Residents across the UAE can expect a mix of humid mornings, partly cloudy skies and intermittent rainfall over the coming days, as weather conditions fluctuate from Saturday through Wednesday, according to the National Centre of Meteorology (NCM).

Forecasters say morning humidity will increase on several days, raising the likelihood of mist and fog, particularly across coastal, western and internal areas. Cloud cover is expected to vary throughout the period, with a chance of rain affecting islands and parts of the coastal, northern and eastern regions, especially during the night hours and early mornings.

Read more-Changeable weather across UAE: Here’s what to expect

A WAM report said temperatures are expected to rise gradually through Monday before easing slightly across some coastal and western areas by Tuesday. Winds will remain generally light to moderate but may occasionally freshen, shifting in direction as weather systems move across the country.

The NCM has urged motorists to exercise caution during misty conditions that could reduce visibility and advised sea-goers to remain alert during periods of stronger winds.

Rain possible from Sunday, winds may strengthen

From Sunday, February 8, weather conditions are expected to remain partly cloudy to cloudy at times, particularly across coastal, northern and eastern regions. These areas may experience rainfall during daylight hours, with clouds increasing overnight.

Humidity levels are forecast to rise during the night and into Monday morning, increasing the chances of mist formation over coastal areas. Winds will blow from southwesterly to northwesterly directions at light to moderate speeds of 10 to 25 km/hr, occasionally strengthening and reaching up to 40 km/h in exposed areas.

Sea conditions in both the Arabian Gulf and the Oman Sea will range from slight to moderate, becoming rough at times, particularly toward northern waters.

Slight temperature dip expected on Monday

On Monday, February 9, weather conditions will be fair to partly cloudy, with low clouds appearing over some eastern and northern regions. Temperatures are expected to decrease slightly, especially across northern parts of the country.

Humidity will remain noticeable during the night and into Tuesday morning across coastal and internal areas, maintaining the potential for mist formation. Winds will shift from southeasterly to northwesterly directions, remaining light to moderate but freshening at times. Similar sea conditions are expected to continue in both the Arabian Gulf and the Oman Sea.

Fog risk returns midweek

By Tuesday, February 10, fair to partly cloudy conditions will persist, with low clouds developing over eastern regions. Increased humidity overnight and into Wednesday morning may lead to fog or mist formation, particularly across northern coastal and internal areas.

Winds are forecast to ease compared to earlier in the week, ranging between 10 and 20 km/h, while sea conditions will remain slight in both the Arabian Gulf and the Oman Sea.

On Wednesday, February 11, the country will continue to experience fair to partly cloudy weather, with low clouds appearing eastward. Winds will be light to moderate, blowing from southeasterly to northeasterly directions and occasionally freshening, with speeds reaching up to 35 km/hr. Sea conditions will remain slight to moderate in the Arabian Gulf and slight in the Oman Sea.

Almaty in Kazakhstan has been named the new host city for the 2029 Asian Winter Games, replacing the Trojena ski resort at Neom, after the event was postponed amid construction delays.

The decision was formally announced at a signing ceremony in Milan, where the Olympic Council of Asia confirmed that Almaty would stage the 10th edition of the Asian Winter Games in 2029.

The event was originally awarded to Saudi Arabia, with plans to host it at Trojena, an under-construction mountain tourism destination positioned as a centrepiece of Neom. However, following widespread reports of project delays, the OCA and the Saudi Olympic and Paralympic Committee jointly announced last month that the Games at Trojena would be postponed for an unspecified period.

That postponement followed discussions between Saudi authorities and the OCA in January, during which both sides agreed to delay the kingdom’s hosting of the Games as delivery timelines for the ski resort were reassessed.

At the Milan ceremony, the OCA confirmed that the Host City Contract had been signed with the National Olympic Committee of the Republic of Kazakhstan, completing the formal institutional process required to award the continental event.

According to the OCA, the Asian Winter Games play a key role in promoting winter sports across Asia and in strengthening cooperation among national Olympic committees. The council also highlighted the growing participation of Asian nations in winter disciplines and the continued development of organisational and technical capabilities across the region.

The Almaty Games will mark the tenth edition of the Asian Winter Games and are expected to attract broad participation from across the continent, reflecting Asia’s expanding footprint in winter sports.

The UAE is positioning itself as a global reference point for pharmaceutical innovation, driven by regulatory maturity, public-private collaboration, and a clear commitment to advancing healthcare, according to Novartis, one of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies.

The UAE pharmaceutical market is valued at $4.15bn and is projected to double by 2033, according to the Emirates Drug Establishment. Industry leaders say the country’s strength lies not just in market size but in its ability to provide a predictable, investment-friendly environment for global life sciences companies.

Mohamed Ezz Eldin, Novartis GCC Cluster head, said regulatory evolution has had a direct impact on patient access. “We see ourselves as a long-term partner to the UAE government and healthcare system. Our priority is to accelerate access to innovative medicines through close collaboration with regulators, payers, providers, and other stakeholders,” he said. Fast-track reviews, early access pathways, and transparent pricing mechanisms have enabled the UAE to become a reference for efficient access to innovation.

