A saint, a monk, a rock: Bulgaria’s euro coin designs
Sofia, Bulgaria -- Ancient rock art, a patron saint and a monk will be emblazoned on euro coins from Thursday,...
Geostrategy
China’s high-speed rail network passes 50,000km mark
Beijing, China -- China's sprawling high-speed rail network passed 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) in total operating distance with the opening...
Geostrategy
Economy
US Fed poised to hold off on rate cuts, defying Trump pressure
Policymakers at the independent Federal Reserve have kept the benchmark lending rate steady since the start of the year as...
- With Trump's on-again, off-again tariff approach, Fed officials want to see economic data from this summer to gauge how prices are being affected.
- When mulling changes to interest rates, the central bank, seeks a balance between reining in inflation and the health of the jobs market.
Geostrategy
UNRWA chief says Gaza aid airdrops will not stop ‘starvation’, solve food shortages
The humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territory has gravely deteriorated in recent days, with international NGOs warning of soaring malnutrition...
- "Airdrops will not reverse the deepening starvation. They are expensive, inefficient & can even kill starving civilians," UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini wrote on X
- An Israeli official told AFP on Friday that aid drops in Gaza would resume soon, adding they would be conducted by the United Arab Emirates and Jordan
Geostrategy
Syria says meeting with Israeli officials sought to ‘contain escalation’
Syrian diplomatic source said Saturday that a US-mediated meeting with Israeli officials in Paris this week sought to "contain the...
- Israel launched strikes this month on Damascus and Druze-majority Sweida province, saying it was acting in support of the religious minority
- On Thursday, US special envoy for Syria Tom Barrack had said he held talks with unspecified Syrian and Israeli officials in Paris
Geostrategy
Trump says Hamas ‘didn’t want’ Gaza ceasefire deal as talks break down
The US president argued that the Palestinian militant group was not ready to hand over the remaining captives in Gaza...
- An Israeli official meanwhile told AFP air drops of aid would resume soon over the Gaza Strip, where aid groups warned of surging numbers of malnourished children
- After US and Israeli negotiators quit indirect talks with Hamas in Qatar, Trump said that "it was was too bad. Hamas didn't really want to make a deal. I think they want to die."
Economy
China says balance between AI development, security ‘urgently requires consensus’
China's Premier Li Qiang warned Saturday that artificial intelligence development must be weighed against the security risks, saying global consensus...
- This week US President Donald Trump unveiled an aggressive low-regulation strategy aimed at cementing US dominance in the AI field
- Opening the World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai on Saturday, Li emphasised the need for governance and open-source development
Geostrategy
Gaza civil defence says Israeli forces kill 28 people
Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli military operations killed at least 23 people on Friday across the Palestinian territory, with...
- Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal told AFP that five people were killed in a strike on Gaza City that hit a school building sheltering Palestinians displaced by the war
- Bassal said five others were killed when an Israeli strike hit a tent used by displaced Palestinians also in Gaza City, in the territory's north
Business
Eni profit falls due to dip in oil prices
Q2 net profit fell by 18% to $637 million.
- Revenues also declined in the second quarter by 14 percent year-on-year to 18.8 billion euros, the company said in a statement.
- The oil giant also confirmed its production target of 1.7 million barrels of oil a day for the current year, despite a three percent decline in the second quarter.
Geostrategy
Hamas accuses US mediators of reneging on Gaza talks positions
"The negative statements of the US envoy Witkoff run completely counter to the context in which the last negotiations were...
- Indirect negotiations between Israel and Hamas for a ceasefire have reached an impasse, more than two weeks after they began.
- Naim accused Witkoff of backtracking, saying the US envoy had considered the discussions "positive" only a few days ago.
Geostrategy
UK starts online checks to stop children accessing harmful content
London, United Kingdom -- New UK age verification measures to prevent children accessing harmful online content came into force on...
- Around 6,000 pornography sites have agreed to implement the curbs, according to Melanie Dawes, chief executive of British regulator Ofcom.
- Around 500,000 youngsters aged eight to 14 encountered pornography online last month, according to Ofcom.
Geostrategy
UN chief blasts ‘lack of compassion’ for Palestinians in Gaza
United Nations, United States -- UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on Friday slammed the international community for turning a blind eye...
- "I cannot explain the level of indifference and inaction we see by too many in the international community -- the lack of compassion," he said.
- "This is not just a humanitarian crisis. It is a moral crisis that challenges the global conscience. We will continue to speak out at every opportunity."
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Revenue from Saudi cinema may exceed $1bn by 2030KSA, UAE play well as e-gaming trends across GCCExclusive: Middle East’s retail sector rides on AR and hybrid shopping to become $600bn digital economyTECOM Group profit soars 13%UAE startups eye Saudi Arabia for growth, expansionSaudi Arabia leads GCC AI healthcare raceDisparity remains as Saudis, Emiratis see wealth gains
A saint, a monk, a rock: Bulgaria’s euro coin designs
Sofia, Bulgaria -- Ancient rock art, a patron saint and a monk will be emblazoned on euro coins from Thursday,...
Geostrategy
Company News
Latest News
Nestle to cut 16,000 jobs
Business
Social media fooled by AI video of ‘sky stadium’ for Saudi 2034 World Cup
Paris, France - An AI-generated video claiming to show one of the football stadiums for the 2034 FIFA World Cup...
Economy
UN Security Council backs Morocco plan for W. Sahara autonomy
The UN Security Council voted Friday in favor of a resolution backing Morocco's autonomy plan for Western Sahara as the...
Geostrategy
Unexploded bombs haunt Gazans, posing deadly risk as fragile truce halts demining efforts in ruins
After two years of war, the ruined cities of Gaza, a densely packed territory home to more than two million...
Geostrategy
Most Read
Geostrategy
Trump stirs global tensions with surprise nuclear test order
The announcement came in the wake of Russia saying it had tested a nuclear-powered and nuclear-capable torpedo, as well as...
- The last US nuclear test explosion was in September 1992, a 20-kiloton underground detonation at the Nevada Nuclear Security Site.
- Then-president George H.W. Bush imposed a moratorium on further tests in October 1992 that has been continued by successive administrations.
Business
Amazon shares surge as AI boom drives cloud growth
San Francisco, United States - Amazon's share price skyrocketed by more than ten percent on Thursday after the online retail...
- The e-commerce giant's Amazon Web Services division, which recently suffered a global outage, saw revenues jump 20 percent to $33 billion in the third quarter
- Amazon's major rivals in the cloud computing space, Microsoft and Google, on Wednesday also reported sales increases in their cloud computing business
Arts & Culture
After delays, Egypt set for lavish opening of grand museum
Cairo, Egypt - With much pomp and circumstance, Cairo is due to inaugurate on Saturday the long-awaited Grand Egyptian Museum,...
- With a panoramic view of the Giza pyramids plateau, the GEM houses thousands of artefacts spanning more than 5,000 years of Egyptian antiquity at a whopping cost of over $1 billion
- More than two decades in the making, the ultra-modern museum anticipates five million visitors annually, with never-before-seen relics on display