The UAE continues to consolidate its global standing in the field of autonomous and unmanned systems and future engineering, in accordance with national directives led by the wise leadership, notably the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence and UAE Centennial 2071, aimed at establishing the country as a global hub for advanced technologies and the knowledge-based economy.

The UAE has adopted a proactive approach to the development and deployment of autonomous systems, based on future readiness, integrated government policies, accelerated technology transfer and the promotion of partnerships between the public and private sectors.

The UAE’s joining of the Pax Silica Declaration represents a strategic qualitative step that strengthens its global position in autonomous and unmanned systems and reinforces its role as a trusted partner in supply chains for advanced technologies linked to artificial intelligence.

Autonomous and unmanned systems constitute a strategic pillar for enhancing infrastructure efficiency, achieving sustainability and supporting economic growth pathways in the UAE.

National institutions such as the Advanced Technology Research Council and the Technology Innovation Institute have played a prominent role in building an advanced research and industrial base, enabling the country to develop autonomous solutions based on artificial intelligence and smart systems that are globally competitive in terms of efficiency and reliability.

Sustained investments in research and development, along with the attraction of global talent, have enhanced the UAE’s capabilities to transform innovation into practical applications that serve national priorities and open new markets for advanced industries.

International exhibitions and events hosted by the country, notably UMEX, SimTEX and Abu Dhabi Autonomous Systems Week, have served as strategic platforms to showcase the latest national solutions in unmanned systems and artificial intelligence, while fostering international dialogue on the future of these technologies.

Projects launched by the UAE in the fields of autonomous vehicles, unmanned aerial systems and autonomous maritime systems reflect the country’s vision of harnessing technology to serve humanity, achieve the highest levels of safety and operational efficiency, reduce emissions and enhance environmental sustainability.

These projects contribute to supporting the transition towards smart cities, advanced transport systems and more resilient supply chains, in line with the UAE’s objectives of building a sustainable and advanced economy.

Through its comprehensive strategic vision for autonomous systems and future technologies, the UAE presents a global model of a nation that has made technology a tool for development, stability and sustainable prosperity.

WAM

Nintendo’s newest console has been out for a less than a year but it already boasts an impressive catalogue of excellent new games, as well as a variety of enhanced Switch greats. Here’s our selection of the 15 best titles currently on offer, ranging from family favourites to grittier, more adult challenges.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons – Switch 2 edition

Originally released in 2020, Nintendo’s lovable life simulator has you cast away on a tropical island, building a home, making friends and inviting other players around for a cup of tea. The new version for Switch 2 (available 15 January) overhauls the visuals and multiplayer connectivity, as well as adding support for the Switch 2 camera.

Why we love it: “Your days are spent chasing bugs, chopping wood, arranging furniture and watering flowers, not scrounging for food/water/weapons and fighting people.”

Donkey Kong Bananza

The beloved ape teams up with his previous kidnap victim Pauline (no hard feelings, obviously) in this literally smashing subterranean adventure. The rules of the platform genre are cast aside as walls and floors are pulverised by Kong’s massive fists.

Why we love it: “I can see Bananza having a second life as an executive stress reliever; a virtual rage room where you heave exploding boulders at cliffs to reduce them to pockmarked swiss cheese.” 

Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles

Originally released in 1997, Final Fantasy Tactics was a battle-focused take on the role-playing adventure series, cutting exploration in favour of tense, contained fight scenes. The Ivalice Chronicles features updated visuals as well as fresh voice acting and difficulty levels, perfectly modernising a PlayStation classic.

Why we love it: “[It] offers a model for resistance, and also a commentary on the struggle of opposition in such turbulent times.”

Hades II

The sequel to 2020’s brilliant mythological action game brings us new lead character Melinoë, a witch who must defeat the god of time and his retinue of sexy, chaotic boss characters. As before, dying returns you to the beginning, but you always reanimate and begin again, lessons learned and experience gained.

Why we love it: “[Jen] Zee’s new character illustrations are, if anything, likely to inspire even more aggressively thirsty fan art and fanfic. And writer Greg Kasavin’s wonderful script is wittier, wiser and flirtier than ever.” 

Hollow Knight: Silksong

One of the biggest hits of 2025, this platform adventure sequel drags insectoid princess Hornet into the haunted realm of Pharloom, where relentless enemies and fiendishly tough puzzles await. Nightmarishly difficult and compelling, it’s up there with the greatest Metroidvania titles of all time.

Why we love it: “I’m captivated by Silksong. I’ve spent 15 hours on it in three days, and it has made my thumbs hurt.” 

Kirby and the Forgotten Land

The first 3D platforming adventure for Hal Laboratory’s long-running hero sees Kirby wake up in a magical world terrorised by a gang of animals known as the Beast Pack. The Switch 2 edition updates the visuals and adds a whole new story.

Why we love it: “From scaling overgrown tower blocks to navigating ghost-ridden haunted house rides in a creature-infested theme park, it feels endlessly inventive.” 

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom – Switch 2 edition

The follow-up to 2017’s Breath of the Wild returns us to the world of Hyrule, now shattered by a cataclysmic event. Familiar locations are radically changed, fresh secrets and quests are revealed, and a new physics engine lets you build incredible contraptions.

Why we love it: “The sense of freedom here is intoxicating. The kingdom of Hyrule is vast and full of diversions, and being able to move freely between the skies and the ground down below is a thrill that never wears off.” 

Mario Kart World

A new beginning for Nintendo’s beloved karting series sees a vast open world to race in, alongside gorgeous circuits, cars, characters and abilities. Implementation of the Switch 2’s GameChat system makes online play more sociable – and the music is incredible.

