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After Russia invaded Ukraine, the West formed what looked like an overwhelming global coalition: 141 countries supported a United Nations measure demanding that Russia unconditionally withdraw. South Korea Indonesia Israel Thailand Japan Saudi Arabia Philippines Afghanistan CambodiaBy contrast, Russia seemed isolated. Eritrea “Russian actions are being distorted” North Korea Russia Belarus Syria Eritrea “Russian actions are being distorted” North Korea Russia Belarus SyriaBut the West never won over as much of the world as it initially seemed. But like many other African countries, South Africa appears careful to balance its growing ties with Russia against maintaining a relationship with the West. Others that provided Ukraine with military support have declined to impose economic sanctions on Russia.

Shunned by the West, Assad has been basking in an outpouring of support from Arab states that have normalised ties with him in recent years, notably the United Arab Emirates (UAE). On Tuesday, Saudi Arabia sent its first reported plane of aid to Assad-controlled Aleppo, a notable gesture from a Gulf state still at odds with Syria's president. 'BREAK THE SIEGE'The UAE has pledged $50 million in aid to Syria, without saying in which part of Syria it will be spent. Once a backer of Assad's foes, the UAE has been pressing other Arab states to re-engage with Damascus, according to two Gulf sources, despite opposition from its strategic ally the United States. Tunisia, which cut off ties with Syria a decade ago, has said it will strengthen relations with Damascus since the quake.

☆ Defiant Man City see off Villa to close gap on Arsenal
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

MANCHESTER, England, Feb 12 (Reuters) - Manchester City produced a defiant response to the Premier League's charge sheet as they comfortably beat Aston Villa 3-1 to close to within three points of leaders Arsenal on Sunday. Goals by Rodri, Ilkay Gundogan and Riyad Mahrez put the result beyond doubt by halftime as City got back on track following last weekend's loss at Tottenham Hotspur. Villa were left with mission impossible when Mahrez tucked away a penalty in first-half stoppage time after Jacob Ramsey was adjudged to have tripped former Villa player Jack Grealish. Champions City have 48 points from 22 games to Arsenal's 51 from 21 and can go top if they win at Arsenal on Wednesday. "It was a bad result, but we have to learn and use it in the next matches."

☆ Gautam Adani’s woes were in banks' plain sight
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( Una Galani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +9 min

MUMBAI, Feb 8 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Gautam Adani’s recent woes have vindicated persistent doubts in India about the tycoon’s rise. The Indian group dismisses those claims as a “malicious combination of selective misinformation and stale, baseless and discredited allegations”. By contrast, other big Indian groups like Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries (DBKGn.DE) and those carrying the Tata name are more popular with institutional investors. Fee-hungry international banks were much less picky. Deutsche, Barclays and StanChart pocketed $57 million of the $260 million of investment banking revenue generated by the Adani group since Dealogic records began.

☆ Soccer’s Premier League accuses Manchester City of breaching financial rules
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

A general view of Etihad Stadium, home of Manchester City, on September 14, 2022 in Manchester, United Kingdom. The Premier League has referred the club to an enquiry over an alleged breach of financial rules. LONDON — The English Premier League on Monday announced it has referred soccer club Manchester City to an independent commission over alleged breaches of its financial rules. A commission will be held in private, with members appointed by the chair of the Premier League Judicial Panel. A spokesperson for Manchester City was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

☆ Abu Dhabi's IHC plans to invest $381 mln in Adani Enterprises
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DUBAI, Jan 30 (Reuters) - Abu Dhabi conglomerate International Holding Company (IHC.AD) on Monday said it would invest 1.4 billion dirhams ($381.17 million) in Adani Enterprises' (ADEL.NS) follow-on public offer. "Our interest in Adani Group is driven by our confidence and belief in the fundamentals of Adani Enterprises Ltd; we see a strong potential for growth from a long-term perspective and added value to our shareholders," IHC CEO Syed Basar Shueb said in a statement. IHC, Abu Dhabi's largest listed company, invested $2 billion in Adani Group companies last year, including Adani Enterprises. Adani Group has hit back at the report by Hindenburg Research published last week that flagged concerns about Adani Group's debt levels and the use of tax havens. Investors' response to Hindenburg's criticisms will be tested this week by Adani Enterprises' $2.5 billion follow-on share offering which closes on Tuesday.

