Vivian Nereim
@viviannereim
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*مراسلة نيويورك تايمز في شبه الجزيرة العربية* On maternity leave until March. Gulf bureau chief @nytimes. Journalist in the Arabian Peninsula since 2011.
Riyadh
Joined November 2009
What does $500 billion build in the Saudi desert?. The investigative project I've been working on for the past 6 months is finally out. It goes deep inside the story of Neom, MBS's science fiction-inspired plan to create a whole new region from scratch.
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Making the rounds in Saudi Arabia, this hauntingly beautiful scene captured after heavy rains:
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An exasperating trend among Western visitors to Saudi Arabia: "None of the Saudis I talked to think X." You're here for a few days. You talked to a handful of people. They don't know you. You possibly don't even speak Arabic. Maybe consider that your sample might not be the best.
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Saudi Islamic Affairs ministry limits Riyadh mosques to four loudspeakers, at max volume level 4, and tells them not to broadcast religious lectures or lessons over external speakers.
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I'm looking for journalists in Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain & UAE who can work as occasional freelancers to boost NYT's coverage of the rest of the Gulf. DMs open for suggestions. I would love to work with & support talented Khaleeji reporters; please send them my way.
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Guys I took the most amazing Uber in Riyadh today, it was unreal 😍 The driver not only had phone chargers and tissues and wipes and mirrors but he also decorates his car with fresh flowers every day 🌼🌹🌼
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THREAD: The reaction of readers to the coverage of Jamal Khashoggi's disappearance has made me realize that many people know little about how to critically evaluate the news they are consuming. A few words below on how to read news smartly.
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I got myself into a very embarrassing and undignified one-car accident today, and as ever, I'm utterly floored by and grateful for the endlessly generous and kind strangers who always seem to be less than 60 seconds away in Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.
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My latest from Saudi Arabia is a story that has fascinated me for a while. Since the kingdom opened to leisure tourism in 2019, some of its most enthusiastic tourists have been Christians, many of them American evangelicals. I joined a tour to find out why
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Seeing some wildly misfired takes on the OPEC+ cut. It's clear that some Americans still view resources abroad as theirs to control, think everything that happens in the world is all about the US and don't understand that other countries have their own interests.
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Standing room only at Saudi Arabia’s “Future Investment Initiative” conference today, even after many executives pulled out over the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi. People are actually getting blocked at the door because it’s too full. No robots this year #tictocnews #FII
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I'm very excited to be starting this week as @nytimes Gulf bureau chief, bringing you coverage of Saudi Arabia, UAE & the rest of the Arabian Peninsula from the ground. DMs open for tips and story ideas. Searching for fresh perspectives, surprising stories, complexity & nuance🙏.
Welcome to @viviannereim who joins The New York Times as our Gulf bureau chief and the first Times correspondent to lead a bureau in Saudi Arabia.
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With MBS at the helm, Saudi Arabia's $620 billion sovereign wealth fund is taking over the kingdom's economy, creating a vast web of 50+ state-owned enterprises and experimenting with a new form of state capitalism. Full story below:.
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"Others who sought to quit — including central bank chief Elvira Nabiullina — were told they had to stay on to help manage the economic fallout, according to people familiar with the situation.".
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Your must read today on Saudi Arabia — Our new wide-ranging interview with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. You name it, we asked it: .
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After 2.5 years, I finally visited Edge of The World — a dramatic plateau outside Riyadh, covered with coral stones from when the area was under the sea — and it was as stunning as I’d hoped. Highly recommend it!
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Senior Saudi royal Turki Al Faisal says the Abraham Accords have failed.“It is not just a failure of the Abraham Accords, but it’s a failure of the world community since the Israeli occupation of Palestine.".
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In our latest from Saudi Arabia, we take you inside the region of the kingdom that planners say will become Neom someday, a futuristic megacity that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman wants to build from scratch. Can it become a reality?.
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Foreign workers in Saudi Arabia will no longer need their employer’s permission to change jobs, travel abroad or leave the country permanently, Sattam Alharbi, a deputy minister at the Ministry of Human Resources & Social Development, told Bloomberg today.
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My first dispatch for @nytimes from Riyadh is about Saudi Arabia's raucous public celebrations for Halloween, a foreign holiday that was until recently utterly taboo and has suddenly arrived in full force.
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Tonight in Riyadh, at a concert by Egyptian superstar Amr Diab 💃🏽
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CNN: "US intelligence agencies have assessed that Saudi Arabia is now actively manufacturing its own ballistic missiles with the help of China, CNN has learned, a development that could have significant ripple effects across the Middle East.".
