News RSS

Iran’s Araghchi says diplomacy can get back on track if US recognizes pressure does not work

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 06:17:14 +0300

Reuters- Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said putting diplomacy back on track was not impossible but hinged ‌on ‌the United ‌States ⁠understanding that pressure ⁠does not work.In a post on X, Araghchi ⁠said he had ‌held ‌what he ‌described as “creative discussions” ‌with Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister ‌Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al -Thani, adding ⁠that Washington should build trust, speak respectfully, acknowledge Iran’s rights and uphold its commitments.Iran war mediators have placed renewed emphasis on reopening the Strait of Hormuz, with Tehran agreeing to draw up a list of conditions to restore normal traffic after a Qatari emissary pressed the Iranians to respect freedom of navigation.With the US having disengaged from talks in favor of an economic pressure campaign, the prime minister of Qatar met senior Iranian leaders in Tehran on Thursday, stressing the importance of returning to the pre-war status of open shipping through an international waterway.Qatar, a US ally and Gulf neighbor of Iran, and Pakistan helped broker a memorandum of understanding in June that led to a ceasefire and set terms for shipping in the Strait of ‌Hormuz, the narrow stretch ‌between Iran and Oman that before the war was the conduit for 20 percent of ‌the ⁠world’s oil supply.After ⁠the US and Israel launched the war six months ago, Iran threatened to strike any vessel transiting the strait without its authorization, driving down traffic and sending up the price of oil, providing Iran with leverage in the bargain.In his mission to Tehran on Thursday, Al-Thani said on X that he underscored to senior Iranian officials “the importance of respecting freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz in accordance with international law.”Mohsen Rezaei, secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, later said Iran was preparing a list of ⁠conditions for reopening the strait after mediators asked Tehran to set them out.Speaking through an ‌interpreter in an Al Manar TV interview, Rezaei said Iran had ‌agreed with Oman on a shipping corridor through the strait, with parts of the route in Omani waters and parts in ‌Iranian waters. Ships would use a designated central channel if the US met Iran’s conditions, he said.In the ‌past Iran’s conditions have included an end to the US blockade on Iranian ports, compensation and removal of sanctions. It remained unclear whether Iran intended to amend those demands in a way that might be acceptable to the Americans.Tehran and Washington have exchanged little more than bellicose statements in recent weeks, leaving the diplomacy to third parties.So far Iran has insisted on returning to ‌the June memorandum of understanding that established a ceasefire within a 60-day window for negotiations. But that deal quickly fell apart over differing interpretations of Iran’s authority over ⁠shipping arrangements, and Trump declared ⁠the MOU was “over” three weeks after it was signed.Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that Iran and Oman had agreed in principle on administering traffic in the strait and sharing revenues, but a senior Iranian source later said the two countries were still working on the details of an agreement.Meanwhile, US military commanders say American forces have cleared sea mines from the strait that had been laid months ago by Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps.“Bottom line: today, international shipping lanes are open and momentum is building,” Admiral Brad Cooper, commander of the US military’s Central Command, said in a video message posted on social media.US forces have in recent months helped 1,500 commercial vessels carrying nearly 750 million barrels of crude oil to transit the strait, Cooper said.Trump has repeatedly said the strait was open, but many vessels have opted against sailing through it because of Iranian threats, and ship tracking services have estimated activity at roughly 5 percent to 15 percent of normal volumes.The UN’s International Maritime Organization has reported 70 incidents in the Strait of Hormuz since the start of the war that have killed 19 seafarers.

Royal Hashemite Court mourns passing of King Harald V, announces three days of mourning

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:34:10 +0300

Jordan Daily - The Royal Hashemite Court mourns the passing of King Harald V of Norway, may his soul rest in peace.By the command of His Majesty King Abdullah II ibn Al Hussein, the Royal Hashemite Court has announced three days of mourning over King Harald V’s passing, as of Friday, 28 August 2026.The Royal Hashemite Court expresses the deepest sympathies of His Majesty and the Jordanian people, as they stand with Norway and its people at this difficult time.

Crown Prince receives members of Al Hussein Fellowship programme alumni network

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 07:21:16 +0300

Jordan Daily - HRH Crown Prince Hussein on Thursday received members of the board of Al Hussein Fellowship’s alumni network, a Crown Prince Foundation (CPF) programme that trains young leaders.During a discussion with the alumni at Al Husseiniya Palace, the Crown Prince highlighted their role as programme ambassadors, challenging them to use the skills acquired through the programme to drive meaningful change in their careers and communities.His Royal Highness commended the alumni’s efforts, emphasising the importance of fostering a culture of collaboration, sharpening youth problem-solving skills, and harnessing technology in their daily lives.His Royal Highness listened to the attendees’ ideas for developing the programme, and insights from their work across the alumni network’s core areas, including specialised committees that focus on planning, objective-setting, partnership-building, coordination, and monitoring and evaluation.The network connects graduates of Al Hussein Fellowship programme with the aim of building leadership skills, cultivating a spirit of teamwork, driving community initiatives, and sustaining professional connections.Director of the Office of the Crown Prince Zaid Baqain, and Chairman of the CPF Board of Trustees Adey Salamin attended the meeting.

Qatar PM visits Tehran to pursue mediation efforts

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 06:34:53 +0300

Reuters -Qatar’s prime minister visited Tehran on Thursday in a bid to relaunch diplomacy after the US and Iran traded recriminations over Washington’s promise to increase economic pressure, a move one Iranian official described as “all-out economic war.”A Gulf neighbor of Iran and a US ally, Qatar has served as a back-channel negotiator for the warring parties and played a direct role in securing a June ceasefire that briefly led to a cessation of hostilities.Qatar’s Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, who is also his country’s foreign minister, met Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to Iran’s foreign ministry channel on Telegram.The visit comes as the war nears its sixth month with fighting largely paused but no diplomatic breakthrough in sight. Both sides are at odds over control of the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for global oil supplies that Tehran has used as leverage.A memorandum of understanding reached between the US and Iran in June to end the ‌conflict broke down in ‌part because of differences over the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman where one-fifth of the ‌world’s oil ⁠supplies passed before ⁠the war began on February 28.Qatar and Iran discussed a proposed phased framework that includes establishing a temporary joint Iranian-Omani shipping corridor through the strait and carrying out a joint project to clear mines from the waterway, Qatar’s foreign ministry said. The two officials also reviewed the latest developments in the region and efforts to de-escalate tensions and create conditions for dialogue, the ministry said.‘All-out economic war’Although the strikes have stopped, Washington is now piling on economic pressure by announcing plans to cut Iran off from its trading partners with increased sanctions. Iranian Parliament Speaker Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf on Thursday called for national unity in the face of what he described as “all-out economic war,” warning that internal division was “exactly what the enemy wants.”Ebrahim Azizi, ⁠the head of the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, said the sanctions were an “inhumane and hostile act” ‌which nonetheless had lost their effectiveness. Tehran has lived under various forms of US sanctions ‌since the Islamic revolution in 1979.Hormuz oil flows have fallen to a three-month low, with just 5 million barrels per day transiting on Monday, according ‌to the latest ship-tracking data. Before the war, the strait carried roughly 20 million barrels per day of crude oil.Conflicting accounts over Oman-Iran talksIran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Wednesday that Iran and Oman had agreed on how to share the waterway and its revenues, but a senior Iranian source later said the two countries were still working on the details of an agreement.Despite an aerial bombardment earlier in the war that severely diminished Iran’s conventional forces, Tehran ‌has maintained enough missile and drone capability to attack Gulf neighbors that house US military bases and disrupt oil tankers in the strait.The International Maritime Organization has reported 70 incidents in the Strait of ⁠Hormuz since February 28 that ⁠have killed 19 seafarers.Thousands of others have died, mostly in Iran and Lebanon, since the US and Israel attacked Iran with the stated goals of denying Iran a nuclear weapon, helping Iranians topple their government, and destroying Tehran’s missile program.An unidentified projectile hit a tanker in the strait on Tuesday to set off a fire that was later doused, but all crew were safe and accounted for, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency said.The Strait of Hormuz was open to free navigation before the war, but Iran has since clung to its control of the waterway as leverage and a revenue source, seeking to charge ships a commission, which the US has opposed.“An agreement with Oman over the Strait of Hormuz has not been finalized,” the senior Iranian source told Reuters on Wednesday, adding that talks on its details were continuing.That seemed to contradict a statement by Brig. Gen. Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesperson for the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, who said Iran and Oman had “reached results that are acceptable to both sides” on controlling the strait and its revenues.Mohebbi said the strait would remain shut unless the US met Tehran’s conditions under the interim ceasefire that the two sides signed in June before it unraveled. Those conditions include an end to the US blockade on Iranian ports, compensation and removal of sanctions.

Ad-Dulayl Industrial Park & Development Zone: Three decades of industrial investment and supporting Jordanian exports

Fri, 28 Aug 2026 06:57:57 +0300

Jordan Daily - For more than three decades, Ad-Dulayl Industrial Park & Real Estate Company- Ad-Dulayl Development Zone (IDMC) has contributed to Jordan’s industrial growth by attracting local and foreign investment, supporting exports, creating employment opportunities, and strengthening the competitiveness of Jordanian industry.IDMC develops and manages the industrial park and development zone, providing serviced industrial land, infrastructure, facilities, investor services, and ongoing support. The area also operates as both a Development Zone and a Qualified Industrial Zone (QIZ), providing a strong platform for export-oriented industries.Economic Impact in NumbersIDMC’s development zones cover approximately 1.44 million square meters and host more than 38 investments and 15 industrial companies.Total investment has reached approximately JOD 250 million (over USD 350 million), while exports from the zone reached approximately JOD 506 million (over USD 710 million) in 2025. Investments within the zone also support around 25,000 jobs.Jordanians account for approximately 32% of the workforce, while women represent around 74% of employees, reflecting the zone’s significant economic and social impact.Attracting Industrial InvestmentIDMC’s role extends beyond land development and facility management. The company actively works to promote Jordan as a destination for industrial investment and attract new manufacturers and investors through engagement with investors, business and trade organizations, embassies, and investment promotion institutions. IDMC operates under the umbrella of Jordan’s Ministry of Investment.Ad-Dulayl Industrial Park & Development Zone provides an integrated industrial environment that supports investors through establishment, operation, and expansion. Its strategic location, approximately 30 km from Amman, provides connectivity to major road networks, the airport, border crossings, and the Port of Aqaba.Entering a New Phase of ExpansionIDMC is now entering a new phase of growth. Area 3, covering approximately 386,852 square meters, represents a major expansion opportunity for new industrial, logistics, and service-sector investments.Since the company’s establishment in 1995, Ad-Dulayl Industrial Park & Development Zone has built a growing industrial community that contributes to production, exports, employment, and investment attraction in Jordan.Today, after 31 years of industrial development, IDMC continues to attract quality investments and strengthen Ad-Dulayl Development Zone’s position as a gateway for industrial investors seeking to establish or expand their operations in Jordan and access regional and international markets.Ad-Dulayl Industrial Park & Development Zone - 31 Years of Industrial Development. The Journey Continues.
https://addulayl.com

Trump says he believes that Iranian leader Khamenei still alive

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 05:16:52 +0300

AFP- US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he believes Iran’s supreme leader, who has not been seen in public since taking over after his father’s killing in February, remains alive.“I don’t think he’s dead. He was very seriously wounded. The left side of his body, the arm, the leg, the whole thing. He was very seriously wounded. But I don’t think he’s dead,” Trump said in an interview with conservative radio host Glenn Beck.Officially, Khamenei continues to lead his country under US and Israeli attack. However, his public absence and the rise to power of veteran Revolutionary Guards figures has fueled speculation that he is either dead or not fully in command.His father was killed in bombing at the start of the US-Israeli assault.Trump — who has already declared victory over Iran on multiple occasions but remains unable to force the opening of the Hormuz sea route or force Iran to surrender its nuclear materials — said again that military and economic pressure was working.“Those things are going toward a very big victory,” he said. “We’re going to have a big victory here very soon.”Trump also insisted that the Strait of Hormuz, where Iran’s military has disrupted and to a large extent blocked shipping, is in fact fully open.“You could really say, you know, because the Strait is open. We take a lot of ships through the Strait now. We’re taking them in. The mines are gone,” he said.“We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s what it’s all about. That’s 99.9 percent. We cannot let them because they are crazy and they will use it,” he said, before adding that he had already “stopped it twice.”

The Middle East straits policy

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 13:13:40 +0300

By: Faris Al Hadidi Economist and bankerJordan Daily - For decades, the strategic importance of the Middle East’s waterways has been discussed mainly in geopolitical and military terms. The Strait of Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb and the Suez Canal have traditionally been viewed as security corridors whose protection was essential to the movement of oil, gas and international trade.But the events of recent years have exposed a more fundamental reality: these waterways are not simply geopolitical assets. They are economic infrastructure.When a ship changes its route because of security concerns, the consequences do not remain at sea. They appear in oil prices, freight rates, insurance premiums, food prices, inflation, tourism, fiscal revenues, foreign-exchange requirements and ultimately household purchasing power.According to this fact, we need to think about its straits differently. Maritime chokepoints should no longer be treated only as security issues. They should become part of economic policy, supply-chain policy and national resilience strategies.The Strait of Hormuz shows the scale of the challenge. In the first half of 2025, around 20.9 million barrels per day of oil moved through the strait, equivalent to roughly one-fifth of global petroleum liquids consumption and about one-quarter of global seaborne oil trade. Around one-fifth of global LNG trade also passed through Hormuz in 2024, much of it originating from Qatar and destined for Asian markets.This makes Hormuz more than a narrow waterway between Iran and Oman. It is one of the arteries of the global economy.The economic weakness does not stop at Hormuz. Further west, Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea with the Gulf of Aden and provides the maritime gateway to the Suez Canal. When shipping through Bab el-Mandeb becomes risky, vessels travelling between Asia and Europe can be forced to travel around the Cape of Good Hope.That decision can add days to a journey, increase fuel consumption, raise insurance and financing costs, and reduce the effective capacity of the global shipping fleet.The numbers show how quickly geography can become economics. UN Trade and Development reported that by May 2025, tonnage passing through the Suez Canal remained around 70% below 2023 levels. At the same time, global shipping distances had increased substantially as vessels were rerouted around disrupted corridors.For Egypt, this is directly reflected in the revenues of the Suez Canal. For Gulf exporters, it affects the cost and reliability of energy shipments. For European manufacturers, it affects delivery times and inventories. For Asian economies, it affects access to energy. And for countries such as Jordan, the consequences can appear through a less visible channel: the cost of imports.This is why the Middle East should begin thinking about what might be called a “Straits Policy”.Such a policy would not mean controlling or politicizing international waterways. Rather, it would mean recognizing that dependence on a limited number of maritime corridors creates an economic vulnerability that governments and businesses must actively manage.Energy exporters have already begun building alternatives to Hormuz. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, for example, have pipeline infrastructure that can bypass part of the strait. EIA estimates that the Saudi East-West pipeline and the UAE’s Abu Dhabi pipeline together provide around 4.7 million barrels per day of potential bypass capacity, but diversification should go beyond pipelines.Ports, railways, roads, storage facilities, logistics zones and cross-border infrastructure can create alternative corridors when maritime routes become unreliable. This is particularly important for the GCC countries, which have the financial resources to invest in multimodal transport networks linking the Arabian Gulf to the Red Sea and the Mediterranean.The traditional economic approach has focused on efficiency: minimize inventories, reduce transportation costs and rely on global supply chains. But the recent disruptions have demonstrated the limits of that model, the cheapest supply chain is not necessarily the safest supply chain.Governments and large corporations may therefore need to reconsider strategic stocks of energy, food, industrial inputs and other essential goods. The objective is not to eliminate market efficiency, but to create a buffer against temporary disruptions.A disruption to maritime trade can generate a simultaneous increase in freight costs, commodity prices and foreign-exchange requirements. For countries that import energy and food, this can create pressure on both inflation and the current account.A severe shipping shock should be treated in much the same way as other macroeconomic shocks. What happens to inflation if freight costs double? What happens to the current account if the price of oil rises sharply? How much additional foreign currency would importers require? What happens to tourism if regional air and maritime connectivity deteriorates?The IMF has warned that disruptions to transport corridors can continue to affect economic growth even after the immediate conflict has ended. Shipping disruptions raise transportation costs, weaken supply chains and negatively affect economies that are highly dependent on imports or tourism.Jordan does not control any of the major regional maritime chokepoints, but its economy is connected to all of them through trade, energy, logistics and tourism.Jordan’s economic resilience depends partly on developments outside its borders. Any prolonged disruption in the Gulf or Red Sea can affect the price and availability of imported energy and commodities, shipping costs and the competitiveness of Jordanian exporters.This creates an opportunity for Jordan to strengthen its position not simply as a consumer of regional logistics services, but as a potential land bridge.The development of Aqaba, combined with road and rail connectivity toward neighboring markets, could give Jordan greater strategic importance in a region searching for alternative routes. The objective should not be to replace the Suez Canal or compete directly with major Gulf logistics hubs. Rather, Jordan could position itself as one component of a more diversified regional supply-chain network.The globalization was built around the assumption that goods would move through the most efficient route at the lowest possible cost. The new environment is different. Security risks, geopolitical fragmentation, climate events and strategic competition are making resilience almost as important as efficiency.The Middle East has traditionally viewed its geography as a source of strategic power. The next step is to transform that geography into economic resilience.Hormuz, Bab el-Mandeb and Suez should not be considered three separate problems. They are parts of one interconnected economic system stretching from the Gulf to the Red Sea and onward to Europe and Asia.The region cannot eliminate geopolitical risk. Nor can it guarantee that every maritime corridor will remain open under every circumstance.That requires alternative infrastructure, diversified supply chains, strategic inventories, stronger regional cooperation and financial stress-testing. It also requires governments and businesses to recognize that the security of trade routes is now an economic variable in its own right.The Middle East has spent decades benefiting from its location at the centre of global energy and trade flows.The challenge for the coming decade is to make that location an economic strength rather than an economic vulnerability.The future of Middle Eastern economic policy may therefore depend not only on what happens inside the region’s economies, but also on what happens in the narrow waterways through which the global economy reaches them.

