AI & Speech Rights: Meta’s Oversight Board says major chatbots refuse to criticize repressive leaders far more often than permissive ones, raising fears of “censorship-by-proxy” as models spread worldwide. Saudi Tech Policy: The same study flags higher refusal rates tied to countries including Saudi Arabia, putting pressure on developers to add human-rights guardrails. University Rankings Debate: A new analysis questions whether global university rankings reward real research capability or simply participation in highly cited international networks—an issue for underfunded labs. Gulf Energy Shock: With Strait of Hormuz disruption, oil supply has fallen sharply, but prices haven’t spiked as hard as past crises, with market resilience and China’s reserve strategy cited as key buffers. Grid Stability in the Region: Huawei Digital Power launched FusionSolar 9.0 in Dubai, aiming to strengthen utility-scale solar grid stability across the Middle East. Saudi Industry Deal: SABIC plans to buy up to a 50% stake in Rongsheng’s USD 10B advanced materials project in China, signaling continued petrochemicals-to-materials expansion. Aramco Contracting: Halliburton won multi-year onshore LSTK work from Aramco covering hundreds of wells, boosting execution capacity in Saudi fields. Cybersecurity Watch: Reports say Airbnb’s CEO account was targeted in an AI-generated “slop” attack on X, later secured by the platform.