Dubai Police has completed preparations for the 2026-2027 academic year through its School Security initiative, rolling out an integrated security, traffic and awareness plan in coordination with strategic partners.

The plan is designed to ensure a safe return to schools while improving traffic safety and flow, particularly during peak hours as students and staff return to classrooms.

Dubai Police will deploy 253 security and traffic patrols around schools, supported by 28 drones to monitor traffic and key locations. The deployment will also include four luxury patrols, five mounted patrols and 65 bicycles to strengthen the police presence in and around school areas, a WAM report said.

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The initiative will also involve 217 students from the Safety Ambassadors programme and 30 awareness programmes organised with 16 partner entities. A total of 775 police personnel will engage directly with students as part of the campaign.

Captain Majid Al Kaabi, Head of the School Security initiative, said the programme aims to create a safer and more interactive educational environment through initiatives targeting students and educational staff at public and private schools across Dubai.

These initiatives include the International Hemaya Centre, Positive Spirit Council, School Security initiative, Safety Ambassadors programme and Naseej initiative.

“Together, these efforts reflect the integration of community and security roles in instilling values of discipline and awareness among students and in building a positive generation capable of facing future challenges,” Al Kaabi said.

Awareness programmes to support first school day

Al Kaabi also praised the cooperation of government and private entities involved in preparations for the new academic year, highlighting their coordinated efforts to maintain high levels of safety and security for students.

Dubai Police said activities accompanying the first day of school will include 19 events organised by 16 awareness entities under the School Security initiative.

The activities will focus on traffic safety, encouraging students to use designated pedestrian crossing points, introducing Dubai Police services and communication channels, and strengthening cooperation between police, schools and the wider community.

Entertainment activities, along with the distribution of gifts and stationery to students, will also be part of the programme.

Dubai Police reaffirmed that student safety and wellbeing are a shared responsibility, requiring coordinated efforts by police, schools, families and the wider community to create a safe and supportive educational environment.

Salesforce and Anthropic have expanded their strategic partnership with the launch of Claudeforce, a new enterprise AI initiative that combines Anthropic’s Claude models with Salesforce’s customer data, workflows and governance tools to enable AI agents to perform business tasks securely.

The collaboration is designed to make Salesforce data and business logic directly accessible to Claude, allowing AI agents to reason over live enterprise information, automate workflows and take governed actions without users having to navigate traditional software interfaces.

The partnership debuts with Salesforce in Claude, a plugin featuring 37 pre-built sales capabilities that allow sales teams to analyse live pipeline data, prepare for customer meetings, review deal health and update revenue forecasts directly within Claude.

Salesforce said the plugin uses its new AIforce enterprise framework to securely connect Claude with customer data, workflows and APIs without requiring complex integrations.

“We’re bringing together the world’s #1 AI and #1 CRM — the best of both worlds,” said Marc Benioff, Chair and CEO of Salesforce.

“By fusing Claude’s extraordinary reasoning with the trusted data, workflows, and governance every enterprise runs on, we’re delivering a dynamic interface that thinks, reasons, and acts.”

Anthropic CEO and co-founder Dario Amodei said the partnership enables organisations to combine frontier AI models with decades of customer data stored inside Salesforce.

“Through this partnership, companies can point Claude at the customer information and business context that they’ve been building in Salesforce for decades, and use it to actually run and grow their businesses,” he said.

The expanded alliance also brings Claude deeper into Salesforce’s own products. The model will serve as a reasoning engine within Agentforce, power AI capabilities across Slack, and be available through Amazon Bedrock inside the Salesforce Trust Boundary, allowing regulated industries to deploy AI while keeping data and workloads secure.

Slack will also become a central component of the partnership, with Claude serving as the default AI model across Slackbot, Slack AI and new collaborative coding capabilities, enabling teams to interact with AI and execute Salesforce actions without leaving the workplace messaging platform.

Beyond product integration, the two companies are becoming strategic customers of each other’s technologies. Salesforce has adopted Claude as its preferred AI assistant for developers and knowledge workers, while Anthropic has standardised on Salesforce as its preferred CRM platform and Slack as its workplace collaboration tool.

According to Salesforce, Claude-powered Slackbot is already delivering the equivalent of 8.1 million hours of annualised productivity gains for its employees, more than doubling quarter-on-quarter.

Salesforce said Salesforce in Claude is currently available to a select group of pilot customers, with an open beta planned for September 2026. Additional pre-built enterprise skills are expected to roll out during the third quarter of 2026.

Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) has announced revised service hours across several of its facilities and public transport networks ahead of the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) Birthday holiday, which falls on Friday, 28 August 2026.

The holiday schedule will affect a range of RTA services, including Customer Happiness Centres, vehicle technical testing facilities, Dubai Metro, Dubai Tram, public buses, marine transport and public parking facilities.

