RIYADH: Sri Lanka, the fourth-largest tea producer in the world, is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the industry’s birth with the world’s largest “tea party.”
A “Global Ceylon Tea Party” was hosted at Sri Lankan missions worldwide, including its embassy in Riyadh, with government officials and tea industry representatives saluting tea’s place in the island’s history and modern economy.
Sri Lankan tea, known for generations as Ceylon tea, has a unique heritage. The industry that began as a diversification experiment in 1867 on just 19 acres of land has today expanded to supply 19 percent of global demand.
Known for its signature taste and aroma, Sri Lanka’s tea provides a major source of income for the country and is its leading employer. The island has a 5 percent share of global tea production and a 17 percent share of world tea exports.
Tea remains the backbone of the island’s economy, with annual export earnings averaging around $1.5 billion, or 15 percent of foreign exchange revenue.
With 65 percent of the export agricultural income, the tea industry contributes about 2 percent to the island’s gross domestic product. More than 2 million people are employed directly and indirectly, with 10 percent of the country’s population depending on “green gold” for its livelihood.
Sri Lanka was the first tea-producing country in the world to introduce national branding, with Ceylon tea linked to the lion logo. The brand remains a source of pride because of its global popularity and unmatchable quality.
Exceptional diversity
Although tea makes up almost 45 percent of all exports in value-added form, what makes Sri Lanka’s national product truly unique is not volume but exceptional diversity.
Tea plantations in Sri Lanka are categorized around three distinct elevations — high grown, medium grown and low grown. Teas are classified into seven agro-climatic regions, Nuwara Eliya, UdaPussellawa, Uva, Dimbulla, Kandy, Sabaragamuwa and Ruhuna, based on location.
Due to its diverse topography and climate, Sri Lanka produces an array of specialty teas with different flavors, aromas, strength, and color that are almost impossible to replicate.
Commercial secretary at the Sri Lankan Embassy in Riyadh, Gayan Rajapaksa, said the island’s tea was sold to the Saudi customers after blending it with tea from other countries.
High standards
Ceylon tea is also the cleanest tea in the world in terms of pesticide residues, according to the ISO Technical Committee responsible for quality assurance.
Sri Lanka was the first country to achieve the “Ozone Friendly Tea” label recognized under the Montreal Protocol Treaty and is the proud owner of the first Ethical Tea Brand of the World recognized by the UN Global Compact.
The lion trademark symbolizing pure Ceylon tea pre-packed in Sri Lanka has been registered in more than 100 countries by the Sri Lanka Tea Board, the government organization regulating and promoting the industry.
Retail packs that carry the trademark are guaranteed by the tea board to consist of 100 percent pure Ceylon tea pre-packed at source and conforming to standards set by the authorities.
Clashes displace 15,000 families in Sudan’s North Darfur: UN
The town is one of the northernmost urban centers in the vast desert between Sudan and Libya, where the RSF and an army-allied coalition of armed groups known as the Joint Forces have battled for months
Updated 2 min 42 sec ago
AFP
KHARTOUM: Fighting in Sudan’s war-torn North Darfur state displaced around “15,000 households” from the town of Al-Malha within 48 hours, the United Nations’ migration agency said Monday.
From Thursday to Friday, the clashes between the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces and the army and its allied militias forced the families to flee “primarily to other locations” within the same area, said the International Organization for Migration.
Since April 2023, the war between the RSF and the army has killed tens of thousands of people, uprooted over 12 million and created the world’s largest hunger and displacement crises.
In North Darfur alone, nearly 1.7 million people are displaced and around two million people face extreme food insecurity, according to UN figures.
The RSF claimed on Thursday to have seized Al-Malha, which lies at the foot of a mountainous region 200 kilometers (124 miles) northeast of the North Darfur state capital El-Fasher.
At least 45 civilians were killed in the attack, according to a toll shared by activists in El-Fasher.
In their statement, the RSF said they had “encircled the enemy... leaving more than 380 dead” in Al-Malha.
The town is one of the northernmost urban centers in the vast desert between Sudan and Libya, where the RSF and an army-allied coalition of armed groups known as the Joint Forces have battled for months.
