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Apple CEO to Young Developers in the Region: Embrace the Process and Enjoy the Journey

Tim Cook takes a group photo with Apple Academy students in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Tim Cook takes a group photo with Apple Academy students in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Apple CEO to Young Developers in the Region: Embrace the Process and Enjoy the Journey

Tim Cook takes a group photo with Apple Academy students in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Tim Cook takes a group photo with Apple Academy students in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple, encouraged app developers in the region to focus on the process rather than solely on outcomes. He emphasized that the true joy lies in the journey, explaining that people often become preoccupied with reaching milestones, such as launching their first app or achieving an IPO, and miss out on the satisfaction that comes from the process itself.
During a private meeting with developers in Abu Dhabi, Cook advised young developers to pursue their passions while addressing real-world challenges. He highlighted how developers in the region have successfully merged their personal interests with meaningful impact, such as offering discounts on food, enhancing water sports performance, or improving accessibility for users.
Cook expressed confidence in the UAE’s flourishing developer ecosystem and praised Apple’s role in fostering creativity. He noted the UAE’s emergence as a hub for technology and innovation, where developers are positioned to make a lasting global impact.
Cook described the developer community in the region as vibrant and rapidly expanding, citing a remarkable 750 percent increase in billings over the past five years as evidence of exceptional growth. He commended the enthusiasm and dedication of local developers, adding that engaging with creative minds provides a direct insight into the innovation driving impactful change.
Reflecting on his visit to developers in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Cook shared that he was impressed by the energy and innovation at Apple’s Developer Academy in the city. He noted that the company remains committed to supporting the dynamic developer community there by expanding its core programs to create more opportunities in coding, design, and app development.

When asked about Apple’s approach to supporting developers, Cook highlighted the company’s comprehensive ecosystem. He explained that Apple provides a wide range of tools, such as Core ML, and resources to help entrepreneurs focus on their passions without getting overwhelmed by technical complexities.
He also underscored the global reach of the App Store, which spans 180 countries, enabling developers to scale their innovations worldwide. According to Cook, Apple’s ecosystem empowers entrepreneurs to transition from local success to global impact with ease.

Apple’s app economy continues to demonstrate significant growth and global influence. In 2022, the App Store facilitated $1.1 trillion in total billings and sales, with more than 90 percent of this revenue going directly to developers. Categories like physical goods and services ($910 billion), in-app advertising ($109 billion), and digital goods and services ($104 billion) were major contributors to this growth.
Globally, the iOS app economy supports over 4.8 million jobs in the United States and Europe, showcasing its critical role in driving employment and innovation. Developers benefit from tools that simplify app distribution and monetization, with Apple’s ecosystem extending across 180 markets.
Commitment to Growth in the Region

Cook highlighted Apple’s contributions to the region’s economy, particularly in the UAE, where the company has created approximately 38,000 jobs, including roles for developers, supply chain specialists, and retail staff. He reaffirmed Apple’s commitment to sustaining this growth and pointed to the recent announcement of a new store in the UAE, which brings Apple’s total number of stores in the country to five.
Cook explained that this expansion reflects Apple’s dedication to supporting developers and helping them reach audiences worldwide.
During his regional tour, Cook visited both Saudi Arabia and the UAE, meeting with developers and officials in both countries to discuss opportunities and showcase Apple’s initiatives.
Who Is Tim Cook?
Tim Cook is the CEO of Apple, one of the world’s leading technology companies. He succeeded Steve Jobs in August 2011 and has overseen Apple’s growth into the most valuable company globally, with a market capitalization of approximately $3.73 trillion.
Before becoming CEO, Cook served as Apple’s Senior Vice President for Worldwide Operations, where he played a pivotal role in optimizing the company’s supply chain, reducing costs, and improving efficiency. Known for his calm and detail-oriented leadership style, Cook continues to guide Apple toward innovation and global success.