☆ Piovi penalty gives Racing 2-1 win over Boca in Argentine Super Cup
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

AL AIN, United Arab Emirates, Jan 20 (Reuters) - Racing Club's Gonzalo Piovi scored a 98th-minute penalty as they beat Boca Juniors 2-1 to lift the Argentine Super Cup after coming from behind at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain, United Arab Emirates on Friday. Facundo Roncaglia gave Argentine league champions Boca the lead in the 17th minute but Racing's Johan Carbonero equalised within three minutes and it was level deep into stoppage time. "We had prepared the play for the goal during the week with coach Gago because they leave space," Carbonero said. It ended there, we lost the match, a complicated, difficult match, which was open for both sides". Reporting by Manasi Pathak in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Angelica Medina in Mexico City, Editing by Hugh LawsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Pakistan PM Sharif offers talks with arch-rival India
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( Asif Shahzad | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

ISLAMABAD, Jan 17 (Reuters) - Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has offered his Indian counterpart talks over all outstanding issues, including disputed Kashmir, which he believes could be facilitated by the United Arab Emirates (UAE). He can play a very important role to bring the two countries on the talking table," Sharif said. The two arch-rival nuclear powers have fought three wars since independence from British rule in 1947. Tensions rose high when India unilaterally revoked the autonomous status of its part of Kashmir later in 2019, which Sharif said resulted in "flagrant" human rights violations. Sharif said the wars between the two countries brought nothing except misery, poverty and unemployment.

☆ UAE pledges to invest $30 billion in South Korea, president's office says
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/5] Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the United Arab Emirates, receives Yoon Suk Yeol, President of South Korea and Kim Keon-hee, First Lady of South Korea, upon their arrival for a state visit reception, at Qasr Al Watan, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, January 15, 2023. Mohamed Al Hammadi/UAE Presidential Court/Handout via REUTERSSEOUL, Jan 15 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) has decided to invest $30 billion in South Korea's industries, South Korea's presidential office said on Sunday, as the two countries seek to expand economic cooperation. The investment decision was announced as South Korea's President Yoon Suk-yeol met his UAE counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, in Abu Dhabi during a four-day state visit, Yoon's office said. "We have decided a $30 billion investment based on the trust on South Korea which keeps promises under any circumstances," Yoon's office quoted the UAE president as saying. Seoul's finance ministry said the $30 billion investment would be led by sovereign wealth funds, including Mubadala Investment Company.

☆ Op-ed: Oil CEO Sultan Al Jaber is the ideal person to lead the UN climate conference this year
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-14 | by ( Frederick Kempe | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

Nowhere is this shift among climate activists more evident than in Germany, where Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck, the Green Party leader, is serving as the pragmatist-in-chief. Some climate activists were aghast this Thursday when the UAE named Sultan Al Jaber, the CEO of the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC), as president of this year's COP 28. Al Jaber, speaking to the Atlantic Council Global Energy Forum on Saturday, captured his ambition to drive faster and more transformative results at COP 28. "We are way off track," said Al Jaber. "We will work with the energy industry on accelerating the decarbonization, reducing methane, and expanding hydrogen," said Al Jaber.

First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) (FAB.AD), the $50 billion Gulf lender that the brother of the United Arab Emirates’ president chairs, last week said it had considered a bid for the $23 billion UK-listed bank. Half its revenues come from Hong Kong, China and other Asian countries, where much of Abu Dhabi’s oil goes. StanChart’s commodities trading strength fits with Abu Dhabi’s keenness to become an energy trading hub. CONTEXT NEWSFirst Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB) on Jan. 5 said it had considered a bid for London-listed Standard Chartered but was no longer doing so. The Abu Dhabi lender said it had been in "the very early stages of evaluating a possible offer".

Summary Abraham Accords meant to lead to wider normalisationBut four new Arab partners of Israel now in tough spotHow to deal with rightists without ditching Palestinians? It is expected to be the widest-ranging deal of its kind between Israel and an Arab state. "This is the proof that one can make peace without concessions, without capitulation - but rather, peace, peace, between people who have affection for one another," he said in comments published by the conservative Israel Hayom newspaper. “Arab countries who formed normalisation ties with the state of occupation are required more than ever to revise these agreements,” he told Reuters by phone. Netanyahu has pledged to build on the achievement during his previous term of the Abraham Accords that opened the way for a possible normalisation of relations with other Arab countries.

