Saudi fashion icon Nojoud Al-Rumaihi named haute couture ambassador
Influencer will share shows, events from Haute Couture Fashion Week with a global audience
Updated 28 June 2024
Arab News
DUBAI: The Federation de la Haute Couture et de la Mode, the organization that oversees Paris Fashion Week and Haute Couture Week, has appointed Saudi influencer Nojoud Al-Rumaihi, who is also a fashion and luxury consultant, as an ambassador for haute couture.
Through the ambassadorship, the federation and Al-Rumaihi will collaborate to share the latest shows, collections and events from the upcoming Haute Couture Fashion Week, which runs from June 24-27, with audiences around the world, according to a statement.
The edit featured the influencer’s top picks from labels such as London-based Roksanda, New York-based fashion house Markarian, British brand Self-Portrait, and red-carpet mainstay Taller Marmo.
It was the e-tailer’s third partnership with Al-Rumaihi, which the influencer previously told Arab News was key in understanding the coveted Saudi market.
“Having a Saudi creative perspective can help international brands and e-tailers gain valuable local cultural insights with an authentic perspective that can help them connect with the Saudi market more effectively,” she said, adding that including local voices in the decision-making process can ensure international brands project a message that is culturally relevant.
*Arab News has made changes to this article after publication, including removing an interview with Ms. Nojoud Al-Rumaihi.
Israel says it has received names of deceased hostages to be released from Gaza
Updated 2 min 32 sec ago
Netanyahu said: “Tomorrow will be a very difficult day for the state of Israel”
JERUSALEM: Israel has received the list of the deceased hostages who will be released from Gaza on Thursday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Wednesday, without naming them, though their families have been informed. In a separate video statement, Netanyahu said: “Tomorrow will be a very difficult day for the state of Israel. An upsetting day, a day of grief. We bring home four of our beloved hostages, deceased. We embrace the families, and the heart of an entire nation is torn. My heart is torn.”
Netanyahu appoints adviser with Trump ties to lead ceasefire talks
US-born Ron Dermer is a Cabinet minister who’s widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser
Previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the US and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to Trump White House
Updated 3 min 7 sec ago
AFP
JERUSALEM: An Israeli official said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has appointed a close confidant to lead negotiations for the second stage of the ceasefire with Hamas.
The US-born Ron Dermer is a Cabinet minister who’s widely seen as Netanyahu’s closest adviser. He previously served as Israel’s ambassador to the US and is a former Republican activist with strong ties to the Trump White House.
Israel and Hamas have yet to negotiate the second and more difficult phase of the ceasefire, and the first ends in early March. Previous talks have been led by the heads of the Mossad and Shin Bet security agencies.
Palestinians and Arab countries have universally rejected US President Donald Trump’s proposal to remove the Palestinian population from Gaza and take over the territory.
Since the war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, 2023, more than 50,000 people have died in Gaza and Lebanon and nearly 70 percent of the buildings in Gaza have been devastated, according to health ministries in Gaza and Lebanon. Around 1,200 people were killed in Israel during the Oct. 7 attack.
Thousands of Palestinian families flee West Bank homes as Israel confronts militants
“This is our nakba,” said Abed Sabagh, 53, who bundled his seven children into the car on Feb. 9 as sound bombs blared in Nur Shams camp
Ahmad Sobuh could understand how his neighbors chose to flee the Far’a refugee camp during Israel’s 10-day incursion
Updated 19 min 35 sec ago
AP
FAR’A REFUGEE CAMP, West Bank: By car and on foot, through muddy olive groves and snipers’ sight lines, tens of thousands of Palestinians in recent weeks have fled Israeli military operations across the northern West Bank — the largest displacement in the occupied territory since the 1967 Mideast war.
After announcing a widespread crackdown against West Bank militants on Jan. 21 — just two days after its ceasefire deal with Hamas in Gaza — Israeli forces descended on the restive city of Jenin, as they have dozens of times since Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel.
But unlike past operations, Israeli forces then pushed deeper and more forcefully into several other nearby towns, including Tulkarem, Far’a and Nur Shams, scattering families and stirring bitter memories of the 1948 war over Israel’s creation.
