MUST-READS

• Saudi FM, Ukrainian Counterpart Discuss Developments of Ukrainian-Russian Crisis

  Saudi Minister of Foreign Affairs Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah received on Sunday a phone call from Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Andrii Sybiha. Prince Faisal congratulated his Ukrainian counterpart on the occasion of assuming his post, wishing him success in carrying out his duties. The two sides also reviewed bilateral relations and the latest developments of the Ukrainian-Russian crisis. They also discussed issues of common interest.

• Aramco Digital bets on partnerships to build Saudi Arabia’s AI ecosystem

  Aramco Digital has also signed several Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) at the Global AI Summit held in Riyadh recently. It inked a deal with Cerebras Systems and FuriosaAI to explore collaboration in the supercomputing and AI domains and also partnered with South Korea's Rebellions to deploy Rebellions Neural Processing Unit chips in Aramco's data centers. In addition, Aramco Digital has signed an MoU with SambaNova Systems to accelerate AI capabilities, innovation and adoption across the country. It also announced the deployment of an AI supercomputer powered by NVIDIA GPUs, one of the region's first systems of its kind.

• Peter Schwartzstein: Climate Violence in the Middle East

  But as that drought intensified and continued through the years in the run-up to 2011, these farmers' willingness and ability to put up with those bribe-seeking demands decreased. At a time when their harvests were failing and crop yields were shrinking, officials were coming back demanding the same sums of cash that farmers were now even less capable of providing and hampering farmers with lower quality seeds and fertilizers at a time of their greatest need. This meant that the degree of rage at that corruption was even higher. When I try and look at how climate change contributes to other drivers of instability, such as corruption or inequality, that's really what I'm driving at.

• OPEC rebuts WSJ article on Saudi saying oil prices could drop to $50
  OPEC rebutted a Wall Street Journal report on Wednesday, calling it wholly inaccurate and misleading in saying that Saudi Arabia's energy minister warned oil prices will drop to $50 per barrel if OPEC+ members do not stick to agreed-upon production limits. The report cited unidentified delegates from the oil producers group as saying they heard the minister, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman, give the warning on a conference call last week. The WSJ cited the sources as saying he had singled out Iraq and Kazakhstan for overproduction.

• Saudi Arabian FDI stalls at $5.2 bln in second quarter despite reform drive
  Foreign direct investment (FDI) into Saudi Arabia stalled in the second quarter at around the same level as a year ago, government data showed on Monday, highlighting the kingdom's need for further reforms to meet its ambitious targets. Saudi Arabia drew 19.44 billion riyals ($5.18 billion) in FDI, which was little changed from 19.43 billion riyals in Q2 last year, the General Authority of Statistics data showed. Overall, Saudi Arabia recorded net FDI inflows of 11.7 billion riyals in the second quarter, down 7.5% from a year earlier.

• Saudi unemployment drops again in second quarter

  The unemployment rate for Saudi nationals fell to 7.1 percent in the second quarter of 2024, government data shows, down from 7.6 percent in the first quarter and 8.5 percent in the same period a year ago. The overall unemployment rate, which includes expatriate workers, dropped to 3.3 percent in Q2, down from 4.1 percent in 2023, according to the General Authority for Statistics’ latest labour force survey.

• ‘It’s an Earthquake’

  Nasrallah was more than a political leader. After 32 years in power, he had become synonymous with Hezbollah, the most well-armed nonstate actor in the world and the linchpin of Iran’s tentacular “Axis of Resistance” to Israel and the United States.  Nasrallah was such a central figure for so long—the most powerful man in Lebanon and Israel’s greatest foe; loved, hated, and imitated by anti-Western insurgent leaders across the Middle East—that his absence left many Lebanese feeling profoundly rudderless. There were occasional bursts of gunfire throughout the day. Whether it came from mourners or celebrators was impossible to say.

• Saudi Arabia to bolster medical tourism with strategic partnerships

  One notable example is a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed last August between Saudi Arabia and Morocco, focusing on research, digital health, therapeutic development, pandemic preparedness, and preventative medicine. Meanwhile, this MoU follows a similar agreement signed with Thailand in January to foster knowledge sharing on hospital management and wellness services between both countries.

• Saudi Arabia Eyes Satellite Partnership with Nigeria for TV Channel Expansion on NigComSat-1R

  The Saudi Arabian Embassy in Nigeria has initiated discussions to host four television channels on Nigeria’s NigComSat-1R satellite. This development follows a visit by Saudi Arabia’s Head of Media, Mohammed Alsahabi, to the NigComSat offices on Friday. During the visit, Alsahabi engaged in talks with NigComSat officials, focusing on the potential for collaboration in satellite broadcasting. Abiodun Attah, NigComSat’s Executive Director of Technical Services, received the Saudi delegation, emphasizing the importance of the discussions.

• How a Saudi startup is pioneering the cultivation of algae in the desert

  Hashem’s Jeddah-based startup is pioneering new methods to grow algae in the desert, using innovative outdoor cultivation systems that rely on advanced monitoring technology to overcome the environmental challenges of Saudi Arabia’s arid climate. His journey began in Boston, where he earned a degree in chemical science before pursuing a master’s in organic chemistry at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia.

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