though it’s completely different in a race, knowing these roads super well helped me a lot today.

“When I was going to the start line, I saw that Josh [Tarling] had the best time. I really wanted him to win today, I was rooting for him. Then I came to the intermediate, and I heard a different name, it was Ethan Hayter in front of me by three seconds. I gave it all, without taking risks. And I would really like to see Josh perform well in this Vuelta.

“[Keeping the Red Jersey for three weeks] is going to be tough. Already tomorrow, some guys can break away or take it with bonus seconds. It’s going to be tight for the Red Jersey, and we can see some shuffling in the GC.”

Elsewhere, UAE Team Emirates-XRG made a strong showing across the board in Monaco, with Jay Vine, Ivo Oliveira, and Joao Almeida all finishing inside the top 20.

Vuelta a Espana Stage 1 results:

1. Tadej Pogacar (UAE Team Emirates-XRG) 10:57

2. Ethan Hayter (Soudal Quick-Step) +0.09″

3. Joshua Tarling (Netcompany INEOS) +4″

It aims to increase collaboration across high-growth services sectors by establishing clear rules and protections for services trade and cross-border investment, the Ministry of Foreign Trade said.

The trade in services and investment agreement (Tisia) will "reduce barriers to market entry, facilitate the movement of professionals and create a more predictable environment for businesses operating across both markets", the ministry said.

It will focus on sectors including FinTech, healthcare, transport, logistics and professional services.

The Tisia was signed on August 8 last year in Moscow during President Sheikh Mohamed's visit to Russia.

"The entry into force of the UAE-Russia Tisia, alongside the economic partnership agreement with the EAEU [Eurasian Economic Union], represents the full activation of a comprehensive trade and investment framework that will unlock significant opportunities for businesses and investors in both nations," said Dr Thani Al Zeyoudi, UAE Minister of Foreign Trade.

The EAEU comprises five member states: Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan with a combined GDP of nearly $5 trillion. The UAE signed an economic partnership agreement with the EAEU in 2025 covering trade in goods at the regional level.

Russia is a major economic partner for the UAE, with bilateral non-oil trade reaching $20.4 billion last year, a 77.7 per cent increase compared with 2024, the ministry said.

The deal with Russia is part of the UAE's broader foreign trade agenda, which aims to increase non-oil trade to $1.1 trillion by 2031. The country is investing heavily in trade and logistics infrastructure, including modern seaports and airports to attract foreign investors.

The UAE’s non-oil foreign trade surged 26 per cent annually to exceed $1 trillion for the first time in 2025. Non-oil exports during the year rose 45 per cent to $221 billion.

To support its trade ambitions, the UAE has concluded 38 Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements (Cepas) with countries around the world since the programme was launched in September 2021.

The programme aims to reduce tariffs and remove trade bottlenecks through simplified customs procedures and rules.

The Emirates has Cepas in place with India, Turkey, Jordan, Serbia and Vietnam, with 18 such deals currently in force.

The latest to enter into force, on July 1, was the Cepa with Ukraine. Under the agreement, 99 per cent of Ukrainian imports of UAE goods and 97 per cent of Ukrainian exports to the Emirates will be exempt from customs duties with immediate effect. The deal is estimated to contribute $369 million to the UAE’s GDP and $874 million to Ukraine’s by 2031.

Last month, the UAE also finalised a Cepa with Canada. The country also expects to conclude Cepas this year with Bangladesh, the EU, Peru, Ghana, Rwanda and Zambia.

He was at the heart of one of Barcelona’s greatest sides, won nine La Liga titles and four Uefa Champions Leagues and scored the extra-time goal against the Netherlands to help Spain win their first World Cup in 2010. Now, at the age of 42, one of the greatest midfielders of his generation has chosen to step into coaching with Gulf United FC.

The Dubai club is competing in the UAE First Division, one tier below the Pro League. Rather than begin at an established European club or wait for a more glamorous appointment, Iniesta has chosen a young club founded in 2019 whose project is built around developing players and giving them a pathway into professional football.

At his unveiling on Saturday, Iniesta explained why the UAE had become the setting for his first foray into coaching and why he had chosen Gulf United. “It’s easy for me, for us as a family. We have been living here for three years. My last year I played here in the UAE,” Iniesta said, pointing to his time playing for Emirates Club.

“When I got to know the people around the club, around the team, it was easy to decide that this is a very good place to start. The programme, the project is amazing. I love to work with young players, with talented players, and to help them improve.”

🦅 Dubai dreams bigger.
And some stories deserve another chapter.
Marhaba, Andrés Iniesta.

دبي دائماً تطمح بشكل أكبر.
وبعض القصص تستحق فصلاً جديداً.

مرحباً، أندريس إنييستا. 🦅@andresiniesta8 pic.twitter.com/tUQqbqQ10n

— Gulf United FC (@GulfUnitedFC) June 1, 2026

There is also an awareness that this is the beginning of his education as much as theirs.

Few players enter coaching with a playing CV as decorated as Iniesta’s, but he spoke repeatedly about the need to learn rather than assume his success on the pitch automatically translates to the dugout.

“For me, as an individual challenge, it is amazing,” he said. “I also have to learn, I have to improve with my staff, with my players. It’s an amazing challenge for me.”

The surroundings may be more modest than the stages Iniesta occupied for most of his career, but his ambitions are not. Asked what he expects from his first season, the Spaniard is keen to transmit the mentality he possessed as a player.

“Expectations are always high. All my life I worked or I played for the best position, the highest position. This has to be our mentality,” he said.

“Of course, it’s not easy. We have to work a lot because it’s the only way to be better, to improve. But I believe in our players. I believe in the mentality they have, the quality they have.”

For Iniesta, though, the pursuit of results is as essential as the development of young players. Gulf United have placed youth at the centre of their ethos, and Iniesta believes veteran experience and emerging talent can complement one another.

“Our mentality is to win, but I believe you are closer to winning when you are doing good things, the right things,” he said. “It’s not about luck. When teams win, it’s because they do many things well. Football is always about the mix. We are lucky because, speaking about the first team, we have a very good mix.”

Iniesta was equally clear about the need for UAE clubs to place greater faith in Emirati players. Having plied his craft in Spain, Japan and the UAE, Iniesta resisted making direct comparisons between the different footballing cultures and instead argued that clubs need clear projects that allow local talent to develop.

“The quality is good,” he said when asked about Emirati players. “The coaches, the teams, everyone has to trust in the players. Of course they have quality, but it is about what we want to do with our players.

“I know professional football is always about winning, but each team or each club has to have a project about the local players because also it’s nice to see our players in our national team.”

His message to the young players within Gulf United’s academy was similarly simple. Talent matters, but Iniesta believes opportunity is only useful when a player is capable of exploiting it.

“Every day you have to dream,” he said. “You want to be a professional player, you have to dream about the best thing you can do and every day is very important. Not every team believes in the same thing as Gulf United believes in. This is one thing that is very important for you to know.”

When one parent asked what single piece of advice he would give the club’s youngsters, Iniesta spoke of enjoyment of the game. “Enjoy and be ready to learn,” he said. “To be a professional player is very difficult. It’s very, very, very difficult. The only way is learn, improve and enjoy.”

For Gulf United, there is obvious prestige in having Iniesta on the touchline. For Iniesta, the appeal lies in learning a new profession while attempting to create opportunities for players striving to develop. “Football one day can change your life,” he said. “But if you are not ready, it’s impossible for your life to change.”

The MV Ocean Winner was carrying 72,100 tonnes of iron ore fines when it sank about 445km from Paradip port in Odisha, the Indian Coast Guard said.

The crew comprised 20 Chinese, three Myanmar nationals and one Bangladeshi. Two Chinese crew members were rescued from lifeboats, while a search for the remaining 22 was under way.

The vessel had departed Paradip, a major port on India’s east coast, on Friday, carrying iron ore bound for China, according to an initial report prepared by India’s Maritime Administration. The ship lost contact with maritime rescue authorities on Saturday before sinking in the Bay of Bengal.

The Coast Guard sent the ships Anmol, Varad and Vijay to the area, alongside Indian Navy vessels and aircraft, to assist with the search.

The two survivors were recovered from lifeboats by the commercial vessel MT Isopos, according to Indian media reports. The pair said the vessel began listing on Friday and sank within eight minutes, forcing the crew to abandon ship, Shyam Jagannathan, director general of India’s Maritime Administration, told Reuters.

Mr Jagannathan said the chances of finding survivors generally fall sharply after 12 hours, but rescuers were continuing the search.

The Indian Navy said it was closely co-ordinating with the Coast Guard to locate the remaining crew.

The Coast Guard sent two vessels from Sri Vijaya Puram, formerly known as Port Blair, a representative said.

Government sources said the vessel sank about 445km from Paradip port.

The cause of the sinking was not immediately known. Indian authorities have not said whether the vessel encountered severe weather, mechanical problems or other difficulty before it went down.

Capt Alekha Charan Sahoo, deputy conservator of the Paradip Port Authority, said he was praying for the safety of the crew and hoping for the best.

The vessel’s operator, Victory Star Group, contacted Indian authorities after communication with the ship was lost, according to Indian media reports. The ship’s ownership could not immediately be independently established.

Current highlights include A Board Game Adventure at Louvre Abu Dhabi, an exhibition that traces the journey of games including chess, Mancala, Ludo and Carrom as they travelled between ancient civilisations and evolved into those still played today; Precarious Beings at Tashkeel, Hamad Al Muzaini’s first solo exhibition, which examines how people adapt to cities and the everyday behaviours that shape urban spaces; and Body Quotidian at Sharjah Art Foundation, which places recent works by Laila Majid and Inaam Zafar in dialogue.

Together, the exhibitions reflect a wide range of practices across the country, from photography and works on paper to sculpture, design, craft and painting.

Here are 12 exhibitions to see across the UAE.

1. Seeing Ourselves at Bassam Freiha Art Foundation

Seeing Ourselves is a student-led photography exhibition developed through a year-long collaboration between Bassam Freiha Art Foundation and the College of Arts and Creative Enterprises at Zayed University.

The exhibition positions Emirati students as image-makers documenting their own experiences of the UAE through architectural, portrait and landscape photography. It was conceived partly as a response to the Bassam Freiha Private Collection, shifting authorship towards contemporary Emirati perspectives and allowing young artists to present the country.

The project brought together students from photography, graphic design and visual arts programmes. They worked across the stages of exhibition-making, including installation, branding, design and curatorial development.

Until August 31; Abu Dhabi

2. Spectrum: Becoming Visible, Becoming Image at Manarat Al Saadiyat

Spectrum showcases the work of the fourth cohort of Manarat Al Saadiyat's Photographer-in-Residence Programme, bringing together 10 UAE-based photographers and visual artists whose practices expand the possibilities of image-making. Developed over a four-month residency under the mentorship of photography expert Jassem Rabee Al Awadi, the exhibition marks the culmination of a programme combining research, critical exchange and studio practice.

Presented under the theme Becoming Visible: Becoming Image, the exhibition approaches photography as more than a documentary medium. Through photography, video, sculpture, textiles and mixed-media installation, the participating artists explore recurring motifs including stars, pearls, ghaf trees, the human body and everyday life, treating them as evolving symbols rather than fixed subjects.

The exhibition features work by Emirati, regional and international artists based in the UAE, reflecting Abu Dhabi's growing role as a centre for cross-cultural artistic exchange. Together, the works offer new perspectives on identity, memory, landscape and materiality while highlighting the diverse voices emerging from the country's photography and visual arts community.

As the culmination of Manarat Al Saadiyat's flagship residency programme, Spectrum also reflects the institution's role in nurturing creative talent through mentorship, studio access and public exhibition opportunities, providing a platform for the next generation of photographers and visual artists.

Until September 1; Abu Dhabi

3. The Two Walks: Works on Paper Selected by Judy Karkour at Carbon 12

The Two Walks brings together new and archival works on paper by 14 artists at Carbon 12 in Alserkal Avenue.

Selected by artist Judy Karkour, the exhibition considers paper not as a preparatory material, but as a complete and expressive medium in its own right. The works range from drawing and collage to mixed media, using paper to explore memory, abstraction, environmental fragility, urban development and inner emotional states.

Participating artists include Sarah Almehairi, Amir Khojasteh, Bernhard Buhmann, Faris Alshafar, Nour Malas, Solimar Miller, Amba Sayal-Bennett, Andre Butzer, Monika Grabuschnigg, Mayar Obedo, Nadine Ghandour, Edgar Orlaineta, Olaf Breuning and Philip Mueller.

Until September 5; Dubai

4. Human in the Loop at 421 Arts Campus

Human in the Loop is the first institutional solo exhibition by artist and engineer Ahmad AlAttar, transforming a concept from robotics and artificial intelligence into an interactive game of sound, touch and discovery.

The installation invites visitors to search for an unseen algorithm hidden within the gallery space. By pulling hanging ropes and listening to subtle changes in an evolving soundscape, participants gradually learn how the system responds. Glitches, distortions and bursts of sound act as clues, guiding visitors towards the algorithm before it relocates and the process begins again.

Drawing on AlAttar’s background in robotics engineering, the work explores the increasingly blurred relationship between humans and technology. The title references systems that rely on human input, but the installation questions whether people are directing technology or whether technology is quietly shaping human behaviour.

Developed through 421’s Artistic Development Programme, the work combines physical interaction with digital systems, encouraging visitors to reflect on attention, control and the ways technology influences everyday life. As participants become absorbed in the search, the installation raises broader questions about what is gained, and what is overlooked, when people allow themselves to be guided by algorithms.

Until September 13; Abu Dhabi

5. Time That Grows Slowly at Dom Art Projects

Curated by Alexander Burenkov, Time That Grows Slowly brings together 12 artists in an exhibition that considers time through the rhythms of plant life, proposing growth, decay and regeneration as alternatives to conventional ideas of linear progress.

The exhibition asks whether it is possible to perceive the world from a vegetal perspective, drawing attention to the often overlooked ways human existence depends on plants, from the oxygen we breathe and food we consume to the rhythms of agriculture and settlement. Site-specific installations explore ideas of care and communication between species while engaging with ecological, feminist, philosophical and postcolonial concerns.

Participating artists include Maha Alasaker, Srijon Chowdhury, Odonchimeg Davaadorj, Patricia Dominguez, Kwama Frigaux, Mevlana Lipp, Sulafa Mohammed, Tabita Rezaire, Shaima Shamsi, Farah Soltani, Antoine Renard and Nadia Waheed, with several exhibiting in Dubai for the first time.

Until September 13; Dubai

6. In Plain Sight at Gallery Isabelle

Alia Zaal’s latest solo exhibition offers an intimate exploration of the UAE landscape through paintings, works on paper and ceramic pieces that focus on fragments rather than sweeping vistas. Drawing inspiration from locations including Al Khawaneej in Dubai and the mangroves and mudflats of Abu Dhabi, the artist turns her attention to details of familiar trees and plants, creating works shaped as much by memory as by observation.

Rather than treating the landscape as a fixed subject, Zaal examines how it is perceived, remembered and reconstructed. Many of the paintings begin as smartphone photographs before being digitally altered through cropping, zooming and distortion. These interventions become part of the final work, reflecting the artist’s interest in how vision is shaped by context, technology and personal experience.

The exhibition is informed by the ideas of the 11th-century scholar Ibn Al Haytham, whose pioneering work on optics argued that sight is an active process influenced by memory and interpretation. Zaal extends these ideas through paintings that suggest the landscape is never entirely objective, but constantly transformed by the viewer’s perspective and lived experience.

Personal history also plays a role. Inspired in part by her father's difficulty in distinguishing certain colours, the exhibition approaches vision as something individual and incomplete rather than universal. Through close-up views of ghaf trees, mangroves and other familiar environments, In Plain Sight presents the Gulf landscape as a space of memory, perception and emotional connection.

Until September 15; Dubai

7. In Abstracto, In Concreto: On Memory and Presence at Efie Gallery

In Abstracto, In Concreto: On Memory and Presence brings together four artists of African descent whose works move between figuration and abstraction to explore identity, memory and diasporic experience.

Curated by Brice Arsene Yonkeu, the exhibition features Luke Agada, Ludovic Nkoth, Naila Opiangah and Tunji Adeniyi-Jones. Across painting and charcoal drawing, the artists use the human body as a site where personal histories, cultural inheritance and imagination intersect.

Agada’s fluid compositions draw on the idea of the “third space”, presenting identity as something hybrid and unstable. Nkoth uses ambiguous settings and obscured expressions to create scenes shaped by the viewer’s own experiences, while Opiangah reduces figures to faceless silhouettes that assemble into architectural forms. Adeniyi-Jones draws from Yoruba mythology and culture, using vivid palettes and figures that gradually emerge from fields of colour and pattern.

Together, the works challenge straightforward readings of figurative painting and consider how abstraction can reveal the complexity of bodies shaped by movement, belonging and life across cultures.

