Saudi Transport Authority conducts more than 265,000 inspections
Saudi Transport Authority conducts more than 265,000 inspections/node/2420786/saudi-arabia
Saudi Transport Authority conducts more than 265,000 inspections
A total of 260,454 inspection operations were conducted in the land transport sector and 5,369 inspections took place in the maritime sector. (Supplied)
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Updated 06 December 2023
SPA
Saudi Transport Authority conducts more than 265,000 inspections
Riyadh recorded the highest number of violations in November with 11,678, followed by Makkah with 9,549, the Eastern Province with 6,745 and Madinah with 2,228
Updated 06 December 2023
SPA
RIYADH: Ƶ’s Public Transport Authority, represented by the Directorate General for Control in collaboration with other authorities, carried out field inspection campaigns in November.
They included 260,454 inspection operations in land transport, 5,369 inspections for maritime transport, in addition to two visits to railway stations around the country.
Riyadh recorded the highest number of violations in November with 11,678, followed by Makkah with 9,549, the Eastern Province with 6,745 and Madinah with 2,228.
The authority said that in November, land transport facilities achieved a compliance rate of 92 percent, while maritime and railway transport facilities saw compliance rates of 89 and 100 percent, respectively.
It added that the violations varied between operating vehicles without a driver card or an operating card and the lack of a transport document, as well as the non-conformity of truck safety barriers with the specifications required by the relevant authorities and the absence of the minimum adopted safety requirements.
It said that the highest number of violations were detected in the transport of goods, followed by other activities such as bus transport, establishments’ taxis, public taxis and airport taxis (individuals).
Wars, looming Trump reign set to dominate G20 summit
G20 leaders gather in Brazil on Monday for a G20 summit set to be dominated by differences over wars in the Middle East and UkrainE
Updated 6 min 29 sec ago
AFP
RIO DE JANEIRO:G20 leaders gather in Brazil on Monday for a G20 summit set to be dominated by differences over wars in the Middle East and Ukraine, and implications of Donald Trump’s White House return. Security considerations — always high at such meetings — were elevated further after a failed bomb attack late Wednesday outside Brazil’s Supreme Court in Brasilia. Police were probing the two blasts as a possible “terrorist act” committed by a Brazilian perpetrator, whose death was the sole casualty. The summit venue is in Rio de Janeiro, in the city’s stunning bayside museum of modern art, which is the epicenter of a massive police deployment designed to keep the public well away. Brazil’s leftwing President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be using the opportunity to highlight his position as a leader championing Global South issues while also being courted by the West. That role will be tested in the months and years ahead as Latin America and other regions navigate “America First” policies promised by Donald Trump when he becomes US president in January. At this G20, it will be outgoing President Joe Biden who will represent the world’s biggest economy, but as a lame duck the other leaders will be looking beyond. Just before the Rio summit, on Sunday, Biden will make a stop in Brazil’s Amazon to underline the fight against climate change — another issue that Trump is hostile toward.
The G20 meet is happening at the same time as the UN’s COP29 climate conference in Azerbaijan — and as the world experiences dramatic climate phenomena, including in Brazil where flooding, drought and forest fires have taken heavy tolls. At the last G20, in India, the leaders called for a tripling of renewable energy sources by the end of the decade, but without explicitly calling for an end to the use of fossil fuels. One invited leader who declined to come to Rio is Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said his presence could “wreck” the gathering. Putin denied an International Criminal Court warrant out against him, for Russia’s actions in Ukraine, was a factor in his decision. His foreign minister will represent Russia in Rio. China’s President Xi Jinping, however, will be attending, and will even extend his stay after the summit to make an official visit to Brasilia on Wednesday. China is Brazil’s biggest trading partner, and the two countries have been touting themselves as mediators to help end Russia’s war in Ukraine, so far without success. That conflict, along with Israel’s offensives in Gaza and Lebanon, will loom large at the summit. “We are negotiating with all the countries on the final declaration’s passages about geopolitics... so that we can reach consensual language on those two issues,” Brazil’s chief diplomatic official for the G20, Mauricio Lyrio, said. Those conflicts will be “the elephant in the room,” Flavia Loss, international relations specialist at the School of Sociology and Politics of Sao Paulo (FESPSP), told AFP. But that should not prevent Brazil from finding consensus on issues that it has made priorities under its G20 presidency, she said, such as the fight against hunger or taxing the world’s super-rich. Lula, heading up Latin America’s biggest economy, set out his line in May when he said: “A lot of people insist on dividing the world between friends and enemies. But the more vulnerable are not interested in simplist dichotomies.” The Rio G20 summit will open on Monday with Lula officially launching a “Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty.” The initiative aims to rally nations and international bodies to free up financing for that campaign, or to replicate programs that have previously had success. And on the issue of taxing billionaires, the G20 countries already declared a desire to cooperate to bring that about, as set out by their finance ministers who met in Rio in June. It remained to be seen, though, whether the leaders at the summit would pursue that goal, and on what terms. Following the summit, Brazil hands over the G20 presidency to South Africa.
