JEDDAH: Conjoined Tanzanian twins Anishia and Milanese, who were flown to the Kingdom under the directives of King Salman in order to receive an all-expenses-paid operation, will undergo separation surgery on Sunday, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Thursday.
The twins will be separated by a team at the King Abdullah Specialist Children’s Hospital in King Abdul Aziz Medical City in Riyadh.
The decision to go ahead and operate was taken after a meeting chaired by team leader Dr. Abdullah Al-Rabeeah, supervisor general of King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSRelief) and adviser to the Royal Court.
It followed extensive examination of the twins, and of their suitability for the procedure.
He thanked King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman for their humanitarian initiative and wished his team every success for the operation.
The procedure will make Anishia and Milanese the 48th set of conjoined twins to be separated in the Kingdom. Their mother is with the twins in Riyadh ahead of their operation.
Conjoined twins to be separated on Sunday in Riyadh
Conjoined twins to be separated on Sunday in Riyadh
- It followed extensive examination of the twins, and of their suitability for the procedure
Airbus seeks to strengthen Saudi defense ties
MALHAM: Airbus is aiming to deepen its strategic relationship with Saudi Arabia, a “core customer” in the region, according to Head of Air Power, Airbus Defense and Space Jean-Brice Dumont.
“Saudi Arabia is one of our customers in the region that we have a very strong link with,” Dumont told Arab News on the sidelines of the World Defense Show in Riyadh.
“We have a very strong link with decades of history of Airbus in the country, be it for helicopters, but in my case for military aircraft.
He said the Kingdom was “sort of a hometown for us for these flying platforms and for the maintenance, repair, and overhaul of these platforms.”
Airbus has a longstanding partnership with Saudi Arabia in both commercial and defense aircraft that dates back nearly 50 years.
“We have already invested quite significantly in the region,” Dumont said. “Notably, we have a JV (joint venture) with SAMI (Saudi Arabia Military Industries) in Saudi Arabia and that, I believe is the beginning of a longer journey. But so far, when we see what’s happening in the region, it’s already quite good.”
In 2021 SAMI, a wholly owned subsidiary of the Public Investment Fund and the National Champion of Military Industries Localization, and Airbus signed an agreement to form a joint venture on military aviation services and maintenance, repair and overhaul capabilities.
During the interview Dumont also looked ahead, detailing the strategic roadmap for 2026–2030 that moves beyond traditional hardware toward a digitally-dominant battlefield.
“I think we are reaching the end or the limits of the ‘fighter goes alone’ kind of model,” he said. “Now, the fighters need to communicate, to command drones, to be themselves receiving information by a mass, high-throughput data link so that they can play their role — their new role — in the battlefield.”
He also spoke about how the A330 aircraft was moving beyond its basic reputation as a “flying gas station” to become a high-tech “command center” in the sky.
“The A330 can be first much more automated. The air-to-air refueling can be automatic, and we have developed that capability,” he explained.
“On the other hand, it’s a big platform flying high, which can act as a command-and-control node in the system of systems that the air forces are all aspiring to.”
On the Eurofighter, he said it was “a bit symmetrical,” while speaking about the “buzz” around artificial intelligence he said that while neural networks have been embedded in Airbus platforms for nearly 20 years, the next decade would see AI move to the forefront of decision-making.
From mission preparation to real-time command, he said, the goal is to process vast amounts of data to act faster than the adversary.
“The one who gets that right has won,” he said.