Head of Kurdish forces in Syria announces their dissolution after merging with army

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 07:06:58 +0300

AFP- The leader of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces, the Washington-backed group at the forefront of the battle against Daesh, announced their dissolution on Tuesday under a deal with the government.

After being Syria’s most highly-trained and organized paramilitary force for years, Washington promptly dropped the SDF in favor of the new US-friendly authorities in Damascus after the ousting of longtime ruler Bashar Assad in late 2024.

The forces’ leader, Mazloum Abdi, declared their dissolution in a televised speech at the presidential palace in Damascus.

“We announce today the end of the mission of the Syrian Democratic Forces and declare, with full responsibility, their dissolution as an independent military force,” he said.

Abdi explained that the announcement followed “the completion of the process of integrating our forces into the brigades of the Syrian army.”

The SDF was formed in 2015 at the instigation of the United States, which was impressed by the Kurdish fighters who had defeated Daesh in Kobani in the north and was seeking a reliable partner in the ongoing battle against the jihadists.

The group went on to spearhead the battle against Daesh, which was defeated territorially in Syria four years later.‘Circumstances have changed’“Since the creation of the SDF, its fighters have shouldered a heavy responsibility during one of the most difficult periods” for Syria, Abdi said in his address.

“They liberated many Syrian cities and towns, first from the Baathist regime, then from the terrorism of Daesh,” he continued, using the Arabic acronym for IS.

“The circumstances have changed today and the country has entered a new phase characterised by peace and participation.”

The SDF amassed around 100,000 fighters at its peak, both Kurds and Arabs, and controlled swathes of Syria’s oil-rich north and northeast.

But following January clashes that saw the Kurds lose large chunks of territory to government troops, the two sides signed a deal to integrate Kurdish military and civilian institutions into the state.

During the violence, Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa signed a decree enshrining the Kurds’ national rights and recognizing Kurdish as a national language, an unprecedented step since Syria’s independence in 1946.Win for SharaaArabs within the SDF’s ranks also defected en masse after Sharaa’s army took control of two previously Kurdish-held provinces, Raqqa and Deir Ezzor, leaving them at half their strength, according to Syria specialist Fabrice Balanche.

The Kurdish force faced repeated Turkish invasions between 2016 and 2019, with Ankara saying it wanted to push the fighters away from its border.

Turkiye has long viewed the SDF as linked to the militant Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which waged a decades-long insurgency in the country.

The January agreement, under which Kurdish fighters would be integrated into state structures, stipulates that the SDF commit to expelling all non-Syrian PKK leaders and members from the country.

The SDF’s integration into the state is a major victory for Sharaa, who has been trying to cement control over all of Syria since Assad’s fall.

However, the deal represented the last nail in the coffin for the Kurds’ long-held dream of autonomy.

Last week Abdi announced that the integration of the Kurdish administration with the Syrian state was complete, adding at the time: “Our struggle will continue, to cement our people’s rights in the constitution.”

Malaysian Embassy in Amman marks Prophet Muhammad’s Birthday

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:03:58 +0300

Jordan Daily - The Malaysian Embassy in Amman held an event on Monday to mark the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, attended by Malaysia’s Ambassador Dato’ Mohamad Nasri Abdul Rahman, his wife, embassy staff and their families, as well as Malaysian students studying in Jordan.In remarks at the event, Nasri welcomed attendees and stressed the importance of following the Prophet’s teachings of compassion, mutual respect, tolerance and integrity, particularly among students during their studies in Jordan.The programme included Islamic nasheeds and a discussion on love for the Prophet and adherence to his teachings.The event concluded with the ambassador presenting certificates of recognition to students who took part in the programme.

The new era of risk needs a new era of regulation: What Jordan can learn from China

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 13:03:19 +0300

By: Dr. Ahmad “Jordan” Al-Zu’BiJordan Daily - His Majesty King Abdullah II’s state visit to China has created unusual momentum around investment, technology and strategic cooperation. China has described the visit as an opportunity to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation and take the strategic partnership to a new level. Jordan should use that momentum for something less visible but potentially just as consequential: regulatory learning. The risks entering modern economies are more complex, interconnected and faster-moving than the regulatory systems originally designed to govern them. Climate risk now interacts with agriculture, infrastructure and public finance; artificial intelligence with underwriting, claims, privacy and liability; electric and autonomous vehicles with batteries, software, repairability and product liability; longevity with healthcare, pensions and social-security obligations. This is the New Era of Risk. The challenge is no longer simply whether regulators have enough rules. It is whether they have enough knowledge, data and institutional flexibility to understand risk before the risk itself changes.Economic Modernization Without Regulatory Modernization Is Incomplete.The economics of insurance regulation begin with a dual public-policy mandate. Regulators must protect policyholders and market integrity while preserving financially sound insurers capable of underwriting risk, innovating and paying claims. Too little oversight undermines trust; too much or poorly designed oversight can suppress competition, distort prices and discourage innovation. Good regulation therefore cannot simply be stricter. It must be modern, flexible, resilient and data-driven, changing as information, technology and risk change.China offers Jordan an unusually valuable laboratory. Its National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) increasingly differentiates supervisory intensity according to risk, while its approaches to motor insurance, agricultural insurance and artificial intelligence rely on risk classification, experience data and continuing recalibration. The underlying economic principle matters more than any individual Chinese rule: regulatory resources should follow risk. Institutions, technologies and insurance products that create different expected harms should not automatically receive identical supervisory treatment.Innovation And Policyholder Protection Must Move Together.China’s June 2026 framework for artificial intelligence in banking and insurance shows what this balance can look like. NFRA requires institutions to classify AI applications according to risk, govern models across their life cycle, control data and cybersecurity risk, monitor performance and remain responsible for their deployment. The philosophy is neither technological laissez-faire nor regulatory paralysis.Jordan should adopt the same economic logic. A chatbot, fraud-detection algorithm and model determining underwriting eligibility or claims outcomes do not create equivalent potential harm. High-impact applications require stronger model validation, fairness testing, explainability, human review and testing for proxy discrimination, because an algorithm can omit a protected characteristic while reproducing its effects through correlated variables.That requires regulatory talent as much as regulatory authority. Modern insurance supervision cannot be staffed only by lawyers and compliance specialists; it needs the brains and technical muscle of trained insurance economists, actuaries and data scientists. These specialists understand selection, incentives, risk classification, model validation and the economic consequences of intervention. AI regulation is partly legal, but fundamentally it is also an insurance and risk-economics problem.Beijing provides a useful metaphor. A remarkable share of daily life runs through QR codes, integrated payments and super-apps. Beijing shows what happens when data, payment and service become almost frictionless: markets reorganize around the information infrastructure underneath them. Insurance is moving in the same direction, and regulation must understand not only the product, but the data and algorithms underneath it.Fairness Does Not Mean Sameness.Insurance economics starts with risk classification: heterogeneous risks generate heterogeneous expected losses. A policyholder with higher expected claim frequency or severity should, all else equal, pay more than a lower-risk policyholder. An insurance premium should therefore be actuarially sound and aligned with the underlying risk profile.Jordan’s compulsory motor tariff recognizes risk differences, but only coarsely. Current Central Bank of Jordan instructions establish administratively determined premiums, including a 15% discount where no traffic violation is recorded and a JD12 surcharge once for qualifying passenger vehicles where one or more violations occur. A driver with one violation and another with several can therefore face the same surcharge, while mileage, claims history, severity, nighttime exposure, route risk and actual driving behavior remain largely outside the tariff.This is rate compression, and excessive rate compression is a clear violation of risk-based pricing.Its distributional consequence is cross-subsidization. When prices cannot reflect heterogeneous expected costs, lower-risk policyholders can pay more relative to their risk while higher-risk policyholders pay less. In economic terms, the safer driver finances part of the loss cost of the riskier driver.Jordan can do better without abandoning accessibility or regulatory oversight. Risk profiles can incorporate claims history, violations, mileage, vehicle characteristics and validated behavioral variables; where several individuals regularly drive a vehicle, their risk profiles can be incorporated rather than treating the vehicle itself as the complete exposure.China has moved commercial motor insurance toward greater risk differentiation, recalibrating pure-risk premiums, widening insurer pricing discretion, using longer claims histories and encouraging mileage-based UBI. Chinese InsurTech systems are also incorporating speeding, hard braking, nighttime driving, sharp cornering and other behavioral indicators into dynamic risk assessment.The Regulator’s Job Is Not To Price Insurance.The regulator should not become the market’s actuary. Insurers should underwrite and price risk because portfolios, loss experience, expenses, claims management and capital differ across companies; a market-wide actuarial average cannot fully substitute for company-level risk information.Jordan’s compulsory system adds another distortion through the Unified Office’s rotation mechanism, under which compulsory policies issued through licensing offices are distributed among insurers according to turn rather than ordinary competition for individual risks. That may solve administrative problems, but it weakens the connection between risk selection, underwriting, pricing and competition.Compulsory third-party liability insurance can remain strongly regulated without having its price administratively set. Insurers can develop actuarially sound rates while the regulator reviews their adequacy and legality. If strict oversight is desired, Jordan can use prior approval, requiring each insurer to file its rates and receive approval before using them.The central distinction is simple and important: regulating insurance prices is not the same as setting insurance prices.My Data Don’t Lie, Just Like Shakira’s Hips.The line is playful; the economics are not.Without credible data, a regulator cannot know whether a price differential reflects risk or unfair discrimination, whether claim severity is accelerating, whether an AI model has deteriorated, whether catastrophe exposure is accumulating, or whether an apparently affordable tariff is producing hidden cross-subsidization. Modern insurance regulation therefore begins with an uncomfortable discipline: test the regulatory story against the loss data, the behavioral response and the spillover effects.China’s agricultural-insurance rules demonstrate this clearly. Rates must satisfy non-life actuarial principles, incorporate pure-risk loss costs, reflect the underlying exposure and operating costs, undergo premium-adequacy testing and be corrected when assumptions diverge from actual experience.The Economics Of Political Jokes.Not every early-warning signal appears first in a supervisory dashboard. When a reform or public institution repeatedly becomes the subject of jokes and satire, I would treat that as a soft risk indicator: not evidence that the policy is wrong, but evidence that trust, understanding or perceived fairness may be deteriorating. Regulators should not regulate by joke count; they should ask what the jokes reveal about distributional effects, communication failures and institutional trust. I call this the economics of political jokes, a subject deserving a separate discussion.Price Agricultural Risk Before Government Subsidizes It.Government may legitimately subsidize farmers because food security, rural resilience and climate adaptation create benefits beyond the individual policyholder. But inclusion should be built around the risk price, not by destroying it. Measure the actuarially sound cost first; then decide transparently how much society wishes to subsidize and for whom.That is also the foundation of insurance inclusion. Financial inclusion asks whether people can access financial services; insurance inclusion asks whether farmers, low-income households, small businesses and vulnerable groups can access meaningful risk protection. Agricultural insurance can therefore become a laboratory for broader inclusive-insurance programs, including appropriately designed index and parametric insurance where conventional indemnity coverage is costly or difficult to administer.Climate Risk Cannot Be Regulated Using Yesterday’s Loss Distribution.Climate change makes historical averages increasingly dangerous if treated as immutable probabilities. China’s insurance industry has been investing in catastrophe science, including the PICC China Earthquake Model, released in November 2024. The catastrophe-modeling architecture itself is instructive: hazard, exposure and vulnerability are analyzed before being recombined into estimates of loss.Jordan does not need Chinese catastrophe parameters; it needs the Chinese discipline of investing in risk science. Jordanian catastrophe and agricultural models should reflect Jordanian water scarcity, climate, buildings, crops and geographic concentrations. AI can accelerate this work, but it cannot replace physics, engineering, meteorology or actuarial science. The next frontier is AI for science, not AI instead of science.Longevity Risk Is When Demography Enters The Balance Sheet.The same logic applies to Jordan’s Social Security Corporation. Living longer is good news for people; it can be expensive news for an institution promising lifetime benefits. As benefit duration increases and retirees grow relative to contributors, the familiar demographic pyramid narrows and long-duration liabilities place increasing pressure on contribution income and investment returns.Longevity risk is therefore not a complaint about ageing. It is an asset-liability-management problem. Social insurance is an institution built on intergenerational trust. If retirement ages, contribution rates, benefit formulas or investment strategies eventually require adjustment, contributors need to understand why, how their money is managed and how burdens are distributed across generations. Without transparency and trust, even actuarially necessary reform can become politically toxic.This is another area where China-Jordan cooperation could extend into pensions, health financing, actuarial modeling and long-duration risk.Every Regulation Has A Shadow Price.When the Central Bank of Jordan, its insurance supervisory function, or the Social Security Corporation considers a material reform, analysis should extend beyond legal authority. Policymakers should ask three questions: What are the economic implications? What are the public-policy implications? What are the spillover effects?A price restriction may improve affordability while changing selection and cross-subsidization. A claims reform may protect claimants while changing settlement and litigation behavior. An AI restriction may reduce one form of consumer harm while removing technologies that improve fraud detection or underwriting. Regulation changes behavior, and behavioral responses change the ultimate cost of regulation.This is why regulation should learn continuously, just as risk does. More observations generate better regulatory models; better models generate better interventions; interventions change behavior and create new data; the regulator recalibrates. Static regulation applied to dynamic risk eventually becomes misregulation.Jordan Should Import Knowledge, Not Rules.China and Jordan differ in scale, legal systems, institutions and culture. The opportunity is not to transplant Chinese rules, but to exchange and adapt knowledge: risk-sensitive supervision, AI governance, behavioral pricing, agricultural actuarial discipline, catastrophe science, data infrastructure and continuous regulatory evaluation.His Majesty’s visit should therefore lead to a China-Jordan Insurance and Regulatory Risk Dialogue between the Central Bank of Jordan and China’s NFRA, supported by the Insurance Association of China, insurers, reinsurers, universities, technology companies and Jordan’s Social Security Corporation. Three initial workstreams could make it operational: risk-based motor pricing, telematics and modern underwriting; AI, agriculture, catastrophe and longevity-risk governance; and a Risk and Insurance Literacy Initiative combined with insurance inclusion.Risk literacy is especially important because policymakers cannot regulate a risk they do not conceptually understand. Senior officials should understand the difference between reducing and transferring risk, affordability and actuarial soundness, deliberate redistribution and accidental cross-subsidization, and a regulation’s intended effect and its equilibrium effect.Jordan has the talent to build this capability, while China has accumulated extensive experience regulating one of the world’s largest and fastest-changing insurance markets. The opportunity is reciprocal: not simply Chinese capital entering Jordan, but Chinese and Jordanian institutions learning how to govern uncertainty together.In the New Era of Risk, the strongest regulator will not be the regulator that writes the most rules. It will be the regulator that understands risk faster than risk changes.That is the regulatory advantage Jordan should now build with China.

