MUST-READS

• Saudi Arabia Cuts Oil Prices for Asia as Demand Concerns Persist

  Saudi Arabia has cut the official selling price for its crude oil for deliveries to Asia in January in a move that was largely expected amid depressed global prices. Saudi crude for delivery next month will be the cheapest in four years, according to Reuters columnist Clyde Russell, with the kingdom also cutting prices for deliveries to Europe and leaving prices for deliveries to the United States unchanged. Aramco lowered the official selling price for its flagship Arab Light blend from a $1.70 premium to the Oman/Dubai average for this month to a premium of $0.90 per barrel for January. Expectations for the price cut, as reported by Reuters last week, ranged between $0.70 and $0.90 per barrel.

• SAMA announces launch of Samsung Pay in Saudi Arabia

  The Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) has announced the launch of mobile payment service Samsung Pay in Saudi Arabia, to be carried out through the national payment system, Mada. In a statement picked up Argaam, SAMA noted that this move aligns with Saudi Vision 2030. It is also part of its ongoing efforts to bolster the Kingdom's digital payment ecosystem. Samsung Pay aims to provide a seamless and secure payment experience for users, enabling them to add and manage Mada cards and digital credit cards easily via the Samsung Wallet app.

• Apple to open stores in Saudi Arabia, including ‘iconic’ outlet in Diriyah

  Apple’s retail expansion builds on its investments and activities in the country. Over the past five years, Apple has spent more than 10 billion Saudi riyals ($2.66 billion) with companies across the country, it said. It also opened the Apple Developer Academy in Riyadh in 2021 in partnership with the Saudi government, Tuwaiq Academy and Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University. The all-women academy offers training for coders, designers and entrepreneurs, and nearly 2,000 students have completed programming courses there. Apple’s physical presence remains central to its overall retail strategy, despite the popularity of online shopping channels. From its first outlets that opened in the US states of Virginia and California in 2001, Apple has a network of more than 530 outlets across 26 countries and territories.

• Is Saudi Arabia’s box office boom over or set to rise again?

  In the years that followed Saudi Arabia’s reopening of cinemas in 2018, the country boasted arguably the most exciting and dynamic box-office market in the world. A cinema-building spree rapidly grew the country’s screen count to its current level of around 612. This helped Saudi leapfrog to the top of the Middle East market — the country accounts for an impressive 42% of region’s box office this year. In global terms, it is now the 15th biggest box-office market in the world, capable of delivering healthy returns for the right kind of film. Success stories include 2024 action thriller Bad Boys: Ride Or Die starring Will Smith and Martin Lawrence — the fourth entry in Sony Pictures Entertainment’s franchise is not only the biggest film of the year in Saudi but the biggest ever in the territory, with a healthy $23.5m at the box office.

• The Domestic and Regional Impact of the Political Earthquake in Syria

  In a mere week, the map of Syria has undergone a shocking redrafting: not the cartographic map of straight lines and known cities but the geostrategic map of control, contestation, and military outcomes. The regime of ruthless autocrat Bashar al-Assad has collapsed after just a few days in political intensive care. The distracted and depleted Russian and Iranian regimes proved strikingly unable to provide the urgent, regime-saving intervention once again required, as when they jointly intervened in the fall of 2015 to save Assad from precisely this kind of scenario. A massive political earthquake struck Syria, reordering everything in ways that everyone, even its principal authors, are still struggling to comprehend and much of which has yet to play out. While other rebel groups, including the Syrian National Army, have a closer proxy relationship with Turkey, HTS in its current incarnation has been shaped significantly by Turkey’s handiwork. Ankara has used support, guidance, and the other strings and sticks of influence to shape the group (crucially including helping HTS clean up its image) and try to exert some control over it.

• Special Briefing: After Assad’s fall, what’s next for Syria and the region?

  At long last, Syrians are free of Assad regime rule. After 54 years, the iron grip that Hafez and then Bashar had built based upon fear melted away and a glimmer of light appeared at the end of the tunnel as regime control disintegrated in the north and then the south. The speed with which the collapse took place spoke volumes about the extent to which the regime had decayed from within, its security apparatus fragmented, and any prior ties of loyalty frayed by 14 years of debilitating conflict and humanitarian and economic collapse.

• U.S. Central Command conducts dozens of airstrikes to eliminate ISIS camps in central Syria

  U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted dozens of precision airstrikes targeting known ISIS camps and operatives in central Syria, Dec. 8. The strikes against the ISIS leaders, operatives, and camps were conducted as part of the ongoing mission to disrupt, degrade, and defeat ISIS, in order to prevent the terrorist group from conducting external operations and to ensure that ISIS does not seek to take advantage of the current situation to reconstitute in central Syria. The operation struck over 75 targets using multiple U.S. Air Force assets, including B-52s, F-15s, and A-10s.

• Saudi Arabia and France Agree to Enhance Cooperation in Hydrogen and Electricity Production From Renewable Resources

  Saudi Arabia and France have agreed to enhance multifaceted aspects of cooperation in the energy sector. Both countries have placed hydrogen and electricity produced from low emission and renewable resources at the core of their respective energy cooperation, according a joint communiqué issued following the meeting of Saudi Minister of Energy Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman and French Minister for Energy Transition Agnes Pannier-Runacher, the Saudi Press Agency reported. Additionally, both countries agreed to enhance cooperation in the field of electricity, and exchange experiences in the field of electricity generation from renewable energy resources, grid interconnection projects, as well as encouraging the participation of private sectors in power sector projects including generation, transmission, distribution, storage and network automation technologies.

• UK-Saudi deal to make ‘miracle material’ at scale

  A deal has been struck for the world's first commercial production of carbon fibre enriched with graphene in a new project led by a UK company in Saudi Arabia. Manchester firm Graphene Innovations Manchester (GIM) has agreed to construct a factory in the Gulf state to manufacture the advanced "wonder" material for use in the kingdom's huge plans to build futurist eco-cities in the desert. About £250m could be invested in building a research and innovation hub in Greater Manchester as part of the deal and more than 1,000 jobs could be created. Dr Vivek Koncherry, GIM chief executive, said producing the material at scale had the potential "to change every aspect of our lives".

• ‘My Driver and I’ Reveals Saudi Arabia’s 1980s, ’90s Social Fabric and Director Ahd Kamel’s ‘Soul,’ Say Lead Actors

  It’s been a long ride to get Saudi multi-hyphenate Ahd Kamel‘s directorial debut “My Driver and I” – which is premiering at the Red Sea Film Festival – onto the big screen. Saudi actors Roula Dakheelallah and Mustafa Shehata, who co-star in the film, joined Variety’s Alex Ritman at the Variety Lounge presented by Film AlUla at Red Sea to speak about the drama, which provides a rare glimpse of Saudi society and social fabric in Jeddah during the 1980s and ’90s.  The film is inspired by Ahd Kamel’s real-life story, noted Dakheelallah, who plays Ahd’s alter-ego Salma, who grew up in a wealthy Jeddah family.

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