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Saudi Arabia

January 12, 2026

Riyadh 11:30 am

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The skyline of Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Oct. 31, 2023.

MidEast VC funding hits record $3.8B in 2025, driven by strong Gulf showing

Many emerging venture markets contracted in 2025, but the Middle East and North Africa bucked the trend.

A pump jack stands near an oil spill at a facility in Venezuela.

Analysis

How Trump’s Venezuela oil grab could test OPEC’s power, Mideast energy models

Over the longer term, Washington’s bid to bring the world’s largest proven crude oil reserves firmly into its orbit raises questions for OPEC's strategy and the outlook for big-spending Gulf producers.

Samuel Wendel

By Samuel Wendel

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (L) gestures as he welcomes Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Salman (R) during an official ceremony at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, on June 22, 2022.

Analysis

Amid Saudi-UAE rivalry, Turkey courts Riyadh without crossing Abu Dhabi

Turkey is moving closer to Saudi Arabia on key regional security files from Yemen to Gaza, while carefully avoiding a rupture with the United Arab Emirates.

Ezgi Akin

In Ankara, reporting on diplomacy, EU-Turkey ties, NATO

US Senior Advisor for Arab and African Affairs Massad Boulos (L) meets with UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan in Abu Dhabi, Jan. 8, 2026.

US envoy pushes for Sudan truce in meeting with UAE’s MBZ after talks in Saudi Arabia

Boulos’ meeting in Abu Dhabi follows discussions earlier this week in Riyadh, as the two Gulf countries navigate both Sudan diplomacy and a dispute over Yemen.

Latest News

Meet Aidarus Zubaidi: Separatist leader at heart of Yemen’s power struggle

SALEH AL-OBEIDI/AFP via Getty Images

Saudi SABIC sells $950M in overseas assets amid global chemicals slump

FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images

Yemen separatists accuse Saudi Arabia of 'betrayal' as pro-Riyadh forces advance

Fighters loyal to Yemen's Southern Transitional Council separatists stand in the back of a pickup struck, bearing the portrait of STC Chief Aidarus al-Zubaidi

Samuel Wendel

Senior Market Research Analyst

In Washington, DC, reporting on regional business and tech

Adam Lucente

News and Business Correspondent

In New York City, reporting on regional news, militancy, climate change

Jack Dutton

Chief Business Correspondent

In Bristol, reporting on regional business, climate change, AI, tech

Francesco Schiavi

In Bologna, reporting on security, defense, economy, governance

Sabena Siddiqui

In Karachi, reporting on South Asia, Middle East, Iran

Sebastian Castelier

In Dubai, reporting on regional business

This picture taken December 12, 2019 shows (L) a view of the exchange board at the Stock Exchange Market (Tadawul) bourse in Riyadh displaying Aramco shares on the second day of their trading, along with a poster depicting Saudi Arabia's founder King Abdulaziz ibn Saud (C), his son and current King Salman bin Abdulaziz (R), and the latter's son Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (L) on display. - Energy giant Saudi Aramco's market value soared above $2 trillion as its share price surged again on its second da

Gulf oil exporters look past Biden’s green energy platform

The possible return of Iranian crude to global markets is a short-term concern for Gulf oil producers, which expect to be the last man standing in a decarbonizing world.

Saudi police close a street leading to a non-Muslim cemetery in the Saudi city of Jeddah where a bomb struck a World War I commemoration attended by European diplomats on November 11, 2020 leaving several people wounded amid Muslim anger over French cartoons. - The attack is the second assault in the kingdom in less than a month, as French President Emmanuel Macron has sought to assuage anger across Muslim nations over satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. (Photo by - / AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty

Islamic State claims responsibility for Jeddah attack

The explosion at the World War II commemoration follows a stabbing at the French Consulate in Jeddah last month.

A foreign labourer works on the construction of a house in the Saudi capital Riyadh on April 13, 2019. - Housing is a potential lightning rod for public discontent in a country where affordable dwellings are beyond the reach of many, posing a key challenge for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman as he seeks to overhaul the oil-reliant economy. (Photo by FAYEZ NURELDINE / AFP) (Photo credit should read FAYEZ NURELDINE/AFP via Getty Images)

End of kafala no panacea for Egyptian workers in Saudi Arabia

Although Egypt officially welcomes the end of the kafala system in Saudi Arabia, some observers worry the changes will be largely cosmetic as abusive work contracts remain in place.

