Japan’s SoftBank Group and Saudi Arabia agreed to build a $200 billion solar power development in the kingdom, which will be the largest in the world, create thousands of jobs and cultivate a manufacturing industry in line with the kingdom's economic diversification plans.
The agreement was concluded by SoftBank founder and Japan’s wealthiest man Masayoshi Son, and Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman who is on a three week visit to the United States.
The partnership is part of the collaboration between Softbank and Saudi Arabia, which has committed to invest as much as $45bn in a $100bn Softbank fund through its sovereign wealth fund, the Public Investment Fund.
“This is the first big investment in the Saudi kingdom to create the world’s biggest solar power generation,” Mr Son said in New York where the agreement was announced. “This kind of project would have never been feasible without the big vision that we share with the crown prince.”
The project is in line with Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 which seeks to reduce the country's reliance on oil and transform its economy. The overarching roadmap includes creating an industrial base, and the privatisation of state-owned entities such as Saudi Aramco which based on a $2 trillion valuation is set to be the world's largest initial public offering when it is listed.
The 200 gigawatts solar power generation project will create clean, sustainable, and low cost renewable energy, Mr Son said.
“The kingdom has great sunshine, great size of available land, and great engineers and great laborers. Most importantly the best and greatest vision,” he said. “With this scale of this specific project we can create the manufacturing facility inside the kingdom. We can create a factory inside the kingdom, so we can have the largest and newest technology.”
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Mr Son said the project, set to be completed by 2030, will create 100,000 jobs and reduce the cost of generating electricity as the kingdom has burned oil to generate power.
“The cost saving with this project we estimate is $40 billion. This will increase the GDP [of Saudi Arabia] by $12bn, that is our estimate,” Mr Son said. “We will create a total new ecosystem in the kingdom.”
He said construction of the new solar park, which will be spread around the kingdom and will not exclusive be to a single area, begins immediately. The project will be built in phases with the first stage generating electricity in 2019. Manufacturing capability will follow two years after.
“We will also create the R&D centre and education and training centre so the new technology continues to evolve,” Mr Son said.
The cost of the first stage of the project will be $5bn and the remaining portion of the project will be through project debt financing.
In October last year, Saudi Arabia said it planned to build Neom, a mega-city also being billed as a “start-up the size of a country”, that will span 26,500 square kilometres. It will cost $500bn to develop with funding coming from PIF and international investors such as Softbank. Former Alcoa and Siemens executive Klaus Kleinfeld has been appointed to lead the project.
In numbers: PKK’s money network in Europe
Germany: PKK collectors typically bring in $18 million in cash a year – amount has trebled since 2010
Revolutionary tax: Investigators say about $2 million a year raised from ‘tax collection’ around Marseille
Extortion: Gunman convicted in 2023 of demanding $10,000 from Kurdish businessman in Stockholm
Drug trade: PKK income claimed by Turkish anti-drugs force in 2024 to be as high as $500 million a year
Denmark: PKK one of two terrorist groups along with Iranian separatists ASMLA to raise “two-digit million amounts”
Contributions: Hundreds of euros expected from typical Kurdish families and thousands from business owners
TV channel: Kurdish Roj TV accounts frozen and went bankrupt after Denmark fined it more than $1 million over PKK links in 2013
Electoral College Victory
Trump has so far secured 295 Electoral College votes, according to the Associated Press, exceeding the 270 needed to win. Only Nevada and Arizona remain to be called, and both swing states are leaning Republican. Trump swept all five remaining swing states, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, sealing his path to victory and giving him a strong mandate.
Popular Vote Tally
The count is ongoing, but Trump currently leads with nearly 51 per cent of the popular vote to Harris’s 47.6 per cent. Trump has over 72.2 million votes, while Harris trails with approximately 67.4 million.
2025 Fifa Club World Cup groups
Group A: Palmeiras, Porto, Al Ahly, Inter Miami.
Group B: Paris Saint-Germain, Atletico Madrid, Botafogo, Seattle.
Group C: Bayern Munich, Auckland City, Boca Juniors, Benfica.
Group D: Flamengo, ES Tunis, Chelsea, (Leon banned).
Group E: River Plate, Urawa, Monterrey, Inter Milan.
Group F: Fluminense, Borussia Dortmund, Ulsan, Mamelodi Sundowns.
Group G: Manchester City, Wydad, Al Ain, Juventus.
Group H: Real Madrid, Al Hilal, Pachuca, Salzburg.
Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
- 400m Olympic running track
- NBA-spec basketball court with auditorium
- 600-seat auditorium
- Spaces for historical and cultural exploration
- An elevated football field that doubles as a helipad
- Specialist robotics and science laboratories
- AR and VR-enabled learning centres
- Disruption Lab and Research Centre for developing entrepreneurial skills
The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
The White Lotus: Season three
Creator: Mike White
Starring: Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Natasha Rothwell
Rating: 4.5/5
The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre flat-six twin-turbocharged
Transmission: eight-speed PDK automatic
Power: 445bhp
Torque: 530Nm
Price: Dh474,600
On Sale: Now
The specs
Engine: 1.5-litre 4-cylinder petrol
Power: 154bhp
Torque: 250Nm
Transmission: 7-speed automatic with 8-speed sports option
Price: From Dh79,600
On sale: Now