El-Fasher is the only state capital still under the control of the army, which this week recaptured the presidential palace in Khartoum, some 800 kilometers away.
Following months of army gains in central Sudan, analysts say the RSF is determined to consolidate its hold on Darfur, where the Joint Forces have intercepted key supply lines from Chad and Libya since last year.
North Darfur is facing one of Sudan’s worst mass starvation crises, with famine already declared in three displacement camps around El-Fasher.
According to UN projections, it is expected to spread to five more areas, including the state capital itself, by May.
Tunisia probes ride-hailing apps for money laundering
Tunisian authorities said they have seized about 12 million dinars ($3.8 million) from accounts linked to multiple ride-hailing apps
Updated 7 min 30 sec ago
AFP
TUNIS: Tunisia has launched an investigation into alleged money laundering and tax fraud involving ride-hailing applications, the interior ministry said on Monday.
Authorities also said they were suspending the apps.
“The financial division of the National Guard has uncovered suspicions of money laundering and tax evasion among operators of private taxi ride-hailing apps,” the ministry said in a statement.
The statement did not name the apps, but a source familiar with the matter told AFP the main company under scrutiny was the Estonia-based Bolt.
The ride-hailing app, operating in more than 500 cities from over 45 countries, is widely used in Tunisia, where public transportation infrastructure is inadequate.
Tunisian authorities said they have seized about 12 million dinars ($3.8 million) from accounts linked to multiple ride-hailing apps.
They said the companies had been removed from the commercial registry and their offices shut for allegedly operating without proper licenses and using fraudulent authorizations.
They were also accused of using bank accounts to illegally funnel funds abroad.
Tunisians have increasingly relied on ride-hailing services amid a deteriorating public transportation system.
Even the capital Tunis, home to over two million people, has suffered from years of public transit underinvestment and neglect.
President Kais Saied has repeatedly denounced corruption within the public transportation sector.
US alleges Columbia student covered up his work for UNRWA
A judge has ordered Khalil not be deported while his lawsuit challenging his detention, known as a habeas petition, is heard in another federal court
Updated 14 min 23 sec ago
Reuters
WASHINGTON: The US government has alleged that Columbia University student and pro-Palestinian demonstrator Mahmoud Khalil withheld that he worked for a United Nations Palestinian relief agency in his visa application, saying that should be grounds for deportation.
The UN agency known as UNRWA provides food and health care to Palestinian refugees and has become a flashpoint in the Israeli war in Gaza. Israel contends that 12 UNRWA employees were involved in Hamas’ attack on Israel on October 7, 2023, leading the US to halt funding of the group.
UNRWA said Khalil was briefly an unpaid intern.
The administration of US President Donald Trump on March 8 detained Khalil, a prominent figure in the pro-Palestinian protests that rocked Columbia’s New York City campus last year, and sent him to Louisiana in an attempt to remove him from the country.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Khalil accused of withholding UNRWA affiliation on visa application
• UNRWA says he was an unpaid intern for a brief time
• U.S. claims Khalil's presence poses foreign policy risks
The case has drawn attention as a test of free speech rights, with supporters of Khalil saying he was targeted for publicly disagreeing with US policy on Israel and its occupation of Gaza. Khalil has called himself a political prisoner.
The US alleges Khalil’s presence or activities in the country would have serious foreign policy consequences.
A judge has ordered Khalil not be deported while his lawsuit challenging his detention, known as a habeas petition, is heard in another federal court.
Khalil, a native of Syria and citizen of Algeria, entered the US on a student visa in 2022 and later filed to become a permanent resident in 2024.
In a court brief dated Sunday, the US government outlined its arguments for keeping Khalil in custody while his removal proceedings continue, arguing first that the US District Court in New Jersey, where the habeas case is being heard, lacks jurisdiction.
The brief also says Khalil “withheld membership in certain organizations” which should be grounds for his deportation.
It references a March 17 document in his deportation case that informed Khalil he could be removed because he failed to disclose that he was a political officer of UNRWA in 2023.
