Author: Steven Sahiounie

RIYADH: China’s growing interest in the Middle East continues as the country’s sovereign wealth fund partnered with Bahrain’s Investcorp to establish a $1 billion investment pot. 

RIYADH: More than 70 percent of retail investors in the UAE have stocks of companies developing artificial intelligence, according to a survey by trading platform eToro.

RIYADH: Global battery production must be scaled up to meet the climate security goals set at COP28, according to the International Energy Agency.

RIYADH: Dutch-based automobile manufacturing corporation Stellantis is planning to expand its product range in Saudi Arabia by introducing smart cars and light commercial vehicles into the market, an official has revealed. 

CAIRO: Startups in Egypt have started to gain momentum with several ventures securing funding to boost expansion efforts to the Kingdom. 

The latest macroeconomic data released by the US Department of Commerce indicates that the country’s economy could be moving towards stagflation, Business Insider has reported. The gloomy signs hint at tough challenges ahead, the outlet added.   

The chief executives of OpenAI, Microsoft and Google are among the high-profile members of a new federal board created to advise the US government on the “safe and secure” development of artificial intelligence.

China reiterated its condemnation of the repeated Israeli aggressions on the territory of Syria, stressing that it is a serious violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity. Xinhua news agency quoted Geng Shuang, Deputy Permanent Representative of China to the United Nations, as saying before the UN Security Council: “Israel continues its aggressive air raids on Syrian territory, and China, for its part, considers this a matter of great concern,” stressing that “these actions constitute a serious violation of Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and will further push the regional situation out of control. Geng expressed China’s full support to…

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gave a speech in Istanbul to the League of Parliamentarians for al-Quds (Jerusalem) in which he said the Palestinians, “whose lands are being gradually occupied, are subjected to one of the most brutal oppressions in history”. “From here, I once again send my greetings to the Palestinian heroes who, through their struggle, uphold the honour of Jerusalem and all humanity,” he said. He added that anyone looking for “modern pharaohs need not look far; just look at those who have mercilessly killed 35,000 Palestinians in the last 203 days,” referring to Israel’s months-long offensive on…

The extensive amount of rubble left by Israel’s devastating war in the Gaza Strip could take about 14 years to remove, a UN official said on Friday. Pehr Lodhammar, an official with the United Nations Mine Action Service, told a briefing in Geneva that the war had left an estimated 37 million tons of debris in the densely populated territory. According to the media office in Gaza, Israeli attacks have destroyed as many as 70,000 houses, and damaged 290,000 others, rendering them uninhabitable. The structures hit also include government buildings, hospitals, schools, mosques, churches, and historical sites. Israel has pounded…