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  • U.S. Acknowledges Afghanistan Evacuation Should Have Started Sooner

    The National Security Council on Thursday released a 12-page summary of the government’s findings about the withdrawal in August 2021, which swiftly turned violent. As U.S. officials rushed to evacuate people from the international airport in Kabul, the capital, an Islamic State suicide bomber carried out an attack that killed 13 U.S. service members and as many as 170 civilians.

  • Chart: The World’s Richest People in 2023

    Bernard Arnault (74) has been named the world’s richest man of 2023 with an estimated fortune of $211 billion, according to Forbes’ 37th annual billionaires list, released Tuesday. Arnault is the head of the luxury goods giant LVMH, which includes the likes of Louis Vuitton and Dior, and the first Frenchman to top the world ranking after having moved up from third place last year.

  • Saudi Arabia’s economic heft extends from US property to scooter startups, new disclosure reveals

    The fund’s portfolio contains 18 startups along with big-name VC and growth funds like California-based Andreessen Horowitz, 500 Global and New York-based, General Atlantic. According to Sanabil’s website, it invests $2bn per year aiming “to become a globally influential investor in venture, growth and small buyout assets”. Sanabil says it allocates 50 percent of its assets to venture capital, 30 percent to private equity and a fifth to a “liquid portfolio”.

  • Saudi Arabia Super App Startup ToYou Hires Moelis to Help Raise Funds

    Saudi Arabia’s ToYou, a startup that provides a range of services from ride hailing to food delivery, has hired Moelis & Co. to help raise funds to fuel the super app’s growth. Talks for the financing round are at an early stage and the target amount is still being firmed up, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

  • Chart: Finland Becomes 31st Member of NATO

    Finland formally joined NATO on Tuesday, as the North Atlantic Treaty Organization celebrated its 74th anniversary in Brussels. Having formally applied for membership following Russia's invasion of Ukraine alongside Sweden, Finland became the 31st member of the military alliance comprised of 29 European nations, Canada and the United States. Finland's accession roughly doubles NATO's boarder with Russia, which has threatened to take "counter-measures" and described the accession as an "encroachment on Russia's security and national interests."

  • Chart: More Phones Than People

    Cooper's call was a pivotal moment in the history of mobile communication, as it marked the beginning of a new era. Today, mobile phones are ubiquitous, with over 5.4 billion people worldwide having at least one mobile subscription, according to GSMA. In fact, there are now more mobile subscriptions than people on the planet, as the former overtook the latter in 2016. According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), there were more than 8.58 billion mobile subscriptions in use worldwide in 2022, compared to a global population of 7.95 billion halfway through the year.

  • Eid Al Fitr is expected to start on April 21, says Emirates Astronomical Society

    The first day of Eid Al Fitr is expected to fall on Friday, April 21, the Emirates Astronomical Society has said. “Most likely, Ramadan this year will be for 29 days. Eid Al Fitr and the first of Shawwal will be on Friday April 21,” Ibrahim Al Jarwan, chairman of the society's board of directors, told The National. According to the astronomical calculations, the Eid Al Fitr holiday in the UAE — which is from Ramadan 29 to Shawwal 3 — will be from Thursday, April 20, until Sunday, April 23.

  • Turkey Earthquake: Erdogan pledges to build 300,000 homes within a year in Elazig

    Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has pledged to rebuild the country’s southern region that was struck by powerful earthquakes on 6 February 2023, claiming the lives of more than 50,000 people. “Our aim is to restore our cities in the earthquake zone by handing over 319,000 residences and village houses to owners within a year,” Erdogan said at a ground-breaking ceremony in quake-hit Elazig province.

  • Honeywell to open state-of-the-art regional manufacturing center in Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Energy Park

    The new facility will become Honeywell’s eighth site in Saudi Arabia, reflecting both the company’s strategic growth objectives in the Kingdom and its support for Aramco’s In-Kingdom Total Value Add (IKTVA) program to advance local capabilities in research, development and manufacturing of cutting-edge technology. The facility will include engineering, manufacturing and assembly lines spanning Honeywell’s industrial automation and control equipment, field instruments, rugged mobile computers, gas detection equipment, fire safety systems and building management systems hardware. Additional capacity for potential future manufacturing expansion, as well as customer demonstration facilities, is also planned.

  • Biden’s favorite Middle East ally is spoiling his democracy party

    Despite Netanyahu’s push for the judicial overhaul, Israel was invited to participate in the summit, the second of which Biden has convened since taking office. But the Israeli leader was not expected to attend the leader-level meetings that Biden will helm on Wednesday, White House aides said. A person familiar with the issue said that Netanyahu was instead slated to speak on a panel during the week, but it was not clear if even that was finalized.