Singapore is planning to invest S$220 million, which is around US$173 million, into fintech over the next three years. This decision was announced by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). It comes under the Financial Sector Technology and Innovation Scheme or the FSTI 4.0. The new commitment is 46.7% higher than the S$150 million allocated in the FSTI 3.0 scheme, which ran from 2023 through 2026. The programme will help financial institutions and fintech companies develop new technologies. It will also support companies that are ready to bring these technologies into wider use.
Riyadh has become a meeting point for global technology companies, investors and startups as LEAP 2026 gets underway. The fifth edition of the event opened on August 31. This year’s theme is “Into New Worlds”, with artificial intelligence as one of the main topics. More than $15 billion has also been announced in technology launches and investments, as well as partnerships. The previous, 2025 edition secured USD 14.9 billion in deals, and this year’s gathering is expected to build on that scale. Several deals focus on AI and advanced computing. Others involve digital infrastr
Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) is bringing artificial intelligence into Dubai’s power distribution network. The authority is using the technology to make the network more reliable and improve the way it handles maintenance. One of the projects looks at the condition of DEWA’s power assets. It uses live information from the network to identify equipment that may need attention. This gives teams a better idea of where maintenance is required. DEWA has also developed a system that can restore power after a fault. It identifies the affected area and separates it from the r
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope begins five-year mission to investigate dark energy, dark matter and distant worlds NASA has launched the Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope, a $4 billion space observatory designed to investigate some of the biggest unanswered questions about the universe. The telescope was launched from Cape Canaveral aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket and is now travelling towards Lagrange Point 2, located roughly one million miles from Earth. The mission is expected to operate for at least five years, with the possibility of an extension. Named after NASA astrono
HONOR made the official overseas debut of its humanoid robots at the Malaysia Marathon 2026, the first time the company has showcased them outside China. The D1 model completed the 10-kilometre category at the marathon in Kuala Lumpur on August 30, while the A1 took part in the 5-kilometre route alongside Malaysia's Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Malaysia was chosen as the first overseas destination for the programme, underscoring the country's growing role as a platform for showcasing emerging technologies and its ambitions to position itself as a regional hub
Saudi Arabia has launched the Riyadh Digital District, a new hub aimed at attracting global tech companies, entrepreneurs and specialised talent while strengthening the capital’s position in the digital economy. Announced by the Royal Commission for Riyadh City, the project is designed to help Riyadh become one of the world’s top 10 technology districts and support the objectives of the country’s Vision 2030 economic diversification programme. The site will focus on six key areas considered central to future digital development: artificial intelligence and big data, cybersec
NASA's Starling mission has successfully tested GPS-free spacecraft navigation using other satellites as moving landmarks. The mission uses four CubeSats orbiting at an altitude of roughly 565 kilometres above Earth. Its FALCON experiment uses onboard cameras and a database of around 20,000 known satellites and space objects. The system identifies nearby objects and uses them as reference points to determine Starling's own orbit. The process works autonomously without relying on ground stations, offering a potential solution for missions where GPS signals are unavailable. FALCO
AiMed Solutions and Burjeel Training Academy are bringing together 19 emerging innovators for the AI Builders Summit 2026 Live Demo Day in Abu Dhabi. The initiative received more than 100 registrations from students, graduates and young innovators across the UAE. After evaluation, 19 finalists were selected with AI solutions targeting real-world healthcare challenges. Their projects cover clinical decision support, predictive analytics, patient experience and healthcare automation. Other areas include operational efficiency, population health and medical education. At the Demo
President Donald Trump will present the Congressional Space Medal of Honour to the four Artemis II astronauts at a ceremony in Houston on August 28. NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover and Christina Koch, alongside Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen, will receive the prestigious honour. The ceremony will take place at Johnson Space Centre, with NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman also attending. The astronauts completed their 10-day Artemis II mission around the Moon on April 10, 2026. The mission marked the first crewed flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft, testing its systems w
In April 1984, Space Shuttle Challenger carried around 3,300 honeybees into orbit for a student-sponsored NASA experiment. The experiment tested whether bees could build honeycombs without gravity providing their usual directional reference. The bees flew aboard STS-41-C, Challenger's fifth mission, launched on April 6, 1984. The six-day mission deployed the Long Duration Exposure Facility and repaired the Solar Maximum Mission satellite. The colony lived inside a specially designed Bee Enclosure Module built by Honeywell. In microgravity, the bees successfully constructed around