 

 

 

 

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Varieties

Heavy Rains Drench Southern California, Spawn Flash Flooding, Mud Flows

A car sits buried in mud after flooding Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Wrightwood, Calif. (AP)
A car sits buried in mud after flooding Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Wrightwood, Calif. (AP)
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Heavy Rains Drench Southern California, Spawn Flash Flooding, Mud Flows

A car sits buried in mud after flooding Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Wrightwood, Calif. (AP)
A car sits buried in mud after flooding Wednesday, Dec. 24, 2025, in Wrightwood, Calif. (AP)

Torrential rains unleashed widespread flash flooding and mud flows across Southern California on Wednesday, as authorities warned motorists to stay off roads while urging residents in flood zones to evacuate or shelter in place.

In the rain-soaked mountain resort of Wrightwood, east of Los Angeles, emergency crews spent much of the day answering dozens of rescue calls and pulling drivers to safety from submerged vehicles, San Bernardino County Fire Department spokesperson Christopher Prater said.

No casualties were reported as ‌of Wednesday night, according ‌to Prater.

Aerial video footage posted online by the fire department ‌showed ⁠rivers of ‌mud coursing through inundated cabin neighborhoods.

Downpours measuring an inch (2.54 cm) or more of rain an hour in some areas were spawned by the region's latest atmospheric storm, a vast airborne current of dense moisture siphoned from the Pacific and swept inland over the greater Los Angeles area.

The Christmas Eve storm was expected to persist into Friday, posing unsafe driving conditions during what would normally be a busy holiday travel period, according to the US National Weather Service.

"Life-threatening" storm conditions ⁠were expected to persist through Christmas Day over Southern California, "where widespread flash flooding is underway," the weather service said.

A flash-flood ‌warning was posted across much of Los Angeles County until ‍6 p.m. PST, urging motorists: "Do not ‍attempt to travel unless you are fleeing an area, subject to flooding or under ‍an evacuation order."

Los Angeles city officials urged residents to heed evacuation orders issued for about 130 homes considered especially vulnerable to mudslides and debris flows in areas where last year's wildfires ravaged the community of Pacific Palisades.

The San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department issued an evacuation warning for Wrightwood earlier in the day, but elevated the advisory to a shelter-in-place order as flood conditions worsened. The Angeles Crest Highway, a major traffic route through the San ⁠Gabriel Mountains, was closed in two stretches due to flooding

Wednesday's heavy rainfall was accompanied by strong, gusty winds that officials said were downing trees and power lines. In upper elevations of the Sierra mountains, the storm was expected to dump heavy snow.

NWS meteorologist Ariel Cohen said 4 to 8 inches of rain had fallen in some foothill areas by 9 a.m. PST, and the Los Angeles City News Service reported numerous rockslides in the mountains. Forecasts called for more than a foot (30.48 cm) of rain falling over some lower-terrain mountain areas by week's end.

Forecasters even issued a rare tornado warning for a small portion of east-central Los Angeles County due to heavy thunderstorm activity over the community of Alhambra.

As of Wednesday night, ‌rainfall over the region had subsided, but a second wave of the storm system was due to hit on Thursday, forecasters said.

Varieties

China's LandSpace Hopes to Complete Rocket Recovery in Mid-2026

Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
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China's LandSpace Hopes to Complete Rocket Recovery in Mid-2026

Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS
Zhuque-3 rocket by China’s private rocket firm LandSpace, takes off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center, China, December 3, 2025, in this screengrab taken from handout drone footage provided by LandSpace. LandSpace/Handout via REUTERS

Chinese rocket developer LandSpace plans to successfully recover a reusable booster in mid-2026, a company executive said in an interview, underscoring the Beijing-based firm's ambition to become China's answer to SpaceX.

The ability to return, recover, and reuse a rocket's engine-packed first stage, or booster, after launch is crucial to reducing costs and making it easier for countries to send satellites into orbit, and to turn space exploration into a commercially viable business similar to civil aviation, Reuters reported.

