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Mohammed bin Salman Project Restores Mosques in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Region

The Project seeks to preserve the heritage of the mosques
The Project seeks to preserve the heritage of the mosques
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Mohammed bin Salman Project Restores Mosques in Saudi Arabia’s Eastern Region

The Project seeks to preserve the heritage of the mosques
The Project seeks to preserve the heritage of the mosques

As part of its second phase, the Prince Mohammed bin Salman Project for Developing Historical Mosques is reconstructing and renovating the mosques in the Eastern Region, adopting methods that aim to safeguard the heritage they represent by restoring them to their original form to the greatest extent possible in adherence to global standards.

The project seeks to grant Jawatha and Umm Zriniq mosques in the Eastern Region a historical and aesthetic identity with unique and distinguished features that respect their aesthetic history.

It will do so through multiple stages of systematic projects relying on studies, research and analysis on how to best restore them into their original form and which materials to use to do so.

Jawatha Mosque is considered among the oldest historical mosques in the Islamic world. Built by Bani Abd Al-Qais after their second visit to Prophet Mohammad in the seventh century of the Hijri calendar, it is considered the first mosque to host Friday prayers after the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.

The area of the mosque, before and after renovation, is around 205,5 square meters and can hold 170 worshippers.

Meanwhile, the Umm Zriniq Mosque in Al-Owemariah neighborhood of Al-Hofuf city was built over 100 years ago next to the Umm Zriniq Cemetery.

The area of the mosque will increase from 30 square meters to 213,96 square meters, and its capacity will rise. It will hold 94 worshippers after it had ceased to receive worshippers.

The Prince Mohammed bin Salman Project to Develop Historical Mosques aims to rehabilitate and restore 130 historical mosques in various regions across the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, highlighting their civilizational and cultural dimensions by preserving their original aesthetic.

The second phase of this project includes 30 historical mosques in 13 different regions across the Kingdom- six mosques in the Riyadh region, five mosques in the Makkah region, four mosques in the Madinah region, three mosques in the Asir region and two mosques in each of the Eastern regions, Al-Jouf and Jazan, and one mosque in each of the Northern Borders, Tabuk, Baha, Najran, Hail and Qassim.

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Vanishing Glacier on Germany's Highest Peak Prompts Ski Lift Demolition

An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)
An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)
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Vanishing Glacier on Germany's Highest Peak Prompts Ski Lift Demolition

An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)
An aerial view taken with a drone shows the Schneefernerkopf ski lift prior to its demolition at the Zugspitze ski resort near Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Philipp Guelland / AFP)

Vanishing glaciers atop Germany's highest mountain prompted the demolition of a ski lift Friday, as global warming reshapes the Alps.

A ski slope that for decades ran down the Schneeferner glacier on the Zugspitze has melted away, leading operator Bayerische Zugspitzbahn Bergbahn AG to begin dismantling the lift after more than 50 years of service.

"The glaciers in Bavaria will inevitably melt away, as they can no longer survive in the face of climate change," Christoph Mayer, a glaciologist at the Bavarian Academy of Sciences, told AFP.

High-tension cables anchoring the existing ski lift will be cut with blasting charges on Friday evening, said the operator's spokeswoman Laura Schaper.

The lift's pylons, which are built on the ice, will fall once the cables have been severed, she said near the glacier on Friday.

The peak of Zugspitze, which stands at 2,962 meters (9,700 feet), is located in the Wetterstein massif along Germany's border with Austria.

"The ice is receding, the terrain and the lift have changed drastically," Schaper said. "The slope has become significantly steeper, and for that reason it's no longer technically feasible to keep operating the lift."

New data on the remaining glaciers in the Bavarian Alps released Thursday found that the glaciers have receded by more than a quarter just between 2023 and 2025, losing around one million cubic meters of ice over only two years.

Wilfried Hagg, a geologist at the Munich University of Applied Sciences who worked on the study alongside Mayer, told AFP that climate change is entirely to blame.

Hagg told AFP that there's "absolutely no" chance of saving any of Germany's remaining glaciers.

There are four remaining glaciers in Bavaria: the northern part of the Schneeferne and the Hoellentalferner, which is also located on the Zugspitze.

Two others are both located on the Berchtesgarden massif: the Wazmann, at 2,713 meters, and Blaueis at 2,607 meters.

Those glaciers "are in very bad shape," Hagg said, with the two on Berchtesgarden "likely to disappear completely very soon -- this year or next".

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NASA Hauls Repaired Moon Rocket from Hangar Back to Pad for Early April Launch

NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)
NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)
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NASA Hauls Repaired Moon Rocket from Hangar Back to Pad for Early April Launch

NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)
NASA's Artemis II Space Launch System (SLS) rocket and Orion spacecraft are seen at Launch Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Florida on March 20, 2026. (Photo by Gregg Newton / AFP)

For the second time this year, NASA moved its moon rocket from the hangar out toward the pad Friday in hopes of launching four astronauts on a lunar fly-around next month.