Saudis say Biden’s threats are ‘election talk'

Although there are political tensions on human rights issues, the US-Saudi relationship could be vital for the United States to address Russian and Chinese influence in the Middle East region.

Saudi police close a street leading to a non-Muslim cemetery in the Saudi city of Jeddah where a bomb struck a World War I commemoration attended by European diplomats on November 11, 2020 leaving several people wounded amid Muslim anger over French cartoons. - The attack is the second assault in the kingdom in less than a month, as French President Emmanuel Macron has sought to assuage anger across Muslim nations over satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. (Photo by - / AFP) (Photo by -/AFP via Getty

Bomb goes off at event attended by Western diplomats in Saudi Arabia

A Greek Consulate employee and a Saudi guard were injured in an attack at a cemetery in Jeddah.

An Iraqi woman farmer harvests tomatoes in Diwaniyah, around 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of the capital Baghdad, on April 2, 2018. - Iraqi farmers have traditionally lived off their land with no need for wells, but a creeping drought is now threatening agriculture and the livelihoods of nearly a quarter of the country's population in the southern agricultural provinces of Diwaniyah, Muthanna and Missan. (Photo by Haidar HAMDANI / AFP) (Photo credit should read HAIDAR HAMDANI/AFP via Getty Images

Iraq, Saudi Arabia agree to boost ties

A high-level Saudi delegation visited Baghdad to sign several economic and investment agreements in order to create a balance between Iraq's neighboring countries.

People visit Cairo's Museum of Islamic Art after it reopened to the public on January 19, 2017, in the egyptian capital.
The Egyptian president reopened the museum on January 18, three years after a car bombing partially destroyed the building. / AFP / MOHAMED EL-SHAHED (Photo credit should read MOHAMED EL-SHAHED/AFP via Getty Images)

Egypt holds its first Islamic exhibition in Saudi Arabia

Egypt is trying to attract Saudi tourists by holding an exhibition of Egyptian Islamic antiquities in Saudi Arabia, which includes 84 artifacts from the collections of Islamic art in Cairo.

Protesters with Yemeni flags protest in Parliament Square in London on July 5, 2020, against the continued conflict in Yemen at the same time that supporters of the Black Lives Matter movement listen to speeches in a further action in the aftermath of the death of unarmed black man George Floyd in police custody in the US. - Yemen has been locked in conflict since the Huthis took control of Sanaa in 2014 and went on to seize much of the north. The crisis escalated when the Saudi-led coalition intervened the

G20 should press Saudi Arabia on jailed activists, rights group says

Pressure is building on Riyadh ahead of the annual G20 summit later this month.

Construction workers stand on scaffolding in Al-Balad, a historical area in the Saudi Arabian port city of Jeddah, on January 11, 2020. (Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE / AFP) (Photo by GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP via Getty Images)

Saudi Arabia to ease restrictions on foreign workers

The labor overhaul will allow foreign workers to leave the country without their employers' approval.

NASHVILLE, TENNESSEE - OCTOBER 22: Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden checks his watch during the final presidential debate against U.S. President Donald Trump (shown in reflection) at Belmont University on October 22, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. This is the last debate between the two candidates before the election on November 3. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Elections weigh on US-Gulf economic relations

Investments worth billions of dollars in the US market and currencies pegged to the greenback leave Gulf states heavily exposed to the American economy.

A picture taken from a distance shows the French consulate in the Saudi Red Sea port of Jeddah on October 29, 2020. - A Saudi citizen wounded a guard in a knife attack at the French consulate in Jeddah today, officials said, as France faces growing anger over satirical cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed. The assault follows another knife attack at a church in the French city of Nice that left three people dead and several others wounded, in what authorities are treating as the latest jihadist attack to rock t

Man stabs guard at French Consulate in Saudi Arabia

The nonfatal attack came the same day as the murder of three people in Nice, France, as tensions soar between France and much of the Muslim world.

Saudi Arabia to pay families of health care workers who died from COVID-19

The government will disperse $133,000 per family.