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Saudi Arabia, Greece Collaborate to Boost Sustainable Coastal, Marine Tourism

Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed al-Khateeb and his Greek counterpart Harry Theoharis signing the agreement (SPA)
Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed al-Khateeb and his Greek counterpart Harry Theoharis signing the agreement (SPA)
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Saudi Arabia, Greece Collaborate to Boost Sustainable Coastal, Marine Tourism

Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed al-Khateeb and his Greek counterpart Harry Theoharis signing the agreement (SPA)
Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed al-Khateeb and his Greek counterpart Harry Theoharis signing the agreement (SPA)

Saudi Minister of Tourism Ahmed al-Khateeb and his Greek counterpart Harry Theoharis signed Sunday an agreement for cooperation in sustainable coastal and marine tourism, on the sideline of the Coastal and Maritime Tourism Conference in Athens.

The Kingdom and Greece affirmed their commitment to the sustainable development of coastal and marine tourism in their countries.

The agreement dealt with exchanging knowledge and best practices in the field of investment, human capital development, training, event organization, marketing, and promotion to support sustainable coastal and marine tourism in Saudi Arabia and Greece.

The Saudi Minister described the agreement as “a positive step” between the two countries, and one of the fruits of international cooperation that will achieve a “more sustainable future for tourism and lead to addressing the repercussions of the pandemic on the global tourism sector.”

Khateeb stressed that the Kingdom is committed in its tourism projects to protecting the marine and coastal environment and supporting the sustainable development of the tourism sector.

For his part, the Greek minister said that coastal and marine tourism is the backbone of tourism offers in Greece, and protecting the ecosystems is a priority. He asserted he is looking forward to cooperating with the Kingdom to ensure the sustainable development of coastal and marine tourism in the two countries.

In May, the World Tourism Organization (UNWTO), a United Nations agency, chose Riyadh for its first regional office in the Middle East and outside the Madrid headquarters.

The Organization chose Riyadh to host its first-ever regional office following the Kingdom’s development of its tourism sector, noting the great Saudi support made during the coronavirus pandemic.

UNWTO described Saudi Arabia as one of its most active members during the past three years.

The new office will serve as a hub for UNWTO to coordinate policy and initiatives across its 13 member states in the region. This includes a number of tourism projects and products, among them the new “Best Tourism Villages by UNWTO”, launched on the occasion of the opening of the Regional Office.

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Business

FAO: World Food Prices Slip in May, Still Near Three-year High

A shopper buys vegetables with her son at a street market in Urcos, Peru, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A shopper buys vegetables with her son at a street market in Urcos, Peru, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
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FAO: World Food Prices Slip in May, Still Near Three-year High

A shopper buys vegetables with her son at a street market in Urcos, Peru, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)
A shopper buys vegetables with her son at a street market in Urcos, Peru, Tuesday, June 2, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

World food prices slipped in May from a revised April level, with vegetable oil prices falling for the first time this year while cereals and sugar jumped, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization said on Friday.

The FAO Food Price Index, which measures changes in a basket of globally traded food commodities, averaged 130.8 points in May, ⁠0.2% down from ⁠its revised April level of 131.0, but up 2.9% from a year earlier, Reuters reported.

Despite the small downward correction for the April data, the index remained near its highest level since January 2023 and 18.4% below its March 2022 peak. Cereal prices rose more than 2.6% on the month, with wheat up for a fourth straight month on smaller export harvest prospects, including in ⁠the United States, and higher fuel and fertilizer costs linked to the Iran conflict.

Maize prices were also supported by stronger import demand and tighter supplies in Brazil and the US, the agency said.

By contrast, vegetable oil prices fell 4.6% from last month, their first monthly decline this year, as lower palm and soy oil prices outweighed gains in rapeseed and sunflower oil. After rising for five consecutive months, international palm oil prices declined, reflecting expectations of weaker global import demand and uncertainty in crude oil markets.

Vegetable oil prices on average were still more than 20% above last year, as ⁠elevated energy costs ⁠following the effective closure of the Strait of Hormuz raised demand for biofuels made using organic materials, such as oil-rich plants.

Sugar prices jumped 7.5% from last month to 95.1 points, but remained 13.1% below their level a year ago. The increase was mainly driven by concerns over an anticipated tightening of global sugar supplies in the coming months.

In a separate cereal supply report, the FAO said it expected world cereal production - including rice in milled equivalent - to shrink 2% in 2026/27 to 2.98 billion tons.

Production of all major cereals is anticipated to decline, albeit for many from record levels reached in 2025, with the largest year-on-year decrease in percentage terms forecast for wheat and the smallest for maize and barley.

Business

US Employers Likely Added 105,000 Jobs in May with Labor Market Stable Despite Costly Iran War

Workers continue putting the finishing touches on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
Workers continue putting the finishing touches on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
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US Employers Likely Added 105,000 Jobs in May with Labor Market Stable Despite Costly Iran War

Workers continue putting the finishing touches on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)
Workers continue putting the finishing touches on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 04, 2026 in Washington, DC. (Getty Images/AFP)

The American job market has climbed out of a rut. But it's still trudging along tepidly, frustrating young people and others out of work.

The Labor Department is expected to report Friday that companies, non-profits and government agencies added 105,000 jobs last month, according to a survey of forecasters by the data firm FactSet. That would be solid by the labor market's recent, diminished standards -- but down from 115,000 in April.

