Saudi Arabia's Seha Virtual Hospital completed 11 consecutive remote robotic surgeries, including the second remote lobectomy and fifth remote pneumonectomy performed anywhere in the world, with surgeons in Riyadh operating on patients in Hail and other regions.
A surgeon in Riyadh successfully performed surgery on a patient in Hail without either of them needing to travel. This occurred eleven times in a row, proving that distance is no longer an obstacle to effective medical care.
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Sixteen countries become twenty-four
The Riyadh-based Digital Cooperation Organization approved 8 countries as membership candidates — Albania, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kenya, Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Zambia — with Tajikistan approved as an associate member, taking the organization from 16 members to 24 on accession and covering roughly 980 million people, about 12% of the global population. The DCO launched in 2020 with 5 founding countries and is working to a 2025–2028 agenda.
The expansion from 5 founding countries in 2020 to 24, now representing approximately 12% of the global population, demonstrates that standards are being set collectively. The rules on data and cross-border digital trade are determined by those who participate.
Confidence at fifty-six seven
Saudi Arabia's Business Confidence Index rose to 56.7 in August from 56.5 in July, holding above the 50-point neutral threshold, according to the General Authority for Statistics. The industrial sector's index climbed to 55.8 and the services index rose to 56.1, after the overall reading dropped to 52.1 in March amid regional tensions and rebounded to 54.5 in April.
Finance directors preparing Saudi budgets for next year should interpret the figure 56.7 as an indicator of continued customer spending expectations, while the March value of 52.1 reflects the pace of change in these expectations.
Saudi carries half of Gulf tourism
Saudi Arabia's travel and tourism sector contributed $178 billion to the economy in 2025, 46% of the entire Middle East's travel and tourism economy, growing 7.4%, nearly double the global rate of 4.1%, with international visitor spending up 8.2% against a 3.2% global rate.
Nearly half of the entire region's tourism economy now lies in Saudi Arabia, growing at twice the global rate, a shift large enough that the map of Middle Eastern travel needs to be redrawn before the guidebooks catch up.