King holds talks with China president

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 07:22:33 +0300

Jordan Daily -His Majesty King Abdullah held talks with China President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday, during which they discussed opportunities to bolster the Strategic Partnership between Jordan and China, as well as recent regional and global developments.During the talks, attended by Their Royal Highnesses Prince Hashem and Princess Salma, His Majesty affirmed the deep-rooted ties between the two countries spanning almost 50 years, built on a foundation of shared values, mutual respect, and effective cooperation in the political, economic, and humanitarian spheres, according to a Royal Court statement.The King emphasised Jordan’s readiness to expand cooperation with China in numerous fields, noting that the stops on his visit, which included Beijing, Shanghai, and Shenzhen, resulted in productive discussions on opportunities to deepen economic cooperation in key sectors such as agriculture, pharmaceuticals, food and engineering industries, tourism, education, and culture.His Majesty added that the cooperation agreements and memoranda of understanding signed today between the two countries are a testament to their shared determination to continue building on their strong ties. The King also expressed Jordan’s deep respect for the model of development and economic growth exemplified by China, and for its leadership on the international stage.The talks also touched on regional developments, with His Majesty underscoring Jordan and China’s alignment on the importance of reaching comprehensive de-escalation and stability in the Middle East, in order to achieve peace and prosperity for all its peoples.For his part, President Xi said that over 49 years of diplomatic relations, China and Jordan have always respected each other, treated each other as equals, and pursued mutually beneficial cooperation. The Chinese president also noted that developing a China-Jordan relationship with even greater substance and vitality meets the joint aspirations of both of their peoples.He expressed China’s readiness to carry forward the two countries’ tradition of friendship, increase strategic mutual trust, deepen mutually beneficial cooperation, and intensify coordination, the statement said.President Xi also emphasised the importance of reaching a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue on the basis of the two-state solution, commending Jordan’s role in working to bring stability to the region, and expressing his country’s support for the Hashemite Custodianship over Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem.Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi, Director of the Office of His Majesty Alaa Batayneh, Minister of Industry, Trade, and Supply Yarub Qudah, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Saleh Kharabsheh, Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship Sami Smeirat, Jordan’s Ambassador to China Hussam Husseini, and China’s Ambassador to Jordan Guo Wei attended the talks.

Iran vows retaliation as US widens economic sanctions

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 07:15:26 +0300

AFP/ Reuters - Iran has promised to retaliate against expanded US economic sanctions, which Washington said would cut off Iran's economic lifeline.Tehran has expressed confidence that major trading partners will resist the US pressure campaign.US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent unveiled the measures yesterday but stopped short of severe sanctions, saying countries that continued trading with Iran risked being forced out of the dollar-based financial system."Around the globe, our objective is to sever every economic lifeline that sustains this tyrannical regime until Tehran stands alone," Mr Bessent told a press conference yesterday.Mr Bessent declined to identify the countries that would be targeted or reveal when those penalties would take effect, saying he would instead provide them time to comply with the new directive.The Treasury Department did announce new sanctions on 60 individuals, entities and vessels, but the list did not include any of the Chinese financial institutions suspected of facilitating Iran's oil trade.When asked if Chinese banks dealing with Iran could be targeted, Mr Bessent said "no one is above the reach of US sanctions".Before the announcement, Iran threatened both a possible military response and further reduction in oil exports from the Gulf in response to any US economic measures.Afterward, Iranian Economy Minister Ali Madanizadeh said, "we are fully prepared for the US sanctions"."Naturally, the enemies intend to launch an economic terrorist attack on us, but we also have our own tools and know-how to play the game. Our defense is no longer so defensive, the enemies should wait for an attack," Mr Madanizadeh added.He also said that neither ‌China nor Russia had "accepted" the US measures and predicted that other countries ⁠would resist them.Brigadier General Hossein Mohebbi, a spokesperson for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, vowed heavy blows to US vital interests and energy chokepoints if Iran's infrastructure is threatened, according to local news reports.Neither side has launched major strikes in weeks, with the war showing little sign of reaching a diplomatic solution.In the meantime, the US is seeking new ways to end Iranian attacks ‌on ships in the Gulf and more recently, via its allies, in the Red Sea.Despite the announcements yesterday, oil prices fell more than $2 (€1.71) per barrel ⁠yesterday, though investors ‌braced for the prospect of further supply disruptions from the Middle East.When questioned as to why he stopped short of imposing penalties on Iran and declined to identify the countries that would be targeted, Mr Bessent responded, "why would I want to blow up the global financial system"?He said he wanted to give countries and companies time to sever ties.Mr Bessent previously urged cooperation from China, the largest buyer of Iranian oil for several years, although the US blockade of Iran's ports, renewed in ⁠mid-July, has already cut Iranian oil flows to China.The Chinese Foreign Ministry said sanctions and pressure tactics do not help and Beijing would do what was necessary to protect China's interests.The comments come ahead of expected talks next month between President Trump and Chinese President ⁠Xi Jinping.

Canada pledges nearly C$80 million in aid during Secretary Sarai’s Lebanon, Jordan visit

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 21:10:24 +0300

Jordan Daily - Canada announced nearly C$80 million in international assistance for Lebanon and Jordan on Monday, as Secretary of State for International Development Randeep Sarai wrapped up a visit focused on humanitarian relief, refugee support and economic opportunities.Sarai met senior officials in both countries and visited communities affected by conflict and displacement, including Syrian refugees in Lebanon and refugees at Zaatari camp, Canadian Embassy said in a statement.The funding would address urgent humanitarian needs while supporting food security, human rights and inclusive economic growth.Randeep Sarai said “Throughout my trip, I’ve witnessed first-hand the challenges facing the region, as well as the resilience and determination of people navigating conflict, displacement and economic hardship. Canada remains committed to working with Lebanon and Jordan to support humanitarian needs, strengthen communities and advance lasting stability, security and opportunity.”In Lebanon, Sarai met President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and parliamentary speaker Nabih Berri to discuss humanitarian response and recovery, regional security, economic development and legislative reforms.He also visited the southern city of Tyre, where he met displaced families at a shelter supported by U.N. Women, and travelled to the Bekaa Valley to meet Syrian refugees.His itinerary included a visit to a women-owned dairy business supported by Canadian funding, as well as a facility providing psychosocial support and other services to people affected by conflict.At a Lebanese Red Cross emergency response centre, Sarai highlighted the risks faced by humanitarian workers and called for their protection and respect for international humanitarian law.In Jordan, , Secretary of State Sarai met with Zeina Toukan, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation; Ambassador Dhaifallah Ali Al-Fayez, Secretary General, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates; and His Royal Highness Prince Rashid bin El Hassan, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Jordan Hashemite Charity Organization.He also visited a childcare nursery supported through Canadian funding and a World Food Programme logistics warehouse handling aid shipments to Gaza and Lebanon.The warehouse visit underscored the need to open all crossings into Gaza and ensure humanitarian aid can be delivered rapidly and without obstruction, the statement noted.Sarai also met Palestinians evacuated from Gaza and their families receiving medical care in Jordan, and visited Zaatari, one of the world's largest camps for Syrian refugees.Canada said it had provided C$40.3 million in humanitarian assistance in 2026 for people affected by conflict and displacement in Lebanon. It has also committed more than C$14 million this year for Jordan’s refugee response and its response to the crisis in Palestine.

Cultural Night 2026 at Jerash University celebrates Malaysia’s rich cultural heritage and national identity

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 12:45:06 +0300

Jordan Daily - In conjunction with the upcoming 69th National Day of Malaysia on 31 August 2026, Education Malaysia Jordan, an agency operating under the purview of the Malaysian embassy, organised a vibrant Cultural Night 2026 at Jerash University, Jordan, that bringing together Malaysian students, members of the Malaysian community, representatives of the Embassy of Malaysia in Amman, and the university community to celebrate Malaysia’s rich cultural heritage, diversity and national identity. Organised as part of the National Day celebrations, the programme provided a meaningful platform for Malaysian students to showcase the nation’s unique multicultural identity and to share Malaysia’s diverse traditions, customs and heritage with the Jordanian community.The event was officiated by Mr. Mohd Irfan Zulkarnaian, Head of Chancery, Embassy of Malaysia in Amman, represents the Ambassador of Malaysia to Jordan, Dato’ Mohamad Nasri Abdul Rahman, who conveyed his warmest congratulations to all Malaysian students on the occasion of Malaysia’s National Day celebrations. In his speech, he emphasised the importance of preserving and demonstrating Malaysian identity wherever Malaysians are, particularly while studying abroad.He encouraged Malaysian students to continue representing Malaysia positively and to demonstrate the values, discipline, respect, courtesy and unity that characterise Malaysian society in all aspects of their daily lives. He also highlighted that cultural programmes such as this provide an excellent opportunity for students to become ambassadors of Malaysia and strengthen people-to-people relations between Malaysia and Jordan.Welcoming the Official Staff Embassy of Malaysia in Jordan and The Malaysian students to Jerash University, Prof. Dr. Mohammad Abu Shuqeir, Vice President of Jerash University and The President of MUAAJ, expressed his appreciation for the Embassy of Malaysia and the Malaysian students for choosing Jerash University as the venue for this year’s celebration of the 69th Independence Day.Prof. Dr. Abu Shuqeir emphasised the strong and longstanding relationship between Malaysia and Jordan, noting that bilateral relations continue to contribute to development and cooperation across various fields. He further expressed his hope that initiatives involving students and educational institutions would continue to strengthen mutual understanding and friendship between the two countries.The highlight of the evening was a series of Malaysian cultural performances presented by students representing different states across Malaysia. The performances showcased the remarkable diversity of Malaysian cultural traditions, including various forms of traditional poems, music, dance, attire and artistic expression.Through these performances, the students demonstrated that Malaysia’s diversity is a source of strength and national identity. The programme reflected the spirit of unity in diversity, while highlighting the values of discipline, mutual respect, tolerance and appreciation for people of different cultural backgrounds.The Cultural Night also provided Jordanian students and members of the university community with an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of Malaysia as a multicultural nation where people from different ethnic, cultural and religious backgrounds live together in harmony.The celebration further served as a form of cultural diplomacy, strengthening educational and people-to-people ties between Malaysia and Jordan while promoting Malaysia as a welcoming, diverse and culturally rich country.Education Malaysia Jordan (EMJ) extends its appreciation to Jerash University, the Embassy of Malaysia in Amman, the Malaysian students and all parties involved in making Cultural Night 2026 a successful and memorable celebration.The event concluded with a renewed sense of pride among Malaysian students in their national identity and heritage, as well as a shared commitment to strengthening the friendship between Malaysia and Jordan.

Al-Kindi Hospital dedicates Kuwait Operating Room to plastic, reconstructive surgery

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 12:15:26 +0300

Jordan Daily - Al-Kindi Hospital has dedicated its fifth operating room, known as the “Kuwait Operating Room”, to plastic and reconstructive surgery, offering procedures supported by specialized equipment and a team of consultants with medical and practical expertise, the hospital said.The room is equipped for a broad range of reconstructive procedures, including breast reconstruction, cleft-lip treatment, correction of congenital defects, burn and scar treatment, hand surgery and microsurgery. It also performs cosmetic procedures involving the face, nose and neck, as well as body contouring.The hospital said the operating room features advanced technologies including VASER, J-Plasma and PowerShape systems, along with specialized operating tables, modern vital-sign monitoring equipment and high-precision surgical instruments, microscopes and endoscopic equipment.Al-Kindi said its J-Plasma system is the first officially installed system of its kind in Jordanian hospitals and is used for skin tightening and treating loose skin and wrinkles in areas including the arms, abdomen, flanks, chest, breasts, buttocks, thighs, face, chin and neck. The hospital said it can be used particularly for patients who have lost substantial amounts of weight and developed excess skin.VASER technology uses ultrasound energy to assist in removing localized fat while preserving surrounding tissue, according to the hospital. It can be used in areas including the abdomen, thighs, arms, chest, knees, hips, waist, face, neck and legs, with the hospital citing reduced bruising and bleeding and faster recovery compared with conventional approaches.PowerShape is used following body-contouring procedures and is intended to help improve circulation, reduce swelling and support recovery.The hospital said the room follows international quality and infection-control standards and is supported by specialized anesthesia and intensive-care teams, with patients monitored before, during and after surgery and provided with round-the-clock inpatient care.Al-Kindi has 12 operating rooms named after Arab, international and Jordanian cities and regions, including Riyadh, Doha, Kuwait, Dubai, Petra, Wadi Rum, Jerash, Hamburg and London.The private hospital provides a range of medical services, including bariatric and plastic surgery, vascular surgery, fertility treatment, interventional radiology, cancer screening, organ transplantation, cardiac catheterization and open-heart surgery, gastrointestinal endoscopy and emergency care.

Toyota Gibraltar, RACJ & Markazia partner for road safety and fleet training

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 11:04:34 +0300

Jordan Daily - Toyota Gibraltar Stockholdings Ltd. (TGS), the Royal Automobile Club of Jordan (RACJ) and Markazia Toyota, part of Markazia Group, have partnered to support road safety, improve the skills of drivers and specialist personnel and expand local training and fleet management capacity in Jordan.The collaboration was underscored by the signing of an agreement between TGS and RACJ on 23 August 2026, which Markazia Toyota attended and supported as an RACJ member and sponsor. The agreement merges TGS’s international experience in training and fleet management, RACJ’s local expertise in road safety and training and Markazia Toyota’s dynamic role within Jordan’s automotive industry. Through this alliance, the three parties seek to foster lasting professional skills and promote safer road practices.According to the agreement, the TGS Fleet Services team will assist RACJ instructors through a train-the-trainer approach, transferring expertise and empowering local professionals to conduct training programs independently and sustainably. RACJ will apply these skills in its own training programs in Jordan, drawing on its experience and specialized training facilities, while Markazia Toyota supports local implementation.The training programs will cover drivers, trainers, supervisors, technicians and fleet managers, with an emphasis on raising professional standards across road safety, vehicle care and maintenance and fleet operations. The approach highlights the importance of investing in people and sharing knowledge in ways that produce tangible results that last beyond the program’s duration.Commenting on the partnership, TGS Road Safety Program Manager, Daniel Hardy, said, “We believe the most sustainable investment any organization can make is in its people. Our partnership with RACJ, and with the support of Markazia Toyota, is an opportunity to build capability and prepare local professionals who can pass that knowledge on and raise road safety standards over the long term. By empowering local specialists to become trainers and champions of road safety, we help create lasting impact long after the initial program has concluded."For his part, RACJ President , Walid Saleh Zaki, added, “The agreement represents an important milestone in RACJ’s journey to strengthen its role as a distinguished regional center for road safety training. By working closely with TGS and Markazia Toyota, we seek to improve the capabilities of Jordanian trainers and qualify them to the highest international standards, thereby positively impacting the quality of training services offered in Jordan and the region."Nadim Haddad, Markazia Group CEO, added, “We see this collaboration as a model for how international and local expertise can converge around a shared objective targeting safer roads and better professional skills. We’re happy to be part of an initiative that brings TGS and RACJ together, and to support efforts to establish lasting local expertise and safer driving practices in Jordan.”The partnership helps embed specialist knowledge and expertise locally and improves the skills of those working in road safety and fleet management, extending the impact of the training programs and supporting safer practices in driving and vehicle operation. It also aligns with wider efforts to raise road safety standards and reduce traffic accidents and injuries across the Kingdom.

