Early signals hint that Web Summit Qatar 2026 will be its biggest edition yet, with participation expected to outpace the inaugural year and draw more global investors.

Moving forward, lower oil revenues will continue to pose challenges to the Saudi economy and its overall targets. Earlier this month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Saudi Arabia faces a new test: how to sustain reform momentum in an era of potentially lower oil revenues without slipping back...

The betting scandal in Turkish football deepened on Friday as 29 people, including 14 footballers, were arrested, the Istanbul public prosecutor's office announced.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is to meet US President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday for talks on how to end the Russian invasion, Kyiv said Friday.

Beijing, China -- China's sprawling high-speed rail network passed 50,000 kilometers (31,000 miles) in total operating distance with the opening of a new line on Friday, state media reported. The country has the world's largest rail network -- one-fifth longer than the circumference of the earth. The trip begins in...

A Yemeni military official said around 15,000 Saudi-backed fighters were amassed near the Saudi border -- but were not given orders to advance on separatist-held territory.

Syria's central bank chief said Thursday that the country's currency would start to be replaced with a revamped version from January 1, as Damascus tries to relaunch its economy after emerging from the rule of ousted leader Bashar al-Assad last year.

Fourteen countries, including France, Britain, and Germany, condemned on Wednesday Israel's recent approval of new Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The Kingdom said the military movements in the governorates of (Hadramawt and Al-Mahra), recently conducted by the Southern Transitional Council, were carried out unilaterally.

San Francisco, United States -- Nvidia has hired the leadership of a promising AI chip startup, a statement said Wednesday, as the artificial intelligence giant expands its tech empire. Chip maker Groq said the departure of its top executives was part of a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Nvidia for its...

Iran's Revolutionary Guards on Wednesday seized an oil tanker in the Gulf carrying more than a dozen foreign crew members, state media reported.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday that Israel would invest $110 billion over the next decade to develop its own independent arms industry.

London, United Kingdom -- Precious and industrial metals are surging to record highs as the year ends, driven by economic and geopolitical uncertainty, robust industrial demand and, in some cases, tight supply. Below AFP examines the reasons for the surge in demand.  Safe havens  Gold and silver are traditionally seen...

The Palestinian Authority condemned on Tuesday Israel's recent approval of 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank, accusing it of tightening its control over Palestinian land.

Workers have started laying tracks in the desert east of Cairo for Egypt's first high-speed train, which will link the Red Sea and the Mediterranean in the latest attempt to modernise transport in the vast country.

Residents say the strikes have targeted neighborhoods east of the so-called Yellow Line -- a demarcation established under the truce between Israel and Hamas.

Kuwait City, Kuwait -- Kuwait has signed a deal worth $4.1 billion with China to complete the construction of a major port, as the oil-rich country seeks to diversify its economy with a bigger role in global trade. The State Audit Bureau, a government oversight body responsible for monitoring public...

Former Israeli premier Naftali Bennett, widely regarded as a leading contender in next year's legislative elections, called on Monday for the resignation of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, accusing his office of "treason" over alleged Qatari funding to his aides.

Tech firms also led the rally in Asia, with South Korea's Samsung Electronics, Taiwan's TSMC and Japan's Renesas among the best performers. Tokyo was the standout, piling on 1.8 percent thanks to a weaker yen.

Washington, United States -- Oracle tech tycoon Larry Ellison is offering a $40.4 billion personal guarantee to back Paramount's hostile bid for Warner Bros. Discovery, deepening a bidding war with Netflix, a statement said on Monday. The amended proposal, worth a total $108 billion from the company run by Ellison's...

Morocco carry a huge weight of expectation into their opening game at the Africa Cup of Nations on Sunday as the hosts, with star man Achraf Hakimi returning from injury, aim to see off stiff competition to claim continental glory.

The Kremlin on Sunday denied that three-way talks between Ukraine, Russia and the United States were on the cards, as diplomats gathered in Miami for talks on ending the conflict.

The decision brings the total number of settlements approved over the past three years to 69, according to a statement from the office of Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich.

Macron is due to meet with UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to discuss "strengthening the strategic partnership" between the two countries, according to the French presidency, which stressed their cooperation on security and defense.

Ganzhou, China -- Buried in the reddish soil of southern China lies latent power: one of the largest clusters of crucial rare earths is mined around the clock by a secretive and heavily guarded industry. The hills of Jiangxi province are home to most of China's rare earth mines, with...

Gaza's civil defence agency, which operates as a rescue force under Hamas authority, initially said on Friday that the Israeli shelling of a school-turned-shelter killed five people in the Tuffah neighborhood east of Gaza City.

