A required part of this site couldn’t load. This may be due to a browser
extension, network issues, or browser settings. Please check your
connection, disable any ad blockers, or try using a different browser.
Note: Map shows the area with a shake intensity of 4 or greater, which U.S.G.S. defines as “light,” though the earthquake may be felt outside the areas shown. All times on the map are Colombia time.The New York Times
A moderately strong, 5.5-magnitude earthquake struck in Colombia on Wednesday, according to the United States Geological Survey.
The temblor happened at 3:27 a.m. Colombia time about 7 miles northeast of Jordán, Colombia, data from the agency shows.
As seismologists review available data, they may revise the earthquake’s reported magnitude. Additional information collected about the earthquake may also prompt U.S.G.S. scientists to update the shake-severity map.
Source: United States Geological Survey | Notes: Shaking categories are based on the Modified Mercalli Intensity scale. When aftershock data is available, the corresponding maps and charts include earthquakes within 100 miles and seven days of the initial quake. All times above are Colombia time. Shake data is as of Wednesday, Dec. 10 at 3:41 a.m. Eastern. Aftershocks data is as of Wednesday, Dec. 10 at 4:13 a.m. Eastern.
Fighting between Thailand and Cambodia has continued for a third day, with cross-border shelling and air raids forcing more than half a million civilians to flee their homes and seek shelter, according to authorities.
Officials from the two Southeast Asian neighbours on Wednesday also accused each other of restarting the conflict that has killed at least 13 soldiers and civilians so far this week and led more than 500,000 people from both sides of the border to evacuate for safety.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
“More than 400,000 people have been moved to safe shelters” across seven provinces, Thailand’s Ministry of Defence spokesperson Surasant Kongsiri told reporters at a news conference.
“Civilians have had to evacuate in large numbers due to what we assessed as an imminent threat to their safety,” he said.
The Thai military also reported that rockets fired from Cambodia had landed near the Phanom Dong Rak Hospital in Surin on Wednesday morning, prompting patients and hospital staff to take cover in a bunker.
In neighbouring Cambodia, “101,229 people have been evacuated to safe shelters and relatives’ homes in five provinces”, Cambodian Ministry of National Defence spokeswoman Maly Socheata said.
Cambodianess, a website operated by the Cambodian Media Broadcasting Corporation, reported that Thai F-16 jets had attacked two areas in the country, while Thai shelling continued in three other areas.
Thailand’s Matichon Online news portal also reported that the country’s military had deployed F-16s to attack “one Cambodian military target” along the border on Wednesday morning.
Cambodian rockets and artillery fire also targeted 12 front-line areas in four Thai provinces early in the morning, according to Thailand’s The Nation newspaper, citing military sources. There were no immediate reports on casualties.
Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from Surin province in Thailand, said the Thai military reported earlier on Wednesday that fighting took place in almost all of the provinces bordering Cambodia.
In Surin province alone, there were reports of exchanges of fire in five different locations, McBride said, adding that many thousands have evacuated.
“Most people have left here,” he said.
“Hundreds of thousands of people now on both sides of the border have sought refuge as they have done in the past and as the fighting continues,” he added.
“The Thais have been saying that they do want peace. But they said peace has to come with what they call security and safety of Thai people. As the attacks are continuing, they have not achieved that yet,” McBride said.
Cambodian soldiers ride a motorcycle along a street in Oddar Meanchey province on Wednesday following clashes along the Cambodia-Thailand border [Cambodia Out via AFP]
Reporting from Oddar Meanchey in northwestern Cambodia, Al Jazeera’s Barnaby Lo said local people are moving to evacuation centres as the fighting has expanded to five border provinces with Thailand.
At one camp housing some 10,000 displaced people, Lo said conditions are “far from ideal” with many people sheltering under makeshift tents of blue tarpaulin, while others do not even have materials to build shelters to protect from the heat and rain.
“People here are saying there is not enough aid going around,” Lo said.
“But the bigger fear or the bigger concern here is the fear. Fear that the violence could spread further, and right now, there are people packing because we’ve been hearing loud explosions even though we are kilometres away from where the fighting is taking place. So people are packing and getting ready to move to another evacuation camp,” he said.