Residents and visitors planning to travel across the emirate during the holiday are advised to take note of the changes and plan their journeys accordingly.

Customer Happiness Centres to close during holiday

All RTA Customer Happiness Centres will remain closed during the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) Birthday holiday. However, customers will still be able to access selected services through centres that operate around the clock.

Read: Back-to-school traffic in Dubai: RTA completes major road upgrades at six locations

The Umm Ramool Customer Happiness Centre, along with the smart customer service centres in Deira, Al Barsha, Al Twar, Al Kifaf and the RTA Head Office, will continue operating as usual on a 24/7 basis.

This will allow customers to access available smart and customer service facilities despite the closure of the authority’s other physical centres.

Selected vehicle testing centres to remain open

Service provider centres offering vehicle technical testing services will generally be closed during the holiday, with normal working hours scheduled to resume on Saturday, August 29, 2026.

However, RTA has confirmed that four centres will continue providing services during the holiday. These are Al Mutakamela Al Quoz, Al Mutakamela Al Qusais, Aber and Wasel Al Jaddaf.

The selected centres will operate in two shifts, with morning services available from 7:00am to 12:00 noon and evening services running from 3:00pm to 10:30pm.

Customers will be able to access vehicle technical testing and vehicle registration services at these locations during the holiday.

Dubai Metro and Tram to operate on extended hours

Public transport users will also benefit from extended operating hours on Dubai’s Metro and Tram networks during the holiday.

On Friday, August 28, services on the Dubai Metro’s Red and Green Lines will begin at 5:00am and continue until 1:00 am the following day.

Dubai Tram services will operate from 6:00am until 1:00am the following day.

The extended schedules are expected to provide additional flexibility for passengers travelling across Dubai during the holiday, particularly those relying on public transport for their daily journeys and leisure plans.

Bus passengers advised to check S’hail

Public bus services will also operate according to holiday schedules. RTA has advised passengers to check the S’hail app for the latest information on changes to public bus routes and timings during the Prophet Muhammad’s (PBUH) Birthday holiday.

One key change concerns bus route E100, which will not operate from Al Ghubaiba Bus Station from August 27 to 30, 2026.

Passengers travelling from Dubai to Abu Dhabi during this period are advised to use bus route E101, which operates from Ibn Battuta Bus Station to Abu Dhabi.

Marine transport schedules available online

Passengers planning to use Dubai’s marine transport services during the holiday can check the relevant service schedules through the link.

Checking the schedule in advance will help passengers plan their journeys around any holiday-related changes to marine transport services.

Public parking to be free on Friday

Motorists will also benefit from free public parking across Dubai during the holiday.

All public parking spaces will be free of charge on Friday, August 28 2026, with the exception of multi-storey parking facilities.

Parking fees will resume on Saturday, August 29, 2026, when regular parking arrangements come back into effect.

With changes affecting multiple transport services and customer facilities, RTA’s holiday schedule gives residents and visitors a clearer picture of what to expect across Dubai on the public holiday.

Bayut has launched an AI-powered conversational property search tool, becoming the first property portal in the UAE to allow users to search for homes using natural language instead of traditional filters.

Called AI Search, the feature enables buyers, renters and investors to describe the type of property they are looking for in conversational prompts, such as “a two-bedroom apartment in Dubai Marina with a sea view under AED2m” or “a family villa in Dubai Hills with a private garden and home office.”

Unlike conventional property searches, users can continue refining their requirements through follow-up prompts without restarting the search, adjusting factors such as budget, location, amenities and lifestyle preferences as the conversation evolves.

The launch reflects growing consumer adoption of generative AI-powered search experiences and forms part of Bayut’s wider strategy to use artificial intelligence to simplify property discovery.

“Property search is deeply personal. People do not necessarily think about their next home as a series of filters; they think about the lifestyle they want, the features that matter to them and the compromises they are willing to make,” said Muneeb Farrukh, Vice President of Product at Bayut.

“AI Search allows users to express those requirements naturally and continue refining them as they explore.”

Farrukh said the new feature builds on Bayut’s broader AI roadmap, which already includes tools such as TruEstimate™, BayutGPT and the integration of property search into ChatGPT.

“Our focus is not on using AI for the sake of it, but on applying it purposefully to make property decisions simpler, more personalised and better informed,” he added.

Bayut said AI Search complements rather than replaces its existing search filters, allowing users to switch seamlessly between structured filtering and conversational search.

The feature also integrates with the company’s wider suite of property tools, including Dubai Transactions, which provides recorded sales data, TruEstimate™ for property valuations and TruBroker™ to identify experienced real estate agents.

The launch comes as UAE property portals increasingly invest in AI and data-driven technologies to improve customer experience amid continued demand from local and international buyers.

