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Amira Khalil

Senior Writer,

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Amira Khalil writes for ICN.live since early 2024 and covers Health, AI trends, and global markets, with contributions to Finance Magnates, The National Business, and DailyMoney. Her writing reflects a strong interest in cultural change within digital economies. She studied Broadcast Journalism at Cairo University.
Arab Media Summit 2026
  • Arab Media Summit

The Arab Media Summit (AMS) 2026 will host ceremonies for three awards celebrating excellence and talent across the Arab media landscape, as the region’s largest media gathering returns to Dubai from 15th to 17th September, WAM announced.

The Arab Media Award (AMA); the Ibda’a – Arab Youth Media Award, and the Arab Social Media Influencers Award will honour established media professionals, emerging talent and digital content creators across a wide range of categories spanning journalism, television, digital media and content creation.

The largest edition of AMS to date will take place at the Dubai World Trade Centre under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, and the directives of H.H. Sheikh Ahmed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Second Deputy Ruler of Dubai and Chairman of the Dubai Media Council. The Summit is organised by the Dubai Press Club.

Over the years, the three awards have become a key part of the Summit, reflecting Dubai’s commitment to recognising excellence, nurturing emerging talent and supporting the continued development of the Arab media sector.

The Arab Media Award was launched in November 1999 as the Arab Journalism Award, following an initiative by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. It was established to encourage creativity among Arab journalists and recognise outstanding professional achievements.

Following successive phases of development, the Award was revamped and renamed the Arab Media Award in 2021 to reflect the growing diversity of the media sector and encompass a broader range of disciplines.

Celebrating 25 years of recognising excellence, the Arab Media Award marks its silver jubilee this year. The Award encompasses the Arab Journalism Award and the Visual Media Award, which features five categories recognising the Best Economic Programme, Best Social Programme, Best Cultural Programme, Best Sports Programme and Best Documentary Project. It also includes the ‘Media Personality of the Year’ Award, conferred by the Award’s Board of Directors.

Since its launch, the Award has attracted more than 82,000 entries and honoured around 360 media professionals from across the Arab world. It has established itself as one of the region’s leading platforms for recognising media excellence and has inspired generations of professionals to raise the quality and impact of their work.

Now in its tenth edition, the Ibda’a – Arab Youth Media Award continues to recognise outstanding media students from across the Arab world. Its six categories are Photography, Podcasting, News Reports, E-Games, Multimedia and Short Video. Winners will be announced during the Arab Youth Media Forum, held as part of the Arab Media Summit.

Launched in 2015, the Arab Social Media Influencers Award recognises Arab content creators whose work makes a positive impact on their communities.

The current edition features 12 categories spanning Podcast, Arts and Entertainment, Entrepreneurship, Sports, Tourism, Audience, Economy, Culture, Best Children’s Platform, Influential Personality of the Year, Community Service and Health, and Best News Platform

  • 3 min read
Tawakkalna monthly transactions
  • Saudi Arabia

Tawakkalna monthly transactions averaged more than 4.4 billion over the past six months, a figure that shows how deeply the platform now sits in daily life across Saudi Arabia. Alongside that count, the app drew 13.3 million active users each month. Dr. Esam Alwagait, director of the National Information Center at SDAIA, shared the data during a panel at the LEAP 26 conference in Riyadh on Tuesday. He said the volume points to how much people rely on the platform and how mature the Kingdom’s data systems have become.

What the numbers say about everyday use

Behind every count of Tawakkalna monthly transactions is a person renewing a document, checking a permit, or handling something that once meant a trip to a government office. The Tawakkalna app began as a health tool and grew into a single door for a wide set of Saudi digital government services. Eng. Ahmed Alsuwaiyan, governor of the Digital Government Authority, joined the same discussion. He said services from 62 government entities now run inside the app, a sign of how far Tawakkalna government integration has come. The panel looked at how bringing those services together changes the experience for the person on the other side of the screen.

Business Intelligence & News

  • Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told CBS News on Sept. 18 that there is a “0% chance” AI ends the world by 2030 and called researchers’ warnings “doomsday narratives.”
  • The same day, four paying chatbot subscribers filed an antitrust suit against Anthropic, OpenAI, Google and SpaceX AI over an alleged pact to slow AI development.
  • The suit centers on a Sept. 12 essay by Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei and the public endorsements it drew from Sam Altman, Elon Musk and Demis Hassabis.
  • Nvidia is paying about $12.9 billion for Hugging Face, the platform OpenAI test agents breached in July, an event Amodei cited for changing his position.
  • ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Tawakkalna monthly transactions and the 2030 goal

Alwagait laid out where the work is headed. By 2030, the plan calls for zero duplication of information, zero paper, and close to 100 percent proactive services. In practice, that means a service reaches you when you need it, without asking you to resubmit data the government already holds. Your privacy stays protected through the process. He framed the current results as a move toward an integrated, beneficiary-centered system rather than a finished product.

Reaching full integration of government app services is a starting line, not a finish. Alwagait described a shift away from searching through more than 1,700 separate services toward something that anticipates need. Artificial intelligence sits at the center of that change. The pilot phase of a smart assistant called Shamel now points people to the right service and steps, based on what their situation calls for. For someone facing a life event like a new job, a move, or a birth, the aim is a path that already knows the next step.

Why integration matters to the person using it

Alsuwaiyan said the real gain runs deeper than gathering services in one place. The point, he explained, is a government experience that holds together around the person using it, saving time and effort while lifting the quality of each service. He credited clear governance, shared standards, and national digital tools for that result. Rising Tawakkalna active users track with this steady expansion, and the growth in Tawakkalna monthly transactions reflects trust as much as convenience.

That trust carries weight in global rankings too. Alsuwaiyan tied the work to stronger efficiency in government spending and a better standing for the Kingdom in worldwide digital government measures. For the millions who open the Tawakkalna app each month, the payoff is simpler. Fewer forms, less waiting, and a service that meets them where they stand.

  • 3 min read