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MISK Anticipates Future in Davos

Misk's participation at Davos aims to establish a global platform for dialogue between leaders and youth. (Misk)
Misk's participation at Davos aims to establish a global platform for dialogue between leaders and youth. (Misk)
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MISK Anticipates Future in Davos

Misk's participation at Davos aims to establish a global platform for dialogue between leaders and youth. (Misk)
Misk's participation at Davos aims to establish a global platform for dialogue between leaders and youth. (Misk)

The Mohammed bin Salman Foundation, “Misk,” is taking part in the World Economic Forum, in Davos, Switzerland, scheduled from January 15 to 19. With its ‘Youth Majlis’, Misk continues to empower youth by fostering communication bridges with leaders to address global challenges through meaningful dialogues.
Misk’s sixth participation at Davos aims to establish a global platform for dialogue between leaders and youth. The focus is on fostering societal change led by the youth, highlighting significant opportunities in artificial intelligence, global citizenship and innovation. This includes the establishment of a youth council that brings world leaders together with young voices.
Misk’s Objective: youth empowerment
Misk’s Youth Majlis has curated several interactive spaces hosting 35 speakers in 10 discussion sessions that promote dialogue, discuss major topics and the impact of Misk’s initiatives and programs on the young community locally and internationally.
Saudi Ambassador to the US Princess Reema bint Bandar spoke at the opening session about Misk’s objective to empower youth and offer them the opportunity to promote their idea and influence globally, noting that their participation in Davos will ensure that their voices are heard by decision makers.
She also said Misk is aware of the magnitude of its responsibility towards the youth and the importance of helping them deliver their ideas to decision makers, stressing that youth must feel supported and contained so they can grow a strong leadership spirit.
Princess Reema explained that emotional intelligence is a highly-important value that manifests when people have different points of views. The values rooted in our children today will help shape their sympathy as the potential leaders of the future, which highlights the need to emphasize emotional intelligence at a young age, she noted.
Unlimited dialogue
Misk has also dedicated a dialogue platform that brings together leaders and youth to discuss the impact of leadership on the societal change led by the youth, in addition to three roundtables that showcase the youth recommendation to the leaders, which enables decision makers to magnify the influence of the young community, provide the opportunities that support it and consider its ideas and recommendations in the innovation of radical solutions for the global challenges. There is also the ‘citizens influencers’ platform to showcase Misk’s initiatives that encourage change, empower local communities and present young Saudis who benefit from its programs.
Continuous global participation
Misk continues its efforts in major global forums to highlight and enhance the competencies of young Saudis, lead thought, build global partnerships and boost the impact of youth in shaping a more effective and inclusive future. It also works on enabling leaders to embrace influential young potentials and benefit from the necessary tools and visions that contribute to creating opportunities, and a supportive environment to integrate the young people and their ideas and place them at the heart of decision-making.

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Varieties

No More Taking Out the Trash at Your Airbnb

A general view of apartment and office buildings in Hanoi, Vietnam, 21 October 2026. EPA/LUONG THAI LINH
A general view of apartment and office buildings in Hanoi, Vietnam, 21 October 2026. EPA/LUONG THAI LINH
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No More Taking Out the Trash at Your Airbnb

A general view of apartment and office buildings in Hanoi, Vietnam, 21 October 2026. EPA/LUONG THAI LINH
A general view of apartment and office buildings in Hanoi, Vietnam, 21 October 2026. EPA/LUONG THAI LINH

The days of having to take out the trash or wash the dishes before leaving an Airbnb are numbered as the short-term rental platform is tightening rules on what conditions hosts may impose on guests.

"Our rules regarding accommodations allow travelers to receive guidelines from hosts; however, our community has let us know that they can be confusing, restrictive, and difficult to manage," Airbnb said Thursday to AFP.

New rules published this week that will apply to reservations made from November 20 will seek to reduce that confusion.

