|
{"source_url": "https://www.arabnews.com", "url": "https://www.arabnews.com/node/1606551/middle-east", "title": "Oman says Sultan Qaboos in \u2018stable condition\u2019", "top_image": "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/2019/12/31/1909151-1799709184.jpg", "meta_img": "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/2019/12/31/1909151-1799709184.jpg", "images": ["https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_100_59/public/main-image/2019/12/29/1905481-2116675302.jpg?itok=raAe2Uv3", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_100_59/public/main-image/2020/01/01/1909886-45039508.jpg?itok=vQWfliNw", "https://collector.effectivemeasure.net/noscript", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/2019/12/31/1909151-1799709184.jpg", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_100_59/public/main-image/2020/01/01/1909936-1623782287.png?itok=eEoFWEQe", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2019/12/31/1909156-1283801322.jpg?itok=srASw5IJ", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/all/themes/narabnews/assets/img/logo2-2.png", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_100_59/public/main-image/2019/12/31/1908281-333159860.png?itok=4UtGqgbO", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_670_395/public/main-image/2020/01/01/1909921-1799771354.png?itok=lK-OPIBC", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_100_59/public/main-image/2020/01/01/1909816-343319682.jpg?itok=TGmcsjjF", "https://mena-gmtdmp.mookie1.com/t/v2/learn?tagid=V2_605775&src.rand=[timestamp]", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_100_59/public/main-image/2020/01/01/1909921-1799771354.png?itok=6ofBnqcI", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_360_212/public/2015/03/23/5192096399114283.jpg?itok=9xOhc_Vy", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/all/themes/narabnews/assets/img/logo-mobile.png?ss", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_100_59/public/main-image/2020/01/01/1909956-1916990078.jpg?itok=08iW2Xv7", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_100_59/public/main-image/2019/12/29/1906661-1919113564.jpg?itok=_JzguBoz", "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/styles/n_360_212/public/2018/02/12/1099436-1285123572.jpg?itok=6VxWHd9_"], "movies": [], "text": "Look ahead: Twenty things to watch out for in 2020\n\nTwenty things to track at the start of the next decade in the Middle East and wider world.\n\n1\n\nThe global spotlight will fall on Saudi Arabia in 2020 as it assumes the presidency of the G20 ahead of the leaders\u2019 summit in Riyadh starting on Nov. 20. Under the theme \u201cRealizing Opportunities of the 21st Century for All,\u201d the Saudi presidency will focus on three aims: Empowering people by creating the conditions in which everyone \u2014 especially women and young people \u2014 can live, work and thrive; safeguarding the planet by fostering collective efforts on food and water security, climate, energy and the environment; and long-term strategies to share the benefits of innovation and technological advancement.\n\n2\n\nOn Feb. 29, an elite field of runners and riders will assemble at King Abdul Aziz Racetrack in Riyadh for the Saudi Cup which, with a purse of $20 million, is the world\u2019s most valuable horse race. Hailed by Prince Bandar bin Khalid Al-Faisal, chair of the Jockey Club of Saudi Arabia, as \u201cwithout doubt the most significant event in the history of horse racing in Saudi Arabia,\u201d the contest is the spectacular opening move in the Kingdom\u2019s bid to position itself as a leading player on the sport\u2019s global stage. The cup also marks another first in the Kingdom\u2019s race toward modernization \u2014 it is open to both male and female jockeys.\n\n3\n\nCould 2020 be the year that peace finally returns to Syria \u2014 or, in the wake of the US withdrawal and the surge into northern Syria by the Turks and Assad regime, will the territorial ambitions of Moscow and Ankara condemn the country\u2019s civilians to another year of despair? The signs are not good. The latest round of peace talks, held in Geneva in November, faltered after government and opposition negotiators failed even to agree an agenda for plans to draft a new constitution. President Recep Tayyip Erdogan\u2019s call for one million Syrian refugees in Turkey to be returned to the north of Syria could further destabilize a volatile situation.