“But the problem is that wherever they go, it seems like danger will follow them.”
Lo added that Cambodia’s Senate President and former leader Hun Sen, who is the commander of the military, suggested retaliatory attacks on Thailand, and the conflict is unlikely to end quickly.
This week’s clashes are the deadliest since five days of fighting in July that killed dozens and displaced some 300,000 people on both sides of the border before a shaky truce was agreed, following an intervention by United States President Donald Trump.
Trump said late on Tuesday that he would make a phone call to stop the renewed fighting.
“I am going to have to make a phone call. Who else could say I’m going to make a phone call and stop a war of two very powerful countries, Thailand and Cambodia,” Trump said while speaking at a rally in the US state of Pennsylvania.
However, Thai Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow told Al Jazeera that he saw no potential for negotiations in the border conflict, adding that Bangkok did not start the clashes.
Cambodia’s Defence Ministry also said on Tuesday that its troops had no choice but to take action, accusing Thailand of “indiscriminately and brutally targeting civilian residential areas” with artillery shells, allegations Bangkok rejected.
In a further sign of worsening relations between the two countries, Cambodia announced on Wednesday that it was withdrawing from the Southeast Asian Games, which are currently being held in Thailand, citing “serious concerns”.
Tensions have simmered between Bangkok and Phnom Penh since Thailand last month suspended de-escalation measures that were agreed at an October summit in Trump’s presence in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, after a Thai soldier was maimed by a landmine that Bangkok said was newly laid by Cambodia. Cambodian officials have rejected the allegation.
The conflict between the two neighbours stems back to the colonial-era demarcation of their 800km (500-mile) frontier, and competing claims to historic temples along parts of the un-demarcated border, which have periodically spilled over into armed conflict.
Palantir, the artificial intelligence and data analytics company, has quietly started working on a tech platform for a federal immigration agency that has referred dozens of individuals to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement for potential enforcement since September.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services agency—which handles services including citizenship applications, family immigration, adoptions, and work permits for non-citizens—started the contract with Palantir at the end of October, and is paying the data analytics company to implement “Phase 0” of a “vetting of wedding-based schemes,” or “VOWS” platform, according to the federal contract, which was posted to the U.S. government website and reviewed by Fortune.
The contract is small—less than $100,000—and details of what exactly the new platform entails are thin. The contract itself offers few details, apart from the general description of the platform (“vetting of wedding-based schemes”) and an estimate that the completion of the contract would be Dec. 9.Palantir declined to comment on the contract or nature of the work, and USCIS did not respond to requests for comment for this story.
But the contract is notable, nonetheless, as it marks the beginning of a new relationship between USCIS and Palantir, which has had longstanding contracts with ICE, another agency of the Department of Homeland Security, since at least 2011. The description of the contract suggests that the “VOWS” platform may very well be focused on marriage fraud and related to USCIS’ recent stated effort to drill down on duplicity in applications for marriage and family-based petitions, employment authorizations, and parole-related requests.
USCIS has been outspoken about its recent collaboration with ICE. Over nine days in September, USCIS announced that it worked with ICE and the Federal Bureau of Investigation to conduct what it called “Operation Twin Shield” in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, where immigration officials investigated potential cases of fraud in immigration benefit applications the agency had received. The agency reported that its officers referred 42 cases to ICE over the period. In a statement published to the USCIS website shortly after the operation, USCIS director Joseph Edlow said his agency was “declaring an all-out war on immigration fraud” and that it would “relentlessly pursue everyone involved in undermining the integrity of our immigration system and laws.”
“Under President Trump, we will leave no stone unturned,” he said.
Earlier this year, USCIS rolled out updates to its policy requirements for marriage-based green cards, which have included more details of relationship evidence and stricter interview requirements.
While Palantir has always been a controversial company—and one that tends to lean into that reputation no less—the new contract with USCIS is likely to lead to more public scrutiny. Backlash over Palantir’s contracts with ICE have intensified this year amid the Trump Administration’s crackdown on immigration and aggressive tactics used by ICE to detain immigrants that have gone viral on social media. Not to mention, Palantir inked a $30 million contract with ICE earlier this year to pilot a system that will track individuals who have elected to self-deport and help ICE with targeting and enforcement prioritization. There has been pushback from current and former employees of the company alike over contracts the company has with ICE and Israel.
