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Qiddiya Reveals First Look at Saudi ‘Capital of Entertainment, Sports and Arts’

The Qiddiya Investment Company unveils the much-anticipated Master Plan for Qiddiya. (SPA)
The Qiddiya Investment Company unveils the much-anticipated Master Plan for Qiddiya. (SPA)
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Qiddiya Reveals First Look at Saudi ‘Capital of Entertainment, Sports and Arts’

The Qiddiya Investment Company unveils the much-anticipated Master Plan for Qiddiya. (SPA)
The Qiddiya Investment Company unveils the much-anticipated Master Plan for Qiddiya. (SPA)

The Qiddiya Investment Company has unveiled the much-anticipated Master Plan for Qiddiya, the “Giga-Project” being constructed on the doorstep of Riyadh that will deliver on many of the goals of the Vision 2030. Qiddiya is set to become the Kingdom’s “Capital of Entertainment, Sports and the Arts”, with facilities and experiences that will bring together new opportunities and exposure at a scale and format never before seen.

By bringing together the elements for an active, healthy and ambitious lifestyle, Qiddiya will generate enormous economic opportunities, and thousands of new jobs that will prompt the development of new sectors, contributing to a diversified and prosperous economy.

“The people of Saudi Arabia share the universal desire for enriching experiences, and our plan allows Qiddiya to unlock access to these experiences in a new and culturally relevant way, encouraging personal and professional pursuits that foster enrichment,” said Michael Reininger, Chief Executive Officer of Qiddiya Investment Company.

The Master Plan, created in conjunction with Bjarke Ingles Group, a Denmark-based company, was constructed with careful consideration to the natural patterns that have been etched on the site throughout history, giving rise to a green-belt network carrying visitors throughout the property on roads, bike paths and walkways built within an enhanced landscape environment.

Located just 45 km from Riyadh, the 334 square kilometer site envisions development covering only 30 percent of the land leaving the majority of the majestic site dedicated for natural conservation.

“This project sets a new global standard for the seamless integration of visitor-focused experiences and an innovative mix of program pieces, delivering an unparalleled entertainment destination,” said Bob Ward, Chairman of the Qiddiya Advisory Board.

The site is organized around five primary attractions.

The Resort Core represents the heart of Qiddiya, where four gated-attractions surround a central specialty retail, dining, resort hotel and entertainment district. Adjacent to this 15-hectare lies is a major outdoor entertainment venue that can host events of a capacity of 5,000 to 40,000 visitors.

The 2022 opening phase features Six Flags Qiddiya, a family-oriented park filled with rides and attractions distributed throughout six themed lands. A second feature park is a water-oriented sports and entertainment attraction, which includes an integrated resort hotel.

The third feature is the “Speed Park” which brings together events and experiences from the world of motor sports in a venue that places equal emphasis on spectator and driver. The Speed Park includes tracks, showrooms, retail, a driver’s club and a luxury hotel within its gates.

Overlooking the Resort Core from its perch 200m above on the edge of the Tuwaiq escarpment, the City Center is a mixed-use village dedicated to sports and the arts. Coupled to the entertainment core below by a funicular transportation system, residential, retail and workplace environments are organized around two intersecting pedestrian circulation spines linking a portfolio of feature facilities.

The City Center is home to a collection of sports venues including a 20,000 seat cliff-top stadium, an 18,000 seat multi-purpose indoor arena, an aquatic center and a sports hub capable of hosting a cross-section of individual sports activities and events.

Arts and entertainment create a buzz throughout the city as they emerge from an innovative arts center, a signature 2,000 seat performing arts theater and a premier multiplex cinema that dot the central walkways as primary destinations.

A creative campus offers workspace, media production and education facilities. A grand mosque anchors one end of the city with a place for worship and community gathering. A private school, a sports medicine hospital, and beautiful private villas along a biking/walking path on the Cliff’s Edge complete the composition.

To the northwest of the Resort Core sits the Eco Core designed around a series of nature and wildlife encounters, an ecologically-sensitive golf course, outdoor sporting adventures and several unique hospitality offerings that take advantage of the picturesque desert environment.

The Motion Core, to the southeast of the Resort Core, will be home to events, experiences, residential and hospitality offerings that are driven by the science and technology of people in motion.

Along with a Race Resort, where homes and club facilities provide access to a beautiful and challenging 15 km performance driving course, facilities for both on-road and off-road driving experiences, driver education and destination motor sports events will be constructed within a landscape surrounded by a mountain side backdrop.

