London, United Kingdom – NEOM, the sustainable regional development taking shape in northwest Saudi Arabia, has opened its first international office in London which will serve as a base for NEOM’s business across Europe. The official opening was led by Prince Khalid bin Bandar bin Sultan bin Abdulaziz, Saudi Ambassador to the...

Tehran, Iran - Iran on Thursday rejected a G7 statement which called on Tehran to stop supporting Hamas members and taking actions that "destabilize" the Middle East. Tehran's comment came a day after foreign ministers from the G7 group of advanced economies, meeting in Tokyo, expressed support for "humanitarian pauses and...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia said on Thursday that policies to address climate change should not "crush the bones" of countries grappling with energy poverty, ahead of the COP28 climate talks in Dubai. Speaking at a conference on economic cooperation with Africa, the Gulf kingdom's energy minister Prince Abdulaziz bin...

Ramallah, Palestinian Territories - Ten Palestinians were killed on Thursday during an Israeli raid on Jenin in the north of the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, updating an earlier toll. A statement from the ministry said the current death toll in Jenin stood at 10, up from five...

Muscat -– In a significant stride towards enhanced regional cooperation, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has announced progress on the implementation of a unified tourist visa, marking a new milestone in the collective achievements of the member states. The announcement was made by the GCC Secretary General, Jasem Mohamed Albudaiwi,...

Madrid, Spain - The number of destinations offering Digital Nomad Visas (DNVs) has risen significantly over recent years, with almost half now offering visas for at least one year. According to a new analysis by the UN World Tourism Organization (UNWTO) covering 54 destinations, the rise in DNVs has gone...

Doha, Qatar - The International reserves and foreign currency liquidity of Qatar Central Bank (QCB) surged by 11.73% in October 2023 to reach $67.04 billion, compared to $59.97 billion in October 2022. The figures issued by QCB on Wednesday showed an increase in its official reserves at the end of...

Dubai, UAE -  The value of bitcoin rose above $36,000 on Thursday for the first time since May 6, 2022, the Coindesk platform said on Wednesday. Bitcoin is a decentralized system of the eponymous cryptocurrency based on blockchain technology. It can be issued by any user who is a member...

Geneva, Switzerland - UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Turk has described hostage-taking by Palestinian armed groups and Israel's "collective punishment" of Palestinian civilians as war crimes. "The atrocities perpetrated by Palestinian armed groups on October 7 were heinous, brutal and shocking, they were war crimes - as is...

A month of Israeli strikes on targets within the Gaza Strip have destroyed or damaged 45 percent of all housing units in the Palestinian territory, Balakrishnan Rajagopal said, warning the destruction comes at a "tremendous cost to human life". The UN special rapporteur on the right to adequate housing stressed...

Geneva, Switzerland - The El Nino weather phenomenon, which triggers higher global temperatures, is expected to last until at least April 2024, the United Nations said on Wednesday. El Nino is a naturally occurring climate pattern typically associated with increased heat worldwide, as well as drought in some parts of the...

Dubai, UAE - Eighteen hospitals in the Gaza Strip were forced to end their work in the Gaza Strip amid heavy Israeli shelling and air raids, the healthcare authority of the Palestinian exclave has told Al Jazeera. "A total of 18 hospitals, including eight state-run facilities, had to stop their...

Darmstadt, Germany - The first images from Europe's Euclid space telescope were released on Tuesday, showing a nebula resembling a horse's head, never-before-seen distant galaxies and even "circumstantial evidence" of elusive dark matter. Euclid blasted off in July on the world's first-ever mission aiming to investigate the enduring cosmic mysteries of...

Beirut, Lebanon - Visiting US envoy Amos Hochstein on Tuesday urged for calm to return to Lebanon's southern border with Israel, after weeks of skirmishes following the start of the Israel-Hamas war. "The United States does not want to see conflict in Gaza escalating and expanding into Lebanon," Hochstein told a...

ABU DHABI, UAE - The United Arab Emirates, represented by the Ministry of Finance (MoF) as the issuer, in collaboration with the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) as the issuing and paying agent, has announced the results of the fifth auction of the Islamic Treasury Sukuks (T-Sukuks). This is...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - In a step towards bolstering Saudi Arabia's renewable energy initiatives, the Saudi Power Procurement Company (SPPC) has announced the signing of Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) for two solar projects. These projects are part of Round 4 of the National Renewable Energy Program (NREP), which aligns with...