In a recent interview at the New York Times DealBook Summit, Palantir CEO Alex Karp was asked on stage about Palantir’s work with ICE and later what Karp thought, from a moral standpoint, about families getting separated by ICE. “Of course I don’t like that, right? No one likes that. No American. This is the fairest, least bigoted, most open-minded culture in the world,” Karp said. But he said he cared about two issues politically: immigration and “re-establishing the deterrent capacity of America without being a colonialist neocon view. On those two issues, this president has performed.”
Terence Crawford has been called out by a fighter who, much like he did against Canelo Alvarez, is determined to climb up several weight divisions and face him.
Having already cemented his legacy, the 38-year-old has seemingly reached a point in his career where the most lucrative opportunities are few and far between.
Now, though, it appears that Crawford may struggle to earn himself an even comparable lump of cash, particularly when considering the lack of notable names in and around his division.
But again, the money on offer is unlikely to give Crawford any reason to get out of bed, unless he remains genuinely eager to further enhance his greatness.
In terms of landing a purely money-spinning showdown, then, he may be enticed by Teofimo Lopez, who has expressed interest in a possible fight with ‘Bud’ after his next outing.
The WBO world super-lightweight champion must first defend his title against Shakur Stevenson, the WBC belt-holder at 135lbs, on January 31.
Should he come through his tricky assignment in New York, Lopez may then be considered among the greatest pound-for-pound fighters in this sport.
At which point, Crawford, who is a close friend of Stevenson, may, indeed, begin to entertain the 28-year-old’s call out which he made on the Inside The Ring Show.
“Crawford sent out one of his little guys [Stevenson] to come and finish the job, and I think that’s not going to work.
“I’m still going to be here, and if he’s still going to be in boxing, I would love to face him right after [the Stevenson fight].
“He is the guy; he is the man of boxing. If he can go up three weight divisions to fight Canelo Alvarez, why can’t Teofimo go up two weight classes, or three, to face Terence Crawford?”
Torres del Paine National Park in Patagonia Chile is an incredible region with raw beauty at every turn with ice fields, glacial lakes, unique wildlife, and extreme mountains. We were lucky enough to spend four days here at EcoCamp and experience a sampling of all the park has to offer in 2012 and again in 2025!
Understanding the Park
To get a grasp on Torres del Paine National Park, our guides gave us a driving overview, pointing out the various peaks, available hikes, lakes and animals. The terrain had us spellbound and to add to the magic, fall turned the grasses along the lakes a beautiful mix of autumn colors.
Guancos Abound
Guancos are one of the few mammals ready to handle the extreme climate of Patagonia Chile and they thrive here in abundance. Perhaps it’s because they know they are a protected species and irresistibly adorable, but they weren’t at all bashful. This one even batted her eyelashes at me.
The Torres Call
Run-off from the numerous glaciers that crown Torres del Paine cut through the landscape in snake-like fashion. The three sharp thin peaks jutting out in the distance are the “towers” that give the park their name and the place we would be hiking in days to come.
Day 2: Cruising the Park
Day 2 had us on a wild and bumpy boat ride toward the park’s second biggest attraction: Glacier Grey. En route, the amazing Almirante Nieto peaks were calling us to climb them.
Sailing Grey Lake
Lucky for us, our EcoCamp guide Paulo was good friends with the boat captain, so he got us VIP access to the control room. After chatting it up in en Español for a while, the captain insisted that Anne take the wheel. With the feel of the strong winds and a glimpse of the upcoming icebergs, Anne quickly handed back the reigns.
Glacier Grey
The face of Glacier Grey is split in the middle with a large black island (which about a century ago was fully engulfed by the glacier). This view is of the right side– the “daintier” section of the glacier.
Blue Ice
The blue hues of the glacier were so intense they looked surreal.
A Toast to Glaciers
For the sunset sail home, we enjoyed pisco sours and whiskey on the rocks (the “rocks” are icebergs, of course). In the distance you can see the island splitting the glacier in half.
