A moment of pride for the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Asharq Al-Awsat, London, November 22
It is a moment of profound pride for Arabs and Muslims everywhere to see the Arab and Islamic world recognized as an essential force in global civilization and human advancement. Islam has offered a timeless message, grounded in peace and compassion. A young Arab man named Muhammad Ibn Abdullah once retreated to his place of contemplation, the Cave of Hira, on a mountain near Mecca – later known as the Jabal al-Nour (Mountain of Light).
There, the angel Gabriel appeared before him and commanded him to “Read.” When Muhammad replied that he could not, Gabriel pressed him firmly three times before delivering the divine instruction: “Read in the name of your Lord who created you.”
This was the revelation that defined Islam, shaped a people, and influenced the trajectory of civilization itself. Of course, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia did not exist then; the Arabs lived as scattered tribes across a vast landscape marked by conflict. Yet from this very environment, Islam’s transformative message began its spread, eventually inspiring some of history’s most important cultural, scientific, and philosophical contributions.
Centuries later, carrying the spirit of that message, a young man from Najd, Abdulaziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (Ibn Saud), displayed extraordinary magnanimity toward the warring tribes of the Arabian Peninsula and founded the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 1932. The young nation quickly ascended to new heights and continues today to offer the world a vision of peace, cultural vitality, and innovation applied both at home and across the region.
The Kingdom’s clarity of purpose and sincere intentions – particularly the example it aims to set for the region and the world – have not gone unnoticed in Washington. US President Donald Trump, along with senior officials, policymakers, and business leaders, greeted Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) with unmistakable warmth, receiving him with notable respect and appreciation.
It is a moment of immense pride for us Saudis, who have been shaped by the vision and leadership of King Salman and his crown prince. Their roles as sons and grandsons of the revered King Ibn Saud come with an added weight of legacy, yet they have also emerged as his spiritual heirs, offering a promising future and expanding opportunities for the next generation.
My heart urges me to say, “I love you, Saudi Arabia!” What our leadership has accomplished over the past decade is nothing short of extraordinary, both for us and as an example to the world. A newfound optimism has swept across our nation, powered by a generation benefiting from world-class education, expanding prospects, and a revived sense of Saudi identity. Our aim is not to outpace others, but to conquer disease, poverty, loss, and the many tragedies and hardships that afflict humanity.
Like all nations, we face regional and domestic challenges, but we possess the humility to recognize our shortcomings and swiftly correct our course.
Witnessing the reception Crown Prince Mohammed received in Washington only strengthens our convictions and fuels our imaginations to envisage how far this remarkable national journey can go.
The world now sees us through a new lens, increasingly aware of the example we strive to set. Alongside the crown prince’s ambitious Vision 2030, we continue to draw upon the guidance of the Prophet Mohammed’s vision: a message rooted in coexistence, devotion to God, and love. These principles inform our daily choices and animate our commitment to upholding the Creator’s command of peace and coexistence.
What we seek to contribute to our region and the broader world is a modern standard of conduct that champions peace, cooperation, and mutual respect. We Saudis represent no threat to anyone; our aspiration is to help build a better world for all, not just for a select few.
After generations shaped by war and turmoil across continents, our hope is to see the tools of science and progress triumph over the instruments of conflict. The Kingdom has intensified its pursuit of leadership in technology and innovation, striving to harness these forces for the collective good through a comprehensive approach rooted in peace and coexistence.
The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has given us every reason to hold our heads high. The Arabian Peninsula has carried a message that has transcended borders since antiquity. Our Prophet Mohammed delivered the revelation of Islam, and King Ibn Saud brought long-sought unity and peace to our land. Today, King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed carry that message forward into the world.– Hassan Youssef Yassin
<strong>When Trump and bin Salman align their interests</strong><br><em></em>
Yediot Aharonot, Israel, November 22
This week, Israeli attention centered on what Saudi Arabia gained from its agreement with the United States – a defense pact, a civilian nuclear program, and movement toward an F-35 deal – and what Washington secured in return, including a pledge of investment worth a trillion dollars.
But focusing solely on these transactional elements misses the deeper story. It was no accident that both leaders publicly highlighted the AI development pact as the central pillar of the entire initiative. This was not symbolic pageantry; it was a deliberate effort to position artificial intelligence as the strategic axis around which the broader realignment revolves. Here is where the larger narrative begins. Trump is operating within a strategy aimed at 2027, a year experts increasingly describe as the decisive point in the global race for AI.
By then, technological, energy, and industrial advantages are expected to crystallize in ways that competitors will struggle to overcome. To grasp the significance of the agreement, one must begin with the supply chain underpinning the AI industry.
Artificial intelligence depends entirely on raw materials and the chip-making ecosystem. China currently dominates this chain – from mining to processing, manufacturing, and distribution. It was recently revealed that Beijing demanded sensitive commercial information from German firms as a condition for access to critical raw materials, exposing to the West the full depth of China’s leverage. This is why the United States has spent recent months piecing together a global supply network designed to reduce reliance on China.
Agreements on mining and processing have been signed with Australia and Malaysia.
In Africa, Trump brokered peace between Congo and Rwanda after a personal appeal from the Congolese president, securing US access to materials essential for producing advanced chips.
Similarly, he signed a cooperation pact on raw materials and supply chains with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Pakistan, too, is joining this emerging circle of critical-metal partners.
Together, these moves form a strategic architecture meant to loosen Beijing’s grip and establish an independent supply route.
