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Saudi Arabia's Royal Institute of Traditional Arts Kicks Off Educational Programs

Saudi Arabia's Royal Institute of Traditional Arts Kicks Off Educational Programs
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Saudi Arabia's Royal Institute of Traditional Arts Kicks Off Educational Programs

Saudi Arabia's Royal Institute of Traditional Arts Kicks Off Educational Programs

The Royal Institute of Traditional Arts (RITA) in Saudi Arabia has kicked off its executive programs aimed at providing an innovative environment to develop potentials in Saudi traditional arts through educational, cultural, and social programs.

The institute's goal is to emphasize the national identity by enriching and promoting the traditional arts, in addition to motivating and training local skills and talents, and providing educational programs in this field.

The institute seeks to contribute to preserving the tangible and intangible assets of traditional arts, raising the level of awareness in the kingdom, promoting these arts locally and globally, and encouraging and supporting the efforts made to maintain them.

RITA has divided its educational programs into three categories: student programs, academic programs, and short courses. It offers many art-related majors including traditional visual arts, textiles and fashion, materials, construction, and books, in addition to studies in traditional performance arts such as popular dance and traditional music, as well as studies of museums, heritage, and antiquities.

In the first phase, the institute launched several courses to teach traditional arts including palm leaf weaving, one of the most popular arts in Saudi Arabia. It shed lights on how Saudis inhabiting agricultural regions adapted to their environment and improved their skills. Palm leaves are used to make chains and other products locals use in their daily lives.

It also plans to launch a course to teach "Al Sadu" weaving, an old Saudi art known with its catching colors and geometric patterns widely seen in tent embroidery. Al Sadu is usually weaved by assorting wool, lint, and animal hair into threads using a loom.

The institute will also provide a general course about UNESCO, its goals and missions, in addition to explaining its different conventions and programs aimed at supporting culture, including the Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage (2003), and the 1972 World Heritage Convention. The course will enable the participants to study the Kingdom's cultural landmarks enlisted as "UNESCO's Intangible Heritage," in addition to the Saudi sites included in the agency's World Heritage List.

RITA plans to open several branches, but the biggest is located in "Al Murabba" neighborhood in Riyadh. The 3.350 square meters building includes 12 workshops, four classrooms, four ateliers, and a library.

Another large branch will be opened in Historic Jeddah, western Saudi Arabia, and will feature two workshops, three classrooms, and will recruit specialized technicians.

The King Salman Park is set to host the main campus as of 2025, which will feature four art academies, three cinema halls, an external theater, a cultural educational center, a national theater, and five specialized museums.

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Britain’s Andy Green Sets Another Speed Record, This Time in a Hydrogen-Powered Car

The JCB Hydromax sits on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah, where Andy Green aims to drive it to a land speed record for cars powered by hydrogen internal combustion engines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP)
The JCB Hydromax sits on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah, where Andy Green aims to drive it to a land speed record for cars powered by hydrogen internal combustion engines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP)
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Britain’s Andy Green Sets Another Speed Record, This Time in a Hydrogen-Powered Car

The JCB Hydromax sits on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah, where Andy Green aims to drive it to a land speed record for cars powered by hydrogen internal combustion engines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP)
The JCB Hydromax sits on the Bonneville Salt Flats in Wendover, Utah, where Andy Green aims to drive it to a land speed record for cars powered by hydrogen internal combustion engines, Monday, Aug. 10, 2026. (AP)

The only person to break the sound barrier in a car earned another world record Tuesday in a show of force for hydrogen power.

British driver Andy Green reached 406.320 mph (653.908 kph) in a car powered by two hydrogen internal combustion engines with a combined 1,600 horsepower, setting the record for that vehicle category, according to the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile, the international governing body of motor sports.

