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QUOTED
“If there was one thing I had to say about my recent trip to Al Ula in Saudi Arabia, is that it’s a place of extraordinary natural beauty, cultural heritage and kind hearted people. I learned firsthand that is a place of awe-inspiring beauty, a landscape of cliffs and canyons featuring ancient petroglyphs and rock art. It feels like another planet. There’s no light pollution, so you can see pretty much every single star in the sky. There is no traffic, so the air is fresh, there are no skyscrapers, so your views are totally unobstructed.”
-Yousra Zaki, journalist and web features editor of Gulf News, in a story highlighting her recent visit to Al Ula in Saudi Arabia. [gulfnews.com]
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TOP STORY
Flight bookings for travel to Riyadh from October 2019 to January 2020 more than doubled compared to the same period in the previous year, Arabian Business reports, citing data from the Seera Group, a Saudi-based travel and tourism company. [more]
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TOP STORY
Saudi Aramco Energy Ventures (SAEV) has invested $5 million into blockchain-based oil trading company VAKT, the company said in a press release. [more]
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TOP STORY
UPDATE: Saudi Arabia’a Foreign Minister said Israelis were not welcome to visit the kingdom, CNN reported on Monday. “Our policy is fixed. We do not have relations with the state of Israel and Israeli passport holders cannot visit the kingdom at the current time,” CNN quoted Prince Faisal bin Farhan as saying. [Reuters]
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A new rule from Israeli leaders will allow Israeli Muslims to go to Saudi Arabia for religious pilgrimages and permit business trips to the Kingdom, according to reports. [more]
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MORE TOP STORYLINES
Via Abdel Latif Wahba and Matthew Martin in bloomberg.com : The deal gives STC, as the Riyadh-based firm is known, access to a country of some 100 million people where Vodafone Egypt has a market share of about 44%. STC has bought stakes in telecom companies operating in Turkey, Indonesia, Bahrain, Kuwait and Malaysia over the past decade. If a transaction is finalized the companies expect to keep the Vodafone brand.
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Via Marwa Rashad in reuters.com : The CEO of Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC), the world’s fourth-biggest petrochemicals firm, said he expects a slowdown in 2020, although it was too early to determine the impact of the outbreak of China’s coronavirus on demand. SABIC had not suspended travel or taken any other measures because of the virus, Yousef al-Benyan said at a news briefing following the company’s publication of its financial results.
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Via Tom OConnor in newsweek.com : Middle Eastern nations offered mixed reactions to President Donald Trumps long-awaited Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, a framework negotiated without the participation of Palestinians, who have been engaged in a land dispute with the worlds only majority-Jewish nation since its creation in 1948.
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MORE ON THE KINGDOM AND BEYOND
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Saudi imports of electric vehicles (EVs) increased by 271% to reach 779 cars in 2023, amounting to SAR 397.3 million, Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper reported, citing the General Authority...[via argaam.com]
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The Saudi Ministry of Interior said that 20,667 individuals were arrested for residency, labour, and border security violations in a nationwide sweep from April...[By Khitam Al Amir via gulfnews.com]
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The motivation there for the OPEC+ ministers would be to avoid the inevitable demand destruction that $100/barrel oil prices have caused in the past. It...[By David Blackmon via forbes.com]
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Saudi Minister of Defense Prince Khalid bin Salman received on Sunday a phone call from U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin.
During the call, they reviewed...[via saudigazette.com]
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The Islamic Republic’s Saturday attack on Israel was a made-for social media moment. It was also the ultimate test of US efforts to cobble together...[By Sean Mathews via middleeasteye.net]
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Saudi Arabia's international reserve assets rose by SAR 88.2 billion, or 5%, month-on-month (MoM) to SAR 1.70 trillion in March, according to the Saudi Central...[via argaam.com]
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The report surveyed more than 1,200 women in countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Oman and features critical...[via eyeofriyadh.com]
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The Rig, the world’s first tourism destination on a former offshore oil platform, will be capable of hosting up to...[By Neil Halligan via thenationalnews.com]
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Energy-related trade between China and the Middle East is likely to increase...[By Yujie Xue via scmp.com]
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"I hope the money raised today is translated into aid that reaches people in need," said Abdullah Al Rabeeah, head of Saudi Arabia's KSRelief.
On Friday,...[By Elizabeth Pineau and Nafisa Eltahir via reuters.com]
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Informed sources denied to Al Arabiya on Monday Saudi Arabia’s participation in intercepting Iranian drones during its attack on Israel on Saturday.
Israeli news websites had published statements...[via arabnews.com]
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Foreign investors who are owners of private companies will be counted as Saudi nationals under the program at the rate of one foreign investor to...[via fragomen.com]
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From France to Japan, governments were organising evacuations, while Hong Kong - scene of anti-China unrest for months - planned to suspend rail and ferry...[By Tony Munroe and Muyu Xu via reuters.com]
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Military officials said that they had recovered two sets of remains from the two-person plane, and that the crash did not appear to be caused...[By Helene Cooper and Mujib Mashal via nytimes.com]
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Lebanese Prime Minister Hassan Diab asked the government and the country’s banks on Wednesday for a plan to restore confidence as the country faces its...[via arabnews.com]
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IRIB, Iran’s giant state broadcaster, made no apology for disseminating the false denials and found itself under severe criticism from smaller, officially licensed news websites...[via voanews.com]
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Libya has seen its oil production slashed by 75% in just one week as warring factions within the country attempt to use the key commodity...[By Natasha Turak via cnbc.com]
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The two exploration deals call for a total investment of at least US$332 million, according to a statement from Egypt’s petroleum ministry, carried by Reuters.
At...[via oilprice.com]
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Lockheed Martin booked nearly $60 billion in 2019 sales, the best year on record for the world’s largest defense contractor. And its executives are predicting...[By Marcus Weisgerber via defenseone.com]
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The Emirates Nuclear Energy Corporation (Enec), and its subsidiary Nawah Energy Company (Nawah), announced on Tuesday that experts from the Atlanta Center of the World...[via khaleejtimes.com]
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A total of 50 U.S. service members suffered traumatic brain injury from this month’s Iranian missile attack on Iraqi bases hosting American troops, the Pentagon...[By Phil Helsel via cnbc.com]
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Iran’s cyberwarfare capability lies primarily within Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, a branch of the country’s military. However, rather than employing its own cyberforce against...[By Dorothy Denning via navytimes.com]
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