Across the GCC, Novartis continues to expand in oncology, cardiovascular, renal and metabolic diseases, immunology, and neuroscience, while also investing in advanced therapy platforms, including cell and gene therapies and radioligand therapies. “Our approach is innovation-driven, but always patient-centric,” Ezz Eldin added.

Novartis’ role in the UAE extends beyond launching medicines, says Eldin

Novartis’ role in the UAE extends beyond launching medicines. Through early access pathways, patients with spinal muscular atrophy were among the first globally to receive advanced therapies. “The UAE has shown that when trust exists between regulators and industry, innovation can reach patients faster than in many developed markets,” Ezz Eldin noted.

Judith Love, regional president Asia Pacific, Middle East and Africa at Novartis, highlighted the strategic importance of the UAE and GCC. “There is a strong appreciation for cutting-edge healthcare across the region. When governments, regulators, and industry share the same vision, collaboration becomes seamless,” he said. National strategies such as UAE Vision 2031 and Saudi Vision 2030 align with Novartis’ priorities in innovation, access, and sustainability, giving the company confidence to invest.

The region’s population growth and high burden of non-communicable diseases, such as cardiovascular disease and diabetes, further underscore its strategic significance for Novartis.

A defining feature of the UAE healthcare ecosystem, according to Novartis, is “day zero access.” In the past year, five Novartis medicines were approved in the UAE within days of FDA approval, and four patients with spinal muscular atrophy were treated before any other country globally.

Public-private partnerships are the way forward for pharma innovation

Public-private partnerships underpin this progress. Novartis participates in the Genomic Innovation Consortium, leveraging the Emirati Genome Program and linking genomic, electronic medical records, and biobank data to support precision medicine.

The company also collaborates with the Emirates Oncology Society and the Pink Caravan to improve awareness, screening, and early intervention.

Looking ahead, Novartis plans to expand innovation across cardiovascular disease, neuroscience, immunology, oncology, and areas with unmet medical needs. The UAE’s pharmaceutical sector, industry leaders say, is emerging as a blueprint for how ambition, regulation, and partnership can work together to shape the future of healthcare.

Read: Novartis Gulf’s Mohamed Ezz Eldin on the region’s key healthcare trends

Daleel has officially launched at PropTech Connect Dubai with an ambition that cuts to the core of one of real estate’s most persistent challenges: bias.

Unveiled under the Dubai Land Department’s Real Estate Evolution Space (REES) programme, the AI-native real estate intelligence platform combines verified government transaction data with conversational artificial intelligence to deliver institutional-grade insights across Dubai’s $100bn property market. The launch was accompanied by a $3m pre-seed raise.

Founded by former Dubai broker Ilan Cohen and AI specialist Ely Weichsel, Daleel positions itself as a data-first alternative to opinion-driven property advice. The platform allows agents, brokers, investors and buyers to ask natural-language questions, from yield comparisons to rental performance, and receive answers grounded in official Dubai Land Department (DLD) data, rather than asking prices or sales narratives.

“Daleel is the Arabic word for guide,” Cohen explained. “And this is exactly what we are bringing to the market. We are bringing clarity.”

The idea for Daleel was born out of Cohen’s own experience on the front lines of Dubai’s real estate market. Over five years, he closed hundreds of millions of dirhams worth of transactions — and found himself repeatedly constrained by the inefficiency of existing tools.

“I was wasting a lot of time when I wanted to search for a property, whether to buy or to rent,” he said. “I would go on listing platforms, compare price per square foot, understand rentals, floor plans, views, then cross-check everything against DLD data from other platforms. After that, I still had to run financial and investment analysis before sending anything to a client.”

That process limited scale. “The maximum I could handle was maybe five or ten clients at the same time,” Cohen said.

The breakthrough came when he approached his co-founder with a simple question: could AI sit on top of a unified data layer and answer complex real estate questions instantly?

“I asked, ‘Would it be possible to use data as a central database, and then just ask whatever question I have?’” Cohen recalled. “I don’t want to search for hours. I want the investment report in one go.”

The result is Daleel: a conversational AI directly connected to DLD data through the REES incubation programme, designed to surface facts, scenarios and risks — without recommendations.

Removing bias by design

A core promise of Daleel is that it does not tell users what to buy. Instead, it shows what the data says and leaves the decision to the user.

“When you create an AI, you decide its profile,” Cohen said. “And our AI will never tell you ‘invest there’ or ‘do this’. It will only show you whatever is true in the market from your research, and you take the decision.”

That design choice is deliberate. Cohen described being approached by market participants asking whether paid listings or prioritisation could influence outputs.

“That’s exactly what we never want to do,” he said. “You cannot create a strong real estate market if investments are made on bias.”

In traditional brokerage models, multiple agents often offer conflicting advice, shaped by incentives rather than data. “You call one agent, you get his view. You call another, you get hers. Everyone has a bias or an interest,” Cohen said. “If you convince people that their investment is grounded in data, you remove that feeling afterwards of being pushed into something they didn’t really want.”