Until September 17; Dubai

8. Tangerine Dreams at Ayyam Gallery

Tangerine Dreams brings together artists from different generations around the simple subject of the colour orange. The group exhibition explores how a single hue can evoke contrasting associations, moving between warmth and intensity, celebration and nostalgia.

Works by artists including Sama Alshaibi, Abdalla Al Omari, Tammam Azzam, Thaier Helal, Leila Nseir, Faisal Samra, Khaled Takreti and Kais Salman use orange as a starting point to explore memory, landscape, identity and transformation. Across painting, photography and mixed media, the colour shifts between references to sunlight, fire, fruit and changing horizons.

The exhibition is accompanied by Irish poet Roisin Kelly's Oranges, which uses the act of selecting fruit as a metaphor for intimacy and desire. Its inclusion extends the show's exploration of colour beyond the visual, connecting orange with touch, scent, instinct and memory.

Until September 18; Dubai

9. Body Quotidian at Sharjah Art Foundation

Body Quotidian brings together recent works by Laila Majid and Inaam Zafar in an exhibition exploring the human body through metaphor, material and everyday experience.

Curated by Raja’a Khalid, assistant curator at Sharjah Art Foundation, the exhibition places Majid and Zafar’s sculptures, photographs and paintings in dialogue with one another. While their practices differ, both artists approach the body indirectly, through surfaces, silhouettes, domestic spaces and the materials that suggest flesh, heat, touch and presence.

The exhibition considers how bodies are perceived, altered and contained, particularly as technology continues to reshape ideas of youth, beauty and truth. Across the works, the body often appears in partial or suggested form, moving between intimacy, play, desire and mortality.

Until September 20; Sharjah

10. Vantage Point 13 at Sharjah Art Foundation

Vantage Point 13 marks a new chapter for Sharjah Art Foundation's long-running photography platform as it moves into the institution's dedicated photography gallery. Selected through an international open call, six artists present newly commissioned photographic series developed with the foundation's curatorial and production support.

The exhibition features work by Adam Rouhana, Guanyu Xu, Latifa AlBokhari, Luisa Dorr, Maheder Haileselassie and Sathish Kumar. Together, their projects demonstrate the breadth of contemporary lens-based practice, reflecting the programme's evolution from a platform for UAE-based photographers into an international exhibition embracing diverse approaches to photography.

Introduced in 2013, Vantage Point has become one of the UAE's key photography initiatives. This edition also reflects the foundation's expanded commitment to supporting new work, with participating artists receiving production funding to create original projects specifically for the exhibition.

Until November 29; Sharjah

11. Precarious Beings at Tashkeel

Hamad Al Muzaini’s first solo exhibition examines the ways people adapt to cities and the everyday behaviours that quietly shape the places they call home. Presented at Tashkeel Nad Al Sheba, the exhibition grew from Al Muzaini’s participation in Tashkeel’s Critical Practice Programme, which supports artists through research, mentorship and the development of new work.

Trained as an architect, the Kuwaiti artist has gradually shifted his focus from designing places to questioning how and why they take shape. His practice considers the built environment through seemingly mundane details, asking what improvised interventions and habits can reveal about the people navigating urban spaces.

Working across photography, drawing and sculpture, Al Muzaini explores how negotiating, circumventing and inhabiting a city can become so routine that these behaviours eventually escape notice. The exhibition uses these observations to raise wider questions about urban planning, territoriality and whether cities adequately respond to the needs of their inhabitants.

September 1 to October 11; Dubai

12. A Board Game Adventure at Louvre Abu Dhabi

A Board Game Adventure transforms Louvre Abu Dhabi into a giant playground, using some of the world's oldest games to explore how people have connected across cultures for thousands of years. Designed for children but engaging for all ages, the exhibition traces the journey of games including chess, Mancala, Ludo and Carrom as they travelled between ancient civilisations and evolved into the games still played today.

The exhibition combines immersive installations with rare artefacts borrowed from international museums, including some of the earliest known board game objects from ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, Iran and India. Highlights include centuries-old chess pieces carved from ivory and rock crystal, engraved backgammon pieces, ancient six-sided dice and one of the earliest known predecessors of Ludo.

Interactive displays encourage visitors to solve puzzles, challenge artificial intelligence, play on oversized game boards and discover how strategy, chance and storytelling have always been part of human play. Throughout the exhibition, historical figures ranging from Queen Nefertari and Achilles to samurai Hatakeyama Shigetada are reimagined through playful “player profiles”, linking games to the personalities and cultures that shaped them.

Rather than presenting games as simple entertainment, A Board Game Adventure reveals them as cultural objects that have crossed borders, adapted to societies and brought people together for millennia.

Until April 25, 2027

E-invoicing is not simply about digitising invoices or meeting a regulatory obligation. It is a business transformation initiative that will alter how organisations generate, exchange, manage and leverage transaction data.

Businesses that approach it strategically will not only meet regulatory requirements, but also unlock greater operational efficiency, stronger governance and more informed decision-making.

The Ministry of Finance has extended the deadline for appointing an accredited service provider (ASP) to October 30 for the businesses under phase 1 of the programme. However, the businesses that start preparing today will be in a far stronger position than those that wait until the final weeks before implementation.

There are four key actions that UAE businesses should prioritise before the October deadline.

Understand your technology and data systems

The starting point for every organisation should be a comprehensive review of its existing technology environment.

Many businesses operate multiple ERP (enterprise resource planning) platforms, billing systems and finance applications, often developed over several years or through acquisitions. E-invoicing requires these systems to work together seamlessly while delivering a significantly broader set of invoice data than many organisations currently maintain.

Businesses should ask themselves several key questions:

• Where does invoice data originate?
• Is the required information already available within existing systems?
• Are there gaps in the quality, completeness or consistency of transactions and master data?
• Can current platforms support e-invoicing requirements without significant modification?

Conducting a detailed gap analysis now will help organisations identify potential issues before they become implementation challenges. The earlier these issues are identified, the easier and more cost-effective they are to resolve.

Business transformation programme

One of the biggest mistakes organisations can make is assuming e-invoicing is solely a tax or finance project.

In reality, e-invoicing touches almost every aspect of the organisation. Finance and tax teams may lead compliance efforts, but successful implementation also requires involvement from technology, procurement, legal, sales, operations and customer-facing functions.

The impact extends well beyond reporting obligations. It affects how invoices are generated, how data is captured, how customer and supplier information is maintained, and how transactions flow across the organisation.

For this reason, UAE businesses should establish executive sponsorship and a clear governance structure as early as possible. A transformation programme requires defined ownership, cross-functional collaboration and accountability.

Organisations that take a business-wide approach will be better positioned to implement e-invoicing efficiently and maximise the long-term value it can create.

Select the right provider

Selecting an ASP should not be viewed purely as a technology or a procurement exercise.

The right provider can become a long-term strategic partner, supporting not only implementation but also continuing compliance, future regulatory changes and the broader evolution of digital tax administration.

Businesses should evaluate providers against several criteria:

• Proven implementation experience
• Understanding of tax and regulatory requirements
• Integration capabilities with existing systems
• Long-term scalability
• Local market knowledge
• Data security and governance capabilities
• Continuing support and advisory services

Organisations should also remember that every ASP may have slightly different functionalities regarding how invoice data is transformed, validated, and submitted. Making the right choice now can significantly reduce complexity throughout the implementation journey.

Focus on data quality, not just compliance

One of the most overlooked aspects of e-invoicing is the value of the data it generates.

Every invoice becomes a structured source of information. With the right approach, organisations can gain deeper insight into transactions, customer behaviour, operational performance and financial trends. However, the value of that insight depends entirely on the quality of the underlying data.

Poor-quality information leads to poor-quality outcomes. Inaccurate, incomplete or inconsistent data creates compliance risks while limiting the organisation’s ability to generate meaningful information.

Strategic opportunity

Greater transparency, improved data quality, and more efficient invoice processing will ultimately benefit businesses, regulators and the wider economy. Organisations that embrace the change early will benefit.

The upcoming mandate should therefore be viewed not as an obligatory checkpoint, but as the start of a broader transformation journey.

Aamer Bhatti is indirect tax partner at EY Mena

This 15-storey block, which dates back to 1974, stands proudly in photographs of early Dubai, with Sheikh Zayed Road cutting its way through the almost empty desert.

It was one of the city’s first towers, a starting point for a frenetic pace of development that would turn this stretch of road into one of the most dramatically built-up locations in the world.

Soon it will be no more; the building’s owner, the Nasser Rashid Lootah Group, has confirmed that it will be demolished next year.

But for me and for thousands of others over the decades, the Toyota building is much more than a milestone in the history of Dubai: it has been a home.

It was my home for about three years after I moved to Dubai in late 2004. By then, the building had already been emphatically eclipsed in height, glamour and comfort by the dazzling skyscrapers of Sheikh Zayed Road, but its relative modesty was a factor in my living there.

The room, rented from a friendly Egyptian man called Hossam, who lived in the flat with his Filipina wife, was inexpensive and included all bills.

The location was another reason as the building, standing next to Interchange One on Sheikh Zayed Road, was a short taxi ride from the offices where I worked at the time.

With its tiled flooring, basic furniture and threadbare curtains, the room (like everything else in the Toyota building) was decidedly no-frills, but it was spacious and I was conscious that I was living in relative luxury compared to many Dubai residents who could afford only a bed space.

Although my landlord and his wife were the only people in the building I tended to chat to, the diversity of the Toyota building’s residents (and the fact that very few other westerners lived there) was part of the appeal. This city within a city was a microcosm of Dubai, with Indian, Pakistani, Arab and Russian residents who all called it home. In the three years that I spent in the building, I don’t think I ever saw another westerner.

My room had air conditioning, but it was courtesy of an extremely noisy wall-mounted unit that I don’t think I ever kept on overnight, preferring to use the large ceiling-mounted fan instead.

On weekdays, I typically restricted use of the air-con to the final few minutes before I left the building to go to work.

Taxis were always prowling the area, and I would have to wait only a minute or two before a cream-coloured Toyota Camry or Nissan Altima would swing by to take me the short distance to the office.

On the ground floor of the building, there was a small shop selling food, stationery and sundry items, run by an elderly man. I used to visit regularly to buy fruit and biscuits.

Inside, the lobby was as unpretentious and functional — even shabby — as the rest of the building, but thankfully, the lifts were almost always working.

Aside from all the practical benefits, one of the key pluses of my home was the setting: my room opened on to its own small balcony with a stunning view down Sheikh Zayed Road, looking towards the Dusit Thani Dubai and the other shiny high-rises.

Sheikh Zayed Road never slept, although in the early hours of the morning, the daytime hordes of traffic mercifully faded to a trickle.

Lacking a car when I lived in Dubai, during summer weekends I would sometimes spend the day in my room reading, venturing outside only in the relative cool of the evening, perhaps to take a bus to Satwa and its Indian restaurants, or to walk down to Jumeirah and the Mercato Shopping Mall.

The service roads beside Sheikh Zayed Road were also good to wander along after dark, always buzzing with people and having plenty of cafes and inexpensive restaurants within walking distance.

Even if I stayed at home, there was always something to see from my balcony. It might simply be the traffic heading for Jumeirah, or it might be one of the cream-coloured minibuses trundling along to collect Emirates cabin crew from one of the five medium-rise buildings on the opposite side of Sheikh Zayed Road. Like the Toyota building, these residential blocks appear in early photographs of the area.

At the time I moved into the Toyota building, the area of Sheikh Zayed Road immediately south of interchange one was, by Dubai standards, relatively undeveloped, but that was to change.

Emerging from the desert was what was to become the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, and I had a grandstand view of its construction from my flat’s bathroom window.

I rather regretted not taking a photo of progress every week or fortnight, as it would have created an impressive time-lapse set of images of the building work.

From late 2007, having taken a job with The National before its April 2008 launch, I commuted to Abu Dhabi in a rental car before moving to the capital.

This almost caused my time in the Toyota building to have a nasty sting in the tail, because once extreme rainfall flooded both the car park and my rental car (a Toyota, of course).

Had the vehicle been ruined, I would have been financially liable, but fortunately the hire car company, after I explained what had happened, charged me just a few hundred dirhams for cleaning.

As I upped sticks for Abu Dhabi, it was not without regret that I moved out of the building: It had provided a fine vantage point from which to view Dubai and its endless activity and growth.

So, when the wrecking ball does its work next year, I am sure I will not be the only past or present resident of Dubai to feel a pang of sadness at the loss of this much-loved building.

My Dubai Rent takes you inside a reader’s home to have a look at what they get for their money, how much they pay in rent and asks them what they like and don’t like. Click here if you would like to take part in the series and show us why your home is so special.

Sarah Donaldson – known professionally as Nurse Sarah Louise – pays Dh690,000 a year for a five-bedroom villa in Al Barsha.

Ms Donaldson, an Australian former nurse who now runs her own consultancy for aesthetic clinics called The Business Injection, lives in the main house with husband and two children, while her team operates out of a detached majlis alongside a four-car, air-conditioned garage that the couple had built.

The National takes a look around.

How did you end up in this property?

The situation pushed us into moving. I was looking to either get a separate office building and keep the house that we had, or put the budget together and get a bigger house with an office that was detached from the house.

We've converted the majlis – it's a traditional outer building – in to a registered business address, with room for staff, a kitchen and, eventually, we're going to knock two rooms through to make it more of an open workspace.

Where else have you lived and how has your rent differed?

We've gone from Dh350,000 to Dh400,000 to Dh690,000. We lived at The Villa – that's quite an expat community, mixed with locals, more modern houses, bigger properties – five-bedroom, private pool. We lived out there for a year, but the location is too far – we do a lot of work in the city.

So we moved to Al Barsha 1, right behind a park. We have a two-year-old. She was only one at the time so it was nice just to have a park next to us.

And then, this third year [in the UAE], we've come into this one.

Why Al Barsha specifically?

We like Al Barsha, we like the location, and we like the privacy of having a full villa. We have quite a small family, but for people that want to visit when they're overseas, you've got the extra bedroom space.

And we spend a lot of time in our home. I know a lot of people say: “Oh, you move to Dubai to be in the warmer weather and be outdoors,” which is true – it's almost like the UK in the winter. In the summer, we stay in the UAE, where generally we don't leave because our work doesn't stop. We work internationally so Christmas time, realistically, is the only time that we get off.

What do you get for Dh690,000?

You get your private pool [and] the biggest thing is the plot size.

The house is five bedrooms plus two lounge rooms, a separate dining, another separate small sitting room, en suites in every bedroom, which is normal, but they're double the size.

And you have the size to be able to do modifications.

What modifications have you done?

We've done all the media walls, all the built-ins. The baby's room has been wallpapered.

The curtain bill was ginormous with floor-to-ceiling windows throughout.

The garage was our biggest modification. We built that from scratch. It's a four-car garage with aircon.

We will modify the pool and put a pergola outside. We will also put in a carport, because it's boiling hot for cars that don't have cover.

Are you allowed to do all this as a tenant?

My husband's quite friendly with the owner, and we were allowed to make all the changes we want to the house. We're here for three years minimum. We put up cameras. We built a garage. We're a dream tenant. And that's why he said: “Go for it – do whatever you want.”

How else have you made it feel like home?

We've made it more “us” just by putting in the furniture that we like, colour co-ordinating things. We have animals, so the animals obviously have their little bits in here.

And just making it warm: lots of rugs, lots of colours. We're just getting our artworks put up now.

What's around the area?

There's a little park they've just built for the kids – AstroTurf, an air-conditioned room. We're six minutes from Dubai Hills Mall, nine minutes from the Palm, four minutes to JVC Circle Mall. All the schools are here – we're just at the back of all the main ones.

My 16-year-old is in online school, so it doesn't matter, and the two-year-old is at a nursery back in Al Barsha 1.

Any thought of buying instead?

We buy investment properties – smaller ones that you can rent out and get a bigger yield from. In these types of homes, we don't believe in buying to live. We invest our money in businesses and things that give us rental return quite quickly.

But if we could buy this property tomorrow, we would – because we love the area. And especially if you've paid off three years of rent, that would go towards the cost. But when you're looking to rent somewhere stable and make it home, it's just about finding a landlord that will give you the longevity.

In Saturday's early game, Hull powered to an impressive win over Manchester United who were looking to start the new campaign with a bang after last season's third-place finish and Uefa Champions League qualification.

But Michael Carrick's side looked well off the pace from the start against Hull – who won the Championship play-off final against Middlesbrough in May to seal promotion – with the home side sealing all three points thanks to first-half goals from defensive duo Semi Ajayi and Nobel Mendy at MKM Stadium.

“It's just one game, we're disappointed we haven't won,” Carrick insisted. “It's not more than that, it's not less than that. We've got to soak it up and come back stronger.”

The Tigers 2-0 victory was their first ever top-flight win against United in their first Premier League game since 2017. “It means a lot, we were organised, and it was very good for us,” said manager Sergej Jakirovic. “The players stick to a tactical plan. We suffer because we play against Manchester United but we punished the opponent.”