A Golf and Residential Neighborhood sits near the center of the property where panoramic vistas of the project are available from an array of residential and resort offerings that include a championship 18-hole golf course and club house facilities, a luxurious resort hotel and spa and equestrian facilities—all accessed from villas, townhomes and private retreats.

A range of additional retail, residential, community services and commercial support facilities are distributed throughout the property for ease of access and utility that support the modern lifestyle Qiddiya is designed to deliver.

Qiddiya brings together an expansive range of attractions and opportunities in a singular and easily accessible destination, delivered to “best-in-class” standards and allows Saudis to enjoy the entertainment and professional experiences that inspire them without having to leave the Kingdom to fulfill their ambitions.

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Varieties

Kyiv Botanical Garden's Plants Wither Due to Frost, Power Cuts

Doctor of Biological Sciences Roman Ivannikov, Head of the Department of Tropical and Subtropical Plants of the Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, speaks during an AFP interview in the garden's main greenhouse in Kyiv on February 11, 2026. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
Doctor of Biological Sciences Roman Ivannikov, Head of the Department of Tropical and Subtropical Plants of the Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, speaks during an AFP interview in the garden's main greenhouse in Kyiv on February 11, 2026. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
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Kyiv Botanical Garden's Plants Wither Due to Frost, Power Cuts

Doctor of Biological Sciences Roman Ivannikov, Head of the Department of Tropical and Subtropical Plants of the Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, speaks during an AFP interview in the garden's main greenhouse in Kyiv on February 11, 2026. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)
Doctor of Biological Sciences Roman Ivannikov, Head of the Department of Tropical and Subtropical Plants of the Gryshko National Botanical Garden of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, speaks during an AFP interview in the garden's main greenhouse in Kyiv on February 11, 2026. (Photo by Genya SAVILOV / AFP)

Roman Ivannikov has spent around 30 years pampering orchids, azaleas and figs at Ukraine's National Botanical Garden, but power cuts triggered by Russian strikes are threatening to freeze his cherished collection of tropical plants.

Moscow has been pummeling Ukrainian energy sites with drones and missiles, plunging thousands of households into darkness during the harshest winter since it started its invasion four years ago.

The almost-daily barrages, paired with the cold snap, have put lives at risk and created an unprecedented threat for Ivannikov's pride and joy: a collection of almost 4,000 species.

"Our children grew up on the paths of this garden. We have poured our lives into this," Ivannikov, 51, told AFP, struggling to fight back tears.

The temperature in the garden's main greenhouse was 12C.

"It's not even the lower bound of normal," Ivannikov said.

The temperature dipped even lower on four nights over recent weeks, when the heating cut off entirely.

Wearing a thick navy jacket over a wool sweater, Ivannikov, the head of the department of tropical and subtropical plants, picked up a leaf that had just come rustling down.

"You can see how many fallen leaves there are... Perfectly healthy leaves that could have kept feeding the plant and functioning for months are falling down," he said.

The plant, he explained, was optimizing energy needs and shedding part of its leaves in the lower tiers so it can keep the leaves at the top and "survive in these conditions".

He, fellow staff and scores of volunteers were shuffling between tasks like firing up stoves and spreading protective covers on a collection of smaller plants, like orchids.

Volodymyr Vynogradov, 66, has signed up to help cut firewood used to heat the greenhouses.

"There needs to be heating for the azaleas," he told AFP, his cheeks rosy from cold and a pile of split logs scattered around.

"Physically, it's a little bit of a warm-up... That's why I decided to help somehow. For myself and for the sake of flowers."

The garden's collection has been laboriously reassembled after it had perished during World War II -- through decades of purchases, exchanges and numerous scientific missions that took Ivannikov's senior colleagues across several continents.

They "used to go to places and bring back plants from areas where those forests are no longer there", making those replanted at the Kyiv garden susceptible to "irrecoverable losses".

"Those plants have been preserved with us, and that underscores their uniqueness: if we lose them, we won't be able to restore them," Ivannikov said.

Individual specimens have already wilted, but the scale of damage is impossible to assess -- the destructive impact of the cold could only start to show in weeks or even months to come.

"Flowering intervals will change, plants will bloom but won't be able to set seed for a year or two. Or, for example, they'll set seed, but it won't be viable -- it will be dead," Ivannikov, who is trying to stay hopeful, said.

"We just have to hold on until summer, until spring -- make it through however many days are needed."

