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RIYADH: Comoros President Azali Assoumani arrived in Madinah on Wednesday, Saudi Press Agency reported.
The president will pray at the Prophet’s Mosque in the holy city and pay his respects to him.
Assoumani was greeted on arrival in the city by its governor Prince Salman bin Sultan.
RIYADH: The Saudi Arabian Museums Commission signed a memorandum of understanding with the Tareq Rajab Museum in Kuwait on Wednesday.
The agreement aims to strengthen cultural cooperation and the exchange of expertise in the fields of museums and exhibitions.
It aims to strengthen the broader cultural relations between Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, helping to promote mutual understanding and intercultural dialogue between the two countries.
Mona Khazindar, adviser to the Saudi Ministry of Culture and representative of the Museums Commission, signed the memorandum alongside Ziad Tareq Rajab, director of the Tareq Rajab Museum. The document outlines areas of cultural cooperation and mutual interest for both parties.
Key areas of cooperation include the exchange of research, the loan of objects and the organization of temporary exhibitions, with the aim of enriching the cultural content and enhancing the value of both collections. The memorandum also establishes a joint working group to implement these areas of cooperation and facilitate the exchange of knowledge.
Khazindar said that the memorandum reflected the Museums Commission’s commitment to forming strategic partnerships with long-established private museums in the Arab region.
She underlined the importance of the Tareq Rajab Museum as a leading institution dedicated to Islamic art and heritage, adding that the collaboration would support cultural and knowledge-exchange initiatives across the museum sector.
RIYADH: British content creator and social influencer John bin London has said he is amazed at the resilience of Saudi Arabia and its people and believes nothing will stop the Kingdom’s success.
Bin London, a native of Nottingham, England, who grew up in Abu Dhabi, was the first guest on the seventh season of The Mayman Show.
He expressed his admiration of the Saudi people and the Kingdom’s rapid transformation.
“Saudis have a ‘nothing will stop us or will get in our way and we will succeed’ (attitude),” he said. “This is something that I saw within the people.”
He added that whether it was Telfaz 11 — a creative media studio led by an enthusiastic team of storytellers and social influencers — or students he met from small Saudi villages who had traveled to the UK to obtain university degrees, everyone seemed to have a “never quit” mentality.
Bin London also used the partial privatization of oil giant Saudi Aramco as a prime example of the Kingdom’s flourishing economy potential and appeal.
The initial public offering saw 100 percent of the shares transferred to the Public Investment Fund. Some 95 percent remained with the sovereign wealth fund, with the other 5 percent floated to private investors.
“The economics say, ‘Oh this is not going to work, and if it fails this and that,’ and then in a few years, what did we see? We saw a growth of 150 percent,” said bin London.
He also highlighted NEOM’s The Line project. Built on 34 sq. km, it will eventually accommodate 9 million people with a reduced infrastructure footprint, creating new methods of efficiency.
“I remember, not long ago, people doubted The Line and then suddenly they saw the trucks going in, and The Line being built, this shut them up,” he said.
Bin London’s view of Saudi perseverance did not just come from observing projects and financial deals, however. He firmly believes that success comes from the people behind it — starting with Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman: “I think it was obvious to everyone who was following and paying attention what was going to happen in this country.”
The influencer, who is fluent in Arabic and has also mastered the Najdi Arabic dialect, creates content in the language to advocate for the opportunities offered in the land he has decided to make his home.
“I started picking up on vocabulary, pronunciation, from their dialects. It was, I guess, an unconscious thing,” he said.
“It was just who you hear around you, how they speak. You start copying it and then later on a lot of my friends were from the Otaibi tribe, which … spreads from Taif, Hijaz and into Najd.”
The Briton lauds many Saudi tourist destinations but says Diriyah, the Kingdom’s birthplace and home of At-Turaif, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, will always have a special place in his heart.
“Diriyah is one of my favorite places. It was somewhere that before my first visit to Saudi Arabia, which was in the end of 2022, I literally dreamt about visiting.
“It’s the jewel of the Kingdom, it’s the place of the Al-Saud family, who created this country.
“I used to watch the videos and see the pictures and I want(ed) to visit the museums, like it was literally a dream, so much so that the first time I came I woke up super early — and I’m not a morning person — with excitement to go visit Diriyah,” he said.
The excitement of that visit, he recalled, meant he spent an entire day wandering around and taking in the depth of history and captivating surroundings.
RIYADH: The launch of a major new resort project was inaugurated by Prince Saud bin Talal bin Badr, governor of Al-Ahsa, as he laid the foundation stone to mark the start of its construction on Wednesday evening.