2 - In Hull City and Ipswich Town, this is just the fourth Premier League season to see two newly promoted sides win their opening league game of the campaign after 1997-98 (Bolton & Crystal Palace), 2021-22 (Brentford & Watford) and 2025-26 (Leeds & Sunderland).

Occasion. pic.twitter.com/xfV1XDrLnE

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 22, 2026

Clarke stuns old club

Ipswich Town, who finished runners-up in the Championship last season to seal their place back in the top-flight, were also savouring victory on Saturday night after beating Sunderland 2-1.

Substitute Jack Clarke scored an 90th-minute winner against his former club to earn the Tractor Boys all three points at Portman Road against a team that finished seventh last time out and qualified for the Europa League.

Ipswich had taken a first-half lead when Julio Enciso superbly set-up fellow summer signing Emersonn for a simple tap in only for Sunderland to level when a curling Nilson Angulo free-kick went in via the crossbar.

But it was to be Clarke's day as the player who left Sunderland two years ago in a deal worth £20 million curled home the winner from just inside the penalty area.

"You can see how hard it is to win Premier League games, we need to find a way to win enough of them to make it a successful season," said Ipswich manager Gary O'Neil after his first match in charge.

Sunderland manager Regis Le Bris admitted his team might have been suffering from a spot of early-season rustiness. “It is often the case. It is not unusual,” he said. “Today it was massive because of the consequence but this is the Premier League, it is ruthless.”

FT. YESSS!!!! A winning start to the season! #UTFT

[2-0] #EVECRY pic.twitter.com/N7QshuaT81

— Everton (@Everton) August 22, 2026

Everton target Europe

Everton won their Premier League opener for the first time in five years after beating Crystal Palace 2-0 at the Hill Dickinson Stadium.

Goals from Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall and Thierno Barry either side of half-time secured the points as Palace manager Pierre Sage suffered defeat in his first match in charge.

“Finish as high a possible,” said Everton midfielder Hayden Hackney when asked about the team's aims this season. “In the European spots hopefully, it's a long season and it will be difficult but that's the aim.”

The Eagles – who have won the FA Cup, Community Shield and Europa Conference League in the last two seasons – were missing last season's top-scorer Ismaila Sarr with the Senegalese attacker linked with a move to Turkish side Galatasaray, having already lost manager Oliver Glasner and defender Maxence Lacroix during the summer.

“Different tactics, same formation but a different way of playing,” said Palace defender Chris Richards when asked about the team's differences under Sage compared to Glasner. “Pre-season we saw a lot of different things, new players coming in. Today was a good line in the sand regardless of the result.”

Some records you don't want to keep 🫣

Oliver Glasner becomes the SEVENTH straight permanent Forest manager to lose his first Premier League game in charge. pic.twitter.com/rNHc7g3xGE

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 22, 2026

Glasner starts with loss

Glasner, meanwhile, saw his reign as Nottingham Forest manager start with a defeat as Anton Stach's free-kick earned Leeds United victory two minutes from time at the City Ground.

Forest have turned to Glasner after sacking four managers in less than 12 months with Nuno Espirito Santo, Ange Postecoglou, Sean Dyche and Vitor Pereira all heading for the exit after being dismissed by owner Evangelos Marinakis.

Glanser will know there is plenty of work ahead to improve a team that finished 16th last season and sold key midfielder Elliot Anderson to Manchester City during the summer.

"Well, it was the game I expected," said Glasner. "The one situation that will decide and one set-piece will decide. It was a game with very rare chances. Really disappointed, but this is what we have to expect today."

It was a welcome win for Leeds manager Daniel Farke who has been well backed in the summer transfer window with the Yorkshiremen spending more than £80m on new players.

“I always back my players and Anton Stach always has those moments, I expected a difficult game away at Forest,” said Farke, whose team face Forest again in the League Cup on Tuesday.

“I'm very happy to come away with a clean sheet and compliments to the players.” On his new signings, the German coach added: “Very happy because they have big boots to fill.”

The import taxes that came into effect on Saturday will apply to hundreds of products from Canada, such as plywood, liquor, electrical equipment and hockey gear.

Canada said it would retaliate "dollar for dollar", with Prime Minister Mark Carney announcing that new duties on US goods would take effect from September 8.

"In the coming days, we will release details of these new tariff ​measures, ‌measures, which ⁠will ​come into ​force ‌the Tuesday after ⁠Labour Day," Mr Carney said.

US President Donald Trump announced the 50 per cent levy on Canadian goods in July, with a deadline of August 19, but he paused the tariffs hours before they were set to take effect. The three-day pause led to last-ditch negotiations for what would have been a salve to the strained trade relations between the two countries.

Why did the trade talks fail?

In a statement, Mr Carney blamed Washington for the breakdown, saying “last-minute changes in the US proposed terms were unfair, uneconomic, and called into question the reliability of any deal”.

He said he suspended talks and directed Canada’s negotiating team to return to Ottawa.

US trade representative Jamieson Greer blamed Canadian negotiators and said the team made last-minute demands that overturned the terms of a draft deal worked out over days of negotiations.

“Despite the US offer to Canada to receive the best treatment of any major exporter to our market, new demands and walk-backs of other commitments by Canada have upended the careful balance reached in the past days,” Mr Greer said.

Depression-era tariff act

The new tariffs are being imposed under Section 338 of the Tariff Act of 1930, a provision that has never been used. The law gives the President the power to impose duties on countries considered to be discriminating against US commerce.

The two sides had been discussing a deal that included lowering tariffs on certain Canadian steel and aluminium to 25 per cent, cutting duties on Canadian cars to 15 per cent and eliminating a 10 per cent lumber tariff.

But the new levies won’t apply to the most important natural resources the US imports from Canada, such as oil, potash and critical minerals. Canada is the US’s most important foreign supplier of crude oil and petroleum products — more than 4 million barrels per day.

Impact on trade and jobs

If these tariffs remain in place, Canada could lose almost 90,000 jobs, University of Calgary economist Trevor Tombe told Bloomberg. The impact is most sharply felt in machinery and electronics, plastics and rubber, furniture, wood, paper, and chemicals and cosmetics, he added. BC, Ontario and Quebec would be the worst-hit provinces, he said.

While the ​new measures affect a relatively small share of Canadian ​exports, about 5 per cent, ‌they add to existing US tariffs on steel, lumber and autos. ⁠

The combined pressure could slow Canada's fragile economic recovery and affect broader negotiations for a free-trade pact between the neighbours.

What's expected next?

Mr Carney said on Saturday that retaliatory duties could be placed on US goods in industries including steel and dairy. Further details have yet to be announced.

The recent escalation has affected negotiations to renew the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement. Mr Trump declined to renew the treaty earlier this year.

The new duties apply regardless of whether Canadian goods qualify for preferential treatment under the ​trade agreement, which has shielded much of Canadian industry from earlier US tariffs.

Mr Carney said, "The retaliation escalates the trade conflict and calls into question the future of a North American trade pact between the United States, Canada and Mexico that is crucial to industry in all three countries."

The teenage McLaren driver, who triumphed last time out in Hungary before the Formula One summer break for his first win of the season, will start at the front of the grid alongside George Russell with his Mercedes teammate and title-race leader Kimi Antonelli third.

Norris pipped Russell by 0.102 seconds just as rain started to fall at the seaside track as the Briton also secured his second successive pole after doing the same at the Hungaroring a month ago. “Well done, best lap of my life,” he said on the team radio after claiming first place in the Netherlands.

Earlier, Russell had won the sprint race after leading from start to finish leaving him third in the drivers' championship, three points behind Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and 56 shy of Antonelli.

“I'm a little surprised honestly,” said Norris following the end of qualifying. “A decent lap, I was pushing because you've seen how close it is, one hundredth, two hundredths can make a big difference in the end.

Lando going full tilt in qualifying! 📐#F1 #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/3gsg620LSb

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 22, 2026

“A good turn around from earlier today when I felt like we struggled a bit. We certainly felt very strong. The team did a good job so credit to them on trying to get a little bit more out the car and it certainly helped me today.

“I'm looking forward to the race tomorrow. This is always one of the best events. Hopefully we can put on a good show.”

Antonelli, meanwhile, admitted it had been “a difficult session” as the 19-year-old Italian – who turns 20 on Tuesday – had to settle for second row on the grid, alongside Norris's McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri.

“Overall, always found myself on the back foot,” he said. “Last lap did a mistake in turn one, lost a couple of tenths, it was my mistake. Shame for that, we had a real shot for pole.

“In Q3 I thought we had a shot, we had a chance. When I started the last lap in Q3, I was too tense down in sector one. I thought this is going to be difficult. I was able to make it up the rest of the lap. It's a shame for that but it's all to play for tomorrow.”

THE STARTING GRID FOR THE 2026 DUTCH GRAND PRIX 👇#F1 #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/yO69YvsD87

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 22, 2026

For Russell, it had been a good day after following up his sprint win with a front-row spot on Sunday. “Lando did a great job so congrats to him and McLaren, said the Briton.

“It was a strong session. I thought we had it in there just to fight for pole but P2 I'm pretty satisfied with, especially after coming back after such a tough last few races before the break. I'm sort of getting in my groove again and I'll try to fight with them again tomorrow.

“I feel in a good place and I just sort of feel myself again, which is really important. It was really nice to drive around here and these cooler temperatures made the track feel really fast, so it was a real joy for us all to drive and I'm looking forward to the race.”

Seven-time champion Hamilton will start in fifth alongside Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, with the Red bull pair Max Verstappen and Liam Lawson seventh and eighth, respectively.

“We changed quite a bit [since the sprint] and it didn't make a difference, pretty much the same pace that we've had all weekend,” said a frustrated Verstappen, who signed a new contract with Red Bull this week. “It didn't allow me to push or feel comfortable with the car.”

Snaking through the dunes at the start! 👀#F1Sprint #DutchGP pic.twitter.com/ivyAmaNHnX

— Formula 1 (@F1) August 22, 2026

First-half goals from defenders Nobel Mendy and Semi-Ajayi earned Hull, who were promoted via the Championship play-offs last season, a thoroughly deserved victory in what was their first English top-flight match since 2017.

Hull's Bosnian manager Sergej Jakirovic set his team up with a back five that completely nullified United's attack, even with the second-half introduction of Marcus Rashford who was making his first appearance for the Red Devils since December 2024 following loan spells at Aston Villa and Barcelona.

Jakirovic had vowed ahead of the game to silence his team's critics who have dismissed the Tigers as relegation cannon fodder and he did that in style by brushing aside a team who finished in third place last season.

On Friday night, Championship title winners Coventry City had been well beaten by Arsenal, with the defending champions winning 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium. But there would be no such result for Hull, who finished sixth in the second tier but defeated Middlesbrough in the play-off final to earn promotion.

Next up for Hull is a League Cup second round match away to to Stoke City on Tuesday followed by a Premier League trip to Coventry next Saturday. Michael Carrick's United side will look to pick themselves up when they face Everton on Merseyside in the league next Sunday.

1 - Manchester United have lost on the opening day of a league season to a newly promoted side for the first time in their history, having won 10 of the first 13 instances (D3).

Sluggish. pic.twitter.com/swgIjAGKsV

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) August 22, 2026

What they said:

Hull City captain Louis Coyle: “The noise speaks for itself. Before we went to bed last night we couldn’t have dreamt it any better. It'll be a shock to people, I’m not saying it’s how I thought it would go, but this team’s got something special in terms of character, resilience, and we know what we’re doing.

“We know we’re going to get chances on the break. You’re against a fantastic side and we know that’s the minimum it’s going to take. So, so proud of the boys for what we achieved last year. We’re not just here to make the numbers up – we’re here to stay in this division. What an incredible start for the boys.”

Man United captain Bruno Fernandes: “Same mistakes as we did last season every away game. We give too much of the ball to them, in the first 20 minutes the goalkeeper had more touches on the ball, too much time. We need to press a little bit more, be more aggressive, and set-plays – we need to work on it, to be more aggressive and try not to concede these types of goals.

“We understand the frustration [of supporters], every season at the start we want to compete and win every game but we need the fans on our side, and to believe in ourselves.”

Hull City ratings:

Konstantinos Tzolakis – 8/10: Greek international goalkeeper called into action with regulation early saves from Mbeumo and Cunha. Next big stop didn't arrive until 77th minute when he denied Mbeumo again. Very assured on debut.

Nobel Mendy – 7/10: Club-record signing looked shaky early on, bizarrely allowing one cross to bounce in box gifting chance to Mbuemo. Headed home Hull's second goal in style. Limped off injured in second half.

John Egan – 8/10: Experienced defender was last man standing when both his central-defensive partners – Mendy and Ajayi – were forced off in second half. Stood firm against everything United's array of attackers threw at him.

Semi Ajayi – 8/10: Big defender thumped Hull into lead with close range finish after Lemmens kept out McBurnie effort. Was Tigers' first Premier League goal since May 21, 2017. Also came off due to injury.

Lewis Coyle – 8/10: Hull's captain sent over superb early cross from right that almost saw McBurnie open scoring. Became third Hull player to come off injured, earning a thoroughly-deserved standing ovation from home fans after usual committed display.

Hull fans were enjoying themselves after taking a 2-0 lead against Man United 🐯

📺 Watch live on TNT Sports & HBO Max pic.twitter.com/IqEq4lg2FE

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 22, 2026

Matt Crooks – 7/10: Midfielder picked up first-half booking for foul not long after Hull went 2-0 up. Almost clean through on goal after superb Belloumi ball over top but denied by Lammens coming out of goal to sweep up.

Regan Slater – 8/10: Superb whipped-in free-kick earned assist for Mendy's goal. Relentless in his pressing of opposition. Impressive shift.

Ryan Giles – 8/10: Produced two crosses in matter of minutes in first half that almost led to goals, one ending in McBurnie header being saved, the other almost flying straight into net. Crossing was constant threat.

Elliot Stroud – 7/10: Making his debut on the left, Sweden international looked comfortable on the ball from start. A solid first game for 24-year-old summer signing from Swedish top-flight side Mjallby.

Mohamed Belloumi – 7/10: Tricky Algerian winger was tripped on edge of box by Tielemens with resulting free-kick resulting in goal. Curled long-range effort over bar. Some flashes of real quality and quick feet who could be an exciting player this season for Hull.

Ollie McBurnie – 9/10: Hull's play-off final goal hero saw header saved before goalkeeper Lemmens then somehow kept out his close-range shot that saw Mendy score from rebound. All-action performance from Scottish striker that included skipping past three United challenges in one second-half surge forward.

Substitutes:

Lucas Herrington (On for Mendy, 63') – 7/10: Teenage defender, who played in World Cup for Australia, came on for debut after moving from MLS in summer. Didn't put foot wrong.

Paddy McNair (On for Ajayi, 64') – 7/10: Former Man United defender brought on as Hull lost both goalscorers to injury and slotted straight into what was an impressive Hull defensive performance.

Liam Miller (On for Stroud, 70') – 7/10: Canadian winger tarted career at United's fierce rivals Liverpool and helped Hull seal all three points. Booked for late dive.

Cody Drameh (On for Coyle, 70') – 7/10: Inches from making it 3-0 minutes after coming on as he drilled low effort just wide of post.

Matt Targett (On for Giles, 85') – N/A.

Man United ratings:

Senne Lammens – 6/10: Diving save from McBurnie just before 15-minute mark, then tipped over a shot from Adam two minutes later. Then again from McBurnie before the Tigers opening goal from one of the many crosses slung in.

Noussair Mazraoui – 5/10: Top defending at the back post after four minutes to head a ball away from Hull’s first attack, yet United were twice undone with goals from set plays and the Moroccan twice gave the ball away.

Harry Maguire – 6 /10: Great cross just before half-hour but Dorgu couldn’t quite get on to it. Ran behind defenders against his former club and was the team’s main attacking threat.

Ayden heaven – 5/10: Chastening first half when two Hull central defenders both scored. McBurnie had the better of him in the build-up to the opening goal. Inexperience was exploited.

Luke Shaw – 5/10: High ball into Hull’s box which Mbeumo met after 12. Vital defending stopping Belloumi down right and tried to get wide to give United width. Booked.

Andrey Santos – 4/10: Ineffective United Premier League debut for the Brazilian, who gave up possession and fouls too easily. United had 72 per cent of possession but most of that came after the team were 2-0 down.

"It was never going to be perfect today." ❌

A disappointed Michael Carrick admits Man United need to improve after losing to Hull.

🎙️ @jules_breach | 📺 Watch live on TNT Sports & HBO Max pic.twitter.com/JKJ6n0Zyhd

— Football on TNT Sports (@footballontnt) August 22, 2026

Youri Tielemans – 5/10: Too many poor touches in a first half where Hull won more tackles and duals. Nutmegged in first half and gave away a foul which led to a free-kick and the second goal. Disappointing debut.

Patrick Dorgu – 4/10: Squezed a ball through Egan’s legs towards goal, had a tussle with the goalkeeper and almost got on to a Maguire cross. All within the first 30 minutes. Booked for a yellow card challenge on Crooks. Often the most advanced player, yet limited influence on the game.

