Geneva, Switzerland – The global economic outlook has worsened since the start of the year, as rising economic nationalism and tariff volatility fuel uncertainty and risk stalling long-term decision-making, according to a World Economic Forum report released today. The latest Chief Economists Outlook reveals that a strong majority (79 percent)...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia's tourism sector is poised for an unprecedented summer season, with the official launch of the "Saudi Summer 2025" program, themed "Colour Your Summer." The initiative, unveiled today by Ahmed Al-Khateeb, Minister of Tourism and Chairman of the Board of the Saudi Tourism Authority (STA),...

President Donald Trump's administration is seeking unprecedented control over leading US universities, including revoking foreign student visas and deporting some of those involved in protests against the war in Gaza. A cable signed Tuesday by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and seen by AFP orders embassies and consulates not to allow...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia announced on Tuesday that the annual Muslim hajj pilgrimage to Mecca would begin on June 4 after astronomical observatories spotted the crescent moon, marking the start of the lunar month. The date was announced by the supreme court in a statement carried by the...

The planet is therefore expected to remain at historic levels of warming after the two hottest years ever recorded in 2023 and 2024, according to an annual climate report published by the World Meteorological Organization, the UN's weather and climate agency.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian on Tuesday began a two-day visit to Oman, which is mediating ongoing nuclear talks between Tehran and Washington.

Washington, United States - The US will no longer recommend Covid-19 vaccines for children and healthy pregnant women, Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday, calling it a "common sense" decision grounded in sound science. The change follows last week's announcement by Food and Drug Administration officials that they...

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia --  Questions swirled over Cristiano Ronaldo's future in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, hours after the superstar indicated he might be leaving Al Nassr in a social media post, just hours following the end of the Saudi Pro League season. The 40-year-old Portuguese forward joined Al Nassr in...

The trade-dependent economies are looking to insulate themselves after US President Donald Trump blew up global trade norms by announcing a slew of tariffs targeting countries around the world this year.

The contract for two jack-up rigs begins in the second quarter.

A controversial US-backed aid group for Gaza announced Monday that it had begun distributing food in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory, and decried Hamas "death threats" against organizations supporting its operations.

Hamas said Monday it had accepted a new ceasefire proposal by US envoy Steve Witkoff, presented by mediators, but a spokesman for Witkoff later denied the Palestinian group had accepted.

Paris, France - Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi was given a hero's welcome by supporters on his return to Tehran on Monday after winning the top prize at the Cannes film festival, footage posted on social media showed. After being banned from leaving Iran for years, forced to make films underground...

The issue has come into focus in recent weeks, with Iran staunchly defending its right to enrich uranium as part of what it says is a civilian nuclear programme, while the United States wants it to stop.

The outline of the new potential deal was revealed as Israel ramped up its offensive in the Palestinian territory, and follows previous rounds of talks that have failed to reach a breakthrough.

Sharjah, UAE – Exhibitors at the 55th Watch and Jewelry Middle East Show, scheduled from May 28 to June 1, are set to unveil impressive curation of luxury gold jewellery and diamond collections, aiming to achieve Guinness World Records. Organized by Expo Centre Sharjah with support from the Sharjah Chamber...

Paris, France -- Under five percent of Gaza's farmland is useable due to war, further exacerbating the risk of famine in the devastated Palestinian territory, the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization said Monday. Israel has stepped up a renewed offensive to destroy Hamas in Gaza, drawing international condemnation as...

Abu Dhabi, UAE -- ADNOC Group's publicly traded portfolio companies combined to deliver over $2.3 billion (AED8.4 billion) in first quarter net profit. Each of the six companies delivered strong financial results in the first quarter, alongside clear progress on strategic priorities aimed at driving profitable growth. ADNOC Distribution delivered...

US President Donald Trump called his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin "crazy" on Sunday after Moscow launched a deadly barrage of drones against Ukraine, even as the warring countries completed a large-scale prisoner exchange.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies - collectively known as OPEC+ - have justified their change in strategy by citing "current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories".

"When you try and explain peace to people, there is a very serious lack of trust," said Yuksel Genc, a former fighter with the PKK, which recently ended its decades-long armed struggle against the Turkish state.

Jerusalem, Undefined - Israel's ambassador to Washington is being summoned home on the instructions of a government disciplinary body to discuss comments he made in a podcast interview, the foreign ministry said Sunday. Ambassador Yechiel Leiter had made an appearance on a podcast run by the right-wing US online media...

Damascus, Syria -- Syria's new authorities have agreed to help the United States locate and return Americans who went missing in the war-torn country, a US envoy said on Sunday. "The new Syrian government has agreed to assist the USA in locating and returning USA citizens or their remains," US...

Madrid will host 20 countries as well as international organizations with the aim of "stopping this war, which no longer has any goal", Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares told France Info radio. Humanitarian aid must enter Gaza "massively, unimpeded, neutrally, so that it is not Israel who decides who...

Baghdad, Iraq -- Iraq's water reserves are at their lowest in 80 years after a dry rainy season, a government official said Sunday, as its share from the Tigris and Euphrates rivers shrinks. Water is a major issue in the country of 46 million people undergoing a serious environmental crisis...

