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Saudi Arabia Hosts Ministers, Officials on World Tourism Day

The logo of World Tourism Day in Riyadh that will kick off on September 27. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The logo of World Tourism Day in Riyadh that will kick off on September 27. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Saudi Arabia Hosts Ministers, Officials on World Tourism Day

The logo of World Tourism Day in Riyadh that will kick off on September 27. (Asharq Al-Awsat)
The logo of World Tourism Day in Riyadh that will kick off on September 27. (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Leaders from across the global tourism sector flocked to Riyadh for the most significant event in the tourism sector in 43 years, World Tourism Day (WTD).

The event, which kicked off on Wednesday, is a key driver for the global economy after it came to a halt due to the COVID-19 pandemic and slowed down further following the Russian-Ukrainian conflict.

More than 500 government officials, industry leaders, and experts from 120 countries are set to attend World Tourism Day to foster global collaboration.

They aim to examine investment opportunities and strengthen the resilience of the tourism industry, steering the sector towards an investment-led and sustainably focused future.

Over the past year, tourism's contribution to Saudi Arabia's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has surged from three to seven percent.

The Saudi Ministry of Tourism said the event in Riyadh is the largest ever in the event's 43-year history.

It welcomed all the participants to Riyadh on World Tourism Day, aiming to promote strategic priorities and discuss key issues related to the tourism sector.

The organizers are gearing up to discuss several critical issues that could lead to recommendations aimed at propelling the global tourism sector to achieve higher growth rates.

Some key topics that will be covered include intercultural dialogue, global tourism investment, green investment, and enhancing innovation in the tourism sector.

Saudi Arabia's Vision 2030 places tourism as one of its pillars, targeting around 100 million annual visits by 2030.

However, Saudi Arabia's unprecedented success has prompted it to target 150 million annual visits, up from the 100 million set over seven years ago.

In a recent interview, Saudi Tourism Minister Ahmed al-Khatib stated that the tourism sector doubled over the past two years, expecting it to double again in the next two.

Khatib added that Saudi Arabia aims to attract 70 million visits from abroad by 2030 under the new target, representing approximately half of the total visits.

He noted that the number of international tourist visits reached 30 million this year, even before the opening of NEOM, Diriyah, The Red Sea Project, and Qiddiya, which are expected to bring a qualitative shift to Saudi tourism.

Saudi tourism allocated about $160 million for launching this year's summer campaign to promote tourist destinations within the Kingdom, as announced by Khatib in May.

He pointed out that the number of international tourists arriving for various purposes in Saudi Arabia reached 7.8 million during the first quarter of this year, marking a 64 percent growth compared to the first quarter of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

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China Condemns EU’s Inclusion of Chinese Entities in Sanctions Package Against Russia

People gather at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China), in Beijing, China April 24, 2026. (Reuters)
People gather at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China), in Beijing, China April 24, 2026. (Reuters)
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China Condemns EU’s Inclusion of Chinese Entities in Sanctions Package Against Russia

People gather at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China), in Beijing, China April 24, 2026. (Reuters)
People gather at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition (Auto China), in Beijing, China April 24, 2026. (Reuters)

China's commerce ministry on Saturday expressed "firm opposition" to the European Union's inclusion of Chinese entities in its 20th round of sanctions against Russia, demanding their immediate removal from ‌the list.

The ‌EU sanctions ‌package ⁠targets third-country suppliers ⁠of critical high-tech items, including China-based entities accused of providing dual-use goods or weapons systems to Russia's military-industrial ⁠complex.

The move "runs counter ‌to ‌the spirit of the ‌consensus reached between Chinese ‌and EU leaders, and seriously undermines mutual trust and the overall stability of ‌bilateral relations", a spokesperson for China's commerce ⁠ministry ⁠said in a statement.

The ministry warned it would take "necessary measures" to protect Chinese companies and said "all consequences will be borne by the EU side," the statement added.

