BBC: 'On 9 January, she was convicted and sentenced to 11 years in prison by the court, but the verdict was only publicly revealed in the Saudi mission's letter to the UN Human Rights Office...'
bbc.com/news/world-mid…

Worth noting that while this does indeed seem to be a potential path forward from the viewpoint of Saudi leadership, many in DC are skeptical it would be possible given the political mechanics involved on the U.S. side
theguardian.com/world/2024/may…

'Digging out of its worst economic crisis in decades, Egypt is putting prized assets up for sale, and the rising powers of the Gulf region are taking out their checkbooks.'
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

On KSA's push into AI & its geopolitical implications:
'Everybody in tech seems to want to make friends with Saudi Arabia right now as the kingdom has trained its sights on becoming a dominant player in A.I. — and is pumping in eye-popping sums to do so.'
nytimes.com/2024/04/25/tec…

FT on how major flooding in Dubai was snapshot of the grim climate future that countries across the Gulf are facing:
'It’s not just a theoretical scenario. It has happened, and the costs are real,' said Huda Shaka, a chartered urban planner based in Dubai.
ft.com/content/a12272…

Bloomberg: 'Saudi Arabia’s capital is set to pull back on its target to double its population by 2030...Riyadh is eyeing 10 million residents by the start of the next decade, according to people familiar with the matter [instead of 15-20m]'
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

Bahari: food writer Dina Macki on Omani cuisine and Zanzibari flavours nationalgeographic.com/travel/article…

'The HBK DOP loan, which was negotiated on the sidelines of the COP28 climate summit in December in Dubai, may force South Sudan to continue producing oil until at least 2043, years beyond the lifespan of the country’s existing oil wells.'
bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

“I’m watching my patients being executed, slowly and gradually,' said Zaki Zakzook, an oncologist.
The Israeli military’s bombardment of Gaza have decimated its medical system in a way that aid groups & intl bodies are increasingly calling “systematic:'
nytimes.com/2024/04/26/wor…

WSJ on the London-Dubai cash smuggling route: 'The Heathrow-to-Dubai flights have two big money-laundering features: One airport doesn’t scan outbound luggage for cash and the other welcomes sacks of it'
wsj.com/business/airli…

Emirates still has 30,000 bags to return after major flooding in Dubai
cnbc.com/2024/04/22/emi…

Gaza's graduating class:
nytimes.com/interactive/20…
“We all know someone who has been killed,” she said. “And we can’t understand why they are killing them.”
“The scenes I saw were more horrific than horror movies,” she said. “But they are all real.”

A review by Andrew Leber of Mandoob
'[The film] emphasizes that complex processes of social change play out far beyond the Saudi monarchy’s top-down control—and that Saudi artists and intellectuals can still surface these dynamics for public consumption.'
thebaffler.com/latest/night-v…