\n\n4\n\nOn March 17, Saudi Arabia will begin conducting the fifth general census in the nation\u2019s history, designed to gather information about its population \u2014 vital for government planning in areas including education, health, employment, housing and deverlopment. The first census, in 1974, recorded a population of just over 7 million. By the time of the fourth and most recent census, in 2010, the population had grown to more than 27 million.\n\n5\n\nOn Oct. 20, Dubai will formally come of age when millions of visitors begin flocking to the Gulf\u2019s most dynamic city for Expo 2020, the first to be held in the Arab world and without doubt the number-one highlight of the year for the UAE and wider region. Featuring live shows, mass-participation events, more than 200 opportunities to experience global cuisine and 190 countries showcasing the best they have to offer in a breathtaking range of pavilions, this six-month celebration of the best of human ingenuity, art and culture will cement Dubai\u2019s reputation for innovation and doubtless boost its role as a global destination.\n\n6\n\nFrom March 12 to 21, Jeddah Old Town will host the inaugural Red Sea Film Festival, a nine-day international celebration that promises to showcase \u201cthe world\u2019s best films, educational workshops, informative industry master classes, immersive art experiences, experimental projects and other cinematic events.\u201d The festival will feature a retrospective honoring the pioneering Egyptian film director, Khairy Beshara, who will attend public screenings of nine of his films, remastered and restored by the Red Sea Film Festival Foundation.\n\n7\n\nWill 2020 be the year that superfast fifth-generation 5G mobile Internet access changes your life? STC and Zain have already launched 5G services \u2014 which promise faster upload and download speeds \u2014 in Saudi Arabia, as have Etisalat and du in the UAE and Batelco in Bahrain. But 2020 is predicted to be the year that the prices of handsets, infrastructure and data will fall dramatically, not only bringing the benefits of superfast connectivity to phone users everywhere, but also facilitating and speeding the adoption of information-hungry autonomous vehicles.\n\n8\n\nIf you need an excuse to upgrade your mobile connectivity to 5G, look ahead to July 25, when athletes from the region and the world will converge on Japan for the Tokyo Olympics. The six GCC nations will be hoping to improve on the tally of one gold, two silver and one bronze medals that they brought back from Rio in 2016. If you want to make sure you don\u2019t miss them in action, keep a careful eye on the competition schedule at tokyo2020.org and be prepared for some early starts \u2014 some events are scheduled for 9 a.m. local time, 4 a.m. in the UAE.\n\n9\n\nFuturists predict that 2020 will be the year that artificial intelligence (AI) jumps the barrier from behind-the-scenes data manipulation to mainstream applications, revolutionizing media, entertainment, transport and more \u2014 but also potentially threatening millions of jobs as roles for which human beings were once essential go the way of automation.\n\n10\n\nVirgin Hyperloop One, the company behind the long-awaited rapid-transit system that the company claims will one day shrink the journey time from Dubai to Abu Dhabi to just 12 minutes, says it plans to break ground in 2020 on a Center of Excellence in King Abdullah Economic City that could propel Saudi Arabia to the forefront of hyperloop development worldwide. There are plans to build the world\u2019s first full-speed test track and a manufacturing plant, creating 124,000 high-tech jobs for the Kingdom, from which hyperloop parts would be exported to other markets. Actual travel by hyperloop, however, remains some way off \u2014 perhaps by 2029, says Virgin.