The conviction behind Daleel resonated early with investors. Cohen said the platform secured backing before a live product existed.

“One of my largest investors is also a large property investor in Dubai,” he said. “He owns more than Dhs100m in properties that he purchased with me. I pitched him the idea and now we have the product you see today.”

The response was immediate. “He understood the meaning and said, ‘I want it,’” Cohen said. “He trusted that if this could come to market, it could be revolutionary.”

That belief translated into the $3m pre-seed round, backing a platform that positions AI not as a marketing layer, but as a structural upgrade to how property intelligence is consumed.

From Dubai to the wider GCC

Dubai is deliberately Daleel’s starting point. “My experience was Dubai, so it felt like the right place to start,” Cohen said. “We needed government data, and DLD provided it.”

Once the model is proven, expansion follows a phased approach. “First Abu Dhabi, then Ras Al Khaimah,” he said, before turning to Saudi Arabia.

“Saudi is at a big inflection point,” Cohen noted. “They are opening to international investors, and at the beginning it’s always hard because there is no data base. The chance they have is to create the market on a healthy base, and this is what we are ready to bring.”

While Daleel has launched with a freemium model, its commercial focus is firmly B2B. The platform can be white-labelled for brokerages, developers and family offices, embedding proprietary data, pitch frameworks and negotiation strategies within the AI interface.

“They could have their own logo, their own data, their own way to orient sales or negotiation,” Cohen said. “They just share a link, and everything is there.”

Success, he added, will not be measured by a single metric. “We want to see how regular people use it, how brokers use it, how developers use it, and which category is most inclined to adopt it,” he said. “That will show us the right way to scale in the Emirates and across the GCC.”

With seven internal staff, 15 external contributors, and early traction at launch, Daleel enters the market at a moment when AI-native platforms are moving from experimentation to infrastructure. Its bet is that in real estate — where trust, data and capital intersect — clarity may be the most valuable asset of all.

Read: Dubai property sales hit Dhs51.1bn in August, up 7.9 per cent YoY

Sharjah Airport has expanded its international airline network with the addition of Indian carrier SpiceJet, strengthening air connectivity between the UAE and India and reinforcing the emirate’s position as a growing regional aviation hub.

The Sharjah Airport Authority (SAA) announced the launch of the new scheduled service connecting Ahmedabad Airport with Sharjah International Airport, a move aimed at supporting business travel, tourism and family visits between the two countries, a WAM report said.

Read more-Inside airports in UAE: Facial recognition check-ins, 12-minute departures

According to the announced schedule, flights commenced on Thursday, February 5, operating five times per week using Boeing 737 aircraft. The new service is expected to meet rising travel demand while offering passengers greater flexibility and convenience between Gujarat and the UAE.

Expanding links with a key market

The addition of Ahmedabad to Sharjah Airport’s destination network forms part of the airport’s broader strategy to expand its global presence and attract additional international carriers. India remains one of Sharjah Airport’s most significant source markets for both inbound and outbound travellers, supported by strong economic ties and a large expatriate population.

Ali Salim Al Midfa, chairman of Sharjah Airport Authority, welcomed the launch of the new SpiceJet flights, noting that the route aligns with the Authority’s efforts to enhance connectivity and passenger choice.

“The addition of this route forms part of the Authority’s ongoing efforts to enhance the passenger experience through a wider range of travel options and highly efficient operational services,” Al Midfa said.

He highlighted that Sharjah Airport continues to invest in developing its facilities and smart services to ensure seamless procedures and smooth passenger movement, helping to maintain high levels of traveller satisfaction while keeping pace with steady passenger growth.

Focus on partnerships and growth

Al Midfa further noted that the Authority remains committed to building long-term strategic partnerships with airline partners, supporting network expansion and opening new avenues for cooperation.

“This approach reflects the airport’s vision to consolidate its position as a leading regional travel hub, combining service excellence, operational efficiency, and an integrated passenger experience,” he said.

The launch comes as Sharjah Airport continues to expand its route network, with several new destinations recently added, including Krabi, Munich, Prague, Warsaw Modlin, Vienna, Addis Ababa and Sochi. Direct flights to London are also scheduled to commence in March 2026.

SpiceJet cites strong demand

Debojo Maharshi, chief business officer at SpiceJet, said the Ahmedabad–Sharjah service represents a significant addition to the airline’s international network.

“The launch of our Ahmedabad-Sharjah service is a meaningful addition to SpiceJet’s international network and reflects the strong and growing travel demand between India and the UAE,” Maharshi said.

“Sharjah has long been an important destination for Indian travellers, whether for work, tourism or visiting family, and this new service will offer them a reliable and convenient travel option,” he added, noting that the airline looks forward to working closely with Sharjah Airport Authority to further strengthen its regional presence.

During 2025, Sharjah Airport expanded its network to more than 100 global destinations, with four new international airlines joining its portfolio. The airport also introduced additional services and operational enhancements, contributing to faster passenger processing and reduced waiting times.

Sharjah Airport Authority reaffirmed its commitment to working closely with airline partners to continue developing its network and delivering a seamless, efficient and distinguished travel experience for all passengers.