Israeli, Syrian officials meet after airbase strike: Axios

Mon, 24 Aug 2026 06:24:02 +0300

Arab News- Senior Israeli and Syrian officials met Sunday in an effort to ease tensions after an Israeli strike on a Syrian airbase, Axios reported, citing three sources familiar with the matter.The meeting between Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shaibani and Mossad Director Roman Gofman came days after Israel bombed Abu Al-Duhur airbase in Idlib Governorate, northern Syria, escalating already fraught relations between the two countries.On Tuesday, Israeli warplanes dropped at least eight bombs on runways and hangars at the base, about 72 km from the Turkish border.Israel said the strike was intended to prevent a Turkish military buildup, citing intelligence that Turkiye planned to deploy drones and a radar system there. It also warned that it could take military action unless preparations for the deployment stopped.In talks involving Israel, Syria and the US before the attack, Syrian officials denied that Damascus intended to permit a Turkish military presence at the base, according to Axios.Israel nevertheless carried out what it described as a “warning shot.”In recent days, US envoy Tom Barrack and other senior administration officials have urged Israel, Syria and Turkiye to resume dialogue.Axios noted that the Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment on Sunday’s meeting, and that a spokesperson for Al-Shaibani did not immediately respond to a request for comment.However, Al-Shaibani told Axios on Wednesday that Syria had “no intention to establish a Turkish base” at Abu Al-Duhur or allow a permanent Turkish military presence there.He said Turkish officers had visited the base days before the Israeli strike as part of ongoing cooperation involving training and exchanges of expertise.He said Damascus conveyed that explanation to Israel before the attack, but that Israel proceeded anyway.Syria remains open to negotiations aimed at de-escalation and a new security agreement with Israel, Al-Shaibani said. But he added the responsibility could not rest with Damascus alone.“Israel must also reassess its policy towards Syria and recognize that continued military operations and attacks will not deliver long-term security, but will instead increase instability,” he said.In an interview with Reuters on Saturday, Al-Shaibani said he expected talks with Israel to resume soon over a proposed security arrangement that Syria hopes would lead to Israel’s withdrawal from Syrian territory. He called on Israel to seize what he described as a “historic opportunity” for diplomacy.He said the talks had been suspended since the start of the Iran war in late February, and that direct contacts were cut off after the Abu Al-Duhur strike. Syria’s priority, he said, is to stop Israeli attacks, with confidence-building measures needed before diplomacy can advance.The reported Sunday meeting also followed another Israeli strike Saturday in southwestern Syria. Syrian state television reported that an Israeli drone hit a civilian vehicle near Beit Jinn, in the Rif Dimashq governorate, wounding several people.Syria’s Foreign Ministry condemned the attack, saying it targeted a civilian vehicle.Israel’s military confirmed it carried out a strike, saying it targeted a militant whose planned attacks posed an immediate threat to Israeli forces.Israel has carried out hundreds of strikes in Syria since the December 2024 overthrow of former President Bashar Assad. It has also moved troops into a UN-supervised buffer zone in the Golan Heights that had long separated Israeli and Syrian forces.Washington has sought for more than a year to broker a security agreement between Israel and the government of Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa. Those efforts have repeatedly stalled amid Israeli military operations in Syria and disagreements over Israel’s continued presence on Syrian territory.Barrack, who serves as US special envoy for Syria and Iraq and as ambassador to Turkiye, called the Abu Al-Duhur strike an “unnecessary escalation.” On Friday, he said the attack may have been intended to provoke a confrontation with Turkiye ahead of Israel’s upcoming general election.

Jordanians, including children, allegedly exploited for begging in Malaysia

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 06:49:07 +0300

Jordan Daily - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Expatriates is assisting several Jordanians, including children, allegedly exploited for begging by a group under investigation in Malaysia on human trafficking charges, the ministry said on Saturday.The ministry, through the Jordanian embassy in Kuala Lumpur, is coordinating with Malaysian authorities to assist the victims and facilitate their return to Jordan.Spokesperson Fouad Majali said some suspects were relatives of the victims. Adult suspects will be referred to Jordanian courts upon their return and could face charges under the country’s human trafficking law.

Royal Jordanian, Air China sign MoU to boost connectivity

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 06:19:32 +0300

Jordan Daily - Royal Jordanian and Air China have signed a memorandum of understanding to strengthen cooperation, expand air connectivity between Jordan and China and explore new routes, Royal Jordanian said on Saturday.The agreement includes potential codeshare and interline arrangements, as well as cooperation in training, cargo, ground handling and in-flight catering.The carriers will also work to support planned direct services between Amman and Beijing, using their respective hubs to offer passengers more connections.The MoU was signed during King Abdullah’s visit to China and is aimed at supporting tourism, trade and business ties between the two countries.

Iranian official urges Qatar to move detained pilots to hospital on land, Tasnim says

Sun, 23 Aug 2026 06:14:12 +0300

Reuters - An Iranian military official called on Qatar on Saturday to transfer detained Iranian pilots to a hospital on land, saying they were ‌being held ‌on water ‌and ⁠were in “poor physical condition,” ⁠Tasnim news agency reported.Mohammad Baqerzadeh, commander of the Committee for the Search ⁠for Missing Persons ‌of ‌Iran’s Armed Forces ‌General Staff, said the ‌location where the pilots were being held was unsuitable and ‌requested that the International Committee ⁠of ⁠the Red Cross send an air ambulance to Qatar to expedite the return of injured and sick detainees to Iran.

Iran says Tehran must overcome ‘unjust sanctions’ as US ramps up economic pressure

Sat, 22 Aug 2026 09:32:55 +0300

Reuters - Iranian parliament speaker Mohammed Baqer Qalibaf said on Friday that Iran must plan to overcome “unjust sanctions,” a day after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced what he described as the toughest sanctions ever imposed on Iran.Bessent said on Thursday the measures would ‌be detailed ‌on Monday, suggesting they could ‌lessen ⁠the need for ⁠further major military operations.Qalibaf, one of Iran’s most influential political figures and Tehran’s top negotiator in talks with the United States, said economic development and security were closely linked.He accused ⁠the United States and ‌Israel of waging ‌economic and “cognitive” warfare after concluding they could ‌not prevail in a direct military confrontation ‌with Iran and Iraq.“If you look at the resources and raw materials of Muslim countries, you will realize that ‌our enemies come to plunder them,” Qalibaf told Iranian and Iraqi ⁠business ⁠representatives in Baghdad, according to his Telegram channel.“Therefore, we must make plans to deal with the unjust sanctions so that we can overcome them.”He also called for stronger economic ties between Baghdad and Tehran and said the two countries could use their national currencies in trade to reduce reliance on the US dollar.

King visits Shenzhen showcase of Chinese companies, meets their senior executives

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 06:32:06 +0300

Jordan Daily -His Majesty King Abdullah visited on Thursday the T Capital Showcase for Advanced Air Mobility and Robotics in Shenzhen, featuring leading Chinese companies’ innovations in robotics, air transport solutions, and logistics services.His Majesty met with the companies’ senior executives to explore opportunities for cooperation in research and development, as well as partnerships in innovation and digital transformation.The King said Jordan’s strategic location and stable business environment reinforce its standing as a key regional services hub.The heads of the companies, which specialise in integrating cutting-edge technologies in robotics and smart delivery solutions, expressed strong interest in partnering with Jordan.Director of the Office of His Majesty Alaa Batayneh, Minister of Industry, Trade, and Supply Yarub Qudah, Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship Sami Smeirat, and Jordan’s Ambassador to China Hussam Husseini attended the meeting.

Bessent says US will impose toughest ever sanctions on Iran, urges allies and China to cooperate

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 06:29:21 +0300

Agencies -The US will impose “the toughest sanctions in history” on Iran, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday, a focus on economic measures he suggested would lessen the need for new major military operations against Tehran.His statement followed President Donald Trump’s threat a day earlier of “Economic Warfare” and warning of economic consequences against any country that provided “any type of lifeline to Iran.”Oil prices rose to more than a three-week high on Thursday following those US threats of financial penalties aimed at forcing an end to a nearly six-month-old war that has stranded millions of barrels of Middle Eastern oil.“I’m not sure why oil has popped up on this,” Bessent told CNBC. “If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart,” he said, using a term referring to military force.US HITS HEZBOLLAH WITH FRESH SANCTIONSThe US on Thursday issued fresh sanctions targeting Lebanon’s Hezbollah, including re-designating it over actions on behalf of the Iranian government, according to a statement seen by Reuters.

The Treasury Department redesignated the group “for service to the Iranian regime under the command of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps-Quds Force,” according to the statement. A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the redesignation was intended to show that Hezbollah is acting on behalf of the Iranian government, specificallyIran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force.

Hezbollah ‌was designated as ‌a Foreign Terrorist Organization in 1997 and ‌a ⁠Specially Designated Global ⁠Terrorist in 2001.

Hezbollah is both a political party and an armed group in Lebanon. Sanctions seek to disrupt funding networks and isolate targets by imposing asset freezes, banning banks from dealing with named entities and prohibiting the flow of goods, services and material support. IRAN CALLS US SANCTIONS ‘ECONOMIC TERRORISM’Thousands have been killed in the conflict, which drew in Gulf nations and shocked markets ‌as Iran flexed its ‌ability to curb shipping through the Strait of Hormuz — a waterway that carried about a fifth ‌of ⁠all traded oil ⁠before February.The US and Iran have twice announced ceasefire deals, in April and June, aiming to restore the free flow of shipping through Hormuz on a path toward ending the conflict, but both quickly crumbled.Before Bessent spoke, Iran’s foreign ministry said it condemned US economic and trade sanctions, calling them “economic terrorism” that would target ordinary Iranians and amount to crimes against humanity.Bessent told CNBC he would share more details and “talk about exactly what we’re going to do” on Iran at a press conference on Monday.“It is a one-two punch. We have the blockade (on Iran), and we are going to have the toughest sanctions in history,” he added, referring to a US naval blockade imposed on Iran in April and paused for a ⁠month in mid-June.“It is going to work in Iran and we are going to ‌collapse this regime. It is time for our allies and the rest of the ‌world to make a decision,” he said.When asked if the United States could target China for doing business with Iran, Bessent said many conversations were ‌best to have in private.“Keep in mind that the Chinese get 50 percent (of their) energy from inside from the Gulf. So it would ‌do them a big service to get with the program,” he said.China buys more than 80 percent of Iran’s shipped oil, according to 2025 data from analytics firm Kpler, but engaging in further economic warfare with China, a major exporter to the US including vital rare-earth minerals, risks retaliation against Washington.IRAN HAS FACED YEARS OF SANCTIONSIn a social media message on Wednesday, Trump promised “Economic Warfare and Isolation on an unprecedented scale,” although details were scant.Iran has weathered ‌near-continuous, punishing economic sanctions for nearly 50 years, since the Islamic Revolution of 1979.“ANY country that allows its financial institutions, businesses, airports, or government entities to provide any type of lifeline to Iran will ⁠itself face TREMENDOUS Economic Consequences,” Trump ⁠wrote.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi called Trump’s comments an attempt to divert American public opinion from domestic financial problems, including record debt and rising interest rates.He said Washington’s insistence on policies he described as failed would bring further failures and alienate Iranians.“America’s economic terrorism threatens the global economy and the national sovereignty of countries around the world,” he said on X.Trump has yet to achieve the objectives he set out at the start of the war: dismantling Iran’s nuclear program, curbing its ability to attack regional rivals and creating conditions for Iranians to overthrow their clerical rulers.Trump’s social media threats and announcements do not always get implemented as written. He did not say what specific steps the US would take or name any country, though the warning would appear to extend to US allies that have helped mediate peace talks.Iran has separately been negotiating an agreement on managing the Strait of Hormuz with Oman and has said several times in recent weeks that an agreement was close.Trump responded on Monday to those negotiations with a threat, warning he might bomb the Gulf state, a longstanding US security partner, if it “gets in the way.”Omani Foreign Minister Badr Albusaidi, speaking after meeting his Japanese counterpart, said on Thursday that lasting security in the strait required a permanent peace in the region and rejected further escalation.

US to provide $206 million for Gaza peacekeeping force, letters show

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 05:15:35 +0300

Reuters - President Donald Trump’s administration has told Congress it is sending more than $206 million for a proposed Gaza peacekeeping force, the first significant funding for the stalled US plan to rebuild the devastated enclave.

In two July 30-dated notifications seen by Reuters, the State Department informed Congress it will provide $200 million for the International Stabilization Force’s (ISF) equipment, infrastructure, vehicles and operational costs. An additional $6 million would repurpose US armored vehicles to support the force.

The notifications, which were addressed to key appropriations and foreign affairs committees in Congress, have not been previously reported. The funding is the first concrete US spending on the peacekeeping force and signals the administration’s determination to press ahead with Trump’s Gaza roadmap even as both Israel and Hamas have balked at conditions needed to advance the plan. “The ISF will lead security operations, support comprehensive demilitarization, and enable the safe delivery of humanitarian aid and reconstruction material to Gaza,” one of the notifications said, while noting ‌the final composition ‌of the force was still being negotiated.

The administration has not said how much money ‌will ultimately ⁠be needed to ⁠fund the force. Trump set up a Board of Peace to oversee his ambitious plan to end Israel’s war in Gaza and rebuild the shattered territory. His plan envisioned that the peacekeeping force would deploy to Gaza to secure areas after Israeli forces withdraw and would train new Palestinian police forces and support aid deliveries. Much of Gaza remains in ruins from two years of war triggered by the Hamas-led attacks on Israel on October 7, 2023. But since the announcement of an agreement in late July, the effort has stalled, with both Israel and Hamas refusing to fulfill conditions that would allow the deal to move ahead. Trump’s envoy ⁠and son-in-law Jared Kushner held meetings with Hamas officials on Sunday and Israeli leaders on ‌Monday in Jerusalem but left without a breakthrough, with both sides standing firm ‌on key demands. An official from the Board of Peace described the last two weeks as a period of “significant advances” and said the ‌board had sought additional funding pledges as a result. The official, who was granted anonymity to speak freely with media, ‌said the funding was needed for the construction of a base for forces inside Gaza among other reconstruction projects.

Member countries had initially pledged $17 billion for reconstruction efforts inside Gaza but Reuters reported in April that only a fraction of the funds had been received. The Board of Peace has not made public the amount that it has received so far.

The State Department did not immediately provide comment for this ‌story.Stalled planOn July 30, Trump announced what he described as a breakthrough: that Hamas had agreed to lay down its arms in phases, as Israel’s military withdraws from Gaza. ⁠Hamas said it agreed ⁠to the roadmap but implementation depends on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including halting attacks and withdrawing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose ruling coalition trails in opinion polls ahead of an October national election, rejected the deal this month, insisting that Israel would not pull back until Hamas is completely disarmed. Five countries have committed troops to the ISF so far: Indonesia, Morocco, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Albania, while Egypt and Jordan have committed to train police. It remains unclear when any troops would be able to deploy. The first of the two congressional notifications addressed the $200 million in funding. The second, with the same date and worth around $6.3 million, said the US was repurposing nine armored personnel carriers previously destined for Nepal to support the ISF and that Albania and Kosovo would be the initial recipients of this equipment as part of their role in the ISF.

The ceasefire plan reduced violence in Gaza but has not ended Israeli attacks or secured the militants’ disarmament. More than 1,200 Palestinians and four Israeli soldiers have been killed in Gaza since a ceasefire was reached in October, according to Gazan health officials and the Israeli military.

Netanyahu and Kushner also agreed that Gaza’s reconstruction would not start until Hamas is disarmed, an Israeli official told Reuters earlier this week.

King discusses tourism, cultural cooperation opportunities in Shanghai

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 05:12:48 +0300

Jordan Daily - His Majesty King Abdullah discussed opportunities to strengthen cooperation with China in the tourism sector, during a meeting in Shanghai on Wednesday with Trip.com Group, a leading global travel service provider.During the visit, His Majesty was briefed by Executive Vice President Bo Sun and Senior Vice President Amanda Wang on Trip.com’s areas of operation, programmes to promote tourist destinations, and efforts to integrate cultural heritage with tourism activities.The King underscored Jordan’s interest in increasing the number of Chinese visitors to the Kingdom, in order to experience the diversity of its cultural, natural, and archaeological sites and tourism offerings.The meeting also touched on ways to collaborate on enhancing smart marketing efforts to promote tourist destinations, and the importance of establishing new and increased air links between Jordan and China.Director of the Office of His Majesty Alaa Batayneh, Minister of Industry, Trade, and Supply Yarub Qudah, and Jordan’s Ambassador to China Hussam Husseini accompanied His Majesty on the visit.

