Saudi Arabia’s next play: Capital to capability
Non-oil growth is robust, but risks – project slippage, write-downs and export controls on chips – persist. Conditional confidence prevails...Geostrategy
Syria attracted $28 bn in investment since Assad’s fall: president
Syria has begun the mammoth task of trying to rebuild its shattered economy, after over a decade of war saw...Geostrategy
Ahead of Netanyahu visit, Trump vows to block Israel annexation of West Bank
Trump voiced optimism about ending nearly two years of devastating war, echoing the confidence expressed a day earlier on the...Netanyahu will address the United Nations on Friday and later meet Trump in Washington as Israeli ministers muse of annexing the West Bank
Trump met Tuesday at the United Nations with the leaders of key Arab and Muslim nations who warned him of consequences if Israel moved ahead
Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas tells UN no role for Hamas in state
Abbas, who addressed UN General Assembly by video after the US took the unusual step of denying him a visa...Abbas took a moderate tone in his speech as he directly took up key concerns of Israel and the United States -- notably on Hamas, which is based in Gaza.
He distanced himself from the Oct 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, as well as frequent accusations by Israel's supporters that the Palestinians are denying the rights of Jews.
Meta activates Facebook ‘teen accounts’ worldwide
Paris, France -- Meta said Thursday it was activating so-called "teen accounts" with additional protections for adolescent Facebook and Messenger...Meta's teen accounts, which offer additional security settings, content restrictions and parental controls for users aged 13 to 17, were first introduced on Instagram last year.
The company said in April that it had extended them across Facebook and the social network's Messenger private chat service in the US, Canada, Australia and Britain.
Palestinian leader to address UN as the US weighs whether to stop Israel’s Gaza annexation
Steve Witkoff, Trump's golfing friend turned roving global negotiator, said that Trump in a separate meeting with a group of...US President Donald Trump's administration adamantly rejected statehood and, in a highly unusual step, barred Abbas and his senior aides from traveling to New York
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to allow a Palestinian state and far-right members of his cabinet have threatened to annex the West Bank
‘A child killed every hour’: UN humanitarian chief slams impunity in face of Gaza ‘horror’
After nearly two years of war, Israeli military operations have killed at least 65,419 Palestinians, mostly civilians, according to the...In recent weeks Israel has launched a major air and ground offensive on Gaza City in a bid to root out Hamas, exacerbating already dire humanitarian conditions there
Large parts of Gaza have been laid to waste, and last month a body backed by the United Nations officially declared famine in part of the territory
Yemen drone attack wounds 22 in Israeli resort town: army, rescuers
Israel's military said a drone launched from Yemen struck the southern resort town of Eilat on Wednesday, with rescuers reporting...A military statement said the drone "fell in the area of Eilat" on the Red Sea coast after air defences had failed to intercept it, in the second such incident within days
Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service said its teams had treated 22 casualties, including two men, aged 26 and 60, who were in serious condition with shrapnel wounds
Palestinians rally in West Bank to celebrate statehood recognition
Crowds of people rallied in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday, waving flags and holding posters of president Mahmud Abbas...Nationalist slogans blared from loudspeakers across the central square in the city of Ramallah, where a crowd of more than 100 clutched Palestinian and European flags
High-ranking officials from Abbas's political movement, Fatah, and the Palestinian Authority -- which exerts limited control in the West Bank -- shook hands and smiled
UN experts urge FIFA, UEFA to suspend Israel over Gaza genocide
"Sports must reject the perception that it is business as usual," the eight independent UN experts the in a statement....Their comments came after the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry (COI) said that "genocide is occurring in Gaza" and that Israel was to blame.
The experts said countries that host international organizations and sporting competitions with Israel must not "remain neutral in the face of genocide".
‘The time for peace has come:’ Macron recognizes Palestinian state at landmark UN summit
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed not to allow a Palestinian state and far-right members of his cabinet have...Macron, speaking at a summit that Israel and its chief backer the United States did not attend, called for an end to the war in Gaza
"The time for peace has come, as we are just moments away from no longer being able to seize it," Macron said in an address in the General Assembly
Hamas releases video of Israeli-German hostage seen alive
Hamas' armed wing released a video on Monday showing an Israeli-German hostage alive, the second such footage of him shared...Hostages and Missing Families Forum and the captive's family identified him as Alon Ohel, who was abducted by Palestinian militants during their October 7, 2023 attack
In the video Ohel, 24, dressed in a black t-shirt, appeals to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to secure the release of all captives still held in Gaza
