Good morning from The National on November 9, 2026. Here are the latest developments in the Emirates.
Gulf countries signed an agreement on Sunday for a railway project to link six states and open up “broader prospects” for travel and trade, Bahrain's Transport Minister said.
The agreement was signed by transport ministers from Gulf Co-operation Council member states at Al Zahir Palace in Bahrain.
The railway project is intended to establish a rail network linking the six member states, from Kuwait in the north to Oman in the south. The network is to be about 2,100km long.
Bahrain's Minister of Transport and Telecommunications Sheikh Abdulla Al Khalifa described the project as “an investment in the future of the Gulf and its generations”.
The minister had revealed to The National that an agreement was at hand more than a decade after the project was first proposed.
Read the full story here
UAE rescues 22 after fire breaks out on cargo ship in Gulf of Oman
The UAE has rescued 22 people after a fire broke out on board a cargo ship in the Gulf of Oman.
All 22 Arab nationals were safely evacuated by the National Guard's Coast Guard division.
This operation reflects the force's continuing efforts to protect lives at sea and uphold maritime security in the region, the National Guard was quoted by state news agency Wam as saying.
The Gulf of Oman is a key shipping route for regional and international trade, making rapid emergency responses essential for vessel and crew safety.
Read more here
Abu Dhabi court finds NMC Healthcare founder Dr BR Shetty liable in case involving $5.39bn
NMC Healthcare founder Dr BR Shetty and the group's former chief executive, Prasanth Manghat, have been found liable for knowingly participating in a fraud that helped to bring down one of the UAE's largest private healthcare groups.
The Abu Dhabi Global Market Court of First Instance's Commercial and Civil Division ruled that both men dishonestly participated in the fraud against the NMC Group between April 2, 2012 and April 9, 2020.
In a judgment issued on November 5 by Justice Sir Andrew Smith, the court held both men liable for fraudulent trading and wrongful trading.
It identified $5.39 billion as the starting point for determining the financial contributions they should make to reimbursing NMC Healthcare's assets in relation to the fraudulent trading claims. The figure is not a final award or an order for each man to pay that amount.
You can read the full story from Ajanta Paul here
Fact of the day
The UAE is projected to become the world's biggest generator of solar electricity by 2031, with the capacity of renewable energy sources in the Middle East as a whole set to triple in that time, the International Energy Agency has said. Alvin R Cabral has 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 for them here
