Latest updates from top global and Saudi news sources
Last updated: 26 Jul 2026, 11:37 AM (Saudi time)
Saudi Arabia has revealed plans for a new Makkah international airport, a metro system with completed feasibility studies, an AI crowd management programme, and integrated Saudia-Saudi Railways ticketing as part of a large-scale infrastructure overhaul of the Holy City.
Saudi Arabia requires all Hajj 2026 pilgrims to carry a valid quadrivalent ACYW meningitis vaccination certificate administered at least 10 days before arrival, with additional polio vaccine requirements for pilgrims from high-risk countries.
Saudi Arabia restricted entry to Makkah from 13 April 2026 to Hajj permit holders only and suspended Umrah permits from 18 April to 31 May 2026 as the Kingdom prepares for the Hajj pilgrimage beginning around 25 May.
Saudia has launched Hajj 2026 operations with 160 aircraft and over one million seats spanning 145 global destinations, as part of Saudi Arabia's total air transport plan of 3.1 million seats across 12,000 flights.
Saudi Arabia has imposed fines of up to SAR 100,000 for facilitating unauthorised Hajj and up to SAR 20,000 for pilgrims performing Hajj without a permit, alongside 10-year re-entry bans for violators.
Country’s leadership vows to never surrender as memorial on grand scale aims to relay message of resistance to worldIn the small hours of Friday the police roadblocks, stalls, posters and army vans were starting to appear across Tehran, as millions of Iranians prepared to attend the long-delayed s...
Biman completes 2026 Hajj flight operations Banglanews24
Nine Buddhist monks were killed after a truck driven by an 11-year-old boy struck a pilgrimage procession in Thailand.
Biman wraps up 2026 post-Hajj operations Somoy News
Biman wraps up 2026 post-Hajj operations successfully Bangladesh Sangbad Sangstha (BSS)
Damage recorded in 30 locations across in the city from overnight attacks, with ‘most of them ordinary residential buildings’in DublinVolodymyr Zelenskyy has said he hopes not to wait too long for the results of an Irish government investigation into alumina exports to Russia thought to be feedi...