☆ Final farewell: From Sidney Poitier to Pope Emeritus Benedict a look back at the influential figures who died in 2022
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-01 | by ( Associated Press | ) www.nbcnews.com time to read: +55 min

Other world leaders who died in 2022 include former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, who died in August. The final days of 2022 saw the loss of some exceptionally notable figures, including Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI. Here is a roll call of some influential figures who died in 2022 (cause of death cited for younger people, if available):___JANUARY___Dan Reeves, 77. A Cuban-born artist whose radiant color palette and geometric paintings were overlooked for decades before the art world took notice. A prolific character actor best known for playing villains and tough guys in “The Manchurian Candidate,” “Ocean’s Eleven” and other films.

☆ Why Liverpool and Manchester United, two giants of soccer, are up for sale at the same time
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-24 | by ( Jenni Reid | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +7 min

In November, the owners of first Liverpool and then Manchester United confirmed they were open to new investment offers, with the potential for full sales of the top flight English clubs. Meanwhile New York-listed shares in Manchester United popped 18% on the news on Nov. 23 that its owners were similarly opening themselves up to investment opportunities. Big money competition One recurring complaint Manchester United fans have had of the Glazers is a lack of investment in the club, across both facilities and players. Old Trafford Stadium, the home of Manchester United Football Club. "In the cases of Liverpool and Manchester United, both owners have held the clubs for a long time, and both assets have appreciated a lot as their leagues and brands and global fan bases have developed.

☆ UAE will look to a world beyond OPEC
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-19 | by ( George Hay | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The UAE has chafed at OPEC restrictions before, in 2020 and 2021. OPEC’s alliance with Russia, as part of the wider OPEC+ group, similarly risks lumping its members in with a wider anti-Western bloc. But ADNOC’s accelerated oil production timetable is arguably more in keeping with a different outlook, preferred by the International Energy Agency, whereby oil demand peaks much sooner. If MbZ were to use the COP28 conference to make that more explicit, it could push the UAE further away from OPEC. And quitting OPEC to pump more oil would be awkward while hosting a climate conference.

☆ US slaps down Saudi claim it helped secure Brittney Griner's release, undermining Riyadh's efforts to be a global power player
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-09 | by ( Tom Porter | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

The US pushed back after Saudi Arabia and the UAE said they helped free Brittney Griner. The White House insisted that the only two parties to the prisoner swap were it and Russia. Saudi Arabia has repeatedly upset the US with attempts to take a bigger, independent global role. The Saudi Arabia and the UAE in a joint statement Thursday said that UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman had helped mediate the exchange. When asked about it at a White House press briefing, press secretary Karine Jean Pierre pushed back.

Griner arrived in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi by private plane from Moscow as Bout was flown in on a private plane from Washington. Bout, nicknamed the "merchant of death," embraced a Russian official who greeted him and smiled broadly as he was led away. A joint UAE-Saudi statement said the UAE president and Saudi crown prince led mediation efforts that secured Griner's release. Griner was exchanged for Bout, a onetime Russian weapons dealer who had been convicted in the United States and imprisoned for 10 years. During the prisoner swap, Griner was met on the tarmac in UAE by chief U.S. hostage negotiator Roger Carstens.

☆ U.A.E. President Visits Qatar in Sign of Regional Thaw
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( Rory Jones | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

DUBAI—United Arab Emirates President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan on Monday visited Qatar for the first time since launching a three-year boycott of its Gulf neighbor, a sign of thawing regional tensions as the FIFA World Cup is held there. spearheaded a yearslong effort economically and physically to isolate Qatar beginning in 2017 and ending last year. Sheikh Mohammed’s visit illustrates how the U.A.E. has pioneered a series of moves to mend ties across the region and chart a neutral foreign policy after mixed success intervening in regional conflicts.

☆ UAE president visits Qatar in sign of warming ties
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DOHA, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The United Arab Emirates (UAE) president arrived in Qatar on Monday on the first such visit since Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies ended a boycott of Doha nearly two years ago. Qatar is currently hosting soccer's World Cup,The visit "is another step towards strengthening Gulf solidarity and joint action," Anwar Gargash, diplomatic adviser to the UAE president, said on Twitter. Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt early last year ended a 3-1/2 year embargo of Qatar, but ties between Doha and Abu Dhabi have not warmed at the same pace as those with Riyadh and Cairo, which re-established diplomatic ties with Doha. UAE National Security Adviser Sheikh Tahnoon bin Zayed al-Nahyan visited Doha twice as part of Abu Dhabi's push to manage regional differences. Abu Dhabi, like Manama, has not appointed an envoy to Doha, but restored travel and trade links between the UAE and Qatar.

