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20 Projects to Boost Saudi Arabia’s Cultural Creative Scene

CEO of the Saudi Cultural Development Fund Mohammed bin Dayel, (Asharq Al-Awsat)
CEO of the Saudi Cultural Development Fund Mohammed bin Dayel, (Asharq Al-Awsat)
    Riyadh – Omar al-Badawi
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20 Projects to Boost Saudi Arabia’s Cultural Creative Scene

CEO of the Saudi Cultural Development Fund Mohammed bin Dayel, (Asharq Al-Awsat)
CEO of the Saudi Cultural Development Fund Mohammed bin Dayel, (Asharq Al-Awsat)

Saudi Arabia’s cultural and creative scene is bracing for 20 new projects and initiatives widening its horizons. The Cultural Development Fund had approved the host of initiatives as the first qualified package of projects for launching a new cultural era in the Kingdom.

The Cultural Development Fund’s approval was coupled with it providing SAR76 million to support said projects.

This comes as part of the Fund’s endeavors to enrich the cultural activity in the Kingdom.

Supporting the pioneers of the cultural sector and enabling them to start their businesses and expand their existing initiatives will most definitely enhance the cultural scene in the Kingdom, empower national competencies, and provide an opportunity for more quality and creativity.

CEO of the Saudi Cultural Development Fund Mohammed bin Dayel considered that supporting the first package of cultural projects is one step to be followed by many other steps.

He said that more programs and plans to stimulate the Kingdom’s cultural sector will be announced in the coming period.

For his part, the head of the business sector at the Fund, Majid bin Abdullah Al-Manea, confirmed that the new projects are the first announced batch to receive support from among the group of advanced projects in the first cycle of the program.

He said the projects were selected after meeting all of the Fund’s requirements.

They were chosen for their social, economic, and cultural impact.

According to Al-Manea, all projects will remain subject to performance follow-up mechanisms to ensure the quality of their outputs.

The Fund's establishment came to develop the cultural sector and achieve sustainability by supporting cultural activities and projects, facilitating cultural investment, and enhancing the sector's profitability.

Additionally, enabling those interested in engaging in cultural activities to have an active role in achieving the National Culture Strategy's goals and the Kingdom's Vision 2030.

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Norway Shirts in Short Supply at Home Ahead of World Cup Clash with Brazil

Football - FIFA World Cup 2026 - Group I - Iraq v Norway - Boston Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts, US - June 16, 2026 Norway's Erling Haaland celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)
Football - FIFA World Cup 2026 - Group I - Iraq v Norway - Boston Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts, US - June 16, 2026 Norway's Erling Haaland celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)
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Norway Shirts in Short Supply at Home Ahead of World Cup Clash with Brazil

Football - FIFA World Cup 2026 - Group I - Iraq v Norway - Boston Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts, US - June 16, 2026 Norway's Erling Haaland celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)
Football - FIFA World Cup 2026 - Group I - Iraq v Norway - Boston Stadium, Foxborough, Massachusetts, US - June 16, 2026 Norway's Erling Haaland celebrates scoring their first goal. (Reuters)

Sitting ‌beside FIFA President Gianni Infantino as her side beat Ivory Coast at the World Cup on Tuesday, Norway football federation president Lise Klaveness was wearing the hottest fashion item of the summer back home -- the team's red shirt.

Klaveness wore the jersey under her blazer as she watched Erling Haaland's late goal send Norway through to a last-16 clash with Brazil on Sunday, but problems with deliveries have meant thousands ‌of supporters ‌back home are still scrambling to ‌buy ⁠the shirt.

"There has ⁠been such a great demand for kits, and I think we have all felt that," Klaveness said following their win. "Whether it is demand that has surprised or the production of shirts (that is the problem), we'll have to find out."

Norwegian broadcaster TV2 reported that ⁠shops lucky enough to get hold ‌of the popular kits had ‌long queues, and that their shelves were being cleared ‌in minutes by fans eager to get behind ‌their team as they take part in their first men's World Cup since 1998.

"It's a completely crazy demand, it's the sickest thing I've ever seen, it's fantastic," Oslo sports store ‌manager Anders Lilleberg told TV2.

"It's sad to not be able to offer everyone ⁠who wants ⁠a Norway shirt one - after all, we want to offer as many football items as possible that our customers want - but you can only sell the ones you have."

Norway wore the red home shirt against Iraq and France at the World Cup, a white kit against Ivory Coast and a black jersey against Senegal.

With elite striker Haaland leading the line, there is also a huge demand from outside the country.

"It's a luxury problem, but a luxury problem we have to solve," Klaveness said.

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World Cup Heat, Humidity ‘Virtually Impossible’ without Climate Change, Says Study

Belgium's Romelu Lukaku (9) returns to the pitch after a hydration break during the World Cup round of 32 match between Belgium and Senegal in Seattle, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP)
Belgium's Romelu Lukaku (9) returns to the pitch after a hydration break during the World Cup round of 32 match between Belgium and Senegal in Seattle, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP)
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World Cup Heat, Humidity ‘Virtually Impossible’ without Climate Change, Says Study

Belgium's Romelu Lukaku (9) returns to the pitch after a hydration break during the World Cup round of 32 match between Belgium and Senegal in Seattle, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP)
Belgium's Romelu Lukaku (9) returns to the pitch after a hydration break during the World Cup round of 32 match between Belgium and Senegal in Seattle, Wednesday, July 1, 2026. (AP)

The extreme heat and humidity broiling swathes of the United States as it hosts World Cup matches and prepares to celebrate the Fourth of July would have been "virtually impossible" without climate change, a new study showed Friday.

