Khaybar: A Saudi Town of Water Springs, Forts and Volcanic Cratershttps://english.aawsat.com/home/article/2619381/khaybar-saudi-town-water-springs-forts-and-volcanic-craters
Khaybar: A Saudi Town of Water Springs, Forts and Volcanic Craters
Qamus fortress in Khaybar
With its farms, springs, volcanoes, and forts, Khaybar combines historic charm and breathtaking landscape on a unique piece of land in the Madinah region in Saudi Arabia.
Khaybar, which used to be home to more than three hundred running springs, was a significant economic hub in the Arabian Peninsula due to the abundance of its natural resources, including wells and impenetrable fortifications.
Asharq Al-Awsat toured its most prominent castles and forts, which have witnessed many important events throughout history since its establishment by the Amalekites, an Arab tribe that has died out.
The name Khaybar was mentioned in the book of the Assyrians as one of the areas captured by the Babylonian King Nabonidus, and he ruled over it between 555 and 538 BC. Some evidence and archeological findings indicate that humans have inhabited the area since the Stone Age.
According to Saifi al-Shalali, who does research on Khaybar's history, the city was known as Hijaz’s periphery in the past. Indeed, Said bin Muhammad bin Ahmed al-Afghani, author of the book “Arab Markets in Jahiliyya,” says it was the financial center of the Arabian Peninsula. Its economic importance stemmed from the expansion of its agricultural land and its abundance of water. It was a fertile ground for thousands of palm plantations.
Khaybar was also famous for its famous market (Nattah Khaybar Market), classified as one of the twelve most important Arab markets during the Jahiliyya period (pre-Islamic Arabia). All kinds of goods from all over the Arabian Peninsula were available, including all sorts of weapons, textiles, carpets, animal products such as margarine and honey, household utensils and other items.
The primary commodity, simultaneously a currency and a commodity, was dates. Trade in this market was conducted either with the coins available at the time or through bartering for and with dates.
The market would boom in the summer, date season, when most Arab merchants would meet to exchange their goods for dates.
Shalali says there is reason to believe that humans have inhabited it for tens of thousands of years, like tools made of stone that seem to date back to the Stone Age found by archaeologists.
Khaybar was known by its rugged terrain, and this is what drew the humans who settled there years ago. This is also what encouraged its early inhabitants to build many forts to protect it against invasions. The most prominent of which is the fortress of Al-Qamus, which stands like a ship in a sea of palm trees that surround it from all sides. Other forts in Khaybar are distinguished by their geographical location and strength including Al-Saab Bin Muadh Fort, Al-Qalaa, Quilah, Aby, Al-Nizar, Al-Watih and Al-Salalim.
Global Warming Will Exceed Limit, UN Says as it Maps Path to Get Back Below Danger Zonehttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5313797-global-warming-will-exceed-limit-un-says-it-maps-path-get-back-below-danger-zone
This aerial picture shows a villager walking between dried-up rice fields with cracked soil caused by a prolonged dry season at Wening Galih village in Bogor, West Java on August 28, 2026. (AFP)
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Global Warming Will Exceed Limit, UN Says as it Maps Path to Get Back Below Danger Zone
This aerial picture shows a villager walking between dried-up rice fields with cracked soil caused by a prolonged dry season at Wening Galih village in Bogor, West Java on August 28, 2026. (AFP)
In a strategic retreat in the fight against climate change, the United Nations has acknowledged that Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst of global warming's harms. So now the world must figure out how to get temperatures below the danger zone and back to safety, officials say.
Earth is soon going to exceed the safe temperature threshold agreed upon by the world in the 2015 Paris climate accord because of warming from the burning of coal, oil and gas, according to a bleak first-of-its-kind report issued by the United Nations Environment Program Wednesday.
Instead of giving up, scientists and UN officials recommend trying to limit excessive warming and then bring the temperature back down to the agreed-upon threshold. But it still will mean decades of increased weather-related disasters, rising seas, extinctions and melting ice and glaciers.
“Humanity is speeding past the limit to avoid climate catastrophe,” United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres said.