☆ Taliban acting defence minister holds talks with UAE president
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan meets with Afghanistan's Acting Defence Minister Mullah Mohammad Yaqoob at Al-Shati Palace in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates December 4, 2022. Ryan Carter/UAE Presidential Court/Handout via REUTERSKABUL, Dec 5 (Reuters) - The acting defence minister of the Afghan Taliban has met the president of the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nahyan, for talks in Abu Dhabi on strengthening relations, his ministry and UAE state media reported on Monday. The acting defence minister, Mullah Yaqoob, is the son of the late supreme leader of the Taliban, Mullah Omar, and the meeting with the UAE president is a rare encounter between a senior member of the group and a foreign head of state. The UAE news agency released photographs of the talks that showed another senior Taliban figure, Anas Haqqani, was present at the talks. The meeting with the UAE president comes after the Taliban, in September, signed a final contract for running Afghanistan's airports with the UAE company GAAC Holding, which had beat out rival bids from Qatar and Turkey.

This has led to two IHC subsidiaries rounding out the three biggest companies on the Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange (ADX). ITH was expected to turn over half a billion dirhams ($136 million) and have $1 billion in assets by the second quarter, Shueb said. Pure Health, under Alpha Dhabi, aims to raise more than $1 billion in a first-quarter IPO delayed from this year. Its merger with state-owned Abu Dhabi Health Services (SEHA), which Shueb said has almost 24,000 employees, is taking longer than expected, delaying the IPO. IHC, which completed four IPOs this year and plans a similar number in 2023, has yet to appoint banks for the Pure Health IPO, Shueb said, adding it is considering a possible 2023 IPO of International Energy Holding.

However the talks aim to remove remaining obstacles in the initiative extended last week and ease global food shortages by unblocking Ukrainian and Russian exports, they added. Putin said on Wednesday that Russian officials would work to unblock Russian fertilisers stuck in European ports and to resume ammonia exports. The export of Russian ammonia would be via an existing pipeline to the Black Sea. Neither Russia nor Ukraine have released official figures on how many prisoners of war they have taken since Russia invaded in February. On Oct. 29, Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskiy said that since March, Russia had freed a total of 1,031 prisoners.

☆ Key takeaways from the COP27 climate summit in Egypt
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

[1/4] Egyptian Foreign Minister and Egypt's COP27 President Sameh Shoukry attends an informal stocktaking session during the COP27 climate summit, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, November 18, 2022. REUTERS/Mohamed Abd El GhanySHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt, Nov 20 (Reuters) - This year's U.N. climate summit featured visits by world leaders, proposals by business leaders, and negotiations by nearly 200 nations about the future of global action on climate change. Natural gas chiefs were billing themselves as climate champions, despite gas companies having faced lawsuits in the United States over such claims. The leftist leader made the Egypt climate summit his first visit abroad since winning Brazil's presidential election last month against right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro, who presided over mounting destruction of the rainforest and refused to hold the 2019 climate summit originally planned for Brazil. U.S., CHINA RELATIONSHIP REKINDLEDA critical precursor for the climate talks' success happened far away from the Red Sea locale.

☆ Key takeaways from the COP27 climate summit
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-20 | by ( Megan Rowling | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

☆ Major Gulf markets mixed ahead of U.S. inflation data
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Nov 8 (Reuters) - Major stock markets in the Gulf were mixed in early trade on Tuesday as crude oil prices fell and caution prevailed ahead of the release of U.S. inflation data. Crude prices hit their highest since August on Monday amid speculation leaders in top crude importer China were weighing an exit from the country's strict COVID-19 restrictions. Chinese health authorities doused that speculation on Saturday, reaffirming the country's commitment to its strict zero-COVID policy. State developer Nakheel secured 17 billion dirhams ($4.63 billion) in financing from local banks for new projects, including Dubai Islands and other waterfront developments. read moreThe transaction comprises 11 billion dirhams in refinancing and additional funds of 6 billion dirhams through a syndicate of three local lenders.

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