"...similar to "news" following the presentations in the Middle East."

A couple of differences to ponder, though. One is the fact that today's PR "only" took two weeks following the trip, while the one following the ME trip took 4 weeks. On that count at least, things are moving more quickly.

Second is in the part of the sentence qouted below, which is different from anything appearing in the PR following the ME trip. Make of it what you will, could be nothing.

"... and we believe substantial and important progress is being made toward financing of Phase 1, which will then lead to Phase 2 in the following year."

Overall, nothing changes here between what we knew yesterday, and what we know today.