His dream, he said, is to create a "large national bonsai collection", something he had already begun laying the groundwork for.

The institution meanwhile offers organized tours and works with military servicemen and displaced Ukrainians who find solace in gardening work.

"They feel alive and want to see what comes next. They see a future, they want to keep living -- and that's our mission."

Varieties

Sunbed Ads Spreading Harmful Misinformation

Cancer charities and doctors say sunbeds are linked to higher rates of melanoma and other skin cancers (Getty images) 
Cancer charities and doctors say sunbeds are linked to higher rates of melanoma and other skin cancers (Getty images) 
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Sunbed Ads Spreading Harmful Misinformation

Cancer charities and doctors say sunbeds are linked to higher rates of melanoma and other skin cancers (Getty images) 
Cancer charities and doctors say sunbeds are linked to higher rates of melanoma and other skin cancers (Getty images) 

Harmful misinformation claiming sunbeds offer health benefits in winter is being spread by tanning companies on social media, the BBC has found.

BBC identified hundreds of adverts on TikTok, Instagram and Facebook saying sunbeds can boost energy and treat skin conditions or mental health problems.

One suggested that going on a sunbed for “eight minutes” could prevent colds and flu, while another claimed that UV rays could “stimulate the thyroid gland” to help someone lose weight.

Claims like these are “irresponsible” and “potentially dangerous,” the government told BBC - while an NHS dermatologist described the amount of sunbed misinformation on social media as “genuinely terrifying.”

The findings come after the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned six tanning adverts for making irresponsible health claims or suggesting sunbeds were safe.

Cancer charities and doctors are clear about the risks of using sunbeds - and say the machines are linked to higher rates of melanoma and other skin cancers.

Using a bed before the age of 35 increases the risk of melanoma by 59% later in life, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

The Sunbed Association, which represents half the UK's tanning shops, says the ASA and WHO are using “outdated data,” but encourages its members not to use medical claims in advertising.

Young people are by far the biggest sunbed users in the UK - about one in seven 18-to-24-year-olds say they used one in the past year, double the average for all age groups, according to a 2025 YouGov survey.

Other data suggests nearly a quarter of under-25s wrongly believe sunbeds actually reduce the risk of getting skin cancer.

Varieties

Rain Further Batters Storm-Hit Portugal, Thousands Evacuated

A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
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Rain Further Batters Storm-Hit Portugal, Thousands Evacuated

A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)
A flooded area in Ceira, Coimbra, Portugal, February 11, 2026. (Reuters)

More ‌heavy rain flooded several rural areas in the north of storm-battered Portugal on Wednesday, leaving levees at risk of bursting around the medieval city of Coimbra and forcing authorities to evacuate about 3,000 residents as a precaution.

A succession of deadly storms has hammered mostly central and southern parts of the country since late January, blowing roofs off houses, flooding several towns and leaving hundreds of thousands without electricity for days. At least 15 people have died as a consequence of the storms, including indirect ‌victims.

As the ‌storms let up this week, a weather ‌phenomenon ⁠known as an "atmospheric river" - ⁠a wide corridor of concentrated water vapor carrying massive amounts of moisture from the tropics - brought new downpours, affecting the north to a greater extent.

RISK OF DAM OVERFLOWING

Municipal authorities in Coimbra ordered the precautionary evacuation late on Tuesday of around 3,000 people most at risk from the River Mondego bursting its banks, ⁠and the operation was still under way on ‌Wednesday, with police making door-to-door checks ‌and bussing residents to shelters.

Regional Civil Protection official Carlos Tavares ‌said on Wednesday the situation could worsen between late Wednesday ‌and midday Thursday, as the rain could cause the Aguieira dam, 35 km northeast of Coimbra, "to overflow, sweep away levees and trigger further flooding".

Part of Coimbra's ancient city wall, on a hillside in one ‌of Europe's oldest university towns and a UNESCO World Heritage site, collapsed, shutting the road below ⁠and forcing ⁠the closure of the municipal market, the city hall said.

Prime Minister Luis Montenegro was due in Coimbra to oversee the emergency response after Interior Minister Maria Lucia Amaral resigned following criticism from opposition parties and local communities over what they described as the authorities' slow and failed response to devastating Storm Kristin two weeks ago.

In central Portugal, just across the River Tagus from Lisbon, authorities evacuated the village of Porto Brandao due to the risk of landslides, and around 30 people were removed from their homes after a landslide in the neighboring beachside area of Caparica.