Business

US State Dept Orders Global Warning About Alleged AI Thefts by DeepSeek, Other Chinese Firms

The logo of DeepSeek is seen during the Global Developer Conference, organized by the Shanghai AI Industry Association in Shanghai on February 21, 2025. (AFP)
The logo of DeepSeek is seen during the Global Developer Conference, organized by the Shanghai AI Industry Association in Shanghai on February 21, 2025. (AFP)
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US State Dept Orders Global Warning About Alleged AI Thefts by DeepSeek, Other Chinese Firms

The logo of DeepSeek is seen during the Global Developer Conference, organized by the Shanghai AI Industry Association in Shanghai on February 21, 2025. (AFP)
The logo of DeepSeek is seen during the Global Developer Conference, organized by the Shanghai AI Industry Association in Shanghai on February 21, 2025. (AFP)

The US State Department has ordered a global push to bring attention to what it says are widespread efforts by Chinese companies, including AI startup DeepSeek, to steal intellectual property from US artificial intelligence labs, according to a diplomatic cable seen by Reuters.

The cable, dated Friday and sent to diplomatic and consular posts around the world, instructs diplomatic staff to speak to their foreign counterparts about "concerns over adversaries' extraction and distillation of US A.I. models."

"A separate demarche request and message has been sent to Beijing for raising with China," the document states.

Distillation is the process of training smaller AI models using output from larger, more ‌expensive ones as ‌part of an effort to lower the costs of training a ‌powerful ⁠new AI tool.

This ⁠week, the White House made similar accusations, but the cable has not been previously reported. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

OpenAI has warned US lawmakers that DeepSeek was targeting the ChatGPT maker and the nation's leading AI companies to replicate models and use them for its own training, Reuters reported in February.

CHINA REJECTS ACCUSATIONS

The Chinese Embassy in Washington on Friday reiterated its stance that the accusations are baseless.

"The allegations that Chinese entities are stealing American AI intellectual property are ⁠groundless and are deliberate attacks on China's development and progress in the ‌AI industry," it said in a statement to Reuters.

DeepSeek, whose ‌low-cost AI model stunned the world last year, on Friday launched a preview of a highly anticipated ‌new model, called the V4, adapted for Huawei chip technology, underlining China's growing autonomy in the ‌sector.

DeepSeek also did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In the past, it has said that its V3 model used data naturally occurring and collected through web crawling and it had not intentionally used synthetic data generated by OpenAI.

Many Western and some Asian governments have banned their institutions and officials from using ‌DeepSeek, citing data privacy concerns. Nevertheless, DeepSeek's models have consistently been among the most used on international platforms that host open-source models.

The State Department ⁠cable said its purpose ⁠was to "warn of the risks of utilizing AI models distilled from US proprietary AI models, and lay the groundwork for potential follow-up and outreach by the US government."

It also mentioned Chinese AI firms Moonshot AI and MiniMax . Neither company immediately responded to a request for comment.

The cable said that "AI models developed from surreptitious, unauthorized distillation campaigns enable foreign actors to release products that appear to perform comparably on select benchmarks at a fraction of the cost but do not replicate the full performance of the original system."

It added that the campaigns also "deliberately strip security protocols from the resulting models and undo mechanisms that ensure those AI models are ideologically neutral and truth-seeking."

The White House accusations and the cable come just weeks before US President Donald Trump is set to visit Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing. They could well raise tensions in a long-running tech war between the rival superpowers, which had been lowered by a detente brokered last October.

Business

Bessent Rules Out Renewal of Iranian and Russian Oil Waivers

US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent testifies during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on 'A Review of the President's FY2027 Budget Request for the Department of the Treasury' on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 22 April 2026. (EPA)
US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent testifies during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on 'A Review of the President's FY2027 Budget Request for the Department of the Treasury' on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 22 April 2026. (EPA)
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Bessent Rules Out Renewal of Iranian and Russian Oil Waivers

US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent testifies during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on 'A Review of the President's FY2027 Budget Request for the Department of the Treasury' on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 22 April 2026. (EPA)
US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent testifies during the Senate Appropriations Committee hearing on 'A Review of the President's FY2027 Budget Request for the Department of the Treasury' on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC, USA, 22 April 2026. (EPA)

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Friday that the US does not plan to renew a waiver allowing the purchase of Russian oil and petroleum products that are currently at sea.

He also said a renewal of a one-time waiver for Iranian oil at sea is totally off the table.

“Not the Iranians,” Bessent told The Associated Press. “We have the blockade, and there’s no oil coming out.”

In an AP interview about the impact of the war on the global energy market and other topics, Bessent also said he had no plans to extend the sanctions relief for Russia.

“I wouldn’t imagine that we’d have another extension. I think the Russian oil on the water has been largely sucked up,” he said.