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UAE Launches ‘Great Arab Minds,’ Backing it with $27 Million

The Museum of the Future will serve as the initiative's headquarters. Asharq Al-Awsat
The Museum of the Future will serve as the initiative's headquarters. Asharq Al-Awsat
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UAE Launches ‘Great Arab Minds,’ Backing it with $27 Million

The Museum of the Future will serve as the initiative's headquarters. Asharq Al-Awsat
The Museum of the Future will serve as the initiative's headquarters. Asharq Al-Awsat

UAE Vice President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum has announced the Museum of the Future in Dubai will lead the ‘Great Arab Minds’ initiative.

The goal of the initiative is to seek out distinguished Arab scholars, thinkers, creators and innovators across all fields, sponsor them, build their capacities, and develop their ideas in cooperation with global partners to increase their positive impact on the region.

The five-year initiative seeks to pick out the most important 1,000 Arab brilliant minds in the fields of physics, mathematics, coding, research and economics and support them practically and in their research.

The Ruler of Dubai announced that 100 million Dirhams (27 million dollars) would be allocated to the initiative, with a committee of four Emirati Ministers tasked with developing a system for identifying and supporting exceptional Arab thinkers and talents. He also said that the Museum of the Future would serve as the Great Arab Minds initiative’s headquarters.

In a series of tweets on the 16th anniversary of his accession, Sheikh Mohammed said: “Today we launch a new project to search for 1,000 Great Arab Minds in the fields of physics and mathematics, software and data science, and others. Our goal is to empower them and help them play a positive role in the region.”

“We have built a science museum that meets global standards- Museum of the Future- and we will soon open it, god willing. It will be the administrative and intellectual center of this new Arab scientific movement. Personally, I am betting on science, scientists, and thinkers changing the Arab world’s state of affairs,” he added, before saying: “These great minds will be supported in their research and practice, as they will be linked with the biggest thinkers, scientists, and companies in the world and their ideas will be developed so that their positive impact on the region is strengthened.”

According to the details released Tuesday, Great Arab Minds seeks to launch, under the UAE leadership, the largest movement of its kind in the Arab world to develop an elite of Arab scientists, thinkers, and innovators across key fields, to create a nucleus of a society of knowledge and innovation in the Arab world and provides added value for the scientific and innovative communities around the world.

The massive initiative aims to support the best of the Arab world’s minds and talents, shed light on these extraordinary thinkers, talents and their achievements. It is framed within a long-term vision to maintain the brilliant and innovative youths of the Arab world and make use of their capacities to the greatest extent possible, thereby making the Arab world attractive to these geniuses because it rewards them instead of pushing them to emigrate.

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Storm Dumps Record Rain in Northern California, While US Northeast Deals with Winter Storms

A pedestrian walks along a flooded street during a storm Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A pedestrian walks along a flooded street during a storm Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
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Storm Dumps Record Rain in Northern California, While US Northeast Deals with Winter Storms

A pedestrian walks along a flooded street during a storm Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
A pedestrian walks along a flooded street during a storm Thursday, Nov. 21, 2024, in Santa Rosa, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)

A major storm dropped more snow and record rain in California, causing small landslides and flooding some streets, while on the opposite side of the country blizzard or winter storm warnings were in effect Saturday for areas spanning from the Northeast to central Appalachia.
The storm on the West Coast arrived in the Pacific Northwest earlier this week, killing two people and knocking out power to hundreds of thousands, mostly in the Seattle area, before its strong winds moved through Northern California, The Associated Press reported.
Santa Rosa, California, saw its wettest three-day period on record with about 12.5 inches (32 centimeters) of rain falling by Friday evening, according to the National Weather Service in the Bay Area.
Flooding closed part of scenic Highway 1, also known as the Pacific Coast Highway, in Mendocino County and there was no estimate for when it would reopen, according to the California Department of Transportation.
On the East Coast, another storm brought much-needed rain to New York and New Jersey, where rare wildfires have raged in recent weeks, and heavy snow to northeastern Pennsylvania. Parts of West Virginia were under a blizzard warning through Saturday morning, with up to 2 feet (61 centimeters) of snow and high winds making travel treacherous.
As residents in the Seattle area headed into the weekend, more than 112,000 people were still without power from this season’s strongest atmospheric river — a long plume of moisture that forms over an ocean and flows through the sky over land. Crews worked to clear streets of downed lines, branches and other debris, while cities opened warming centers so people heading into their fourth day without power could get warm food and plug in their cellphones and other devices.
Gale warnings were issued off Washington, Oregon and California, and high wind warnings were in effect across parts of Northern California and Oregon. There were winter storm warnings for parts of the California Cascades and the Sierra Nevada.
Forecasters predicted that both coasts would begin to see a reprieve from the storms as the system in the northeast moves into eastern Canada and the one in the West heads south.
By Friday night, some relief was already being seen in California, where the sheriff’s office in Humboldt County downgraded evacuation orders to warnings for people near the Eel River after forecasters said the waterway would see moderate but not major flooding.
The system roared ashore on the West Coast on Tuesday as a “ bomb cyclone,” which occurs when a cyclone intensifies rapidly. It unleashed fierce winds that toppled trees onto roads, vehicles and homes.
Debra Campbell said she was sitting in the dark with a flashlight that night, unable to sleep as strong winds lashed her house in Crescent City, California. With a massive boom, a 150-foot (46-meter) tree came crashing down on her home and car.
“It was just so incredibly frightening,” AP quoted Campbell as saying. “Once I realized it wasn’t going to come through the ceiling where I was at, I was able to grab my car keys and my purse. ... And I open the front door and it’s just solid tree.”
In the Northeast, which has been hit by drought, more than 2 inches (5 centimeters) of rain was expected by Saturday morning north of New York City, with snow mixed in at higher elevations.
Despite the mess, the precipitation was expected to help ease drought conditions in a state that has seen an exceptionally dry fall.
“It’s not going to be a drought buster, but it’s definitely going to help when all this melts,” said Bryan Greenblatt, a National Weather Service meteorologist in Binghamton, New York.
Heavy snow fell in northeastern Pennsylvania, including the Pocono Mountains, prompting a raft of school closures. Higher elevations reported up to 17 inches (43 centimeters), with lesser accumulations in valley cities like Scranton and Wilkes-Barre. More than 85,000 customers in 10 counties lost power, and the state transportation department imposed speed restrictions on some highways.