After a period of over-the-limit warming, the new strategy envisions getting back below the limit by ending fossil fuel use and developing some kind of way to suck industries' carbon dioxide out of the air.
“It's a reality check. We have to live with this warmer world,” said report co-author Richard Betts, a climate scientist at the University of Exeter. “But there's still a lot we can do to limit warming.”
A dog sits in the middle of a haze-shrouded road caused by forest and land fires in Palangkaraya city, Central Kalimantan, on August 28, 2026. (AFP)
Passing the longtime warming threshold
After the Paris climate accord, the United Nations ordered its climate science arm to study different warming limits. A goal of 1.5 Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) above mid-19th century temperatures became generally accepted after the scientists found dramatic impacts that affect people and the planet at 2 degrees Celsius (3.8 degrees Fahrenheit) but not at 1.5 degrees.
The world is now at 1.4 C (2.5 F) above pre-industrial levels, some scientists have calculated. The measure is based on a 20-year average, rather than a single year's temperatures.
Despite experts saying there's no way to limit warming to 1.5 degrees, UN officials long maintained the 1.5 window was still open. Wednesday's report finally admitted that the world will cross the 1.5 threshold “in the next few years.”
The report said the most optimistic scenario has warming peaking at 1.8 C (3.2 F) around mid-century if countries pursue ambitious climate goals, but that governments' current policies should push temperatures to 2.6 C (4.7 F) above pre-industrial levels by 2100.
So instead of preventing warming of 1.5 degrees, now the UN said it wants policymakers to “prepare for and navigate a future” in which the globe crosses that limit and then corrects course and cools temperatures. The report envisions that global temperatures will pass 1.5 “within the next few years,” follow a hump-shaped path of more warming, peak, then gradually cool to below the 1.5 mark, ideally by the end of the century. The report and experts call it “overshoot.”
“Let’s be very clear, 1.5 target is still the goal. But now we need to approach it differently from above,” said UNEP Executive Director Inger Andersen.
The 1.5 limit is not “some magical climate cliff” where it’s just game over, said University of Victoria climate scientist Andrew Weaver, who wasn’t part of the study. “Every tenth of a degree we avoid still means less damage.”
Limiting how high temperatures go past threshold is key
It's most important to first limit the new peak temperature and then reduce the amount of time above 1.5 degrees, Andersen said.
But the world likely will be in that overshoot period for “many, many decades,” Betts said.
Every five years of delay in reducing emissions adds at least a tenth of a degree to peak warming, said report co-author Joeri Rogelj, a climate scientist at Imperial College London.
“If we act now we can limit overshoot,” the report said. “Not a safe world, but safer than remaining above” 1.5 degrees for the long term.
“This is among the bleakest UN climate reports I have read. It carries the unmistakable tone of desperation, frustration and urgency — but not resignation,” Weaver said.
Climate scientist Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics, said that “although UNEP does a good job of describing the hole we've dug ourselves into, it does a poor job of showing us that there's a way out.”
A photograph taken on August 24, 2026 shows a cornfield with dry ears, in Figarol, southwestern France. Due to the repeated heatwaves that have hit the south-west, Sébastien Maylin will be able to “barely cover the cost” of his fertilizer and seeds. (AFP)
Adapting to a deadlier, hungrier, thirstier world
Governments need to increase efforts to adapt to worsening warming, which hits the poor hardest, “because some impacts simply cannot be avoided,” Andersen said.
The report calls this phase “coping and containment.”
During this overshoot period, more people will die or get sick because of the worsening climate change and its extreme weather, the report said. Food production will drop, people will go hungry, water shortages will worsen, economies will be hurt and species like coral will go extinct, the report said.
Although the triggers behind the recent deadly Nepal flooding that came as part of a Himalayan glacier dislodging are complex, Betts said “unfortunately we do expect to see more of such things and this is exactly why we need to limit peak warming.”
The report warns of “tipping points” with irreversible and cascading effects, including the loss of the West Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets, the loss of the Amazon rain forest and the shutdown of the Atlantic Ocean circulation system that keeps much of Europe warm.