ABU DHABI, UAE - A recent report revealed that 29 initial public offerings (IPOs) were recorded in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region during the first nine months of this year, with total proceeds of US$5.8 billion. The report, issued on Tuesday by Ernst Young (EY) on IPO...

Taif, Saudi Arabia -- Several investment contracts for projects in Taif Governorate, worth over SAR11 billion ($2.93 billion), have been signed at Taif Investment Forum by Saudi companies and Chinese and Korean counterparts. The contracts stipulate, among others, the establishment of the first phase of the space science fiction city...

Abu Dhabi, UAE -- AD Ports Group (ADPORTS) has purchased 10 offshore vessels for $200 million that will bolster offshore operations in the Middle East and Southeast Asia. The investment in the diversified fleet with an average age of around nine years is significantly less than the industry average. All...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia has revealed plans for a remarkable megacity project named Marafy, following in the footsteps of its visionary project, Neom. Marafy is set to become a vibrant urban center located to the north of Jeddah, offering a stunning waterfront reminiscent of London's iconic landscape. This...

The United Arab Emirates, a wealthy Gulf monarchy, broke with Arab tradition to establish ties with Israel in the 2020 Abraham Accords agreements. It has previously announced plans to bring about 1,000 Palestinian children and their families from the Gaza Strip for treatment at UAE hospitals.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- More than 70,000 transactions worth SAR 56 billion ($14.92 billion) have been conducted on Saudi Arabia's Real Estate Market since its launch about two months ago. The traded real estate areas amounted to about 550 million square meters (sqm), Argaam reported. Real Estate Market provides its...

Dubai, UAE - Dubai government's general budget for the fiscal cycle of 2024-2026 includes total expenditures of $67.16 billion (AED 246.6 billion), reflecting the emirate's commitment to stimulate economic recovery and growth. A total of 34% of total government expenditures of the 2024 budget goes to the social development sector...

Amman, Jordan - Jordan has stated that it is considering "all options" in response to what it perceives as Israel's failure to distinguish between military and civilian targets in its escalating offensive and incursion into the Gaza Strip, Reuters reported on Monday. Prime Minister Bisher al Khasawneh refrained from specifying...

Hong Kong, China - Markets rallied again Monday following another strong performance on Wall Street, as below-forecast US jobs data fanned optimism that the Federal Reserve had reached the end of its interest rate hiking cycle. After a tough year for traders, the bank's decision last week to pause on monetary...

Manama, Bahrain - In a convenience store in Bahrain, 14-year-old Jana Abdullah carries a tablet as she shops, checking a list of Western brands to avoid as Israel pounds Gaza in its campaign to destroy Hamas. Jana and her 10-year-old brother, Ali, used to eat at McDonald's nearly daily but they...

Beirut, Lebanon -- At least 61 per cent of employment, equivalent to 182,000 jobs, has been lost in the Gaza Strip since the start of the current Israel-Hamas war, a new ILO report estimates. The conflict in Gaza is also having a spillover effect in the West Bank, where an...

Dubai, UAE-- The United Arab Emirates (UAE) and China have called for a closed-door meeting of the UN Security Council on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for Monday. The UN Security Council will discuss, in particular, the strikes on the Palestinian refugee camp Jabalia in the north of the Gaza Strip and...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Coffee Company, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Kingdom’s Public Investment Fund, on Sunday announced the setting up of a model coffee farm across one million square meters of farmland in Jazan, home to the world-famous Coffea Arabica. Saudi Coffee Company aims to grow five...

Moscow, Russia - Russia will continue additional voluntary oil export cuts by 300,000 barrels a day until the end of the current year, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Sunday, Russian news agency TASS reported. "Russia will continue additional voluntary decrease of supplies of its oil and oil...

AlUla, Saudi Arabia -- The Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) has announced that the archeological excavation teams at the Qurh site in AlUla Governorate have found a hand axe dating back to the Paleolithic Age, estimated to be more than 200,000 years old. It is a strong tool, made of...

AMMAN, JORDAN  – Foreign ministers from key Arab nations – including Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, and representatives from the Palestinian Authority – met here to discuss strategies for ending the ongoing conflict in Gaza. The meeting, held on Saturday, was aimed at coordinating efforts to halt...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia has announced it will continue the voluntary cut of one million barrels per day, which went into implementation in July 2023 and was later extended until the end of December 2023. The Kingdom’s production in the month of December 2023 will be approximately 9...