The Israeli military has stepped up its Gaza offensive in recent days in what it has described as a renewed push to destroy Hamas.

Hasan Hadi won the top prize for his childhood adventure under economic sanctions in "The President's Cake".

London, United Kingdom -- Britain's South Western Railways on Sunday becomes the first private train operator to be returned to public ownership under the Labor government's plans to renationalize the country's much-maligned railways. Renationalizing all of the UK's rail operators is among the key policies launched by Prime Minister Keir...

The interior ministry restructure includes reforms and creating "a modern civil security institution that adopts transparency and respects international human rights standards".

The latest campaign abolishes naturalization by marriage, which only applied to women, and revokes citizenship granted to wives since 1987. Official data shows 38,505 women were naturalized by marriage from 1993 to 2020.

The move was formalised Friday after being announced by Trump on a Gulf tour this month during which he shook hands with Syria's interim President Ahmed al-Sharaa

Tehran, Iran - Long-time adversaries Iran and the United States held a fifth round of Oman-mediated nuclear talks on Friday in Rome, but with no breakthrough reported. However, both sides still described the meeting as constructive and expressed a willingness to continue the discussions. Here are some of the main...

Syria's interim leader met with Turkey's president in Istanbul on Saturday, in an unannounced visit amid efforts by the new rulers in Damascus to rebuild the war-torn country.

Abu Dhabi, UAE -- Real estate transactions across five emirates in the UAE surged to over AED 239 billion ($65 billion) in the first quarter of 2025, underpinned by investor confidence, flexible regulations, and expanding project pipelines, official data showed. More than 94,719 sales, purchase, and mortgage deals were recorded...

Washington, United States -- US President Donald Trump on Friday threatened Apple and other smartphone manufacturers with a 25 percent tariff unless their devices are built in the United States. Trump initially said the tariff would apply only to Apple -- an unusual move to single out a specific company...

San Francisco, United States -- Anthropic launched its latest Claude generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) models on Thursday, claiming to set new standards for reasoning but also building in safeguards against rogue behavior. "Claude Opus 4 is our most powerful model yet, and the best coding model in the world," Anthropic...

The leaders of pro-Iran Palestinian factions close to former ruler Bashar al-Assad have left Syria under pressure from the new authorities, Palestinian sources said Friday, a key US demand for lifting sanctions.

Paris, France - When astronomers announced last month they might have discovered the most promising hints of alien life yet on a distant planet, the rare good news raised hopes humanity could soon learn we are not alone in the universe. But several recent studies looking into the same data...

The United Arab Emirates registered a sizzling 50.4 degrees Celsius on Friday, the highest on record for May, following weeks of sweltering temperatures in the desert nation acutely vulnerable to climate change.

Washington, United States - President Donald Trump rekindled the US trade war on Friday, threatening to impose a 50 percent tariff on the European Union -- and drawing a strong response from European politicians. If they come into effect, the new duties on Brussels would dramatically raise Washington's current baseline...

"For nearly 80 days, Israel blocked the entry of life-saving international aid," Guterres said. "The entire population of Gaza is facing the risk of famine.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia -- Saudi Arabia's Minister of Tourism, Ahmed Al-Khateeb, has officially unveiled TOURISE, a groundbreaking global platform set to transform the future of the tourism industry. The inaugural TOURISE 2025 event will take place in Riyadh from November 11-13, bringing together public and private sector leaders, experts, and...

Beijing, China -- The United States has taken aim at China's Huawei over the cutting-edge chips powering artificial intelligence (AI), part of a shifting technology dispute between the two largest economies. AFP looks at how the US-China chip war is evolving under US President Donald Trump: Focus back on China...

Authorities took down more than 300 servers worldwide, neutralized 650 domains and seized 3.5 million euros ($3.9 million) in cryptocurrency, they said. The coordinated crackdown has dealt "a direct blow to the ransomware kill chain", breaking it "at its source", said the European Union's criminal police agency.

Elias Rodriguez faces murder and other charges after allegedly gunning down two Israeli embassy staffers outside the Capital Jewish Museum in Washington.

Cannes, France - Director Nadav Lapid said his new film "Yes" about a musician asked to re-write the Israeli national anthem is a response to his country's "blindness" to suffering in Gaza. Lapid has previously dissected his country's ills in "Synonyms", which won the Golden Bear in Berlin in 2019,...

Their solidarity came to the fore on Wednesday, when Austria and Germany broke ranks with European Union peers to argue against a review ordered by Brussels of an EU-Israel cooperation deal.

The talks, which began in April, are the highest-level contact between the foes since the United States quit the 2015 nuclear accord during President Donald Trump's first term.

Beijing, China -- Tech giant Xiaomi unveiled a new advanced in-house mobile chip on Thursday, a significant milestone for the company as Chinese firms shift resources towards home-grown technology against a bleak international trade backdrop. Xiaomi, which sells goods from smartphones to vacuum cleaners and electric vehicles (EVs), is one...

Abu Dhabi, UAE -- The Ministry of Finance (MoF), in its capacity as the issuer and in collaboration with the Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) as the issuing and payment agent, announced the successful completion of the May 2025 auction of UAE Dirham-denominated Islamic Treasury Sukuk (T-Sukuk) amounting to...