\n\n11\n\nA dramatic opening ceremony and spectacular celebrations are planned for the long-delayed opening of the Grand Egyptian Museum, a hugely ambitious project on which work began in 2002 and which is finally scheduled to open its doors to the public at a yet-to-be-decided date in 2020. Barely 2 kilometers from the pyramids of Giza, this will be the world\u2019s largest archaeological museum. Bringing all the treasures of ancient Egypt under one roof as \u201ca gift from Egypt to the whole world,\u201d it is a bold attempt to put the country back on the world tourism trail and reinvigorate an economy damaged by years of political instability and terrorist violence.\n\n12\n\nWith Boris Johnson and the Conservative party back in power with a much improved majority, the UK is now certain to leave the EU on Jan. 31. The immediate ramifications of Brexit for overseas visitors and foreigners living in the UK remain unclear. What is clear, however, is that with Britain now not only free but also desperate to sign new trade agreements around the world in double-quick time, canny trading partners everywhere will be looking to exploit the London\u2019s isolation from the powerful European trading bloc.\n\n13\n\nIn July, Nasa\u2019s Mars 2020 mission blasts off from Cape Canaveral in Florida, opening a new chapter in the race to colonize the red planet. It will take the Mars 2020 Rover about seven months to make the journey to the Jezero Crater, where it will spend more than 680 Earth days (one Mars year) collecting samples and other intelligence vital for future human expeditions to the red planet. Rover will not be alone. Orbiting above will be the UAE\u2019s Emirates Mars Mission\u2019s Hope Probe, designed to answer key questions about the Martian atmosphere with future colonization in mind.\n\n14\n\nTeams from Oman, Bangladesh, Pakistan, India and Afghanistan will be in Australia for the 2020 ICC T20 Cricket World Cup, to be held in seven locations across the country from Perth to Brisbane. Regional teams are expected to do well \u2014 three of the six championships held since the World Cup was inaugurated in 2007 have been won by India (2007), Pakistan (2009) and Sri Lanka (2014).\n\n15\n\nIt is 40 years since the world managed to eradicate the curse of smallpox but in the past four decades every other disease targeted for elimination by the World Health Organization (WHO) has proved stubbornly resilient. That could all change in 2020, the deadline set by WHO and its supporting agencies for the eradication of polio, a crippling disease that remains endemic in just three countries \u2014 Afghanistan, Pakistan and Nigeria.\n\n16\n\nCOP26, to be held in Glasgow, Scotland next November, has been described as \u201cthe meeting to save human civilization.\u201d This is the climate-change summit at which nations will be expected to follow the commitments they made in Paris five years ago \u2014 already exposed as insufficient to prevent the target of 2 degrees of warming \u2014 with realistic, actionable plans. Inspiration to act may come from the 52nd session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in Paris in February, at which scientists will release their revised assessments of the globe\u2019s environmental state.\n\n17\n\nThe last three months of 2019 in Iraq were marred by increasingly bitter and deadly protests triggered by frustration with corruption, poor public services and Iranian influence, leaving 500 protesters dead and tens of thousands wounded, according to the UN. With warnings that the violence \u201crisks placing Iraq on a dangerous trajectory\u201d and no replacement in sight yet for Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, will 2020 see the crisis deepen \u2014 or protesters\u2019 calls for political overhaul met?\n\n18\n\nOut of the news cycle for now, the humanitarian crisis in the Middle East and North Africa continues. Across the region, says UNICEF, more than 70 million vulnerable people, including 32 million children, desperately need help, with harsh winters in store. To provide it, the UN is appealing to donor nations to pledge $10.4 million in 2020.\n\n19\n\nFrom Jan. 16 to Feb. 1, the UAE emirate of Sharjah will play host to the first international spin-off of Edinburgh\u2019s famous Fringe Festival to be held in the Middle East. Expect 17 days of theater, dance, circus and music featuring artists from around the world.