Gulf

Healthy Competition: A New Challenger to the Gulf’s Aviation Titans

Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Air is throwing a dose of healthy competition in the Gulf’s aviation “Big Three”: Emirates, Qatar Airways, and Etihad.

Smuggled and Forged: The Houthis’ Shadow Economy

In 2025, the U.S. re-designated the Houthis as terrorists, but their shadow economy of forged passports and smuggled money endures.

EU-UAE Trade Talks: Small Steps Before Big Leaps

Europe's UAE trade talks might succeed where American bluster and Chinese pressure tactics have repeatedly failed.

Geopolitics in the Skies, New Airport in Socotra

Yemen's remote Abd al Kuri island opened its first airport, in the Socotra archipelago, positioning the strategic outpost amid regional rivalries.

Popular

Uneven Protection: Religious Freedom in Belgium

A country can guarantee religious freedom by law and still let how visibly someone practises it decide whether they get a job or a seat at the table.

Venice Rewards Israeli Gaza Documentary Amid Domestic Backlash

An award can celebrate a film's craft without settling what its allegations actually prove, a distinction Venice has now put under real pressure.

Celtic Pact: Is a Post-UK Future Inevitable?

The pact signed in Cardiff dares Westminster to defend a fragile union which Trump's transactional treatment of old allies has left looking suddenly negotiable.

The Houthi Movement Already Uses Frontier Software

A cell in northern Yemen tried building guided missiles with Claude weeks before Houthi forces took the Bab al-Mandeb coast, and no slowdown pledge undoes that.

UAE Capital Backs Germany’s Technology Pivot

Germany's old industrial economy and its emerging digital one are being asked to share the same factory floor, backed by Gulf capital betting both can work.