India has asked WhatsApp to justify the implementation of a planned feature covering usernames and to freeze the rollout in its biggest market, escalating a crackdown on messaging anonymity that began with Telegram, according to a government letter reviewed by Reuters.

Earlier this week, Meta’s WhatsApp said it had begun a phased global rollout, including in India, of the feature, which lets users reserve a unique username and eventually message others without sharing their phone numbers.

The intervention is an escalation of India’s policing of global tech platforms, coming weeks after it temporarily blocked Telegram and following years of run-ins with Elon Musk’s X over content-takedown orders.

Read more-WhatsApp’s new AI feature promises total privacy: Here’s what it means

The Telegram block was driven partly by the same anonymity concerns that the government has now raised with WhatsApp.

The July 1 letter gave WhatsApp three days to respond and barred the rollout until its consultations with the government concluded.

India is WhatsApp’s biggest market with more than 500 million users, and the standoff forces the platform to weigh compliance against mounting concerns about expanding government control of social media.

The scrutiny comes just a week after Meta named CRED founder Kunal Shah as WhatsApp’s global head, a rare pick from an emerging market that underscored India’s weight in the app’s payments and business-messaging future.

A WhatsApp spokesperson said the usernames feature was not yet live and would roll out slowly later this year, adding that users would still need a phone number to register and that senders must know a person’s exact username to message them.

The company said it had built “multiple layers of defense against scams” into the feature, including limits on how many new people an account can contact and blocks on repeated attempts to guess a user’s username.

Feature could fuel fraud, government says

The government letter, addressed to WhatsApp’s chief compliance officer in India, said the feature could materially increase online fraud, phishing, and impersonation attacks by allowing bad actors to contact victims without disclosing their phone numbers.

The government has made similar arguments against Telegram. A June report from the home ministry, reviewed by Reuters, flagged the app’s use in cyber fraud and warned that number-hiding tools made it harder to identify users.

Telegram lost a legal challenge last month against the temporary ban.

The letter to WhatsApp based its warning on India’s IT law, under which platforms lose their shield from liability for users’ content if they fail to observe the government’s due-diligence rules.

Digital rights groups said the WhatsApp directive had no clear legal footing. The Internet Freedom Foundation said no provision allows the government to clear or block a feature before its release, calling it an attempt by the government to decide “what a company may build and ship.”

Abu Dhabi Airports said on Thursday that daily passenger and flight volumes at Zayed International Airport have exceeded levels recorded during the same period last year, driven by sustained travel demand and an expanding international route network.

Between June 26 and June 30, the airport handled an average of more than 93,000 passengers a day and close to 500 flights daily, connecting travellers to more than 100 destinations worldwide, the airport operator said in a statement.

The growth was supported by higher traffic from Abu Dhabi’s home-based airlines and the continued expansion of services by airline partners operating at the airport, Abu Dhabi Airports said.

The operator said the airport’s terminal infrastructure, including biometric-enabled passenger processing, has helped accommodate higher passenger and aircraft movements while supporting operational efficiency.

Zayed International Airport currently serves more than 100 destinations, with additional routes scheduled to launch in the coming months, the company said, without providing further details.

Abu Dhabi Airports said it continues to invest in infrastructure, airline partnerships and passenger experience as it seeks to support future traffic growth and strengthen Abu Dhabi’s position as a global hub for travel, trade and tourism.

Abu Dhabi Airports operates five commercial airports in the emirate: Zayed International Airport (AUH), Al Ain International Airport (AAN), Al Bateen Executive Airport (AZI), Delma Island Airport (ZDY) and Sir Bani Yas Island Airport (XSB).

Oman Arab Bank (OAB) and global payments technology provider BPC are celebrating 10 years of partnership, marking a decade of payments modernisation that has transformed the bank’s card issuing and acquiring capabilities while strengthening its digital payments infrastructure.

Since the partnership began, OAB has evolved from offering local card services to a broader, modern payments proposition. The bank has introduced contactless cards, enabled instant card issuance and recently implemented Visa tokenisation, strengthening the foundation for more secure digital payments and future digital-first customer experiences.

The modernised platform enables OAB to connect seamlessly with local and international payment schemes, support settlement and reconciliation processes, and accelerate the launch of new debit card products. It has also strengthened payment acceptance across the bank’s acquiring business, providing greater scalability to support future growth.

For customers, the transformation has expanded access to secure and convenient payment services. Visa tokenisation enables safer transactions through digital wallets and online channels by replacing sensitive card information with tokenised credentials. Customers can also benefit from internationally enabled cards, contactless payment functionality and faster card issuance, renewal and replacement through self-service channels.

OAB has also broadened its premium card portfolio for affluent customers while making modern payment solutions more widely accessible across its retail banking base.

Tariq AlZadjali, chief technology officer at Oman Arab Bank, said: “Our partnership with BPC has played an important role in the evolution of our cards and payments business over the decade. What started as a need to support international card issuing has become a broader transformation that has strengthened how we serve customers across Oman. At OAB, innovation is always centred around making banking faster, smarter and more accessible. The introduction of tokenization and instant card issuance is another step in redefining convenience for customers, while reinforcing our vision of accessible banking.”

Throughout the partnership, OAB expanded its acquiring capabilities to support Visa, Mastercard and American Express, while modernising card issuance and personalisation, introducing contactless payments, integrating Visa Token Service (VTS) and strengthening processing across its ATM and point-of-sale (POS) network.