Mount Almirante Nieto
On our return back to the mainland we marveled at these amazing cloud formations hovering around the mountains. Later we realized this was no freak instance, the lenticular clouds are the norm in this extreme climate and the skies of gusty Torres del Paine never cease to amaze.
Lenticular Clouds
We had a hard time agreeing if this was a space-ship, a hen on a bed of straw, or just another crazy wind-whipped creation from Torres del Paine. Huge thanks to David Carillet who shared some knowledge in the comments below “They’re known as lenticular clouds, which normally form at very high elevations and have been mistaken for UFOs at times”
Day 3: Hiking the Mirador Trail
The Mirador Trail to the base of the Torres is the park’s most famous day-hike and the finale of the 4-day W Trek. It’s also hardest section at 12.5 miles and 3,000-foot elevation gain. Hiking up the Ascencio Valley, past the glacial rivers, and into the icy boulder fields, we felt the burn but pressed on!
To see the namesake Torres reflect back in the glacial lake is simply magnificent. The vista literally takes your breath away as you stare at the raw cliffs, lakes, snow peaks, and massive boulders. Fourteen years later, we never forgot the beauty of this hike and it inspired us to hike the entirety of the W trek this year!
Torres del Paine Worth Coming Back!
See our TikTok video below for our 2025 hike to the Mirador and our Facebook gallery for the full 4-day W trek!
A massive global study has turned up some grim news: that nearly 87% of us are not routinely getting quality sleep and meeting physical activity levels needed for our long-term health. Now, scientists have discovered that one is more influential than the other.
In an effort to understand more about the biodirectional relationship between sleep and exercise, Flinders University researchers pooled worldwide health data from 70,963 users of two consumer-available health devices – an under-mattress sleep sensor and wrist-worn health tracker – between January 2020 and September 2023. Rather than gather a snapshot, the roughly 3.5 years allowed scientists to spot patterns as well as day-to-day information.
What they found was that, overall, just 12.9% of the cohort routinely achieved both quality sleep of seven-to-nine hours and the recommended daily 8,000 steps or more. What’s more, almost 17% of participants routinely got both less than seven hours of sleep a night and managed fewer than 5,000 steps a day.
But perhaps the most interesting aspect – since being time-poor and underslept probably won’t come as a shock to anyone, especially at this time of year – was just how the two activities interact with each other. The 12.9% who were both good sleepers and movers showed a marked improvement in physical activity the day following quality shut-eye. Essentially, their daily movement dropped off after nights where they achieved fewer hours asleep – even though, on average over the 3.5 years, they still fit into the “seven-to-nine hours a night” bracket.
The findings suggest that when it comes to setting sleep and physical activity recommendations, they should be considered as two sides of the same coin rather than independent of each other. And, to date, there’s a lot more data on the type of exercise to do, in order to sleep better. The researchers argue that more of an emphasis needs to be put on prioritizing sleep to set a good foundation for then being more active the next day.
“We found that getting a good night’s sleep – especially high-quality sleep – sets you up for a more active day,” said lead author Josh Fitton, a PhD candidate at Flinders University. “People who slept well tended to move more the following day, but doing extra steps didn’t really improve sleep that night. This highlights the importance of sleep if we want to boost physical activity.”
And, according to the data, more sleep didn’t mean increased physical activity – there was a threshold where anything beyond seven hours seemed to have little impact on movement.
“Our data showed that sleeping around six to seven hours per night was linked to the highest step counts the next day,” said Fitton. “But that doesn’t mean you should cut back on sleep because quality is just as important. People who slept more efficiently, meaning they spent less time tossing and turning, were consistently more active.”
The study also highlights how, for the majority of people, it’s a challenge to lock in both enough sleep and steps for our wellbeing – something that 87.1% were unable to achieve on average.
“Our findings call into question the real-world compatibility of prominent health recommendations and highlight how difficult it is for most people to have an active lifestyle and sleep well at the same time,” Fitton added. “Only a tiny fraction of people can achieve both recommended sleep and activity levels every day so we really need to think about how these guidelines work together and what we can do to support people to meet them in ways that fit real life.”