Various officials from government entities, investors, and representatives from Al-Ahsa Development Authority and the Tourism Fund attended the ceremony for the Dusit D2 Al-Ahsa resort.
Spanning over 77,000 square meters, it will be located in Al-Ahsa Oasis, which is classified as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
It will include 120 luxury hotel units and amenities such as an artificial lake, a health club, restaurants, a cultural center, nature trails, and recreational areas.
The resort will partly operate using solar energy and have electric internal transport, water treatment, and low-carbon building materials.
A SR60 million ($15.995 million) project was also implemented to upgrade the water system in the region ahead of tourist season.
Prince Saud expressed pride at the rapid growth of high-quality tourism projects in Al-Ahsa, all of which strengthen its status as an attractive tourist destination in the Kingdom, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
He added that these projects contribute to diversifying income sources and increasing the tourism sector’s contribution to the national economy, in alignment with the goals of Saudi Vision 2030.
The support and care that Al-Ahsa and its development projects receive from the Kingdom’s leadership help empower the private sector and encourage investments across various fields, the prince added.
The importance of supporting and enabling the private sector and creating a fruitful investment environment — one that prompts innovative initiatives and provides job opportunities for the people of the governorate — was also highlighted.
The ceremony included the signing of management and operation agreements with the Thai company Dusit, which will operate the resort once it is completed, SPA reported.
Naif bin Abdullah Al-Madhi, CEO of the Business Sector and Tourism Development Fund, spoke of the necessity to embolden projects that reflect the diversity of the Saudi identity and contribute to making unique experiences for tourists that showcase local culture and heritage.
Al-Madhi described the resort as a model for utilizing local environmental resources to offer a complete hospitality experience that highlights agricultural and cultural tourism, especially in a region with the largest palm oasis in the world.
Bassem Al-Ghadeer, chairman of Al-Ghadeer Group, which owns the project, expressed his thanks and appreciation to the governor for his support of the development.
RIYADH: As Saudi Arabia gears up for this year’s Hajj, the Presidency of Religious Affairs at the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque has launched a new smart portal to enhance the digital experience of pilgrims to the Grand Mosque.
The initiative offers well-curated Islamic content in a simplified and comprehensive manner that addresses the needs of pilgrims, visitors and Umrah performers, reported the Saudi Press Agency.
The portal offers a fully integrated digital platform dedicated to delivering religious and enrichment services.
President of Religious Affairs at the Grand Mosque and the Prophet’s Mosque, Sheikh Abdulrahman Al-Sudais, said it was the first smart, faith-based portal of its kind — innovative, globally accessible and highly regulated.
Designed in multiple languages, it serves as an enrichment reference for pilgrims based on a carefully curated and standardized database.
The interactive platform is powered by several smart technologies and offers a range of features including prayer time displays, notifications about imams and muezzins, and schedules of religious lessons and their locations. It is distinguished by an interactive navigation feature that allows visitors to directly access service and lesson locations using smart maps within the app.
The portal also enables instant responses to visitor queries through live chat and provides guidance on how to perform prayer and ablution, along with definitions of Islamic terms. It can be accessed via https://services.prh.gov.sa.
The Presidency also unveiled the updated second version of its AI-powered Manarat Al-Haramain robot on Wednesday, as part of an initiative aiming to leverage advanced technologies to enhance pilgrims’ spiritual experiences.
The robot will act as a reference point for religious inquiries at the Grand Mosque and can connect worshippers and other visitors to direct video calls with muftis who can answer any questions they have.
AL-AHSA: Researchers at King Faisal University in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Province have developed a low-cost smart sensor that aims to reduce spoilage of fresh produce.
The Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday that the device, which is now registered with the US Patent and Trademark Office, is designed to predict spoilage early during transportation and storage.
Developed by a team from the KFU’s College of Science, the device detects volatile organic compounds, particularly ethylene gas, a key indicator of the onset of spoilage in fresh produce.
“The compact and lightweight prototype is designed for easy installation in refrigeration units or transport containers,” the report stated.
As the device can be connected to Internet of Things networks, real-time remote monitoring and early alerts can be done by stakeholders across the food supply chain.
It can be integrated into cooling and distribution systems, offering a practical solution for the food and logistics sectors, the report stated.
It added that the device was showcased by KFU during the 16th Conference of the Parties to the UN Convention to Combat Desertification in Riyadh last December.
It has drawn significant interest from investors due its “practical value in supporting smart agriculture and minimizing food waste in supply chains,” the SPA reported.
