Category: General

The Saudi Press Agency’s (SPA) Twitter account topped all other government accounts in terms of average views during this year’s Hajj season, with 89 million views, which reflects the agency’s pioneering role in highlighting the efforts made by the Kingdom’s various sectors to serve the pilgrims and provide them with all services and facilities to perform the Hajj rituals peacefully.

SPA’s efforts during the Hajj season were reflected in the fact that its account “@SPAregions” on the Twitter platform achieved more than 1.346 billion impressions, through more than 1,600 tweets, taking into account that the account has more than 2.2 million followers.

The tweets included the overall activities and efforts made by various government agencies and concerned institutions under the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and HRH Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to provide the best services to enable pilgrims to perform their Hajj rituals.

“@SPAregions” account offered its followers a window to learn about the government efforts in which all sectors participated, as well as tracking the pilgrims’ Hajj journey, starting from their arrival in the Kingdom, through their performance of rituals in the holy sites, until their departure back to their respective countries.

The agency embarked on preparing for the Hajj season, in partnership with the Ministry of Interior, through the (Makkah Route) initiative, which was launched at the beginning of Dhul-Qi`dah and covered seven countries including Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Turkey, Morocco, Cote d’Ivoire, and Malaysia.

As part of its plan to cover the various activities of the Hajj season 1444, SPA transmitted its services including news, pictures, and media to various media outlets at home and abroad, as part of its media partnerships with more than 30 regional, Islamic, and international news agencies. The agency published more than 2,400 news and reports, in six languages; Arabic – English – French – Persian – Chinese – Russian, and more than 1,200 digital materials including photos, videos and infographics.

SPA had established partnerships with four Islamic news agencies in Egypt – Pakistan, Indonesia, and Malaysia, to transmit the events of the Hajj season to all Islamic countries in a step that the agency started with the support of Saudi Minister of Media Salman bin Yousef Al-Dosari.

These partnerships have contributed to achieving a wider scope for publishing news content for the Hajj season in more than 15 live languages through the agency’s websites, participating agencies, and social media platforms.

SPA continues its news coverage of the post-Hajj season in Madinah, as well as the departure of pilgrims after completing the Hajj ritual, amid follow-up by all government sectors.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Formula 1 Organizing Committee announced today the initial calendar for 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship, approved by the World Motor Sport Council, which features 24 races and begins in Bahrain on the 2nd of March and finishes in Abu Dhabi on the 8th of December.

The 4th edition of the Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix will be held on the Jeddah Corniche Circuit on March 7-9, 2024, to avoid a potential clash with the start of the holy month of Ramadan.

Several changes have been made to the 2024 FIA Formula One World Championship calendar. The Formula 1 Las Vegas Grand Prix, the Japan Grand Prix, and the Azerbaijan Grand Prix will be held in November, April, and September, respectively, and the date of the Qatar Grand Prix has been changed from October to December.

FIA President Mohammed Ben Sulayem said that the changes to the calendar fall within the federation’s endeavor to make the Formula 1 competition more efficient in terms of environmental sustainability and more accessible to the organizers and the participating teams who travel extensively and devote most of their time to Formula 1 races. He added that the summer break will be extended to three weeks in August, and drivers will get an additional three-week gap between September and October.

For his part, Prince Khalid bin Sultan Al Abdullah Al-Faisal, Chairman of the Saudi Automobile and Motorcycle Federation (SAMF) and the Saudi Motorsport Company (SMC), noted that all eyes are set on Jeddah Corniche Circuit, which will host the 4th edition of Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

The prince added that the Jeddah Corniche Circuit has always proved to be among the most challenging circuits on the Formula 1 calendar and has witnessed significant thrills and fierce competition during the previous three editions.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

The Ambassador of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to France, Fahd bin Mayouf Al-Ruwaili, participated in a seminar organized by the French Institute of International Relations on the Kingdom’s foreign policy, achievements, and challenges.

Opening the seminar, Thierry de Montbrial the CEO and founder of the French Institute of International Relations, commended the Kingdom’s pivotal role in the international arena and the developments and progress it is witnessing at all levels.

Ambassador Al-Ruwaili underlined the importance of the recent official visit of His Royal Highness Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, to the Republic of France in enhancing Riyadh-Paris relations and joint partnerships.

HRH the Crown Prince also chaired the Kingdom’s delegation to the Summit for a New Global Financing Pact in Paris, attended by French President Emmanuel Macron.

The ambassador highlighted the Kingdom’s comprehensive development endeavor as part of the strategy outlined in the Saudi Vision 2030.

Al-Ruwaili also presented a briefing on the central pillars of the Kingdom’s foreign policy, international relations, and efforts to achieve peace and stability at the regional and international levels through its effective membership in international conventions and organizations, including primarily the G20, where the Kingdom has submitted several initiatives to combat radicalism and terrorism, protect the environment, fight poverty and address debt crises.

Several ambassadors to France, political and economic figures, and journalists attended the seminar.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

CEO of the Saudi Authority for Intellectual Property (SAIP) Abdulaziz bin Mohammed Al-Suwailem stressed Thursday the importance of adding Arabic to The Hague and Madrid systems.

In a speech at the 64th Series of Meetings of the Assemblies of the Member States of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), Al-Suwailem said the Kingdom had attached great importance to protecting and enforcing intellectual property rights and strengthening the enforcement system.

During the meetings at WIPO headquarters in Geneva today, Al-Suwailem also stressed that the Kingdom looks forward to SAIP joining the International Searching and International Preliminary Examining Authorities under the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT).

Al-Suwailem highlighted Saudi intellectual-property developments, which rely on a national strategy to build a system that promotes an economy based on innovation and creativity.

Moreover, the Kingdom has joined the Convention for the Protection of Producers of Phonograms Against Unauthorized Duplication of Their Phonograms and has worked on updating all legislation related to intellectual property, he stressed.

The Kingdom joined the WIPO as a member in 1982, utilizing its membership to keep abreast of developments in the various fields of intellectual property. This has positively impacted SAIP’s diverse activities.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology (KACST), and the Research, Development, and Innovation Development Authority (RDIA), Eng. Abdullah bin Amer Al-Swaha, met in China Thursday with the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Tus-Holdings Co, Wang Jiwu, and corporate leaders to set the future direction of the partnership and to establish an incubator for innovation in deep technologies in KACST, which will be the first launch of joint innovation incubators as part of the cooperation between the two countries.

The minister reviewed the fruitful partnership with Tus-Holdings in laying the foundations for the success of the innovation oases in the Kingdom to include the foundational and digital infrastructure, digital resources, and platforms that support the provision of the best services and enablers for the entrepreneurship system, incubated startups, and hosted technology companies of all sizes, which have proven successful by adopting the establishment of several oases of innovation in China and its contribution and investment in the establishment of innovation oases in several developed countries such as the UK and Russia.

Al-Swaha explained that these oases will positively impact strengthening the research, development, and innovation system in the Kingdom and contribute to building a sustainable economy.

Source: Saudi Press Agency

The aggression forces committed 74 violations of the ceasefire agreement in Hodeida province over the past 24 hours, an official at the operations room to monitor the violations said on Friday.

The official in the operations room told the Yemeni News Agency (Saba) that among the aggression forces violations were two raids by spy planes on Al-Jabalia and four spy planes flew over Al-Jabalia and Maqbanah.

He pointed out that the violations also included the creation of combat fortifications in a cemetery, four violations of artillery shell and 63 violations of various gunshots.

Source: Yemen News Agency