Saudi Arabia intercepts drone near Mecca, Houthis deny targeting holy city

Good afternoon, friends, and happy almost-weekend. Today we speak with the man teaching Cairo’s boardrooms to juggle… literally. Ali El Sebai’s corporate workshops use three balls and a weaker hand to make points about delegation, resilience, and skills gaps that most traditional training can’t. We also have a thriller novel that had a compelling premise but didn’t quite deliver on it, and Oliver is back at Teatro 90 in October if you’re looking for plans.

First up, the news…

THE BIG STORY ABROAD-

🌐 It’s a busy day across the global news fronts, with several stories competing for top billing. Here’s what’s making headlines: Saudi warplanes have struck targets in Yemen, according to the Houthis, causing the US to tighten its travel warning for Saudi Arabia as the conflict worsens. This comes hot on the heels of an attack on Tuesday when Saudi Arabia said it shot down a Houthi drone near Makkah, accusing Yemen’s Iran-backed rebels of targeting Islam’s holiest city and calling the city a “red line.”

The incident drew condemnation from countries across the region. It’s the first reported Houthi attempt to target Makkah in almost a decade, according to Saudi-led coalition spokesperson Turki Al Maliki. The Houthis denied targeting the holy city, with military spokesperson Yahya Saree saying their targets were Saudi oil facilities and military bases “far removed from the holy places.”

^^ Read more on: Associated Press, CNN, BBC, The Guardian, and Reuters.

MEANWHILE- The European Union has proposed making Canada its first “associate member” as Brussels looks to deepen economic ties and strengthen partnerships amid rising trade tensions with the US. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the proposal earlier today during her State of the Union address in Strasbourg, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in attendance.

Von der Leyen said the EU wanted to take its relationship with Canada “to the highest level possible,” describing the proposal as a move “for our common strength” rather than a partnership against any country. Carney has also called for a “unique alliance” with the EU as relations between Ottawa and Washington remain strained. He is due to address the European Parliament on Thursday.

^^ Read more on: CNN, BBC, Reuters, The Guardian, and Associated Press.

AND- Among von der Leyen’s other announcements at the State of the Union address, she noted that the EU is moving to ban social media for children under 13 and introduce tighter digital restrictions for older minors. Under the proposed EU-wide rules, children under 13 would be barred from social media, while those under 15 would not be allowed to have personal accounts. Von der Leyen said 13- and 14-year-olds could instead use supervised “mini accounts” with limited features and a one-hour daily cap.

^^ Read more on: Reuters, France24, and CNN.

IN TECH NEWS- Rogue OpenAI agents began probing Hugging Face for vulnerabilities as early as May, nearly two months before a July breach of the open-source repository, according to a Reuters exclusive. Independent researcher Jonas Wiedermann-Moeller told Reuters he uncovered evidence that the agents compromised two Hugging Face user accounts and used them to send unusually formatted files to the company’s servers starting 13 May.

The EnterpriseAM Egypt Forum is less than a month away — and here’s some of what’s shaping up on the agenda:

• Where AI fits on the list of topics keeping CEOs awake at night
• What AI means for your company, your team, your job, and your family
• What's the AI opportunity for Egypt
• Building the AI infrastructure

And more panels to come.

Join us on 5 October in Cairo. Attendance is by invitation only, and seats are filling up quickly.

Request your invitation here.

** CATCH UP QUICK on the top stories from today’s EnterpriseAM:

• JPMorgan is rolling out a new local-currency government bond benchmark for frontier markets — called GBI-EM Edge — by the end of the month, and Egypt is one of six countries carrying the maximum 8% weighting, alongside Vietnam, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan;
• The National Authority for the Regulation of Advertising on Public Roads is tightening the rules: existing billboard licenses will only be renewed if boards meet new specifications on size, spacing, and location — benchmarked against road type and speed limits;
• Mostakbal Misr is expanding into hotel investment and tourism development on the Red Sea, drawing on its own land bank alongside plots clawed back from stalled projects that had barely broken ground. The land will go to investors under a protocol the authority signed with the Tourism Development Authority in early August, with hotel investment, marina development, and infrastructure upgrades in Marsa Alam and Hurghada among the prospects on offer;
• Pan-African pre-seed fund Madica is expanding deeper into Egypt’s circular economy, backing recycling platform Bekia and used cooking oil aggregator Delta Oil with up to USD 200k each. The two startups are part of a five-company cohort spanning four African markets.

☀️ TOMORROW’S WEATHER- Stay cool and stay indoors; it’s going to be a very hot day in Cairo. Temperatures in the capital are set to peak at a toasty 40°C, with the overnight low offering a bit of a reprieve at 25°C, according to our favorite weather app.