The 64-year-old retired Royal Air Force pilot rocketed across the crystalline crust at Utah’s famous Bonneville Salt Flats in a 32-foot (9.75-meter) car engineered by British construction equipment manufacturer JCB. The engines, adapted from those used in the company’s heavy machinery, mix pressurized hydrogen gas with air and ignite it to create bursts of power.

“It’s magic to be able to showcase this technology and to showcase how good the engineering is on the best racing surface in the world, Bonneville Salt Flats,” Green told The Associated Press after the run.

To be clear, Tuesday’s feat didn’t come close to approaching the overall land-speed record, which Green set with jet power in 1997. That year, he climbed into the Thrust SSC, a black needle sandwiched between two cartoonishly large jet engines, and hit 763.035 mph (1,227.985 kph), breaking the sound barrier and achieving a feat no one has come close to matching. His runs in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert produced sonic booms that shook the nearby town of Gerlach.

In 2006, Green also set the land-speed record for a diesel-powered car — 350.092 mph (563.4 kph) — at the Bonneville Salt Flats. He returned there Tuesday with the goal of beating that mark using hydrogen power, which he has called the “fuel of the future.”

In targeting his diesel speed, Green easily topped the previous hydrogen combustion world record of 185.5 mph (298.5 kph). He had a 10-mile (16-kilometer) straightaway to build speed. A few dozen JCB staff members and reporters watched from a distance through cameras and binoculars.

Green said the cockpit of the car he used on Tuesday was “probably a little hotter” than in the jet-powered vehicle from 1997, with temperatures routinely above 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius).

“But I have been training four months for that, both training in the gym and actually just getting used to it with hot baths,” he said.

A remnant of a prehistoric lake bed, the Bonneville Salt Flats are about 100 miles (160 kilometers) west of Salt Lake City and sit atop a shallow aquifer that cools the tires. The low-friction surface and dry desert air are conducive to speed and have beckoned drivers since the first race there in 1914.

“It looks like snow, and it behaves a bit like packed snow — it is surprisingly slippery,” Green said.

Green was no stranger to speed when he took his first racing job. He had been flying supersonic military jets when he spotted a 1994 British newspaper ad seeking a high-speed driver to break the sound barrier.

Green did not approach supersonic speeds on Tuesday, but JCB engineers hope his feat with hydrogen power will shake up the clean-energy industry.

The company's chairman has argued that hydrogen can better handle the demands of heavy industries than electric power.

Hydrogen is only as clean as its source, and the vast majority is currently produced from fossil fuels. JCB signed a deal to buy green hydrogen, which is created using renewable energy but makes up a tiny fraction of global hydrogen production.

The concept and development of such technology has been around for decades, but has had a resurgence over the past several years, said Greg Keoleian, a professor of sustainable systems at the University of Michigan and co-director of the school’s MI Hydrogen initiative.

Many major automakers have already developed hydrogen internal combustion engines or hydrogen fuel cell technology, but the higher cost of hydrogen production compared with gas and diesel is a barrier to wider usage, Keoleian said.

“It represents an important energy carrier for decarbonizing areas of the economy,” he said. “As far as its deployment, it’s influenced heavily by the cost.”

An emerging focus, he said, is extracting hydrogen from natural deposits instead of separating it from water, a prospect that could significantly reduce costs.

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Rising Kenyan Lakes Push Crocodiles Closer to Homes

A crocodile perches on the roof of what was the conference hall of a tourist lodge now completely inundated in the rising waters of the Lake Bogoria in Marigat sub-county, Baringo county on July 27, 2026. (AFP)
A crocodile perches on the roof of what was the conference hall of a tourist lodge now completely inundated in the rising waters of the Lake Bogoria in Marigat sub-county, Baringo county on July 27, 2026. (AFP)
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Rising Kenyan Lakes Push Crocodiles Closer to Homes

A crocodile perches on the roof of what was the conference hall of a tourist lodge now completely inundated in the rising waters of the Lake Bogoria in Marigat sub-county, Baringo county on July 27, 2026. (AFP)
A crocodile perches on the roof of what was the conference hall of a tourist lodge now completely inundated in the rising waters of the Lake Bogoria in Marigat sub-county, Baringo county on July 27, 2026. (AFP)

A crocodile basks in the sunshine on the roof of a submerged conference hall at a holiday resort in central Kenya, in a visible sign of how rising lake waters are endangering thousands of families and local businesses.

