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  • Oil prices attempt to bounce off 2025 lows after Saudi Arabia raises crude prices

    Oil futures ticked higher early Thursday, seeing a modest bounce off 2025 lows after Saudi Arabia's state-owned petroleum company significantly raised physical crude prices for Asia. WTI and Brent ended Wednesday at their lowest since December, sinking on worries over U.S. tariffs on China and data that showed a large jump in U.S. crude inventories last week. Saudi Aramco, the world's largest oil company, on Thursday said it had significantly raised the price of physical crude for Asian buyers. Aramco raised the March price of its flagship Arab light crude to Asia to $3.90 a barrel over the Oman/Dubai crude benchmark, an increase of $2.90 a barrel from February.

  • King Salman, Crown Prince put Saudi back on track: Prince Alwaleed

    He expressed optimism about Saudi Arabia’s progress, highlighting that his investments span various sectors, including tourism, hotel management, commercial real estate, industrial projects, etc. The Crown Prince possesses boundless energy, and foresight, and is a strong strategist for the coming years, Prince Alwaleed said, adding that long-term planning for 10-15 years ahead is an essential quality for any leader.

  • Out With the Old, In With the New: Is There a New Hope for Lebanon?

    Politics in Lebanon has been based on sectarian power sharing that guarantees representation to all 18 sects, including through an informal arrangement that divides ministerial portfolios by sectarian identity and applies quotas to government posts. This system sustains a weak and patronage-based system through which competing bureaucratic fiefdoms vie for power. Quotas have been treated like entitlements, helping those in control channel state resources to their followers and allies. On top of this has been Hezbollah’s “blocking third’’ in the government that has given the group veto power over cabinet decisions and the ability to topple the government.

  • Revolutionary Legitimacy in Syria: Sharaa as President

    The December 8, 2024, collapse of the Assad regime necessitated a strategy for the new Syrian administration to garner the legal and constitutional cover to lead a transition from authoritarianism. Many ideas have surfaced, such as a call for a national dialogue conference with the participation of some 1,200 delegates. But the task of organizing such a conference during a fraught transitional period prompted the new authorities to postpone it, pending better circumstances. The second option, which was selected, was to move forward with the concept of revolutionary legitimacy, a temporary and exceptional concept that expires with the end of the revolutionary stage or transitional period.

  • ‘Maximum pressure’ returns as Iran reacts to Trump’s offer of talks

    Iran has reacted to US President Donald Trump’s move to “reinstate” his “maximum pressure” campaign by insisting that it will not yield the intended result. Still, both Tehran and Washington are displaying a willingness to reach a peaceful settlement over the myriad contentions at hand—including the future of Iran’s nuclear program. This dynamic may pave the way for the first overt direct engagement between the two sides in years. Trump signed a memorandum on Feb. 4 to “reinstate” the "maximum pressure" policy that marked his policy toward Iran during his first 2017-21 term in office.

  • Characterization of paleodrainages in desert regions of Saudi Arabia multisatellite images with field based study

    In Saudi Arabia, a number of linear geomorphological features with uncertain origin have been observed from space, but they do not belong to any existed drainage systems. They are ancient watercourses carried water in the past during the Holocene deluge, and they were affected by global climate change and geological processes turning them into dry and buried channels filled by sediments, and these are described as “Paleodrainages”.

  • Trump imposes sanctions on International Criminal Court

    U.S. President Donald Trump has authorized economic and travel sanctions targeting people who work on International Criminal Court investigations of U.S. citizens or U.S. allies such as Israel, drawing condemnation - but also some praise - abroad. The ICC is a permanent court that can prosecute individuals for war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and the crime of aggression against the territory of member states or by their nationals. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other EU leaders said on Friday that Trump was wrong to impose sanctions on the ICC. "Sanctions are the wrong tool," said Scholz. "They jeopardize an institution that is supposed to ensure that the dictators of this world cannot simply persecute people and start wars, and that is very important."

  • Meet the Power Players Leading Saudi Arabia’s Cultural Boom

    Dozens of new art institutions are in the works as part of Vision 2030, a sweeping trillion-dollar initiative to reduce oil dependence by expanding tourism, entertainment, and technology. Among these is the recently opened Diriyah Art Futures (DAF), a digital-art focused institution that is part of the $63 billion Diriyah Gate project, which aims to transform the heritage site on the outskirts of the kingdom’s capital city, Riyadh, into a cultural tourist destination. Meanwhile, in the ancient desert region of AlUla, the Contemporary Art Museum, which is being developed in partnership with Paris’s Centre Pompidou, set to open in 2027. On the west coast, the Red Sea Museum in Jeddah, slated to open before 2030, will showcase historical and contemporary works of art.

  • Halt in US aid cripples global efforts to relieve hunger

    Struggling to manage hunger crises sweeping the developing world even before U.S. President Donald Trump returned to the White House, the international famine monitoring and relief system has suffered multiple blows from a sudden cessation of U.S. foreign aid. The spending freeze, which Trump ordered upon taking office Jan. 20, is supposed to last 90 days while his administration reviews all foreign-aid programs. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said an exception allows emergency food assistance to continue. But much of that emergency aid is at least temporarily halted as humanitarian organizations seek clarity about what relief programs are allowed to continue. Compounding the problem is Trump’s move this week to shut the U.S. government’s top relief provider, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID).

  • Saudi Arabia Bans 1-Year Visit Visa for 14 Countries to Curb Illegal Hajj Pilgrims

    Saudi Arabia has introduced a new visa policy restricting travelers from 14 countries to single-entry visas. The decision, effective February 1, 2025, aims to curb unauthorized Hajj pilgrims entering through long-term visit visas. The affected countries include Algeria, Bangladesh, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iraq, Jordan, Morocco, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sudan, Tunisia, and Yemen. The move suspends the 1-year multiple-entry visa indefinitely for tourism, business, and family visits. Under the new rules, visitors from these 14 countries can only apply for single-entry visas. These visas will have a 30-day validity with a maximum stay of 30 days. The government has clarified that this policy does not affect Hajj, Umrah, diplomatic, or residency visas.