During that war, 700,000 Palestinians fled or were forced from their homes in what is now Israel. That Nakba, or “catastrophe,” as Palestinians call it, gave rise to the crowded West Bank towns now under assault and still known as refugee camps.
“This is our nakba,” said Abed Sabagh, 53, who bundled his seven children into the car on Feb. 9 as sound bombs blared in Nur Shams camp, where he was born to parents who fled the 1948 war.
Tactics from Gaza
Humanitarian officials say they haven’t seen such displacement in the West Bank since the 1967 Mideast war, when Israel captured the territory west of the Jordan River, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, displacing another 300,000 Palestinians.
“This is unprecedented. When you add to this the destruction of infrastructure, we’re reaching a point where the camps are becoming uninhabitable,” said Roland Friedrich, director of West Bank affairs for the UN Palestinian refugee agency. More than 40,100 Palestinians have fled their homes in the ongoing military operation, according to the agency.
Experts say that Israel’s tactics in the West Bank are becoming almost indistinguishable from those deployed in Gaza. Already, President Donald Trump’s plan for the mass transfer of Palestinians out of Gaza has emboldened Israel’s far-right to renew calls for annexation of the West Bank.
“The idea of ‘cleansing’ the land of Palestinians is more popular today than ever before,” said Yagil Levy, head of the Institute for the Study of Civil-Military Relations at Britain’s Open University.
The Israeli army denies issuing evacuation orders in the West Bank. It said troops secure passages for those wanting to leave on their own accord.
Seven minutes to leave home
Over a dozen displaced Palestinians interviewed in the last week said they did not flee their homes out of fear, but on the orders of Israeli security forces. Associated Press journalists in the Nur Shams camp also heard Israeli soldiers shouting through mosque megaphones, ordering people to leave.
Some displaced families said soldiers were polite, knocking on doors and assuring them they could return when the army left. Others said they were ruthless, ransacking rooms, waving rifles and hustling residents out of their homes despite pleas for more time.
“I was sobbing, asking them, ‘Why do you want me to leave my house?’ My baby is upstairs, just let me get my baby please,’” Ayat Abdullah, 30, recalled from a shelter for displaced people in the village of Kafr Al-Labd. “They gave us seven minutes. I brought my children, thank God. Nothing else.”
Told to make their own way, Abdullah trudged 10 kilometers (six miles) on a path lighted only by the glow from her phone as rain turned the ground to mud. She said she clutched her children tight, braving possible snipers that had killed a 23-year-old pregnant woman just hours earlier on Feb. 9.
Her 5-year-old son, Nidal, interrupted her story, pursing his lips together to make a loud buzzing sound.
“You’re right, my love,” she replied. “That’s the sound the drones made when we left home.”
Hospitality, for now
In the nearby town of Anabta, volunteers moved in and out of mosques and government buildings that have become makeshift shelters — delivering donated blankets, serving bitter coffee, distributing boiled eggs for breakfast and whipping up vats of rice and chicken for dinner.
Residents have opened their homes to families fleeing Nur Shams and Tulkarem.
“This is our duty in the current security situation,” said Thabet A’mar, the mayor of Anabta.
But he stressed that the town’s welcoming hand should not be mistaken for anything more.
“We insist that their displacement is temporary,” he said.
Staying put
When the invasion started on Feb. 2, Israeli bulldozers ruptured underground pipes. Taps ran dry. Sewage gushed. Internet service was shut off. Schools closed. Food supplies dwindled. Explosions echoed.
Ahmad Sobuh could understand how his neighbors chose to flee the Far’a refugee camp during Israel’s 10-day incursion. But he scavenged rainwater to drink and hunkered down in his home, swearing to himself, his family and the Israeli soldiers knocking at his door that he would stay.
The soldiers advised against that, informing Sobuh’s family on Feb. 11 that, because a room had raised suspicion for containing security cameras and an object resembling a weapon, they would blow up the second floor.
The surveillance cameras, which Israeli soldiers argued could be exploited by Palestinian militants, were not unusual in the volatile neighborhood, Sobuh said, as families can observe street battles and Israeli army operations from inside.