While getting better-quality shut-eye is often easier said than done, the researchers suggest that we need to reframe the act of sleep as just those hours between living our lives and appreciate its important role in our health.
“Prioritizing sleep could be the most effective way to boost your energy, motivation and capacity for movement,” said senior author Danny Eckert, a professor at Flinders University. “Simple changes like reducing screen time before bed, keeping a consistent bedtime, and creating a calm sleep environment can make a big difference.
“Our research shows that sleep is not just a passive state, it’s an active contributor to your ability to live a healthy, active life.” he added.
Supporting this research is another new study from scientists at the University of Michigan, who found that dopamine neurons are particularly active during nonrapid eye movement (NREM) sleep – which supports our reward and motivation brain signals when we’re awake.
They found that this dopamine spike is synchronized with memory-boosting sleep spindles, helping to strengthen motor memories and improve motor skills. This challenges traditional thought that these dopamine neurons only serve this role when we’re fully conscious.
“As alterations in dopamine signaling are associated with neurodegenerative diseases that also involve motor deficits and sleep disturbances, understanding these links could pave the way for improved therapeutics and advancements in human health,” said the Science Advances study co-author Ada Eban-Rothschild, an associate professor at the University of Michigan. “The findings highlight that sleep is an active biological period during which key neural circuits strengthen the skills and patterns we rely on every day.”
The donor’s sperm was used in clinics across Europe (stock image)
A sperm donor who unknowingly harboured a genetic mutation that dramatically raises the risk of cancer has fathered at least 197 children across Europe, a major investigation has revealed.
Some children have already died and only a minority who inherit the mutation will escape cancer in their lifetimes.
The sperm was not sold to UK clinics, but the BBC can confirm a “very small” number of British families, who have been informed, used the donor’s sperm while having fertility treatment in Denmark.
Denmark’s European Sperm Bank, which sold the sperm, said families affected had their “deepest sympathy” and admitted the sperm was used to make too many babies in some countries.
Getty Images
Up to 20% of the donor’s sperm contains the dangerous mutation that increases the risk of cancer (stock image)
The investigation has been conducted by 14 public service broadcasters, including the BBC, as part of the European Broadcasting Union’s Investigative Journalism Network.
The sperm came from an anonymous man who was paid to donate as a student, starting in 2005. His sperm was then used by women for around 17 years.
He is healthy and passed the donor screening checks. However, the DNA in some of his cells mutated before he was born.
It damaged the TP53 gene – which has the crucial role of preventing the body’s cells turning cancerous.
Most of the donor’s body does not contain the dangerous form of TP53, but up to 20% of his sperm do.
However, any children made from affected sperm will have the mutation in every cell of their body.
This is known as Li Fraumeni syndrome and comes with an up to 90% chance of developing cancer, particularly during childhood as well as breast cancer later in life.
“It is a dreadful diagnosis,” Prof Clare Turnbull, a cancer geneticist at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, told the BBC. “It’s a very challenging diagnosis to land on a family, there is a lifelong burden of living with that risk, it’s clearly devastating.”
MRI scans of the body and the brain are needed every year, as well as abdominal ultrasounds, to try to spot tumours. Women often choose to have their breasts removed to lower their risk of cancer.
The European Sperm Bank said the “donor himself and his family members are not ill” and such a mutation is “not detected preventatively by genetic screening”. They said they “immediately blocked” the donor once the problem with his sperm was discovered.
Children have died
Doctors who were seeing children with cancer linked to sperm donation raised concerns at the European Society of Human Genetics this year.
They reported they had found 23 with the variant out of 67 children known at the time. Ten had already been diagnosed with cancer.
Through Freedom of Information requests and interviews with doctors and patients we can reveal substantially more children were born to the donor.
The figure is at least 197 children, but that may not be the final number as data has not been obtained from all countries.
It is also unknown how many of these children inherited the dangerous variant.
Dr Kasper has been helping some of the families affected
Dr Edwige Kasper, a cancer geneticist at Rouen University Hospital, in France, who presented the initial data, told the investigation: “We have many children that have already developed a cancer.