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To reconstruct Neom's opaque 5-year history, I spoke to dozens of people, including senior executives -- current and former -- who've worked on the project. I also obtained 2,700 pages of internal documents and made a rare site visit.
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Saudi Arabia "will no longer side with any great global power at its own expense. These days are well behind. Instead, Riyadh is seeking to maintain good relations with all major powers based on mutual respect and common interests. " By @HeshamAlghannam
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Our latest from Riyadh, on the huge concerts last weekend, the social change sweeping Saudi Arabia, and the undercurrent of heightened nationalism and fear that’s come with it: .
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Heading out to meet a group of women who will be hitting the road at midnight as Saudi Arabia ends its ban on women driving 🚗🚗🚗 One already drove a couple of hours ago, saying that Islamically, the new day began at sunset 😅.
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Postcard from Wuhan in the aftermath:.“There’s nothing to do but move on,” he said. “We worked nonstop for years, chasing every opportunity,” he said. Now, “everyone I know has one goal for 2020. It’s to survive.”
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Saudi news outlet Al Arabiya has written 1700 words on @KarenAttiah, profiling her from birth. Her last name is "uncommon in America," they write, using that as a segue into her family history and how her parents met.
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“The [Saudi] Public Investment Fund. disclosed an $827.8 million stake in BP, a $713.7 million stake in Boeing, $522 million positions in Citigroup and Facebook and a $495.8 million holding in Disney at the end of the first quarter.”
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Beautiful voices and musical talents at this open mic night in Riyadh’s Draft Cafe yesterday, invite-only for now but licensed by the government as part of a relatively new permit system for such events. (1/3)
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Saudi Arabia’s biggest listed companies have agreed to reduce their dividends and redirect the money into the domestic economy as part of a 5 trillion riyal investment plan over the next 10 years, Saudi crown prince MBS told journalists. Details here:.
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Prince Khalid bin Bandar, Saudi ambassador to Germany: "My grandfather once said to me: 'You're only a prince if you act like one. And being a prince doesn't mean bossing other people around. Your job is to serve them.'".
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My latest article looks at a government-endorsed rave in the Saudi desert that's pushing the limits of the conservative kingdom's rapid social changes. Organizers say more than 180,000 people attended the opening night:.
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"At the Riyadh mall, several women say working outside the home has transformed their lives. It has given them a degree of independence, the opportunity to be present in public, interact with customers and earn an income.".
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This sense of communal obligation -- so deep-rooted that it's often not even perceived as obligation -- is something that I have encountered time and time again during the 11 years I've lived in this region, and it is always beautiful to experience.
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متابعاتي السعوديات: جربتي تطلعي بدون عباية او فكرتي فيه؟ او عندك آراء مختلفة عن المسألة؟ ارسلي لي في الخاص 🙏🏻 حابين نكتب مقال خفيف عن الموضوع.
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it should go without saying that house of saud dot com is not, in fact, "the official website" of saudi arabia or its royal family, and yet, here we are.
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For those wondering what to do with Saudi Arabia’s new tourist visa:. Six tourist spots in Saudi Arabia that will surprise you
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@snarkademic i get this occasionally, but my accent is just good enough and my grammar bad enough that ppl usually assume I'm Arab and I get "so is your mother foreign. were you raised abroad. what's wrong with you. learn to speak your own language" and honestly i don't know which is worse.
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"The shift toward resolving regional conflicts is also driven by the crown prince’s desire to transform Saudi Arabia into a global power in its own right, instead of the American 'client state' that critical members of Congress have dismissed it as.".
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Satellite images show Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead to complete its first nuclear reactor:.
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Saudi Arabia says it's planning to overhaul its entire education system from pre-K to adulthood to better prepare citizens for the job market and to foster values like "tolerance," "moderation" and "hard-work culture".
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"Ask quietly in government circles in Riyadh, Abu Dhabi, Kuwait City or Doha about the petroyuan, and the response — even in the weeks following Xi’s visit to Riyadh — is unanimous: the petrodollar is here to stay.".By @JavierBlas
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ويش افضل و اهم كتب تتناول التاريخ السعودي او المجتمع السعودي اوالعلوم الاجتماعيه في المملكه في الفتره بين ١٩٨٠ و اليوم؟ (روايات او غير, بالانكليزي او بالعربي) اقتراحاتك 👇🙏.
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My latest article from Saudi Arabia looks at how Riyadh is increasingly competing with Dubai as a destination for companies, money and talent while the kingdom remakes its economy, reshaping the region’s business landscape:
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My latest: “Traitor” is the new “infidel” as nationalism sweeps Saudi Arabic. The kingdom’s identity is being reshaped, and patriotic imagery and rhetoric is spreading.