Xi, Biden attend Asia-Pacific summit, prepare to meet/node/2579396/world
Xi, Biden attend Asia-Pacific summit, prepare to meet
Joe Biden and Xi Jinping are due to hold a face-to-face meeting Saturday
APEC brings together 21 economies that jointly represent about 60% of world GDP
Updated 23 min 11 sec ago
AFP
LIMA: US President Joe Biden and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping will attend the first day of an Asia-Pacific leaders’ summit Friday ahead of a face-to-face meeting under a cloud of diplomatic uncertainty cast by Donald Trump’s election victory.
Biden and Xi are due to hold talks Saturday, in what a US administration official said will probably be the last meeting between the sitting leaders of the world’s largest economies before Trump is sworn in in January.
With the Republican president-elect having signaled a confrontational approach to Beijing for his second term, the bilateral meeting will be a closely watched affair.
Xi and Biden arrived in Lima Thursday along with other world leaders for a two-day heads-of-state meeting of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) grouping.
APEC, created in 1989 with the goal of regional trade liberalization, brings together 21 economies that jointly represent about 60 percent of world GDP and over 40 percent of global commerce.
The summit program was to focus on trade and investment for what proponents dubbed inclusive growth.
But uncertainty over Trump’s next moves now clouds the agenda — as it does for the COP29 climate talks underway in Azerbaijan, and a G20 summit in Rio de Janeiro next week.
On Thursday, APEC ministers, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, held their own meeting behind closed doors in Lima to set the tone for the summit to follow.
Trump announced this week he will replace Blinken with Senator Marco Rubio, a China hawk.
The summit will also be attended by Japan, South Korea, Canada, Australia and Indonesia, among others.
President Vladimir Putin of APEC member Russia will not be present.
Trump’s “America First” agenda is based on protectionist trade policies, increased domestic fossil fuel extraction, and avoiding foreign conflicts.
It threatens alliances Biden has built on issues ranging from the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East to climate change and commerce.
The Republican president-elect has threatened tariffs of up to 60 percent on imports of Chinese goods to even out what he says is an imbalance in bilateral trade.
China is grappling with a prolonged housing crisis and sluggish consumption that can only be made worse by a new trade war with Washington.
But economists say punitive levies would also harm the American economy, and others further afield.
China is an ally of Western pariahs Russia and North Korea, and is building up its own military capacity while ramping up pressure on Taiwan, which it claims as part of its territory.
It is also expanding its reach into Latin America through infrastructure and other projects under its Belt and Road Initiative.
Xi on Thursday inaugurated South America’s first Chinese-funded port, in Chancay, north of Lima, even as a senior US official warned Latin American countries to be vigilant when it comes to Chinese investment.
Biden, meanwhile, will on Friday meet Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol — key US allies in Asia.
Traveling with Biden, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the partner nations will announce the creation of a secretariat to ensure their alliance “will be an enduring feature of American policy.”
China isn’t the only country in Trump’s economic crosshairs.
The incoming US leader has threatened tariffs of 25 percent or more on goods coming from Mexico — another APEC member — unless it stops an “onslaught of criminals and drugs” crossing the border.
Peru has deployed more than 13,000 members of the armed forces to keep the peace in Lima as transport workers and shop owners launched three days of protests against crime and perceived government neglect.
Ayman Al-Zubaidi: Bringing authentic Saudi flavors to London’s culinary scene
The founder of London’s Hijazi Corner was hopeless in the kitchen, but his move abroad sparked a desire to recreate the cuisine of his homeland
Updated 36 min 20 sec ago
Scott Campbell
LONDON: Ayman Al-Zubaidi — the acclaimed chef behind Hijazi Corner, London’s first Ƶn restaurant — has cooked for dignitaries, diplomats, celebrities and even the Kingdom’s royal family. But his most discerning critics were waiting for him much closer to home.
In 2021, after several years living in London, Al-Zubaidi came home to Jeddah. But instead of the football shirt his family had pictured him wearing after his UK studies in sports science, he returned in chef whites. It was a transformation that no one saw coming — least of all him.
Growing up in Jeddah’s Al-Sabeel district with his sister and three brothers, Al-Zubaidi could barely boil his own water. The kitchen was strictly his mother’s territory, and his late-night culinary ventures didn’t go far beyond packets of instant noodles. But now, the tables had turned, and his mother was seated as his guest.
