Middle East Experience

The professional head of the Jerusalem Rabbinate has been accused of improper behavior in a series of incidents, highlighted by municipal comptroller reports.
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: Jerusalem Rabbinate chairman dismissed by Matan Kahana

Saudi Arabia reportedly approached its Gulf allies including Qatar to request ammunition to repel attacks from Houthi rebels. Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman arrived in Qatar on Wednesday in his first visit to the Gulf state since the 2017 GCC crisis. MBS’s visit comes as part of a tour in the Gulf region ..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Def-facto Saudi ruler MBS in Qatar for first visit since 2017 GCC crisis

What is the relationship between shapes and what they are called across different cultures?
Source: Jerusalem Post
Full Article: It simply sounds like that to me

The United Arab Emirates’ National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed al-Nahyan met with Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi in Iran’s capital Tehran on Monday, Iranian and Emirati state media reported.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Raisi and Sheikh Tahnoun “discussed prospects of consolidating bilateral ties and explored an array of issues of common interest,” Emirati state news agency WAM reported.Sheikh Tahnoun also met his Iranian counterpart Ali Shamkhani.Strengthening bilateral relations between Iran and the UAE and discussing the latest regional developments are the goals of Sheikh Tahnoun’s visit to Tehran, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said.Sheikh Tahnoun’s visit came days after talks between Iran and world powers aimed at reviving the 2015 Iran nuclear deal adjourned on Friday.Last month, Iran’s deputy foreign minister and chief nuclear negotiator Ali Baghreri-Kani met with senior Emirati officials in Abu Dhabi.Read more: Iran abandoned any compromises in latest nuclear talks: USWest must ‘pay price’ to revive nuclear deal: Iran chief negotiatorIran says will continue nuclear advances unless US lifts all Trump-era sanctions
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: UAE national security advisor meets Iran’s president

Iran said Monday it was ready to resume nuclear talks but based on draft proposals it submitted last week, accusing Western powers of stalling negotiations in Vienna.Last week, the Islamic republic returned to international talks in Vienna aimed at reviving the 2015 nuclear deal after a five-month pause.On Wednesday it submitted two draft resolutions on the lifting of US sanctions and nuclear-related measures.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.But at the weekend the United States, as well as European participants at the Vienna talks, accused Iran of back-tracking.A senior US administration official said the proposals “walked back any of the compromises that Iran had floated” during the previous six rounds of negotiations.The official accused Iran of seeking to “pocket all of the compromises that others – the US in particular – had made and then ask for more.”On Monday, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh hit back.“Our texts are fully negotiable,” he told a news conference about the draft proposals,” also charging that the other parties “want to play a blame game.”“We are waiting naturally to hear the other side’s opinion concerning these texts and whether they have a real (counter) offer to make to us in writing,” Khatibzadeh added.The seventh round of nuclear talks ended Friday after five days in Vienna, with delegations returning to their national capitals and expected to go back to Austria next week.Khatibzadeh said the negotiations were expected to resume “at the end of the week,” without elaborating.The landmark 2015 nuclear accord was initially agreed between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States.The deal is aimed at putting curbs on Iran’s nuclear program to ensure it could not develop an atomic weapon, in exchange for sanctions relief for Tehran.But it began unravelling in 2018 when then US president Donald Trump pulled out and reimposed sanctions, prompting Iran to start exceeding limits on its nuclear program the following year.Iran has always insisted that its nuclear program is peaceful.Read more:Explainer: What remains of the Iran nuclear deal as talks resume?Europe disappointed at Iran’s stance in nuclear talksIran’s recent moves don’t give room for optimism on new deal: Blinken
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Iran says ready to continue nuclear talks based on submitted draft proposals

