Desalination attracts private sector in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia’s drive to sharply expand its water desalination capacity is drawing growing interest from private operators and financiers

Saudi’s desalination push is drawing big private interest. The kingdom already accounts for ~25% of global capacity and plans a 40% increase by 2030.

The problem is sustainability: desalination is energy-intensive in a country reliant on fossil fuels.

www.agbi.com/analysis/inf...

Saudi Arabia to reintroduce lions after more than 100 years The Royal Reserve in Saudi Arabia is planning to release Asiatic lions into the wild a century after the species was hunted to extinction

Excl: Saudi Arabia is planning to release lions into the wild after they were hunted to extinction more than a century ago.

It is one of more than 23 threatened or endangered species the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Royal Reserve is looking to reintroduce.

www.agbi.com/tourism/2026...

Mass graves point to grim fate of 105,000 ‘disappeared’ Syrians At one site about 50 kilometres northeast of the capital, local officials say that many thousands were buried in secret during Bashar al-Assad’s regime

Combining satellite imagery and on the ground reporting from Oliver Marsden and @edmundbower.bsky.social we reported on the horrific scale of mass graves in Syria following the fall of Assad 👇

www.thetimes.com/world/middle...

🧵This man poses an existential threat that could irreparably divide Syria, yet ironically, addressing this threat head-on in such sensitive times risks being misinterpreted as an attempt to sow division. But Ahmad Al-Awda is a ticking time-bomb.

Here’s why:

So stunned that my pic of this burning of Assad has made @thetimes.com "defining photos of the year". Thanks to @edmundbower.bsky.social for telling me, & to the @irishtimes.bsky.social for putting it on their front page last week. #syria www.thetimes.com/culture/phot...

‘We have a job to do’: joy tempered by reality for returning Syrian exiles Some who had fled the regime raced back to Damascus to join the celebrations. Now they want to help those who lived through the darkest days of the war

I spoke to some of the first Syrian exiles who returned following the fall of the Assad regime. Many prefer to wait and see how things pan out, but a few came back at the first opportunity to help support the country through its transition.

www.thetimes.com/world/middle...

Files from Aleppo intelligence facility show extent of Assad repression Branch 322 was one of hundreds of facilities that detained and interrogated civilians and military officers, and recruited locals to monitor their neighbors.

The Washington Post visits a General Intelligence Directorate facility in Aleppo, finding copious surveillance records alongside evidence of torture and abuse.

@leloveluck.bsky.social
@salwangeorges.bsky.social

www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

Syria’s once-teeming prison cells being emptied by mass murder Assad’s government is doubling down on the killing of political prisoners as the civil war heads towards its end

I’m receiving a lot of messages asking why we only wrote about Assad’s jails after the regime fell - so for the avoidance of doubt, we didn’t. For context on what happened in Sednaya, here is our investigation into executions there as the pace accelerated: www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/201...

The Syrian pound has strengthened massively against the dollar in the last week. A dollar got you SYP 15,000 when I arrived last Sunday. Today it gets you around SYP 11,000 in Damascus.

Driving around Damascus today things feel much more normal. Rush hour traffic in the morning, businesses open, cars stopping at red lights (which they weren’t last week).

Yesterday Oliver Marsden and @edmundbower.bsky.social
visited suspected mass grave sites in Damascus for @thetimes.com

At one site, a gravedigger spoke of trucks of bodies arriving weekly, dripping blood down the road

Satellite analysis supports these claims 👇

www.thetimes.com/world/middle...

In Qutayfa, @edmundbower.bsky.social met a teacher Mohammad Abou al-Bahaa who witnessed soldiers unloading corpses into purpose-built trenches

He estimated at least 2,000 bodies are buried at this site, which became a Hezbollah base two years ago

Syria’s minorities wait in fear of repression and retribution Most of the Alawites favoured by Assad’s regime have fled the capital, while Christians worry the Islamist HTS will restrict their freedoms

I spoke to religious minorities living in Damascus who are cautiously optimistic for the future but concerned about what comes next. So far they say they have been pleased with the how things have unfolded but worry about living under an Islamist govt.

www.thetimes.com/world/middle...

