MUST-READS

• D.C. United set for four-game preseason trip to Saudi Arabia

  D.C. United plans to conduct much of its training camp in Saudi Arabia, finalizing an 18-day visit that might lead to annual preseason trips there and visits by Saudi clubs to Washington. United, which began workouts this week in Leesburg, will depart for the Middle East on Tuesday and play friendlies against Saudi clubs Al Wehda and Al Ettifaq, which is coached by former English star Steven Gerrard; Sudanese club Al Hilal; and the Sudanese national team.

• Saudi Arabia: Peace with Israel conditioned on Gaza ceasefire, path to Palestinian state

  The Saudi ambassador to the U.S. said at the World Economic Forum on Thursday that any potential normalization agreement with Israel would be conditioned on a ceasefire in Gaza and the creation of an "irrevocable" pathway towards a Palestinian state. Why it matters: Princess Reema bint Bandar Al Saud echoed what the Biden administration has recently said publicly and privately to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

  • Press Release - WEF24: Saudi Ambassador to US says Kingdom prioritizing ‘peace and prosperity’ policies
• China’s ageing population threatens switch to new economic growth model
  China's ageing population threatens key Beijing policy goals for the coming decade of boosting domestic consumption and reining in ballooning debt, posing a severe challenge to the economy's long-term growth prospects.
  A record low birth rate in 2023 and a wave of COVID-19 deaths resulted in a second consecutive year of population decline, accelerating concerns about China's demographic downturn.
  Large groups of the 1.4 billion people living in the world's second-largest economy will exit the labour pool and age past a prime period of their lives for consumption, exacerbating structural imbalances that policymakers have vowed to address.

• Hezbollah rejected US overtures, still open to diplomacy to avoid wider war
   Iran-backed Hezbollah has rebuffed Washington's initial ideas for cooling tit-for-tat fighting with neighbouring Israel, such as pulling its fighters further from the border, but remains open to U.S. diplomacy to avoid a ruinous war, Lebanese officials said.
  U.S. envoy Amos Hochstein has been leading a diplomatic outreach to restore security at the Israel-Lebanon frontier as the wider region teeters dangerously towards a major escalation of the conflict ignited by the Gaza war.

• Driving in the desert: Surreal images from the Dakar Rally

  Racers compete in the grueling Dakar Rally in Saudi Arabia, one of the most famous, and dangerous, off-road races in the world.

• SPARK and Schneider Electric sign agreement for high-tech manufacturing facility in Saudi Arabia

  King Salman Energy Park (SPARK), the leading industrial ecosystem provider, signed an agreement with Schneider Electric, a global leader in digital transformation and energy management and energy efficiency, for a multi-faceted manufacturing facility. The 20,000 sq. meters, facility will be built within SPARK, located between Dammam and Al-Ahsa. The facility will manufacture key systems including Distributed Control System (DCS), Emergency Shutdown System (ESD) and Compressor Control System (CCS) to support Saudi Arabia’s energy value chain.

• Israel’s War in Gaza Enters Its Most Perilous Phase Yet

  The Israeli military largely controls the north of Gaza after heavy bombardment reduced much of its urban areas to rubble, along with many tunnels. Hamas’s battalions there were smashed, although pockets of resistance continue. Many thousands of civilians were killed too. Most of the population fled south.

  But Israel’s progress in the south is facing a logjam. Its forces are closing in on a swollen population of displaced Palestinians who are running out of places to flee. An international outcry is mounting over the heavy toll of civilian deaths and injuries, raising pressure on Israel to change its tactics.

• Washington Struggles To Stem The Slide Toward Regional War

  Secretary Blinken’s January itinerary did not include Lebanon, but another envoy, Amos Hochstein, has been tasked to try to de-escalate the skirmishing between Israel and Lebanese Hezbollah that began after the Hamas attack on Israel. Of members of Iran’s axis of resistance, Hezbollah is probably the most capable of causing widespread destruction inside Israel and drawing in its sponsor, Iran, into a region-wide war. Hochstein has sought to enlist Lebanese leaders – many of whom resent Hezbollah’s wielding of a large, Iran-supplied armed force outside the chain of command – to persuade Hezbollah not to draw Lebanon into a war with Israel.

• Iran’s Revolutionary Guard deployed in Yemen

  The IRGC has stationed missile and drone trainers and operators in Yemen, as well as personnel providing tactical intelligence support to the Houthis, U.S. and Middle East officials told Semafor. The IRGC, through its overseas Qods Force, has also overseen the transfer to the Houthis of the attack drones, cruise missiles, and medium-range ballistic missiles used in a string of strikes on Red Sea and Israeli targets in recent weeks, these officials said.

• How Saudi Arabia is unlocking the power of the blue economy
  Many of these huge projects focus on core fundamentals of the blue economy, namely regenerative tourism and maritime logistics. Amaala, which is part of Red Sea Global, and Sindalah which is part of NEOM, represent the largest regenerative tourism investments in the world and have the ambitious aim to go beyond environmental protection to enhance their natural assets. The scale of these ambitions requires massive investments in renewable energy, sustainable materials, innovative design, and ecosystem restoration.

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