“We have some children that have developed already two different cancers and some of them have already died at a very early age.”
Céline, not her real name, is a single-mother in France whose child was conceived with the donor’s sperm 14 years ago and has the mutation.
She got a call from the fertility clinic she used in Belgium urging her to get her daughter screened.
She says she has “absolutely no hard feelings” towards the donor but says it was unacceptable she was given sperm that “wasn’t clean, that wasn’t safe, that carried a risk”.
And she knows cancer will be looming over them for the rest of their lives.
“We don’t know when, we don’t know which one, and we don’t know how many,” she says.
“I understand that there’s a high chance it’s going to happen and when it does, we’ll fight and if there are several, we’ll fight several times.”
The donor’s sperm was used by 67 fertility clinics in 14 countries.
The sperm was not sold to UK clinics.
However, as a result of this investigation the authorities in Denmark notified the UK’s Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) on Tuesday that British women had travelled to the country to receive fertility treatment using the donor’s sperm.
Those women have been informed.
Peter Thompson, the chief executive of the HFEA, said a “very small number” of women were affected and “they have been told about the donor by the Danish clinic at which they were treated”.
We do not know if any British women had treatment in other countries where the donor’s sperm was distributed.
Concerned parents are advised to contact the clinic they used and the fertility authority in that country.
The BBC is choosing not to release the donor’s identification number because he donated in good faith and the known cases in the UK have been contacted.
There is no law on how many times a donor’s sperm can be used worldwide. However, individual countries do set their own limits.
The European Sperm Bank accepted these limits had “unfortunately” been breached in some countries and it was “in dialogue with the authorities in Denmark and Belgium”.
In Belgium, a single sperm donor is only supposed to be used by six families. Instead 38 different women produced 53 children to the donor.
The UK limit is 10 families per donor.
‘You can’t screen for everything’
Prof Allan Pacey, who used to run the Sheffield Sperm Bank and is now the deputy vice president of the Faculty of Biology Medicine and Health at the University of Manchester, said countries had become dependent on big international sperm banks and half the UK’s sperm was now imported.
He told the BBC: “We have to import from big international sperm banks who are also selling it to other countries, because that’s how they make their money, and that is where the problem begins, because there’s no international law about how often you can use the sperm.”
He said the case was “awful” for everybody involved, but it would be impossible to make sperm completely safe.
“You can’t screen for everything, we only accept 1% or 2% of all men that apply to be a sperm donor in the current screening arrangement so if we make it even tighter, we wouldn’t have any sperm donors – that’s where the balance lies.”
This case, alongside that of a man who was ordered to stop after fathering 550 children through sperm donation, has again raised questions over whether there should be tougher limits.
The European Society of Human Reproduction and Embryology has recently suggested a limit of 50 families per donor.
However, it said this would not reduce the risk of inheriting rare genetic diseases.
Rather, it would be better for the wellbeing of children who discover they are one of hundreds of half-siblings.
“More needs to be done to reduce the number of families that are born globally from the same donors,” said Sarah Norcross, the director of the Progress Educational Trust, an independent charity for people affected by infertility and genetic conditions.
“We don’t fully understand what the social and psychological implications will be of having these hundreds of half siblings. It can potentially be traumatic,” she told BBC News.
The European Sperm Bank said: “It is important, especially in light of this case, to remember that thousands of women and couples do not have the opportunity to have a child without the help of donor sperm.
“It is generally safer to have a child with the help of donor sperm if the sperm donors are screened according to medical guidelines.”
What if you are considering using a sperm donor?
Sarah Norcross said these cases were “vanishingly rare” when you consider the number of children born to a sperm donor.
All of the experts we spoke to said using a licensed clinic meant the sperm would be screened for more diseases than most fathers-to-be are.
Prof Pacey said he would ask “is this a UK donor or is this a donor from somewhere else?”
“If it’s a donor from somewhere else I think it’s legitimate to ask questions about has that donor been used before? Or how many times will this donor be used?”
If you or someone you know has been affected by the issues raised, details of help and support are available at BBC Action Line.
There’s a lot of noise coming from the MENA region’s music business.
