Author: Sam Allcock

Foodist Istanbul will open its doors to food industry professionals from across the globe at the Tüyap Fair and Congress Center in September 2026. The exhibition runs from 1 to 4 September 2026 at the Tüyap Fair and Congress Center in Istanbul. Tüyap Fairs and Exhibitions Organization Inc., working with ALZ Fair, organises the event. It brings global buyers, manufacturers, exporters and industry leaders together under one roof. The exhibition gives Türkiye’s food industry a platform to reach international buyers while supporting trade across several markets. “As international demand for food products continues to expand, Foodist Istanbul is strengthening its…

The workshop question seemed straightforward enough: name words that rhyme with ‘ball’. Responses flooded in. “Tall,” “wall,” and “fall” appeared as expected. Then came the curveball—not one but several students typed “LOL” into the chat. Purva Grover laughed. Of course they did. The moment crystallised something educators across the UAE have been grappling with as classrooms shift online yet again: children speak digital now, fluently and instinctively, borrowing from the vocabulary that surrounds them daily. In creative thinking classes, Grover reasoned, there are no incorrect answers. The students scored high on imagination, even if their phonetics needed work. You can’t…

Four waterfront mansions priced up to AED363 million have found buyers at The Ritz-Carlton Residences at Keturah Resort, where wellness certification matters more than gold-plated taps. The sales, alongside 110 luxury apartments, signal a shift in what Dubai’s wealthiest buyers actually want from a home. Not just space. Not just marina access. But circadian lighting systems, air purification, and 20,000 flamingos as neighbours. Keturah Resort sits on the shores of Dubai Creek, adjacent to the Ras Al Khor Wildlife Sanctuary. It’s the Middle East’s first fully wellness-certified resort, a distinction that appears to be worth a significant premium. Construction continued…

March 2026 broke records that caught the market off guard. BHM Capital opened more trading accounts that month than it had in January and February combined, capping a first quarter in which the Dubai-based brokerage captured 43% of all new investor accounts across Abu Dhabi’s exchange and 41% in Dubai. The numbers tell a story of dominance. Between January and March, BHM Capital opened 8,280 new accounts on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange out of 19,467 opened market-wide. On the Dubai Financial Market, the firm added 10,204 accounts from a total of 24,820. That’s 18,484 new clients in three months—a…

A German blockchain infrastructure provider arrived in Abu Dhabi in recent weeks, joining a queue of fintech platforms and fund managers setting up regional operations. The company needed clarity on licensing across multiple jurisdictions. It found it. Since January 2026, financial services and adjacent sectors have accounted for 19.32% of total client leads in the UAE, according to data from Sovereign PPG Corporate Services. That’s nearly one in five inquiries. Fund managers, fintech platforms, SPV structures, and holding companies dominate the pipeline, clustering around Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM) and Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). The numbers tell part of…

Someone paid AED422 million for a property at Aman Residences Tower 2 during the first quarter of 2026. The most expensive villa? AED350 million at Jumeirah First. Those eye-watering figures bookend a three-month period that saw Dubai’s property market rack up 47,996 sales transactions worth AED176.7 billion, according to analysis released Thursday by fäm Properties. Transaction volumes climbed 5.5% year-on-year, but values surged 23.4%—a divergence that tells its own story about where buyers are placing their bets. Off-plan properties dominated the landscape. They accounted for 70% of all sales by volume and 71% by value, reflecting a steady pipeline of…

AED 10 will buy you a coffee at Risen Café every morning this month, provided you arrive between 7am and 10am. The Dubai-based bakery chain rolled out the offer across all its locations on Tuesday, kicking off a month-long promotional blitz it’s calling Community First. The discounted window runs until 30th April. Guests who miss the morning slot can claim a second deal: hot or iced chocolate for the same AED 10 price, available from 1pm to 4pm. Both drinks can be bundled with any freshly baked croissant for AED 29, turning the promotion into a grab-and-go breakfast or afternoon…

Water availability is now dictating where the world’s largest data centers can be built. Gradiant, the Boston-based water treatment specialist, secured a contract on 2nd April to design and install a full-cycle water facility for a hyperscale data center in Didcot, Oxfordshire—a project that underscores how physical resources are becoming the brake on AI infrastructure expansion. The facility will rise on the site of a former power station. Gradiant’s system will handle treatment, recycling, and zero liquid discharge for one of the world’s major AI and cloud infrastructure providers, whose identity remains undisclosed. The approach represents a shift from traditional…

Only 24% of UAE rear-seat passengers buckle up. That’s the finding from a January 2026 survey of 1,010 residents—and it’s not ignorance driving the problem. Some 95% of respondents understand that seat belts protect people in front seats. Even rear-seat protection is widely recognised, with 82% acknowledging the life-saving potential. Yet when those same people slide into the back of a taxi or a friend’s car, three-quarters leave the belt dangling unused. The consequences are measurable in morgues, not just statistics. Abu Dhabi Police data reveals that 60% of road fatalities in the emirate stem from one decision: not wearing…

Neoterra Developments turned the first shovel on its ELMORA residential project this week with 80 per cent of units already gone. The 85-apartment tower at Jumeirah Garden City won’t finish until February 2028, yet studios and one-bedroom flats sold out entirely before construction began. The location tells most of the story. ELMORA sits minutes from the Dubai International Financial Centre and five minutes from the recently announced AED 100 billion DIFC 2.0 expansion. For a boutique developer with a AED 130 million project, proximity to that scale of infrastructure investment proved enough to move inventory fast. Two-bedroom residences remain available,…