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QUOTED
“Presented in elegant boxes—a pearlescent, ivory lacquered wooden keepsake with shiny gold hinges; a dusty pink heart inscribed with Arabic script—like the finest chocolate, the dates make great gifts…Among Bateel’s fans is Oprah Winfrey, who included the olive green wood box of plain dates in her 2019 list of favorite things.”
-Donna Abu-Nasr and Kate Krader, writing in Bloomberg about Bateel International, a family-owned Saudi company with date farms going back to the 1930s that has built a successful business selling premium dates. Bateel now has 40 stores and is expanding into the U.S. and Europe. The dates have become popular Valentine’s Day and Christmas gifts and are also in demand as corporate gifts; including Saudi events leading up to the G20 in Riyadh in November 2020. [ bloomberg.com]
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TOP STORY
Saudi Arabia continued to take precautionary measures to prevent the arrival and spread of Coronavirus in the Kingdom as King Salman and China’s Xi Jinping spoke by phone today to discuss the outbreak, according to reports. [more]
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TOP STORY
A recently-released report by Jadwa Investment notes that the Kingdom will see a slight increase in inflation in 2020 on expectations of a continued pick-up in non-oil activities and an elevated level of consumer spending. [more]
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TOP STORY
Latest data for the year of 2018 show that emissions in Saudi Arabia have fallen significantly for the first time, down 4.4% or 26 million tons, according to researchers at the King Abdullah Petroleum Studies and Research Center (KAPSARC). [more]
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TOP STORY
OPEC and its allies are “considering cutting their oil output by a further 500,000 barrels per day (bpd)” with eyes on mitigating the impact on oil demand from the coronavirus, Reuters and the WSJ report. [more]
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MORE TOP STORYLINES
Via Serene Cheong, Sherry Su and Anthony DiPaola in yahoo.com : Saudi Arabia’s state oil company made deep cuts to the price of crude it sells to Asia, where an outbreak of the coronavirus has caused a slump in demand. Saudi Aramco lowered most of its official selling price differentials for the crude varieties it sells in the world’s largest consuming region, effectively making them cheaper. One exception was — Arab Heavy — which was kept unchanged. All grades to the U.S. were cut from a month earlier while European refiners were to be charged more.
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Via Matthew Martin and Archana Narayanan in bloomberg.com : Dr. Sulaiman Al Habib Medical Group is seeking to raise as much as 2.63 billion riyals ($700 million) from an initial public offering that starts next week, according to people familiar with the matter. The private health-care operator, one of the largest in Saudi Arabia, will price the shares at 43 to 50 riyals a share, the people said, asking not to be identified because the talks are private. Based on that price range, and a planned sale of 15% of the company, the business will be valued at 15.1 billion riyals to 17.5 billion riyals.
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Via Roxana Mohammadian-Molina in thenational.ae : As Saudi Arabia takes over the G20 presidency at the start of a new decade, it is placing the development of domestic capital markets at the centre of its presidency agenda, with a particular focus on an enabling ecosystem for financial inclusion.
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MORE ON THE KINGDOM AND BEYOND
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Saudi Arabia is moving closer to a potential deal to acquire a minority stake in a Pakistan mine controlled by Barrick Gold Corp., people with...[By Dinesh Nair, Matthew Martin, and Thomas Biesheuvel via bloomberg.com]
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It’s shaping up to be a banner year for the mobile esports industry, with an unprecedented amount of activity in the space in 2024. The...[via digiday.com]
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The number of countries from which female domestic workers can now be recruited in Saudi Arabia has surged to 33 after several countries have...[By Ramadan Al Sherbini via gulfnews.com]
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A technical committee advising the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies led by Russia, known as OPEC+, may reach consensus on Thursday...[via cnbc.com via Reuters]
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The director-general of the World Health Organization has asked for $675 million to help countries address the expected spread of the new virus that emerged...[via apnews.com]
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The United States on Wednesday stepped up warnings to Russia over its Syria policy, saying Moscow was trying to challenge the U.S. presence in northeastern...[By Humeyra Pamuk via reuters.com]
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The Iraqi government has told its military not to seek assistance from the U.S.-led coalition in operations against the Islamic State group, two senior Iraqi...[By Qassim Abdul-Zahra and Samya Kullab via militarytimes.com via AP]
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The Information minister in the Yemeni government backed by Saudi Arabia, Muammar Al-Iryani tweeted on Wednesday that four women and four children died while others...[By Alaa Swilam via reuters.com]
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Israeli warplanes have fired missiles at targets near Syria's capital, Damascus, Syrian state media report.
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Despite waves of protest within Iran, the country still lacks an organized opposition movement. In an interview with DW, Iranian journalist Ahmad Zeidabadi said that...[By Shabnam von Hein via dw.com]
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A US citizen working as a contractor was kidnapped in the Khost Province in eastern Afghanistan in recent days, a US official confirmed to CNN.
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A U.N. resolution that would endorse a plan to restore peace to Libya and condemn the recent increase in violence faced opposition Wednesday from Russia...[via nytimes.com]
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Most migrants around the world would like to stay where they are, and few would like to move again -- but if they did, few...[By Neli Esipovak, Julie Ray and Anita Pugliese via gallup.com]
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