The New Development Bank (NDB) of the BRICS group of major emerging economies is currently in talks with Saudi Arabia on admitting the kingdom as its tenth member, the Financial Times reported on Sunday.

The move is expected to cement ties between the Shanghai-based lender, established by BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa) back in 2014, with the world’s second biggest producer of oil.

s the Joe Biden administration continues its hurried push to foster an unlikely normalization deal between Riyadh and Tel Aviv, the White House is suggesting Israel make some concessions to the Saudis in the hopes of achieving an agreement, Times of Israel reported on Tuesday.

China is reportedly in talks with Saudi Arabia and Egypt for major arms deals as the countries seek to diversify their weapons supplies to become less reliant on the United States and Russia for their defense needs.

The Biden administration is reportedly planning to pursue a normalization deal between Israel and Saudi Arabia before the end of this year.

Two Saudi astronauts will be travelling to the International Space Station (ISS) for the first time on a private mission to carry out a number of experiments, the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA) reported.

Rayyanah Barnawi, the first female Arab astronaut and breast cancer researcher, and fighter pilot Ali al-Qarni are scheduled to blast off in a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket from the Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida on Sunday.