Hiring has bounced back this year from a miserable 2025, showing unexpected resilience in the face of economic uncertainty and painfully high energy prices caused by the Iran war.

Unemployment is expected to have remained at a low 4.3% in May, FactSet says. But despite the improvement from last year, job creation is way down from the boom that followed pandemic lockdowns.

Workers, jobseekers and employers are stuck in an awkward “no-hire, no-fire" labor market. “Those who have jobs are clinging to them, while those without are left wanting,” Diane Swonk, chief economist at the tax and consulting firm KPMG, wrote in a commentary ahead of the jobs report. “The result is a sense of being frozen or left in a sort of labor market purgatory.”

Many young people are finding it tough to break into a stagnant job market and workers who have been laid off struggle to get back to work. More than a quarter of the unemployed in April had been jobless for more than six months, up from less than 20% two years ago.

Seeing their prospects diminished, Americans are reluctant to leave their jobs and seek something better elsewhere. In April, the number of people who quit dropped to the lowest level since the frightening days of August 2020, when the COVID-19 was running rampant.

Last year, employers added 9,700 jobs a month, fewest outside a recession since 2002.

This year, hiring has rebounded, averaging 76,000 new jobs a month from January through April. Big tax refunds — the product of President Donald Trump’s 2025 tax cuts — have given the economy a lift, offsetting the impact of higher energy prices since the United States and Israel attacked Iran in late February. But the refunds have mostly been pocketed, and gasoline prices remain above $4 per gallon.

Healthcare companies have been propping up the job market.

Over the past year, they've added more than 456,000 jobs; all other US employers have collectively cut 205,000.

Martha Gimbel and Ryan Nunn of Yale University's Budget Lab note that strong healthcare hiring isn't surprising as Americans age and need more prescriptions and trips to the doctor. In fact, the industry's job growth is in line with Labor Department predictions from a decade ago.

“The question is not why healthcare has kept hiring—it is why other industries have not,” they wrote in a report published Tuesday, suggesting that one explanation might be an immigration crackdown that has reduced the supply of foreign-born workers.

At least the United States doesn’t need as many new jobs as it used to. The drop in immigrants and rising Baby Boomer retirements mean that fewer people are competing for work. As a result, the so-called break-even point — the number of new jobs required to keep the unemployment rate stable — has likely dropped to near zero, from the 155,000 new jobs per month that was typical two or three years ago, according to a Federal Reserve report.

Some analysts fear that artificial intelligence will wipe out entry-level jobs. But economists Gregory Daco and Lydia Boussour of the tax and consulting firm EY-Parthenon wrote in a commentary Tuesday that AI “adoption is proving more gradual and costly than many anticipated. Firms are increasingly using AI to enhance productivity and control labor costs.” But AI, they wrote, has reduced hiring rather than “triggering broad-based layoffs.”

And a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York identified a different culprit for young people's struggle to land jobs after college: the rise of remote work. Businesses, it seems, are reluctant to hire new grads for work-at-home jobs because it is harder to train and mentor them when they aren't coming into the office.

Business

Turkish Monthly Inflation at 1.71% in May, Exceeding Forecasts

FILE PHOTO: A money changer holds Turkish lira and US dollar banknotes at a currency exchange office in Ankara, Türkiye December 16, 2021. REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A money changer holds Turkish lira and US dollar banknotes at a currency exchange office in Ankara, Türkiye December 16, 2021. REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan/File Photo
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Turkish Monthly Inflation at 1.71% in May, Exceeding Forecasts

FILE PHOTO: A money changer holds Turkish lira and US dollar banknotes at a currency exchange office in Ankara, Türkiye December 16, 2021. REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: A money changer holds Turkish lira and US dollar banknotes at a currency exchange office in Ankara, Türkiye December 16, 2021. REUTERS/Cagla Gurdogan/File Photo

Turkish consumer price inflation stood at 1.71% month-on-month in May, while the annual figure climbed to 32.61%, data from the Turkish Statistical Institute showed on Friday.

In a Reuters ⁠poll, monthly inflation ⁠was forecast to be 1.63%, with the annual rate seen at 32.50%, as ⁠the Iran war drives expectations of a slower-than-anticipated disinflation trend.

In April, consumer price inflation surged to 4.18% month-on-month, while the annual figure climbed to 32.37%, both figures above ⁠forecasts.

The ⁠data also showed the domestic producer index stood at 2.75% month-on-month in May for an annual increase of 28.93%.

Türkiye's trade deficit narrowed 15.7% year-on-year to $5.6 billion in May, mainly due to fewer working ⁠days during the ⁠month, Trade Minister Omer Bolat said ⁠on Thursday.

Bolat said exports fell by 9.3% to $22.5 billion in May, while imports fell by 10.7% ⁠to $28.1 ⁠billion in the same period.

Türkiye's unemployment rate rose 0.1 percentage points month-on-month to 8.2% in April, data showed ⁠on Thursday.

The Turkish ⁠Statistical Institute data showed the ⁠labor force participation rate decreased 0.6 points to 52.4% in April, while a seasonally adjusted measure of labor ⁠under-utilization dropped ⁠1.2 percentage points to 30.1% in April.