Raw materials are only the first part of the challenge; the second is no less serious: electricity. A US Department of Energy report shows that in 2024, data centers and AI systems consumed roughly 4% of America’s electricity, a figure projected to reach nearly 12% by 2028. Added to this surge are the demands of electric vehicles and cryptocurrency mining.
In California, there have already been days when electric-vehicle charging was restricted due to grid congestion. Large segments of America’s power infrastructure are not built for a world in which data centers consume more electricity than many traditional industries. The tech giants are already responding.
Microsoft, for instance, has purchased a civilian nuclear reactor in Pennsylvania to reactivate it for powering its data centers and sustaining server demands, yet even that will not be enough. This is the point at which Trump’s strategic planning intersects with the energy requirements of the AI era. It is no coincidence that the first foreign trip of his second term – just as in his first – was to Saudi Arabia.
Trump brought with him the titans of the tech world, including OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, who reportedly told the small circle that the cost of running AI systems will soon track directly with the cost of energy. In other words, those who control energy will control the next generation of AI. This is where Saudi Arabia assumes an indispensable role – not as a state seeking prestige but as a partner capable of bridging the energy and infrastructure gaps the United States cannot close alone.
At the same time, Saudi Arabia is advancing Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s vision of transforming the Kingdom from an exporter of raw energy into an exporter of AI-driven services and capabilities. His goal is to evolve Saudi Arabia from an energy giant into an AI giant, a global hub for data centers and compute infrastructure.
Beyond its technological and energy contributions, Saudi Arabia also occupies a critical geostrategic position. It sits at the heart of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, designed to rival China’s Belt and Road Initiative and establish an independent channel for electricity, data, and goods via rail lines, energy pipelines, fiber networks, and commercial flows.
Within this vast architecture, the question naturally arises: Where does Israel fit in? Although Israel is not formally part of the current agreement, it possesses assets the region lacks – sophisticated technological infrastructure, security capabilities for safeguarding data and energy transfers, and a natural position as a bridge between the emerging eastern corridor and the Mediterranean. Israel can provide the stabilizing layer essential to completing the triangle between East and West.
Trump, for his part, is already looking toward key dates – the midterm elections in November and the Nobel Peace Prize announcement in October, after narrowly missing it this year when the hostage deal concluded too late. He has repeatedly declared that only he can deliver historic peace.
It is reasonable to surmise that the regional architecture now being assembled and the prominent gestures toward Mohammed bin Salman are aimed at crafting an image of Trump as the leader who, after millennia of division, succeeded in symbolically reuniting the sons of Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael, onto a single path. – Kobby Barda
Media and AI fact-checking
Akhbar el-Yom, Egypt, November 21
We have entered the inaugural year of artificial intelligence, a moment when the boundaries grow increasingly blurry between real and fabricated news, and between authentic and manipulated images and videos What, then, will the coming years bring, when AI becomes a weapon in the hands of those who seek to exploit it?
AI has already begun provoking division, stirring anger, and mobilizing people toward uncertain ends. The pressing question is how the media can safeguard public opinion against the deceptions produced by this technology. These warnings are not mine alone; they were raised by Geoffrey Hinton, the world-renowned pioneer often called the “father of artificial intelligence,” a man instrumental in developing its technology and a Nobel Prize recipient last year.
Hinton cautions that AI may generate “digital beings,” surpassing human capability, or be deployed to create digital pathogens and autonomous weapons. Most alarming is its potential to produce “intellectual isolation” by feeding each user an individualized content bubble that reinforces only what they want to see.
We witness this dynamic daily on platforms such as TikTok; algorithms do not measure virtue or accuracy, only engagement, and they elevate content that draws attention – even when it is crude or misleading. Frivolous personalities become celebrities while serious content is pushed to the margins, allowing the very consciousness of societies to be reshaped from within.
We are living in an era of lightning-fast information flow, and with it, both human and machine errors have multiplied. A journalist can no longer rely on a single source; increased verification is an indispensable fundamental of the craft has become – cross-checking news with agencies, official statements, credible institutions, and authoritative digital platforms, while turning to open data repositories to expose contradictions and identify the truth.
Verification now extends far beyond text. It includes advanced tools for detecting fabricated content, such as digital fingerprint analysis, image-data forensics, forgery-detection software, and reverse-image search. These tools do not guarantee perfect accuracy, but they provide critical signals that help journalists make sound professional judgments.
Modern newsrooms must cultivate teams trained to understand how language models generate text, how images and videos can appear natural while concealing subtle flaws, and how chatbots can “hallucinate” false information.
The press has little choice but to keep pace with this runaway train by preparing a generation of researchers capable of analyzing the political and social contexts behind the news, while updating academic curricula to build what may become the profession of the future: the “AI integrity checker.”
Humanity created the machine, and the machine will not erase the human role.
The journalist will remain the “living conscience of artificial intelligence,” the custodian of values and principles amid the unrestrained logic of algorithms. Some jobs will vanish, and new ones will emerge – content algorithm engineers, audience-data analysts, and AI ethics monitors among them. Anyone who believes they can block information or impose total censorship is deluding themselves.
The solution lies in cultivating discerning awareness and enforcing strict laws that punish manipulation. The real question is no longer whether we can halt AI, but whether we possess the wisdom to use it without allowing it to use us. The answer begins with media capable of confronting falsehoods – and of producing truth. – Karam Gabr
Translated by Asaf Zilberfarb. All assertions, opinions, facts, and information presented in these articles are the sole responsibility of their respective authors and are not necessarily those of The Media Line, which assumes no responsibility for their content.