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Iran names US tech, finance firms in new Middle East threat list

People sit in a cafe outside the Apple Store in Dubai on May 8, 2025.

Analysis

Iran’s longest-ever internet blackout leaves 99% offline: What to know

Traffic rolls along a main throughfare under a banner with images of past and present leaders that reads in Farsi, "Domino fall", as daily life returns to the streets following nationwide protests, in the Iranian capital Tehran on January 19, 2026. Demonstrations sparked in late December by anger over economic hardship exploded into protests widely seen as the biggest challenge to the Iranian leadership in years. Limited internet access briefly returned in Iran before dropping again, a monitor said January

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

What we know about UAE blocking X accounts accused of misinformation

Attendees take a picture of French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe as he delivers a speech during a visit to the Louvre Abu Dhabi Museum on February 10, 2018, on Saadiyat island in the Emirati capital, to launch the French-Emirati "Year of Cultural Dialogue". (Photo by KARIM SAHIB / AFP) (Photo by KARIM SAHIB/AFP via Getty Images)

United Arab Emirates

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

David Rosenberg

In Tel Aviv, reporting on business and tech

UAE agriculture

Abu Dhabi launches agriculture genome program

Modifying plants’ genetic traits could help with global food supply issues.

JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images

Israeli companies offer solutions for global wheat crisis

Israeli agritech companies are finding solutions for the growing global wheat crisis and others.

Moroccan Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation Minister Abdellatif Miraoui and Israeli Science and Technology Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen.

Israeli, Moroccan ministers of science and technology sign cooperation agreement

Israel’s Science and Technology Minister Orit Farkash-Hacohen and Morocco’s Higher Education, Scientific Research and Innovation Minister Abdellatif Miraoui made history today, concluding a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in a vast field.

Dubai traffic

Can urban transport reform put brakes on Gulf's car centric culture?

Modern Gulf cities built around car dependency face a net-zero pledges test. Plans to retrofit cities and weave in sustainable mobility are in the pipeline, but the car is still king.

BEN STANSALL/AFP via Getty Images

Abu Dhabi to partner with British Petroleum on hydrogen power

The Abu Dhabi National Oil Company and BP will also help Etihad Airways develop sustainable aviation fuel, which is nearly impossible to obtain at present.

Trucks drive in and out of the Bee'ah waste management company in the Gulf emirate of Sharjah.

Analysis

Explainer: Waste-to-energy plant opens in UAE

Masdar's new facility in the Emirati city of Sharjah will burn garbage to produce electricity. Some observers believe the process is relatively harmful to the environment due to its carbon emissions, but others say it is a good way to reduce landfill waste.

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

An Egyptian farmer opens up a water irrigation system as he tends to his fields on the banks of the Rasheed river, an offshoot of the Nile, in Cairo's northern Giza province, some 40 kilometres north of the capital, on June 22, 2013.

Egyptian woman takes on water shortages with new recycling system

An Egyptian engineering student has devised an onsite treatment unit to treat small-scale agricultural wastewater, which may become one strategy for reducing the country's many water challenges.

A general view of the city skyline at sunset from Dhow Harbour on Feb. 5, 2015 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

More fintech startups come to Abu Dhabi

The UAE wants to attract more entrepreneurs and startups to the country.

United Arab Emirates

Google phone

Google Translate adds Sorani Kurdish

Google previously only offered its translation service for the Kurmanji dialect of Kurdish.

Adam Lucente

By Adam Lucente

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Egypt finance

Paymob credits Egypt’s Central Bank for successful fundraising and growth

The fintech startup Paymob raised $50 million in its Series B financing round.

Visitors look at screens displaying images of the Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum Solar Park on March 20, 2017.

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala to develop electric car charging stations with France’s ENGIE

The UAE is in the early stages of a transition from oil and gas to cleaner energy sources.

United Arab Emirates

Magic mushrooms sit in a fridge on July 18, 2005, in London, England.

Israeli company reveals nasal spray of psychedelic mushrooms

Madrigal Mental Care says the spray treats post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety and other mental challenges. Some experts believe magic mushrooms have health benefits, though they come with risks.