Hijazi Corner is London’s first Ƶn restaurant. (Supplied)
“When I first moved to the UK, I was clueless in the kitchen, so I called her for help,” Al-Zubaidi tells Arab News from his restaurant in London’s de facto Arab district of Edgware Road. It was her loving mentorship that laid the foundations for his culinary journey, shaping his path to becoming one of London’s most distinctive chefs.
“When any chef starts to speak about food, they talk about their mum. Her chicken kabsa is a bit oily, a bit shiny and looks amazing — even just talking about it now I become hungry,” Al-Zubaidi says. “But even if I had the same ingredients and made it the same way, hers would always taste better.”
Building on family recipes honed over decades by his ancestors in Yemen, Al Zubaidi’s Hijazi Corner is the only place in the UK capital where Saudis can find a true taste of home.
Lined with thick carpets and ornate window paneling evoking the buildings of Jeddah’s Al-Balad historical district, its menu is full of comforting favorites drawn from across the Kingdom’s western coastal region — chicken seelag, slow-roasted lamb haneeth and delicate, flaky samboosek.
Al-Zubaidi with Saudi Ambassador to the UK Prince Khalid and the latter's wife. (Supplied)
“From the richest person to the poorest person in Ƶ, we eat the same food,” he says. “When we celebrate, when we grieve, when we are happy or sad, we get masoub (banana pudding) or motabbaq (thin layers of pastry stuffed with meat).”
Al-Zubaidi’s path to the kitchen was anything but conventional. As a teenager eager to learn English, he set his sights on the UK, drawn by what he called “a love for the accent,” and made the leap in 2017. After completing his language course, he switched tracks to study sports. But somewhere between lectures and life abroad, homesickness hit in the form of a craving for the familiar flavors of Arabia.
“In London, you can find plenty of Turkish, Kurdish, Indian, even Malaysian options — but nothing from Saudi,” he explains. “So I decided to make it myself.” He began recreating the comforting dishes of home in his small Clapham flat, selling them cash-in-hand to fellow Saudis in search of an authentic taste of the Kingdom.
But the secret didn’t stay a secret for long. Soon, his passion found a new platform — Snapchat.
Al-Zubaidi shared short videos of his cooking process, garnishing each clip with personal moments and mouth-watering close-ups of Saudi dishes. His humble videos quickly gained a loyal fanbase, and orders poured in from every corner of the city — particularly as COVID took hold in the early months of 2020.
“People from the Saudi embassy added me, people from Aramco working in London added me. Saudis living here, working here, growing up here — plus lots of foreign people who had been to my country and tried this food before.”
What started as a side hustle quickly evolved into a pop-up, and by 2023, into a brick-and-mortar restaurant where Londoners could finally experience the authentic flavors of Ƶ.
During the pop-up stage, Al-Zubaidi’s Snapchat followers became more than fans; they became enablers of his culinary vision, bringing a piece of Ƶ to his London kitchen. Whenever one of his followers planned a trip from Saudi to the UK, they’d reach out, asking if he needed any hard-to-find ingredients.
Al-Zubaidi’s requests were simple but essential — fragrant spices, fresh dill, and most importantly, the special pastry sheets that he just couldn’t source in London.
“I’d say ‘I need the real pastry for samosa.’ And they’d bring it for me,” he says.
The enthusiasm was mutual. His followers were just as eager to bring these reminders of home, knowing he’d transform them into the dishes they missed.
Yet not everyone was as supportive. As he juggled his studies and the pop-up, criticism began to surface, especially from former friends back home.
“They mocked me,” he recalls. “They’d say things like, ‘You went to the UK to study, and now you’re just selling food?’”
Influencers he approached for social-media support brushed him off with dismissive remarks. But Al-Zubaidi was undeterred, finding new friends and switching his studies from sport to cooking. With a network of loyal clients and the backing of a few new investors he had met along the way, he began seriously considering a restaurant.
One wealthy friend, who had seen the young chef’s determination, urged him to take the plunge. After months of hard work studying knife skills, mastering Saudi dishes, and learning the restaurant business inside out, Al-Zubaidi took the leap.
Two years after opening its doors, Hijazi Corner is a definite success, becoming one of London’s top-rated Middle Eastern eateries. It’s perpetually packed with diners, and has become a go-to spot for celebrities, diplomats, and dignitaries from the Arab world and beyond, all seeking an authentic taste of Ƶ.
After showcasing Saudi cuisine at several festivals and events, on National Day this September, Al-Zubaidi received a special honor — an invitation to the Kingdom’s embassy in London.
