Mena Today

Pro-Palestinian protests at U.S. universities showed no sign of slowing as they spread coast-to-coast over the weekend and police crackdowns and arrests continued into another week while students vowed to stay in tent encampments until their demands are met.

Maronite Patriarch Bechara al-Rai criticized Lebanese officials on Sunday, saying they should have been "more dedicated to securing the public good and to restoring to the state its effective and legitimate constitutional institutions, starting with the election of a president."

NEOM, a unit of the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund, secured a new revolving credit facility (RCF) worth 10 billion riyals ($2.67 billion) from local lenders, according to a NEOM statement seen by Reuters on Sunday.

Saudi Arabia is committed to sourcing lithium from overseas as it looks to produce EV batteries and invest in the electric vehicle sector, a senior minister said in an interview, noting attempts to secure domestic supplies were at an early stage.

The amount of humanitarian aid going into the Gaza Strip will be ramped up in the coming days, Israel's military said on Sunday.

President Macron of France must be commended for having pointed to Iran as a direct threat to European security. He did this Wednesday in his speech at the Sorbonne at Paris. Europe, he warned, is equally threatened by nuclear Russia and “near nuclear” Iran. It should, he reckons, unite to address both menaces.

Dubai announced on Sunday plans to construct a new passenger terminal at Al-Maktoum Airport, set to become the "largest airport in the world".

The Hamas Ministry of Health announced a staggering death toll of 34,454 in the Gaza Strip since the conflict with Israel began on October 7th. This figure has been widely reported by international media, but the reliability of these numbers has come under scrutiny.

With geopolitical upheavals and complex economic challenges destabilizing a fractured world, the World Economic Forum Special Meeting on Global Collaboration, Growth and Energy for Development will convene in Riyadh, 1,000 global leaders from 92 countries on 28-29 April,

France's foreign minister said on Sunday there had been progress in discussions with senior officials in Lebanon aimed at easing tensions between Hezbollah and Israel and preventing a war breaking out.

Iraq's parliament passed a law criminalising same-sex relationships with a maximum 15-year prison sentence on Saturday, in a move it said aimed to uphold religious values but was condemned by rights advocates as the latest attack on the LGBT community in Iraq.

U.S. Secretary for State Antony Blinken will visit Saudi Arabia on Monday and Tuesday to meet with regional partners and discuss efforts to achieve a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages, the State Department said on Saturday.