Author: Steven Sahiounie

RIYADH: Investor confidence in UAE’s energy startups surged as they secured $30 million in the first half of 2024, surpassing the $24 million raised throughout 2023, an analysis showed.

RIYADH: The UAE’s debt capital market outstanding surged by 11.8 percent annually to $281 billion in the first half of this year, with 71.5 percent of US-denominated dollars, a new report has revealed.

RIYADH: When Saudi Arabia launched the General Entertainment Authority in 2016, skeptics were doubtful about its outcome as the Kingdom was just taking its nascent steps in the sector. 

RIYADH: The percentage of Saudi households owning a home reached 63.74 percent at the end of 2023, an increase of 16.7 percent compared to 2016, according to a new report.

RIYADH: The International Monetary Fund has welcomed recent recalibrations and adjustments by Saudi Arabia on some of its megaprojects under Vision 2030.

The official spokesman for the presidency, Nabil Abu Rudeineh,today said that the Palestinian people and their leadership, represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) is the sole legitimate representative of the Palestinian people. Abu Rudeineh affirmed, “There will be no legitimacy for anyone in the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, or Jerusalem, neither the occupation nor anyone else, nor any legitimacy for any step on Palestinian land that was not accepted by our people and its leadership.” He affirmed that the leaked news indicates that Washington is discussing plans for the future of the Gaza Strip with some parties will not have…

Hamas welcomed the advisory opinion presented by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to the United Nations General Assembly, which the group noted reaffirmed the “illegitimacy of the Zionist occupation.” In a statement, Hamas announced that this decision “puts the international system before the necessity of immediate action to end the occupation.” It called on the UN General Assembly and the Security Council to take the necessary measures to end the occupation. The movement also called on the international community to arm itself with these resolutions, override the American will, and work to “compel the fascist occupation to implement them and comply…

The United States may stop providing aid to Ukraine in the future, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said at a fireside chat at the 2024 Aspen Security Forum. “Every [US] administration has an opportunity, of course, to set its own policies. We cannot lock in the future,” the top US diplomat said when asked if Washington would continue to honor its obligations to Ukraine if Donald Trump is reelected president. Nevertheless, Blinken recalled a security agreement recently inked by the US and Ukraine. “Now if we were to renege on this, I suppose that’s possible. But happily, we have…

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric stated on Friday that Secretary-General Antonio Guterres will promptly present the International Court of Justice’s decision on “Israel’s” occupation of Palestinian territories to the UN General Assembly. “The International Court of Justice has delivered today its Advisory Opinion in the proceedings concerning Legal Consequences arising from the Policies and Practices of Israel in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem,” the statement said. “The Secretary-General will promptly transmit the Advisory Opinion to the General Assembly, which had requested the Court’s advice. It is for the General Assembly to decide how to proceed in this matter.” ‘Israel’…

Netflix on Thursday said it added eight million new subscribers in the second quarter, as the home of hit shows “The Crown” and “Bridgerton” posted its latest financial earnings that exceeded analyst expectations.