With temperatures blazing past 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit) in the UAE, doctors are urging both residents and visitors this summer to take extra precautions against the heat.

Staying indoors from midday to 4 p.m. is recommended, along with keeping well-hydrated and dressing in breathable fabrics like cotton and linen.

Cases of heat exhaustion, dehydration and dizziness typically rise during the summer, especially among outdoor workers and the elderly, The National reports.

To help residents beat the heat, the UAE enforces a summer midday work ban and provides cool indoor options like organized exercise in air conditioned spaces such as the Dubai Mall, Mall of the Emirates and Marina Mall.

Investors are expressing concern about Aramco’s sliding stock, which has sapped value from the world’s biggest oil producer as shares of competing companies rise.

Saudi Arabia-owned Aramco’s 14% decline has cut more than $133 billion this year from its market value on Riyadh’s Tadawul stock exchange and some $800 billion since its high of $2.4 trillion in 2022.

The disappointing share performance led Morningstar Investment Services to give a hold recommendation to Aramco, with industry analysts citing prospects for a dividend cut, a looming global oil surplus and a lack of long-term growth versus competitors, Bloomberg reports.

Among Aramco’s peers, shares of France’s Totalenergies have risen 8.6% since the end of 2024 and London-based BP is up 7.4%. In the U.S. Chevron shares have climbed 4.5% and ExxonMobil 1.9%.

Still, Aramco’s current market cap of $1.55 trillion makes it the world’s most valuable oil company, the company continues to pay the highest dividend in the industry and its bond sales this year and last enabled it to raise money to help finance growth.

Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Capital was among the investors in a $150 million funding round for U.S.-based AI startup Anaconda, which valued the company at about $1.5 billion.

Anaconda’s open-source platform provides secure versions of Python-based coding packages used by businesses to build and run AI systems.

The Series C funding round, led by Insight Partners, will accelerate global expansion and new AI features, while giving early employees a chance to cash out.

It comes amid intense competition among enterprise AI software companies, with the Python programming language dominating.

Mubadala’s key AI investments include UAE powerhouse G42 and space tech company Space42.

Expansion of Saudi Arabia’s non-oil economy – highlighted by construction, tourism and entertainment – is fueling a rebound in the kingdom’s finances amid falling petroleum prices.

Gross domestic product is expected to have expanded 3.9% in the second quarter of 2025 compared to the same period last year as Saudi Arabia and other OPEC+ states lifted production limits to stimulate sales.

It was the fifth consecutive quarter of growth for the overall economy after a 3.4% expansion in the first three months of the year, according to the Saudi General Authority of Statistics.

The kingdom’s non-oil economy, which Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman set as the fulcrum of his Vision 2030 economic blueprint, grew 4.7% in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, oil continued to be the driving force in the economy, with the sector expanding 3.8%.

The Saudi economic rebound was reflected in the International Monetary Fund’s decision on Wednesday to raise its GDP forecast for this year to 3.5%, revised from its earlier prediction of 3%.

The kingdom “has demonstrated strong resilience to shocks, with non-oil economic activities expanding, inflation contained, and unemployment reaching record-low levels,” the IMF said.

A firm backed by global investment giant KKR has bought a stake in one of the Gulf’s most reputable fertility clinics.

IVI RMA Global, the world’s biggest provider of infertility treatments, which was bought by KKR three years ago, is re-acquiring ART Fertility Clinics’ Middle East operations from Abu Dhabi-based Gulf Capital, which had acquired the business for $100 million from IVI RMA Global in a carve-out of its Middle Eastern clinics five years ago.

Financial details were not disclosed, but Gulf Capital said the deal was one of its most successful exits to date, Bloomberg reports.

The sale comes amid rising demand for fertility services in the region, as legal systems adapt to changing demographics and social norms.

In the UAE, IVF laws were recently updated to allow unmarried non-Muslim couples to use IVF and to store embryos. Single women are also now allowed to freeze their eggs for future use.