Washington DC, United States -- In spite of escalating instability in the Middle East, several American defense firms have reaffirmed their commitment to attending the upcoming Dubai Airshow, which is being held from Nov. 13-17, media reports said. The Dubai Airshow, to be held at Maktoum International Airport in the...

Washington, United States -- Central bank reserve management remained resilient during a historically volatile year, according to the fourth edition of the World Bank Reserve Management Survey Report. Central banks identified ESG, volatility and risk, and inflation as their main challenges in 2022, the report said. Central banks are becoming...

The social network that Musk bought a year ago launched the Premium+ plan last week for $16 per month, with benefits like no ads. The billionaire started xAI in July after hiring researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Tesla and the University of Toronto.

Dubai, UAE--Global assets invested in exchange-traded funds (ETFs) tied to the spot price of bitcoin now total US$4.16 billion, showed data by CoinGecko, a cryptocurrency data and analysis company. According to a few media reports nearly half of that sum, or $2 billion, is invested in the seven spot bitcoin...

The UNODC warned of potential "humanitarian consequences for many vulnerable rural communities" due to the sudden contraction of Afghanistan's opium economy, as growers have had to turn to far less lucrative alternative crops. Farmers' incomes, estimated at $1.36 billion in 2022, have fallen by 92 percent to $110 million this...

Dubai, UAE - Middle East powers should maintain their push to de-escalate the region through trade and economic ties despite the Israel-Hamas war, a senior United Arab Emirates official said on Saturday. The sudden flare-up in Gaza, after a deadly attack by Hamas, follows a period of fence-mending in the region including...

Berlin, Germany - Thousands took to the streets of Berlin on Saturday in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza amid ongoing bombardments by Israel after the deadly Hamas attack on its territory on October 7. "We estimate the number of demonstrators at around 3,500, but more are arriving," a police spokeswoman told...

DOHA, QATAR - Qatar has agreed to supply Sinopec with natural gas for 27 years, the Gulf emirate's state-owned energy company said on Saturday, its second such deal with the Chinese firm.   Doha will supply three million tonnes of gas a year under the deal, QatarEnergy said, announcing another agreement granting...

Jerusalem - The Israeli military said on Saturday it had struck "two cells" and a Hizbollah post in response to attempted firing from Lebanon as cross-border shelling continued while Israel fights Hamas in Gaza. The latest skirmishes came a day after Hizbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah warned that the war between...

Tel Aviv, Israel - A senior Biden administration official revealed that Israel has made significant adjustments to its military strategy in its conflict with Hamas after engaging in discussions with the United States. The official emphasized that the US is closely scrutinizing the situation, particularly the rising civilian casualties, and...

Dubai, UAE-- A day after Bahrain's parliament announced that its ambassador to Israel is being recalled, the Jewish state said it had not been informed about such a move, adding that relations with the Gulf state were “stable”. According to Israel's Foreign Ministry, the country has not received any “announcement...

Dubai, UAE - As New Delhi once again topped the list of the world’s most polluted cities, across the Middle East, cities were also facing their own environmental challenges, with Kuwait City emerging as the region's most polluted city, according to the latest data from Swiss group IQAir. Kuwait City...

Washington, United States - The US is using unarmed assets of the Department of Defense to help locate hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a senior US official said at a news conference. "We are using unarmed DoD assets to try to help locate some of the American...

WASHINGTON, US - Elon Musk said his new artificial intelligence company would release a new AI model on Saturday to a "select group" of users as he looks to rival industry leaders OpenAI and Google. The release would be the first from Musk's new startup, xAI, that he launched in July...

Abu Dhabi, UAE -- The Arab Monetary Fund (AMF) and the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) have signed an MoU to enhance cross-border payments. The partnership aims to create a framework for cooperation between Buna, the cross-border payment system operated by the Arab Regional Payments Clearing and Settlement Organization (ARPCSO),...

NEW YORK, US  - Hamas is ready for a "complete compromise" deal on the issue of swapping hostages with Israel, Ghazi Hamad, a senior member of the Palestinian group's political bureau, said in an interview with NBC News. “We want these people to go home,” Hamad said. “And, also, we...

Washington, United States - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken who arrived in Israel today on a diplomatic visit will address the pressing issue of minimizing harm to civilians in Gaza amid growing concern over casualties resulting from Israel's bombardment of the region, Reuters reported. During his visit, Blinken will...