King meets with Shanghai mayor

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 14:50:59 +0300

Jordan Daily - His Majesty King Abdullah II on Wednesday met with the Mayor of Shanghai Gong Zheng.The meeting covered the deep-rooted ties between Jordan and China, with His Majesty emphasising the importance of expanding the scope of Jordanian-Chinese relations by increasing partnerships in promising economic and development sectors.Director of the Office of His Majesty Alaa Batayneh, Minister of Industry, Trade, and Supply Yarub Qudah, and Jordan’s Ambassador to China Hussam Husseini attended the meeting.

The missing pillar of the China-Jordan strategic partnership: Insurance

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 15:10:10 +0300

By: Dr Jordan Al-Zu'BiJordan Daily - His Majesty King Abdullah II's current visit to mainland China and engagement with President Xi Jinping come at an important moment for a relationship that became a strategic partnership in 2015. Yet the foundation is deeper than modern diplomacy. Both societies are shaped by long histories, strong family structures and respect for education. For an economist, the most consequential common asset is human capital: diplomacy can open doors and investment can finance projects, but people determine whether cooperation becomes productive and durable.Economic modernization is also risk modernizationHis Majesty's Economic Modernisation Vision seeks higher productivity, stronger industries, greater investment, better healthcare, digital transformation, green growth and stronger human capital. Seen through the lens of insurance economics, these ambitions share a common feature: each changes Jordan's exposure to uncertainty. Digitalization creates cyber risk; renewable energy changes engineering and climate exposures; advanced industry changes liability and supply-chain risk; better health protection brings longevity and medical-cost risk into sharper focus. Jordan is modernizing in what I describe as a New Era of Risk, in which climate, technology, health, geopolitics and finance increasingly interact.That is why insurance should be treated as economic infrastructure, not merely as compensation after a loss. Economic development is ultimately a process of taking risk. The role of sophisticated risk institutions is to understand risk earlier, price it accurately, prevent what can be prevented and transfer what should be transferred. A modern economy prospers by taking productive risk without allowing uncertainty to become disorder.China has built something Jordan should study, not copyChina offers an important laboratory. Figures presented in July 2026 by Zhao Yulong, President of the Insurance Association of China, put 2025 premium income at RMB6.12 trillion, about US$908 billion, and insurance-sector assets at RMB41.3 trillion, about US$6.13 trillion. It also reports RMB8 trillion, about US$1.19 trillion, in technology-related risk protection and RMB5.32 trillion, about US$789 billion, in agricultural-insurance protection. The lesson for Jordan is not scale itself, but the close connection between insurance, engineering, data, technology and national economic priorities.Start where the relationship is changing fastest: electric vehiclesBy 2025, China's automobile exports had exceeded 7 million vehicles, ranking first globally for a third consecutive year, including 2.615 million new-energy vehicles. The momentum accelerated again in 2026: in the first half alone, automobile exports surpassed 5 million vehicles, up 65.3% year on year. These figures reveal the scale of the insurance and risk-management economy developing around Chinese mobility.The internationalization of Chinese vehicles will inevitably create demand for the internationalization of the risk infrastructure surrounding them. A vehicle does not cross a border alone; its collision risk, battery, software, spare-parts requirements, repair protocols, warranty obligations and claims uncertainty travel with it. When a Jordanian insurer has limited experience with a relatively new Chinese model, it is pricing not only expected losses but also uncertainty about repair severity, parts availability, salvage values and local technical capability. China's comparative advantage is therefore not simply reinsurance capital; it is the possibility of converting superior knowledge of the vehicle into superior knowledge of the risk.Build a China-Jordan EV Risk and Insurance LaboratoryJordan could bring together local insurers, Chinese insurers and reinsurers, manufacturers, repair networks, technology companies and regulators in a structured pilot. Jordanian insurers would retain locally regulated contracts, while Chinese partners could contribute engineering data, battery knowledge, claims experience and technical risk capacity. They could also provide reinsurance capacity and tiered warranty solutions, allowing different layers of battery, component and vehicle risk to be transferred to the parties best able to understand and absorb them. The objective should be better insurance: lower informational uncertainty, stronger underwriting, more efficient claims and premiums closer to risk.This also creates an opportunity to modernize Jordan's approach to motor insurance. Fairness does not mean sameness. If materially different risks are charged the same price, lower-risk insureds end up subsidizing higher-risk insureds. Jordan should therefore work to reduce such cross-subsidization by preserving the core insurance principle of risk-based pricing, supported by evidence-based pricing that uses credible data on loss experience, driving behavior, vehicle characteristics and other relevant risk factors. Telematics can strengthen this approach through measures such as mileage, speeding and braking, allowing premiums to reflect risk more accurately while maintaining appropriate consumer protection.The next frontier is not simply insuring the driver; it is insuring the intelligenceAs vehicles become increasingly autonomous, liability becomes harder to locate. If an automated system contributes to a collision, who is liable: the insured driver, the manufacturer, the software developer, the provider of the autonomous-driving system, or some combination of them? Must the person behind the wheel remain attentive? At what level of autonomy does a conventional driving licence cease to be an adequate regulatory instrument? These are questions of insurance, tort law, product liability and technology governance.The most valuable asset in answering them will be data. The mobility-risk architecture I have been developing begins with data and ends with more data: vehicle behavior, battery condition, route exposure, repairs, near misses and claims feed risk models; those models improve underwriting, prevention, claims and warranty decisions; each new trip and claim generates additional information. More data improves risk measurement, better measurement improves decisions, and better decisions generate more data. The strategic asset is not merely the vehicle, but the risk intelligence accumulating around it.Health insurance and climate risk should be the next pillarsHis Majesty's Economic Modernisation Vision is ultimately about productive human capital, which makes health protection an economic issue as much as a social one. Jordan already possesses important foundations: the Social Security Corporation's employer infrastructure, Central Bank insurance supervision, private insurers, healthcare providers, pharmaceuticals and digital capabilities. China can contribute experience in digital health, claims analytics, fraud detection, chronic-disease management and multi-layer health protection. The principle should be adaptation rather than imitation: a system that works in China must be redesigned around Jordan's incentives, culture, labor market and regulatory structure.Climate and agricultural risk require the same discipline. Jordan should not begin by asking which insurance product to sell; it should first understand the hazard, map the exposure and estimate vulnerability. Chinese catastrophe-modeling and reinsurance expertise can help Jordan build local risk intelligence for agriculture, renewable energy, infrastructure and parametric protection. Risk intelligence first, insurance product second.Insurance can also strengthen Chinese investment in JordanInfrastructure, energy, manufacturing, transport and technology projects create construction, engineering, cyber, supply-chain, business-interruption, catastrophe and sometimes political risks. Those risks affect financing costs and bankability. Insurers, reinsurers and risk engineers should therefore enter major China-Jordan investment discussions earlier. Insurance cannot rescue weak economics, but it can allocate legitimate uncertainty more efficiently.Build a China-Jordan Insurance and Risk DialogueThe next institutional step should be a permanent dialogue connecting the Central Bank of Jordan, the Jordan Insurance Federation, the Insurance Association of China, insurers, reinsurers, manufacturers, technology firms, healthcare institutions, universities and the Social Security Corporation. Its legitimacy should come from projects, not ceremony: electric mobility and autonomous liability; workforce health protection; climate, agriculture and catastrophe risk; and the risk architecture supporting Chinese investment. Human-capital exchanges among regulators, actuaries, insurance economists, data scientists and catastrophe modelers should run through all four.The partnership should move from exchanging products to exchanging risk intelligenceI write this while in China and while engaging with Chinese insurance, academic and technology stakeholders on these questions. Jordan should not ask only what it can import, just as China should not ask only what it can export. The more important question is what the two countries can build more effectively together. Chinese vehicle knowledge combined with Jordanian claims experience can create regional mobility-risk models; Chinese insurance technology combined with Jordanian health institutions can strengthen workforce resilience; Chinese risk-modeling capabilities combined with Jordanian climate and agricultural data can improve national resilience.The strategic partnership created the political foundation. His Majesty's current visit provides an opportunity to define its next economic chapter. Trade, infrastructure, energy and technology will remain essential, but all of them sit on top of a less visible institution: the management of uncertainty.In the New Era of Risk, insurance may be the missing pillar of the China-Jordan strategic partnership.Dr Jordan Al-Zu'Bi is a leading insurance economist specializing in insurance regulation, InsurTech, AI-driven innovation, healthcare insurance, fraud detection, and climate change risks. He is the first Jordanian and only the second Arab to earn a Ph.D. in Risk Management & Insurance (RMI) through a prestigious research partnership between Emory University and The University of Queensland.

King meets with CEOs of leading Chinese companies in Shanghai

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 06:02:15 +0300

Jordan Daily - His Majesty King Abdullah II, in Shanghai on Tuesday, met with CEOs of leading Chinese companies to discuss opportunities for economic cooperation and expertise exchange.During the meeting, organised in cooperation with the Shanghai Council for the Promotion of International Trade and attended by Their Royal Highnesses Prince Hashem bin Abdullah II and Princess Salma bint Abdullah II, His Majesty emphasised Jordan’s commitment to deepening relations with China, and expanding economic and investment partnerships across various fields.The King pointed to recent strides in enhancing Jordan’s business environment, its strategic location as a gateway to regional and global markets, and its skilled workforce.The attendees, representing companies operating across the pharmaceutical, food, engineering, agricultural, and aviation sectors, expressed their interest in exploring opportunities for cooperation with Jordan’s public and private sectors.Director of the Office of His Majesty Alaa Batayneh, Minister of Industry, Trade, and Supply Yarub Qudah, Jordan’s Ambassador to China Hussam Husseini, and China’s Ambassador to Jordan Guo Wei attended the meeting.

US anger as Israel hits Syria airbase

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 05:59:09 +0300

Agencies - Israel struck an air base in northwest Syria early Tuesday, saying it aimed to prevent Turkish troops from deploying there.Turkiye, which has close ties with the Syrian government and has been providing assistance to Syria’s military, has tense relations with Israel. The rival countries have sought to curb each other’s influence in neighboring Syria.Eight strikes hit the runway of the Abu Duhur air base in the northwestern province of Idlib, causing damage but no casualties, state TV said. Syria’s Foreign Minister Asaad Al-Shibani told reporters in Damascus that Syria condemns the “Israeli aggression,” adding that the strikes were “an unjustified provocation, a violation of Syria’s sovereignty, and a direct threat to regional and global stability.”Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement that Israel had attacked the base because Syria had been “on the verge of breaching” an agreed-upon “status quo in security matters” by allowing Turkish troops to deploy there.“Israel repeatedly warned Syria that such a deployment would pose a threat to Israel’s security. Syria chose to ignore these warnings,” the statement said.The Foreign Ministry of Turkiye condemned the attack in a statement and called for “the international community to take a more decisive stance to end Israel’s escalating aggression against Syria and to ensure accountability for these actions that disregard international law.”The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a war monitor, said foreign fighters used to stay at the base before they were recently asked to leave. The Observatory added that Turkiye, which is a main backer of Syria’s government, has been rehabilitating the air base that had been out of service for years during Syria’s conflict that left nearly half a million people dead.Tom Barrack, the US ambassador to Turkiye and special envoy to Syria, posted on X that Washington is “deeply concerned that the confirmed Israeli airstrikes” on the Abu Duhur air base constitute “an unnecessary escalation that does not advance regional stability.”The government of Syria’s Interim President Ahmad Al-Sharaa has neither “adopted a predatory posture nor maintained proxy forces” but has repeatedly indicated a preference for de-escalation with Israel, Barrack said.The US has in the past hosted, and will continue in the future to host, discussions to encourage diplomacy, Barrack added.Regional countries including Qatar, Egypt and Saudi Arabia also issued statements condemning the strikes.Since the fall of Bashar Assad’s government in December 2024 when insurgents marched into his seat of power in Damascus, tensions between Israel and Turkiye over Syria have been on the rise.Israel carried out hundreds of airstrikes around Syria after Assad’s fall, mainly destroying assets of the Syrian army to keep them out of the hands of his successors. The Israeli military also seized control of a UN-patrolled buffer zone in southern Syria, which it continues to occupy.Israeli drone strikes on a southern suburb of Damascus last year killed eight soldiers and wounded others.The new authorities in Damascus have said they do not want a conflict with Israel, but Israel has remained suspicious of the government led by former Islamist insurgents.US-mediated talks between Israel and Syria aimed at reaching a security agreement have been ongoing for more than a year but have so far failed to produce a deal.Security tensions heightenedTurkiye has rejected Israeli allegations that it posed a threat by preparing to send troops to a base in Syria, which was hit in a strike that the United States blamed on Israel.“The frivolous allegations put forward by the Israeli Prime Minister’s office aim to legitimize Israel’s unlawful airstrikes targeting Syria’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Turkiye’s Communications Directorate said in a statement quoted by the Anadolu state news agency.The strikes follow a ‌heightening of security tensions between Israel and Turkiye and increasingly sharp rhetoric between the two countries over Syria.Ankara has ‌accused Israel of trying to destabilize Syria and undermine its new administration. Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said on August 6 that Israel continued to threaten Syria’s security through its repeated attacks, calling for international pressure on Israel to respect Syria’s territorial integrity.Turkiye, which has NATO’s second-largest army and recently signed a defense pact with Pakistan and Saudi Arabia similar to NATO, has become one of Syrian President ‌Ahmed Al-Sharaa’s main allies. It has been training Syria’s army, helping it rebuild its state institutions and infrastructure, and providing it military and diplomatic support.The Turkish ruling AK Party’s ⁠spokesperson Omer Celik said the ⁠strikes “showed once again that Israeli policies are the greatest enemy of peace and tranquility for the peoples of the region.”“The entire international community must react to this together,” Celik wrote on X.It was not immediately clear whether Turkiye was involved in renovating the base, but Ankara has said it was helping Damascus across the country.Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz has issued direct warnings to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying Israel would not allow steps that strengthened Syria’s military capabilities in ways that could pose a threat to Israel.Last year, Turkiye and Israel established a line of communication to avoid any incidents in Syria, where both of their militaries are active.Syria conducted air exercises in the north of the country in early August using Russian-made MiG-21 fighter jets, the first such exercises since Assad’s ouster.Israel’s Kan public broadcaster reported on August 11 that security officials had detected signs of Syria accelerating efforts to rebuild its air force, including the recruitment of new pilots, flight training and a first exercise involving fighter aircraft.Kan quoted a security source as saying Israel had shared its concerns with the US.

King visits robotics company in Shanghai

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 14:41:06 +0300

Jordan Daily - His Majesty King Abdullah visited AgiBot, one of China’s leading robotics companies, in Shanghai on Tuesday.His Majesty was briefed by AgiBot Co-President and Chief Operating Officer Jiang Qingsong on the applications of the robots developed by the company, in the fields of industry, logistics, hospitality, and security, according to a Royal Court statement.The King highlighted the importance of cooperation between AgiBot and Jordanian universities and institutions, particularly with regard to the development of robotic applications and the exchange of expertise, the statement said.His Majesty toured an exhibition showcasing AgiBot’s most notable products, accompanied by Their Royal Highnesses Prince Hashem and Princess Salma.Director of the Office of His Majesty Alaa Batayneh, Minister of Industry, Trade, and Supply Yarub Qudah, Minister of Digital Economy and Entrepreneurship Sami Smeirat, and Jordan’s Ambassador to China Hussam Husseini accompanied the King on the visit.

Iran says it will escalate if US does not honor deal within weeks

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 05:22:40 +0300

Reuters- Iran will escalate tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and beyond, and launch an attack if the US fails to implement an interim peace deal fully in a matter of weeks, a senior Iranian official told Reuters on Monday.If the US does not meet that deadline and diplomacy fails, Tehran would conduct a “timely and precise” military attack to break the US naval blockade on the Islamic ‌Republic, the official ‌added.Diplomatic efforts to bring Tehran ‌and ⁠Washington back to talks ⁠under a June agreement have stalled in recent weeks.Iran’s foreign minister has said the Strait of Hormuz will not reopen until the US first returns to the deal, while the US Treasury Secretary has warned of unprecedented economic isolation for Iran.“Within ⁠the short period of a few ‌weeks set by ‌Iran, all the agreement’s provisions must be implemented by the ‌US This is a precondition for further negotiations ‌with the US,” the official told Reuters.Mediators would share details of Tehran’s deadline with Washington and regional states, the official added.“Iranian entities must be prepared to escalate ‌tensions in the Strait of Hormuz and wider region, as Iran will be ⁠ready ⁠to make decisions and take action on difficult decisions,” the official said.The Iranian official said Tehran was shifting its policy from defense to offense as it was losing confidence in the merits of diplomacy with Washington.“It is a proven fact that the US is not serious about a ceasefire and won’t commit to any, so putting pressure on the enemy or relying on mediators in the hope of reaching a permanent ceasefire is not realistic,” the official said.

