Kuwait

19 June 2023; MEMO: Kuwait formed a new government on Sunday, naming Saad Al Barrak as Oil Minister to replace Bader Al-Mulla and re-appointing Finance Minister, Manaf Abdulaziz Al Hajri, AFP reports.

According to the report, Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, who was re-appointed as Prime Minister last week, formed the new cabinet announced in a decree carried by the state news agency, KUNA.

14 June 2023; MEMO: Kuwait has concluded a contract worth $367 million with Turkish defence firm, Baykar, to buy its TB2 drones through direct negotiations between the two governments, the Kuwaiti army said in a statement on Tuesday, Reuters reports.

The statement did not reveal how many drones would be delivered to Kuwait or when.

31 May 2023; MEMO: The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region has been found to have the highest prevalence of diabetes in the world, according to a report yesterday by the Daily Mail, citing the latest research.

KUWAIT, May 26 (Reuters) - Kuwait has suspended all new visas for Philippine nationals indefinitely, the interior ministry confirmed this week, in an escalation of a row between the oil-rich Gulf state and Manila over worker protections and employer rights.

Philippine nationals make up around 6% of Kuwait's 4.7 million population, government data shows. Kuwaitis make up 32%.

25 May 2023; MEMO: Kuwait is maintaining a ban it imposed on issuing visas for workers from the Philippines amid an ongoing labour row between the two countries which talks have failed to resolve.

After Filipino authorities alleged failure to comply with a labour agreement it previously reached with Kuwait, the Gulf nation suspended the issuance of all visas for Filipino workers earlier this month.

06 May 2023; MEMO: Kuwait signed a memorandum of understanding on Saturday to join the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), a powerful regional bloc led by China and Russia, Anadolu reports.

The document was inked on the sidelines of a meeting of the SCO foreign ministers on May 4-5 in Panaji city, India, the state news agency KUNA reported.

29 Apr 2023; MEMO: The Kuwaiti Ministry of Interior deported 11,000 residency law violators, of different nationalities, between January and April.

On Friday, local newspaper Al Rai quoted security sources confirming that the deportation of violators comes within the framework of regulating the demographics and prosecuting violators of residency and employment laws.

18 Apr 2023; MEMO: The Kuwait Investment Authority (KIA) has purchased the United Bank of Egypt, one of the most famous banks in the country, the Egypt Times reported.

According to the site, the bank was sold for approximately $660 million, with contracts due to be officially signed after the end of the Eid Al-Fitr holiday which is due to take place this weekend.

11 Apr 2023; MEMO: Kuwait News has unveiled its new computerised news anchor, in a step which is amongst the world's first manifestations of artificial intelligence news casting.

In a video posted on its Twitter account over the weekend, Kuwait News, a blonde woman wearing a black jacket and a white t-shirt presented herself in Arabic as "Fedha, the first presenter in Kuwait who works with artificial intelligence at Kuwait News."

27 Mar 2023; MEMO: The Kuwaiti Ministry of Education will lay off more than 2,000 expatriate teachers and department heads in 14 specialisations by the end of the current academic year 2022-2023, Kuwait's Al-Qabas newspaper reported.