But the second claim sent him clambering upstairs, where he found his nephew’s water pipe, shaped like a rifle.
Hours later, the explosion left his nephew’s room naked to the wind and shattered most others. It was too dangerous to stay.
“They are doing everything they can to push us out,” he said of Israel’s military, which, according to the UN agency for refugees, has demolished hundreds of homes across the four camps this year.
The Israeli army has described its ongoing campaign as a crucial counterterrorism effort to prevent attacks like Oct. 7, and said steps were taken to mitigate the impact on civilians.
A chilling return
The first thing Doha Abu Dgheish noticed about her family’s five-story home 10 days after Israeli troops forced them to leave, she said, was the smell.
Venturing inside as Israeli troops withdrew from Far’a camp, she found rotten food and toilets piled with excrement. Pet parakeets had vanished from their cages. Pages of the Qur’an had been defaced with graphic drawings. Israeli forces had apparently used explosives to blow every door off its hinges, even though none had been locked.
Rama, her 11-year-old daughter with Down syndrome, screamed upon finding her doll’s skirt torn and its face covered with more graphic drawings.
AP journalists visited the Abu Dgheish home on Feb. 12, hours after their return.
Nearly two dozen Palestinians interviewed across the four West Bank refugee camps this month described army units taking over civilian homes to use as a dormitories, storerooms or lookout points. The Abu Dgheish family accused Israeli soldiers of vandalizing their home, as did multiple families in Far’a.
The Israeli army blamed militants for embedding themselves in civilian infrastructure. Soldiers may be “required to operate from civilian homes for varying periods,” it said, adding that the destruction of civilian property was a violation of the military’s rules and does not conform to its values.
It said “any exceptional incidents that raise concerns regarding a deviation from these orders” are “thoroughly addressed,” without elaborating.
For Abu Dgheish, the mess was emblematic of the emotional whiplash of return. No one knows when they’ll have to flee again.
“It’s like they want us to feel that we’re never safe,” she said. ”That we have no control.”
KARACHI: Pakistan’s Finance Minister Muhammad Aurangzeb on Wednesday told a World Bank delegation that the country has enough financial assistance, stressing that it requires technical support and expertise to make the most of it.
A delegation of nine executive directors of the World Bank arrived in Pakistan this week to discuss the country’s economic projects and investments, meeting Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Monday.
The World Bank last month announced it would provide Pakistan with $20 billion in loans over the next decade. These loans are expected to be invested in nutrition, education and renewable energies in the hope of stimulating private-sector growth in the country.
“We have enough financial support and assistance; what we truly need now is the expertise and technical support to make the most of them,” Aurangzeb was quoted by Pakistan’s Finance Division as saying in a statement.
Aurangzeb appreciated the international institution’s support for Pakistan’s economic growth and development agenda. He outlined the government’s structural reforms, focusing on revenue mobilization, energy sector reforms, restructuring of state-owned enterprises and privatization efforts.
“He emphasized the government’s focus on fiscal discipline through expenditure control and broadening the tax base, highlighting ongoing rightsizing efforts and projected revenue growth,” the Finance Division said.
The minister reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to privatize loss-making public assets, saying that Islamabad was committed to ensuring a business-friendly environment where the private sector takes the lead in driving economic growth.
The Finance Division said that the delegation appreciated Pakistan’s reform agenda, noting that key economic measures were already yielding visible results.
“Your government has been successful in touching every important aspect of the economy, and things seem to be achievable now if you stay the course,” the delegation said, as per the Finance Division.
The World Bank officials also reaffirmed the institution’s commitment to continuing its collaboration with Pakistan, supporting priority sectors and providing the necessary technical expertise to help the country navigate economic challenges, the Finance Division said.
Cash-strapped Pakistan has long suffered from a macroeconomic crisis, which caused it to come to the brink of a sovereign default in 2023. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) rescued Islamabad by agreeing to a last-gasp $3 billion bailout in 2023.
Last year, Islamabad secured a new $7 billion loan deal from the IMF. Since then, the country’s economy has started improving with weekly inflation coming down from 27 percent in 2023 to 1.8 percent in January year-on-year.