King interviewed by China’s Xinhua News Agency

Tue, 18 Aug 2026 05:23:12 +0300

Jordan Daily - His Majesty King Abdullah sat for an interview with Xinhua, the official news agency of the People’s Republic of China, which was published on Monday, in Chinese, English, and Arabic. The interview focused on Jordan-China relations, as the two countries will mark the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations next year.During the interview, His Majesty spoke about his upcoming visit to China, opportunities to build on the strategic partnership between the two countries, and ways to enhance cooperation in economic, investment, development, tourism, cultural, and other fields.The interview touched on China’s role in the region, with the King emphasising the importance of Beijing’s efforts to support international peace and security, and of building on its significant presence on the international stage to help advance the two-state solution.Below is the full text of the Xinhua interview:“Xinhua: The year 2025 marked the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the China-Jordan strategic partnership. How do you assess the development of bilateral relations over the past decade? Which key achievements best illustrate the progress made by both sides in terms of political mutual trust, economic and trade cooperation, and people-to-people exchanges?His Majesty King Abdullah: First, I would like to thank you and Xinhua News Agency for your keenness on covering Jordan and our partnership with China. I am looking forward to my upcoming visit to your great country and to meeting once again with Chinese President Xi Jinping to discuss ways to take the partnership between our nations to further heights.The deep-rooted relationship between the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan and the People's Republic of China serves as a strong foundation for advancing our shared priorities and fostering innovation and greater prosperity for our peoples.Jordan's strategic location, resources and skilled youth, coupled with China's economic strength, technology expertise, and global reach, create exceptional opportunities to broaden cooperation. And China continues to play a vital role in promoting international peace and stability, as well as in addressing regional and global challenges.My upcoming visit straddles two important milestones, namely marking over ten years since the establishment of our strategic partnership in 2015 and the upcoming 50th anniversary of the establishment of our diplomatic relations in 2027.Since the establishment of our strategic partnership, our bilateral relations have achieved substantial progress. Cooperation has expanded beyond traditional diplomatic ties to include trade and investment, infrastructure, education, healthcare and cultural exchanges. Despite regional and global challenges, our nations have remained committed to strengthening this partnership, resulting in steady and mutually beneficial development.China has also been a key partner in building the capacity of Jordan's public sector. Between 2015 and 2025, thousands of Jordanians in the public and private sectors have benefited from training programmes offered by the Chinese government. Our cooperation now spans the entire education ecosystem, from teacher and supervisor training and Chinese language education to higher education.Moreover, Chinese energy investments in Jordan have contributed significantly to our self-sufficiency and diversification strategy. In the mining sector, a key investment partnership has culminated in the 502 million-U.S.-dollar acquisition by China's State Development and Investment Group (SDIC Group) of a 28 percent stake in the Arab Potash Company.We look forward to expanding cooperation into areas such as green energy, scientific innovation, tourism and civil aviation, while further deepening our strategic partnership.Xinhua: Jordan is advancing its economic modernisation and green development agenda. What are the current priorities for the kingdom's reform and development? How does Jordan seek to deepen practical cooperation with China in areas such as renewable energy, the digital economy and talent development to further support its national transformation?King Abdullah II: Despite decades of regional instability, Jordan is advancing its Economic Modernisation Vision, a roadmap to 2033 that focuses on prosperity, improved quality of life and inclusive long-term growth through strategic partnerships.Jordan's economic modernisation agenda recognises that an efficient, digitally enabled public sector is fundamental to economic competitiveness and investment attraction. Jordan has made substantial progress in digitising government services, and a key priority is integrating AI into public administration to streamline processes. These efforts are driving the digital transformation of Jordan's public sector.Jordan is also well positioned to serve as a regional manufacturing and export hub. Chinese manufacturing investments could leverage this position, benefiting from our natural resources, skilled workforce, stable business environment, strategic location and extensive network of trade agreements.In addition, sustainability is one of the three pillars of the Economic Modernisation Vision. The energy sector best illustrates this progress: renewable energy has grown from less than 1 per cent of electricity generation a decade ago to approximately 27 per cent today, with a target of 40 percent by 2035. To sustain this momentum, Jordan is investing in the supporting infrastructure for renewable energy, including a pipeline of nearly one gigawatt of new renewable generation and energy storage projects representing more than 1 billion dollars in investment opportunities.Another key priority is promoting higher-value, sustainable and resilient tourism growth. The objective is not simply to maximise visitor numbers, but to diversify source markets, encourage longer stays, improve connectivity and ensure greater benefits for local communities. Tourism cooperation should also support Jordanian employment, facilitate knowledge transfer and protect Jordan's cultural and natural heritage. We look to strengthen air connectivity with China as one of our top global partners and main targeted markets for inbound and outbound tourism.We also see strong potential for deeper cooperation with China by positioning Jordan as a preferred filming destination for the Chinese film industry, building on our superior production capabilities and unique filming locations.Xinhua: Amid a complex and evolving regional landscape, Jordan plays a vital role in helping maintain stability in the Middle East. Could you elaborate on Jordan's efforts to promote regional stability, particularly regarding the Palestinian issue? How can Jordan and China further strengthen coordination and cooperation to contribute to peace and stability in the region?King Abdullah: Despite the regional situation, we have consistently striven to be proactive, encouraging cooperation in the interest of peace while always staying true to our principles. Our diplomatic engagements have focused on this approach. I have always said and believed that the Palestinian issue remains the core issue in our region; what we have seen in recent years underscores this reality. Unless addressed, the region will remain vulnerable to recurring cycles of violence that will become more severe and broader in scope, with reverberations extending far beyond its borders.Palestinians are facing unprecedented measures, with intensified settler attacks, fast-paced and massive illegal settlement expansion, land grabs and confiscations, house demolitions and violations, as well as harassment and incitement at Jerusalem's Muslim and Christian holy sites. These measures cannot go unnoticed or unaddressed. It is a responsibility upon us all to ensure respect for international law, UN resolutions and human rights.In Jordan, our efforts have been and will continue to be focused on establishing regional calm, undertaking our duties under the Hashemite Custodianship over Muslim and Christian holy sites in Jerusalem, working to end unilateral measures that obstruct peace, and pushing for a just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian issue that results in the establishment of a viable, independent and sovereign state of Palestine based on the 1967 lines, with East Jerusalem as its capital, living side-by-side with Israel in peace and security.But we also look to coordinate with China as a key global player and partner to use its considerable influence and voice on the international stage to help push for the realisation of the two-state solution.Our humanitarian efforts in Gaza continue, and we are grateful for China's contributions to ongoing relief efforts.Xinhua: As the international landscape undergoes profound changes, the role of Global South countries is becoming increasingly significant. How does Your Majesty view the role of China and Arab countries in global governance? How can Jordan serve as a bridge to enhance cooperation between Arab states, China, and other international partners?King Abdullah: Global South countries are playing an increasingly important role in the international arena, becoming more and more central to the global economy, security, and to advancing sustainable development. This further reinforces the importance of strengthening a global system that remains firmly anchored in international law.We appreciate China's calls for a fair international order, and we look to strengthen our cooperation to foster stronger international cooperation and respect for international law. The crises we are facing today serve as a reminder that we are all interconnected, and highlight the necessity of fostering collective action and dialogue. It is time for our regions to work together to establish better resilience and advance joint efforts to respond to various disruptions and crises.As a permanent member of the UN Security Council, China plays an important role in safeguarding international peace and security. We have seen relations between China and Arab countries grow in recent years, reflecting shared interests in development and mutually beneficial cooperation.For our part, Jordan has always been relentless in our efforts to foster regional interconnectivity, closer cooperation and deeper ties. Jordan has consistently pursued a foreign policy based on dialogue and constructive engagement. Our commitment to international law and the peaceful resolution of disputes has enabled us to build trusted partnerships and dialogue across different regions.Xinhua: This year marks the 70th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Arab countries. How does Your Majesty evaluate the cooperation model based on mutual respect and win-win outcomes between China and Arab states?King Abdullah: This milestone is a testament to a relationship that has endured regional crises and shifts. Its durability comes from ongoing practical engagement and a dedication to seeking common ground and advancement of mutual interests. The win-win outcomes approach is the key recipe behind the sustainable Arab-China cooperation model, enabling both sides to see tangible deliverables and fostering trust and strategic partnerships. There is also great untapped potential that we can further explore and build on to establish regional and global synergies; China is, after all, a global economic and political powerhouse, and it has become a global model and inspiration for development and economic progress. We hope to see closer international collaboration in the days and years ahead. Arab countries stand to benefit greatly from China's experience.We also look forward to further fostering closer people-to-people ties, building lasting friendships and mutual understanding between our nations.Xinhua: Thank you, Your Majesty.King Abdullah: Thank you.”

Crown Prince reviews preparations for Jordan-EU Investment Conference

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 19:34:26 +0300

Jordan Daily - His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II chaired a meeting on Monday at Al Husseiniya Palace to review preparations for the Jordan-European Union Investment Conference, scheduled to take place on 19 November at the Dead Sea.During the meeting, attended by Prime Minister Jafar Hassan, the Crown Prince stressed the need to offer targeted investment opportunities focusing on vital sectors of national priority, underscoring the need to accelerate implementation of plans to enhance the investment environment and ensure business readiness.His Royal Highness highlighted the importance of integrated public-private efforts to clear investment roadblocks and boost business collaboration between Jordan and the EU.The Crown Prince urged government and relevant institutions to act immediately on conference recommendations, using clear metrics to track conference outcomes and measure their impact on the national economy.His Royal Highness was briefed by Minister of Investment Tareq Abu Ghazaleh on preparations for the conference, its agenda, investment opportunities to be showcased during the event, and organisational arrangements.The Jordan-EU Investment Conference marks a major step forward in Jordan-EU economic relations, turning cooperation into action by connecting European investors with Jordan’s private sector to drive high-quality investments and practical opportunities and projects.Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Economic Affairs Muhannad Shehadeh, Minister of Water and Irrigation Raed Abu Soud, Minister of Transport and Minister of Labour Nidal Katamine, Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources Saleh Kharabsheh, Minister of Planning and International Cooperation Zeina Toukan, and Director of the Office of the Crown Prince Zaid Baqain.

2026 MENA Esports Championship roars into sixth season completely transformed

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 19:09:58 +0300

Jordan Daily - Since launching in 2021, the MENA Esports Championship has rocketed from a simple regional idea into the largest esports racing championship in the region. The mission has stayed the same since day one: to give the region’s youth – from nearly every Arab country – a genuine route into motorsport. No car, no track, no massive budget required. Just a simulator rig and talent.The concept has proven itself in practice. Four competitors who emerged from this championship went on to win the Toyota GR Yaris Cup Qatar, a real-world car racing championship, without ever having sat behind the wheel of an actual race car before. That alone captures the core idea – simulation is no longer merely a game, but a true gateway to the track.Across five editions between 2021 and 2025, more than 2,000 competitors from 20 countries went head-to-head, drawing over six million livestream views. The 2025 season alone blew past every projection, pulling in 735 competitors and becoming the first edition held under the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile’s (FIA) official global calendar of events – whereas previous editions had been held under the direct oversight of the FIA, represented by Jordan Motorsport.With preparations for 2026 now underway, the championship has locked in an extended agreement with the FIA covering both the 2026 and 2027 editions – meaning it is no longer a temporary seasonal sanction, but a long-term partnership with the highest governing body in world motorsport, organized by Desert Fox in collaboration with Jordan Motorsport.The second major change is the addition of an entirely new discipline. Gran Turismo 7 remains the official platform, but this season sees iRacing join the championship for the first time, opening the door to a new category of competitors and content.That growth comes with four cups: the Junior’s Cup, the Women’s Cup and the Universities Cup, alongside a dedicated iRacing Cup. Building on this expansion, the championship has raised its target to 1,000 competitors from 20 countries across the MENA region this season.National Qualifiers kicked off in Libya on 28 July 2026, rotating among participating countries over six weeks. Regional Qualifiers launch on 18 September, the decisive round that sends finalists through to the MENA Finals, set for 22 – 24 October at The ARC in King Hussein Business Park in the Jordanian capital, Amman, run under the direct auspices of the FIA. There, the region’s best will battle for a spot on the podium of motorsport’s highest global governing body.2026 Qualifiers and Finals Calendar
GT7    Libya    28 Jul
GT7    Cyprus    29 Jul
GT7    Sudan    30 Jul
GT7    Mauritania    31 Jul
GT7    Palestine    01 Aug
GT7    Iran    04 Aug
GT7    Bahrain    07 Aug
GT7    Kuwait    10 Aug
GT7    Qatar    13 Aug
GT7    Oman    16 Aug
GT7    Tunisia    19 Aug
GT7    Lebanon    22 Aug
GT7    UAE    25 Aug
GT7    Yemen    28 Aug
GT7    Algeria    31 Aug
GT7    Morocco    03 Sep
GT7    Iraq    06 Sep
GT7    Egypt    09 Sep
GT7    KSA    12 Sep
GT7    Syria    14 Sep
GT7    Jordan    15 Sep
GT7    Regional Qualifiers    18 Sep
- MENA Finals    22-24 OctThe MENA Esports Championship – launched in 2021 under its previous name ‘TOYOTA GAZOO Racing MENA Esports Cup’ – has evolved into one of the region’s leading digital motorsport platforms. In 2025, the series marked a pivotal milestone, becoming the world’s first esports racing championship to receive official sanctioning from the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA).

Trump’s envoy Kushner meets Gaza mediators in Cairo

Mon, 17 Aug 2026 06:43:46 +0300

Agencies- Donald Trump’s envoys met with Egyptian, Qatari and Turkish mediators in Cairo on Sunday, a diplomatic source said, in a bid to advance the US president’s Gaza peace plan, even as Israel pressed on with airstrikes in the enclave.Hamas officials were present at some of the meetings between mediators and with Trump’s envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, and Nickolay Mladenov, Trump’s Board of Peace envoy for Gaza, the diplomat said.A regional official and a Hamas official confirmed a rare meeting between Kushner and Khalil Al-Hayya, the head of Hamas’ Gaza leadership. Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the talks publicly.Kushner is scheduled to meet on Monday with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, a senior Israeli official said. Netanyahu said on Aug. 9 that Trump’s latest Gaza peace road map was “unacceptable.”Strikes injure several peopleThe official ‌said ⁠that Israel was ⁠concerned about Washington’s demand to end targeted assassinations of Hamas militants in Gaza as the group rebuilds its forces.Trump’s peace plan calls for the immediate cessation of military operations in Gaza. It foresees Hamas disarming as Israeli troops withdraw from the enclave and Gaza is rebuilt under a new civilian Palestinian administration.After scaling back its attacks in the enclave earlier this month, Israel’s airstrikes have resumed in the past few days.The Israeli military said on Sunday ⁠that its aircraft struck two Islamic Jihad and Hamas militants in Khan ‌Younis and Nuseirat.At least five Palestinians were ‌injured in the strike which hit a tent encampment, medics in the enclave said.One of the ‌injured in the strike on Khan Younis in southern Gaza died from their wounds, ‌medics at Nasser hospital said later.A separate airstrike, which the Israeli military said targeted another militant, hit an apartment in the Nuseirat camp in central Gaza, wounding several people, medics said.Earlier, Hamas leader Khalil Al-Hayya met with Egypt’s intelligence chief Hassan Rashad in Cairo. Hamas spokesperson in Gaza, Hazem Qassem, ‌said Al-Hayya would brief mediators on what he said were Israel’s ceasefire violations.Kushner had earlier met with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, ⁠El-Sisi’s office said.Trump ⁠announced last month that there had been a breakthrough in his plan to end the war, to which both Israel and Hamas had agreed.Hamas said it had agreed to the plan to avoid a resumption of the war, but added that implementation of the deal would depend on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including withdrawing its forces and halting attacks.An October ceasefire halted major fighting in a devastating two-year war in Gaza that was sparked by Hamas’ October 7, 2023, attack on Israel, but it failed to end Israeli attacks entirely.Israeli fire has killed more than 1,250 Palestinians in Gaza, most of them civilians, since October.