The recognition came after HRH Prince Khalid Bin Bandar Al-Saud, Ƶ’s ambassador to the UK, visited Hijazi Corner and was so impressed that he mentioned it by name in his National Day speech. Al-Zubaidi, overcome with pride, shed tears of joy.
“I am proud of what I’ve achieved, but I haven’t finished yet,” he says. “This is just the beginning—there’s so much more of Saudi culture I want to share with the world.”
Saudi fashion designer and founder of Pavone Shouq Almubarak talks inspiration and innovation
‘My designs are a heartfelt expression,’ says Shouq Almubarak
Updated 47 min 57 sec ago
Lama Alhamawi
RIYADH: Saudi fashion designer Shouq Almubarak is dreaming big, both for the Kingdom’s fashion industry and for her own brand, Pavone.
“The future holds endless possibilities, and I have ambitious plans aligned with the growth of the Kingdom’s fashion industry,” Almubarak told Arab News on the sidelines of Riyadh Fashion Week in October. “I aim to continue expanding my work with larger projects that seamlessly blend authenticity with modern creativity. My ultimate vision is to reach a global audience, sharing the beauty and pride of the Saudi identity.”
The designer also expressed her gratitude at being selected as one of the designers to represent the Kingdom on a global stage at the event, which took place from Oct. 17 to Oct. 21.
The designer also expressed her gratitude at being selected as one of the designers to represent the Kingdom on a global stage at the event. (Supplied)
“Being part of Riyadh Fashion Week is a true honor and a moment of immense pride,” she said. “It’s not just about presenting my designs, but about contributing to the rise of Saudi fashion on the global stage. It’s an opportunity to leave my mark and help shape the future of fashion in the Kingdom.”
Almubarak established Pavone in 2016 in the Eastern province of Ƶ with the aim of creating innovative designs that “meet the ultimate beauty and spirit of modern women.” She told Arab News that much of her inspiration — aside from seeing beautiful things that spark her imagination — comes from within.
Almubarak established Pavone in 2016 in the Eastern province of Ƶ. (Supplied)
“I draw from moments that leave a lasting impact — whether it’s an emotion, a scene, or just a quiet moment of reflection. I then transform these moments into tangible works of art that capture and reflect the essence of those experiences. My designs are a heartfelt expression,” she said.
Those “artistic pieces” include her couture collection “Lina,” which she presented at last year’s Riyadh Fashion Week and which she describes as one of her greatest accomplishments as a designer.
“This collection was a breakthrough for me, as it challenged me to explore new, unconventional ideas,” Almubarak said. “‘Lina’ is more than just a fashion line — it symbolizes the beginning of an exciting new chapter in my career, full of opportunities; a defining moment that has shaped my journey as a designer.”
Almubarak established Pavone with the aim of creating innovative designs that “meet the ultimate beauty and spirit of modern women.” (Supplied)
The biggest challenge Almubarak has faced so far, she said, is finding partners who not only understand her vision but also share her commitment to exceptional quality.
“Ensuring that every design was brought to life with meticulous attention to detail and delivering the level of excellence my clients deserve has always been the goal I strive to achieve,” she said.
Discussing tips for aspiring designers, she said: “My key advice is to prioritize quality; you have to select the right factory and partners. Design isn’t just about the concept — it’s about translating creativity into a finished product with precision and craftsmanship that aligns with the customer’s expectations.”
Highlights from the winning entries in the Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award
Updated 57 min 14 sec ago
Arab News
DUBAI: Here are three highlights from the winning entries in this year’s Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum International Photography Award.
Youmn Mohammed Almanla
The Saudi photographer claimed second place in the ‘Color’ category of this year’s HIPA awards for this stunning image of horse riders firing rifles against a twilight sky — an example of the ancient Moroccan equestrian art known as ‘tbourida,’ which is included on UNESCO’s list of Intangible Cultural Heritage. It is, Almanla said in his statement, “a breathtaking display of skill, bravery, and the untamed spirit of the desert.”
Liping Cao
The Chinese photographer picked up the Grand Prize at this year’s awards (staged under the theme ‘Sustainability’) for this dramatic black-and-white shot he named “Quiet Power.” It shows an Australian wind farm. “The dry riverbed below the turbines adds depth, while serving as a reminder of the importance of sustainable practices,” a statement from HIPA reads.
Fatma Alzahra Shbair
The Palestinian photographer won first prize in the “Portfolio” category for a collection of scenes from the Gaza Strip taken over the months since Israel launched its assault on the enclave in October 2023. “Through telling the stories of others, the storyteller realized they were also sharing their own — an intertwined account of survival and collective suffering,” a HIPA statement reads.