Bruno Fernandes – 5/10: Little space to create and his team simply couldn’t generate proper chances. Desperate shot on target just before hour. Crosses to nothing. Usually inspires. Not today.

Bryan Mbeumo – 6/10: Had first proper effort on target and he was United’s main threat in the first half. Saw bicycle-kick towards goal blocked but United were poor up front and created little. Leaned back and curled a shot well over on 75, then ran and had strike saved two minutes later.

Matheus Cunha – 5/10: Quiet and of little threat. Played centre-forward and had one shot on target. Dropped deeper in a congested forward area where United struggled to create proper chances.

Substitutes:

Marcus Rashford (On for Dorgu, 46') – 6/10: First minutes in red since 2024. Positive, direct start and linked better with Shaw than Dorgu had done. Good ball to Sesko with 10 minutes left.

Kobbie Mainoo (On for Tielemans, 67') – 5/10: Played one poor, square pass which led to a Hull attack. Lacking match fitness.

Benjamin Sesko (On for Santos, 67') – 4/10: He scored 10 in 15 final games last season and gave United a belated focal point, but did little with it. United had 39 crosses. And most were easily dealt with.

Diogo Dalot (On for Mazraoui, 81') – N/A.

Shea Lacey (On for Cunha, 81') – N/A.

He spoke during the eighth Baghdad Dialogue conference, saying Iraq was among the countries most exposed to the impact of the conflict because of its dependence on oil exports and economic links with Iran.

“There is facilitation for some tankers carrying Iraqi oil in the Strait of Hormuz,” Mr Amidi said, without providing further details.

Iran's state news agency, IRNA, reported separately that Tehran had given permission for several Iraqi oil tankers to cross the waterway after repeated requests from Baghdad through various channels.

The special permission was one of Baghdad's main requests during Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf's recent visit to Iraq, IRNA said.

Iraq has faced difficulties transporting its oil because it does not have its own tankers, Mr Amidi said.

“We have a problem transporting oil due to the absence of a national tanker,” he said, adding that developments in the Strait of Hormuz had consequences for the entire world, not only Iraq.

Iraq seeks to avoid conflict

Mr Amidi added that Iraq would seek to stay out of the war between Iran and the US, warning that Baghdad would be among the countries hardest-hit if the conflict escalated.

“We will be among the countries most affected after Iran if the escalation continues, given the economic interdependence and our complete reliance on oil,” he said.

On internal security, Mr Amidi said Baghdad would not allow Iraqi territory to be used to launch attacks against other countries. He said attacks from inside Iraq against countries in the region “have no justification”, as Baghdad seeks to prevent the country from being drawn further into the conflict.

Mr Amidi repeated Baghdad's vow to bring all weapons under state control, saying armed groups must ultimately hand over their weapons through an Iraqi-led process.

The government has set September 30 as a deadline for bringing weapons under state authority, although some Iran-backed factions continue to resist the move.

The Saudi Crown Prince left the Kingdom on Friday evening for a trip to France to enhance transport, health and security ties.

He was to meet French President Emmanuel Macron. The leaders were expected to discuss ways to diversify transport routes for energy and logistics, including maritime routes, as well as alternative pipeline and regional rail projects, the French leader's office told reporters.

The visit “reflects the vitality of the dialogue between the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and France and will provide an opportunity to further strengthen the strategic partnership between our two countries,” the Elysee Palace said.

Mr Macron and the Saudi Crown Prince would, for the first time, convene a meeting of the Franco-Saudi Strategic Partnership Council, according to the statement.

They were also set to oversee the signing of agreements covering technology, transport, energy and health. The Saudi delegation comprises seven ministers.

The leaders were also expected to discuss conflicts in the Middle East involving Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria, where France is working to help develop energy and logistics projects, according to the officials.

Prince Mohammed's visit comes at a time when tension is high in the Middle East as the war between the US and Iran continues.

On Monday, Prince Mohammed is expected to meet French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu.

“The high-level meeting provides an opportunity to address key bilateral and international issues, whether economic, security-related or diplomatic,” the Prime Minister's office said.

The leaders will also attend the closing ceremony of the Esports World Cup on Sunday, the first time the event is being held in Paris.

The event was created and hosted in Riyadh in 2023 as part of the country's Vision 2030 project.

On his last visit to France in 2023, the Crown Prince met Mr Macron and attended a reception as part of Riyadh’s successful bid to host the 2030 Expo.

Mr Macron's last visit to the Kingdom was in 2024.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and France are strong, with cultural ties deepened by Paris's involvement in the development of the kingdom's historic AlUla region.

The UAE, the Arab world's second-largest economy, is leading the race for AI investment. The capital, Abu Dhabi, is building Stargate UAE, a massive 1 gigawatt artificial intelligence supercomputing and data centre project, expected to cost more than $30 billion.

AI-related investments for 2024-2025 in the UAE exceeded Dh543 billion ($147.9 billion), with global firms including Microsoft and KKR announcing major investments in the UAE.

Availability of water is critical for the UAE and its peers' push to expand their industrial base and lead the global AI and data centre race.

Essential element

While water is an essential operational element to cool heat-generating data centres and water-guzzling industrial units, growth in population across the Gulf countries is also set to boost demand.

Data centres, consisting of incredibly powerful servers with thousands of central processing units and graphic-processing chips, need to stay cool to avoid overheating. Chilled water systems and refrigeration towers, or air cooling, is required to keep temperatures in data centres in check.

A typical data centre uses 300,000 gallons of water each day, equivalent to the demands of about 1,000 households, but large data centres can use an estimated 5 million gallons of water daily, equivalent to the needs of a town of up to 50,000 residents, according to Brookings, a public policy think tank.

Apart from the data centre push, the UAE is home to major industrial projects and more are on the cards under the country Make It In The Emirates push, an initiative aimed at broadening the industrial base and cutting reliance on international supply chains.

The UAE is targeting an increase in the industrial sector's contribution to the country's gross domestic product of Dh300 billion by 2031, from Dh133 billion-level achieved in 2021.

The global usage of water for industries is estimated at 20 per cent of the world's total water consumption.

The UAE does not see water shortages affecting its new economy ambitions, with new desalination plants expected to meet the rapidly rising demand, Abdulaziz Alobaidli, director general for regulatory affairs at Abu Dhabi's Department of Energy, told The National in an interview.

“We rely on desalination [plants] that have proven in the last 50 years to be a very reliable source for potable water,” he said.

Abu Dhabi is currently building a desalination plant in Shuweihat, while another desalination project was commissioned in the second quarter of this year.

If required, the emirate is ready to build one more plant depending on demand, Mr Alobaidli said.

He said safeguarding the source of water protecting the seas remains the top priority and is vital for reliable future supply.

“The first line of defence is protecting the source and the source for us is the sea, the ocean. How to protect it from pollution? How to protect the ecosystem in it … and make it resilient … to threats,” he said.

The UAE, he said, has more than one source of water, which bolsters resilience of its supply systems.

“We have access both to the Arabian Gulf, as well as Gulf of Oman, and in time of constraints you have a diversity that helps you to maintain the resilience,” Mr Alobaidli said.

The UAE in April said there were fears of “potentially catastrophic” threats to the Gulf’s marine environment in the wake of the Iran war, warning that missiles, drones and fires “may give rise to large-scale marine pollution involving oil, hazardous noxious substances, contaminated firefighting water, soot deposition” and other threats to the ecosystem.

The region relies on desalinated seawater, and any contamination could also lead to “severe water security implications”, it added.

Desalination plants were attacked in Bahrain and Kuwait in March, which brought Gulf water security into focus.

Water stress

Populations in the Gulf region are growing at a rapid pace, putting pressure on policymakers to continue investing in maintaining robust supply.

At the end of last year, Saudi Arabia’s population reached 37 million, while the UAE’s grew to about 11.5 million, according to World Bank data.

The UAE’s population is projected to reach 15.3 million by 2050, while expected growth in the kingdom will push the population figure to about 47.7 million, Worldometer data suggests.

Gulf countries are ranked among the most water-stressed in the world, according to World Resource Institute’s Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas.

The Middle East holds only 2 per cent of the world's renewable freshwater and 83 per cent of the region faces severe water scarcity. WRI estimates 100 per cent of the region’s population will face acute water scarcity by 2050.

However, countries in the region are boosting investment to cope with the rise in demand.

Size of spending

According to latest Nature journal data, the Middle East has spent $53.4 billion between 2006 and 2024, representing about 47.5 per cent of total global capex on increasing desalination capacity.

The broader region is also expected to spend a further $26 billion up to 2028, with desalination capacity projected to reach 41 million cubic metres per day by then.

“Ranging from around 40 per cent in the UAE to roughly 90 per cent in Kuwait and Oman, the Gulf states are critically dependent on desalinated water for their water consumption and security,” Mannat Jaspal, director and fellow of climate and energy at the Dubai-based Observer Research Foundation Middle East, told The National.

“Investments are expected to rise from $5.28 billion in 2023 to $8.43 billion by 2030 across desalination, wastewater reuse and resource-management efficiency, and sustainability amid population, urbanisation and increasing economic pressures.

Saudi focus

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world’s largest economy, is seeking to diversify its economy away from oil, with multi-billion-dollar investments in building new infrastructure, real estate and industrial projects.

The kingdom is also pursuing its AI ambitions, with $40 billion allocated to related ventures, including Humain, the flagship platform for national AI infrastructure.

Qatar set up a company called Qai, a unit of the Qatar Investment Authority, to invest, develop and manage AI infrastructure in the country and abroad.

The UAE’s AI sector alone could require about 61 billion litres of water a year by 2030, while Saudi Arabia’s data-centre power demand is expected to grow by 29 per cent annually, Abdalftah Ali, visiting junior fellow, and Mohammad Hawash, former senior research assistant at the Middle East Council on Global Affairs, said in a joint report published in April.

New tech

With demand for water consistently on the rise, several Gulf-based companies have started testing next-generation cooling systems that are suited to extreme heat.

Companies such as Khazna in Abu Dhabi, and DataVolt and Alfanar in Saudi Arabia have tested or deployed liquid cooling and other high-efficiency solutions that can “cut water use for cooling by up to 90 per cent while also lowering electricity demand”, Mr Ali and Mr Hawash wrote.

The region’s rapid expansion of renewable energy is also expected to support these efforts by shrinking the indirect water footprint of digital growth.

Tens of billions of dollars in announced solar and wind projects across the region reduce the water intensity of electricity supply, since photovoltaic and wind power consume negligible operational water compared with gas- or oil-fired generation.

“Integrating renewable energy with desalination can help reduce both the energy intensity and cost of water production, while digital technologies can improve demand forecasting, detect leakages and enable more efficient management of water networks,” Ms Jaspal said.

“Over the longer term, however, the region needs to move from augmenting water supply to fundamentally managing water demand. And for this, water security should be approached as a regional rather than purely a national challenge,” she added.

Saja El-Khawas was rescued but died on Friday, three days after the incident at Shoreham-by-Sea, according to a law firm acting for the hospital and a Palestinian group. She had been in a critical condition since.

Parents Hassan El-Khawas, 55, and Zeina Alayn, 37, and sister Sara El-Khawas, 14, were recovered by lifeboat after getting into difficulty in the sea but were pronounced dead at the scene on Tuesday.

Solicitors acting on behalf of Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, and the Palestinian Forum in Britain, announced Saja's death.

Sussex Police have said the deaths were being treated as a tragic accident with no third party involvement.

Mr El-Khawas was born in the Rashidiya refugee camp in Lebanon, according to the Palestinian embassy in the UK. All members of the family had British citizenship.

The family were well established in Britain and active members of the British Palestinian community, according to Nehad Khanfar, head of the Association of Palestinians Communities in the UK.

They told The National Mr El-Khawas's brothers and children were being supported by close friends and family. They have extended family in Lebanon.

Sara El-Khawas attended Ellen Wilkinson School for Girls in Ealing, west London, and the school paid tribute to her in a statement on its website.

“It is with great sadness that we share the news that our Year 8 student, Sara, has died following a tragic incident during the school holidays,” said the school.

“Sara was a sweet girl, well-liked by staff and students, and she will be greatly missed.

“Our thoughts and heartfelt condolences are with her family, friends, and all those affected. We are also thinking of her sister and loved ones at this extremely difficult time.”

Reliving the 2024 incident is harrowing even when watched from the comfort of a living room, and one of many shocking accounts in the documentary by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Rory Kennedy.

A follow-up to her acclaimed 2022 documentary, Downfall: The Case Against Boeing, the sequel follows the highly publicised death of Boeing whistle-blower John Barnett and uncovers startling revelations while amplifying the voices of whistle-blowers and the families of victims of Lion Air Flight 610 and Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302. The two Boeing 737 Max 8 aircraft crashed within months of each other between 2018 and 2019, killing 346 people.

Freefall does not simply retell those crashes. It asks what happened afterwards – and whether Boeing ever truly learnt from them.

Pursuit of profit

Kennedy opens the film by looking backwards, suggesting a shift in the culture under former chief executive Jim McNerney. Through former employees, industry insiders and journalists, she presents a picture of a company in which the pursuit of speed and savings increasingly came into conflict with the meticulous approach to manufacturing on which Boeing had built its reputation – including its decision to outsource significant portions of the development and manufacture of the 787 Dreamliner to suppliers around the world.

At the heart of the documentary is Barnett. The former Boeing quality manager spent years raising concerns about manufacturing practices at the company's 787 Dreamliner plant in South Carolina. He alleged that workers were under pressure to rush aircraft through production and that defective parts could make their way on to planes.

Barnett became one of Boeing's most prominent whistle-blowers and also appeared in Downfall. In March 2024, while involved in legal proceedings against Boeing, he was found dead in his vehicle in South Carolina. His death was ruled a suicide.

Freefall explores the enormous toll his battle with the company had taken on him. His lawyers, who feature prominently in the film, are unequivocal about where they believe responsibility lies.

But Kennedy does not rely on Barnett alone. Other whistle-blowers describe their own experiences of raising safety concerns, creating the impression of a problem that extended far beyond one disgruntled employee.

The families who refuse to go away

The other voices that give Freefall its emotional weight belong to the families of those killed. Among them is Naoise Connolly Ryan, whose husband, Mick Ryan, a UN employee, died aboard Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302.

“My kids are aware that their dad went on a plane and that the plane was made by bad guys,” she says in the film.

The anger of the families is directed not only at Boeing, but also at the US justice system. The film captures the strain endured by families and whistle-blowers as they campaigned for accountability during a three-year deferred prosecution agreement reached between Boeing and the US Department of Justice in 2021. The deal allowed the company to avoid prosecution on a criminal charge provided it met certain conditions.

The issue was thrust back into the spotlight in 2024 following the Alaska Airlines mid-flight incident, just days before the agreement's three-year term was due to expire, prompting renewed scrutiny of Boeing’s safety culture and the agreement’s effectiveness.

Business as usual?

Perhaps the most uneasy aspect of Freefall is the feeling of repetition. The 737 Max was grounded around the world following the two fatal crashes. Investigations followed. Boeing executives were questioned. Changes were promised. Then the aircraft returned to the skies.

But no Boeing chief executive has faced criminal charges over the disasters.

And that's why the title feels deliberately unresolved. The “reckoning” is not something Kennedy believes has already happened. It is what the families and whistle-blowers featured in the documentary are still demanding.

“Something has to change,” one of them says. Freefall offers no reassurance that it will.

Sheikh Tawfiq Ali Mustafa, supreme chief of the Red Sea branch of the Ababda tribe, wanted his house, which he built in 1907, to be seen in awe by everyone arriving at the port.

Sitting on the corniche of Egypt's oldest surviving Red Sea town, its carved wooden lattice covering nearly a third of the main facade, it was also meant to signal who ran the town and who visitors would need to see first to get anything done.

One hundred and twenty years later, the house is still there, but Sheikh Tawfiq is not, the Italian phosphate company he worked with has departed, and its colonial era ended. The pilgrims his tribe once guided across the desert have long since taken faster routes, and the town itself couldn’t be more different from the one where thousands of Hajjis embarked for Makkah each year.

What remains, in the building his grandson Moustafa Sebaq now runs as a six-room boutique hotel, is one of the last physical memories of a Quseir that mattered quite a bit to the wider Muslim world.

“The Ababda are fishermen and herders as they have always been,” Mr Sebaq told The National. “But they have also often responded to the massive changes that have happened in the area over the centuries. They guided people to Makkah once, and when that ended for them, they worked with the arriving Europeans and now they have a role in the tourism industry.”

The tribe’s arc, from pilgrimage guides to phosphate labourers to hoteliers, is also that of the town’s.

A port for pilgrims

For most of its history, El Quseir was one of the main Egyptian points of embarkation for the Hajj. The Ababda, whose lands stretch south to the Sudanese border, guided pilgrims and caravans between the Nile Valley and the Red Sea coast, taking them along the ancient road from Qena over the Eastern Desert to the sea where they sailed to Jeddah.

