Author: Arabian Media staff

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Social engineering used to refer to large-scale campaigns to alter the attitudes or behaviour of a population. These days, cyber specialists use it to mean something else: manipulating individuals into performing actions or divulging information that can enable criminals to hack into IT networks — where they can steal data, shut down systems and extort. The costs can be huge. For Marks and Spencer, one of Britain’s biggest retailers, a cyber attack that began last month is expected to knock as much…

Images: Supplied In today’s fast-evolving work environment, inclusivity is no longer just a moral obligation but a strategic advantage. Yet many workplaces remain unprepared to meet employees’ needs, leaving talent untapped and opportunities missed. To move forward, we must rethink what it means to create truly inclusive workplaces. Understanding the challenge In the UAE, protective laws safeguard the rights and wellbeing of People of Determination (POD), including people living with Multiple Sclerosis (PwMS). Federal Law No 29 and Cabinet Decision No  (43) of 2018 ensures equal opportunities and protection from discrimination for employees with special needs. Despite this robust regulatory…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A majority of EU member states have called for the European Commission to press ahead with a long-delayed plan to tax vapes and raise minimum excise rates on cigarettes and cigars. In a letter to commission president Ursula von der Leyen, seen by the Financial Times, 15 countries including Germany, France, Spain and the Czech Republic requested she “take without delay the necessary steps in order to update the [tobacco taxation directive]”, which was last revised in 2011.They want her to unblock…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Four former Volkswagen directors have been found guilty of fraud in connection with Dieselgate, 10 years following the discovery of an emissions cheating scandal that has since cost the company more than €32bn. A German regional court on Monday sentenced VW’s former head of diesel engine development to four and a half years in prison, while the company’s former head of drive technology received two years and seven months, according to Deutsche Presse-Agentur. Two further suspended sentences were handed out. Although the…

In May 2025, Moody’s Corp. (MCO) lowered America’s sovereign debt rating to Aa1, citing the $36.2 trillion debt pile, rising net interest costs, looming tax cuts, and political gridlock as factors making fiscal course correction less likely. The cut aligns Moody’s with S&P Global Inc.’s (SPGI) 2011 and Fitch’s 2023 downgrades, ending America’s triple-A status after more than a century. The ripple effects could affect everything from your 401(k) to the rate on your 30-year mortgage. Key Takeaways Moody’s joins S&P Global and Fitch in lowering America’s sovereign debt rating below Aaa.For some, the move is symbolic—Treasurys remain the global…

Image: ADGM/ For illustrative purposes The Financial Services Regulatory Authority (FSRA) of ADGM (Abu Dhabi Global Market) has imposed fines totalling Dhs610,000 on 23 entities for breaching the Common Reporting Standard (CRS) Regulations 2017 and/or the Foreign Account Tax Compliance Act (FATCA) Regulations 2022. The sanctions follow enforcement actions taken against the entities for a range of compliance failures, including not submitting required risk assessments and annual information returns, failure to follow due diligence procedures, reporting incomplete or inaccurate information, and not collecting valid self-certification forms from account holders. The CRS and FATCA frameworks are part of international efforts to…

This article is an on-site version of our Trade Secrets newsletter. Premium subscribers can sign up here to get the newsletter delivered every Monday. Standard subscribers can upgrade to Premium here, or explore all FT newslettersWelcome to Trade Secrets. Alan has taken a well-earned break/deserted his post in the great trade war. So with impeccable timing this week’s newsletter comes from Brussels, home of the “nasty”, “rip-off” EU.We’ll try to work out what happens next following US President Donald Trump’s threat of 50 per cent tariffs on the bloc’s exports.Charted Waters, where we look at the data behind world trade,…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.With successive waves of on-off tariffs battering stock portfolios, investors the world over are looking for sheltered spots. Industrial gases, used in construction, manufacturing and hospitals, fit the bill. Companies in this space, with €87bn in annual revenue, already live in a deglobalised world. Shunting the likes of oxygen, nitrogen, argon and carbon dioxide around is expensive, so customers are served on-site or nearby. More than four-fifths of sales at each of the big three — Linde, headquartered in Ireland, France’s Air…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.In Peak Human: What We Can Learn from the Rise and Fall of Golden Ages (Atlantic Books £22), Swedish historian Johan Norberg offers a compelling and timely study of what drove history’s most influential civilisations. Through a fascinating examination of seven of the greatest golden ages — from ancient Greece and the Roman Republic to Song China and the Abbasid Caliphate — Norberg finds that cultural flourishing, scientific discoveries and economic growth was powered by two factors: first, a desire to imitate;…

Economists and academics make convincing arguments that a certain natural level of unemployment can’t be erased but elevated unemployment imposes high costs on individuals, society, and the country. Most of the costs of unemployment are dead losses. There are no offsetting gains to the costs that everyone must bear. The unemployment rate is open to interpretation depending on how it’s measured. Underemployment can be extremely detrimental to the economy of society as well. Underemployment numbers include those who are working low-paying or low-skill jobs that don’t provide enough full-time hours for benefits or to earn a living wage. Global and…