“Some locations might become more or less uninsurable or even uninhabitable,” the report said.
The last phase in overshoot is cooling the planet by removing carbon dioxide from the air and storing it somewhere. The report said the traditional approach of this is planting more trees, but it says planting trees could, at most, shave a tenth of a degree off global temperatures. So the authors said more novel carbon removal approaches will be needed.
Other scientists called that unreliable and expensive.
“We were unable to stop the runaway train of global emissions to avoid 1.5 C of warming,” said Stanford University climate scientist Rob Jackson, who wasn't part of the report. “Now overshoot scenarios require us to stop the train quickly and to back it up. Is it our best hope? Absolutely. Is it likely? Absolutely not.”
New York City to Ban AI in Public Schools Through Eighth Gradehttps://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5313791-new-york-city-ban-ai-public-schools-through-eighth-grade
New York City to Ban AI in Public Schools Through Eighth Grade
The words “artificial intelligence,” a keyboard and robotic hands are seen in this illustration. (Reuters)
New York City will ban the use of artificial intelligence for students in public schools through eighth grade, a source close to the matter told AFP on Wednesday, confirming US media reports.
Teachers and parents have warned against the use of AI in schools over concerns about harming children's mental health and cognitive development, as well as environmental damage.
AI use will only be allowed in high school, which begins in the ninth grade in the American school system, the source said.
Even then, it will be limited to specific uses, such as learning about the technology itself, they said.
Eighth graders in the US are typically about 13 years old.
New York City Hall and the city's education department did not immediately respond to AFP's request for comment.
According to the New York Times, AI "companion chatbots" offering psychological support will also be banned.
The rules, however, allow teachers to use AI for tasks including preparing lessons or writing messages.
The new rules are to be announced on Wednesday, the Times reported.
The city's education department recommends limiting screen time to 45 minutes in class for middle schoolers -- sixth through eighth grade -- and 30 minutes for elementary school students.
But the question remains of how to monitor AI use, since it often takes place outside the school environment.
The new rules follow an initial framework published in March, which used a traffic light system to determine which tasks AI would be used for.
The framework, which allowed students to use AI for research, exploration and creative projects, sparked fury among many parents and teachers who considered it too lenient.
In response, the city's schools chancellor Kamar Samuels said that leaders had "missed the mark" in their communications, adding his office would carefully review parents' feedback for incorporation into future rules.
The city had long planned to follow the March framework with a more comprehensive "guidebook" to take feedback into account, the education department has said.
The department will set up a task force made up of teachers, elected officials, experts and union representatives.
The task force is to produce a report in April, intended to serve as the basis for New York's AI-in-schools policy.
The city's public school technology policies are closely watched by the rest of the United States, as it is by far the largest school district in the country, with over 900,000 students in 2024-2025.
Saudi General Directorate of Passports Showcases Contactless E-Gate at LEAP 2026https://english.aawsat.com/varieties/5313717-saudi-general-directorate-passports-showcases-contactless-e-gate-leap-2026
Saudi General Directorate of Passports Showcases Contactless E-Gate at LEAP 2026
The General Directorate of Passports is showcasing the contactless e-gate at the Ministry of Interior’s pavilion during LEAP 2026. (SPA)
The General Directorate of Passports is showcasing the contactless e-gate at the Ministry of Interior’s pavilion during LEAP 2026, held from August 31 to September 3, at the Riyadh Exhibition and Convention Center in Malham, north of Riyadh, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Wednesday.
Visitors to the ministry’s pavilion viewed the e-gate, a self-service technology used at international ports. The gate allows travelers to pass through by simply moving the palm of their hand over a reader without touching it. The system automatically verifies the traveler’s identity and opens the gate without requiring the presentation of travel documents or fingerprint scanning.
During the exhibition, the directorate is showcasing innovative digital solutions that facilitate passenger movement through international ports, as part of its efforts to enhance digital operations and leverage modern technologies to improve service efficiency and the beneficiary experience.
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