\n\n20\n\nFew countries in the world will be unaffected by the outcome of the US presidential election on Nov. 3. President Trump is likely to survive impeachment proceedings brought by the Democrats \u2014 his trial in January will be held in the Republican-controlled senate, and the prosecution is unlikely to win the two thirds necessary to remove him from office. That could mean a second term and continuation of uncertainty over global trade wars, Trump\u2019s on-off relationship with North Korea and, if the US continues its retreat from the world stage, big questions about what will happen when Russia and China fill the vacuum across the MENA region.", "keywords": [], "meta_keywords": ["Jubail", "Al-Ahsa", "Al-Kharj", "Taif", "Qatif", "oil", "Dammam", "Abha", "Asir", "Yanbu", "islam", "jobs", "sports", "Khalij times", "gulf news", "saudi gazette", "Riyadh", "Tabuk", "Mecca", "Medina", "AlMadinah", "Jeddah", "Makkah", "Hail", "Mecca", "Makkah", "Eastern", "King Abdullah", "jobs in Saudi", "work in saudi arabia", "umrah", "Hajj\u060c\u0639\u0631\u0628 \u0646\u064a\u0648\u0632"], "tags": ["Who's Who", "The Place", "The Face"], "authors": ["Arab News", "Jonathan Gornall"], "publish_date": "Tue Dec 31 18:01:49 2019", "summary": "", "article_html": "", "meta_description": "JEDDAH: Sultan Qaboos who has ruled Oman for almost half a century is in stable condition after recently traveling to Belgium for a medical checkup, his royal court announced Tuesday. \u201cThe Royal Diwan Court wishes to inform the people that the Sultan Qaboos bin Said ... is following the prescribed medical treatment and that he is in a stable condition, thanks to God,\u201d the", "meta_lang": "en", "meta_favicon": "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/an-website-favicon-45-anniversary-rgb-blue-128x128_0.png", "meta_data": {"description": "JEDDAH: Sultan Qaboos who has ruled Oman for almost half a century is in stable condition after recently traveling to Belgium for a medical checkup, his royal court announced Tuesday. \u201cThe Royal Diwan Court wishes to inform the people that the Sultan Qaboos bin Said ... is following the prescribed medical treatment and that he is in a stable condition, thanks to God,\u201d the", "abstract": "Get the latest breaking news and headlines from the largest Arab News website. Get world news, sport news, business news, entertainment, lifestyle, video and photos.", "keywords": "Jubail,Al-Ahsa,Al-Kharj,Taif,Qatif,oil,Dammam,Abha,Asir,Yanbu,islam,jobs,sports,Khalij times,gulf news,saudi gazette,Riyadh,Tabuk,Mecca,Medina,AlMadinah,Jeddah,Makkah,Hail,Mecca,Makkah,Eastern,King Abdullah, jobs in Saudi,work in saudi arabia, umrah,Hajj\u060c\u0639\u0631\u0628 \u0646\u064a\u0648\u0632", "rights": "Arab News", "fb": {"app_id": 10250877124}, "og": {"site_name": "Arab News", "type": "article", "title": "Oman says Sultan Qaboos in \u2018stable condition\u2019", "url": "https://arab.news/jtbx2", "description": "JEDDAH: Sultan Qaboos who has ruled Oman for almost half a century is in stable condition after recently traveling to Belgium for a medical checkup, his royal court announced Tuesday. \u201cThe Royal Diwan Court wishes to inform the people that the Sultan Qaboos bin Said ... is following the prescribed medical treatment and that he is in a stable condition, thanks to God,\u201d the official ONA news agency cited the royal court as saying, without giving details.", "updated_time": "2019-12-31T18:22:22+03:00", "image": {"identifier": "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/2019/12/31/1909151-1799709184.jpg", "url": "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/2019/12/31/1909151-1799709184.jpg"}}, "twitter": {"card": "summary_large_image", "site": {"identifier": "@Arab_News", "id": 69172612}, "creator": {"identifier": "@Arab_News", "id": 69172612}, "title": "Oman says Sultan Qaboos in \u2018stable condition\u2019", "url": "https://arab.news/jtbx2", "description": "JEDDAH: Sultan Qaboos who has ruled Oman for almost half a century is in stable condition after recently traveling to Belgium for a medical checkup, his royal court announced Tuesday. \u201cThe Royal", "image": "https://www.arabnews.com/sites/default/files/2019/12/31/1909151-1799709184.jpg"}, "article": {"published_time": "2019-12-31T18:01:49+03:00", "modified_time": "2019-12-31T18:22:22+03:00"}, "viewport": "width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0"}, "canonical_link": "https://www.arabnews.com/node/1606551/middle-east"} |