Why we love it: “It really is an impressively welcoming game, this, generous and detailed and unfailingly fun, different but with the same spirit.”

Metroid Prime Remastered

Arguably one of the greatest first-person sci-fi shooters ever made, Metroid Prime was a huge hit on the GameCube in 2002 before receiving a wonderful remaster on the Switch. Series hero Samus Aran finds herself on the poisoned planet of Tallon IV, exploring its haunted biomes and fighting hideous space creatures. Inspired by Ridley Scott’s Alien, it is tense, complex and often scary – things we rarely expect from a Nintendo title.

Why we love it: “Sometimes, you play a game from a decades ago and think, this might actually hit better now. Metroid Prime Remastered is one of those games.” 

Pokémon Legends: Z-A

In the sprawling, Paris-esque Lumiose City, a team of young trainers set out to climb the ranks of the biggest Pokémon tournament in town. Arriving as an eager newcomer, you must help them – and save the city from rogue mega-evolved Pokémon. A fresh, interesting take on the series, with more lively battles, an open world to explore and, of course, hundreds of Poké-friends to make along the way.

Why we love it: “It looks better than every other Pokémon game I’ve played, and if I could show this to my 11-year-old self playing on a monochrome Game Boy screen, she’d lose her mind.” 

Simogo Legacy Collection

In the early days of the Apple App Store, Swedish studio Simogo made some of the most fascinating, beautifully designed touchscreen games of all time, from rhythm action platformers to folk horror adventures. This collection brings them all together with extra features, including early prototypes of the games.

Why we love it: “These games, in all their varied playfulness, are full of longing: for a lover, for meaning, for a chance to write your own ending. Play them and dream about a world where it all went differently.” 

Skate Story

Imagine Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater, but set in a demonic underworld that you must escape by rolling through bizarre crystalline hellscapes while pulling off bodacious moves. A surreal and spiritual take on the skating sim.

Why we love it: “Beyond the ravishing visuals, what’s most striking is the exquisite fluidity, the delicious ‘gamefeel’ of the actual skateboarding.” 

Split Fiction

Two authors – one writing sci-fi, the other fantasy – are sucked into their own stories when a virtual reality machine goes awry. From the makers of the award-winning It Takes Two, this is another cooperative adventure in which players work in tandem to solve ingenious puzzles.

Why we love it: “One level could be all-action space-blasting, the next will have you puzzling through a fantasy jungle as transforming animals, and an unexpected diversion will have you working together to wriggle sentient hotdogs into buns.” 

Street Fighter 6

The warriors return for another showdown, featuring classic combatants and new fighters, such as drunken boxer Jamie and graffiti ninja Kimberly. The special moves are eye-popping and the gorgeous, hyper-colourful visuals hit you harder than Ryu’s hadouken.

Why we love it: “It’s bursting at the seams with things to do, assured in its gameplay, and wrapped in a stylish, colourful, confident swagger that the game can absolutely back up.”

Two Point Museum

Design the perfect museum then send out explorers to discover artefacts in the latest management game from the makers of the equally great Two Point Hospital and Two Point Campus. The simulation is complex and demanding but it’s softened by lovely comic touches.

Why we love it: “Takes all the lessons from the previous games and builds on them to make a thoughtful and hugely entertaining contribution to the management sim genre.”

The Guardian

Learning space science has delivered significant environmental benefits worldwide, helping many countries better understand and manage climate challenges. 

Saudi Arabia is now taking steps not only to explore the galaxy but also to invest in future generations who can apply space science to pressing environmental issues at home.

Last November, the Space Academy, part of the Saudi Space Agency, launched a series of seminars designed to enhance knowledge and develop skills in space science and technology, with a particular focus on Earth observation.

Running for nearly a month, the program formed part of a broader strategy to nurture national talent, raise scientific awareness, and build data capabilities that support innovation and research across the Kingdom.

Developing space sector can eventually help reduce some of the critical climate issues such as drought and air pollution. (AFP)

As efforts to strengthen the sector continue, important questions remain: How can space science translate into tangible environmental benefits? And how large is the global space economy?

In an interview with Arab News, Fahad Alhussain, co-founder of SeedFord, highlighted the scale of the opportunity and its environmental impact.

“To be frank, the slogan that we always use in space is that ‘saving the Earth from the space.’ It is all about this,” Alhusain told Arab News.

You can recall a lot of related environmental issues like global warming, related to forests, related to the damage that happens to the environment. Without space, it would be almost impossible to see the magnitude of these damages.”

According to Alhussain, satellites have transformed how experts observe environmental changes on Earth, offering a comprehensive view that was previously impossible.

“By collecting data and using satellites… You can better analyze and measure so many things that help the environment,” said Fahad Alhussain. (Supplied)

He said that “the transformation of technology allows even the non-optical ways of measuring, assessing, and discovering what is going on in the environment … you can even anticipate fire before it happens in the forest.”

“You can detect the ice-melt down, you can get huge amount of information and can see it through the weather maps…there is a huge section in the economy for the environment,” Alhussain commented.

A 2022 report by Ryan Brukardt, a senior partner at McKinsey & Company, published by McKinsey Quarterly, found that more than 160 satellites currently monitor Earth to assess the impacts of global warming and detect activities such as illegal logging.

Brukardt cited NASA as an example of how advanced satellite tools are used to track environmental changes, including shifts in ocean conditions, cloud cover, and precipitation patterns. He also noted that satellite data can help governments determine when immediate action is needed, particularly in response to wildfires.

Story by Arab News