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MUST-READS

  • Liftoff: Airline Industry Returns to Profits in 2023

    Having largely left behind Covid-related turbulences, the global airline industry emerged from the storm in 2023, returning to profitability after three years of deep losses. According to the International Air Transport Association (IATA), commercial airlines are expected to end the year with $23.3 billion in net profit, up from a loss of $3.8 billion in 2022 and significantly higher than previously expected. Back in December of last year, IATA had predicted 2023 profits to be "razor thin", projecting just $4.7 billion in industry-wide net income.

  • Going Big: Assessing the Growth Ambitions of the Saudi Public Investment Fund

    As its global and domestic footprint has grown, the PIF’s assets under management have risen rapidly. It is currently the world’s seventh-largest sovereign wealth fund. Looking ahead, the PIF aims to reach 4 trillion riyals ($1.1 trillion) of assets under management by 2025 and 7.5 trillion riyals ($2 trillion) by 2030.

  • Nawaf al-Ahmed: A Legacy of Firsts

    Nawaf al-Ahmed al-Sabah’s six-decade career was colored by a conciliatory approach, which was evident in his final post as Kuwait’s emir through deploying an unprecedented political reset and administrative overhaul.

  • Opinion: Qatar May Hold the Key to Hamas’ – and Gaza’s – Future

    Since the Arab Spring uprisings that began at the end of 2010, Qatar has served as Hamas’ primary patron and Doha as the home away from home for most of the exiled Hamas Politburo leadership. For over a decade, Qatar underwrote the Gaza economy by providing monthly cash infusions in part to meet the payroll of most public employees in the Hamas-run de facto government and provided other social and humanitarian support – all with the approval of Hamas’ main antagonists, the Palestinian Authority, Egypt, Israel, and the United States. Somebody had to keep food on the table for the 2.1 million Palestinians in Gaza, and Qatar was willing to do it, which essentially relieved all other actors of that burden.

  • Women Opera Singers in the Gulf: Breaking Barriers With Their Voices

    Trained as a soprano, with a distinctive bob haircut, Hajji dedicated herself to mastering opera, playing a central role in the rise of the genre in the Gulf over the past two decades. When she initially enrolled in Kuwait’s national conservatory in 1985, her parents prohibited her from singing in public. However, 15 years later, Hajji appeared onstage at the Cairo Opera House. Since then, she has represented her native Kuwait in performances across the world – from Italy and Turkey to Morocco and Ukraine.

  • The Saudis dove further into sports in 2023. They are expected to keep it up.

    At the dawn of 2023, the specter of Saudi Arabia’s growing influence on pro golf — and sports in general — served not only as a moral conundrum for players and their fans, but also, some argued, as an existential threat to the multibillion-dollar professional-sports industry itself. Twelve months later, it’s a different conversation, now virtually devoid of concern about the supposed menace of “sportswashing” and the line between “right” and “wrong,” and more fixed on just how rich the Saudis might make all these athletes before they’re done investing.

  • Opinion: Saudi’s best foreign investment will be in Gaza

    Yet it’s possible to imagine a better scenario. If Israel ditches Netanyahu’s discredited far-right administration, a more moderate government might reopen Palestinian peace talks. Gulf states, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace theorises, could promote a new version of the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative. The first incarnation saw major Arab states offer peace and normalised relations with Israel in return for measures that included the establishment of a sovereign Palestinian state. In 2024 Palestinians could be offered, among other things, financing and diplomatic assistance to recover.

  • Congressmen Seeking To Revoke PGA Tour Tax Exempt Status

    “The proposed PGA-LIV merger raises serious concerns. Nonprofit tax treatment should be reserved for institutions and charities that help everyday Americans – not billion-dollar sports leagues backed by Saudi government money,” said Congressman Thompson. “I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to achieve that goal as the PGA and LIV continue their negotiations.”

  • Riyadh opera house riffs on traditional Saudi architecture to stay cool

    Snøhetta has revealed plans to build a new opera house in Saudi Arabia. Named the Royal Diriyah Opera House, the venue will feature an unusual design that draws inspiration from traditional mud brick buildings found in the region, in an attempt to take the sting out of the punishing Saudi summer heat. The Royal Diriyah Opera House will be located on the outskirts of Riyadh, in an area that features historic mud structures that are closely clustered to ensure shade. Riffing on the layout of those traditional buildings, the venue will take the form of a collection of structures connected by open passages to help provide respite from the intense Saudi heat. There will also be garden areas with vegetation and water misting systems to lower the nearby temperature. The interior will measure 46,000 sq m (roughly 490,000 sq ft) and include a 2,000-seat opera theater at its center, with a 450-seat adaptable theater and a 450-seat multipurpose theater for smaller events nearby.

  • Football’s shift of power tilts again to Saudi Arabia at Club World Cup

    It turns out things are not always that straightforward. Benzema’s poor effort was parried by Mohamed El Shenawy; Al-Ahly went on to win 3-1 on Friday evening and, by full time, most of the home support had left. An hour later, N’Golo Kanté and Fabinho trudged dejectedly on to the bus, offering a reminder that you cannot always microwave seamless cohesion into a group of superstar imports. Anyone wondering if they had been watching a fast-tracking of Saudi Pro League arrivistes to the verge of global domination was obliged to discard their tinfoil hat.