The sale covers four clinics in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, while Gulf Capital will continue to own operations in India.

Abu Dhabi’s Space42, Microsoft and Silicon Valley-based Esri have launched the “Map Africa Initiative,” a five-year effort to develop high-quality digital base maps across all 54 African nations.

The project, unveiled at the 2025 Esri User Conference in San Diego, aims to strengthen local mapping infrastructure and deliver geospatial data to support governments, businesses and communities.

The companies said this effort could benefit more than 1.4 billion people and boost institutional capacity across the continent.

By providing high‑precision base maps, the initiative is expected to enhance route planning for ports and logistics, optimize renewable energy deployment, improve security and disaster response, and underpin the development of smart cities and digital economies. 

Saudi Arabia has doubled down on its ambition to dominate the global green hydrogen market, with plans to build a second multi-billion dollar plant, even as it struggles to sell the output from its first large-scale hydrogen project.

ACWA Power, which is backed by the kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, has awarded a front-end engineering design contract for the 4 gigawatt Yanbu plant to Madrid-based engineering firm Tecnicas Reunidas and China’s Sinopec Guangzhou Engineering, Bloomberg reports.

The new plant, which is expected to go online in 2030, will generate 400,000 tons of green hydrogen per year using wind and solar power, almost double the 219,000 tons expected from its first $8.5 billion NEOM plant, which is estimated to be about 85% complete.

Green hydrogen, which is produced using renewable energy to split water molecules, is seen as a key to decarbonizing industries including steelmaking, shipping and fertilizer production. For export, it can be converted into more stable green ammonia and later reconstituted at its destination – a process known as “cracking.”

However the nascent industry has faced uncertainty and supply chain issues across multiple fronts, as it remains expensive compared to fossil fuels and industries have been slow to commit to building the infrastructure needed to use it.

Earlier this month, ACWA’s partner in the NEOM plant, U.S.-based Air Products & Chemicals, which has an exclusive off-take agreement, paused its $2.7 billion hydrogen cracking terminal in the English port town of Immingham over uncertainty related to obtaining U.K. subsidies.

The Saudi decision to press ahead with the Yanbu plant is a strong bet on the future of the green industry at a time when the kingdom needs to wean itself off fossil fuels. New analysis by Bloomberg Economics suggests Saudi’s dependence on oil revenue is largely unchanged from 2016 – and may have even grown deeper on some measures.

NEOM Port has managed to cut cargo transit times in half during a pilot run of a new trade corridor that links Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Iraq, while sidestepping the Houthi-threatened waters of the southern Red Sea.

The trial shipment began in Cairo, traveled by truck to Safaga Port on Egypt’s Red Sea coast, crossed the sea’s northern end to NEOM Port in Saudi Arabia, and then continued overland for more than 900 kilometers (560 miles) to Erbil in northern Iraq.

NEOM took over the modest regional Duba port and rebranded it in 2022, launching an expansion and automation program to turn it into a central logistics hub for the mega-project and a regional gateway connecting global trade routes between Asia, Africa, Europe and the Middle East.

With the addition of deepwater berths, a 900-meter (3,000-foot) quay wall and advanced cranes, which were delivered in June, the port is now capable of handling the world’s biggest container ships.

The trial run, carried out with the kingdom’s Logistics Partnership Council and multiple Saudi government agencies, demonstrated high operational efficiency at every stage, from customs processing to cargo transfer, according to the Saudi Press Agency.

“This pilot project is a pivotal step in implementing a long-term vision to enhance NEOM Port’s role as a major logistics and maritime hub in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia,” the SPA said.

The test comes as Yemen’s Houthis vowed on Sunday to escalate their attacks on vessels in the Red Sea. By crossing only the relatively-secure Gulf of Aqaba section of the sea, the new route could offer a faster alternative for some regional freight at a time when ship operators are avoiding the narrow Bab el‑Mandeb Strait at the southern end.