MUST-READS

• Most countries miss UN deadline for new climate targets
  Many of the world's biggest polluter nations have missed a U.N. deadline to set new climate targets as efforts to curb global warming come under pressure following U.S. President Donald Trump's election. The nearly 200 countries signed up to the Paris Agreement faced a Monday deadline to submit new national climate plans to the U.N., setting out how they plan to cut emissions by 2035. As of Monday morning, many of the world's biggest polluters - including China, India and the European Union - had not done so. "The public is entitled to expect a strong reaction from their governments to the fact that global warming has now reached 1.5 degrees Celsius for an entire year, but we have seen virtually nothing of real substance," said Bill Hare, CEO of science and policy institute Climate Analytics. Large economies that have announced new climate plans include the U.S., Britain, Brazil, Japan, and Canada - although Trump is expected to scrap the U.S.'s Biden-era contribution.

• Saudi’s BRKZ closes $17M Series A for its construction tech platform

  Construction procurement is highly fragmented, manual, and opaque, forcing contractors to juggle multiple suppliers, endure lengthy negotiations, and deal with delayed payments. In Saudi Arabia, where trillion-dollar infrastructure and real estate projects are underway, these inefficiencies are even more pronounced.

• Be remembered as the peacemaker, Saudi prince tells Trump

  A letter to Donald J. Trump from Prince Turki bin Faisal Al Saud, a Saudi prince and former government official who served as the head of Saudi Arabia's General Intelligence Presidency from 1979 to 2001. He is a grandson of Saudi's founder King Abdulaziz and son of King Faisal. He is the chairman of the King Faisal Foundation's Centre for Research and Islamic Studies.

• UN accused of censoring criticism of Saudi Arabia at flagship internet conference

  The UN removed criticism of the Saudi government from the official transcript of a key UN conference and threatened to eject a Saudi researcher from the gathering held in Riyadh in December, Human Rights Watch has said. The organisation described the fallout from the UN Internet Governance Forum (UN IGF) as “the latest example” of a repressive government hosting a major UN conference which saw civil society representatives censored and intimidated. Deborah Brown, HRW’s deputy technology, rights and investigations director, said: "The UN and its member states should put an end to a climate of intimidation and censorship toward diplomats, journalists, human rights advocates, and other civil society representatives at UN conferences." "Restricting participants’ ability to speak freely about internet policy issues, including issues relevant in the host country, undermines the IGF’s purpose," she said.

• Influencers’ role in helping Saudi Arabia end the scourge of smoking

  A recent forecast by Euromonitor International suggests that cigarette consumption in Saudi Arabia will hold steady this year. The research firm also predicts that the market for vapes, heated tobacco, and smokeless tobacco is about to explode, quintupling in size by 2028.^[1] Given that up to one in three young Saudi adults is thought to use e-cigarettes, this comes as no surprise. In short, smoking remains stubbornly popular in the Kingdom, as does vaping among young adults. Bending the curve will require the adoption and skillful deployment of social media influencer techniques that better align with how our youth absorb information.  The good news is that any such effort can – and should – build on the laudable stop-smoking efforts ongoing in the Kingdom. Since launching its first anti-smoking campaign in the early 2000s, the Kingdom has banned smoking in public places, imposed a 100% duty on cigarettes, and set up more than 1,000 smoking cessation clinics across the country.^[2] Last year, the Public Investment Fund launched Badael, which sells Saudi-made nicotine pouches and is developing other tobacco alternatives for smokers. These policies, among many others, have been overwhelmingly successful.

• The Trump Effect: The Potential Impact of the U.S. President on the Saudi Economy

  Any increase in policy interest rates in the United States would make borrowing more expensive at a time when the Saudi public sector is continuing to borrow heavily to fund the ambitious Vision 2030 projects. Also, higher interest rates would raise borrowing costs for individuals and businesses, potentially slowing private consumption and investment, although these links are hard to identify empirically in Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. Last, in a higher interest rate environment, the dollar, to which the Saudi riyal is pegged, may continue to strengthen, hurting the competitiveness of emerging Saudi sectors, such as tourism.

• Analysis Of 2025 Saudi Budget

  On November 26, 2024, The Saudi Council of Ministers, headed by Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, approved the state's general budget for the year 2025 this evening and issued a decision regarding it. As it was expected by many economists the 2025 Saudi budget projected a deficit of $27 billion. Public expenditures expected to be at $243 billion, While public revenue projected at $316 billion. For the year ending 2024 budget, the authorities estimated revenue at $328 billion, and spending at $359 billion, with a deficit of $31 billion. The authorities projected capital spending at $49 billion for 2025, which constitutes about 14% of total projected public spending. Oil revenue for the current year (2024) is estimated to be $202 billion, while non-oil revenue is expected to jump to $126 billion, which represents 38% of 2024 revenue as the result of the government aim of diversifying its source of revenue and not only depend on oil export revenue.

• Saudi Arabia’s population crosses 35mln, with non-Saudis constituting 44.4%

  Saudi Arabia's population reached 35.3 million until the middle of the year 2024, according to the latest estimates of the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT). Saudi citizens constitute 55.6 percent of the total population while non-Saudis represent 44.4 percent. There has been an annual increase of 1.6 million in the number of people, with a growth rate of 4.7 percent during the period until mid-2024, compared to mid-2023. The annual growth rate stood at 4.6 percent compared to the base period in May 2022. The authority report stated that the total population of Saudis exceeded 19.6 million by mid-2024, with an annual growth rate of two percent, compared to 19.3 million in mid-2023, while the population of non-Saudis reached nearly 15.7 million by the middle of last year, compared to 14.5 million people until mid-2023.

• Microsoft aims to add $24B to Saudi GDP over 4 years

  Microsoft and its partners will inject an additional $24 billion boost to the Saudi gross domestic product (GDP) over the next four years, on top of their contributions in 2022, Turki Badhris, Head of Microsoft Arabia, said in an interview with Asharq Business with Bloomberg. The data centers that were announced in Saudi Arabia, on the sidelines of the LEAP 2023 conference, are progressing rapidly, with three expected to be operational by 2026, he noted. The company's "Alliance for Innovation" initiative launched a year ago has been able to achieve its target and attracted 80 partners to Riyadh's Microsoft, Badhris addd, noting that many of them are already relocating their headquarters to Saudi Arabia.

• Saudi Arabia’s population surges 4.7% to 35.3M in H1 2024

  Saudi Arabia's population grew at an annual rate of 4.7% to stand at 35.3 million by the end of the first half of 2024. In 2024, Saudi residents exceeded a tally of 19.6 million, while non-Saudi residents totaled approximately 15.7 million, a recent bulletin from the General Authority for Statistics (GASTAT) reported. According to the GASTAT’s estimates, the Saudi population growth reached about 1.6 million people compared to mid-2023, when the growth rate amounted to about 33.7 million people. Saudis accounted for 24.4% of this increase, while males made up roughly 70.8% of the total population growth. The number of Saudis grew by approximately 389,300 people compared to 2023, while the non-Saudi population added around 1.21 million.

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