In particular the new rules will generally prohibit hosts from asking guests "to complete tasks that require significant effort or time, or would typically be performed by a cleaner, including stripping the bed, taking trash offsite, or washing and putting away dishes."

Hosts can still ask guests to put dirty dishes in the sink or separate trash and recyclables.

Hosts will also no longer be able to impose fines or penalties on guests, who instead must seek compensation for any damage from insurance provided through Airbnb.

Varieties

Champion-chip: Best Fries Contest Heats Up Belgium

Fries are a national passion in Belgium. Nicolas TUCAT / AFP
Fries are a national passion in Belgium. Nicolas TUCAT / AFP
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Champion-chip: Best Fries Contest Heats Up Belgium

Fries are a national passion in Belgium. Nicolas TUCAT / AFP
Fries are a national passion in Belgium. Nicolas TUCAT / AFP

Thick or thin, greasy or crispy, with samurai sauce or a more traditional mayo dip? A TV show has been on a quest to find the best fries in potato-mad Belgium.

For four years running "La meilleure friterie" (the best chip shop), a lighthearted culinary competition aired by broadcaster RTL-TVI, has been seeking out perfection among fry peddlers in the country's French-speaking region.

Watching it is a "sacred Thursday night ritual", said David Antoine, the host.

Crowning a winner among a dozen contestants is no picnic.

"There's sometimes friction among the judges, but we always find that famous Belgian compromise" over a portion of fries, Antoine told AFP in a joking reference to the country's penchant for lengthy political negotiations.

Fried potatoes are a national dish and symbol of pride in Belgium, home to about 4,600 diners specializing in the dish known as "friteries" in French or "frituren" in Flemish.

That number "has remained stable for many years," said Bernard Lefevre of the National Chip Shop Union, an industry group, noting the "market is doing well".

Each has its own flair.

To Lefevre, a good chip is preferably cut from a Belgian potato of the Bintje variety and double fried in beef fat. And size is paramount.

"Anything under nine millimeters is too thin and anything over fourteen is too thick," he explained.

- Hand-peeled 'gold' -

At Hill's Burger, a diner in Brussels, chef Massimo Sefa has gone for a "size twelve" -- that is "a two-millimeter crust and ten millimeters of creamy flesh", he said.

The 23-year-old smiled nervously when the TV show's judges entered his joint and the cameras started rolling.

But the stress is worth it, he explained. The broadcast will shine a spotlight on his friterie and a win would likely send sales skyrocketing.

Sefa opened up shop with his two younger brothers, Lorenzo and Marco. For them chips are a family matter: their grandfather ran about 10 chip shops in Brussels.

"Wow, delicious, crispy, and peeled by hand," Fabienne De Corte, one of the judges, raved upon tasting the goods.

"Fries in Belgium are our gold," added her husband Patrick De Corte, who is also on the judging panel.

"Every little detail makes a difference."

The show has a devout following, including some who tag along for filming sometimes dressed as fry cones and chanting "We've got the fries, we've got the potatoes!".

It has also had its share of controversies, particularly on the hot topic of sauces.

A technical glitch caused trouble during public voting in the first season and some grumbled the winner had bamboozled jurors with dazzling sauces, while the fries were not to everyone's taste.

Still the show has established itself in the French-speaking Belgian media landscape at a time where fries are sometimes changing along with Belgian society.

"There are halal, vegetarian, and vegan fry shops -- that's perfectly normal; society is evolving. We're not a museum of bygone folklore," Lefevre insists.

Varieties

Aging Japanese Village Turns to Peru in Search of New Residents

A general view of Nanmoku village, Gunma prefecture is seen on September 26, 2026. (Photo by Rie KIKUCHI / AFP)
A general view of Nanmoku village, Gunma prefecture is seen on September 26, 2026. (Photo by Rie KIKUCHI / AFP)
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Aging Japanese Village Turns to Peru in Search of New Residents

A general view of Nanmoku village, Gunma prefecture is seen on September 26, 2026. (Photo by Rie KIKUCHI / AFP)
A general view of Nanmoku village, Gunma prefecture is seen on September 26, 2026. (Photo by Rie KIKUCHI / AFP)

In a misty mountain village in Japan, residents recently welcomed unlikely guests from a Peruvian district along the Amazon River, seeing a chance to revive an aging community facing extinction.

