MUST-READS

• Entertainment industry playing a lead role in Saudi transformation

  The entertainment industry in Saudi Arabia has seen a serious boost in recent years as the country continues on its course to becoming a hub for leisure – and overall a place for the wealthy to spend big. Consumer spending in entertainment is expected to reach $5 trillion by 2028, according to a report from Redseer Strategy Consultants.

• Saudi Arabia activist sentenced to 11 years in prison for ‘support’ of women’s rights

  Saudi officials confirmed in a statement to the United Nations high commissioner for human rights that Manahel al-Otaibi was sentenced on 9 January for what the Saudi government called “terrorist offences”.

  Al-Otaibi, who was sentenced in a secret hearing before the counter-terrorism court, was found guilty of charges related to a Saudi anti-terror law that criminalises the use of websites to “broadcasts or publishes news, statements, false or malicious rumors, or the like for committing a terrorist crime”.

• Geothermal – Saudi Arabia’s Next Energy Vector?
  For decades, Saudi Arabia’s power sector has heavily relied on hydrocarbons for electricity generation. Their abundant supply, affordability, and differential performance have made them a top choice. A significant portion of this electricity provides power for air conditioning systems and water desalination plants.

• Food-poisoning patients released from intensive care, 25 discharged from Riyadh hospital

  More than half of the patients who contracted food poisoning caused by the clostridium botulinum bacteria last Thursday were released from intensive care and 25 discharged from a local hospital, the Ministry of Health reported on X. The ministry’s spokesperson Dr. Mohammed Khalid Alabdulaali confirmed that the only source of the contaminated food was from the local Hamburgini fast-food restaurant chain.

• Police arrest dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters at Columbia University
  New York City police arrested dozens of pro-Palestinian demonstrators holed-up in an academic building on Columbia University campus late on Tuesday and removed a protest encampment the Ivy League school had sought to dismantle for nearly two weeks.
  Shortly after police moved in, Columbia University President Minouche Shafik released a letter in which she requested police stay on campus until at least May 17 - two days after graduation - "to maintain order and ensure that encampments are not re-established."
  • Reuters - Pro-Palestinian supporters and counter-protesters clash on UCLA campus over Gaza
• In Israel, Blinken set to push Netanyahu for sustained aid into Gaza
  U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday, pushing to get more aid into Gaza, while urging Hamas to accept a deal that would halt fighting in the enclave and bring Israeli hostages home.
  Following visits to Riyadh and Amman earlier this week, the top U.S. diplomat is now in Israel for a series of meetings on the final stop of his Middle East tour.

• As famine looms in Sudan, the hungry eat soil and leaves

  Nearly five million people are close to famine as the country’s civil war passes the one-year mark. Aid officials say the warring parties – the army and the Rapid Support Forces – are looting aid or blocking it from reaching areas where starvation is taking hold. But ‘the world’s largest hunger crisis’ is drawing little global attention.

• Biden is facing political pressure to make gas more expensive

  Cheap gas is becoming politically expensive for President Joe Biden during a challenging election year. Pressure is building on Biden to ramp up sanctions enforcement against Russia, Iran, and Venezuela, Bloomberg reports — three major oil producers whose supplies have tamped down rising crude prices despite OPEC production cuts and a U.S. production glut.

• SecDef: I haven’t seen a full Israeli plan to protect civilians in Rafah

  U.S. officials have “not seen a number of things that we believe that will have to happen” for the operation to proceed, Secretary Lloyd Austin told a House Armed Services Committee hearing. There are “some signs" of such preparations, Austin said, but he wants more assurances and planning, such as “making provisions for the civilians [so that] wherever you direct them to, you have sustainment in that area…so, you know, that the housing, the medical care, all that stuff that, that needs to be in place.”

• Arctech to build 3 GW factory in Saudi Arabia

  Arctech Solar has launched a new partnership with the Saudi Authority for Industrial Cities and Technology Zones (MODON) to set up a production facility in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The factory will cover an area of approximately 97,000 square meters and will have a production capacity of 3 GW, with the potential to reach up to 10 GW through localized production. It will focus on PV-supporting tracker products for local customers.

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