Riyadh

Meanwhile, the launch of the first direct passenger air service between Japan and Saudi Arabia has been pushed back.

The route linking Naida International Airport near Tokyo with Riyadh was delayed amid the worsening security situation in the Middle East.

Regular service by state-run carrier Saadia had been set to start on November 17th.

But a source says the company has notified Narita airport officials that they're moving back the launch.

The decision comes as the regional security situation deteriorates.

In October, strikes hit Riyadh's international airport causing more than 300 casualties.

Exchanges of attacks between Saudi Arabia and the anti-government Houthi group in Yemen have also intensified.

The source says Saudi Arabia is now aiming to launch the route around mid-January, depending on regional developments.

Because I think the conversation around the show potentially being moved...

Well, it was moved, but being moved from Riyadh to somewhere in America as an emergency measure based on the travel warnings this time around.

And how...

How that might reflect on, or I guess move people to reflect on the prospect of the first WrestleMania of this deal that WWE have had now.

An advertising campaign, basically.

Yeah.

There was a week, wasn't there? Do you remember on WWE TV about three weeks ago where Riyadh suspiciously disappeared from the Crown Jewel branding? And that was maybe the first and only point a few people thought,

hmm,

Let's talk about... crown jewel again thank goodness for one of the final times hopefully in the words of that old Armageddon song the end is near it's coming soon but it came out yesterday basically how much staff safety is worth to WWE because obviously the big concern over this show this year specifically is is safety.

There's been a series of attacks, Riyadh Airport in particular.

There's obviously an armed conflict in the region of the world.

There's been situations where embassies, US embassies have been told, get out of there and get your families out of there too.

Production and satellite trucks will be stationed there.

They will still have, as Andy mentioned, a sizable production staff.

on location in Riyadh, but the number of people travelling is going to be smaller than usual.

Production elements such as cameras, sound equipment and more will be set up by the on-site staff.

There are three events altogether.

They have the fight night in Doha and the fight night in Riyadh that are all contingent on happening.

I don't think either of those fight nights are as lucrative as Crown Jewel, but they're still sizable amounts that...

Yes, that would certainly bring them under expectations if those three events were not to happen for conflict reasons.

I didn't take it as the physical risk, That was for the town hall meeting where he basically said that.

I might have chosen different words if I were him in that situation.

I think he was referring to the financial risk because what could be more important than the financial risk here when it comes to this situation of going to Riyadh amid conflicts with the Houthis? Yeah, I think that's what he meant.

Interesting to know that they've been paid half of the WrestleMania fee already.

There are three events altogether.

They have the fight night in Doha and the fight night in Riyadh that are all contingent on happening.

I don't think either of those fight nights are as lucrative as Crown Jewel, but they're still sizable amounts that...

Yes, that would certainly bring them under expectations if those three events were not to happen for conflict reasons.

I didn't take it as the physical risk, That was for the town hall meeting where he basically said that.

I might have chosen different words if I were him in that situation.

I think he was referring to the financial risk because what could be more important than the financial risk here when it comes to this situation of going to Riyadh amid conflicts with the Houthis? Yeah, I think that's what he meant.

Interesting to know that they've been paid half of the WrestleMania fee already.

Adam, in our next story, Saudi Arabia has signed a defense pact with Syria and agreed to lend them a lot of money.

Saudi Arabia and Syria signed a defense cooperation agreement on Wednesday in Riyadh.

Saudi Arabia also agreed, like you said, to more than $403 million in loans.

The deal came during a visit by Syrian President Ahmed al-Sarra.

We cover a lot of big giants, the trillion and the billion dollar and the million dollar AUM, assets under management giants who come to Abu Dhabi, who come to Dubai and set up offices here.

We keep covering them because they're a very good story to cover that these giants are still choosing Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Riyadh, Qatar, Doha to set up their businesses and expand in this region.

So lastly, the FSRA says these claims could mislead investors if someone says, that they're registered with ADGM or DIFC, don't just take it at face value.

Don't just take it out because they're taking the meeting at a very expensive restaurant.

and even if they're built, they will be built ethically and slowly and without poisoning the environment.

So all of that is happening, and that has pushed the stocks to fall down.

And to be honest, that has questioned how the Gulf investment, sovereign wealth fund, we have Riyadh, we have Humane investing billions of dollars in building data centers and thinking they'll eventually rent them out to the giants.

But if the giants are losing money and they're not able to rent it out, all those data centers will go to waste.

Saudi Arabia, for example, stopped awarding government contracts to international companies that don't have a regional headquarters in the kingdom.

Within a few years, more than 700 companies moved their regional headquarters to Riyadh.

Dubai's financial center doubled its number of hedge funds in two years to just over 100.

It drew them in with zero income tax, a convenient time zone, and the region's money right next door.

I know you've covered soccer in relation to to the Middle East.

I wanted to ask you about what do you make of the sports events that they're having in Riyadh? We just came off of one from October 31st on Halloween.

There was a boxing match.

Canelo Alvarez versus Christian Mbili.

I'm curious, what do you think of all these events happening in Riyadh? There's going to be a big WWE wrestling event in Riyadh soon as well.

And there's a lot of concern I hear from people in the U.S. about these boxing matches and wrestling events happening during this conflict with Iran.

What do you make of all that? I don't know if you've thought about it at all, but.