"On America's 250th birthday, our study gives a clear reality check," said Theodore Keeping, an extreme weather and wildfire researcher at Imperial College London who co-authored the research for the World Weather Attribution group (WWA).

"The climate the country has today is fundamentally different to the one it had when the Founding Fathers signed the Declaration of Independence."

WWA, which comprises climate researchers from several leading institutions, examined the heat wave that is being driven by a strong "heat dome" high-pressure system trapping warm moist air like a lid over much of the central and eastern parts of the country, as well as southern Canada.

Although such weather patterns are commonplace, they now cause higher temperatures as a result of climate change.

Daytime temperatures in many of these areas are topping 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) but feel even hotter when humidity is factored in.

Such heat stress is commonly measured by an index known as Wet Bulb Globe Temperatures (WBGT), which is more telling than temperature alone, with WGBT values set to hit record highs across much of the region that was studied.

Using climate models, WWA compared versions of the world today featuring human-induced heat trapping emissions, which have caused global temperatures to rise 2.5F (1.4C) since before the industrial age, and a world without.

They found that in a world free of climate change, forecast WBGT levels would have been so rare as to be virtually impossible. At most, they would have occurred once every 5,000 years.

Even in today's climate, such conditions are estimated to be exceedingly rare -- a one in 200-year event -- though there is a high degree of uncertainty given just how extreme the event is.

To rule out natural variability as a cause, the researchers tested the impact of developing El Nino conditions in the Pacific, but found its effect over northeastern North America was minor cooling.

World Cup matches including the July 4 clash between France v Paraguay in Philadelphia are forecast to be in excess of 82F WBGT at kick-off. These are levels at which FIFPRO, the players' union, has called for games to be delayed on grounds they are unsafe for players and fans.

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US: Shark Attack on Alabama Teen Inspires Start of National Alert System

This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)
This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)
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US: Shark Attack on Alabama Teen Inspires Start of National Alert System

This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)
This undated photo courtesy of the Gribbin family shows Lulu Gribbin, who lost her hand and part of her leg in a shark attack off the coast of Florida in 2024. (Courtesy of Gribbin family)

Lulu Gribbin was 15 when she survived a shark attack off the coast of Florida. She lost her left hand, part of her right leg and almost her life.

What she didn’t know when she entered the water on that day in 2024 was that another woman had been bitten by a shark 90 minutes earlier and just 3 miles (4.8 kilometers) down the beach. Had she known about the earlier attack, there is no way she would have been swimming, she said.

Gribbin’s story has inspired new federal legislation to authorize emergency alerts to mobile phones to warn beachgoers when a shark has bitten someone in the area.

President Donald Trump last week signed “Lulu’s Law,” which requires the Federal Communications Commission to allow the emergency messages. The legislation, which Gribbin advocated for, authorizes the warnings by classifying a shark attack as an event for which an emergency alert can be issued. It is up to states to implement the warnings.

Gribbin’s home state of Alabama approved such a warning system last year.

“It’s really just common-sense legislation. It says that whenever there has been a shark attack in a certain area where you are near, it will send an alert to your phone, exactly like how an Amber Alert system works when a child is abducted,” The Associated Press quoted her as saying.

Gribbin said she hopes the alert system will help prevent attacks like hers. “I definitely see this law working in the future and I'm really excited to hopefully save lives,” she said.

A fight to survive Gribbin was one of three people bitten by a shark on June 7, 2024, off the Florida Panhandle.

She was on a mother-daughter trip to the Florida Panhandle. Gribbin said she and her friend had been diving for sand dollars.

“All of the sudden my best friend yelled, ‘Shark!’ and so we all started swimming for our lives,” Gribbin recalled. She said she remembered that sharks are attracted to frantic splashing and yelled for everyone to be calm. Gribbin, who was closest to the shark, was bitten.

“The shark bit off my hand first, and I raised my arm out of the water, and there was just flesh and bone there,” Gribbin said. The shark then latched onto her leg. A man punched the shark off her and strangers on the beach rushed to help. She was flown by helicopter to a nearby hospital.

Doctors were able to save the teen's life but had to amputate part of her right leg.
Choosing positivity throughout her recovery In the hospital, Gribbin made a deliberate decision to choose joy and to never give up.

Gribbin was fitted with prosthetic limbs, quickly regained her ability to walk, returned to sports and got her driver’s license. She has gone back in the water and learned to surf, meeting Bethany Hamilton, a professional surfer who lost her arm in a shark attack.

US Sen. Katie Britt, the Alabama Republican who sponsored the legislation, said the legislation happened because of the teen's “courage, perseverance, and advocacy to protect future beachgoers.”

“Because of her strength, lives will be changed. We should all be inspired by her,” Britt said.