The mayor of Belen and two young women visited a care home on their trip to Nanmoku, a village of just 1,300 people in Gunma Prefecture, greeting the elderly with broad smiles as some looked on slightly puzzled.

"From the moment I arrived, I began to admire everything about this place," 19-year-old student Wendy Sangama told AFP during a week-long tour of Japan that followed the signing of a sister-city agreement between her hometown and the village last year.

"And yes, it's a town where I could see myself living and settling down," she said.

The village is the oldest municipality in Japan, with 70 percent of its residents aged 65 or above. A 2014 think tank report described it as "most at risk of disappearing."

The main street along the Nanmoku River is lined with houses and shops, some abandoned, and appeared largely deserted on the rainy weekend AFP visited.

Village officials hope the sister-city agreement, which promotes cultural and people-to-people ties, will ultimately attract young people from Belen to live in Nanmoku, although how they might obtain residency remains unclear.

While Peru has the world's third-largest population of Nikkei -- Japanese immigrants and their descendants -- Nanmoku Mayor Saijo Hasegawa told AFP the pact was down less to strategy than to a chance meeting with a Japanese-Peruvian businessman.

The village needed "to broaden its horizons and attract more residents, including foreigners,” no matter where they came from, he said.

"Without them, we could reach a point where even public transportation stops operating."

Despite its rapidly aging population and labor shortages, opposition to immigration is growing within Japan, prompting a push by Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi for tighter regulations on foreign nationals.

Nanmoku has tried various initiatives to attract young people from elsewhere in the country, but employment opportunities remain scarce, and farmland is limited in the mountainous area.

"Around 60 people die each year here, and just two or three babies are born," Hasegawa said.

Belen, meanwhile, is young. The impoverished district of Iquitos, a remote Amazonian city in northeastern Peru, has a median age of about 27 years old.

Home to more than 60,000 residents, the "Venice of Latin America" -- accessible only by plane or boat -- is filled with wooden houses built on stilts to withstand seasonal flooding.

"I think the young people would be more enthusiastic about wanting to settle in other cities because of the economic situation we have," Mayor Lina Arista Lopez told AFP.

The district's residents rely largely on informal trade and agriculture, growing crops such as yuca, rice and corn.

"We have a harsh reality in Belen," Lopez said. "There is no work."

Ketsi Yahuarcani, a 23-year-old student, called the visit to Nanmoku "incredible,” citing the sense of warmth she felt.

"If I had the opportunity to settle here, I would," she said.

Sangama, the other student, said moving to the Japanese village could be "a better option" if it allowed them to build a brighter future and support their families back home.

Not being able to see her family regularly, however, would "certainly be a challenge", she conceded.

While municipalities near Nanmoku have accepted foreign workers, particularly caregivers, it has typically been via short-term programs for skilled workers and technical interns.

Mayor Hasegawa said his vision was different.

Rather than attracting people who stay only a few years for work, he hopes to welcome residents of Belen as fellow villagers ready to build long-term lives in Nanmoku.

"The approach of simply bringing in workers from an agency just because we're short-staffed isn't right for our village," he said.

Yuki Wanibuchi, 34, who moved to Nanmoku several years ago from the Kyoto area, said potential newcomers would face hurdles, including the language barrier.

"You cannot live here without a car, and getting a driver's license will require Japanese skills," Wanibuchi said.

"But personally, I think it's more interesting when people from different backgrounds come here to live."

Hiroshi Ihara, an 87-year-old villager, told AFP he had watched his community grow greyer and greyer, with young people, including his three children, moving to bigger cities to make a living.

"I want more younger people to come and live in the village," he said.

"The Japanese population is shrinking. I think it would be best if people from overseas could come here and do what they can to support us."