Author: Editorial Team

JEDDAH — Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman and Crown Prince and Prime Minister Mohammed bin Salman offered condolences to French President Emmanuel Macron on the death of former Prime Minister Édouard Balladur. In separate cables sent to Macron, the King and the Crown Prince conveyed their deepest condolences and sincere sympathy to the French president, as well as to the family of the deceased, and the friendly people of France. Balladur, who died on Monday, was a French neo-Gaullist politician. He served as prime minister of France from 1993 to 1995. Source: Saudi Gazette

JAZAN/ASIR — Border Guard land patrols thwarted three separate smuggling operations in Jazan and Asir, seizing a total of 154 kg khat, 24 kg of hashish and 19,120 tablets. In Jazan, Border Guard land patrols in the Al-Dayer Sector arrested Ethiopian nationals for violating the Border Security Law and attempting to smuggle 24 kilograms of hashish and 19,120 tablets subject to medical circulation regulations. Ethiopian nationals were arrested for attempting to smuggle 24 kilograms of hashish and 19,120 tablets. In a separate operation in the same sector, Border Guard land patrols arrested three Ethiopian nationals for attempting to smuggle 60…

stc group, Saudi Arabia’s leading digital enabler, and Red Sea Global are showcasing an intelligent operation management system for three Red Sea destinations at LEAP 2026, taking place from 31 August to 3 September at the Riyadh International Convention & Exhibition Center. Spanning Shura Island and Turtle Bay, with 10 square kilometres under high-resolution real-time monitoring, the system, developed by stc Group’s subsidiary iot squared, combines a detailed virtual representation of the sites with live information from the physical environment, demonstrating how the technology can support both destination operations and the visitor experience. The system, known as a Digital Twin,…

“Refad” Real Estate Investment and Development Company has revealed the development of a new (Grade A) dry logistics warehouse at King Abdulaziz Port in Dammam. This project is an addition to its logistics real estate portfolio and is part of its strategy to expand by developing modern, high-quality logistics facilities in strategic locations throughout the Kingdom.   Refad’s approach to the project goes beyond conventional storage by creating a real estate asset focused on increasing efficiency and operational flexibility to meet operators’ needs. The warehouse has a height of 18.8 meters at its highest point, and seven loading and unloading gates…

(L-R) Ramkumar Balakrishnan, CEO of AmiViz and Charbel Zreiby, Channel Director for EMEA East at Veeam. AmiViz, the Middle East’s leading consultative Value-Added Distributor, announces a strategic distribution partnership with Veeam, the Data and AI Trust Company, during LEAP 2026 in Riyadh.   The collaboration marks a significant step in helping organisations across the Middle East strengthen cyber resilience, build trusted data foundations for AI, and accelerate secure-by-design digital transformation. Together, AmiViz and Veeam will help customers establish the visibility, governance, security and recovery capabilities required to build resilient, AI-ready enterprises.  AmiViz recently introduced a business strategy centred on four core practices: Cybersecurity, Data & Resilience, Sovereign Cloud & AI, and Digital…

FlyAkeed, the Saudi corporate-travel technology platform, announced Wednesday from the main stage at LEAP 2026 that it has secured SR94.3 million ($25.15 million) in growth funding. The round pairs an equity investment led by Sanabil Investments – a financial investment company wholly owned by the Public Investment Fund (PIF) – with participation from Artal Capital, alongside stc group’s corporate venture capital fund and Aljazira Capital. Artal Capital has also led our Murabaha sukuk financing, a pioneering Shariah-compliant growth financing structure tailored to the Kingdom’s expanding SaaS ecosystem.The funding will primarily support a new embedded deferred payment offering that enables a…

RIYADH — The Ministry of Interior’s electronic platform Absher processed more than 240 million electronic transactions during the first half of 2026 through its Absher Individuals and Absher Business platforms. Absher announced this during its participation in the Ministry of Interior’s pavilion at the LEAP 2024 Conference and Exhibition in Malham, Riyadh. Out of the total number of 240,268,250 processed transactions, 225.3 million were carried out through the Absher Individuals platform, while the Absher Business platform recorded approximately 14.9 million transactions. The digital document wallet service accounted for the largest share of transactions processed through Absher Individuals, with citizens, residents,…

JERUSALEM — Israel has claimed its special forces captured the head of Hamas’s internal security service in a ground operation in Gaza on Tuesday. Israel’s military and Shin Bet security service said a special forces unit arrested the man in Gaza City on Tuesday and then took him to Israel for questioning. Palestinian media reported that Israeli special forces and Israel-backed Palestinian militiamen opposed to Hamas entered the area, but that their presence was discovered. Some Israeli media suggested that only a local armed militia operated on the ground. A spokesman for Gaza’s Hamas-run government media office, Ismail al-Thawabta, said:…

“Re Source: Riyadh Daily

NetApp®, the Intelligent Data Infrastructure company, recently announced it has been recognised by Gartner as a Leader in the 2026 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Storage Platforms, continuing to acknowledge NetApp as a Leader in this market from its inaugural edition of this report in 2025. The evaluation was based on specific criteria that analysed the company’s overall Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute. Additionally, the 2026 Gartner Critical Capabilities for Enterprise Storage Platforms report ranks NetApp first in the Hybrid Cloud Storage Use Case and second in the Hybrid Platform Services Use Case. NetApp believes this recognition validates…