Via Sumaiya Al-Wahaibi in amwaj.media: The Kingdom’s women workforce is expanding in unprecedented ways. According to the Ministry of Finance, female labor participation has reached 35%—well above the original Vision 2030 target of 30%. This marks a stark economic shift. Yet, despite this progress, deep-rooted structural barriers and societal resistance persist. Female inclusion is still largely concentrated in caregiving and education—sectors prioritized by nationalization policies—which restricts their wider economic involvement. Going forward, the key question is whether Saudi Arabia can overcome these social hurdles while sustaining its rapid economic momentum.

Via Jamie Linsley-Parrish in jstor.org: One of the most compelling features of Islamic finance today is its natural alignment with climate goals and sustainability initiatives. Islamic finance mandates that all investments adhere to principles of social responsibility and avoid activities harmful to society or the environment. This also conforms to the modern environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria used by investors worldwide. For instance, Islamic finance prohibits investment in industries such as alcohol, gambling, and weapons production, which can be seen as ethically questionable or harmful to societal well-being.

Via Ismaeel Naar in nytimes.com: “Obviously, we worked with President Trump before, so we know him and we can find a way to work with him very well,” the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, told CNN last week during the kingdom’s annual investment forum nicknamed “Davos in the Desert.” During his last presidency, Mr. Trump fostered personal relationships with Gulf leaders, offered strong defense support for their countries while steering away from criticizing their human rights records. This time around, the Gulf states will likely look to the new Trump administration for help in ending the devastating war in the Middle East, firm security guarantees and American investment as they try to diversify the region’s economic base away from almost total reliance on energy.

Via Mostafa Salem, Nadeen Ebrahim and Mick Krever in cnn.com: Ending the wars in Gaza and Lebanon and integrating Israel in the Middle East are likely to be at the top of the president-elect’s Middle East agenda, analysts said. “Netanyahu will face a much tougher president than he is used to in the sense that I don’t think that Trump would tolerate the wars in the manner that they are happening,” said Mustafa Barghouti, leader of the Palestinian National Initiative, adding that for Palestinians, it won’t make a major difference “because both administrations were totally biased” toward Israel. Trump doesn’t want those wars “on his desk as a burning issue” come January 20, when he is inaugurated, Alon Pinkas, a former Israeli diplomat, told CNN.

Via George Nelson in artnews.com: Sotheby’s will host the first-ever international auction in Saudi Arabia on February 8 2025. The exact location of the two-part evening sale has not yet been disclosed but it will be somewhere in the historic town of Diriyah on the outskirts of the capital, Riyadh. Diriyah is the original home of the Saudi royal family and has a UNESCO heritage site. Artworks by international and Saudi artists – including a diptych from Ahmed Mater’s The Illumination Series – Islamic objects, jewelry, watches, cars, sports memorabilia, and handbags will go under the hammer for the sale, titled “Origins.” It will coincide with Sotheby’s opening an office in the Al Faisaliah Tower in Riyadh, which is the first skyscraper in the country and designed by Norman Foster.

Via Laura Scott and Sarah Dawkins in bbc.com: The venue looks amazing, world number two Iga Swiatek said. Its my fourth WTA Finals so I can kind of compare. For now we didnt have any problems. Its all pretty smooth. Last year’s tournament in Cancun, Mexico was described as shambolic, with the venue only finished days before the tournament began. World number one Aryna Sabalenka felt disrespected 12 months ago but, asked for her initial impressions of this years tournament, said: Im really happy to be here. Such a beautiful place. Everything looks really good.

Via Steve Holland, Nandita Bose, Stephanie Kelly and Joseph Ax in reuters.com: Donald Trump was elected president, capping a remarkable comeback four years after he was voted out of the White House and ushering in a new American leadership likely to test democratic institutions at home and relations abroad. Trump, 78, recaptured the White House on Wednesday by securing more than the 270 Electoral College votes needed to win the presidency, Edison Research projected, following a campaign of dark rhetoric that deepened the polarization in the country.

Via Anthony Di Paola in yahoo.com: The test for how long the payout can be maintained will likely come early next year, when a special component that amounts to about $10 billion a quarter is scheduled to start shrinking. Aramco is already paying out more than it’s earning as Saudi Arabia’s ambitious economic transformation plans widen the government’s budget deficit. It’s pushed the company into a net debt position for the first time in two years.