Lake Baringo and other lakes in Kenya's Rift Valley have risen to levels not seen in at least half a century, with scientists attributing the surge to extreme rainfall linked to climate change.

Tens of thousands of people have been displaced to higher ground, according to official data, yet many victims say the lakes keep following them.

In 2011, when the lake recorded its first significant surge, Mary Milka Tiren, 40, lost her husband after a hippo attacked him on his way home from his job at a popular tourist resort, which is now completely submerged.

A decade later, her nine-year-old son spent three months in hospital after a crocodile attack, leaving a scar on his right arm.

"It wanted to rip off his whole arm from the shoulder... but he was rescued by his peers after a long struggle," Tiren said.

"We've seen a rise in crocodile attacks not because there are more crocodiles, but because the lake is now close to the homesteads," Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) senior warden Jackson Komen told AFP.

"We also have hippo attacks because when the lake expanded, the (riverbank) riparian ecosystem -- where we used to have pasture -- was lost."

- 'Ecological disaster' -

An AFP analysis of Copernicus Sentinel and NASA Landsat satellite imagery shows Lake Baringo's surface area has expanded by 70 percent since 2010, from about 138 square kilometers (53 square miles) to 234 square kilometers.

Neighbouring Lake Bogoria, which is notable for its high sodium levels, has also grown by 21 percent over the same period, increasing from 34 to 41 square kilometers.

As the waters of the two lakes -- one freshwater and the other alkaline -- rise, the distance between them has narrowed.

"If the two lakes mix, then the fish, crocodiles and hippos may not survive... we may have an ecological disaster that we don't know how to deal with," said Komen.

Lake Baringo provides vital drinking and irrigation waters, and supports a thriving fishing industry.

"It may trigger a complete change... I don't know whether human beings will still be able to live here," Komen said.

The distance between the two lakes is now estimated to be about 10 kilometers (six miles).

Scientist Mathew Herrnegger, of Austria's University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, said "the overflow is already happening".

"Satellite altimetry shows that the lake level of Bogoria is high enough that it overflows towards Baringo," he said.

But how much water will reach Baringo and what impact it will have is unclear, he added.

- Tourism decline -

The expansion of the two lakes has also dealt a major blow to tourism.

"We lost 80 percent of our community wildlife conservancies," Komen said, with giraffes, ostriches, warthogs and impalas all moved to safety.

AFP saw at least four holiday resorts engulfed by Lake Baringo's waters, another stranded and abandoned on an island.

At Lake Bogoria, known for its flamingoes and hot springs, rising waters have driven away a significant number of the birds and submerged some of the springs.

Michael Baimet, the director at the local disaster department, said tourism earnings had dropped from roughly $1 million annually to $200,000.

Google reviews show visitors complaining about dwindling flamingos at Lake Bogoria and impassable roads caused by rising water levels.

- 'Risky' -

Schools have not been spared the devastation.

Official records show roughly 12 institutions around Lakes Baringo and Bogoria have been affected, some completely submerged.

About 240 students and staff at Kokwa Island Primary and Junior School in Marigat must now cross crocodile-infested Lake Baringo, with the lone ferry's multiple trips cutting into learning time.

Most exposed is the girls' dormitory, inches from the lapping waves.

"It is too risky for the girls who board as hippos and crocodiles come into the school at night," said one school official.

"We've been forced to employ two security officers to keep the students safe."

The school fears El Nino rains expected in October could engulf the dormitory.

Families on the same island know they have to relocate as the waters advance, but finances remain a major issue.