The Middle East and North Africa was the fastest-growing recorded music region globally in 2024, jumping 22.8% YoY, according to data published by the IFPI in March. Streaming in the MENA region accounted for 99.5% of total revenues.
Saudi Arabia, one of the region’s key players, is a high-potential market with a young, highly connected and digitally savvy population, and its local music business is becoming increasingly visible on the world stage.
That has been driven in part by major music company partnerships and investments, as well as large-scale events such as this past weekend’s XP Music Futures conference and the upcoming Soundstorm Festival, which will feature superstars including Post Malone, Calvin Harris, and Cardi B performing in Riyadh.
Both events, XP Music Futures and SoundStorm, are organized by entertainment company MDLBEAST.
XP Music Futures 2025
MDLBEAST confirmed that the MENA-focused XP wrapped in Riyadh this past weekend (December 4-6) with its largest programming slate to date: 101 sessions, 20 workshops, and 284 speakers from 39 nations. The conference’s NITE program featured 203 artists across 113 acts representing 38 countries.
According to Mazen Khamis, Executive Director of Marketing, Commercial, and Products at MDLBEAST, the conference has evolved significantly since its inception.
“In the beginning, XP attracted mostly regional talent and industry insiders,” he explains. “Today, we’re seeing global labels, tech founders, festival operators, policymakers, managers, and creators from all over the world. It reflects how quickly the MENA music ecosystem is developing, and how much confidence international players now have in the Saudi market.”
The conference maintained its dual-format structure, pairing daytime industry programming with nighttime showcases. Khamis describes this approach as essential to XP’s value proposition: “I always say that XP is a full journey: you think during the day and you feel at night,” he says.
“The DAY program is where deals, ideas, and strategies are shaped. The NITE program is where people see the culture in action, where discovery happens. From a business point of view, both sides are equally important. Investors want to understand the market but also feel the audience. Artists want access to industry but also want to perform.”
“In the beginning, XP attracted mostly regional talent and industry insiders. Today, we’re seeing global labels, tech founders, festival operators, policymakers, managers, and creators from all over the world.”
Mazen Khamis, MDLBEAST
This year’s edition restructured the program to “prioritize networking and meaningful interactions” integrating initiatives like HUNNA, Hearful, and XPERFORM directly into the main “flow” of the event. “One major lesson is that XP works best when people can connect easily,” Khamis notes. “We learned a lot about movement, scheduling, and how DAY and NITE interact with each other. Reducing friction across the site played a huge role in our design choices this year.”
XP’s talent development programs saw Jafar Amin win the fourth season of vocal talent competition XPERFORM, while Radish.world took the fifth edition of the Storm Shaker DJ competition. Both winners secured performance slots at Soundstorm 2025, scheduled for this coming weekend, December 11-13.
Each of these programs fills a specific gap in the ecosystem, according to Khamis. “HUNNA empowers female creatives and leaders. Sound Futures supports startups and music-tech innovation. XPERFORM helps emerging artists build real careers beyond the event. The impact doesn’t stop when XP ends, these programs build momentum for the entire year.”
India as Focus Country
This year’s XP marked several notable developments, with India serving as the focus country. Programming included sessions on Indian music’s global expansion and partnerships with Indian brands.
“India and the Middle East have always had strong cultural connections, and both markets are growing fast with young, engaged audiences,” explains Khamis. “We’re already seeing natural collaborations between the two regions, so spotlighting India allows us to build a more structured bridge through co-writing, co-producing, touring, and investment. It’s a relationship that feels both natural and full of potential.”
Sessions at the wider conference covered topics including music’s role in sporting identity — following Soundstorm’s collaboration with Inter Milan FC — and how music events shape destination development across the region.
Khamis emphasizes that XP’s role extends beyond simply hosting panels and showcases. “XP brings everyone into the same room, creators, startups, investors, executives, policymakers. When that happens, opportunities start to form naturally. Programs like Sound Futures give investors direct access to music-tech innovation, while XPERFORM spotlights talent that’s ready for development. By showing the full ecosystem in one place, XP makes it easier for global players to understand where the opportunities are and how to get involved.”
