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  • Revealed: Populous leading on Saudi World Cup stadium at NEOM’s the Line

    Populous is believed to be leading on a 46,000-capacity stadium for the Saudi Arabia 2034 World Cup, to be built inside 170km-long linear city the Line, part of the NEOM development. Although it is understood Bjarke Ingels Group (BIG) delivered an earlier concept, it is unclear whether the Danish heavyweight continues to be involved. The NEOM stadium is one of 11 proposed new-build venues for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, which football’s world governing body controversially awarded to Saudi Arabia last month. The country was the sole candidate in the running to host the tournament.

  • Neymar says Saudi ‘surprised’ him, echoes Ronaldo: Saudi Pro League better than Ligue 1

    Brazilian superstar Neymar said that Saudi Arabia “surprised” him in a “positive way,” after moving to the Kingdom to join the ranks of Al Hilal, echoing Cristiano Ronaldo’s comments that the Saudi Pro League (SPL) was better than then French League. Speaking in an interview with CNN that was published Tuesday, Neymar said that his experience so far in Saudi Arabia was “totally different to what I’d expected.” “Saudi Arabia has surprised me in a positive way. The people, the country, the cities, the culture,” the Brazilian forward said in an interview on the sidelines of the Globe Soccer Awards in Dubai, where he won the Player Career Award.

  • Riyadh Metro Orange Line Now Is Operational, Marking Completion of a Citywide Network in Saudi Arabia

    The Royal Commission for Riyadh City (RCRC) has confirmed that the Orange Line of the Riyadh Metro, also known as the Al Madinah Al Munawwarah Axis, began operations on Sunday, January 5, 2025. Spanning 41 kilometers, the Orange Line runs east to west, connecting Jeddah Road in the west to the Second Eastern Ring Road near Khashm Al Aan in the east in Saudi Arabia. This newly operational line is a key component of the city's metro system, designed to enhance urban mobility and connectivity. The Orange Line features five stations now open to the public: Jeddah Road, Tuwaiq, Al Dawh, Harun Al Rashid Road, and An Naseem. Additionally An Naseem also serves as an interchange station, linking the Orange Line to the Purple Line. This strategic integration allows passengers to transfer seamlessly between lines, improving access across the capital city.

  • Opinion: Saudi’s inward shift reshapes its FDI outlook

    While the fund is still investing abroad, especially via its subsidiaries like Alat, new flows are smaller and tend to have local economic development goals and technology transfer as a priority. The biggest shift has come in portfolio flow rather than FDI, with  PIF pulling back on some of its foreign portfolio holdings, including those in the US gaming industry. Some of these sales are just profitable exits, but prioritisation is underway. The country’s efforts to attract FDI have sparked an uptick in project announcements (according to fDi Markets) and actual inflows according to government data. However, coming close to the ambitious goal of $100bn in FDI per year by 2030 will be tough. As a result, local public capital may continue to be deployed to try to attract foreign capital. An area of recent success is in artificial intelligence and cloud computing, with Google recently signing a deal with PIF subsidiaries to help develop data centres in the country. Beyond this, Saudi Arabia mandates that foreign companies seeking government contracts set up regional offices within the country, hoping these will be a vehicle for FDI and other investment. Some of these offices manage local wealth or advise the government, but the government hopes others will lead to FDI.

  • Catastrophic Flooding in Saudi Arabia: Mecca, Jeddah, Madinah Hit by Record Rains, Cars Submerged

    Severe flooding has hit Saudi Arabia, particularly in Mecca, Jeddah, and Madinah, after record-breaking rainfall caused widespread destruction. Torrential downpours have turned streets into rivers, submerging cars, flooding highways, and causing major disruptions. The Saudi Meteorological Department issued a red alert for these cities as water levels reached dangerous heights. Footage from the affected regions shows scenes of cars almost completely submerged, with only the tops of their roofs visible above the water. In Jeddah, a city already prone to flooding, residents were seen abandoning their vehicles and scrambling to safety as water inundated streets. Similar scenes were recorded in Mecca, including the holy city's streets, which have become impassable.

  • 234,000 domestic workers joined Saudi employment market in a year

    According to a survey conducted by Okaz newspaper, among these domestic workers, the number of women who joined the labor market as maids and house cleaners made up the highest share, with about 231000, bringing the total number of female workers as maids and house cleaners in the Kingdom to 1.24 million. The number of male house workers in these categories stood at about 40000, bringing their total number to 480000. The total number of male and female domestic workers rose to 3.97 million, including 2.73 million men and 1.25 million women, distributed across many professions, most notably servants and house cleaners, drivers, cooks and food providers, guards of houses, residential and commercial buildings and rest houses, home managers, home gardeners, home nurses, tailors, and private teachers.

  • What is behind US strategy of keeping troops in post-Assad Syria?

    The administration of United States President Joe Biden has said it is taking a wait-and-see approach to the fledgling government in Syria, with diplomats in recent weeks holding initial meetings with the Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) head, and the country’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, as well as the newly appointed Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shibani. But since rebels toppled longtime leader Bashar al-Assad in early December, the US has maintained it will keep its deployment of troops in northeast Syria, where US personnel continue to support the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) as part of a decade-long anti-ISIL (ISIS) mission.

  • What’s behind Egypt and China’s ‘golden decade’ of partnership

    The beginning of 2025 marked the end of the “Year of the Egyptian-Chinese Partnership” and closed out the “golden decade”: A ten-year period during which Egypt and China grew their bilateral relationship as part of their efforts to deepen their comprehensive strategic partnership. Given the trajectory of the relationship over the past ten years, expect to see a larger Chinese presence in Egypt—a country that has long been one of the United States’ most important allies in the Middle East.  The 2024 partnership year ended with Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty visiting Beijing on December 13 for a meeting with his counterpart, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. This came shortly after Egyptian Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly’s visit to Beijing in September to attend the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation. While there, a delegation from the Suez Canal Economic Zone (SCZone) signed one billion dollars’ worth of contracts and memoranda of understanding with Chinese companies.

  • Saudi Arabia condemns ‘greater Israel’ map

    Saudi Arabia condemned and rejected on Wednesday an Israeli map that claimed Jordanian, Syrian and Lebanese territories as part of so-called “greater Israel.” The Kingdom stressed that such extremist allegations demonstrated Israeli intentions to consolidate its occupation, continue blatant attacks on the sovereignty of states, and violate international laws and norms. The Kingdom’s foreign ministry renewed its call for the international community to play its role in stopping Israeli violations against countries and peoples of the region.

  • Saudi Arabia, Already Pumping Money Into Boxing, May Start League With TKO

    The potential investment in TKO follows a Saudi Arabian effort in June to create a multibillion-dollar boxing league that would aim to unite the world’s best boxers, who for decades have been divided by rival promoters and fighting for titles controlled by an alphabet soup of sanctioning bodies. That effort, while not completely abandoned, had proved complicated and expensive, even for a country like Saudi Arabia, which for the past half decade has disbursed billions to become a player across some of the world’s biggest sports.