LONDON: A UK government working group tackling anti-Muslim hatred has not met for four years despite a surge in Islamophobic hate crimes across Britain since last year, The Guardian reported on Monday. The group’s last official meeting took place in January 2020, before all government working groups were paused due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The … Read more
WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden prepared Wednesday for perhaps the most crucial speech of his political career as the unpopular 81-year-old tries to convince doubters he is fit for a bruising rematch with Donald Trump in November. With dominant performances in the “Super Tuesday” primaries and Trump’s last Republican rival Nikki Haley finally dropping out, the … Read more
BEIRUT: Austria’s foreign minister on Thursday urged Israel and Hezbollah against escalating the conflict along the volatile Israel-Lebanon border and expressed hope for a pause in the fighting in Gaza in time for the start of the holy month of Ramadan in March. The Middle East has witnessed enough devastation and cruelty, said Alexander Schallenberg, speaking … Read more
Dubai real estate market soars amid record residential transactions in 2023: report RIYADH: Dubai’s real estate market experienced robust growth in 2023, reaching an all-time high with residential transactions totaling 118,993 units, a report from CBRE revealed. The report highlighted a 29.6 percent year-on-year increase in deal volumes, driven by growth in both the off-plan … Read more
Global Markets – stocks shrug off patchy data; gold faces biggest weekly fall in 2024 LONDON: Global shares rose for a third day on Friday, thanks to a lift from Japan’s Nikkei closing at another 34-year peak and following gains on Wall Street as data revived chances of a June rate cut, according to Reuters. … Read more
RIYADH: The inaugural Space Debris Conference, themed “Towards Securing the Future of the Global Space Economy,” kicked off in Riyadh on Sunday. In attendance was Abdullah Al-Swaha, minister of communications and information technology and chairman of the Saudi Space Agency, and Mohammed bin Saud Al-Tamimi, CEO of the Saudi Space Agency. The two-day conference brought together … Read more
How the Israeli military’s destruction of Gaza’s schools and universities is creating a lost generation LONDON: Children and young people who survive Israel’s military campaign in Gaza stand little chance of receiving a proper education as the destruction wrought on the Palestinian enclave reduces its schools, colleges and universities to rubble. Al-Israa was the last … Read more
GAZA: Deadly strikes were reported early Saturday in the overcrowded Gaza border town of Rafah — dubbed a “pressure cooker of despair” by the UN — as international mediators readied a new push to seal a tentative truce deal between Israel and Hamas.Hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians have fled south to Rafah since the … Read more
KYIV: Ukraine is working “intensively” with partners to restore air travel suspended for nearly two years, with the main focus on Boryspil International Airport outside the capital Kyiv, a presidential official said on Thursday. Ukraine’s airspace was abruptly closed by Russia’s invasion in February 2022 due to the security risk for civil aviation and anyone … Read more
RIYADH: Of late, businesses in the Gulf Cooperation Council region have become more inclined toward pooling their resources to achieve operational efficiency and maximize profits. The trend of mergers and acquisitions in the GCC is expected to rise, said Moody’s in March 2023. Nearly one year on, the global rating agency’s prediction seems to be spot-on. … Read more