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Dubai-headquartered Amea Power and Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company (Masdar) signed power purchase agreements for wind projects in Ethiopia and Egypt in August, covering a total of 500MW of power.

A member of Fujairah’s small ruling family, the Al-Sharqi, has been promoting Arabian Warrior, a new series of obstacle course races of 5-50km in length. Sheikh Abdullah Bin Hamad Al-Sharqi is spokesperson for the series, with the first event to be held in Dubai on 26 October. 

Scholarships have been approved for studies at six institutions in the emirate, including some at the University of Al-Dhaid which is due to be inaugurated in mid-September.

A string of American and European lobbying and PR firms have been opening new outposts in the region in search of government contracts, with Riyadh and Abu Dhabi the main hubs of activity.

Ras Al-Khaimah Ruler Sheikh Saud Bin Saqr Al-Qasimi on 22 August received the United States ambassador to the UAE Martina Strong and a delegation from the American Business Council in Dubai (AmCham) at his palace in Saqr Bin Mohammed City.

Sheikha Hoor Bint Sultan Al-Qasimi, a daughter of Sharjah’s Ruler Sheikh Sultan Bin Mohammed Al-Qasimi, has set up a partnership with Lagos Fashion Week, in an effort to identify design talent for the 2026 intake to the Qasimi Rising incubator programme.

Sharjah deputy ruler Sheikh Abdullah Bin Salem Al-Qasimi in late August oversaw the Sharjah Economic Council’s decisions to approve AED112m ($30.5m) worth of road schemes.

Minister of state for foreign trade Thani Al-Zeyoudi has been appointed executive chairman of Rorix Holdings, a trade finance, commodities exchange and insurance specialist recently set up by International Holding Company, the powerful local conglomerate.

Talks between Mohammad Hassan Akhund and the UAE’s President Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed are a further sign of slowly-developing ties between Abu Dhabi and the Taliban regime.

Dubai-based DP World has blamed attacks on Red Sea shipping by Yemen’s Houthi rebels for the 40% fall in its profits in the first half of 2024. In contrast, Abu Dhabi’s AD Ports said its revenues had more than doubled and profits were up 25%.

The UAE has seen distinctly mixed results from the six Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreements that it has brought into force over the past two years. Trade with India has been growing at a slower pace than trade with the rest of the world and other deals have also been underperforming, as the easing of tariffs and other trade restrictions rubs up against broader geopolitical and macroeconomic issues.

In late July, just as the UAE was wrapping up several of its latest bilateral free trade deals, a GCC delegation was in Ankara from 29-31 July for the first round of discussions on a free trade deal with Türkiye.  That was soon followed on 1 August by the official launch of negotiations on a free trade agreement between the GCC and Indonesia.

The UAE has been clamping down hard on opposition figures this year, in what appears to be an increasingly repressive domestic political arena. A mass trial ended in July with the conviction of 53 people – many of them still behind bars from a 2013 court case. Abu Dhabi now says it has identified a new secret group of exiles operating outside the country trying to stir up trouble back home.

The federal gambling regulator awarded a licence to run the UAE’s first authorised national lottery to a relative unknown in late July, leaving existing operators searching for new business models.

The appointment of Sheikh Theyab Bin Tahnoun Bin Mohammed Al-Nahyan as chairman of the Dubai Financial Market-listed construction company Drake & Scull International is part of the business rehabilitation of a veteran gulf contracting company.