“Newcastle United Football Club is one of the teams (in England) that is the only club in the city. Most of the cities have more than one club. All of Newcastle supports you and its population is 950,000. All of them are fans. We now have around 52,000 seats in the stadium and all of them are sold out. When you look at it from all angles, the potential from an investment perspective is huge. And it gives us a base going forward when it comes to investing in sports.”
Yasir Al-Rumayyan, Chairman, Newcastle United. [The Athletic]
“The cut in production, in reality, will be lower than 2 million because OPEC and its allies have been underproducing. In August, the coalition missed its targets by 3.58 million barrels per day. According to Saudi Energy Minister Abdulaziz bin Salman, the real cuts will be around 1 million bpd, and analysts put that figure even lower.”
[Quartz]
“Walking from Jeddah to Doha, every 100 kilometres is different. I mean, the first 100 kilometres there are sand dunes, then mountains, and then comes empty land, then farms. I am going through all terrains in one country in two months. This is a beautiful thing.”
-Abdullah Alsulmi, who is hiking to the 2022 World Cup in Qatar. He typically sets out at sunrise and walks until 10 or 10:30 am, but then the heat forces him to break for a few hours before resuming in the afternoon and continuing until sundown. Occasionally he walks at night to maintain his goal of around 35 kilometres per day. To keep his load light, Alsulmi subsists on food he can buy at petrol stations, often chicken and rice, while showering and washing his clothes at mosques. [Yahoo]
“Around 90% of the world’s central banks are now using, trialling or looking into CBDCs. Most don’t want to be left behind by bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, but are grappling with technological complexities.”
SWIFT sets out blueprint for central bank digital currency network [Reuters]
“Finally, my visit marked another important milestone in our partnership with the region. We are taking our cooperation to a new level by establishing an IMF regional office in Riyadh. It will spearhead engagement with regional institutions, strengthen relationships with country authorities, and help expand the IMF’s capacity development activities—which will make it one of the largest contributors globally. I would like to thank the government of Saudi Arabia for its generous commitment to investing in building capacity in countries across the region.”
-Kristalina Georgieva, International Monetary Fund Managing Director following her two-day visit to Saudi Arabia. [International Monetary Fund]
“The demand for women’s football is very high and the support for women’s football development is also very high and that’s why you see us bidding for Asian Cup 2026. We are preparing our national team to play in Asian Cup 2026. We want to invite the world to see how our girls play football. We want them to see the love for the game in Saudi Arabia. We are developing women’s football not for any other reason but to give these girls a chance to grow in football, play football and do what they love. We believe that the more our national team plays matches, the more we win, the more match participation and the more viewership we expect. So we expect more engagement from the public.”
Ibrahim Alkassim, Secretary General, Saudi Arabian Football Federation. [Goal]
Ali Shihabi, a Saudi analyst close to the royal court, tweeted that Mohammed bin Salman’s promotion “formalises his actual role and eliminated previous protocol issues of seniority with other heads of government. He ranks now as a head of government de jure, not just de facto.”
[BBC]
“With 4.7 billion people in 2022, Asia is by far the world’s most populous region. The continent is dominated by the two massive population centers of China and India. In 2023, a big shift will occur, with India surpassing China to become the world’s most populous country. China has held top spot for centuries, but the mismatch between the two countries’ growth rates made it only a matter of time before this milestone arrived.”
Visualized: The World’s Population at 8 Billion [Visual Capital]
“If the $1 billion that Hevolution has committed to direct towards aging research will be spent on these dual-purpose aging- and disease-related targets, it will be more than the NIH spent on these targets in the context of aging in the past 30+ years! Even if it disperses the funds across the industry, it will result in a significant increase in total funding globally.”
Inside Saudi Arabia’s $20 Billion Bet On Longevity Biotechnology [Forbes]
“The Government has already created the Digital Government Authority and Saudi Data and AI Authority (SDAIA), to spearhead the digital transformation programme. In a few years’ time, Saudi Arabia has introduced more than 30 cloud services, established 169 data centres, more than 175 datasets, successfully implemented 8 digital policies, aligned 130 government departments, registered more than 600,000 establishments with the platform, recording more than 510 million transactions with user base exceeding 22 million people.” Saudi Arabia implements Data Driven-Government to realise digital economy as part of the Vision 2030 [Smart City Journal]