If the latest repairs work and everything else goes NASA's way, the Space Launch System could blast off as early as April 1 from Florida's Kennedy Space Center. The Artemis II crew went into quarantine this week in Houston.

The 322-foot (98-meter) rocket began the slow 4-mile (6.4-kilometer) trek in the middle of the night, transported atop a massive crawler used since the 1960s Apollo era. The trip was held up for several hours by high wind but completed by midday, 11 hours after it began.

The three Americans and one Canadian will zip around the moon in their capsule and then come straight home without stopping. Their mission should have been completed by now, but hydrogen fuel leaks and clogged helium lines forced two months of delay, The Associated Press reported.

While technicians plugged the leaks at the pad, the helium issue could only be fixed in the Vehicle Assembly Building, forcing NASA to roll the rocket back at the end of February.

The last time NASA sent astronauts to the moon was during Apollo 17 in 1972. The new Artemis program aims for a two-person landing in 2028.

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Beijing-backed Brain Chip Firm Says it is 3 years behind Musk's Neuralink

Beinao-1, a semi-invasive brain-machine interface system also known as the NeuCyber Matrix BMI system, is displayed during a media briefing as part of an organised media tour to the Chinese Institute for Brain Research in Beijing, China March 19, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Beinao-1, a semi-invasive brain-machine interface system also known as the NeuCyber Matrix BMI system, is displayed during a media briefing as part of an organised media tour to the Chinese Institute for Brain Research in Beijing, China March 19, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
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Beijing-backed Brain Chip Firm Says it is 3 years behind Musk's Neuralink

Beinao-1, a semi-invasive brain-machine interface system also known as the NeuCyber Matrix BMI system, is displayed during a media briefing as part of an organised media tour to the Chinese Institute for Brain Research in Beijing, China March 19, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo
Beinao-1, a semi-invasive brain-machine interface system also known as the NeuCyber Matrix BMI system, is displayed during a media briefing as part of an organised media tour to the Chinese Institute for Brain Research in Beijing, China March 19, 2026. REUTERS/Florence Lo

Leading Chinese state-backed brain-computer interface (BCI) startup NeuCyber Neurotech said its most cutting-edge product is still three years behind Elon Musk's Neuralink, as Beijing races to expand clinical trials.

Last week, China became the first country in the world to approve an invasive BCI medical device for commercial use. It is the second country to launch BCI human trials after the US.

NeuCyber's frontier Beinao-2 product is an invasive BCI with flexible electrodes that fully implant into the brain, currently undergoing large-scale animal implantation, Reuters reported.

Neuralink's technical advantage is that its surgical robot can insert hundreds of electrodes into the brain in minutes for its invasive N1 chip.

"The benchmark for Beinao-2 is Neuralink. I have to say, (there is) about three years' lag because they have over 20 patients using it already," Li Yuan, rotating CEO of NeuCyber, a startup affiliated with the Beijing-based Chinese Institute for Brain Research (CIBR), said on Thursday.

"We have just finished the first product and have to go through animal testing, then early-feasibility clinical trials, and then the real trials. That's maybe about two years later for the real trial."

Beijing elevated BCIs to a core future strategic industry in its latest five-year plan, published this month, placing it alongside sectors such as quantum technology, embodied AI and nuclear fusion.

The BCI device approved by Chinese regulators last week is a coin-sized wireless implant by Shanghai-based private firm Neuracle, which sits on the brain's outer membrane and controls a robotic glove. It is intended for patients with spinal cord injuries.

NeuCyber has achieved seven human implantations so far of the earlier Beinao-1, a semi-invasive BCI consisting of a mesh with electrodes implanted on the brain's outer membrane, Li said.

Patients include quadriplegic car accident survivors who reported improvements in regaining hand motor function and could remotely control computer cursors after six months of use, she added.

NeuCyber hopes to expand clinical trials of Beinao-1 to 50 patients this year, an important precursor to regulatory approval for commercial use, its chief scientist told Reuters a year ago.

That could make Beinao-1 the brain chip with the highest number of patients in the world, underlining China's determination to catch up with leading foreign BCI developers.

Neuralink, by contrast, has 21 participants enrolled in human clinical trials worldwide, the company said in January.

Li estimates it could take two to three years before NeuCyber's BCI products could be commonly available on the domestic market, once they secure approval from China's health commission, medical insurance authorities and medical product regulators.

"When we translate this into a real medical device, going through registration (for) large-scale trials, we will focus on motor function restoration for the spinal cord," said Li.

The startup has received around 200 million yuan ($29 million) in funding from the Beijing government, Li added.