Under Egyptian ruler Muhammad Ali in the first half of the 19th century, El Quseir also became the main port through which Egyptian grain fed the holy cities.

By the middle of the 19th century, the town had “acquired a settled population of 6,000 to 8,000 souls”, according to an account of life in El Quseir by German doctor Karl Klunzinger, who lived in the town in the 1860s.

The first blow to that world was the Alexandria-Cairo-Suez railway, Mr Sebaq said. Completed in 1858, it offered pilgrims and traders a faster overland route to the Red Sea, through Suez, which proved to be more convenient because it saved travellers the long desert journey to El Quseir.

“No one in my family today was alive for the opening of the railway, but it is still remembered in stories about the changes in the tribe’s fortunes, even as far back as that,” Mr Sebaq explains.

Klunzinger, writing shortly after, recorded the consequences with a physician's precision: “The number of the government employees was greatly diminished, that of the inhabitants sank to 1,500, whole streets were deserted and fell into ruins.”

Within a decade, the opening of the Suez Canal in 1869 delivered the final blow. Ships that used to anchor at El Quseir now steamed straight through to the Mediterranean.

Sheikh Tawfiq's house

It was in this shifting landscape that Sheikh Tawfiq built his house. By then, a new economy was rising along the coast, from which he was to benefit greatly. Italian geologists had begun surveying the Eastern Desert for phosphate, and in 1912 the Banco di Roma founded the Egyptian Phosphate Mining and Trading Company, opening mines and a processing plant at El Quseir that would keep the town alive for another half century.

Sheikh Tawfiq, in his role as Sheikh El Mashayekh of the Red Sea Ababda, became the local liaison, the man the Italians needed to explain their presence to the town and the man the townsfolk went to with any grievances about the Italians.

“He was the highest chief of the Ababda Red Sea branch, and that necessitated a house with a style that no one else in the town had,” Mr Sebaq said. There are other old houses in Quseir, some of them contemporaneous, but none with the mashrabiya. The sheikh died in 1960, soon after the Italians closed up shop amid a nationalisation wave under Gamal Abdel Nasser.

Sheikh Tawfiq married several times, and as his family kept growing, he needed more space to house them, so he eventually acquired another plot in Al Owaina, the neighbourhood inland where most of the Ababda still live, and the family left the old house.

By the 1960s, with his widow the last resident, the house was empty. It stayed shut, under the family's ownership, for the better part of three decades.

A Swedish rescue

The house's second life began in the late 1990s, when Peter Willem Berg, a Swedish businessman who owned a Radisson resort north of the town, decided he would restore Quseir's old houses at his own expense. Aided by locals who formed committees to carry out his plan, Berg funded a restoration of Sheikh Tawfiq’s house.

“He wanted to do the same to many houses in the city, to turn them into boutique hotels that could preserve the city's heritage by incorporating it into its tourism industry, which now was the city's main means of income,” Mr Sebaq said. “He was a good man and he wanted to lift the town up.”

Sheikh Tawfiq's house was the first, and by common assessment the most successful. The restoration was deliberately light-touch: infrastructure only, essential systems, no reworking of the original structure.

“They kept the house exactly the same as it was before, just gave it some more years to live,” Mr Sebaq said. The house reopened as a hotel in 2000.

He built a vocational training centre in the town in 2002 where young men and women were trained in computing. Some were sent to Sweden to qualify as instructors.

But heritage projects proved harder to execute and Berg’s hopes for large-scale restoration ground to a halt, leaving the town in urgent need of funds to continue his vision. Mr Sebaq last saw Berg in 2017. He looked frail and was unable to speak much, and the two have not been in touch since.

“He told me that he still hoped the town and its beauty could be saved,” Mr Sebaq said of that final meeting.

An individual future

“There is a huge emerging interest in adventure tourism, and we get a lot of people, foreigners and Egyptians, who want to explore the old city and who aren't necessarily here for this upscale five-star experience,” he said. “There is room for both in El Quseir, but what we are missing is the funds to restore the buildings.”

The house of the Ababda chief, once the point of first contact for anyone arriving in the port, is now the point of first contact for a small stream of travellers looking for something older than a resort.

Whether more of Quseir's old town survives the next few decades depends on whether anyone else follows Berg's lead. For the moment, Sheikh Tawfiq's mashrabiya is still the most conspicuous thing on the corniche, a memento from a bygone world.

Fifty years after her death in 1976, Christie remains one of the world's bestselling novelists, with more than two billion books sold. Those Middle Eastern novels are a significant reason why.

Christie had fallen under the region's spell long before she met archaeologist Max Mallowan, her second husband. As a young woman, she travelled to Egypt with her mother, attending Cairo's winter social season as a debutante. The trip inspired Snow Upon the Desert, her first novel. It was never published but led to a fascination that shaped her work for decades.

“The Middle East was very important to her,” says Christie historian Mark Aldridge. “Her interests in archaeology and, in turn, the Middle East actually predate meeting Max. She was fascinated by the cultures, especially their more romantic elements, alongside their history and people.”

After the breakdown of her first marriage, Christie made a decision that changed her life – and her writing. In 1928, she boarded the Orient Express alone and travelled east, an unusually independent move for a woman of her time and background.

“I thought: It's now or never,” Christie later wrote. “Either I cling to everything that's safe and that I know, or else I develop more initiative, do things on my own.”

The journey took her to the archaeological site of Ur, in present-day Iraq, where she met Mallowan. They married in 1930. Over the following decades, Christie spent months each year with him across Iraq and Syria, helping to document excavations while writing her many novels.

She was far more than an observer.

“Agatha was an integral part of the dig,” Aldridge says. “Her job was mainly to photograph the objects, and she even cleaned some of them with her face cream – not something that we would typically recommend. She also wrote on the digs, as she had a travel typewriter and said she just needed a steady table to work.”

The image of Christie typing beside an excavation, a parasol between her and the desert sun, explains why archaeology feels so convincing in her fiction. The camps, rivalries and daily routines in Murder in Mesopotamia are not imagined. They came from years of living alongside archaeologists and local workers.

“You can definitely see specific locations being referenced, as well as the types of people you might meet,” Aldridge says. “In Murder in Mesopotamia, the dig is populated with characters influenced by people she had met during the excavations.”

Christie's memoir Come, Tell Me How You Live, written during the Second World War, presents a lighter portrait of those years: dusty camps, endless packing, shared meals and long conversations after dark. “An archaeologist,” she joked, “is the best husband a woman can have. The older she gets, the more interested he is in her.”

Dark flows the Nile

Published in 1937, Death on the Nile is one of Christie's best works, a murder mystery that unfolds aboard the fictional paddle steamer Karnak as it travels between Luxor and Aswan. The novel is remembered for its denouement but also for its atmosphere: the ancient temples, broad riverbanks and desert cliffs where the tension builds.

Christie knew the journey well. She had travelled the Nile herself, visited Abu Simbel and the temples around Luxor, and stayed at the Old Cataract Hotel in Aswan and the Winter Palace in Luxor. Perhaps that’s why the novel lingers over the landscape as the river moves steadily south, passengers disembark to explore monuments, and the vastness of Egypt quietly tightens the tension.

Michelle Kazmer, whose research examines Golden Age detective fiction, believes Christie's settings endure because they were so closely observed.

“Agatha Christie was an extraordinarily active and keen observer of the world around her,” Kazmer says. “She spent enough time at these locations to really immerse herself, and participated in the archaeological work.”

Rather than describing famous sites from a distance, Christie lets readers experience them through the characters. Abu Simbel appears through multiple perspectives, each one revealing something different.

“As each character interacts with a place in their own way, the place takes on the depth of character as well,” Kazmer explains.

From Egypt, Christie's journeys continued east: to Baghdad, the Syrian desert, and eventually one of the ancient world's most extraordinary cities.

Rose-red and faintly unsettling

Jordan's Petra is one of the Middle East's most photographed landmarks. Visitors emerge from the narrow Siq to see the intricately carved Al Khazneh rising from the sandstone cliffs. But Christie saw something else. In Appointment with Death, published in 1938, Petra isn’t just a beautiful site; it is isolating, ancient and faintly unsettling, seemingly the right place for a family coming apart at the seams.

The novel follows travellers from Jerusalem to Petra, where a murder interrupts an ordinary sightseeing trip. The towering cliffs and winding paths do much of the storytelling. “Petra was pink, rose red, yellow and violet, changing colour all the time,” Christie writes.

Again, Christie uses the technique of offering observations on a location through the eyes of different characters, giving the landscape itself an emotional life. “This is the case with Abu Simbel in Death on the Nile, and she uses a similar technique in Appointment with Death,” she says.

Petra inspires wonder for one character, Sarah King. For others, it becomes oppressive. The landscape doesn't change, only the emotions do. Visitors today can still follow much of that journey, through the Siq to the Treasury, up to the Monastery or the High Place of Sacrifice. Petra by Night, when hundreds of candles illuminate the approach to Al Khazneh, offers the same quiet drama Christie captured in print.

Eye for detail

Baghdad, meanwhile, gave Christie the chance to try something altogether different.

Published in 1951, They Came to Baghdad is less a detective story than a political thriller. The protagonist, Victoria Jones, arrives in Iraq with little money and even fewer plans, and gets pulled into espionage and international intrigue.

“They Came to Baghdad has the excitement of the main character travelling without the confidence of a solid plan or solid financial resources. That adds an additional layer of discovery,” Kazmer says.

The novel reflects a city Christie knew well. Baghdad in the mid-20th century was a crossroads of diplomats, archaeologists, traders and travellers. Christie visited often during the years she accompanied Mallowan on excavations across Iraq, paying as much attention to ordinary life as she did to famous sites.

“She enjoyed exploring new places, and in particular meeting people and finding out about their history,” Aldridge says. “She was famously shy in group or social settings, but remained very interested in people. That is particularly true of the locals who worked on Max's digs.”

Those encounters shaped Christie's work as much as the landscapes did. The archaeologists, guides and fellow travellers who fill her Middle Eastern novels reflect years of careful observation: conversations over shared meals, long afternoons at excavation sites, and an eye for the detail that only time in a place provides.

Journeys behind the novels

Much has changed since Christie travelled through Egypt, Iraq and Jordan. Steamers still sail the Nile between Luxor and Aswan, in considerably more comfort than Poirot might have recognised. The PS Sudan, often cited as the inspiration for the fictional Karnak, still cruises the river. The Old Cataract in Aswan and the Winter Palace Hotel in Luxor still welcome guests. In Jordan, Petra is every bit as extraordinary as it was when Christie first saw it.

“Christie's books continue to fascinate readers because they are plotted and written so very well,” Kazmer says. “Her Middle Eastern novels in particular are fascinating today because they also represent first-hand experiences of locations that few people have the opportunity to visit.”

The greatest legacy of those journeys, though, isn't in the hotels or the heritage sites. It's in how Christie wrote about them. Unlike many travel writers of her era, she had no interest in presenting the Middle East as an exotic backdrop. Her memoir Come, Tell Me How You Live is full of gentle humour rather than grand adventures: stories about unpacking supplies, coping with dust, sharing meals with excavation teams and finding somewhere steady enough to balance a typewriter.

Perhaps that's why Christie’s novels still feel alive. Their settings are never reduced to postcards. Egypt brings to mind more than pyramids, Iraq more than ancient ruins, and Jordan more than rock-cut monuments.

Christie once observed: “To travel is to discover that everyone is wrong about other countries.”

She spent much of her life proving it. The murders may be fictional. But the journeys were real.

After returning to his country with a passion for the global fitness race, which combines running with strength and endurance exercises, the 36-year-old athlete saw an opportunity to introduce it to a generation of young Syrians eager to try something new.

What began as a way to continue practising a sport he loves has since grown into Move, Syria’s first Hyrox community.

The international fitness phenomenon has grown in popularity in recent years, and Hyrox competitions are now held around the world. Its format is simple but demanding: eight 1km runs, each followed by a functional workout station, including sled pushes and pulls, rowing, walking lunges and wall balls.

“Over the past period, I had seen how much energy and enthusiasm young people in Syria have, but the options for modern sports were somewhat limited,” Mr Al Nehlawi told The National. “Since I returned, I felt that I didn’t just want to practise the sport here; I also wanted to build a community around it and give people the opportunity to try something new.”

And so, Move was born in April 2026. Short for Make One Victory Every Day, it reflects Mr Al Nehlawi’s philosophy as a fitness coach and his vision of building a community centred on progress, consistency and a shared sense of achievement.

“For me, victory isn’t always about winning a race or lifting a heavier weight. Sometimes victory is simply turning up to training when you don’t feel like it, breaking your personal record or even being slightly better than you were yesterday. That’s the idea I want Move to represent,” he said.

Since its launch, the Move community has been steadily gaining momentum. Classes are held three days a week at Helfawi Fitness Club, with sessions at 7am and 7pm to accommodate different schedules, and plans to add more as capacity allows.

The strong turnout in just a few months has given Mr Al Nehlawi reason to believe that the community has the potential to become something lasting.

“I knew there was an interest in sport, but once we started seeing people coming regularly, challenging themselves and asking for more, that’s when I realised there was genuine demand for this type of sport in Syria,” he told The National.

Mr Al Nehlawi sees that enthusiasm and appetite as part of a broader shift among young Syrians, particularly following the fall of the Assad regime and Syria’s subsequent efforts to reconnect with and reintegrate into the wider world.

“Syrian young people have always had ambition and energy, but sometimes the circumstances around them limited their ability to turn that energy into projects and ideas. Today, I see more people willing to try something new, build communities and think about what Syria could look like in the future,” he said.

For Mr Al Nehlawi, that openness matters because sport can offer more than just physical benefits. It can create spaces for people to meet, connect, support one another and work towards a shared goal.

“One of the most rewarding things was seeing young men and women training together and encouraging one another. That’s exactly the kind of community I wanted to build,” he told The National. “We want anyone who joins Move to feel that they have become part of something bigger than themselves, whether their goal is to compete in a Hyrox race, improve their fitness, or simply lead a more active lifestyle.”

Now, Mr Al Nehlawi hopes to take the community beyond the capital, with ambitions of seeing Syrian athletes compete and represent their country in Hyrox races abroad, while eventually establishing Damascus as a destination for the sport.

“I hope the day comes when we see athletes from different countries coming to Damascus to compete in a Hyroox race, while at the same time discovering Syria through sport.”

After almost three seasons of questions about why humanity retreated underground, Silo takes a major step towards explaining what drove them there.

Episode eight reveals not only why the silos were built, but also the catastrophe their creators believed would bring about the end of civilisation. And with only two episodes remaining, the two timelines are now more closely connected than ever.

The episode opens with Lucas Kyle (Avi Nash) and Patrick Kennedy (Rick Gomez), who survived their journey from Silo 18 despite The Algorithm previously declaring them “neutralised”. The pair reaches Silo 17, allowing Juliette Nichols (Rebecca Ferguson) to make contact with Jimmy (Steve Zahn), the survivor who helped keep her alive when she was stranded there and ultimately enabled her return to Silo 18.

Jimmy may now prove crucial to saving Juliette's home.

Meanwhile, the Before Times storyline takes a significant step forward. After episode seven ended with enormous drills boring into the ground outside Atlanta, episode eight finally gives viewers a proper look at the project being constructed there.

Per Stensen (Colin Hanks), the eccentric billionaire behind the operation, explains that 50 silos are being built as part of an extraordinary plan to ensure humanity survives an approaching catastrophe.

“We're facing the end of the world and it cannot be stopped,” he tells a stunned group that includes journalist Helen Drew (Jessica Henwick) and congressman Daniel Keene (Ashley Zukerman). “It can only be survived.”

The silos, Per explains, are not simply shelters designed to protect a fortunate few, but part of a plan intended to allow humanity to eventually repopulate the planet.

When Helen presses him on what exactly the silos are being built to survive, Per rules out nuclear war and/or another pandemic. Instead, he reveals, it's the very thing that made him the richest man in the world: nanotechnology.

Iran, he claims, has developed a weapon using the technology. The mysterious cloud encountered by Charlotte Keene (Jessica Brown Findlay) and her squadron during their disastrous mission to Iran was, according to Per, an example of nano warfare – finally explaining one of the Before Times storyline's biggest mysteries.

The revelation also dramatically reframes the world viewers have watched for three seasons. What has long appeared to be a toxic wasteland outside the silos may be connected to something far more sophisticated – and potentially more terrifying – than conventional warfare.

Helen, however, is far from convinced by Per's plans. After she challenges him, senator Rosalind Thurman (Laura Innes) reveals why Helen has been brought into the project: they want her to join them. As an incentive, she is offered what could be the story of a lifetime – the chance to become the first journalist to report on the silo project and, potentially, the end of the world itself.

Helen refuses, declaring that she would rather be “blown into pieces by a nuke”. She is later joined by Daniel, who has reached much the same conclusion, telling her he would rather “turn into goo” than spend his life underground with “cray-cray Stensen”.

