sameer hashmi, thank you _ is doing now. sameer hashmi, thank you very _ is doing now. sameer hashmi, thank you very much _ is doing now. sameer hashmi, thank you very much for - is doing now. sameer hashmi, thank you very much for that. l let's get some of the day's other news. video conferencing firm zoom has agreed to pay $86 million — that's £61.9 million — to settle a class action privacy lawsuit in the us. the lawsuit alleged that zoom had invaded the privacy of millions of users by sharing personal data with facebook, google and linkedin. the firm denied any wrongdoing, but has agreed to boost its security practices. and bitcoin investors brace for more volatility. news that germany may allow more institutional investors into the cryptocurrency space is countering fears that the new us infrastructure package will tax the sector and crimp growth. bitcoin is now trading at its highest levels since mid—may. disney'sjungle cruise pulled in more than $34 million at the us box office this weekend, despite growing concerns about the delta variant. interestingly,

our middle east business reporter sameer hashmi study reporter sameer hashmi aramco has brought forward study aramco has brought forward a blockbuster performance. they have quadrupled their net profits compared to the same period last year. this has been a huge turnaround, notjust for the turnaround, not just for the company turnaround, notjust for the company but the oil industry. chevron, bp, shall, they have all reported impressive numbers over the last few days. even the aramco ceo on the earnings call so that they expect the second half of 2021 even better, and this reflects that the industry feels that the worst of the pandemic is behind them. aramco ceo said that they expect global oil demand to touch 99 million barrels of oil per day by the end of this year, and 100 million barrels of oil per day by next year, which is going back to pre— pandemic levels. aramco is planning to increase production because they expect demand to grow bigger from because they expect demand to grow biggerfrom here. they also expect their capital expenditure to touch $35 billion, which is higher tha

our middle east business correspondent, sameer hashmi, says the saudi government is determined that everybody should be vaccinated. in the tourism sector span, one of course is there is a small section of the population that has been hesitant to take the vaccine. the government wants to ensure that every adult in the country takes the vaccine. if you look at the numbers, saudi arabia's numbers, but 25 persons per population has already received two doses, whereas about 77 persons has received one. they really want to cover the remaining 20, 23 person odd. the second thing is there is a concern in saudi arabia, like the rest of the world, that the delta variant is rising faster and could be more dangerous and that is why they want to ensure that the population is inoculated completely. the third thing, ben, is they are also opening up the country for tourism. until now they had chatted since the outbreak of the coronavirus where they had kept tourists way, even religious travellers would go to saudi arabia a lot away but now they want to slowly and gradually start foreigners into the country a