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Today Mecca surpassed the capital of Riyadh as the city in Saudi Arabia with the most coronavirus cases. Re-upping my article from last week that explains a little bit about why it's been a local epicenter for the pandemic:.
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Fascinating research: "The vast majority of married men in Saudi Arabia support the idea of women working outside the home, but they are unaware that almost all other men hold the same view.".
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"A UAE official tells the FT that its total investments into Africa amount to $110bn".
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Packed first session just ended with PIF head Yasir Al Rumayyan and Saudi businesswoman Lubna Al Olayan. “Everybody is very excited about the Saudi market,” said Kirill Dimitriev, head of the Russian Direct Investment Fund. #tictocnews
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My video report from Saudi Arabia's four-day desert rave, below:.
A music festival with men and women dancing side by side would have been unthinkable in Saudi Arabia 5 years ago - this year, organizers of "MDL Beast" say 180,000 attended their opening night. @viviannereim reports on the festival pushing the boundaries of a changing kingdom
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Bloomberg is epically trolling all of us:."This 24-month, $72,000 trip ultimately would reduce this hypothetical client’s net worth at age 65 by $1.1 million, from $8.2 million to $7.1 million. That’s still more than enough to cover her estimated needs. ".
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My latest: In Saudi Arabia, a startup delivery app called Mrsool is more popular than Uber and Facebook. Founded by two Saudis, the app tapped into the quirks of their home market as the kingdom's economy goes through a major transition.
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Be careful with stories like this guys; Daily Mail cites a Turkish newspaper, but the Turkish newspaper -- as far as I can tell -- does not cite any source at all for the story. I searched in Arabic for this news and found nothing.
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Trump calls Saudi Arabia's MBS a "very strong, good-looking guy, loves his country," and says he "will be a great king."."He likes me, I like him. They’re always going to need protection. and I’ll always protect them.".
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This Saudi political cartoon, published in Makkah newspaper, shows an official manipulating Twitter accounts like marionettes to say that he's "amazing" and "wonderful," while he simultaneously thanks them for their praise:
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"Put simply, Saudi Arabia, under the direction of MBS, is preparing for a global political economy that is markedly different from the one the Biden administration envisions," @ProfessorKaren writes.
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I made a video diary on my first 7 days in one of the world's more unique quarantines: A 4-star hotel room in Saudi Arabia. More than 4,000 people across the kingdom are quarantined in hotels as the government works to contain the spread of COVID-19.
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Several times, I’ve gotten into an Uber in Riyadh and the moment that they realize I’m foreign and turn around to ask where I’m from comes not when they see me, not when I greet them, but when they hear the click of me fastening my seatbelt 😂😭😭.
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My latest: Saudi Arabia's economy is booming, and this time it isn't just about oil.Here, we talk to Almajdiah, a developer of high-end apartments. Many Saudis used to shun buying apts, preferring villas, but social & economic changes are shifting that.
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Our story today on how last night's news is playing out inside Saudi Arabia: Beside public professions of patriotism, there's also shock, anger & disappointment. "I’m so broken right now,” one Saudi said.
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DJ Khaled eats lettuce in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia before performing this weekend at an annual desert rave, MDL Beast's Soundstorm.
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Early Monday morning, Saudi Arabia announced a slew of austerity measures to cope with the fiscal impact of the coronavirus pandemic and oil price rout, tripling its value-added tax and cutting a cost-of-living allowance for government workers:.
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WSJ: "The Saudi investment is almost wiped out after Credit Suisse’s emergency merger with UBS Group AG. Credit Suisse’s meltdown also erased billions of dollars in investments made by Qatar’s sovereign fund and the Saudi-based Olayan family. ".
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Saudi Arabia's idea for a linear city called "The Line" has transformed into a plan to build two skyscrapers that stretch horizontally for dozens of miles. The parallel structures would form the backbone of Neom, a $500 billion megaproject.
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In Saudi Arabia, the number of Covid-19 patients in critical condition has tripled over the past week as the economy reopens. Our latest piece looks at several countries in the Middle East grappling with an uptick in cases as they loosen restrictions:
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Our Saudi scoop: Vision 2030's undergoing a major review. (fixing link)."Officials are looking at hundreds of programs & initiatives under 'Vision 2030' & could cut, merge and amend some of them, or create new ones, people familiar with the matter said.".
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Saudi Arabia's crown prince said he plans to build a car-free, street-free, carbon emissions-free city as part of his Neom mega-project as he looks toward a future beyond oil for the world's largest crude exporter:.
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"Saudi Arabia will allow women to travel abroad without permission from a male guardian, ending a restriction that came under international criticism & led some women to take extreme measures to flee the country, local newspaper Okaz reported on Thursday.".
