News

Samsung’s New Galaxy Phones Will Be Revealed On January 17

The Galaxy S24 lineup is expected to be the highlight of the Korean tech giant’s next Unpacked event.

Published

3 years ago

January 3, 2024

Nour Nasir

Samsung

Samsung is set to unveil its next line of mobile devices — likely the Galaxy S24 series — on January 17. The company’s Unpacked event will be one of the first major smartphone reveals of 2024, and the new devices are tipped to include several AI-powered features alongside the usual camera and processor upgrades.

Samsung typically uses new camera technologies to elevate its Galaxy phones over previous models. This year, however, AI is expected to feature heavily in the S24 lineup. The smartphones will be the first new devices to include Galaxy AI, which the company has already described as a “comprehensive mobile AI experience” during a teaser announcement last November.

Various rumors and leaks suggest that we should also see a titanium chassis design, along with flatter edges for the top-of-the-line Ultra model.

Also Read: Dubai Startup Creates Iron Man-Style Smart Contact Lens

The event takes place on January 17 in San Jose, California, at 10 am Pacific Time. There will also be a live stream of the event and a promotion offering $50 of credit for customers who want to reserve a handset through Samsung’s website.

News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

Also Read: Lebanon’s 5G Era Begins With 150 Stations And A $1M Budget

The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.