INTERNATIONAL Hundreds of retired US military officers, including former generals and admirals, have used their military backgrounds to ink lucrative deals working for foreign countries, mostly among the Gulf monarchies like Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, according to two long-term investigations by The Washington Post. Investigations from The Washington Post, working alongside the Project[…]
INTERNATIONAL Muslim holders of World Cup tickets will be able to perform the umrah pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia without the need to pay for a visa, the Gulf kingdom has announced. Those with a Hayya card, the document given to fans attending World Cup matches in Qatar, will not need to pay to do the year-round pilgrimage in the[…]
LOCAL South Africa and Saudi Arabia have signed 17 memoranda of understanding relating to mining, renewable energy, security, transport, agri-aquaculture and other sectors, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Sunday. “Seventeen MoUs for us as South Africa being signed and exchanged at the same time is a record and true demonstration[…]
INTERNATIONAL A prominent tech activist has announced her withdrawal from the Global AI (Artificial Intelligence) Summit in Saudi Arabia, citing the treatment of imprisoned student Salma al-Shahab. Yeshimabeit Milner had been set to speak at the conference, which is taking place in the capital Riyadh between 13 September and 15 September,[…]
INTERNATIONAL Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF), which is chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, has bought $7bn of shares in US companies including Starbucks, Zoom and Microsoft. The purchases bring the market value of the sovereign wealth fund’s investment portfolio to about $40.8bn at the end of the second quarter.[…]
INTERNATIONAL Saudi Arabia has raised concerns about Israel’s refusal to join a United Nations nuclear non-proliferation treaty, saying it was an obstacle to achieving peace in the region. The warning was a rare moment of Saudi criticism of Israel, with Riyadh and other Gulf countries recently working together, along with Israel, to combat[…]
INTERNATIONAL Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi arrived in Iran on Sunday, Iranian state TV reported, a day after he travelled to Saudi Arabia in a bid to revive talks between the regional rivals to ease years of hostility. Over the past year, Iraq has hosted several rounds of talks between Saudi Arabia[…]
INTERNATIONAL Saudi authorities must end the use of travel bans against human rights activists, journalists, and critics of the government, says Amnesty International. As part of a campaign launched on Monday, the London-based rights group cited the plight of 30 human rights defenders who were subject to lengthy travel bans once[…]
INTERNATIONAL Jared Kushner’s new private-equity fund is planning to invest millions of dollars of Saudi Arabia’s money in Israeli startups, according to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), who cited people familiar with the investment plan. Kushner’s Affinity Partners has already selected the first two Israeli firms to invest in, the sources[…]
Saudi Arabia announced the suspension of flights from seven African countries on Friday, due to the emergence of a new variant of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The Ministry of Interior said it had been decided to suspend flights from and to South Africa, Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mozambique, Lesotho and Eswatini, based on the continuous[…]
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