Conceived in 2019, Jeddah’s Red Sea International Film Festival begins Monday with a host of Arab and international stars expected to descend on the city.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Known for its artistic bent in a Kingdom that has made strides to promote creative industries in recent years, Jeddah has long been the focal point of the Saudi film scene.The festival, which runs until December 16, will be held in the city’s Old Town, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.The Red Sea International Film Festival was due to hold its inaugural event in March of 2020 before the COVID-19 pandemic halted events worldwide.Cinema was officially banned in Saudi Arabia until reforms ushered in by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman lifted restrictions with a screening of Marvel’s Black Panther in April 2018.In November, the Saudi Film Commission announced a strategy designed to grow the film industry’s revenue to $500 million.Local and international star powerThe festival will exhibit some of Saudi Arabia’s finest filmmaking talent alongside international big-hitters.Romantic musical Cyrano -- directed by Joe Wright and starring Peter Dinklage of Game of Thrones fame -- will open the festival.The Maggie Gyllenhaal-directed The Lost Daughter will also be screened.It follows the story of an English professor who strikes up an uneasy friendship while on holiday in Greece.The film stars Dakota Johnson, Olivia Coleman, and Jessie Buckley.A total of 27 Saudi films will also be shown at the nine-day festival.Five Saudi directors collaborated to put together Becoming, a film that takes a deep look at contemporary life in the Kingdom through five different storylines.These include a 40-year-old hairdresser’s struggles with contemplating an abortion, a bride who disappears on the night of her wedding, and an infertility healer whose life intersects with a young pharmacist trying to get pregnant.Becoming was directed jointly by Sara Mesfer, Jawaher Alamri, Noor Alameer, Hind Alfahhad, and Fatima al-Banawi.Fay’s Palette, directed by Jeddah-based Anas Batahaf, follows the eponymous protagonist who lives a secluded life, expressing her inner world through painting.Junoon is a horror film directed by Riyadh’s Maan bin Abdulrahman. It tells the story of Khalid, a wannabe vlogger who travels to Southern California to document paranormal happenings.Lebanese director Omar Naim’s Route Ten will premiere at the festival.The plot centers on siblings Maryam and Nasser who are planning to travel from Riyadh to Abu Dhabi to attend their father’s wedding until their flight is canceled.Forced to make the journey by car instead, the two spend the time confronting a frayed relationship strained by their mother’s death and overbearing father – all the while facing unexpected perils of the desert road.Awards showSeveral awards with prizes of up to $100,000 can be won by filmmakers at the festival.Both feature-length and short films will be judged. There are categories designed to foster emerging Saudi talent, as well as international directors.The New Saudi category is open to new and established directors who have produced films in which the lead creatives are from the Kingdom. The films must be produced or shot in Saudi Arabia.The Tajreeb category focuses on Saudi films that are more experimental in nature.Organizers selected judges from within the film community who have not taken part in the production of any film entered in the competition.Read more: Saudi Arabia’s inaugural Red Sea Film Festival to kick off in DecemberSaudi Arabia’s inaugural Red Sea International Film Festival unveils new datesSaudi film ‘The Tambour of Retribution’ selected as Best Int’l Film entry for Oscars
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: What to expect from the first Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah

Sovereign wealth funds the world over have grown more aggressive in unlocking the most promising investments that bring long-term returns and maximize their assets.They’re building more strategic partnerships, and taking greater stakes in major corporate and knowledge-based enterprises showing promising signs of future growth prospects. They choose partners based on their risk appetite and hedge their domestic and international funds.The Public Investment Fund (PIF), Saudi Arabia’s own sovereign wealth fund, is the Kingdom’s veritable engine of economic diversity.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Its achievements in the way of financial sustainability speak for themselves: PIF invested in some of the most innovative enterprises around the world, putting the Kingdom at the forefront of promising sectors and emerging industries, which is part and parcel of the country’s Vision 2030 objective of diversifying its economy.PIF has been impressively successful in building its international networks, creating solid relationships with global investors, asset managers, investment banks, and global brokers to become one of the world’s largest investment powerhouses.PIF channeled plenty of its global investments into many innovative fields and emerging industries all over the world, creating programs to invest in the United States’ infrastructure and the Russian Direct Investment Fund, as well as Lucid Motors, which builds electric vehicles, Uber, a household name in ride sharing, and many other strategic investments that have amplified its returns.Of all PIF’s linkups, the one with Japan’s SoftBank Group is perhaps among its top partnerships.An unmatched success by any measure, SoftBank earlier this year achieved its highest annual revenues ever, as well as record profits, thanks to investments channeled out of Vision Funds 1 and 2.Shared visionPIF and SoftBank had a shared vision of a world that’s witnessing nothing short of a revolution in artificial intelligence, one that will change every aspect of how we live. Seeing an opportunity to ride the unstoppable wave of innovation in AI, in 2016, PIF and SoftBank teamed up in what remains today an unprecedented partnership on technology investments.The two sides created an investment vehicle with which they could strike up partnerships with the next generation of tech startups around the world that leverage AI and Big Data to holistically evolve and grow existing industries and create entirely new ones.Additionally, the two sides joining forces fosters support for the Kingdom’s drive for economic diversity –- a key objective of Vision 2030 – as well as the transfer of knowledge, creating more local job opportunities, and providing direct access to cutting-edge technologies all over the world.In alignment with the Kingdom’s ambitions for Vision 2030, the new investment vehicle was named the SoftBank Vision Fund.By May of 2017, the then-new Vision Fund had achieved its first major success with the launch of the $98-billion Vision Fund 1, the largest tech fund in the history of investing.Building up a series of Vision FundsOver the course of four years, Vision Fund 1 invested as much as $86 billion in more than 90 tech or tech-related companies that pioneer new ways to reshape our future, how we live, how we work and how we play.With numerous partnerships in the US, Europe, and Asia, SoftBank Group is one of the world’s leading investment conglomerates.The Vision Fund has acquired shares in fast-growing companies that managed to maintain a strong global presence, such as Uber, Bytedance, Coupang, DoorDash, Grab, and Didi, which helped build up the Fund as the vehicle for the world’s largest tech ecosystem, run by a world-class operations team that helps these enterprises sustain their growth.As the COVID-induced socioeconomic upheaval continues to reverberate throughout the world, and as nations continue to struggle with the preventive measures imposed to combat the spread of the pandemic, Vision Fund investors worked closely with their portfolio companies to ensure that they possess the necessary operational flexibility and financial cushion to pull through the challenge and reemerge back onto the path of growth in a world that’s still coming to terms with the pandemic’s long-term effects.The acceleration of an emerging set of digital behaviors that were brought about by COVID lockdowns worldwide not only bore out the soundness of SoftBank Vision Fund’s strategy, but helped widen the pipeline of innovation, creating more investment opportunities in potentially transformative companies. Several of these had a profound impact on the permeation of digitized services throughout countless industries, with ‘e-this’ and ‘remote that’ becoming the new normal: e-commerce, remote learning, software, home entertainment, food delivery, and healthcare, to name just a few. The runaway growth in these and numerous other shifts only strengthened the performance of SoftBank Vision Fund 1, with many of the Fund’s portfolio companies rebounding to pre-COVID levels of performance.As of June 30th, 2021, the Fund had seen no fewer than 19 public offerings, which inevitably caught the attention of many outside investors who flocked to buy stocks, often above the listing price. This helped dozens of companies to shore up their market and actual capital and, in turn, helped the Fund’s performance skyrocket: as of June 30, the Fund made $60.3 billion in profits, returning almost $27 billion to investors, including PIF.Given the strategic importance of the Middle East to the SoftBank Vision Fund, the fund went all in with support for economic diversity in the region, opening an office in Riyadh to manage its operations in the Kingdom, enhancing the portfolio’s local presence to launch new products and services, enabling the transfer of knowledge, creating jobs, and bolstering entrepreneurship in target countries, and especially in the Saudi market, where opportunities for investors in almost every sector are nearly limitless.Factoring in a growing majority of highly tech-literate young men and women with an acute sense of the Kingdom’s vast potential and invaluable investment opportunities, it was only natural that multiple ambitious plans were put in place to make a regional business hub out of the Kingdom and a global tech haven, with all of the initiatives to strengthen the Kingdom’s standing in many strategic sectors, such as AI.SoftBank Vision Fund: Future in TechThrough the past four years, SoftBank Vision Fund was able to recruit over 40 of its portfolio companies to the region in general and the Kingdom’s market in particular, a feat facilitated by the opening of its Riyadh office.A lot of these companies are now up and running in full swing, serving local communities across the Middle East.Despite the somewhat slower pace of recruitment recently, the Fund is still ticking off success after brilliant success, especially in the Saudi market.Klook, a travel and leisure booking platform designed to connect travelers with experiences and attractions, recently announced a partnership with Seera Group, a holding company with a full portfolio of tourism products and services, and the Saudi Tourism Authority, to promote the Kingdom as a world-class destination.Automation Anywhere, a global leader in Robotic Process Automation, is in talks with several local tech companies to form partnerships that would enable local partners to offer and apply Automation Anywhere’s solutions to local customers.Saudi Aramco Ventures recently announced that it’s investing in Energy Vault, a Swiss-based, global energy storage company specializing in gravity and kinetic energy-based, long-duration energy storage products.Tier, Cars24, and FirstCry have all announced that they are setting up local operations with local team selection already underway, and will be fully up and running by the end of the year.SoftBank Vision Fund’s Riyadh team is now talking to more than 20 portfolio companies into setting up shop in the Kingdom.The Fund plans to attract over 40 more of its portfolio companies to the Kingdom in the next 12 months, while SoftBank Investment Advisers is currently evaluating many possible investment opportunities in the Kingdom.SoftBank Vision Fund 2 recently made its first investment in a Saudi-headquartered company, making a $125-million investment in Unifonic, a customer engagement platform that offers an integrated system of text, voice, email, and web messaging that enables companies to relate to customers through an omnichannel platform,.SoftBank Vision Fund’s Riyadh office is in the advanced stages of talks with a number of pioneering Saudi tech companies to help them go global, with some exciting announcements are expected in the near future.ChallengesDespite deploying capital for over four years, SoftBank Vision Fund is still early in its investment lifecycle .The Fund continues to broaden relationships on multiple fronts that go beyond just securing returns on investments. SoftBank’s portfolio companies continue to innovate, grow and explore more opportunities, while SoftBank’s local team continues to build the Fund’s presence in the Kingdom, and invest in the local tech industry and help nurture national talent.The partnership is expected to accomplish much more in the years to come.Read more:Saudi PIF-backed Lucid Motors market value exceeds Ford Motor Group, GMSaudi PIF nearly triples US stock holdings; adds Walmart, Pinterest‘THE RIG.’: Saudi PIF announces tourism project inspired by offshore oil platforms
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: PIF’s partnership with SoftBank an unprecedented success in tech investing