Via Nick Vivarelli in variety.com: Films from Saudi Arabia form the core of the Red Sea International Film Festival’s Arab Spectacular five-picture strand, which features world premieres of a trio of new Saudi titles exploring societal changes in the kingdom. One case in point is “Hobal,” the new allegorical drama by Saudi director Abdulaziz Alshlahei (“The Tambour of Retribution”). The film follows a Bedouin family whose members are forced by its patriarch to live in isolation in the desert due to fear of an infectious disease during the 1990s when Saudi was starting to open up to the outside world.

Via Kristian Coates Ulrichsen in agsiw.org: For officials in the Gulf states, such heavy investment in diplomatic initiatives reflects (and supports) the focus on economic growth, rather than political confrontation, and an emphasis on “de-risking” regional dynamics that might jeopardize the major projects underway across the region. This is especially the case in Saudi Arabia, where several of the gigaprojects so closely associated with Vision 2030 move into delivery phases, but also in Qatar, where the search for a post-2022 World Cup bounce continues, and other states, such as the United Arab Emirates and Oman, as they begin to navigate global energy transitions. There is no appetite for a renewed standoff with Iran amid a pragmatic management of the threat posed by regional affiliates of the “axis of resistance,” as evidenced by the Gulf states’ careful avoidance of any role in the airstrikes led by the United States and United Kingdom against Houthi positions in Yemen that began in January.

Via Natasha Turak in cnbc.com: Saudi state oil giant Aramco reported a 15.4% drop in net profit in the third-quarter on the back of “lower crude oil prices and weakening refining margins,” but maintained a 31.05 billion dividend. The company reported net income of $27.56 billion in the July-September period, topping a company-provided estimate of $26.9 billion. The print is also a 5% drop from the previous quarter, which came in at $29.1 billion, as lower global oil prices, weaker demand and prolonged OPEC+ production cuts led by Saudi Arabia continue to impact crude prices.

Via Barak Ravid in axios.com: The U.S. and Saudi Arabia are discussing a possible security agreement that wouldnt involve a broader deal with Israel, according to three sources with knowledge of the talks. The agreement wouldnt be the full defense treaty the U.S. and Saudi Arabia were discussing but Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) and the White House still want to reach a security agreement before President Biden leaves office in January. Saudi national security adviser Musaad bin Mohammed al-Aiban visited the White House last week and met with his U.S. counterpart Jake Sullivan and with Biden advisers Brett McGurk and Amos Hochstein, the sources said. The idea is to draft a bilateral U.S.-Saudi security agreement similar to those the Biden administration signed with other Gulf countries in recent years, which strengthened the U.S. position in the region, the source said.

in argaam.com: The number of workers in Saudi Arabia reached 16.8 million by the end of Q2 2024, labor market statistics from the General Authority for Statistics showed. The total number of workers in Saudi Arabia includes those subject to social insurance and civil service regulations and policies. According to the authoritys data, the number of foreign workers in Saudi Arabia reached about 12.93 million, representing 76.6% of the total workers, while the number of Saudi workers reached 3.93 million, or 23.3% of the total.

Via Aadi Nair in reuters.com: I would be lying to you if I said I had no reservations. You guys know who I am and the things I speak about. I was pretty much on every player call I could make with WTA, Gauff said. One of the things I said: If we come here, we cant just come here and play our tournament and leave. We have to have a real program, a real plan in place. We spoke with a lot of women here in Saudi, and one of them was Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud [the first female Saudi ambassador to the U.S.]. … One of the questions that I brought up was about LGBTQ issues and womens rights issues and how we can help with that. The world No. 3 said she wanted to see for herself if progress had been made, adding: If I felt uncomfortable or it felt like nothings happening, then maybe, I probably wouldnt come back.

Via Fahad Abuljadayel in yahoo.com: The PIF, as the fund is known, is set to acquire 54% of MBC Group from Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Finance, represented by Istedamah Holding Company, according to a statement on Sunday. The finance ministry will transfer the entirety of its stake to the PIF at Thursday’s closing share price of 41.60 riyals ($11) per share, subject to certain approvals and non-objections that may be required from relevant entities. The move follows a flurry of activity for MBC, which started trading earlier this year in Riyadh after a $222 million listing. In October, the broadcaster sold a stake in advertising subsidiary Arabian Contracting Services and paid off a loan of almost 500 million riyals to Istedamah Holding.