Al-Kindi Hospital highlights advanced surgery at Petra operating room

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 16:28:44 +0300

Jordan Daily - Al-Kindi Hospital has highlighted the capabilities of its Petra Operating Room, one of 12 fully equipped operating theatres at the private hospital, as part of efforts to provide advanced surgical care in a safe and integrated environment.Operating Room No. 3, known as the Petra Operating Room, is dedicated to general surgery, including laparoscopic bariatric procedures such as sleeve gastrectomy, as well as gallbladder and other general surgical operations.The theatre is equipped with advanced surgical endoscopy systems and medical equipment and operates under infection-control, sterilisation and patient-safety standards. Surgeons and consultants with specialist qualifications and experience oversee procedures, supported by anaesthesia and intensive-care specialists who monitor patients before, during and after surgery.The hospital said the operating room is designed to meet international quality and infection-control requirements, while its inpatient facilities provide continuous care around the clock until patients are ready to leave.Al-Kindi Hospital has named its 12 operating rooms after Arab, international and Jordanian cities and landmarks, including Riyadh, Doha, Kuwait, Dubai, Petra, Wadi Rum, Jerash, Hamburg and London. The names, accompanied by symbolic images, are intended to create a sense of familiarity and reassurance for patients, including those travelling to Amman for treatment.The hospital offers a range of medical specialties and dedicated centres covering bariatric and cosmetic surgery, vascular surgery, fertility treatment, lithotripsy, interventional radiology, cancer screening, organ transplantation, cardiac catheterisation and open-heart surgery. It also operates gastrointestinal and biliary endoscopy services and an emergency department supported by modern equipment and ambulances.https://www.youtube.com/shorts/DNzKHtOzVM4

Rotarians challenges to act quickly and strategically to benefit from AI

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 14:13:32 +0300

Jordan Daily - 'Artificial Intelligence can be helpful or harmful it all depends on how it is used." That was how AI expert Raed Nesheiwat opened his lecture at the Amman Cosmopolitan Rotary Club Wednesday, August 12, at the Four Seasons Club.Nesheiwat delivered a wide-ranging presentation on how artificial intelligence is expected to reshape Jordanian society, focusing on education, healthcare, NGOs, tourism and travel, and the future of work.From the outset, Nesheiwat urged the audience which also included club co-sponsors Amman Philadelphia Rotary to picture daily life in Amman a few years from now, around 2030. He described a scenario in which AI is deeply embedded in routine services. In healthcare, he said that when a patient arrives at a hospital, the doctor would immediately have access to the patient's medical records and history, an analysis of symptoms, and possible diagnoses with confidence levels even before speaking with the patient. He explained that this would allow clinicians to focus more quickly on decision-making and patient care rather than spending early time collecting information.The event which was Nesheiwat also described how AI would transform classrooms. He envisioned every student working from a tablet or device with AI capabilities that visualize and explain concepts in ways personalized to each learner's needs. In this scenario, once class ends, the AI tutor continues supporting the student by identifying their challenges and strengths and adjusting learning accordingly.In the realm of NGOs and social work, Nesheiwat said organizations often manage large numbers of cases accompanied by extensive documentation and reporting requirements. He argued that by 2030, AI could classify and process large volumes of cases in minutes rather than the weeks and months it may take today, and could identify where interventions are needed. He emphasized that this would shift efforts from reacting after problems occur to predicting issues earlier and acting before crises deepen.He extended the same logic to travel and customer services. Using the example of an airline cancelation flooding offices with phone calls, Nesheiwat said AI could automatically rebook passengers onto alternative flights that suit schedules and preferences. The intent, according to his vision, is to reduce delays and improve decision speed when disruptions occur.The lecture then moved to how humanity reached this point. Nesheiwat described the evolution from the internet era in the 1990s, when professionals relied on search engines and online information to understand problems, to the emergence of generative AI in late 2022, such as ChatGPT, which can draft answers and suggestions directly from user prompts. He described a further evolution into AI agents, which not only respond to questions but can carry out multi-step tasks. He said these systems can research issues, compile reports and presentations, draft emails, follow up on responses, and handle customer interactions, effectively bridging the gap between information and execution.Addressing Jordan specifically, Nesheiwat noted that the country historically competed with the Gulf region in sectors such as IT and communication, benefiting from regional demand and a strong base of talent and software services. However, he argued that AI changes the competitive landscape. He referenced an index measuring government readiness to adopt AI across 195 countries and said Jordan ranks 63, while countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia rank much higher. He said Jordan cannot match the region by spending power alone, and may not be able to build the same scale of data centers or develop AI models at the same speed.Despite this, Nesheiwat argued that Jordan still has a clear opportunity. He pointed to the country's young, educated population and its potential to use open models to develop AI services domestically. He explained that AI systems can be deployed in different forms. He contrasted closed models controlled by large companies, which users access through subscriptions, with open models that can be run on local servers and adapted by governments and organizations. He described open models as enabling institutions to customize systems for local needs while keeping greater control over infrastructure and use.Nesheiwat warned that Jordan must act quickly and strategically, because the time between emerging technologies and their widespread adoption can be short. In his view, the window for shaping how AI is used in Jordan depends on building capacity rather than only consuming tools developed abroad.He then discussed practical examples of AI impact across sectors. In healthcare, he highlighted not just administrative uses but also diagnostic and research implications. He referenced how AI can assist radiology by reading CT scans and MRIs and improving accuracy, and suggested that AI-enhanced detection could lead to fewer misdiagnoses. He also mentioned the broader healthcare ecosystem, including patient records, customer service analytics, and hospital performance dashboards.He also addressed how AI is changing travel and hospitality through personalization. Drawing from work in consumer-facing services, he described how AI can track customer behavior and preferences to tailor experiences and offers, and how systems can recognize when a customer has not visited for a period and send personalized outreach with incentives.In education, he argued that schools must adapt because AI changes the meaning of homework and student evaluation. If AI can answer problems, he said the value must shift toward projects, reasoning, and defending sources rather than memorization. He suggested that universities and schools should move away from relying on detection of AI use and instead redesign assessments so that students demonstrate understanding through real work and critical thinking.Nesheiwat also tackled concerns about employment. He said some jobs will be displaced or become fully automated, particularly those involving repetitive tasks. However, he emphasized that most work will be reshaped rather than simply eliminated. In his view, the key is AI literacy—treating learning AI skills as foundational as learning computer skills—so people become users and supervisors of AI rather than victims of replacement.He described a concept he applied in his own company: developers using AI tools to help with coding tasks, while their role becomes oversight and translating what the system should do. He said this approach can shorten timelines significantly.The lecture concluded with a call to action. Nesheiwat urged participants to examine their organizations and identify manual, time-consuming tasks that could potentially be automated over the next 30 days. He described a pathway from individuals using AI for personal productivity to teams collaborating through shared workflows, and eventually toward organizations operating with AI agents that can handle tasks continuously with minimal human input. He stated that as organizations become more AI-native, society becomes more prepared for the transformation.Throughout the evening, Nesheiwat's message centered on the need for preparedness. AI will transform society, but the outcome for Jordan depends on whether institutions and individuals respond with speed, strategic planning, and investment in capability. He argued that the future question for Jordan is whether it will remain an AI consumer or develop into an AI producer.

Israel wants ‘more serious’ talks with Lebanon: PM’s spokesman

Sun, 16 Aug 2026 10:46:25 +0300

AFP- Israel wants new and more ambitious US-brokered talks with Lebanon after carrying out deadly strikes targeting Hezbollah, a spokesman for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday.The Israeli strikes against Hezbollah “should jumpstart the talks and make them much more serious, not do the opposite,” Netanyahu spokesman Doron Spielman told AFP.“And I think it will. It will hopefully move these talks along because the enemy here is clear and the enemy is Hezbollah,” he said.Israel said that it carried out the strikes after Hezbollah attacked inside what Israel calls a security zone inside southern Lebanon. Three Israeli soldiers were seriously injured, Netanyahu’s office said.Spielman said Israel was still upholding a US-brokered agreement that calls for Lebanon’s fledgling security forces to take gradual control and remove Hezbollah, a Shia movement backed by Iran’s clerical state that has long played a central role in Lebanon.“We believe in the agreement. We very much hope that the Lebanese Armed Forces are going to be able to step into the foray, and together we’re going to remove Hezbollah from the picture,” Spielman said.Israel said it responded by attacking a headquarters of Hezbollah’s elite Radwan force, killing commander Ali Samir Al-Hajj Hassan.It acknowledged that Hassan’s family members were with them and said they were not the target. Lebanese authorities said nine people were killed including several children in the Asnar strike, as well as four more people in a separate strike.

King to begin state visit to China on Monday

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 17:34:33 +0300

Jordan Daily - His Majesty King Abdullah will begin a state visit to the People’s Republic of China on Monday, aimed at strengthening bilateral and economic relations, according to a Royal Court statement.During the visit, His Majesty is scheduled to meet with China President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang, and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress Zhao Leji. The King will also hold several meetings with representatives of leading Chinese companies to discuss opportunities for expanding economic cooperation.His Majesty will be accompanied by an economic ministerial delegation.The two governments are scheduled, on the sidelines of the visit, to sign a number of cooperation agreements and memoranda of understanding in various fields.

Lonely Planet ranks Gulf of Aqaba eighth in September travel list

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 07:13:33 +0300

Jordan Daily - The Gulf of Aqaba has been ranked eighth among the world’s best travel destinations for September by Lonely Planet, the international travel guide.The magazine said the Red Sea destination is an ideal choice for scuba diving and seaside relaxation, with September offering favorable conditions as summer temperatures begin to ease.Water temperatures reach about 26 degrees Celsius, while high underwater visibility allows divers to explore marine life and coral reefs, the report said.Aqaba’s appeal as a diving destination is also boosted by its range of underwater attractions, including the Cedar Pride shipwreck and an underwater military museum featuring sunken vessels and aircraft.Visiting in September also gives travelers an opportunity to avoid peak summer crowds while enjoying milder conditions along the Red Sea coast.Lonely Planet is one of the world’s leading travel guides, known for its destination rankings and recommendations based on expert assessments and travel experiences.

Trump says will ‘soon’ declare Hormuz strait US territory

Sat, 15 Aug 2026 06:51:30 +0300

Agencies - President Donald Trump on Friday said he would “soon” declare the Strait of Hormuz waterway part of US territory after defeating Iran.

“After we finish defeating Iran, which is being very badly defeated — pretty soon I’ll be declaring the Hormuz Strait a territory of the United States,” he said with a chuckle during a political rally at a police academy in New York state.

“It’s true,” he added.

Trump, together with Israel, launched a war against Iran on February 28 with the stated aims of ending the country’s controversial nuclear program and sparking a popular uprising.

However, Iran struck back by establishing de facto control over much of the Strait of Hormuz, a vital passageway for large amounts of global energy and other commodity shipping.

The United States remains locked in a stalemate with Iran over the strait, with Iran denying access to much of the civilian shipping and the US Navy mounting a blockade of Iranian ports in an attempt to cripple its economy.

“We have the blockade. No ships get through unless we want them to,” Trump told the cheering crowd of supporters and police.Trump also urged Americans to accept slightly higher gasoline prices as the cost of preventing Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon.

The comments underscore the growing political risk for Trump as higher fuel prices collide with his campaign promise to ‌lower energy costs, ‌with Democrats already seeking to ‌make ⁠the economic fallout from ⁠the Iran war an issue heading into the November midterm elections.

Americans who had to "pay a tiny little bit more for your gasoline" should remember that this was the cost of ensuring "a ⁠very evil country" could not have a ‌nuclear weapon, Trump said.

"What we're doing ‌is a great service for the world, not ‌only for ourselves ... and we're really doing a ‌great job," said Trump, adding he would never apologize for attacking Iran.

Jared Kushner may visit Israel next week for talks on Gaza, source says

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 09:00:33 +0300

Reuters - US President Donald Trump’s envoy and son-in-law, Jared Kushner, may visit Israel next week for talks on Gaza, a source familiar with the matter said on Thursday.The plans were reported earlier by Axios, which also said that Kushner was planning to meet mediators from Egypt, Qatar and Turkiye as well ‌next week in ‌Cairo.“We agree with the Israelis on the ‌goal ⁠of disarming Hamas ⁠but they have expressed concerns which are valid and we have been working through them,” the source told Reuters, asking not to be identified.The goal of a Kushner visit to Israel will be to “find a pathway to move forward with implementation of the 20 point plan” that Trump put forward for Gaza in late 2025, the source added.Trump said in ⁠late July a deal was reached for the ‌complete disarmament of Palestinian Hamas militants and ‌other armed groups in Gaza.Trump had said the deal would be carried out ‌in phases, with Israeli forces withdrawing from Gaza as disarmament proceeded and ‌an International Stabilization Force working with a new Palestinian police force to secure the enclave.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is seeking re-election at a vote due in October, has publicly rejected Trump’s plan.Hamas has said it agreed ‌to the plan but the deal’s implementation would depend on Israel first meeting its own commitments, including withdrawal ⁠and halting ⁠attacks.The Gaza ceasefire has been repeatedly violated, with more than 1,250 Palestinians, mostly civilians, being killed by Israeli attacks and four Israeli soldiers being killed by militants since the truce began in October, according to Gaza health officials and Israeli tallies, respectively. Hamas does not usually disclose its losses.Gaza has been left devastated by an Israeli military assault that has killed tens of thousands, caused a hunger crisis, internally displaced Gaza’s entire population and led to assessments of genocide by rights experts, scholars and UN inquiries.Israel has called its actions self-defense after Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took more than 250 hostages in an October 2023 attack.

AmCham-Jordan hosts a dialogue on Jordan- U.S. wconomic relations

Thu, 13 Aug 2026 07:42:10 +0300

Jordan Daily - The American Chamber of Commerce in Jordan (AmCham-Jordan) hosted an Executive Lunch titled "Jordan–U.S. Economic Relations: A Business Leaders' Perspective” at the Grand Hyatt Amman. The event was attended by Yarub Qudah, Minister of Industry, Trade and Supply, and Jim Holtsnider, U.S. Ambassador to Jordan.The event brought together business leaders, strategic partners, and AmCham-Jordan members, for a high-level dialogue on advancing bilateral trade, investment, and private-sector cooperation between Jordan and the United States. The event was sponsored by Aqaba Digital Hub.The discussion provided an opportunity to exchange views on emerging commercial and investment opportunities and explore practical measures to strengthen partnerships between Jordanian and American companies, AmCham-Jordan noted in a statement.The recent signing of the United States–Jordan Agreement on Reciprocal Trade presents further opportunities to expand bilateral trade and investment and deepen private-sector collaboration between the two countries. Participants discussed ways to build on the Agreement and seize new opportunities for businesses and investors in Jordan and the United States.During the session, Minster Qudah, said that the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade represents a new stage that complements the longstanding U.S.–Jordan Free Trade Agreement and creates additional opportunities to expand trade and investment in both directions. He noted that the preferential treatment available to a broad range of Jordanian products, particularly textiles and apparel, is expected to strengthen demand for Jordanian products, attract new investment, increase exports, and create additional employment opportunities.In his opening remarks, Samer S. Judeh, Chairman of the AmCham-Jordan Board, reaffirmed the Chamber’s commitment to strengthening the longstanding economic partnership between Jordan and the United States.“The Jordan–U.S. partnership continues to create tangible opportunities for businesses on both sides. AmCham-Jordan remains committed to serving as a trusted platform that brings together the public and private sectors to foster dialogue, expand trade and investment, and support a competitive and resilient business environment,” Judeh said.Jim Holtsnider, U.S. Ambassador to Jordan, said "The agreement on reciprocal trade recognizes the special bonds of U.S.-Jordan friendship and cooperation and unlocks new opportunities for American exporters, building upon almost 25 years of the U.S.-Jordan free-trade agreement, a win-win for both our nations.".Through this initiative, AmCham-Jordan continues to serve as the leading platform connecting businesses and promoting partnerships that strengthen Jordan's economic ties with the United States and support long-term private-sector growth.