Back in Silo 18, The Algorithm has discovered that Lucas and Kennedy survived, and instructs Camille Sims (Alexandria Riley) to determine the real reason they were sent to Silo 17.

Camille turns to her husband Robert Sims (Common) for answers, but he refuses to give her what she wants, further widening the divide between a couple who increasingly appear to be operating on opposing sides.

Silo season three, episode eight ending explained

While the Before Times finally explains why the silos exist, Juliette's storyline may provide the key to stopping Silo 18 from suffering the same fate as Silo 17.

Juliette remembers that the poisonous gas capable of killing a silo's entire population, called “the safeguard”, is delivered through a physical pipe – and, crucially, that the flow can potentially be stopped by sealing it.

Armed with a structural blueprint drawn by former IT chief Bernard Holland (Tim Robbins), showing how the silos connect back to Silo 1, Juliette attempts to replicate what she learnt in Silo 17 and block the mechanism threatening her own home.

But before she can carry out the plan, Juliette is arrested and taken into custody, where she discovers Robert has also been incarcerated. With both of them out of action, the fate of Silo 18 now rests with the remaining members of their group.

Episode eight therefore answers perhaps the biggest question Silo has posed – what drove humanity underground – while leaving another hanging over its final two episodes: can Juliette and her allies stop the system designed to destroy them?

At the wedding Sharma designed for Dhruv Khatoria and Shalina Jhalani in February, the bride wanted to recreate the softness of her Lake Como proposal. Rather than compete with Emirates Palace, Sharma studied the gardens of an Italian chateau and translated their formal geometry into the layout of the event, turning the venue’s grandeur into the backdrop for something more intimate.

It is an approach that gets to the heart of Sharma’s philosophy about events: if you remember just the decor, perhaps the designer has not done his job properly.

Instead, the “event and experience curator”, who founded Jaipur-based experience design company Envelop, believes the real measure of a successful event is less tangible. It is a feeling, a story or a single, standout detail that stays with you long after the flowers have wilted and the furniture has been dismantled.

“People have this idea that an immersive experience is an LED room in London. It's not,” he says. “An immersive experience is getting the right feeling or story from the environment you are in.”

That philosophy led Sharma to create Envelop five years ago, working on weddings, brand launches, hospitality and real estate off-plan launches.

Sharma is quick to stress that the business is not a sprint. “I always say to my team that I’m running a marathon,” he says. “It looks fancy on Instagram, but we live in a high-pressure industry.”

The pressure, he argues, is precisely what makes event design intellectually demanding. Unlike architecture or interiors, where projects can take years to come to fruition, an event may be conceived, built and dismantled within weeks.

“Event design has evolved from just putting some throws, cushions and flowers against beautiful furniture,” he says. “We’re now creating environments from empty spaces.”

Yet the discipline still struggles for recognition. “Architects and interior designers have received a lot of intellectual worth, but when it comes to event designers, we’re still looked upon as someone who just puts flowers on tables. And that’s not true.”

For Sharma, every detail matters, from lighting, food, fragrance and music to entertainment and staff uniforms. “The environment is designed by every single element that stimulates the five senses,” he says.

His own route into the industry has been far from conventional. After studying engineering at the Birla Institute of Technology and Science, Pilani in India, he completed a double master’s at Columbia University, in New York in 2016, before joining Intel and Apple in California.

Then one conversation changed everything. When his grandfather told him he wasn't sure how many years he had left to live, Sharma packed up his life and returned to India a month later.

Unsure of what to do there, he returned to what he knew and loved: events. At Columbia, he says had become known as the “Indian boy who threw the best parties”.

His first venture upon returning to India was to open a bar followed by being commissioned by a drinks company to help with a country-wide launch. He was hooked. “I never realised all of this would boil down to Envelop,” he says. “I didn’t even know the term 'experience design' existed.”

Ask him what separates a beautiful event from an experiential one, and Sharma's answer is simple: “Logic.”

Decoration, he believes, is only the starting point. The story comes first; everything else follows.

This philosophy was evident at the Abu Dhabi wedding he designed for Khatoria and Jhalani earlier this year.

“I don’t like to fight with architecture,” he says. “What’s the point? You should make the most out of the space and venue you’re getting into.”

To echo the Italian chateau that he studied, seating was arranged to mirror its formal geometry, while dinner became a relaxed garden picnic. He saved one surprise for a key moment, however. “In Indian weddings, there's the varmala ceremony where the bride and groom exchange garlands, which is the moment they are deemed married.”

Sharma designed the space so that the couple entered from opposite sides, coming together in front of a screen, which opened to reveal three arches covered in foliage, mirroring the proposal. His team had placed postcards depicting the original Lake Como photograph on each table, so everyone recognised the significance immediately. People were in tears, he says. “The smallest detail of a picture turned into a moment that had such strong emotional value.”

Sharma is equally interested in what can be achieved without a vast budget. At one intimate wedding for just 20 guests, he drew on a story about the bride’s favourite perfume, which had accidentally broken during a skiing trip in Japan. Her partner had later tracked down a replacement in London.

For the welcome dinner, Sharma turned the story into an interpretation of kintsugi, the Japanese art of repairing broken ceramics with gold. For the dinner, the plates were deliberately broken and repaired.

“The star is the story,” he says. “To get the story, the medium is a table detail. That’s it. That's immersive.”

Budget, he insists, is not the determining factor. “Money has no direct proportion to an experience being great.”

This belief also informs Envelop’s deliberately selective approach. With a new Dubai office, Sharma is still intent on limiting the number of projects his team take on each year. Growth for growth’s sake, he says, would dilute the work. “It will still look beautiful, but it will not be meaningful.”

One side of the company deals with “ritual design”. At Trevi, a restaurant in Jaipur, he created the story of a mythical maharaja travelling to Italy before returning home to host a picnic in his gardens, which informed the interiors, landscaping and menu. Sharma created a custom coin that guests receive with their bill to toss into the restaurant’s fountain, as in the Roman original. Although a tiny gesture, it leaves a memory. “It’s just working on the feeling,” he says. “Even if the bill pinched them, tossing the coin made it all OK.”

Ultimately, Sharma returns to the question that sits at the heart of his work: “When you attend an event and three weeks later I ask you about it, what do you remember first? Isn’t that the vibe?”

A wedding, restaurant, property launch or brand experience may appear to be different disciplines, but to Sharma, they are variations on the same idea. “They’re all experience design,” he says. “They’re all about what a human feels in a certain environment. They’re all leading to memories.”

Perhaps, he suggests, that is why people are returning to tailoring, books and handmade objects. “The things that have always existed have become popular now,” he says. “If you’re authentic, everything will hit harder.”

Dubai Media Office has announced Katia will receive treatment at Al Jalila Children's Hospital in the emirate. Katia, who is 16 months old, has spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare genetic disorder. The hospital said she is currently still in Jordan and further information will be shared when the family arrives in the UAE.

Katia's mother, Nour Roudnahal, appealed for assistance with the costly treatment and her request gained attention on social media. She has documented her daughter's struggle with the condition, which affects nerve cells in the spinal cord.

At six months old, Katia's parents took her for a routine check-up, where the doctor observed that her movements differed from those of typical infants her age. After the paediatrician's advice, they monitored her progress but her difficulties persisted.

The family then pursued a number of medical tests to determine the cause of Katia's limited movement. After SMA was diagnosed, they began physiotherapy and medication. However, Ms Roudnahal has posted that there is no cure.

However, she said an injection of a drug called Zolgensma could help Katia. Zolgensma costs up to $2.4 million, which the family could not afford, prompting their appeal for financial assistance. Additionally, the gene therapy is not available in Jordan.

The family launched an online fund-raising campaign for Katia's treatment, which received widespread support. All donations were collected and transferred to a US account.

Now, with Sheikh Mohammed’s generous donation to bear the full cost of the treatment, the family has found renewed hope to help Katia.

View this post on Instagram

SMA treatment in the UAE

Since Zolgensma was approved in the UAE in 2024, doctors in the country have successfully administered the drug to children with SMA. The one-off intravenous infusion replaces the faulty or missing SMN1 gene and is used primarily for children under two years old.

The National previously reported that UAE regulators have also given the go-ahead for the use of Itvisma, a drug that will enable gene therapy to be administered to older SMA sufferers.

While Zolgensma is suitable for infants only, Itvisma, approved by the Emirates Drug Establishment after the thumbs-up from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), can be given to older children, as well as teenagers and adults.

Treatment is expected to come at a high cost, with Zolgensma, which works in a similar way, having once been described as the most expensive drug in the world, with a price tag of more than $2 million per treatment.

Katia's condition

For transparency and credibility, Ms Roudnahal shared the medical reports to confirm Katia's condition, with some information redacted to protect privacy.

Katia, born on April 2, 2025, appears to have symptoms and characteristics consistent with SMA type 2, a rare genetic neuromuscular disorder characterised by progressive weakness and loss of control of movement.

Dubai Ruler's generosity

Sheikh Mohammed has consistently funded life-saving treatments for children with serious illnesses.

In March 2021, the Dubai Ruler covered the Dh8 million ($762,300) treatment for Iraqi toddler Laveen Jabbar Al Kutyashi, who received Zolgensma at Al Jalila.

In July 2025, he pledged to pay Dh7 million in treatment costs for a Syrian girl with SMA after hearing her father's public appeal.

He also sponsored treatment for 15-year-old Fatima Ahmed Hassan, who was diagnosed with sarcoma cancer. After several months of care, she was declared cancer-free.

The Al Jalila Foundation, supported by Sheikh Mohammed, continues to advance medical research and fund treatment for patients, especially children.

The skincare company faced a backlash because Panettiere said she felt Neutrogena did not renew her advertising contract because she had started to discuss her postpartum depression.

“For more than a decade, Hayden was a valued member of our Neutrogena community. We are proud to have partnered with her and understand that we made her feel unsupported during a very difficult time,” the beauty brand said in a statement.

“This is not what Neutrogena stands for or who we want to be."

The company said it was making a "significant investment" in a community health group to help support more women, including those seeking care for postpartum depression.

View this post on Instagram

Panettiere was found in cardiac arrest shortly before her death on Sunday, according to the Greenville County Coroner’s Office.

A postmortem examination found no signs of trauma that could have contributed to her death, while her official cause and manner of death “remain pending further investigation and the completion of additional studies”, including a toxicology report.

Born in New York on August 21, 1989, Panettiere began appearing in commercials when she was only 11 months old and landed her first acting role at the age of six in the soap opera One Life to Live. She later appeared in Guiding Light, Ally McBeal, Malcolm in the Middle and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit.

Her breakout role came in the superhero drama Heroes, which ran from 2006 to 2010. She played Claire Bennet, a high-school cheerleader with the ability to spontaneously regenerate. The phrase “Save the cheerleader, save the world” became one of the show's defining catchphrases.

Panettiere was also an environmental activist, often taking part in demonstrations to increase awareness about dolphin conservation.

As campuses prepare to open their gates to more than a million pupils on August 31, school leaders said that no new guidance had been issued and that there were no changes to plans for the start of the new academic year.

Michael Strachan, head of the secondary school at Arcadia British School, spoke of the safety procedures in place and said they would not affect the overall return-to-school experience for children.

“The key thing is business as usual. We have a wonderful set-up for our emergency procedures. The likelihood of anything impacting us is incredibly small,” he said.

“Yes, we have to be mindful of the region and what is happening. That shouldn't have a negative impact on the overall experience of the children in the school. Yes, we are prepared, in the same way we do fire drills and lockdown drills … we have them in place just in case.”

Safe spaces for evacuation

An existing underground section and a car park are among the safe spaces for evacuation.

“We are lucky that a significant amount of our infrastructure is underground,” Mr Strachan said, referring to a multi-purpose hall, a huge underground car park, and rooms for the secondary and primary sections. That means we have a ready-made evacuation place so we can shelter under the building if we need.”

Staff and pupils will spend time refreshing the safety drills that have been in place during the months of conflict since February 28. “We have a very robust safety procedure and evacuation plan, all part of KHDA-mandated requirements for our safety that have been implemented previously,” he said.

“We have those plans in place and part of our training for new staff and returning staff is to go through and refresh those plans to make sure our staff are well aware of all they should do in an emergency. We will do training and drills for the children when they return.”

His comments were echoed by another senior teacher in the UAE. “At the moment, nothing is different for us from last year,” said Stephen Davis, vice principal of Repton School Abu Dhabi.

“We have obviously got really thorough procedures in place which will continue from last academic year. So it's really just about refining those and ensuring everything is as smooth as possible. We will have new students joining us, so we will need to get them up to speed, including those who may have just arrived in the UAE this year. We are making sure we continue what we did previously and tweak and fine-tune where needed.”

The comment comes after an emergency alert was sent to mobile phones in parts of the UAE on the evening of August 18, warning residents of an aerial threat from Iran and instructing the public to take shelter.

School heads said they are continuing to review their existing protocols and already have emergency response and learning procedures in place to cover situations that could require puils and staff to remain indoors or in designated areas.

“We don't expect anything (new) but to have our students back in the building, our parents back in the building. If required, we have a wonderful online provision and are ready to revert to it at any time. But we are 100 per cent ready to have everyone back in the building and learning as they should be, in the four walls here,” Jon Hughes, head teacher of the Senior School at Repton School Abu Dhabi.

Schools have been preparing classrooms, continuing with staff inductions and getting the campus ready to welcome pupils and parents.

John Bagust, director of education and executive principal for the Pace Group of Schools in Dubai and Sharjah, said, “At present, we continue to use the security and safety measures that we put in place earlier in the year until we are advised otherwise. I have not had either KHDA or SPEA give additional guidance regarding the security aspect.”

“For us it's kind of business as usual, and it's just really looking forward to hopefully a really smooth academic year coming up,” Mr Davis added.

What are the security protocols in place?

The safety guidelines followed by schools are nationwide. When UAE schools resumed in-person learning on April 20, campuses opened with enhanced safety protocols, including mandatory “shelter-in-place” procedures and blue-taped safe zones in line with new nationwide safety regulations.

Safety measures also included strict campus access controls, staff training, and the suspension of large gatherings.

School leaders said the measures are part of existing emergency and business continuity plans. They include moving pupils and staff to designated safe areas, keeping them away from windows and other exposed locations, and restricting movement on campus. The school should also take attendance, account for pupils and staff, and maintain communication with parents.

The school must follow the official guidance and keep pupils on site until authorities deem it safe to resume normal movement.

During the pre-trial hearing, Washington District Judge Dabney Friedrich told lawyers making the case against Mr Masud that she was concerned they didn't seem to be working hard to ensure that all evidence presented in the case is properly certified and notarised.

"You proceed at your own peril," she told prosecutor Erik Kenerson, who argued that the Pan Am bombing had taken place 38 years ago and evidence had come from several countries, complicating the process of authenticating documents.

Ms Friedrich told Mr Kenerson that she understood the complications, but added that she felt US prosecutors have had ample time to ensure evidence is certified. She also said that in the event that Mr Masud were to be found guilty, failure to properly authenticate evidence before the trial would open the case up to an appeal.

Mr Masud, who sat silently in court during the exchange, is accused of making the bomb that brought down Pan Am flight 103 over the Scottish town of Lockerbie in 1988.

All 259 people on board died in the terrorist attack of which Mr Masud is accused. Eleven were killed on the ground in Lockerbie by falling debris from the explosion, which occurred shortly after the Pan Am flight took off from London on December 21. Of the 270 victims, 190 were US citizens.

"It's like you're not telling me something," she told Mr Kenerson.

The prosecutor replied that "this is a unique case".

"All the more reason for you to dot your Is and cross your Ts," Ms Friedrich said.

Roughly 150 pieces of crash evidence will be presented, along with witness accounts from several countries. Evidence will also come in the form of documents such as passports, hotel records, receipts, telegrams, baggage tags and letters. Many of those documents, as US prosecutors also indicated in court, come from Libya, the UK, the US, Malta, and what was known at the time as Czechoslovakia.

Later, Ms Friedrich told Conor Mulroe, another prosecutor, that she felt his team was trying to be "slippery" with how they introduced evidence.

"Your honour, if you perceive the government as being slippery or sliding then I apologise for that because we strive every day to advance arguments in good faith that we believe are supported by the law, and we believe are consistent with each other,” Mr Mulroe replied.

On Monday during a pre-trial hearing, at the request of Mr Masud's defence team, Ms Friedrich decided that the use of the words "terrorist" and "terrorism" would be limited throughout the trial to avoid prejudicing the jury. The words, however, will be able to be used in certain contexts, such as witness job titles and areas of witness expertise.

Jury selection for Mr Masud's trial is scheduled for August 25, though it could be pushed back in the event that pre-trial deliberations go longer than expected.

Adding to the buzz around the case has been the release of a six-part series by Netflix titled The Bombing of Pan Am Flight 103. It portrays the events leading up to and the investigation of the incident. The series has grown in popularity in recent weeks and ranks among Netflix’s top 10 TV shows in the US.

Mr Masud was first charged in 2020 and brought into US custody in 2022, but health problems, defence team problems and lengthy pre-trial deliberations have delayed the trial.