Earlier this month, privately-owned LandSpace ‌became the first ‌Chinese entity to conduct a full reusable rocket ‌test, when ⁠Zhuque-3 ​blasted off ‌from a remote area in northwest China for its maiden flight, drawing comparisons to US aerospace giant SpaceX.

SECOND ATTEMPT PLANNED

While LandSpace failed to complete the crucial final step of landing and recovering the rocket's engine-packed booster, it hopes to clear this challenge in mid-2026 with a second test flight, Zhuque-3 deputy chief designer Dong Kai told Chinese podcast Tech Early Know in an interview published on Tuesday.

"If the second flight's recovery (stage) succeeds, we ⁠plan that on the fourth flight we will use a reused first stage to launch," Dong said.

So far, ‌the only company that has mastered reusable rocket technology is ‍SpaceX, founded by the world's richest ‍person Elon Musk. SpaceX's Falcon 9 launches around 150 times a year, or roughly ‍three times per week, with its booster reused dozens of times if necessary.

Musk said in October that LandSpace's Zhuque-3 design could allow it to beat the Falcon 9, but went on to state that the Chinese challenger's launch cadence would take more than five years to ​reach that of SpaceX's workhorse model, at which point the US firm would have transitioned to its heavier, new-generation model Starship and "doing over ⁠100 times the annual payload to orbit of Falcon".

INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING

LandSpace's Dong said that, while the company was already building an engine for a future Starship-like model, he was not optimistic that in five years Falcon 9's work rate could be surpassed, noting that all rocket models in China combined this year totalled only around 100 launches.

"It's very difficult for a single company to reach that kind of frequency. It requires the support of an entire ecosystem," Dong said, adding that LandSpace had 10 launches planned next year for all its models.

Other executives have previously said that the financial cost of a high-frequency testing and launch regimen was crucial to SpaceX's success, and that LandSpace's only ‌hope of amassing enough funds to sustain a similar programme would be by tapping China's capital markets, pointing to plans for an initial public offering next year.

 

 

Varieties

Russia Plans a Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon within a Decade

November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)
November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)
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Russia Plans a Nuclear Power Plant on the Moon within a Decade

November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)
November's full moon, also known as Beaver Moon, rises over Fort-de-France in the French overseas island of Martinique, on November 5, 2025. (AFP)

Russia plans to put ​a nuclear power plant on the moon in the next decade to supply its lunar space program and a joint Russian-Chinese research station as major powers rush to explore the earth's only natural satellite.

Ever since Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin became the first human to go into space in 1961, Russia has prided itself as ‌a leading power in ‌space exploration, but in recent ‌decades ⁠it ​has fallen ‌behind the United States and increasingly China.

Russia's ambitions suffered a massive blow in August 2023 when its unmanned Luna-25 mission smashed into the surface of the moon while attempting to land, and Elon Musk has revolutionized the launch of space vehicles - once a Russian specialty.

Russia's state space corporation, Roscosmos, ⁠said in a statement that it planned to build a lunar power ‌plant by 2036 and signed a contract ‍with the Lavochkin Association ‍aerospace company to do it.

Roscosmos said the purpose of ‍the plant was to power Russia's lunar program, including rovers, an observatory and the infrastructure of the joint Russian-Chinese International Lunar Research Station.

"The project is an important step towards the creation of ​a permanently functioning scientific lunar station and the transition from one-time missions to a long-term lunar exploration program," ⁠Roscosmos said.

Roscosmos did not say explicitly that the plant would be nuclear but it said the participants included Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom and the Kurchatov Institute, Russia's leading nuclear research institute.

The head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Bakanov, said in June that one of the corporation's aims was to put a nuclear power plant on the moon and to explore Venus, known as earth's "sister" planet.

The moon, which is 384,400 km (238,855 miles) from our planet, moderates the earth's wobble ‌on its axis, which ensures a more stable climate. It also causes tides in the world's oceans.