The bank also introduced instant card issuance through its ATM network, allowing customers to issue, renew or replace cards and manage PINs via self-service channels. The service supports multiple card types, including Classic, Advantage, Platinum, Elite and the Maal card, Oman’s domestic payment scheme sponsored by the Central Bank of Oman.

Beyond card services, OAB has enhanced its ATM and Interactive Teller Machine (ITM) network with additional banking capabilities, including local and international transfers, bill payments, donations, cheque book requests, contact detail updates, PIN management, spending limit changes, card payments and access to account statements.

The recent implementation of Visa tokenisation also positions the bank to expand further into e-commerce, digital-first checkout experiences and online payment services, while work is underway with BPC to extend fraud monitoring across digital banking, core banking and corporate systems through a unified security platform.

Usama El Sayed, managing director for the Middle East and Africa at BPC, said: “We are proud to celebrate the achievements with Oman Arab Bank and support the bank on its payments transformation journey. With SmartVista, OAB has gained a scalable and future-ready platform that continues to help the bank deliver secure, innovative and convenient payment experiences to customers across Oman.”

Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the UAE, and Chairman of The Executive Council of Dubai, has approved a package of new government strategies and projects worth Dhs18bn aimed at strengthening the emirate’s infrastructure, cultural sector, investment climate and public services.

The initiatives, approved during a meeting of Dubai’s Executive Council, span culture, transport, trade, Emiratisation, urban planning, digital governance and Islamic finance as the emirate pursues its long-term D33 economic agenda.

Among the largest projects is the First Al Khail Street Development Plan, which will create a 15-km elevated corridor running parallel to Sheikh Zayed Road.

Construction is scheduled to begin in Q3 2027 and conclude by Q4 2030.

The project is expected to serve 2.6 million residents, improve access to areas including Al Barsha, Al Quoz, Business Bay and Meydan, reduce peak-hour travel times on Sheikh Zayed Road by 51 per cent and increase road capacity by around 9,000 vehicles per hour.

The Executive Council also approved the Dubai Cultural Strategy 2033, which seeks to increase the cultural sector’s contribution to the emirate’s gross domestic product to 5.4 per cent while attracting more than 6,000 international creatives and supporting over 6,000 local talents.

The strategy includes 40 initiatives covering cultural innovation, heritage preservation and talent development, and aims to expand Dubai’s cultural assets by more than 200 per cent.

In support of its ambition to become a global investment hub, Dubai approved the launch of a unified Investor Register, allowing businesses and investors to operate across multiple free zones and mainland jurisdictions without repeated registration procedures.

The register is intended to simplify investment processes and support the Dubai Economic Agenda D33, which targets Dhs650bn in foreign direct investment by 2033.

Dubai Population Now initiative

Dubai also approved the “Dubai Population Now” initiative, a real-time population monitoring system powered by artificial intelligence that will provide live demographic data to support planning across housing, healthcare, education and transport.

Dubai’s population reached 4.58 million by the end of 2025, an increase of 332,000, or 7.5 per cent, from the previous year, according to government data.

Other measures include an Emirati Talents Strategy for private education, targeting the employment of 3,000 UAE nationals in the sector by 2033, and a new visual identity for Dubai’s address system, which will be rolled out across 186 areas by 2029.

The Executive Council also approved the establishment of the Global Centre for Technology and Innovation in Islamic Finance, to be managed by Dubai International Financial Centre in partnership with global organisations.

The centre aims to strengthen Dubai’s position in Islamic financial technology through research, innovation programmes and talent development as the global Islamic finance industry continues to expand.

Sheikh Hamdan said the initiatives reflected Dubai’s commitment to planning for future growth while enhancing quality of life and reinforcing its position as a global centre for business, culture and innovation.

Read: Dubai’s Crown Prince calls for stronger economic resilience amid global shifts

US digital sports platform Fanatics has entered the UAE’s regulated commercial gaming market through a joint venture with Momentum Group after the country’s gaming regulator approved a change in control of Momentum’s licensed entities, the companies said on Thursday.

Under the agreement, Momentum’s existing UAE commercial gaming licences and operations will become part of the joint venture, combining the local company’s regional operations with Fanatics’ sportsbook, iGaming and technology capabilities.

Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The joint venture will operate and expand the commercial gaming activities currently licensed to Momentum in the UAE, including iGaming, sportsbook and gaming-related content websites.

The UAE’s General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority (GCGRA) approved the change in control of Momentum’s existing licensed entities, a requirement under the country’s regulatory framework for commercial gaming.

The deal marks Fanatics’ entry into the UAE commercial gaming market. The company currently operates licensed sportsbook and iGaming businesses across multiple US states.

“The UAE has built one of the world’s most carefully regulated commercial gaming markets, and this joint venture is a reflection of the confidence that brings,” Scott Burton, chief operating officer of Momentum Group, said in a statement.

Conor Grant, president of Fanatics Gaming, said the company was making a long-term commitment to the UAE market.

“We are entering this market for the long term, committed to building something genuinely category-defining together,” Grant said.

The companies said they plan to invest in technology, product development and customer experience, while advancing responsible gaming and player protection in line with the GCGRA’s regulatory framework.

The partnership will also seek to expand access to regulated gaming products in the UAE and contribute to the country’s digital economy, the companies said.

The UAE established the General Commercial Gaming Regulatory Authority in 2023 to oversee and regulate commercial gaming activities, as the country develops a regulated gaming sector.