BARAA ANWER

People attend a celebration for the start of Tesla operations in Saudi Arabia in historic Diriyah near Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Thursday, April 10, 2025 (AP Photo/Baraa Anwer)
Tesla launches in Saudi Arabia with its first showroom and service center in Riyadh
Tesla has officially launched in Saudi Arabia, marking a new chapter in the company’s global expansion after Elon Musk’s troubled relationship with the kingdom.
 
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud speaks during a press briefing, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, Jan. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Baraa Anwer)
EU ministers will consider easing sanctions on Syria at a meeting later in January
The European Union’s foreign policy chief says the bloc’s foreign ministers will discuss easing sanctions imposed on Syria at a Jan. 27 meeting in Brussels.
 
A view of the red carpet at the Red Sea International Film Festival in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Dec. 6, 2024. The festival highlights global and regional talent as part of Saudi Arabia’s growing cinema industry. (AP Photo/Baraa Anwer) •
Saudi Arabia banned film for 35 years. The Red Sea festival is just one sign of the industry’s rise
“My Driver and I” was supposed to be made in 2016, but was scuttled amid Saudi Arabia’s decades-long cinema ban. Eight years later, the landscape for film in the kingdom looks much different. And the star of “My Driver and I” now has an award.
 
A view of the Red Sea International Film Festival banner displayed in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Thursday, Dec. 5, 2024. (AP Photo/Baraa Anwer)
Hollywood and the Middle East mix at Red Sea International Film Festival
One of the Middle East’s fastest-growing film festivals opened Thursday in Saudi Arabia, attracting filmmakers and stars from around the world to present over 120 films from 81 countries in Jeddah’s historic Al-Balad district.
 
FILE - Commissioner-General of the U.N. agency for Palestinian Refugees Philippe Lazzarini speaks during a news conference in Beirut, Lebanon, May 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Bilal Hussein, File)
Banning UNRWA will lead to a vacuum and more suffering for Palestinians, the agency’s chief says
The head of the U.N. agency caring for Palestinian refugees says that newly passed Israeli laws effectively banning its activities in Israel will leave a vacuum that will cost more lives and create further in Gaza and the West Bank.
 
This is a locator map for Yemen with its capital, Sanaa. (AP Photo)
Yemen’s Houthi rebels detain 11 UN staffers as well as aid workers in sudden crackdown
Eleven Yemeni employees of United Nations agencies have been detained by Yemen’s Houthi rebels under unclear circumstances. That’s according to the U.N.
 
From left, members of the band Seera including Thing, Noura, Hayahuascah and Meesh take a selfie during an interview with The Associated Press in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Sunday, May 12, 2024. A public performance by Seera, an all-women psychedelic rock band that blends traditional Arabic melodies with the resurgent psychedelia of bands like Tame Impala, would have been unthinkable just years earlier in the kingdom. (AP Photo/Baraa Anwer)
In Saudi Arabia, an all-women psychedelic rock band jams out as its conservative society loosens up
As Saudi Arabia liberalizes some aspects of its society, an all-women psychedelic rock band that recently performed in the kingdom’s capital is an example showing some Saudi women are now finding their voice through the arts.
 
FILE - Paintings decorate the walls of the Saint Sophia Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Kyiv, Ukraine, Saturday, March 26, 2022. The U.N.’s World Heritage Committee has placed two major historical sites in Ukraine on its list of such sites that it considers to be in danger, Friday, Sept. 15, 2023. The iconic Saint Sophia Cathedral and the medieval center of the western city of Lviv, are UNESCO World Heritage Sites central to Ukraine’s culture and history. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda, File)
UNESCO puts 2 locations in war-ravaged Ukraine on its list of historic sites in danger
The U.N.’s World Heritage Committee has placed two major historical sites in Ukraine on its list of such sites that it considers to be in danger. The iconic St.
 
Don’t inject an ad after an H2 header testing
The presidential and parliamentary elections taking place Wednesday are crucial to determining the future of a southern African nation endowed with vast mineral resources and rich agricultural land. But for many people in the educated but underemployed population, the daily grind to put food on the
 
FILE - Storage tanks are seen at the North Jiddah bulk plant, an Aramco oil facility, in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, on March 21, 2021. Saudi Arabia's state-run oil giant Aramcobrought in $30 billion in revenues in the second quarter of 2023, a nearly 40% decline from the same period the previous year, which it attributed to lower crude oil prices. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil, File)
Saudi oil giant Aramco reports $30B in profits, down nearly 40% from last year due to lower prices
Saudi state-run oil giant Aramco has made $30 billion in profit in the second quarter, a nearly 40% decline from the same period the previous year. It attributed the decline to lower crude oil prices.