90.8K
Downloads
364
Episodes
As one of the world’s most influential business hubs, the Middle East requires expert attention. Business Extra provides those experts, as well as news and insights from The National’s esteemed team of business editors and reporters, who are on top of the markets, technology, the energy sector and more.
Episodes
Tuesday Sep 24, 2019
Thomas Cook’s overnight collapse
Tuesday Sep 24, 2019
Tuesday Sep 24, 2019
In 1841, 500 passengers took a 24-mile round-trip by train from Leicester in central England to the neighbouring town of Loughborough. This was the first excursion organised by a Mr Thomas Cook
178 years later his eponymous company announces it has ceased trading disrupting the travel plans of some 600,000 people from Goa to Gambia to Greece and threatening tens of thousands of jobs worldwide.
This week, Mustafa Alrawi, assistant editor in chief and Kelsey Warner, future editor, are joined by Hayley Skirka to talk about one of the oldest travel companies in the world and its downfall. Andrew Wilks, a regular contributor for The National, speaks to them from Antalya, Turkey. He has been speaking to tourists affected by the Thomas Cook collapse. What lead to the company’s problems? There are accusations of bad management with investigations underway. But the coup attempt in Turkey in 2016 and a Europe-wide heatwave in 2018 impacted the company’s profits along with a growing inability to compete with online travel companies. Now the British government said the return of the firm's 150,000 British customers would be the largest repatriation in its peacetime history.
In this episode:
- Thomas Cook (0m 59s)
- Headlines (26m 21s)
Read more on our website:
• Thomas Cook passengers in Turkey frustrated by travel confusion
• Thomas Cook passengers in Turkey frustrated by travel confusion
Tuesday Sep 17, 2019
Saudi oil attack ramifications locally and globally
Tuesday Sep 17, 2019
Tuesday Sep 17, 2019
Early on Saturday morning, attacks on Saudi Aramco’s giant oil plant caused major fires, disrupting about half of the kingdom’s crude production.
From a record spike in oil prices to an escalation of tensions in the region after the US blamed Iran for being behind the strikes. The fallout has everyone inside the region and around the world on tenterhooks for what it could mean for global energy markets and Middle East stability.
Host Mustafa Alrawi, assistant editor in chief and Kelsey Warner, assistant business editor, welcome The National’s energy correspondent, Jennifer Gnana and foreign editor James Haines-Young, for an in depth discussion on the ramifications of the attacks in the region and globally.
In this episode:
- Saudi oil attack (1m 11s)
- Headlines (25m 56s)
Read more on our website:
• Anwar Gargash: Saudi Aramco attacks a 'dangerous escalation'
• Anwar Gargash: Saudi Aramco attacks a 'dangerous escalation'
Wednesday Sep 11, 2019
Yas and Neom light up the construction industry
Wednesday Sep 11, 2019
Wednesday Sep 11, 2019
Developers Miral in Abu Dhabi and Neom in Saudi Arabia have made big announcements on new construction projects. Miral has secured investment from a Singapore-based company for its 108,600 square metre Yas Village development on Yas Island and Saudi Arabia’s Neom has awarded contracts to two companies to build a village that will accommodate up to 30,000 workers who will build the futuristic city of the same name.
Host and Assistant Editor in Chief at The National, Mustafa Alrawi speaks to Assistant Business Editor, Michael Fahy about the announcements and what they mean for the property markets in the GCC neighbours.
Meanwhile rental rates have been falling in the UAE capital this quarter with large drops since this time last year and Emaar properties in Dubai have asked property owners to stop renting out their units as holiday homes on the same day they have launched their digital platform for short term rentals.
In this episode:
- New construction projects (0m 43s)
- Abu Dhabi rent (1m 37s)
- Emaar’s short term rentals (15m 32s)
- Headlines (22m 03s)
Read more on our website:
• Saudi Arabia's Neom signs deals with contractors for construction village
• Saudi Arabia's Neom signs deals with contractors for construction village
Wednesday Sep 04, 2019
Millennial disappointments, Saudi growth strategy and Musk vs. Ma
Wednesday Sep 04, 2019
Wednesday Sep 04, 2019
Most millennials expect to be more financially stable than their parents but almost half feel they are failing or off to a slow start on that goal. Host Mustafa Alrawi, Assistant Editor in Chief at The National, speaks to Kelsey Warner, resident millennial and The National’s Assistant Business Editor, about why so many of her generation feel the burden of financial pressures and “adulting”.
Also in this episode we take a look at how Elon Musk and Jack Ma have very different opinions on the future of AI and what that means for the future of humans.
Read more on our website:
• Millennials in UAE burnt out by the financial stress of 'adulting'
Read more on our website:
• Millennials in UAE burnt out by the financial stress of 'adulting'
Version: 20240320