Faith Mpayei, 40, has moved the fence around her once two-acre (0.8-hectare) farm twice since 2016, when she said the lake began advancing rapidly.

Her fence now lies submerged, while the water stands nearly a third of the way up her house.

"It has reduced me to zero," said the mother-of-five.

"We are helpless... I am here just for the time being, I have to relocate... there's nothing left to do here."

Varieties

Eclipse Craze Grips Spain, Iceland as Millions Get Set for ‘Event of the Century’

A tourist photographs the sun with his mobile phone at Arija beach, Spain, August 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A tourist photographs the sun with his mobile phone at Arija beach, Spain, August 11, 2026. (Reuters)
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Eclipse Craze Grips Spain, Iceland as Millions Get Set for ‘Event of the Century’

A tourist photographs the sun with his mobile phone at Arija beach, Spain, August 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A tourist photographs the sun with his mobile phone at Arija beach, Spain, August 11, 2026. (Reuters)

Millions of people across Spain and Iceland geared up to witness a total solar eclipse on Wednesday, packing their protective glasses and travelling to areas where the rare astronomical event can be observed in full.

Humans' fascination with eclipses is well-documented. Historically, the sudden darkening of the sky was often interpreted as an omen or a cosmic struggle.

Modern-day skywatchers seek to experience the same uncanny sensation when day briefly turns into twilight and some animals fall quiet as the Moon passes directly between Earth and the Sun.

"I hope that tonight will see the emergence of a wonderful generation of astrophysicists," said ‌Juan Cruz, ‌Spain's Secretary of State for Science. "It's such a special moment."

Authorities were expecting ‌up ⁠to 6 million ⁠visitors in mostly rural areas within the eclipse's path across northern Spain and the Balearic Islands, Cruz said.

In Spain, the eclipse will be quickly followed by the sunset, making the event particularly alluring.

Since this year's eclipse coincides with one of the highest-risk periods for wildfires, Spain has rolled out a massive police operation and public safety campaign.

The government also views it as a chance to showcase seldom-visited regions and help address concerns about overtourism on the coast by redistributing crowds away from saturated beach resorts.

The Iberian ⁠Peninsula last saw a total solar eclipse in 1912. It is set ‌to experience another one on August 2, 2027, and an ‌annular eclipse in January 2028, completing the so-called "Iberian Eclipse Trio."

ECLIPSE FEVER IN THE LAND OF SAGAS

In ‌Iceland's capital Reykjavik, eclipse glasses have been sold out for days as the Nordic country ‌of roughly 400,000 people expects to welcome up to 80,000 visitors.

A narrow path of totality will reach Iceland's westernmost coast at about 5:44 p.m. (1744 GMT), before the Moon's shadow races east.

Totality will last up to 2 minutes and 13 seconds in the far west, though most cities will see shorter periods of darkness. Authorities have ‌warned of heavy traffic and urged viewers to arrive early.

Singer Björk was due to perform a DJ set at an eclipse-themed event south of ⁠Reykjavik.

US space agency ⁠NASA plans to fly a high-altitude WB-57 aircraft from Iceland to follow the Moon's shadow, and NASA-funded teams will launch balloons to study how the sudden darkness and cooling affect the lower atmosphere.

"Oh man, it's so cool," said Krista Kern, a visitor from North Carolina who described her expectations of totality as a "whole-body feeling," adding though she was nervous about the Icelandic weather.

CHASING THE SHADOW

Aside from casual observers, the event also draws "eclipse chasers", enthusiasts who crisscross the globe to be in the path of totality whenever an eclipse occurs.

Gordon Telepun, a retired plastic surgeon and amateur astronomer from the US who has photographed six total eclipses, said he would watch from the island of Mallorca because Spain checked all the boxes for eclipse chasers.

"It has pretty reasonable weather chances in August, a decent totality duration at over one-and-a-half minutes and is easy to travel to," he said.