Got me bang to rights there…

Inside Sednaya prison, Assad’s ‘human slaughterhouse’ Thousands of Syrians are searching for clues to the whereabouts of loved ones jailed, tortured and killed by the regime

Thousands ascended the hill to Sednaya Prison yesterday in search of loved ones taken by the Assad regime. They poured over prison records and pulled apart the concrete of “Assad’s slaughterhouse” looking for a second prison underground, but in vain.

My story here:

www.thetimes.com/world/middle...

Syria’s al-Assad is in Moscow: Reports Syria’s ousted leader Bashar al-Assed is in Russia’s capital Moscow, Russian agencies report, citing a source in the Kremlin.Developing

Russian media is reporting that Assad is in Moscow, which means that Russia has accepted its first Syrian refugee english.alarabiya.net/News/middle-...

Just got to Damascus. Streets are eerily quiet amidst the curfew. There are number of abandoned military vehicles on the road from the Leb border, one still burning. Saw many discarded army uniforms on the road approaching the city, apparently from deserting soldiers.

Festival atmosphere on the road to the border from Lebanon to Syria.

“I’ve been here for 14 years,” one 19-year-old boy from Aleppo told me. He has spent almost his whole life as a refugee.

“Now I’m going home”.

Syrian state TV airs statement saying Assad has been overthrown Syrian state television aired a video statement saying that President Bashar Assad has been overthrown and all detainees in jails have been set free.

#Syria-n state TV airs statement saying Assad has been overthrown

The fall of Bashar Assad after 14 years of war in Syria brings to an end a decades-long dynasty

apnews.com/article/syri...

I should add that other friends have family currently living in Syria who are nervous about what comes next.

One family (Alawite) joined the congested roads from the Damascene suburbs last night to flee to Latakia after hearing “heavy gunfire” close to their neighbourhood.

Speaking to a Syrian friend in Lebanon today he told me his excitement at the news that the regime has fallen:

“I’m going back to my country after 13 years, seven months, and 23 days.

“Today is a celebration”.

Christians in Aleppo fear for their future after Islamist takeover Though the rebels, once affiliated with al-Qaeda, have sought to soften their image in recent years, many worry they will revert to their repressive roots.

Aleppo has long been home to one of Syria’s largest and most vibrant Christian communities.

@joesnellreports.bsky.social and I spoke to a number of Christians there about their current situation and how they see their future after the HTS capture of the city
www.washingtonpost.com/world/2024/1...

Egypt's historic rent controls are a problem to be solved So-called 'old rent' contracts in Egypt can be extremely low, and the government is attempting to balance landlords' and tenants' priorities

I'm a little jealous, I'm not going to lie: "On the open market, rents for a four-bedroom apartment in Manial generally start at around EGP 20,000 a month ($402.95). But Ahmed and his mother pay just EGP 8 ($0.16)." From @edmundbower.bsky.social
www.agbi.com/analysis/peo...

In Beirut today, one person I interviewed had his home destroyed.

His family was unhurt because his mother was already in the hospital.

As he swept the dust from the now exposed stairwell, he said that his thoughts were with Gaza.

“We haven’t experienced 1% of what Gaza has,” he told me.

Blast just heard now in Hamra.

In case you missed it… finally made it somewhere safe but:

#Lebanon: 4 Israeli evacuation warnings for central Beirut including near the busy Hamra street. Traffic and chaos everywhere as people flee.

Warnings call for people to stay 50 meters away instead of the usual 500.

Seeing people in Hamra for the first time since the escalation carrying bags and pets in carry cases.

Seeing people waiting outside hotels in Hamra waiting for the strikes. Al the hotels here are filled with those who have been displaced at least once. Some multiple times.

The streets in Hamra are jammed with people trying to leave after strike announcements.

It was rush hour anyway, and the population is triple what it normally is with displaced people from other areas seeking refuge.

Per CNN: ceasefire meeting postponed.

Meanwhile, further airstrikes on Beirut are expected imminently.