YouTube launches special program of Hekayat series

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Updated 31 January 2024
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YouTube launches special program of Hekayat series

  • Popular platform to focus on concerns affecting Saudi youth

LONDON: YouTube has announced the release of a special program of its flagship video and podcast series in MENA, Hekayat YouTube, Play it Forward with YouTube in English, focusing on Saudi youth.

The five-episode series aims to establish a platform for conversation between influential Saudi YouTube creators, public figures and decision-makers, addressing topics concerning young people in Saudi Arabia.

“YouTube is a reflection of what’s top of mind for Saudi youth thanks to our vibrant creator community in the Kingdom” said Tarek Amin, YouTube’s director in MENA.

“They’ve built communities around topics that matter to them and their audience. This is why we decided to use Hekayat YouTube as a platform for our creators to engage with decision-makers on these topics and to help them share their experiences with the world,” he said.

The season will feature a range of Saudi creators from fields such as lifestyle, health, technology and investment, including Beeko, Faisal Alsaif, Sukkari Life, and Faris Alturki.

Together with guests from both the public and private sectors in the Kingdom such as Raied Aljadaany of the  Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence, Noura Alyusuf of the the Quality of Life Program, Kaswara Al-Khatib from the creator economy sector, and Haya Sawan from the sports industry, the program will seek to tackle topics such as the future of jobs and artificial intelligence, wellbeing and quality of life, the creator economy, and sports.

The series will be available from Jan. 31, with new episodes released every week accessible on YouTube Arabia, the channels of the creators involved, as well as platforms such as Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Anghami, and Deezer.


Amazon’s AWS reports outage after UAE datacenter struck by ‘objects’

Updated 02 March 2026
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Amazon’s AWS reports outage after UAE datacenter struck by ‘objects’

  • AWS confirmed sparks and fire after objects hit UAE data center causing disruptions to Emirate and Bahrain regions
  • Full recovery ‌expected to “be many hours away”

LONDON: Amazon’s cloud-computing facilities in the Middle East faced power and connectivity issues on Monday after unidentified “objects” struck its data center in the United Arab Emirates.
The objects had triggered a fire on Sunday that forced authorities to eventually cut power to two clusters of Amazon data centers in the UAE, with restoration expected to take several more hours, according to Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) status page.
Localized power issues impacted AWS services ‌in both ‌the UAE and neighboring Bahrain, according to the ​page. ‌Abu ⁠Dhabi Commercial Bank ​said ⁠its platforms and mobile app were unavailable due to a region-wide IT disruption, although it did not directly link the outage to the AWS incident.
While Amazon did not identify the objects, the incident happened on the same day Iran fired a barrage of drones and missiles at Gulf States in retaliation for US and Israeli strikes that killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
A ⁠strike, if confirmed, on the AWS facility in ‌the UAE will mark the first time a ‌major US tech company’s data center has been ​knocked offline by military action. ‌It could also raise questions around Big Tech’s pace of expansion in ‌the region.
US tech giants have been positioning the UAE as a regional hub for artificial intelligence computing needed to power services such as ChatGPT. Microsoft said in November it plans to bring its total investment in the UAE to $15 billion by ‌the end of 2029 and will use Nvidia chips for its data centers there.
“In previous conflicts, regional ⁠adversaries such as ⁠Iran and its proxies targeted pipelines, refineries, and oil fields in Gulf partner states. In the compute era, these actors could also target data centers, energy infrastructure supporting compute, and fiber chokepoints,” Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies said last week.
Microsoft as well as Google and Oracle — both of which also operate facilities in the UAE — did not immediately respond to Reuters requests for comment.
AWS said a full recovery from the issues was expected to “be many hours away” for both UAE and Bahrain.
The outage had disrupted a dozen core cloud services and the company ​advised customers to back up ​critical data and shift operations to servers in unaffected AWS regions.