A fire broke out near the UAE’s Barakah Nuclear Power Plant on Sunday after what officials described as a drone strike, adding fresh strain to rising regional tensions linked to the fragile Iran ceasefire situation.

Authorities said the incident occurred on the perimeter of the nuclear facility, located in Abu Dhabi’s Al Dhafra region. According to the Abu Dhabi Media Office, an electrical generator outside the main operational area caught fire following the strike.

Officials confirmed there were no injuries and no radiation leak. The statement added that the nuclear plant continued operating normally despite the incident.

The International Atomic Energy Agency also confirmed that the fire affected an electrical generator connected to the facility. The agency said one of the plant’s reactors temporarily relied on emergency diesel generators before normal systems were restored.

The Barakah facility is the Arab world’s first commercial nuclear power plant and plays a major role in the UAE’s long-term energy strategy. The site has been viewed as a critical piece of infrastructure for the country’s efforts to diversify energy supplies and reduce dependence on hydrocarbons.

No organization immediately claimed responsibility for the strike, and UAE authorities did not publicly identify any party behind the attack. The incident, however, comes amid heightened tensions across the Gulf following weeks of regional instability tied to the conflict involving Iran and ongoing ceasefire negotiations with the United States.

Diplomatic efforts aimed at stabilizing the situation have shown little progress in recent days, raising concerns among regional governments and energy markets that hostilities could intensify again.

Security analysts say attacks targeting strategic infrastructure have become an increasing concern across the Gulf as regional conflicts spill beyond traditional battle zones. Energy facilities, shipping routes and critical utilities have all faced elevated security threats during recent months.

The incident near Barakah also triggered renewed debate over the vulnerability of nuclear and energy infrastructure to drone warfare, which has become a defining feature of modern regional conflicts.

Meanwhile, Iranian state media continued broadcasting wartime-themed programming on Sunday, including footage showing television presenters undergoing firearms training and appearing armed during broadcasts. The images circulated widely online and added to the tense atmosphere surrounding the stalled ceasefire efforts.

The UAE has repeatedly called for regional stability and diplomatic solutions to ongoing conflicts while strengthening security coordination with international partners.

Barakah’s operators have not announced any disruption to electricity production, and authorities stressed that safety systems at the facility functioned as designed during the incident.

The nuclear plant supplies a significant share of the UAE’s electricity needs and is considered one of the country’s most strategically important infrastructure projects.

Nvidia has reached a market capitalisation of $5.7 trillion, overtaking the projected size of Germany’s economy and underlining the growing dominance of major US technology firms in global financial markets.

The California-based chipmaker, whose processors power artificial intelligence systems, gaming technology and data centres, became the world’s most valuable company after its valuation climbed sharply in recent months. According to market data from CompaniesMarketCap, Nvidia’s value reached $5.7 trillion in mid-May, exceeding Germany’s projected 2026 gross domestic product of $5.45 trillion estimated by the International Monetary Fund.

Germany remains Europe’s largest economy and the world’s third largest overall, behind the United States and China. Nvidia’s valuation now places it ahead of every European economy, including the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain.

The rapid rise of Nvidia has been driven largely by surging global demand for artificial intelligence technology. The company’s advanced chips are widely used in AI systems, cloud computing infrastructure and machine learning platforms, placing it at the centre of the ongoing AI investment boom.

Jensen Huang recently said growing demand for artificial intelligence could push Nvidia’s annual sales toward $1 trillion within the next two years. Huang joined US President Donald Trump during a high-profile visit to China earlier this week as Washington and Beijing continue discussions over technology and trade relations.

The broader gap between American corporate power and European economies is also widening. The combined market value of the five largest US companies — Nvidia, Alphabet, Apple, Microsoft and Amazon — now stands at more than $20.8 trillion.

That figure exceeds the combined GDP of Europe’s five largest economies: Germany, the United Kingdom, France, Italy and Spain, whose total output amounts to roughly $18.1 trillion.

Europe currently has no company approaching the scale of the leading American technology firms. Dutch semiconductor equipment maker ASML is Europe’s most valuable listed company with a market capitalisation of about $610 billion, far below Nvidia’s valuation.

Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche and British drugmaker AstraZeneca are also among Europe’s largest firms, though their market values remain significantly smaller than those of US technology giants.

Economists note that market capitalisation and GDP measure different aspects of economic activity. GDP reflects the total annual production of goods and services in an economy, while market value represents investor expectations about a company’s future growth and profitability.

Still, the comparison highlights the extraordinary scale reached by a small group of US technology companies during the global AI expansion.

A newly released financial ethics filing has revealed that US President Donald Trump reported more than 3,600 stock market transactions during the first three months of 2026, with the total value estimated at between $220 million and $750 million.

The disclosure, submitted to the United States Office of Government Ethics, offers an unusually detailed look at the scale of trading activity connected to the president’s investment portfolio between January and March this year.

The filing was made through two OGE Form 278-T reports, which require senior US officials to disclose financial transactions. Federal ethics rules require broad value ranges rather than exact figures, meaning the precise size of the trades remains unclear.

While US presidents are permitted to own and trade stocks, they are required to publicly report transactions. No allegations or charges of insider trading have been made, and the filings do not indicate whether Trump personally directed the trades.

The president’s business holdings are managed by his sons, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, although several transactions in the filings also referenced broker involvement.

The disclosures showed major investments in some of the largest technology and artificial intelligence-linked companies on Wall Street. Transactions involving firms such as NVIDIA, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple and Broadcom were valued between $1 million and $5 million each.

Additional trades included companies such as Advanced Micro Devices, Intel, Alphabet and Goldman Sachs.

The filings also showed hundreds of stock sales ranging from $15,000 to as much as $25 million in disclosed value.

According to analysts reviewing the reports, many of the holdings appear to have gained sharply in value following a market rebound after the sell-off linked to the outbreak of the Iran conflict earlier this year. The S&P 500 fell more than 8 per cent in March before recovering strongly in subsequent months.

The disclosures have renewed debate in Washington over whether elected officials should be allowed to trade individual stocks while in office.

Several bipartisan proposals currently before Congress seek to ban or restrict stock trading by lawmakers and senior government officials. One of the most closely watched measures is the Restore Trust in Congress Act, introduced by Republican Representative Chip Roy and Democratic Representative Seth Magaziner.

Some proposals would also extend restrictions to the president and vice president, though lawmakers remain divided over how far such rules should go and whether family members should be included.

Despite broad public support for tighter ethics rules, no nationwide ban on stock trading by senior elected officials has yet been passed into law.