What sets XP apart from other global music conferences, according to Khamis, is its regional specificity. “XP is built for this region, not copied from anywhere else. It reflects the ambition, identity, and energy of the Middle East while being completely connected to global industry standards.
“What sets it apart is the blend of conference, culture, festival, and innovation. And because XP connects directly to Soundstorm as both events are just one week apart, it creates something most conferences don’t have: immediate access to one of the world’s most exciting music audiences.”
Soundstorm 2025
MDLBEAST also organises a separate music festival called Soundstorm, which is scheduled for this coming weekend, December 11-13.
For this years’s event, Khamis and his team have undertaken a complete redesign of the festival’s layout. The size of the event is something to behold. Last year’s festival drew 450,000 people over the three-day period.
“This year, we pushed Soundstorm into its biggest evolution yet,” Khamis explains. “We rebuilt the entire festival as a City of Beats, a place you can actually navigate like a mini city with its own districts and personality. We now have 14 stages across four districts, all connected through Downtown, which acts as the heart of the whole experience.”
The new structure features 14 stages organized across four distinct districts, East, West, North, and South, connected by a central Downtown area. At the center sits Downtown, described as “a dynamic playground for food, fashion, and culture” and the main meeting point for social moments. “From there, fans can move naturally into the East, West, North, or South districts depending on what sound and energy they want,” says Khamis.
“Soundstorm has always been a festival of a huge scale. And that’s definitely something we want to keep but we felt the need to make it feel more intimate and bring things closer together, that’s how the idea of turning it into a small city came about. Our focus was simple: smoother movement, clearer navigation, and a festival that truly feels like a cultural city.”
“Soundstorm has always been a festival of a huge scale.”
Mazen Khamis, MDLBEAST
East forms the festival’s “largest and most high-impact zone” anchored by the Big Beast mainstage, built, according to MDLBEAST, for “global superstars and peak-energy performances”. The 6AG stage, meanwhile, “champions regional talent” with a focus on Saudi and Middle Eastern artists.
The North section of the site features stages including Park, which “brings band-led energy”, while Mixtape serves as the festival’s home of hip-hop and R&B. The Brass stage adds “groove-forward sets with live instrumental character”, and Yard spotlights indie, alternative, and emerging artists.
West becomes Soundstorm’s “dance and techno” district, with stages including Tunnel, Port, Plexi, Silk, Log, and Greenhouse “each bring their own corner of the electronic spectrum,” according to Soundstorm, “from EDM and progressive techno to house, disco, and harder techno”.
The South side of the site focuses on “ambient, slower, more atmospheric sounds” and includes Neon, a glowing 360-degree tent, and Roog, an “intimate space for deeper, slower-building electronic sets”.
The festival will host over 200 performers across the three days, with a superstar lineup that features Cardi B, Metro Boomin, Pitbull, Tyla, Benson Boone, Lil Yachty, and more global acts, alongside hundreds of regional and international electronic, hip-hop, and pop artists. The lineup reflects the festival’s positioning as one of the region’s largest music events, blending chart-topping global artists with emerging talent.
The transformation presented significant operational challenges. “When you redesign a festival of this size, you’re balancing creativity with massive operations,” Khamis notes. “Turning Soundstorm into a 14-stage city required a new approach to crowd flow, transportation, staging, and technology.”
One of his biggest priorities was ensuring the festival remains navigable despite its growth. “Even as the festival grows, it still feels clear and easy for people to move around,” he says. “Bringing in improved tech — like upgrades to our ticketing and navigation systems through NOFOMO, added another layer of complexity. But these challenges push us to innovate, and that’s what makes Soundstorm what it is.”
When asked about MDLBEAST’s trajectory, Khamis sees continued expansion.
“MDLBEAST has grown from a single festival into a multi-vertical entertainment company. My work has focused on expanding our commercial footprint, shaping new products, and building partnerships.”
Looking ahead, he envisions MDLBEAST “becoming a global cultural powerhouse, exporting Saudi creativity, expanding our product ecosystem, and building stronger connections between music, technology, and culture. Everything we’re doing is aligned with Vision 2030 and the long-term development of the creative economy.”
Shutterstock
Getty Images