King visits Maan, meets leading figures from governorate

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 19:27:10 +0300

Jordan Daily - His Majesty King Abdullah, during a meeting with leading figures and representatives of Maan Governorate on Wednesday, affirmed that safeguarding national interests and upholding Jordan’s stability is the absolute priority, noting that “the land of the Nashama has nothing to fear.”During the meeting, held at Al Hussein bin Talal University, His Majesty said the Jordan Armed Forces-Arab Army and security agencies stand ready to counter any threats to the Kingdom’s territory or airspace.The King noted that his visit to Maan is aimed at exploring opportunities to develop local infrastructure and services, and directed the government to make this a top priority.His Majesty also urged officials to continue field visits to serve citizens and identify their needs.The King discussed his recent visit to the United Kingdom, aimed at boosting investment in Jordan, and emphasised the need to strengthen the national economy and build global economic partnerships.In this context, His Majesty outlined plans for upcoming visits to several key countries, aimed at establishing new market access for Jordanian exports and attracting high-value investments.Speaking at the outreach meeting, Prime Minister Jafar Hassan said the government is moving ahead with the Aqaba-Maan Dry Port, which will serve as a logistics and industrial hub linked to the Aqaba-Shidiyeh railway project. Hassan said it will receive government support to ensure private sector viability, stressing the need to integrate Aqaba Port and the Maan Dry Port under a unified development framework.The prime minister outlined government decisions aimed at addressing investment challenges in the Maan Development Zone, such as reducing land prices and electricity costs. He also highlighted new steps to support the revival of Petra’s tourism sector and restore it as a top global tourism destination, including hosting events to drive tourism and bolster the local economy.Prime Minister Hassan announced that work on the first comprehensive school transportation project, connecting Maan and southern governorates, will commence at the start of the next academic year, with future expansion plans linking it to central and northern governorates. He highlighted the completion of five new schools in Maan, and ongoing work on a further six expected to be completed next year.Regarding Maan Military Hospital, the prime minister said work on the main building has concluded, with the Royal Medical Services in the process of supplying equipment, and that it is expected to be operational next year. He added that the blood bank and outpatient clinic building at Maan Public Hospital have been completed, and construction has begun on a diabetes and endocrinology centre, at a cost of five million dinars.For his part, Royal Hashemite Court Chief Yousef Issawi spoke about the implementation of a number of key Royal initiatives in Maan, particularly in the education, youth, health, social development, tourism, income-generating projects, and municipal services sectors.During the meeting, speakers outlined the governorate’s most pressing needs and challenges, and urged key upgrades in health, education, agriculture, water, transport, infrastructure, and local development, as well as support for military retirees and women’s empowerment. They also expressed their appreciation for the King’s continued support of the governorate and its people.Prior to the meeting, His Majesty visited Al Qantara Centre for Human Resources Development and was briefed on its programmes and services, which have served around 51,000 people across Maan and the Southern Badia region.The King toured the centre’s facilities, which include English language classrooms, a music room, and technical training labs for electronics, programming, and smart systems design.Speaking with youth who use the centre, His Majesty heard how they are benefitting from its programmes and services, and building on their experiences for the advancement of their local communities.Director of the Office of His Majesty Alaa Batayneh, and Adviser to His Majesty for Tribal Affairs Kneiaan Bluwi attended the meeting at Al Hussein bin Talal University.

EU-backed landfill rehabilitation project underway in northern Jordan

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 10:43:23 +0300

Jordan Daily - Modern Environmental Services Company (MESC) is installing geosynthetic lining systems as part of the rehabilitation and development of the Al-Ekaider landfill in northern Jordan, a project funded by the European Union and managed in partnership with the French Development Agency (AFD), with earlier foundational support from Canada through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).The project, located near Jordan’s northern border with Syria, includes the construction of three new landfill cells covering about 257,000 square metres, as well as the capping of an existing dump site covering about 350,000 square metres. The rehabilitation also includes a gas extraction system.Engineer Mohamad Abu Mudeirs, founder and general manager of MESC, told Jordan Daily the new landfill cells incorporate an engineered multi-layer liner system designed to contain leachate and protect surrounding soil and groundwater from potential contamination.On the upper side slopes of the cells, which range in height from about 50 metres to 105 metres, the lining system uses a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) laminated with textured polyethylene (PE), followed by a 2.0 mm double-sided textured high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembrane.A geocomposite drainage layer is installed above the geomembrane, while a 10-centimetre basalt layer provides additional protection against mechanical damage, erosion and exposure.“The configuration combines containment, drainage and protection functions to support the long-term integrity of the liner system under steep slope conditions,” Abu Mudeirs said.The bottom of the cells uses a separate liner configuration designed for smooth interfaces and controlled leachate management. It consists of a secondary GCL laminated with smooth PE, a 2.0 mm smooth HDPE liner, an 800-gram nonwoven geotextile and a 30-centimetre basalt protective layer.According to Abu Mudeirs, the combined GCL and HDPE barriers are intended to provide reliable leachate containment, while the protective layers help reduce the risk of mechanical damage and contribute to long-term liner performance.The steep geometry of the cells, with slopes reaching up to 105 metres in height, makes the stability and integrity of the lining system particularly important, he said.The Al-Ekaider project forms part of efforts to upgrade waste-management infrastructure in northern Jordan and improve the environmental management of the landfill through engineered containment, drainage, rehabilitation and gas management systems.

Al-Kindi Hospital highlights advanced ENT surgery at ‘London’ operating room

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 10:18:18 +0300

Jordan Daily -Al-Kindi Hospital has highlighted its “London” operating room, one of 12 fully equipped theatres at the private hospital, as a dedicated facility for ear, nose and throat (ENT) and rhinoplasty procedures.Operating Room No. 2 is equipped with advanced surgical technology, including a surgical microscope, drills, shavers and nasal endoscopy systems, supporting procedures ranging from rhinoplasty and septoplasty to tonsil and adenoid removal, sinus surgery, ear surgery, cochlear implantation and eardrum reconstruction.The room was designed to meet international standards for quality control and infection prevention, with sterilisation systems and specialist anaesthesia and intensive-care teams monitoring patients before, during and after surgery.The facility is supported by modern inpatient equipment and round-the-clock care, with the hospital saying its aim is to combine specialist medical expertise with advanced technology while maintaining high standards of safety and quality.Al-Kindi’s 12 operating rooms are named after Arab, international and Jordanian cities and landmarks, including Riyadh, Doha, Kuwait, Dubai, Petra, Wadi Rum, Jerash, Hamburg and London. The hospital said the names and related imagery are intended to provide a familiar and reassuring environment for patients, including those travelling to Amman for treatment.Al-Kindi Hospital offers a range of medical specialties and specialised centres, including bariatric and cosmetic surgery, vascular surgery, fertility treatment, lithotripsy, interventional radiology, cancer screening, organ transplantation, cardiac catheterisation and open-heart surgery, as well as emergency and ambulance services.https://www.youtube.com/shorts/TpNLQAL_C-U

Capital Investments advises on $1 bln Iraq’s Al Khairat Thermal Power Plant project

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 09:48:49 +0300

Jordan Daily - Capital Investments, a subsidiary of Capital Bank Group, announced that it has acted as the financial adviser and lead arranger for a US $1 billion financing agreement covering the majority of the first phase of Al Khairat Thermal Power Plant project in Karbala, Iraq. Owned by Harlow Group, the project reinforces the group’s growing role in financing strategic projects across the region and highlights its ability to provide integrated financing solutions for projects with significant economic and developmental impact.Capital Investments organized the financing transaction for Al Khairat Thermal Power Plant Project, one of the largest strategic projects in Iraq’s energy sector. The project aims to increase the amount of electricity supplied to Iraq’s national grid and strengthen the country’s energy security through a new 2,800-megawatt thermal power plant. Phase One is expected to generate 1,400 megawatts, with an operational life spanning between 25 and 40 years. The transaction reflects Capital Investments’ expertise in managing and arranging financing for large-scale strategic projects.Commenting on the agreement, Tamer Ghazaleh, Chief Executive Officer of Capital Bank, said: “This transaction is an important milestone in our continued support for strategic projects that drive economic growth and strengthen infrastructure across the markets we serve.”He added that the group’s leadership of the financing process reflects its specialized banking and investment expertise, as well as its ability to design and structure integrated financing solutions that meet the requirements of major projects and respond to the evolving needs of regional markets.Ghazaleh added that the appointment of Capital Bank and Capital Investments reflects the trust the group has built with its partners and its ability to manage complex financing transactions to the highest professional standards. He noted that the transaction further strengthens the group’s role in supporting major projects that contribute to long-term economic development.The project is expected to play a significant role in improving the use of Iraq’s national resources and meeting the country’s growing demand for electricity. It will also include the construction of approximately 125 kilometers of power transmission lines, along with the installation of an estimated 100,000 to 150,000 smart meters. These upgrades are expected to improve the efficiency of electricity distribution, enhance the reliability of the power grid and support the development of a more resilient and sustainable electricity network.Al Khairat Thermal Power Plant Project is considered a promising development project. In addition to attracting external financing to Iraq, it will contribute to supporting and strengthening the country’s infrastructure and energy projects.The project also builds on the range of financing solutions provided by Capital Bank’s group as part of its strategic partnership with Harlow Group, one of National Bank of Iraq’s key clients. This reflects the bank’s commitment to strengthening its relationships with strategic partners and expanding the range of innovative financial solutions that support economic development and enhance Iraq’s position in regional and international markets.

Crown Prince attends graduation ceremony of Al Hussein Technical University’s sixth cohort

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 07:07:13 +0300

Jordan Daily - HRH Crown Prince Hussein, accompanied by HRH Princess Rajwa, attended on Tuesday the graduation of Al Hussein Technical University (HTU)’s sixth cohort, comprising 450 graduates from various degree programmes and technical and applied specialisations.The university, a Crown Prince Foundation initiative, celebrated the graduation of students who earned bachelor’s degrees, and first- and second-level technical diplomas across academic and applied programmes including industrial, electrical, energy, and mechanical engineering, computer science, data science and artificial intelligence, cyber security, video game design and development, and architectural engineering, in line with its mission to prepare technically qualified professionals for the job market.HTU, also marking the 10th anniversary of its founding this year, was established under the vision of the Crown Prince to deliver innovative, hands-on learning, industry-ready technical education, and strategic industry partnerships to meet the evolving needs of the job market.Speaking at the ceremony, HTU President Ismael Hinti traced HTU’s evolution since its origins at the King Hussein Business Park to its current status as a prominent applied university serving some 3,000 students from governorates across the Kingdom, empowering them with the practical and technological skills needed to tackle real-world challenges.Hinti also announced the launch of the Al Hussein Technical University Endowment, which aims to expand HTU’s scholarship programmes that currently support more than 1000 students at the university. HTU aims to double the impact of these programmes in the coming years, creating equal opportunities for more talented and driven students.The new endowment fund strengthens the sustainability of HTU’s long-term mission by broadening access to technical education for talented youth. The initiative anchors a culture of sustainable giving at the university, ensuring HTU’s educational impact will endure for future generations.His Royal Highness also honoured the top achieving graduates.

GAZOO Racing secures 1-2-3 finish at 75th Rally Finland

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 12:11:36 +0300

Jordan Daily - GAZOO Racing World Rally Team (GR-WRT) celebrated a home podium sweep at Rally Finland, with Sami Pajari and co-driver Marko Salminen securing victory in the No. 5 Toyota GR YARIS Rally1. Teammates Oliver Solberg and Elliott Edmondson finished second in the No. 99 Toyota GR YARIS Rally1, while Elfyn Evans and Scott Martin completed the podium in third aboard the No. 33 Toyota GR YARIS Rally1.Akio Toyoda, GR-WRT Chairman, commented, “Sami, Marko, congratulations on your back-to-back victories and on winning your home rally! It was truly wonderful to see three of our crews standing together on the podium in Jyväskylä. It was the best possible way to thank the local fans for their incredible support. This achievement would not have been possible without the efforts of the mechanics who worked on car 33. They brought the car back to life in just 30 minutes and sent Elfyn and Scott back into the fight without any penalty.”Toyoda added, “Stories of heroic repairs by mechanics are common in the WRC, but when you hear that they replaced the front and rear bumpers, side panel, bonnet, tailgate, left headlight and right-side door, you cannot help but be amazed by their skill. Thank you to all the mechanics for your incredible work.”Held across the fast forest roads of central Finland, the 75th anniversary edition of Rally Finland once again delivered rapidly changing conditions, with challenging weather creating an unpredictable contest throughout the weekend.Pajari and Salminen followed up their maiden WRC victory in Estonia with another standout performance on home roads to secure their second consecutive triumph. The result also marks the 200th victory by a Finnish driver in the FIA World Rally Championship.

Despite losing time in difficult weather conditions during the rally, Pajari and Salminen remained close to the leading pace before moving into the lead at the end of the penultimate leg. Adopting a measured approach through the rally's two final runs of Himos-Jämsa, the longest stage of the event at 30.02 kilometers, they secured victory by 26.7 seconds.Solberg and Edmondson claimed their second consecutive runner-up finish after overcoming the worst of the wet conditions earlier in the rally. The pair capped off the weekend by topping the Super Sunday classification.Evans and Martin recovered after rolling during the penultimate leg to complete the podium in third place. They went on to win the rally-ending Power Stage by just 0.025 seconds while finishing second in the Super Sunday classification, extending Evans' lead in the drivers' championship to 30 points.Following Rally Finland, Toyota has brought its lead in the manufacturers' championship up to 174 points. GR-WRT crews now occupy the top five positions in the drivers' standings, with Evans leading the championship ahead of Pajari, Katsuta, Solberg and Ogier.Toyota’s motorsports history dates back over 60 years. Reflecting the concept that ‘Roads build people, and people build cars’, Toyota has competed in a wide range of motorsport disciplines worldwide. Its major successes, achieved under the most extreme conditions, together with the hard-won knowledge and technical insights they have yielded, continue to serve as the foundation for building ‘ever-better’ cars. GAZOO Racing competes in top-level motorsport categories, such as the FIA World Rally Championship, as well as in customer motorsport activities using production vehicles.Round eleven of the 2026 FIA WRC is Rally del Paraguay (August 27-30), held on demanding stages around Encarnación near the Argentine border. The fast roads feature a red clay surface that provides changing grip levels.Those interested can follow the official Facebook, Instagram and YouTube pages for the latest updates and results from local, regional and international races. Motorsport enthusiasts are also invited to discover the GAZOO Racing lineup at Markazia Toyota’s showroom on Mecca Street.

Trump says will demand conflict compensation from Iran

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 07:16:30 +0300

AFP- US President Donald Trump said Monday he would seek conflict compensation from Iran as part of any peace negotiations, citing attacks and killings stretching back decades allegedly backed or perpetrated by Tehran.Negotiations on ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz have stalled, and his new demands risk putting a quick agreement further out of reach.Trump’s announcement was a direct response to Iran’s insistence that US payment of war reparations are a pre-condition to any resolution of the ongoing hostilities.“I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran,” he said, noting that his demand included not only damages arising from the current war, but also Iranian attacks on US targets going back more than two decades as well as payments to the families of Iranian protesters killed by authorities over the past 50 years.In a later post, Trump also said that the Islamic republic should be responsible for deaths and damage it caused in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Gaza.In what has become a regular pattern, Trump last week threatened to hit Iran “very hard,” potentially with attacks against civilian infrastructure, only to pull back, hinting a peace deal was near.Trump this weekend said he was “low-keying” his approach to the conflict, suggesting that he was prepared to let economic pressure mount in place of further military strikes.Digital media outlet Axios said that the US president did not express any frustration with Iran’s delaying an agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz in their interview with him published Sunday.Tehran has demanded that the US first end its blockade of Iranian ports and lift sanctions on its oil industry.As negotiations have floundered, the strait’s blockage by Iran has sent fuel prices soaring and rattled the world economy, putting pressure on Trump ahead of midterm elections in November.In his post, Trump referenced the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, which he has previously said Iran was “probably involved” in.On Monday he said his various demands for compensations would be put “firmly into any, and all, future negotiations” with Iran.