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AFP, on the demolitions in Saudi Arabia's city of Jeddah to make way for projects: "We have become strangers in our own city. We feel suffering and bitterness," said one Saudi doctor who lost his home.
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It’s worth noting that the crowd is more Saudi than last year, with fewer international visitors. So far the foreigners I’ve met are people based here in Riyadh. #tictocnews #FII
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My latest from Saudi Arabia: A months-long festival called Riyadh Season has sent consumer spending soaring, giving a boost to the economy, but it’s also sparked a debate about social class and opportunity in the new Saudi Arabia.
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Saudi Arabia's MBS has postponed a trip to Japan due to concerns about the king's health, Japan says. 88-year-old King Salman has a lung infection after seeking treatment for a fever and joint pain, and is receiving antibiotics.
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First of all, what's the news outlet? If it's state-owned/supported, or based in a state w/out press freedom, read with an appropriate amount of skepticism, but don't discount it. States often use their outlets to leak certain perspectives, and that in itself tells you something.
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"The move grants Raytheon and the Saudis sweeping permission to begin assembling the control systems, guidance electronics and circuit cards that are essential to the company’s Paveway smart bombs."
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My latest article from Saudi Arabia looks at the rapid rise in the number of women in the workforce, which is reshaping offices, households and women's lives across the kingdom.
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The second person *went back to his house* to get a Jeep and a cable. Then they pulled my car to safety, called Najm, called a tow truck, negotiated a good price for the tow truck, waited for someone to arrive to drive me home and would barely accept our thanks.
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Loud boom heard in central Riyadh -- big enough that we felt it shake our tower. No official statement on cause yet. We're looking into it. #صوت_انفجار_في_الرياض.
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Saudi energy minister ABS today in Riyadh, with a pithy I-told-you-so about (unsuccessful) U.S. efforts to get OPEC+ to raise production in Oct.:."There were those in September saying this is a wrong decision, blah blah blah. Where are we now? Who's wrong? Opec+ or others?".
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Our latest from Riyadh -- Some of Saudi Arabia's most prominent prisoners haven't called their families in months. Their relatives say they fear for the worst. We look at their stories, the kingdom's ongoing security crackdown, and its impact abroad, here:.
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Prince Turki Al Faisal: “I simply can’t understand, someone like me who has not had anything to do with any of what is happening in the Kingdom, to be … stigmatized by innuendo and guilt by association”
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"'The Four Seasons in Riyadh is basically Palo Alto,' said a partner at one large Silicon Valley venture fund."
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Thanks all. Your answer: @boode_m told me these are the camels of his father, Ayedh Al Massoud, and the setting is near Taimur (north of Riyadh). The videographer is his friend Fahad Al-Osaimi who doesn't have a Twitter account but clearly has an artistic eye mashallah.
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They even assuaged my hurt ego, reassuring me that "there isn't enough lighting in this spot" and "it happens all the time," which I am very sure it does not, lol. (I drove up onto a rocky median that I somehow did not see and got my car stuck. Don't ask. 😭😂).
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Our latest story delves into the history and geopolitics of Saudi Arabia's push for nuclear power. The kingdom's officials prefer American technology, but are willing to look elsewhere if they can't get it:.
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Interesting report on the Gulf info wars: "A network of at least 53 websites. posing as authentic Arabic-language news outlets have spread false information about the Saudi government and Khashoggi’s murder, a Reuters analysis shows.".
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"Under the initiative, dubbed “Programme HQ”, Saudi authorities are offering incentives to blue-chip companies in sectors such as IT, finance and oil services to move to Riyadh. "
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Literally in the minute it took me to figure out that I couldn't move my car or turn it back on, someone had already arrived. He realized I was too shocked to be useful, asked for the keys, figured out what was wrong and flagged down another total stranger to help us/.
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"For the prince’s supporters in Saudi Arabia, the report represented a practical victory, because it contained no new details, didn’t disclose any evidence on which it was based, and used equivocal words like 'probably.'".
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For international media, it's worth checking the location and bio of the reporter. Are they based in the country they're writing about? Or have they spent a significant amount of time there, meaning they would have sources on the inside? Do they speak the language?.
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For example, the Daily Mail very often sloppily rewrites media coverage from other outlets with little regard for sourcing or accuracy. Ignore them and go to the original source and judge it for yourself.
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Another study highlighting changes in Saudi textbooks:."Israel is still never recognized on maps, but the name 'Palestine' was also removed from most of the maps in which it previously appeared, leaving the territory unnamed.".
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This was part of a pattern, many Neom employees told me. “It was the least productive part of my whole life in terms of doing real things and the most productive in terms of the money I got," one former manager said.
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Statement from the son of Jamal Khashoggi:.
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