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Disney unveils first-ever Middle East theme park on Yas Island

The Walt Disney Company, in partnership with Miral, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Abu Dhabi – In a landmark moment for the entertainment and tourism sectors, The Walt Disney Company, in partnership with Miral, has announced the first-ever Disney theme park resort in the Middle East, to be located on Yas Island, Abu Dhabi.

The launch was powered by all-star agency collaborations including Momentum Dubai, Initiative MENAT, Weber Shandwick MENAT and HQWS. The campaign combined immersive storytelling, strategic media planning and dazzling live events, including a 9,000-drone show and performances by global artists.

Set to be authentically Disney and distinctly Emirati, the waterfront resort underscores the UAE’s growing stature as a global cultural and tourism hub, and marks Disney’s seventh theme park destination worldwide.

Explore our Arabian Travel Market 2025 event recap on the UAE’s rise as a global entertainment hub, alongside our coverage of SXSW 2025: The Continuum of Experience, to see how the concept of world-building is evolving beyond entertainment, shaping the future of brand and consumer relationships.

Strategic opportunity

Gen Alphas will expect phygital entertainment from hospitality brands and businesses. How can you bridge physical destinations with tech-enhanced experiences and regional-specific storytelling to appeal to this tech-savvy, culturally curious generation?

New data set helps identify culturally specific biases in LLMs

Global – A new dataset called SHADES is helping researchers uncover how AI models internalise and reproduce harmful stereotypes in multiple languages. Built by an international team led by Margaret Mitchell, chief ethics scientist at Hugging Face, the tool moves beyond English-only bias detection by mapping responses across 16 languages and 37 regions.

Developed with input from native speakers, SHADES includes 304 culturally specific stereotypes – from gender tropes to racial prejudice. When prompted with these, AI models often generated pseudoscientific explanations, fabricated facts or reinforced the bias (especially in essay-style outputs).

‘These stereotypes are being justified as if they’re scientifically or historically true,’ says Mitchell. ‘That runs the risk of reifying deeply harmful views.’

Presented at the 2025 Annual Conference of the Nations of the Americas Chapter of the Association for Computational Linguistics, the dataset is publicly available and designed to evolve with ongoing contributions from around the world.

Explore how human and machine intelligence are merging in our Synthocene Era report.

Google DeepMind, global

Strategic opportunity

As generative AI scales, the challenge isn’t just technical accuracy, it’s also cultural accountability. Consider how your brand or business can transparently surface and solve cultural blind spots in LLMs to gain trust in an era of AI scepticism

Stat: Portugal tops list as Americans seek freedom abroad

Unplugged, photography by Pasco Photograph

US – In a recent survey of over 100,000 Americans considering emigration, Portugal has emerged as the top relocation destination.

Conducted by relocation platform and community Expatsi, the survey, published in March 2025, reveals growing interest in moving abroad – with nearly half of respondents citing a desire for more or different freedoms as a driving factor.

The data found that personal growth, political disillusionment and lifestyle aspirations are fuelling the exodus. While 56% feel the US is too conservative and 53% say the country is too divided, many are drawn to countries offering a greater sense of safety, affordability and purpose-driven living. Portugal’s relaxed pace, lower cost of living, and accessible digital-nomad and retirement options are helping it become a magnet for freedom-seekers.

The shift signals a broader redefinition of the American Dream – one less tethered to national borders and more aligned with personal wellbeing and ideological compatibility. As highlighted in our Future Five 2025: Longevity and Anti-tourism Market reports, places such as Portugal are fast becoming hubs for intentional living. From Life Plan Resorts’ healthy-ageing villages to remote-work-friendly visa schemes, they’re attracting everyone from Boomers to boundary-pushing nomads.

Strategic opportunity

As lifestyle-led migration grows, brands can tap into expat and relocation mindsets by designing products, services and communities that align with consumers’ evolving definitions of freedom, fulfilment and belonging