A UNRWA spokesperson said Khalil was never on the payroll of the agency during his short internship and that the group does not have in its job descriptions the post of political affairs officer.
The UN said in August an investigation found nine of the agency’s 32,000 staff members may have been involved in the October 7 attacks.
The US court notice also accuses Khalil of leaving off his visa application that he worked for the Syria office in the British embassy in Beirut and that he was a member of the group Columbia University Apartheid Divest.
Attorneys for Khalil did not respond to a request for comment.
One attorney, Ramie Kassem, a co-director of the legal clinic CLEAR, was quoted in the New York Times as saying the new deportation grounds were “patently weak and pretextual.”
“That the government scrambled to add them at the 11th hour only highlights how its motivation from the start was to retaliate against Mr. Khalil for his protected speech in support of Palestinian rights and lives,” Kassem said, according to the Times.
Drought-hit Morocco to extend wheat import subsidies to year-end
The country has become a major wheat export outlet for the European Union and, increasingly, Russia
Updated 20 min 51 sec ago
Reuters
PARIS: Morocco will extend its current subsidy program for soft wheat imports until December 31, state grains agency ONICL said on Monday, indicating the drought-affected country will need to import throughout the year.
Citing a decision by Morocco’s finance and agriculture ministries, ONICL said in a statement on its website that the new round of subsidies for importers would run from May 1 to December 31, with details to be announced subsequently.
The authorities had previously announced a subsidy program running up to the end of April.
The continuation of the program for the whole of 2025 suggests the upcoming harvest will be insufficient to replenish supply. In the past, Morocco shut its market to imports at times during good crop years to protect domestic supply.
Morocco has imported wheat heavily in the past two years after prolonged drought led to successive poor crops. Last year, Morocco’s output of soft wheat, durum and barley was 3.1 million tons, down 43 percent compared with the previous crop.
The country has become a major wheat export outlet for the European Union and, increasingly, Russia.
ONICL also said the authorities would provide subsidies between April 1 and December 31 for importers to hold stocks of soft wheat.
Testing time for Lebanon’s foreign aid-reliant education system
Sudden suspension of USAID funding leaves thousands of students without scholarships or support
US-funded universities and agencies brace for challenges as aid review prompts program shutdowns
Updated 10 min 26 sec ago
Nadia Al-Faour
DUBAI: Thousands of students in Lebanon, where public institutions including schools and universities are heavily reliant on international assistance, have been badly hit by the new US administration’s suspension of foreign aid.
The executive order issued in January to ensure all United States Agency for International Development (USAID) projects align with US national interests has plunged students and academic institutions in Lebanon into uncertainty.
“My parents cannot afford to keep me enrolled if I lose my scholarship,” Rawaa, an 18-year-old university student attending the Lebanese American University, told Arab News. “Even if I worked day and night, I would not be able to cover a fraction of my tuition.”
According to USAID, some 16,396 students in Lebanon have previously benefited from the agency’s support as part of its higher education capacity building initiative.
Soon after the suspension was announced, students in Lebanon received official emails notifying them that their scholarships had been discontinued for 90 days. No further clarification has been sent.
Some 16,396 students in Lebanon have previously benefited from USAID’s support. (AFP/File)
“I have been obsessively refreshing my inbox and my news feed to see if there are any updates concerning the continuation of the USAID scholarship,” said Rawaa, but to little avail.
Lebanon received $219 million through USAID in 2024 alone to support nongovernmental organizations, water management and development projects in rural areas, educational and economic opportunities, and humanitarian assistance.
The US administration has said it is eliminating more than 90 percent of USAID’s foreign aid contracts and $60 billion in overall assistance around the world. An internal memo said officials were “clearing significant waste stemming from decades of institutional drift.”
More changes are planned in how USAID and the State Department deliver foreign assistance, it said, “to use taxpayer dollars wisely to advance American interests.”
Many Republican lawmakers believe USAID has been wasteful and harbors a liberal agenda. US President Donald Trump himself has promised to dramatically reduce spending and shrink the federal government.