Only one person, the former Libyan intelligence officer Abdelbaset Al Megrahi, has been convicted of the bombing. Al Megrahi died in 2012.

The service will eventually connect Dubai International Airport (DXB) to Al Maktoum International Airport (DWC).

The Airport Express Line will be 55 kilometres long and consist of five stations. The RTA is yet to confirm a timeframe for the project.

From the Dubai Metro Red Line station at DXB, the new train line will travel through Al Jaddaf and along Al Khail Road, stopping at Jumeirah Village Circle's imminent Gold Line Metro station, before it terminates at the other end of Dubai at DWC in Dubai South.

Two offshoots will connect areas to the line at Jumeirah Village Circle Metro station. One station will be in Business Bay, while the other will connect to Al Fardan Exchange Metro station near Dubai Marina.

The six bids were submitted by Aecom/Surbana Jurong, AtkinsRealis, Jacobs (US), Parsons/Arup, Systra/Egis and WSP. All have worked on infrastructure projects in the country, such as Etihad Rail, Dubai Metro and Expo 2020.

Airport Express Link stations will reportedly allow passengers to check in for their flights and drop their baggage.

DWC: The future of Dubai air travel

This rail connection comes ahead of Dubai's plans to shift airport operations from DXB to DWC in 2032, when the first phase of the project is complete.

DWC is scheduled to become the world's biggest airport in 2057, with the capacity for 260 million passengers annually.

The mega-hub, with 400 boarding gates and five parallel runways, will be the new home of Emirates. The airport currently runs passenger flights, as well as cargo and charter operations.

Ticket to ride

Dubai has an ambitious calendar of rail projects in the pipeline.

Etihad Rail's Al Yalayis station in Dubai will open at the end of next month, marking the start of the first service to the emirate.

The much-anticipated, high-speed train from Etihad Rail will connect Dubai, including DWC, with Abu Dhabi in only 30 minutes by 2030, with a stop at Zayed International Airport (AUH).

The Dubai Metro Red Line Route 2020 will eventually connect to DWC as well. The tender was issued in January.

Dubai Metro's Blue and Gold Lines are now under construction, with openings expected in 2029 and 2032, respectively.

Which other cities have airport connections?

Dubai will not be the first city to connect its two airports. The Shanghai Suburban Railway (Airport Link Line) connects Shanghai Pudong with Shanghai Hongqiao. Seoul's Airport Railroad Express connects Incheon with Gimpo.

The elaborate vegetarian feast is one of the culinary highlights of Onam, Kerala's annual harvest festival. Served on a banana leaf and traditionally eaten by hand, it can bring together dozens of dishes in a single sitting, from crunchy banana chips and fiery pickles to vegetable ensembles, coconut-rich curries, rice, lentils and sweet payasam.

When is Onam 2026?

Onam is Kerala's most important festival and takes place during Chingam, the first month of the Malayalam calendar. Although rooted in Hindu tradition, it has grown into a cultural celebration observed across religious communities in Kerala and among Malayalis around the world.

This year's celebrations began yesterday and culminate with Thiruvonam, the most important day of the festival, on August 26.

What is an Onam sadhya?

Sadhya is traditionally at its grandest on Thiruvonam, although the feast is also associated with weddings and other major celebrations. Outside Kerala, including in the UAE, restaurants often serve it across several days during the Onam period rather than on the final day only.

Sadhya means “feast” in Malayalam, and there is no definitive number of dishes. A relatively simple version may contain fewer than 10, while elaborate celebrations can feature 30 or more.

But the scale is only part of its appeal. A sadhya is built around balance, bringing sweet, sour, salty, spicy, bitter and savoury flavours together with contrasting textures on a single banana leaf.

So what actually goes on it?

Sandeep Ail, the brand executive chef for Punjab Grill UAE, which is serving a 30-plus-item sadhya for Onam this year, helped The National break down the ingredients, flavours and roles of many of the dishes that make up the feast.

“The idea is not to reinvent the feast, but to understand what makes it special – the balance of flavours, the order in which the meal unfolds and, most importantly, the sense of abundance and togetherness that defines Onam,” he says.

His menu combines traditional sadhya staples with a handful of restaurant-specific additions. Here are some of them.

The crunchy beginnings

Pappadam

The familiar thin, crisp wafer is made from black gram flour. Rather than necessarily being eaten separately, it can be crushed over rice, parippu and ghee to add crunch.

Nendran chips or kaya varuthathu

Raw Nendran plantains are thinly sliced and fried in coconut oil. Banana chips are among Kerala's most recognisable snacks and provide a salty crunch against the softer dishes on the leaf.

Sharkara upperi

Another banana preparation, but a very different one. Chunkier pieces are fried and coated in jaggery flavoured with dry ginger and cardamom, producing something simultaneously crunchy, sweet and gently spiced.

Pickles and palate sharpeners

Kadu manga

This raw mango pickle brings acidity and heat from green mango, chilli, mustard seeds and gingelly, or sesame, oil. Its sharpness helps cut through richer coconut-based dishes.

Naranga achar

A lemon pickle made with spices, chilli and oil. Like mango pickle, only a small amount is needed to add a sharp, salty and spicy kick.

Inji puli or inji curry

One of the most complex condiments on the leaf, bringing together ginger, tamarind and jaggery. The result is simultaneously sweet, sour, hot and pungent, making it particularly useful for refreshing the palate between other dishes.

Cooling and tangy dishes

Pachadi

Pachadi generally combines vegetables or fruit with yoghurt and coconut. Ali's version uses beetroot, producing a vivid magenta dish tempered with mustard seeds and curry leaves.

Pineapple pulissery

Pineapple is cooked in a coconut and yoghurt gravy, resulting in an unusual combination of sweetness, acidity and gentle spice. It offers a contrast to earthier and hotter dishes such as sambar.

The vegetable heart of the feast

Avial

Perhaps one of the dishes most closely associated with sadhya. A mixture of vegetables such as yam, drumstick, pumpkin and raw plantain is cooked with coconut and cumin, then finished with coconut oil and curry leaves. The many vegetables brought together in one preparation have also made avial a symbol of abundance and unity.

Thoran

A dry vegetable medley typically made with grated coconut. Ingredients vary considerably; Ali's menu uses amaranth leaves, while cabbage, beans and other vegetables are also common.

Olan

One of the gentlest dishes on the leaf. Ash gourd and cowpeas are simmered in coconut milk with minimal spice, providing a mild, creamy counterpoint to the pickles and stronger curries.

Kalan

Yam and raw plantain are cooked in a thick yoghurt and coconut gravy seasoned with black pepper. Its consistency is noticeably thicker than many of the curries served alongside it.

Erissery

Pumpkin and cowpeas are cooked with coconut and topped with toasted coconut, giving the otherwise mild dish a nuttier flavour and texture.

Kootu curry

A substantial, relatively dry preparation usually combining vegetables or plantain with legumes and coconut. Ali's version uses black chickpeas and raw jackfruit – or chakka, Kerala's official fruit – in a roasted coconut gravy.

Theeyal

The name refers to the deeply roasted coconut that gives the curry its distinctive dark colour and intense flavour. It is commonly made with vegetables and tamarind; Ali combines drumstick pods with shallots for a sweet, smoky and tangy preparation.

Matta rice

At the centre of the leaf is choru, or rice. Kerala matta rice is distinctive for its plump reddish grains and nutty flavour. Its importance is particularly fitting for a festival rooted in celebrating the harvest.

The rice then becomes the foundation for several different courses.

Parippu

A mild moong dal preparation made with coconut and cumin. It is traditionally among the first curries eaten with rice and is accompanied by a drizzle of neyyi, or ghee.

Sambar

One of the heavier and more assertive curries, combining lentils, tamarind, vegetables and spices. It follows parippu and is mixed generously with rice.

Rasam

Thinner and sharper than sambar, rasam is a tamarind-based broth flavoured with ingredients including black pepper, cumin, garlic and tomato.

Moru

Spiced buttermilk, typically seasoned with turmeric, chilli, ginger and curry leaves, provides a cooling final accompaniment to rice towards the end of the savoury meal.

And finally, payasam

A feast this extensive does not end with only one dessert.

Ada pradhaman is among the classics. Rice-flour ada is cooked with jaggery and coconut milk, with cashews and pieces of coconut adding texture. Unlike milk-based payasam, pradhaman traditionally derives its richness from coconut milk and jaggery.

Other forms of payasam, Kerala's family of sweet puddings, may use milk, rice, vermicelli, lentils or fruit depending on the recipe.

Punjab Grill's spread, for example, moves into more contemporary territory with tender coconut payasam, pal payasam ice cream and a jackfruit and tender coconut pudding – examples of how restaurants can build on the traditional feast rather than adhere to one fixed menu.

A ripe Nendran banana may also accompany dessert. It can be eaten separately, although some diners mash it into payasam for an especially rich finish.

How do you eat an Onam sadhya?

Sadhya is traditionally eaten with the right hand, with diners mixing small quantities of the various preparations with rice as they progress through the meal.

The dishes are arranged on a banana leaf, with smaller accompaniments such as pickles and chips occupying their own places and rice forming the centre of the meal.

Rather than trying each preparation individually, much of the pleasure comes from combining them. Rice is traditionally eaten first with parippu and ghee, followed by sambar and then rasam. The vegetable preparations, pickles and other accompaniments allow each mouthful to be adjusted between creamy, sour, spicy, sweet and crunchy.

Moru, or spiced buttermilk, helps cool the palate towards the end before payasam signals the arrival of dessert.

And if 30 dishes seem intimidating, there is no need to finish everything individually. Sadhya is less a procession of separate courses than a meal built around mixing, contrasting and balancing flavours on a single leaf.

The UAE's Malayali community is nearly one million strong, making it one of the largest Kerala diasporas in the Gulf, according to the Department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs. Keralites are estimated to account for about 55 per cent of Indian expatriates in the Emirates.

The important Keralite harvest festival falls during Chingam, the first month of the Malayalam calendar, with its timing determined by that calendar rather than fixed Gregorian dates. This year, celebrations run from August 16, culminating in Thiruvonam on August 26.

Although rooted in Hindu tradition, Onam has taken on such cultural significance that it is celebrated across religious communities in Kerala and throughout the Malayali diaspora.

History of Onam

The festival celebrates king Mahabali's return from the underworld. The mythological king was considered a great ruler; legend has it that when he ruled, there was no discrimination based on caste, and no corruption or crime.

It is said that the great king was later sent to the underworld by lord Vishnu or Vamana, but was allowed to visit his people once a year, and Onam thus came about.

The Kerala government made it an official holiday in the 1961. The area in Kochi called Thrikkakara is particularly significant during the festival, because of its temple.

There are public holidays in Kerala every year, with families spending time together and many people getting up early to pray.

The harvest festival of Onam is not to be confused with Vishu, which was in April this year, and marks the Malayali New Year.

What is Onam sadhya?

One of the highlights of the festival for many is the Onam sadhya, or feast. Vegetarian food is often served en masse in the community, in restaurants or at homes, and is always presented on a banana leaf.

The most important feast is traditionally served on Thiruvonam, the key date of the festival, which this year falls on August 26. Nine to 30-plus dishes can be served, including curries, dal, pickles, poppadoms, banana chips and more.

However, sadhya is not always restricted to Thiruvonam, particularly outside Kerala, with celebrations often adapted around weekends and local schedules. In the UAE, for example, many restaurants serve the elaborate feast on several days throughout the festival, giving families and groups more opportunities to celebrate together. Given the number of dishes involved and the preparation required, sadhya meals need to be reserved several days in advance.

This particular kind of feast is generally only served during weddings or Onam, and so is cherished by many at this time of year.

Pazhamkootan, a stew made from leftovers of the Onam sadhya, is another popular dish in Malayali households.

Performances and events

There are many different performances and events as part of Onam celebrations. One major event is the snake boat race. The vessels are similar to dragon boats and are the region's traditional war boats that date back about 500 years.

Another important event is the Kummatti Kali dance through the streets, particularly in Thrissur district. The dancers wear colourful masks and cover their bodies in grass. Theyyam performers – considered to be direct lines to the gods – are also commonly seen during the festival and often perform at temples.

On the fourth day of Onam, performers dressed as tigers and hunters entertain people with their colourful costumes, dancing along to drums and emulating the hunt. It is believed that the Maharaja of Cochin introduced the tiger dance as an Onam tradition about 200 years ago in appreciation of its macho spirit.

Flowers and clothes

Much like during Diwali, people place flower arrangements called pookkalam around their community and outside their homes. They are considered auspicious and are placed to welcome king Mahabali.

Women wear a kasavu two-piece set, or a sari, during Onam, which is cream-coloured with a gold border. They also wear flowers in their hair. Meanwhile, men wear a traditional mundu wrapped around their waist.

Other traditions

There are plenty of colourful variations of traditions and dances during this time of year. Many people buy new clothes and light lamps, similar to Diwali.

After Onam, the pookkalam flower arrangements are often placed in nearby rivers or other bodies of water.

Your regional news round-up

• US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has threatened Iran with an "economic D-Day", saying Washington is entering the endgame and preparing what he called "the single greatest financial offensive ever marshalled against an adversary". Mr Bessent issued the warning in an article published on Monday in The Financial Times. He is due to hold a press conference at 9pm UAE time. Iran, in turn, vowed to shut down all oil exports from the Gulf "if the economic war continues". Why it matters: The two rivals have not conducted military strikes against each other for weeks, but they also have not engaged in meaningful talks to end the six-month-old conflict.
• Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi will visit Tehran tomorrow to continue talks with Iran on the Strait of Hormuz, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei has said.
• Fewer than 20 commodity vessels transited Hormuz at ​the weekend, shipping data showed on Monday, ⁠as Iranian and US blockades restrict traffic through ⁠the chokepoint for energy shipments. Four vessels ​crossed the strait on Sunday, initial data from shiptracker Kpler showed by 06:30 am UAE time, ⁠with 13 on Saturday. Iran has warned that ships violating transit rules in the strait could face penalties including detention or confiscation.
• Oil prices slipped more than $1 a barrel ​this morning as investors took profits ahead of an expected announcement from Washington about imposing more sanctions on ⁠Iran that may further disrupt supplies from the Middle East. Brent crude futures fell $1.23, or 1.3 per cent, to $93.16 by 07:30 am UAE time, while US West Texas Intermediate crude was at $85.7 a barrel, down $1.36, or 1.6 per cent. Sign up to the Energy This Week newsletter for more updates.
• Syria and Israel have held high-level talks in Jordan under US mediation, as Damascus seeks to halt Israeli strikes and revive negotiations on a security deal. Foreign Minister Asaad Al Shibani led the Syrian delegation, which included the heads of the General Intelligence and Military Intelligence services, the official news agency Sana reported.
• Emirates has resumed flights between Dubai and Kuwait after an extended suspension owing to the regional conflict, although services remain significantly below previous levels.
• A proposed law that would further legitimise Iraq's Popular Mobilisation Forces as a permanent national security institution raises concerns over the country's democratic future and state sovereignty, experts and officials have told The National.

If you received this newsletter from someone else, sign up here.

Other developments

• French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for a two-day visit, hosting him at the Esports World Cup before a second day focused on bilateral deals and the situation in the Middle East. Talks in Paris between the two leaders on Monday are expected to focus on expanding existing oil pipelines as an alternative to the Strait of Hormuz, according to French sources. Several agreements on health, transport and energy are also expected to be signed. Why it matters: Prince Mohammed rarely leaves Saudi Arabia except for international summits, and his trip to France is his first such visit in almost a year.
• Military officials from Uganda and Burundi visited Israel last week to discuss deploying troops to Gaza as part of an international security force proposed by US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, the Associated Press reported citing officials.
• The EU urged Israel to withdraw its tender for construction in the E1 area of the occupied West Bank. A statement by the the bloc's high representative, released on Sunday, said the E1 settlement project "fundamentally harms the prospect of a two-state solution".
• A terrifying fireball erupted over central Gaza on Sunday as Israel bombed a warehouse in an attack that Palestinian officials said killed a child. The Israeli army said it struck a Hamas commander and a weapons manufacturing site, without providing evidence.

More goings-on

• Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali says the plan remains to finish the 2026 season in Abu Dhabi. Questions had been raised over December's Abu Dhabi Grand Prix because of regional tension caused by the Iran war.
• Iraq’s ⁠state oil marketer ⁠SOMO and QatarEnergy ​are offering crude through ⁠rare tenders that require buyers to load cargoes inside the ⁠Strait of Hormuz, Reuters reported citing multiple trade ​sources.
• Saudi Arabia recorded 15.2 million Umrah pilgrims in the first quarter of 2026, including 5.8 million from abroad, according to the General Authority for Statistics. Of foreign pilgrims, 86 per cent arrived by air, 13.6 per cent by land and 0.4 per cent by sea. There were 9.5 million domestic pilgrims.
• A Lebanese influencer known as Dr Food has been arrested as part of a drugs case, more than two years after a judge accused him of involvement in smuggling. Dr Food - real name Georges Dib - has more than 8.5 million followers on his food channel on TikTok and sells a line of branded confectionery and pastries.

