Author: Steven Sahiounie

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s tour continues with Qatar as a main stop on Sunday. Qatar has been mediating in the Israel-Hamas war along with Egypt and played a key role in securing the release of captives from Gaza. Blinken’s visit – which started with meetings with the leaders of Turkey and Greece – will take him to Jordan, Qatar , as well as Israel and the occupied West Bank. Citing an unnamed Qatari official and Israeli source, US news outlet Axios reported Qatar’s prime minister told family members of six US and Israeli hostages the assassination of Hamas’s Saleh…

Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Sunday with Jordan ’s king and foreign minister and visited a World Food Program warehouse in Amman as he pressed ahead with an urgent Middle East diplomatic mission to prevent Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza from spreading.pital Amman. During his meeting with Blinken, Ayman Safadi, deputy prime minister, minister of foreign affairs and expatriates in Jordan , discussed the humanitarian catastrophe in the Gaza Strip and the need for an immediate halt to the aggression to ensure the protection of civilians. Safadi also stressed the need to remove obstacles placed by Israel to…

Two journalists were killed, including the son of veteran Al Jazeera journalist Wael Al- Dahdouh, and another journalist was injured today in an Israeli airstrike targeting their vehicle west of Khan Yunis in the southern Gaza Strip, according to local sources. The sources reported that an Israeli drone fired a missile at a vehicle carrying journalists in al-Mawasi area to the west of Khan Yunis, leading to the death of journalist Hamza, 29, the son of Wael Al- Dahdouh, and journalist Mustafa Thraya. The airstrike also resulted in the injury of two journalists, Ahmed Al-Burash and Amer Abu Amr, both working…

RIYADH: Shipping volume in the Suez Canal dropped 28 percent year on year in the 10 days ending Jan. 2, official data has revealed.

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul All Share Index rose on Thursday, gaining 216.56 points, or 1.82 percent, to close at 12,145.45.

LONDON: Oil prices gained on Friday, after minutes from a Federal Reserve meeting suggested inflation was under control and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken prepared to visit the Middle East to try and prevent the Israel-Gaza conflict from widening, according to Reuters.

LONDON/TOKYO: Global equities were on course to snap a nine-week winning streak, government bonds sold off, and the dollar was poised for its strongest weekly advance since mid-May, as bets on aggressive central bank rate cuts were rolled back, according to Reuters.

Efforts include the National Investment Strategy, the regional headquarters program, and tax incentives

LONDON: The UN food agency’s world price index ended last year about 10 percent below its 2022, with values in December also down from the previous month, helping further ease concerns over global food price inflation, according to Reuters.

MENA startups raised $2.2 billion across 488 deals in 2023