Witness Stand gears up for Saudi Cup’s $2m 1351 Turf Sprint
Updated 19 February 2025
Arab News
LONDON: Urloxhey Stables is set for its first international flat runner as Witness Stand prepares to line up in the $2 million 1351 Turf Sprint at the Saudi Cup on Saturday.
The Worcestershire-based training partnership of National Hunt trainer Richard Newland and co-trainer Jamie Insole is making a significant leap onto the global racing stage with the four-year-old gelding.
Witness Stand, a Listed winner at Newbury last autumn under jockey Kieran Shoemark, is the highest-rated UK entry in the prestigious 7-furlong contest. Shoemark, who guided the son of Expert Eye to two victories last season, will renew his partnership in Riyadh.
Acquired for 100,000 guineas ($132,159) at the Tattersalls Autumn Horses in Training Sale, Witness Stand was identified as a value buy by Insole on behalf of owners Scott and Debbie Turner.
Recalling the acquisition, Insole told Great British Racing International: “We initially thought he’d be too pricey and his consignors Barton Stud brought him out to show me and I told them to put him away as he’d be too expensive. We were delighted to secure him and we’re excited to campaign him in 2025 and beyond.”
After arriving at Urloxhey Stables in November, Witness Stand was given a short break before returning to training. Insole has been steadily building up the gelding’s fitness, incorporating two away days at Wolverhampton to sharpen him for the Saudi challenge.
Urloxhey Stables is set for its first international flat runner as Witness Stand prepares to line up in the $2 million 1351 Turf Sprint at the Saudi Cup on Saturday. (Supplied)
“He’s a compact horse who carries his condition well, but the next 10 days will sharpen him up further,” Insole said.
The Saudi Cup’s unique seven-furlong test, which brings together sprinters stretching out and milers cutting back in trip, will pose tactical challenges. However, Insole believes Witness Stand’s adaptability is a key asset.
“The seven-furlong trip is perfect for him in a race that brings together five and six-furlong sprinters and milers dropping back in distance. He’s shown good form on quick ground at Goodwood, so that holds no concern,” he said.
Shoemark, who will travel to Saudi Arabia for a sole ride aboard Witness Stand, is optimistic about the gelding’s chances.
“He’s done a couple of pieces of work at Wolverhampton, and I’m happy with where he is at this stage,” Shoemark said. “The quick ground and track in Saudi won’t be an issue — he’s incredibly versatile both in terms of ground and trip. All he did last year was improve in a short space of time, and with his rating of 114, he fully deserves his place in this field.”
Witness Stand’s strong autumn campaign coincided with the addition of cheekpieces, which will remain in place for the Saudi Cup.
“They’ve sharpened him up and he’s worked well at home in them, so we see no reason to change what’s proven to be successful,” Insole added.
The Saudi Cup’s unique seven-furlong test, which brings together sprinters stretching out and milers cutting back in trip, will pose tactical challenges. However, Insole believes Witness Stand’s (pictured) adaptability is a key asset. (Supplied)
Shoemark also praised Insole’s approach to training, highlighting his ambition and results.
“Jamie is very passionate and proactive, and he’s not afraid to run his horses. His results last year speak for themselves, and with the quality two-year-olds and pedigrees he’s added to the yard, I think there’s more success ahead,” he said.
The international campaign marks a significant step forward for Urloxhey Stables, which was formed in December 2023 when Insole joined forces with Grand National-winning trainer Newland. Since then, the duo has sent out 27 winners on the flat and currently trains 35 National Hunt horses and 65 flat horses, including 27 two-year-olds.
“It’s a huge step,” Insole admitted.
“Last year, we showed we could improve older horses and develop two-year-olds. Now, we want to prove we can compete on the biggest stage and attract international owners. This race is fully funded, so it’s a free hit at big prize money. Even finishing sixth would bring home £50,000 ($62,914).”
Young British trainers such as George Boughey and George Scott have expanded their global presence in Dubai, Qatar and Bahrain, and Insole hopes this race will be the catalyst for a similar international profile for Urloxhey Stables, adding: “We’re hoping he can run a big race and we can prove we are a professional outfit who mean business.”