WIRED Middle East

Big Tech

Meta Silently Added Face-Recognition Code for Its Smart Glasses to Millions of Phones

Code reviewed by WIRED uncovered an unreleased face-recognition system embedded in Meta’s smart glasses platform. It’s designed to identify people via biometric data stored on users’ phones.

By Dhruv Mehrotra and Dell Cameron

Movies and TV

You Survived Obsession and Escaped the Backrooms. Here’s What to Watch Next on Apple TV+

If Obsession and Backrooms are your new horror benchmarks, here is exactly what your watchlist needs next.

By Megan Tomos

Environment

Nearly 80% of the World's Rivers Are Losing Oxygen to Global Warming

Global warming is suffocating freshwater ecosystems, threatening aquatic life and drinking water supplies.

By Ritsuko Kawai

Digital Culture

What Happens to Your Digital Memories When The Cloud Fails?

The cloud promises permanence. This exhibition explores why our digital memories may be more fragile than we think.

By Iain Akerman

Tourism and Entertainment

Here’s What Azteca Stadium Will Look Like for the 2026 World Cup

The venue where the first game of the World Cup will be held on 11 June is a legendary piece of world football history. It’s getting a new field, a new roof and countless modern upgrades.

SPECIAL EDITION

THE CONNECTION ISSUE

Business

Big Tech

OpenAI and Anthropic Sign Letter to Prevent AI-Developed Biological Weapons

Leading AI labs, executives and scientists are sending a letter to lawmakers urging them to improve tracking of synthetic DNA sequences that could be used for bioweapons.

By Emily Mullin

Big Tech

Anthropic Confidentially Files for What Could Be the Largest IPO Ever

The AI giant behind Claude submitted paperwork on Monday that would take it public, just a couple of weeks after SpaceX’s splashy IPO announcement.

By Paresh Dave

Retail and Ecommerce

You Can Order Your Eid Sacrifice Through an App. Here’s What Happens Behind the Scenes

Behind online Eid Al Adha sacrifices is a massive logistics operation powered by apps and real-time tracking.

By Jumana Naim

Cable Wars

The Gulf’s AI Boom Has an Undersea Cable Problem

Hyperscalers are pushing the Gulf to rethink internet infrastructure as AI raises the stakes of cable disruptions.

By Chris Hamill-Stewart

THE BIG STORY

Digital Deen

Meet the Accidental Editor-in-Chief of Muslim Media

Ameer Al-Khatahtbeh was just trying to find an outlet for Muslim news. Now he has more than 12 million followers.

By Carla Sertin

THE LAUNCH ISSUE

Our First Print Issue Is Here. It's About the Future, And Who Gets To Shape It

By Carla Sertin

Humane Tech

You Cannot Trust AI, Says Cisco's Global Innovation Officer

By Carla Sertin

THE CONNECTION ISSUE

The Launch Issue

GETTING HANDSY

I’ve Covered Robots for Years. This One Is Different

From sorting chicken nuggets to screwing in light bulbs, Eka’s robotic claw feels like we’re approaching a ChatGPT moment for the physical world.

By Will Knight

SILENT DAMAGE

Black Rain Fell on Tehran. Then the Real Damage Began.

From toxic smoke and oil spills to rising emissions, poisoned soil and damaged ecosystems, war can reshape the environment long after the fighting stops.

By Chris Hamill-Stewart and Ruchi Kumar

EDITOR'S LETTER

Your Carbon Footprint Is Counted. The Military’s Is Missing.

While citizens are asked to fly less and drive electric, military emissions remain the largest unaccountable contribution to the climate crisis. That silence has a cost.

By Carla Sertin

Culture

Attention Economy

Microdramas Are the Attention Economy's New TV Format

Vertical. Serialised. Wildly addictive. Microdramas are rewriting the source code of entertainment in China and the US – and the Middle East is up next.

By Megan Tomos

Movies and TV

A Viral YouTube Show About an Unhinged AI Is Hitting Theatres. It’s a Big Test for Hollywood

The Amazing Digital Circus finale will hit more than 4,000 theatres around the world Thursday. Two weeks later it’ll be on YouTube, bucking Hollywood trends and testing the power of online fandom.

By Angela Watercutter

Movies and TV

Backrooms Takes You Deeper Inside the Internet’s Most Uncanny Horror Myth

Kane Parsons was just 16 years old when he created a viral YouTube horror series based on a 4chan meme. Now he’s ready to conquer the big screen.

By Miles Klee

Habibi Discourse

Drake’s ‘Habibti’ Moment Sparked a Familiar Arab Internet Cycle

Drake’s latest trilogy sparked a familiar cycle of Arab celebration and criticism. But is this moment really new, and what do audiences actually want from it?

By Rand Al-Hadethi

Science

Health

This Physiotherapist Learnt 3D Printing on YouTube To Make Prosthetic Limbs For Syria

An Idlib clinic is using digital scans and low-cost manufacturing to produce prosthetics in a country shaped by war.

By Francesca Maria Lorenzini

Health

How Turkey Hacked the Hair-Transplant Industry

From specialised motors to the use of machine learning algorithms, Turkey’s billion-dollar hair-transplant industry is the result of a constant process of innovation.

By Levent Daşkıran

Science

Parrots Are Video Calling Their Friends Now

From parrots video calling friends to dogs using soundboards, researchers are exploring what happens when animals enter the digital world.

By Sraddha Sabu

Science

Why Garlic Repels Mosquitoes and Keeps Them From Breeding

Garlic, as your grandma may have told you, repels mosquitoes; it also completely blocks them from mating and laying eggs. Diallyl disulphide, it turns out, deserves all the credit.

By Fernanda González

Security

Security News

Sudan's Journalists Are Reporting On A War They Can't Access

As access collapses, journalists turn to encrypted networks, satellite imagery and citizen reporting to document the war.

By Adam Makary

Security

Modern Wars Are Creating a New Kind of Courtroom

As evidence spreads online in real time, unofficial tribunals are stepping in where international justice stalls.

By Ruchi Kumar

Broken Skies

Iraq Can’t Track What Moves Through Its Own Skies

Missiles, drones and alleged foreign military sites are revealing how little control Baghdad has over the airspace above it.

By Gisella Ligios

Cyber Exile

"No Escape": How Iran Hunts Dissidents Across the World

Even in exile, Iranian dissidents say digital surveillance, phishing and threats continue to follow them across borders.

By Ruchi Kumar

Gear

WIRED’s Eid Al Adha Gift Guide 2026 for the Chronically Online

From AI chessboards to nostalgic minicameras, the smartest Eid Al Adha gifts for life online and off.

By Megan Tomos

Gear News

Everything Announced at Google I/O 2026

Google is sprucing up its Gemini models, revamping search and enabling AI agents in everything. There are also some spiffy new smart glasses coming this fall.

By Boone Ashworth and Michael Calore

Child Connectivity

Egypt’s Child SIM Could Redesign How the Internet Works

Egypt says its new “child SIM” will make the internet safer for kids. Critics warn it could normalise identity-based access to the web itself.

By Dalia Elkady

Gear News

AI Promised the Audemars Piguet x Swatch Wristwatch. China Will Deliver It

Watch fans spent a week falling in love with colorful Royal Oak wristwatches that didn’t exist—then the real thing arrived. Now, fantasy is becoming a manufacturing opportunity.

By Jeremy White