MUST-READS

• How Mahmoud Khalil became the face of Trump’s crackdown on campus protests

  When protests over the Israel-Hamas war took root on Columbia University’s campus last spring, Mahmoud Khalil became a familiar, outspoken figure in a student movement that soon spread to other U.S. colleges. The international-affairs graduate student was a fixture in and around the protest encampment on Columbia’s Manhattan campus, serving as a spokesperson and negotiator for demonstrators who deplored Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and pressed the Ivy League school to cut financial ties with Israel and companies that supported the war. Now that visibility has helped make him the face of President Donald Trump’s drive to punish what he calls antisemitic and “anti-American” campus protests. In the first publicly known arrest of the crackdown, federal immigration agents took Khalil, a legal U.S. resident married to an American citizen, from his apartment Saturday and held him for potential deportation.

• PwC’s Consulting Ban From Saudi Fund Has Rivals Hunting for Work

  Managers at Deloitte and Ernst & Young have instructed staffers to prepare for more work in the kingdom, according to people familiar with their thinking. Some firms have already been invited to bid for contracts tied to some of the kingdom’s most prestigious and lucrative projects, including Neom and AlUla, according to one of the people, who asked not to be identified as the information is confidential. The Middle East region generated £1.97 billion ($2.5 billion) in revenue for PwC UK, the corporate entity that includes the region, in the 12 months to June 30. Saudi Arabia is the biggest and fastest-growing market for consulting within the Gulf, making up more than half of the $6 billion in regional revenue, according to the research firm Insights.

• Incredible ambition, but at what cost? Saudi gigaproject budget spirals

  Indeed, it's easy get lost in the deluge of information and rumors, but even the scaled-back version of Neom is insanely ambitious: the first phase of the Line is currently under construction and it will have a length of 2.4 km (1.5 miles), as well as a height of 500 m (1,640 ft). It will feature a mirrored exterior and will serve as home to 200,000 residents. It will also be topped by a rooftop stadium and is slated to be ready by 2030, in time for the FIFA World Cup soccer tournament being held there four years later.

• Zelenskyy Summarizes Talks With U.S. in Saudi Arabia: Ceasefire, Elections, and Territorial Integrity

  On March 12, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held a press conference summarizing recent discussions between Ukrainian and U.S. delegations in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The meeting focused on de-escalation efforts, Ukraine’s security, and the broader framework for a potential resolution to the ongoing war. Zelenskyy described the talks as a significant step toward strengthening Ukraine-U.S. relations despite Russian attempts to sow discord. He emphasized that the meeting reaffirmed the partnership between the two countries and countered narratives suggesting diplomatic isolation for Ukraine.

• Eid al-Fitr: Employees, students in Saudi Arabia to enjoy long Eid holiday

  This year’s month of fasting began on March 1. The official Eid holiday in Saudi Arabia will start on Sunday March 30, meaning that employees will enjoy a long holiday with Friday, March 28, and Saturday, March 29, already off as weekend days. The Eid al-Fitr break will be extended to four days ending on Wednesday, April 2, with work resuming on Thursday, April 3. For students on the other hand, the break will begin on March 20 and studies will resume on April 6, according to the education ministry’s academic calendar. The actual date of the first day of Eid al-Fitr will be confirmed when the crecent moon is sighted.

• China, Iran and Russia hold joint naval drills in Middle East as tensions rise between Tehran and US

  The joint drills, called the Maritime Security Belt 2025, took place in the Gulf of Oman near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, the narrow mouth of the Arabian Gulf through which a fifth of all crude oil traded worldwide passes. The area around the strait in the past has seen Iran seize commercial ships and launch suspected attacks in the time since President Donald Trump first unilaterally withdrew America from Tehran’s nuclear deal with world powers.

• Syria’s government signs breakthrough deal with Kurdish-led authorities in northeast

  Syria’s interim government signed a deal Monday with the Kurdish-led authority that controls the country’s northeast, including a ceasefire and the merging of the main US-backed force there into the Syrian army. The deal is a major breakthrough that would bring most of Syria under the control of the government, which is led by the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham group that led the ouster of President Bashar Assad in December. The deal was signed by interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa and Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the US-backed, Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The deal to be implemented by the end of the year would bring all border crossings with Iraq and Turkiye, airports and oil fields in the northeast under the central government’s control. Prisons where about 9,000 suspected members of the Daesh group are also expected to come under government control.

• Commentary: Lamenting Ramadan cliches is the biggest cliche of all

  Similarly, if you see a Ramadan ad without gentle oud music and dusk-blue lighting, without a skipping child excited by her first fast, and her smiling grandfather welcoming her to the heaped iftar table, one can ask: is this a Ramadan ad? Perhaps because the familiar imagery is comforting, ads remain the same year after year, just as family traditions remain the same. Let us, therefore, let AI run rampant. It will churn out the same familiar fare as human marketers, but without wasting sleep-starved and hungry man-hours to do so. In the meantime, the humans can work on new stuff. Don’t get too excited; this will not be revolutionary new stuff, but evolutionary.

• Will regional geopolitical shifts shake up Sunni politics in Iraq?

  Regarded as one of Iraq’s most skilled—if controversial—modern political operators, Sunni politician Mohammed Al-Halbousi has faced challenging times since his removal as parliament speaker in late 2023. Despite setbacks, he has managed to remain a key political figure, leveraging deft strategic maneuvering and carefully cultivated alliances to maintain influence. When Sunni blocs were up in arms over a legal challenge last month to block the Sunni-sponsored General Amnesty Law, Halbousi again emerged as the dominant rallying figure. This centrality in Iraq’s Sunni political establishment has been lasting despite renewed attempts from opponents to sideline the Anbari politician, and potentially secure his permanent ouster from the political stage.

• Positive Energy and Pragmatic Actions Needed to Drive Global Growth and Rise of AI: Dr. Sultan Al Jaber

  Speaking at CERAWeek in Houston, Texas, Dr. Al Jaber called for durable, stable policies to meet the growing demand for energy. “The world is finally waking up to the fact that energy is the solution. Energy is the beating heart of economies, a key driver of prosperity and is fundamental to every aspect of human development. If we want a pro-growth world, we need pragmatic actions and policies that are pro-growth, pro-investment, pro-energy and pro-people.”

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