DUBAI, United Arab Emirates--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 30, 2026--
Under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, Dubai Electricity and Water Authority (DEWA) and the World Green Economy Organization (WGEO) will organise the 12th World Green Economy Summit (WGES) on 21-22 October 2026 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
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Held under the theme ‘From Success to Scale: Showcasing the Green Economy’, the summit will host 135 speakers, including ministers, business leaders, government officials, decision-makers, experts and innovators from around the world. They will exchange insights and expertise while highlighting successful initiatives and models that can be scaled up to accelerate the transition to a green economy.
“The World Green Economy Summit brings together global leaders and experts who are shaping the future of green economy-related sectors. This diversity of perspectives and expertise adds a practical dimension to the discussions hosted by the summit. We are committed to ensuring that the summit remains a platform for bridging perspectives and fostering collaboration among governments, the private sector, investors, international organisations and innovators. This helps transform knowledge and expertise into impactful and sustainable partnerships and initiatives,” said HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Vice Chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, MD & CEO of DEWA and Chairman of WGEO.
“The current stage requires a faster shift from ambition to implementation, and from successful experiences to scalable models with broader impact. The summit’s speakers, representing diverse sectors and experiences, make an important contribution to this effort by enriching discussions on the opportunities and challenges facing the green economy and highlighting practical solutions that support growth, resilience and sustainability,” added Al Tayer.
The summit’s agenda reflects the breadth of topics addressed this year, focusing on four pillars: Energy Technology & Infrastructure; Business Strategy & Transition; Water & Food Security; and Finance. It will also explore three cross-cutting themes: Artificial Intelligence; Governance; and System Enablers, including supply chains and the circular economy. Together, these themes provide a framework for advancing the green transition through technology, investment, policy, resource resilience and economic systems.
For more information and to register, visit www.wges.ae
Source:AETOSWire
HE Saeed Mohammed Al Tayer, Vice Chairman of the Dubai Supreme Council of Energy, MD & CEO of DEWA and Chairman of WGEO (Photo: AETOSWire)
World Green Economy Summit 2025 (Photo: AETOSWire)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee's execution of Christa Gail Pike for a murder she committed at age 18 was halted Wednesday about an hour before it was set to begin, as a federal appeals court sought to review whether her allegations of childhood sexual abuse and rape were fully considered at her sentencing.
Pike, now 50, and her boyfriend were convicted of the 1995 stabbing and beating of 19-year-old Colleen Slemmer, their classmate at a job training facility in Knoxville. She would have been the first woman executed in Tennessee in at least 200 years.
The 6th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals halted the execution on a 2-1 vote after execution witnesses and others gathered at the Riverbend Maximum Security Institution in Nashville.
Tennessee’s attorney general immediately appealed the stay to the U.S. Supreme Court. Witnesses and media remained at the prison in case the high court allows the execution to proceed. Media witnesses were brought into the prison about 10:15 a.m. to wait.
More than 30 people, some wearing shirts that said “Love Heals,” gathered in a fenced-in area outside the prison while police on horses watched nearby.
The case garnered widespread attention at the time of the killing in part because a pentagram that was carved on Slemmer’s body and other elements of the crime stoked fears of Satan worship during the “satanic panic” of the 1980s and 1990s.
As the execution date drew near, it renewed debate over the death penalty for young offenders.
Pike does not deny committing the killing, but her supporters argue the state should consider Pike’s age at the time, mental illness and a history of severe sexual abuse that included being raped from the time she was a toddler. Assistant Federal Defender Stephen Ferrell said Pike’s death sentence is an outlier because other 18-year-olds in Tennessee have had such sentences vacated.
After the killing, Pike was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder. In her clemency petition she said she only wanted to fight Slemmer but killed her in a frenzied attack when she couldn’t “put the brakes on.”
“I was a mentally ill 18-year-old kid. It took me numerous years to even realize the gravity of what I’d done. Even more to accept how many lives I affected. I took the life of someone’s child, sister, friend. It sickens me now to think I had the ability to commit such a crime,” Pike said in a statement.
Slemmer’s mother wants the lethal injection to go forward, saying she has waited decades to see Pike’s sentence carried out.
“Every time I think about it, I think about Colleen feeling that pain and trying to get up and run,” May Martinez told The Associated Press in a telephone interview on Saturday.
Martinez said a group helped raise money so she and her husband could travel from Florida to witness the execution.
Martinez said her daughter's age should matter too in deciding Pike's fate.
“Not a day goes by, or a minute goes by that I do not think about Colleen. Holidays are the worst,” she said, noting that her daughter would have turned 51 earlier in September.
The killing rocked the city of Knoxville. Prosecutors said Pike, fearing Slemmer was trying to steal her boyfriend, lured her to a wooded area on Jan. 12, 1995. Pike cut Slemmer with a box cutter and beat her with a large chunk of asphalt. Shipp, Pike’s boyfriend, has admitted that he was the one who carved a pentagram, a star-shaped symbol associated with Satan, into her body.
Shipp was 17 when the crime happened and received a sentence of life in prison with the possibility of parole. Pike was the only one sentenced to death.
Tennessee has not executed a woman for at least 200 years, according to Robin M. Maher, executive director of the Death Penalty Information Center. Older records can be spotty, though, so it’s difficult to know precise details about the last woman who was put to death there.
It's a rarity across the U.S. Since 1976, 18 women have been put to death in the country, representing about 1% of all executions, according to the center.
Most recently, Missouri in 2023 executed Amber McLaughlin for a 2003 killing, in what is believed to be the first execution of a transgender woman in the U.S. In 2021, the federal government executed Lisa Montgomery, marking the first time in nearly seven decades that the U.S. government put a female inmate to death.
Pike would be the 30th person executed in the U.S. this year. Florida carried out its 16th execution of 2026 on Tuesday.
Associated Press journalists Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, South Carolina, and Ed White in Detroit contributed to this report.
Leslie Brown, right, stands with others in the area reserved for people in favor to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Kathleen Walter prays in the area reserved for people opposed to the death penalty outside Riverbend Maximum Security Institution before the planned execution of Christa Pike, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Abraham Bonowitz speaks during a March 4 Mercy protest against the death penalty at the Tennessee State Capitol, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. ahead of the Sept. 30th scheduled execution of Christa Pike. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
Alonzo Hughes participates in a March 4 Mercy protest against the death penalty at the Tennessee State Capitol, Sunday, Sept. 27, 2026, in Nashville, Tenn. ahead of the Sept. 30th scheduled execution of Christa Pike. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
In this image from video provided by WBIR-TV, Christa Pike cries after being sentenced to death on March 30, 1996 in Knoxville, Tenn. (WBIR-TV via AP)
This photo provided by the Tennessee Department of Correction shows Christa Pike on Jan. 12, 2023. (TDOC via AP)