Happening today

• French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu receives Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Paris
• Kuwait's Foreign Minister Sheikh Jarrah Jaber Al Ahmad Al Sabah visits China
• Pakistan's army chief Field Marshal Asim Munir visits Tehran
• Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to hold presser on US economic pressure on Iran

Top picks from The National

Report: ‘Everyone is depressed’ - Iranians brace for Trump’s crushing economic war

Energy insights: Deadly version of the Battleships game is playing out in Hormuz - Who will win?

Analysis: US-Oman ties face strain as Muscat walks tightrope between Washington and Tehran

This newsletter was compiled by Vanessa Ghanem, Arab Affairs Editor.

The National produces a variety of newsletters across an array of subjects. To get the best of our coverage straight to your inbox, sign up here.

Good morning from The National on August 24, 2026.

Here are the latest developments in the Emirates:

The Formula One season is still expected to finish in Abu Dhabi in November despite the regional tension caused by the Iran war.

Speaking to Formula One's official website at the Dutch Grand Prix in Zandvoort, Formula One chief executive Stefano Domenicali insisted that F1 was fully committed to finishing the season in the Middle East as was originally planned.

“The calendar is confirmed. There are still a few tickets to be sold in Abu Dhabi … and we stay focused on delivering the calendar we promised at the beginning of the year,” Mr Domenicali said.

“The preparations are on course, and everything is progressing very, very well.”

Read the full story here

Patrick Ryan
Assistant News Editor

Landmark Toyota building has been a home for thousands and a witness to Dubai's rapid expansion

Dubai’s Toyota building, due for demolition next year, is renowned by many as a landmark of the city.

This 15-storey block, which dates back to 1974, stands proudly in photographs of early Dubai, with Sheikh Zayed Road cutting its way through the almost empty desert.

It was one of the city’s first towers, a starting point for a frenetic pace of development that would turn this stretch of road into one of the most dramatically built-up locations in the world.

Soon it will be no more: the building’s owner, the Nasser Rashid Lootah Group, has confirmed that it will be demolished next year.

But for former Toyota resident and journalist Daniel Bardsley, and thousands of others over the decades, it was home.

Read Daniel's full story about life as a resident in one of Dubai's most iconic buildings here

Five convoys carrying aid from UAE enter Gaza in one week

Five convoys carrying 800 tonnes of aid sent from the UAE entered Gaza this week.

The aid, which included food, medicine and materials for shelter, was sent on 75 lorries as part of the Emirates' Operation Gallant Knight 3 campaign.

The supplies were sent to meet “essential needs and strengthen the humanitarian response inside the Gaza Strip”, the state news agency Wam reported on Sunday.

The operation reaffirms the UAE's continued humanitarian and relief efforts in support of the Palestinian people, reflecting the country's long-standing humanitarian approach and values of solidarity and humanitarian responsibility, said Wam.

Read more here

Fact of the day

A trade and investment agreement between the UAE and Russia has officially come into force a year after it was signed. Read the full story here

Front page

See more of The National’s award-winning journalism in your Google search results – click here to add us to your preferred sources.

Did you enjoy this newsletter? The National produces newsletters covering an array of subjects. You can sign up to them here

US air strikes in Yemen have reached a deadly milestone, with April 2025 recording the highest death toll since the beginning of Washington’s military campaign against the Houthi rebels.

The sharp rise follows a significant intensification of the campaign, which began on March 15. According to The National’s analysis of data from ACLED and the Houthi Ministry of Health, 322 people were killed in April, a 25 per cent increase on March figures and more than double the monthly average since strikes began a year ago.

Among the deadliest incidents in April was a strike on a migrant detention centre near the Yemeni-Saudi border, which killed 68 people, including women and children, according to Houthi officials. The Houthi rebels retaliated by saying they attacked the American aircraft carrier Harry S Truman in the Red Sea.

Another attack on the Ras Isa fuel port on March 17 killed at least 38 people, marking the beginning of what analysts have described as a “new and more aggressive phase” of the conflict.

The US Central Command confirmed it has carried out more than 800 air strikes since mid-March, attacking what it describes as “multiple command-and-control facilities, air defence systems, advanced weapons manufacturing facilities and advanced weapons storage locations (by the Houthi’s)”. While the US Central Command insists it is taking precautions to avoid civilian casualties, the figures suggest a significant increase in the death toll.

However, the Houthi’s claim that the US is attacking civilian infrastructure without clear military value, including telecoms towers and water plants. Meanwhile, tension across the Red Sea corridor remains high. Shipping traffic has decreased once again in recent weeks due to fears of further escalation.

Welcome to The National's weekly newsletter Beshara, where we share the most positive stories of the week.

Around this time last year, I did something I never thought I would be able to.

I competed in my first Hyrox, a global fitness race that combines running with strength and endurance exercises.

For someone who used to make every excuse possible to skip physical education at school, and was never particularly athletic growing up, it felt like a pretty big deal.

Only a few months before, I had started seeing intimidating pictures and videos of athletes from around the world taking on the gruelling race. And I remember thinking: I want to do a Hyrox this year. So I did.

For me, the reward wasn’t a podium finish or a particular time. It was going against the version of myself who once thought I couldn’t do it.

Now, with another Hyrox in Abu Dhabi announced for October, the athlete in me – and yes, I’m still in denial about calling myself that – is considering signing up for the race again.

But more importantly, the highlight was seeing in real time what Hyrox could build: a community, a sense of belonging and a belief that you can do more than you thought possible.

Read on for more.

Do you have good news you want us to share? Email me at: falmahmoud@thenationalnews.com

Syria's first Hyrox community

The Hyrox movement is also gathering pace in a small gym in Damascus, where fitness coach Khaled Al Nehlawi, 36, is building a vibrant sporting community, one rep at a time.

After returning to his country with a passion for the fitness race, the athlete saw an opportunity to introduce it to a generation of young Syrians eager to try something new.

“I felt that I didn’t just want to practise the sport here; I also wanted to build a community around it and give people the opportunity to try something new,” he told The National.

And so, Move was born. Short for Make One Victory Every Day, it reflects Mr Al Nehlawi’s vision of building a community centred on progress, consistency and a shared sense of achievement.

“For me, victory isn’t always about winning a race or lifting a heavier weight. Sometimes victory is simply turning up to training when you don’t feel like it, breaking your personal record or even being slightly better than you were yesterday. That’s the idea I want Move to represent,” he says.

Read the rest of the story here.

Quoted

'We want anyone who joins Move to feel that they have become part of something bigger than themselves'

– Fitness coach Khaled Al Nehlawi on creating Syria’s first Hyrox community

A generous donation

A Jordanian mother's plea to save her toddler has been answered by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, who will cover the cost of medical treatment for Katia Abu Al Saud.

Katia, who is 16 months old, has spinal muscular atrophy (SMA), a rare genetic disorder. Her mother had appealed for support with the costly treatment on social media, where her request caught the attention of Sheikh Mohammed.

Now his generous donation has given Katia's family renewed hope to help her.

Snapshot

See Beshara photos of the week here

Impact on Instagram

Follow @TheNationalImpact on Instagram for more good news.

Highlights

The National produces a variety of newsletters across an array of subjects. You can sign up here.

The world is generating and consuming data at an astonishing rate. By 2025, the total amount of data created, captured, copied and consumed globally is expected to rocket to 182 zettabytes. By 2028, that figure is forecast to more than double to 394 zettabytes.

The Covid-19 pandemic marked a pivotal moment in this trend. In 2020, data creation and replication surged, driven by an increase in remote working, online learning and home entertainment. This growth exceeded previous predictions, emphasising the increasing importance of digital solutions in everyday life.

To put this into perspective, one zettabyte (ZB) is equal to one trillion terabytes (TB). Downloading 182 zettabytes using today’s internet speed of 1 Gbps would take 46 million years.

Despite the staggering volume of data produced, only a small fraction is retained. In 2020, 2 per cent of the data created and consumed was saved into 2021. But the demand for storage continues to grow and, between 2020 and 2025, the installed base of global storage capacity is projected to expand at a compound annual growth rate of 19.2 per cent. In 2020, the installed base of storage capacity reached 6.7 zettabytes.

Brief history of data and the internet

The story of mass data is linked to the advent of the internet. January 1, 1983, is considered to be the day the internet was born, emerging as a defensive tool for the US during the Cold War. The US Defence Department initiated ARPANET to ensure information sharing could survive a nuclear attack. The network became the building blocks of the internet, with commercial services first emerging by 1989.

Data storage milestones

• 1951: The first tape drive is launched for commercial computers.
• 1952: IBM’s magnetic tape unit to store 1.1 megabytes per reel.
• 1963: DECtape is introduced for use with Digital Equipment Corporation computers.
• 1978: LaserDiscs brings optical storage to consumers.
• 1980: Seagate’s 5.25-inch hard disk drive offers 5MB of storage.
• 1984: CD-ROMs hold 550MB of data, a breakthrough in optical storage.
• 1994: CompactFlash memory cards become popular in consumer devices.
• 2000: USB flash drives revolutionise portable storage, rendering floppy disks obsolete.
• 2007: The first 1TB hard drive is introduced.
• 2020: Global data is estimated at 64ZB.

From the first tape drives to flash drives, the evolution of data storage reflects our global appetite for data and the relentless quest for space to house its ever-growing digital footprint.

Nearly eight weeks after Israel launched an all-out offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon with intensified bombing and a full-scale ground invasion, it is difficult to say which side has the upper hand. Both sides are keen to claim crushing blows on the enemy but analysts say these are hard to verify amid the chaos of fighting.

The escalation follows almost a year of low-level cross border exchanges in which Hezbollah launched rockets and drones, and the Israeli military responded with shelling and air strikes against the group’s commanders, launch sites and arms stores, culminating in the killing of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on September 28.

What is clear so far is that the sum of violence has been far worse than when these foes last fought in 2006 – a 33-day war in which Hezbollah is thought to have fired about 4,000 rockets, a third of the number it has launched since last year. Israel bombed 7,000 targets in the last war, whereas it carried out 1,600 raids in only the 24 hours before launching its ground invasion in late September.

“Both the IDF [Israeli military] and Hezbollah need to project a certain image of victory,” said Tal Hagin, a conflict researcher specialising in open source analysis. “And we've seen that while Hezbollah used to be very formidable in terms of constantly publishing its dead, now they've stopped completely. Some believe it’s due to them losing the capability and organisation to do so amid war. Others say it’s a conscious effort to try to not showcase how badly they're being harmed.

“Meanwhile, there was a lot of uproar in Israel because there was a soldier filming where rockets were being fired into Israel a few days ago, saying ‘I thought we cleared that area, how are they firing rockets again from there?’” he said.

“We'll only have a better understanding of what's happening on the ground once the war is over.”

A US-led ceasefire effort is under way but neither side has let up on its attacks, with Israel expanding its air strikes to central Beirut since Sunday and Hezbollah hitting Tel Aviv as it fired 100 rockets into Israel on Monday.

No clear victory

Experts warn that whatever happens on the battlefield, it is hard to see a winner.

“Israel is waging a war of containment, with no room for outbreaks – [Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has made that much clear. But it cannot win a decisive victory,” said Pierre Boussel, associate researcher at France's Foundation for Strategic Research, focused on the Middle East.

“It can only shatter Hezbollah's military apparatus. It is a long-term struggle aimed at wearing it down, bomb by bomb. But what happens when Israel has bombed everything and killed all the Hezbollah leaders? The most difficult part remains, a fight on the ground, the kind of struggle they lost in 2006. The man with the gun, who will be determined, very determined.”

Israel’s 2006 war in Lebanon is widely seen by analysts as a military failure.

In the current war, both sides have demonstrated powerful new capabilities. For Hezbollah, this has meant an increase in long-range drone attacks, with one striking Mr Netanyahu’s residence on October 19. It has used new weapons, such as the Almas anti-tank missiles that can engage targets behind hills. These have hit Israel’s vaunted Iron Dome missile defence system and other targets, including military excavators.

But Hezbollah has suffered heavily from Israel’s “intelligence preparation of the battlefield”, which involves detailed mapping of suspected enemy sites using drones, satellite reconnaissance and intercepted communications.

The group has found it hard to secure communications and movements on what analysts call the modern “transparent battlefield”, allowing Israel to repeatedly target scores of medium and high-level Hezbollah commanders. Some experts believe this shattering of command and control has muted the group’s operations.

The most extreme display of this was the detonations of pagers used by Hezbollah on September 17, which had been rigged with explosives and supplied by Israeli-run front companies. By some accounts the attack took about 1,500 Hezbollah fighters off the battlefield, either dead or wounded.

Israel must have begun intelligence preparation years in advance, Mr Hagin says.

Under massive bombardment and facing an invasion by four Israeli army divisions, or about 40,000 soldiers, Hezbollah has struggled to retaliate.

Israel’s fear of Hezbollah firing 1,000-2,000 rockets a day has not materialised, although the group has launched powerful ballistic missiles and sent waves of hard-to-detect drones.

“If someone had told me Hezbollah would fire less than a few hundred rockets a day in full-scale war, I’d have laughed at them,” a former Israeli intelligence official told The National.

Israel’s air campaign “struck the archer, not the arrow”, Mr Hagin said, referring to the military concept of bombing suspected rocket launch and storage sites rather than using expensive interceptors – the Iron Dome’s cost $100,000 each – to hit rockets individually.

Hezbollah’s ground forces could yet pose a stiff challenge, said Joe Macaron, a security and politics expert and Wilson Centre fellow.

“Hezbollah has a hybrid structure that was built to adapt to different war scenarios. The group has suffered a big blow in its command and control, and now has a weaker leadership, but fighters on the ground have decentralised control and ability to continue fighting as needed,” Mr Macaron said.

“Hezbollah is now aiming to survive, which requires adaptation to new circumstances and rules of engagement. It will be difficult to return to the dynamics before this current confrontation between Israel and Hezbollah.”

Mr Hagin said it may be too early to assess the ground campaign, where Hezbollah has fought bitter battles with Israeli forces, often killing several soldiers a day – including six in one day of fighting last week.

About 50 Israeli soldiers have been killed in Lebanon so far – fewer that the 121 in 2006, but ominous for Israel if the war does not end soon. Israeli army Chief of Staff Herzi Halevi has spoken about a “strain” on reservists and a lack of manpower amid economic woes in Israel.

Hezbollah’s claim of destroying 44 Merkava tanks, considered one the world’s most heavily armoured and equipped with the Trophy “active protection system” that can shoot incoming anti-tank missiles, could prove to be true – confirmed tank kills can be difficult to assess at long distances in the heat of battle. In 2006, a total of 45 Merkavas were hit with anti-tank missiles but less than half suffered armour penetration.

“We have been deceived by Hezbollah's communication, which is based on firepower: rockets and drones. Its main strength is still hand-to-hand combat,” Mr Boussel said.

“Its units, scattered along the Israeli border, enjoy a high degree of operational autonomy and here lies the quagmire the Israelis do not want to repeat.”

UAE stock markets have hit $1 trillion in market capitalisation, primarily driven by initial public offerings as well as strong earnings, as the Arab world’s second-largest economy continues to grow amid diversification efforts.

The total market capitalisation of the two bourses that make the UAE market is bigger than Milan or Madrid, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. While dwarfed by the nearly $3 trillion Saudi Arabian Tadawul stock market, the UAE is larger than most emerging markets, barring a few like India and China, the data shows.

“The combined value of the UAE's stock markets has reached the significant milestone, with the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX) contributing $801 billion and the Dubai Financial Market (DFM) adding $206 billion to this achievement,” George Pavel, general manager at brokerage firm Naga.com Middle East, said. “This growth has been driven by successful IPO activities, increased foreign investment inflows, and notably, strong corporate earnings across key sectors.”

There has been a flurry of listings in Dubai and Abu Dhabi in the past two years on the back of a push from the government to boost liquidity as well as growing investor demand. There are 100 companies listed on the ADX, while on DFM it is 68, according to data provided by the two bourses on Monday.

The strong performance of the UAE's economy amid the expansion of its non-oil sectors as well as investments in technology are also supporting stock markets.

In September, the UAE Central Bank revised its 2024 gross domestic product growth forecast to 4 per cent from the previous estimate of 3.9 per cent in June.

Earlier this year, Microsoft announced a $1.5 billion investment in Abu Dhabi artificial intelligence and cloud company G42 to help it boost G42's global expansion plans.

Abu Dhabi-based technology company MGX, BlackRock, Microsoft and Global Infrastructure Partners have also launched an artificial intelligence infrastructure investment partnership that aims to gather up to $100 billion to enhance the future of AI.

There have also been the listing of technology focused companies including Abu Dhabi-based blockchain and crypto solutions company Phoenix Group, which began trading on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange in December following a $370 million IPO.

Strong earnings reported by banks, property developers and other companies have also been boosting the UAE bourse's performance.