The Academy for Cultural Diplomacy: Turning soft power into smart power
Over the past two decades the ICD has grown to become one of Europe’s leading cultural exchange organizations, with programs extending to every continent of the world
The academy, quickly expanded to a major campus in Berlin in 2014, and then in 2020 opened its second campus in a castle, Schloss Bornheim, outside of the former capital of Germany, Bonn
Updated 6 min 51 sec ago
TAREK ALI AHMAD
April 06, 2021 12:19
LONDON: During a childhood trip to Israel and Palestine, Mark Donfried witnessed, for the first-time, serious violence between peoples who share their roots within one culture.
Saudi Arabia’s city of roses welcomes visitors
I am very happy to be working as a tour guide as I am a nature and environment enthusiast and I feel very accomplished when I am entertaining the tourists. Awad Al-Talhi
Updated 17 April 2021
April 16, 2021 23:36
TAIF: Every year in March and April, people flock to Taif city to enjoy the fragrance of its pink roses and the captivating landscape of the Rose Festival.
The festival takes visitors to the authentic rose gardens and fruit orchards, where they can explore the stages of flower development from picking, cooking, distillation, and finally turning them into products.
RIYADH: London’s Heathrow airport faces opposition from some board members to its plan to raise £2.8 billion ($3.8 billion) from airlines and customers by increasing airport prices, the Telegraph reported.
The plan is “unreasonable, not in the consumer interest and should be rejected,” said Qatar Airways, whose owner, the Qatar Investment Authority, is also Heathrow’s second-biggest shareholder.
The airline’s top executive, Akbar Al-Baker, is a representative of the Gulf state on Heathrow’s board of directors.
Heathrow’s demands to change a complex regulatory framework so it could recoup losses caused by the pandemic, have been rejected by the Civil Aviation Authority, the newspaper said.
Since the beginning of this year, there have been countless reports of the possibility of Turkey “normalizing” its relations with Egypt, Israel and the Gulf countries. These reports have a basis in reality, as Turkish officials have on several occasions made it clear that Ankara wants to mend ties with these regional actors in particular those in the Gulf and especially
DUBAI: Abu Dhabi-based food group Agthia is seeking to add high value acquisitions while also targeting savings of 200 million dirhams ($54.4 million) by 2025, the company said on Monday.
Agthia, which owns the popular Al Ain water brand, revealed its updated growth plan in a stock exchange filing.
“The Agthia strategy over the next five years will focus on improving the efficiency of our existing businesses, and pursuing new scalable opportunities in our region,” Khalifa Sultan Al-Suwaidi, Agthia Group chairman, said.
Agthia has already acquired three companies in recent months.
It comes as regional food producers benefit from rising demand and improved margins as more people stocked up on groceries during the lockdowns of the last year.