This Month
Biden’s debate confession; Retail sales rise; Crucial super trick
Read everything that’s happened in the news so far today.
Abu Dhabi’s original hedge fund island is running out of office space
A real estate frenzy puts the United Arab Emirates capital at odds with other major cities around the world, where office vacancy rates remain elevated.
- Zainab Fattah
June
Suspected Houthi attack suggests widening operation
The attack happened near the outer reaches of the Gulf of Aden where it becomes the Arabian Sea and then ultimately the Indian Ocean.
- Jon Gambrell
Barrenjoey picks Abu Dhabi for offshore fixed-income trading unit
The local advisory group has become the first investment bank to set up a bond sales and trading operation in the city, choosing it over London or New York.
- Jonathan Shapiro
China-linked investors forced to offload Northern Minerals shares
Treasurer Jim Chalmers says the decision, based on Foreign Investment Review Board advice, was made to “protect our national interest”.
- Updated
- Elouise Fowler
OPEC+ extends deep production cuts into next year
The oil cartel agreed the cuts as it battles to shore up prices amid weak global demand and increased supply from other parts of the world.
- Fiona MacDonald, Grant Smith and Salma El Wardany
May
- Opinion
- Iran
President’s death shows an Iran with few cards left to play
The death of president Ebrahim Raisi opens the way for a dynastic succession to Iran’s supreme leadership. The regime’s chief goal now is protecting the status quo.
- Patrick Gibbons
How to get a meeting with the UAE’s $2.3 trillion man
Deals with hard-to-reach decision maker Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan are often built on years of relationships with one of his network of gatekeepers.
- Ben Bartenstein
April
- Exclusive
- Infrastructure
Plenary Group sells 49pc stake to sovereign wealth fund ADQ in $1b deal
Founders and some executives of the infrastructure investor will receive a windfall after getting a cash injection from the Abu Dhabi investment group.
- Jenny Wiggins
Record-breaking rain floods Dubai’s airport and swamps desert
Experts said storm systems across the region were forecast well in advance and that UAE’s cloud seeding would not have caused such a deluge.
- Jon Gambrell
March
Britain to ban foreign governments from media ownership
The government’s move to protect the Telegraph and Spectator from a UAE-backed takeover could open the door to a bid involving Rupert Murdoch.
- Hans van Leeuwen
February
Trade deal with UAE to spur critical minerals investment
A free trade deal with the United Arab Emirates will include the gulf state tapping its sovereign wealth fund to invest in the extraction and processing of Australian critical minerals, Labor says.
- Phillip Coorey
Planes are getting smaller. Will that send fares soaring?
The first A380 arrived in Sydney some 16 years ago. But the era of massive jets was short-lived. And that could crunch supply and create airport bottlenecks.
- Ayesha de Kretser
January
Australian consultant detained in UAE
DFAT confirmed it was providing consular assistance after former Deloitte Australia restructuring specialist Guy Wall was briefly held in the UAE.
- Maxim Shanahan
Emirates lifts capacity to Australia as rival Qatar remains stuck
The airline’s president, Tim Clark, says access to Australia “isn’t a problem” despite concerns from one “specific” carrier.
- Ayesha de Kretser
- Opinion
- Globalisation
The world is better seen from Dubai than Davos
When the world was American-led, market-based and ever more democratic, Davos was a useful distillation of it. Dubai is now a more faithful portrait.
- Janan Ganesh
Billionaires Island draws super rich to secluded Dubai enclave
Dubai’s property market recently broke a decade-long record for home sales as the local government relaxed visa laws and introduced permits for jobseekers.
- Ben Bartenstein
December 2023
Hennessy bottle maker tips a no growth year
The newly acquired French spirit bottle maker will deliver flat earnings in 2023-24 because of soft demand, in a blow for Orora investors.
- Simon Evans
‘Please give me space’: COP28 host vows to prove doubters wrong
Oil boss and climate summit host Sultan al-Jaber says he accepts the science around global warming and the need to move fast on curbing emissions.
- Hans van Leeuwen
- Opinion
- The AFR View
COP28 pledges and realities
Whatever the outcome in Dubai, the world will end its reliance on fossil fuels not to a political timetable but only when reliable, affordable replacements are a reality.
- The AFR View