The dismantling of USAID by the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, overseen by Tesla and X CEO Elon Musk, has seen pushback by unions, aid groups, and foreign policy analysts, who tout the agency’s “soft power” credentials.
Samantha Power, the USAID chief under former President Joe Biden, called the agency “America’s superpower” in an opinion piece for the New York Times. “We are witnessing one of the worst and most costly foreign policy blunders in US history,” she wrote.
The dismantling of USAID DOGE has seen pushback by unions, aid groups, and foreign policy analysts. (AFP/File)
“Future generations will marvel that it wasn’t China’s actions that eroded US standing and global security but rather an American president and the billionaire he unleashed to shoot first and aim later,” she added, in reference to Musk.
In 2023, Power allocated $50 million to support educational opportunities for Lebanese, Syrian, and Palestinian students in Lebanon. Some $15 million was earmarked for 140 university students, while the remainder went to thousands of younger disadvantaged students.
The 90-day suspension of USAID’s work while its programs are reviewed has resulted in thousands of Lebanese losing their jobs and as many as 500 students, who relied on American-funded scholarships, have been forced to drop out.
Teacher training programs have been cut and US-affiliated institutions such as the American University of Beirut, the Lebanese American University, and Haigazian University have also seen their budgets slashed.
USAID is an independent agency established by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. It has long been a lifeline for programs in health, disaster relief, environmental protection, development, and education across the Middle East, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Teacher training programs have been cut and US-affiliated institutions. (AFP/File)
The decision to suspend its operations is already having an impact on the work of UN agencies in the Middle East. The World Food Programme’s cash assistance scheme in Lebanon is expected to end for 170,000 Lebanese citizens and approximately 570,000 Syrian refugees.
The UN children’s fund, UNICEF, has also been forced to suspend or scale back its assistance, with just 26 percent of its donor appeal for Lebanon funded for the year ahead.
Ettie Higgins, UNICEF’s deputy representative in Lebanon, said an initial assessment had shown the agency must “drastically reduce” many of its programmes, including those related to child nutrition.
“The assessment revealed a grim picture of children’s nutrition situation, particularly in Baalbeck and Bekaa governorates, which remained densely populated when they were repeatedly targeted by airstrikes,” Higgins said in a video statement from Beirut.
She was referring to the recent war between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia, whose strongholds in southern and eastern Lebanon came under intense bombardment during the 15-month conflict.
Higgins said approximately 80 percent of families residing in these areas are in need of support, with 31 percent lacking sufficient drinking water, putting them at risk of contracting waterborne diseases.
The combined impact of economic crisis, political paralysis, the coronavirus pandemic, the Beirut port blast, and conflict with Israel has left Lebanon’s education system a shadow of its former self. (AFP/File)
“More than half a million children and their families in Lebanon are at risk of losing critical cash support from UN agencies,” she added, highlighting how these cuts could deprive the most vulnerable of their “last lifeline” to afford basic necessities.
Meanwhile, infrastructure and energy programs in rural areas have been halted, while support for small and medium-sized enterprises has stopped, leaving many families struggling.
Civil society groups and nongovernmental organizations reliant on USAID grants have also been forced to place social programs on hold, while countless employees have lost their jobs.
Once home to some of the best academic institutions and programs in the Middle East, the combined impact of economic crisis, political paralysis, the coronavirus pandemic, the Beirut port blast, and conflict with Israel has left Lebanon’s education system a shadow of its former self.
Poverty rates have skyrocketed since the financial crisis hit in 2019, with countless children forced to abandon their studies to seek work in order to support their families.
Many Republican lawmakers believe USAID has been wasteful and harbors a liberal agenda. (AFP/File)
Furthermore, the war between Israel and Hezbollah forced many schools to postpone their academic terms, as at least 500 state institutions were converted into makeshift shelters to house displaced families.
Now another generation of young people is destined to miss out on higher education having lost access to US-funded scholarships.
“I don’t know what I will do in the case of scholarship suspension,” said Lebanese American University student Rawaa. “I had dreams of becoming an architect and now it’s been taken away from me.”