Houston, United States -- A German woman engineer on Saturday became the first wheelchair user to blast into space, taking a brief ride on a Blue Origin flight. The space company owned by American multi-billionaire Jeff Bezos launched its New Shepard suborbital mission at 8:15 am (1415 GMT) from its...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that Washington had proposed the first face-to-face negotiations between Ukraine and Russia in half a year, as diplomats converged on Miami for fresh talks on ending the war.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday urged the disarmament of Hamas but voiced hope for headway on reaching the next stage of a Gaza ceasefire as regional officials met.

A top Hamas official said Friday that talks in Miami to advance the next phase of the Gaza ceasefire must aim to end Israeli truce "violations" in the Palestinian territory.

Israel said a Friday meeting involving civilian and military representatives from both Lebanon and Israel was part of broader efforts to ensure Hezbollah's disarmament and strengthen security in border areas.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday he still planned to visit New York despite incoming mayor Zohran Mamdani's threats to arrest him in compliance with an International Criminal Court warrant.

From the 1980s onward, the federal government and individual emirates launched broader diversification and liberalization programs to reduce reliance on oil and develop sectors like aluminum, tourism, aviation, re-export trade, and telecommunications, the author adds.

Under the agreement, Israel will increase the total volume of gas supplied to Egypt to 130 billion cubic meters, according to Israeli firm NewMed Energy which announced the deal in August.

Under the second stage, Israel is supposed to withdraw from its positions in Gaza, an interim authority is to govern the Palestinian territory instead of Hamas.

Other countries newly subjected to the full travel ban came from some of Africa's poorest countries -- Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone and South Sudan -- as well as Laos in southeast Asia.

In its annual report on the coal industry, the International Energy Agency said demand was on course to rise by 0.5 percent this year to hit a record 8.85 billion tons, although demand is expected to decline over the rest of the decade as rival generation options multiply.

New Delhi, India -- The World Health Organization opens a major conference on traditional medicine on Wednesday, arguing that new technologies, including artificial intelligence, can bring scientific scrutiny to centuries-old healing practices. The meeting in New Delhi will examine how governments can regulate traditional medicine while using emerging scientific tools...

Sair, Palestinian Territories - Despite the catastrophic state of the Palestinian economy, Faraj al-Atrash, operator of a quarry in the occupied West Bank, proudly points to an armada of machines busy eating away at sheer walls of dusty white rock that stretch into the distance. "This here is considered the...

Netflix will continue to distribute Warner Bros. films in cinemas if its takeover bid for the storied studio is successful, the streaming service's chief executive Ted Sarandos said in an interview Tuesday in Paris.

A deteriorating jobs market could nudge the central bank to lower rates further to boost the economy, despite some policymakers' worries that higher inflation could become persistent.

Baghdad, Iraq -- Iraq's transport ministry said Tuesday that a flight operated by Greece's Aegean Airlines had been the first European aircraft in 35 years to land at Baghdad's international airport. In a statement, the ministry said the arrival signalled "Iraq's return to the European aviation map" and ushered in...

The Israeli army is to demolish 25 residential buildings in the north West Bank's Nur Shams refugee camp later this week, local authorities told AFP on Monday.

Kyiv's negotiator Rustem Umerov wrote on social media that the marathon diplomacy in the German capital had been "constructive and productive", and "real progress" had been achieved.

Washington, United States -- An aging president faces poor poll numbers and suspicions about his health but insists that America is thriving. Joe Biden? No, it's Donald Trump. The Republican, back in power for nearly a year, continues to compare himself to his predecessor. Biden would be senile, while Trump...

"Resistance and its weapons are a legitimate right guaranteed by international law and are linked to the establishment of a Palestinian state," Khalil al-Hayya said in a televised address on Hamas-run Al-Aqsa TV.

Police declared the shooting a "terrorist incident" and said they had found suspected "improvised explosive devices" in a vehicle near the beach that was linked to the deceased suspect.c

Goalkeeper Luca Zidane, a son of France football icon Zinedine Zidane, was named on Saturday in the Algeria squad for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON), which kicks off on December 21 in Morocco.

Yancheng, China -- In a light-filled workshop in eastern China, a robotic arm moved a partially assembled autonomous vehicle as workers calibrated its cameras, typical of the incremental automation being adopted even across smaller factories in the world's manufacturing powerhouse. China is already the world's largest market for industrial robots, and...

The deadly attack had been "an ambush by a lone ISIS gunman," who was "engaged and killed," US Central Command said on X.