Bayut said AI Search is now available across its platform, supporting Dubizzle Group’s broader strategy of using AI, technology and market data to build smarter digital marketplace experiences.

Dubai Summer Surprises is going out with a bang, with shoppers across the city able to enjoy up to 90 per cent off during the DSS Final Sale this weekend.

As the annual shopping festival draws to a close, more than 500 brands are cutting prices across 1,500 stores throughout Dubai, giving residents and visitors one final opportunity to take advantage of major discounts. Offers ranging from 25 per cent to 90 per cent off will cover fashion, lifestyle products, children’s clothing and more.

The DSS Final Sale is positioning itself as the grand finale of this year’s Dubai Summer Surprises, bringing together a wide selection of deals for shoppers looking to refresh their wardrobes, pick up family favourites or discover new products and experiences.

Read more: Beyond discounts: How Dubai’s retail scene is fueling a ‘Total Value Economy’

“The biggest deals are saved for last,” the organisers said, urging shoppers not to miss the final opportunity to make the most of Dubai Summer Surprises.

Double points add more rewards

The shopping excitement will also extend to loyalty programmes, with the MUSE Loyalty Programme by Chalhoub Group offering members the chance to double their rewards.

From August 26 to 30, existing MUSE members and people who newly join the programme can earn 2x Bonus Points on purchases made at participating MUSE brands, both in-store and online.

More than 50 fashion, beauty and lifestyle brands are included in the promotion. Participating names include Level Shoes, Swarovski, Faces, Michael Kors and Ralph Lauren, among others.

Those who have not yet joined can download the MUSE app and register for free, allowing them to earn points while accessing participating brands and lifestyle experiences. Terms and conditions apply.

Back-to-school shopping could make one shopper a millionaire

Back-to-school spending is also getting an extra incentive at Dubai Festival City Mall, where shoppers have the opportunity to become the next BLUE Millionaire.

Running from August 10 to 30, the promotion automatically enters shoppers into a draw when they spend AED300 or more at participating stores in back-to-school categories.

The qualifying categories include uniforms, stationery, books, electronics and other school essentials, meaning families can turn necessary purchases into a potential million-point windfall. Terms and conditions apply.

The mall is also offering the Dubai Festival City Mall Academy, an interactive experience designed for students and families. Visitors can participate in a game and unlock giveaways from participating stores, adding another element to the back-to-school shopping experience.

Amber members get a shot at 1 million points

Another major loyalty promotion is giving Amber members a chance to walk away with a million points.

From August 28 to 30, Amber members who spend AED500 or more on full-price merchandise in a single transaction at participating retailers will earn 2X Amber Points and automatically enter the Amber Millionaire raffle.

Ten winners will each receive 1 million Amber Points, adding another reason for shoppers to make their purchases during the final DSS weekend.

Participating brands include Areej, Armani Exchange, Aveda, Banana Republic, Bloomingdale’s, Byredo, Caffè Nero, Coach, Diptyque, Emporio Armani Caffè, Emporio Armani, Giorgio Armani, Harvey Nichols Dubai, Kiehl’s, Kurt Geiger, Kate Spade, Mamas & Papas, Gymshark, B-Bakery, On Two Café, Magnolia Bakery, More Café and Moschino.

Terms and conditions apply.

Abu Dhabi Grand Prix brings back Kids Go Free Friday

While Dubai prepares for its final summer shopping push, motorsport fans in the UAE have another major event to look forward to later this year.

The Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix has confirmed the return of Kids Go Free Friday on December 4, giving families an opportunity to introduce younger fans to Formula 1 during National Day week.

Eligible four-day ticket holders will be able to redeem up to four complimentary children’s tickets for youngsters aged three to 12. The tickets provide access to the F1 Fanzone and Oasis areas at Yas Marina Circuit.

Young fans can expect entertainment areas, driver appearances and race-themed interactive experiences as part of the family-friendly festival.

“Kids Go Free Friday aims to make live motorsport and the celebration of the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix in the UAE more accessible to young fans,” organisers said, describing the initiative as part of a broader effort to create a welcoming, all-ages race week and engage the next generation of Formula 1 fans.

Eligible ticket holders will receive an email explaining how to redeem up to four children’s tickets for each adult ticket booked. Places are limited and will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

The Kids Go Free package includes access to all Oasis entertainment areas within Yas Marina Circuit, including the F1 Fanzone.

The Formula 1 Etihad Airways Abu Dhabi Grand Prix will take place from December 3 to 6, 2026, at Yas Marina Circuit.

For shoppers, however, the immediate countdown is to the DSS Final Sale, where the headline attraction remains clear: up to 90% off across Dubai for one final weekend of summer savings.