The Arab Coalition has carried out its largest targeting of Houthi militants in Marib during the past 24 hours, killing 280 members of the Iran-backed militia group during 47 operations, according to a statement.During the operation, 34 Houthi military vehicles were also targeted as well as ammunition storage sites.For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app.Military sources in the al-Alam front, north of Marib, confirmed to Al Arabiya’s correspondent on the ground that the army and the Popular Resistance forces managed to seize five fighters belonging to the Houthi militia.This came after the Yemeni forces repelled an attack launched by the Houthi militia on the al-Alam front that destroyed military vehicles and the killing of a number of militia members.Read more:Exclusive: Video shows Houthis using residential areas, human shields during attacksSaudi Arabia’s KSrelief projects help those displaced in Marib: Yemeni minister
Source: Al Arabiya
Full Article: Arab Coalition strikes in Marib kill 280 Houthis during past 24 hours

Bieber’s model wife, Hailey Baldwin Bieber, posted a supportive video on Instagram of him on stage, with the words: “Go Baby.”..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Justin Bieber Performs At Saudi F1 Race After Boycott Calls

Sheikh Tahnoun bin Zayed Al-Nahyan arrived in Iran at the invitation of Ali Shamkhani, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council..
Source: Albawaba
Full Article: Iran hopes for better ties with UAE as Emirati security official pays rare visit