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Saudi General Entertainment Authority Launches Fund to Boost Arabic Content

The Saudi General Entertainment Authority (GEA) logo
The Saudi General Entertainment Authority (GEA) logo
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Saudi General Entertainment Authority Launches Fund to Boost Arabic Content

The Saudi General Entertainment Authority (GEA) logo
The Saudi General Entertainment Authority (GEA) logo

Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Saudi General Entertainment Authority (GEA) Advisor Turki bin Abdulmohsen Al Al-Sheikh has announced the establishment of the Big Time Investment Fund to enhance the quality of Arabic content in film production, distribution and manufacturing, with the participation of renowned artists from the Arab world.

Al Al-Sheikh emphasized that the authority will serve as the primary sponsor of the fund, with the Ministry of Culture acting as a co-sponsor.

Additionally, several specialized companies will contribute to the fund, including Sela Studio, SMC Company, Rotana Audio Visual Co., and Benchmark Company.

He further stated that the fund's initial phase will focus on investing in significant Saudi, Gulf and Arab films.

The announcement was made during Al Al-Sheikh's visit to Egypt, where he is holding a series of meetings with officials from both the public and private sectors.

The meetings aim to foster and strengthen the collaboration in the entertainment and artistic domains between the two countries.

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Varieties

Prince William to Announce Electric Tuk Tuks as Finalists for his Earthshot Prize

A Mahindra electric tuk tuk (Saltash Town Council)
A Mahindra electric tuk tuk (Saltash Town Council)
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Prince William to Announce Electric Tuk Tuks as Finalists for his Earthshot Prize

A Mahindra electric tuk tuk (Saltash Town Council)
A Mahindra electric tuk tuk (Saltash Town Council)

Prince William is set to announce the manufacturers of electric tuk tuks as the first finalists for his Earthshot prize.

Mahindra, India’s largest makers of electric autorickshaws, are one of 15 finalists shortlisted for the Prince of Wales' Earthshot prize with the rest set to be announced next Friday, according to The Daily Mail.

The five winners are set to be announced in Mumbai in November and will each receive £1 million.

Tuk tuks are a familiar sight across Asia, with an estimated ten million on the streets of India alone, due to their cheap running costs and nippy ability to navigate crowded cities.

They are also notoriously bad for air quality in densely populated areas due to the high level of smog the tiny vehicles produce.

However, that could all be about to change with the rollout of new electric tuk tuks, which are powered by a battery under the seat. They are taking India by storm with 68% of new three-wheelers sold in the country being electric.

And Prince William wants to recognize the work of Mahindra by announcing them as the first finalist for his Earthshot prize whose mission is to “find, celebrate and scale solutions to repair the planet.”

Wills, who himself drives an electric Audi, went as far as to say the manufacturers are a “great example” of everything that Earthshot is about.

He told The Times, “[Mahindra] offered a great example of what the Earthshot prize is all about, a practical solution that is already working at scale and changing the way people move around their cities. Seeing solutions like this growing in India gives me real optimism.”

Mahindra has already put 400,000 vehicles on the road but has set the ambitious target of putting one million vehicles on the road by 2031 while also expanding globally.

The company has already exported EVs to Sri Lanka, Nepal and the Philippines and is already eyeing up expansion into Indonesia and as far afield as Brazil and Africa.

Varieties

Donald Trump’s Childhood Home Sells for $2 Million

FILE - The boyhood home of President Donald Trump is seen on Jan. 17, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
FILE - The boyhood home of President Donald Trump is seen on Jan. 17, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
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Donald Trump’s Childhood Home Sells for $2 Million

FILE - The boyhood home of President Donald Trump is seen on Jan. 17, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)
FILE - The boyhood home of President Donald Trump is seen on Jan. 17, 2017, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens, File)

Donald Trump’s childhood home has sold for nearly $2 million after a renovation transformed the New York City residence from a mold-ridden cat den to a modern abode, according to The Associated Press.

The president lived at the Tudor-style Queens estate until age 4. His father, developer Fred Trump, built the home in the affluent Jamaica Estates neighborhood in 1940. The family hasn’t owned it in years.

The sale price, $1.93 million, appeared Friday on real estate websites after a buyer, whose name hasn’t been disclosed, entered into a contract in July.

The seller, Tommy Lin, had purchased the five-bedroom, three-bathroom home last year for $835,000 after it sat vacant and neglected for years.

Lin, a developer, spent another $500,000 on an eight-month interior overhaul that added amenities including a chef’s kitchen, herringbone wood floors and spa-like bathrooms, the New York Post reported.

The home has changed hands several times in recent years, including for $2.14 million months after Trump became president in 2017, according to Zillow.

The buyer was an entity called Trump Birth Home LLC and the home was briefly offered for rent on Airbnb, complete with copies of a life-sized cardboard cutout of Trump, copies of his book “The Art of the Deal” and a framed People magazine cover featuring Trump.

It was listed for sale again in 2019 with an asking price of $2.9 million, but went unsold until Lin snapped it up.

In the meantime, the Post reported, the home fell into disrepair, with water damage and mold from a burst pipe, and a colony of feral cats taking up residence where Trump spent his earliest years.

The president, now 80, got rich in the real estate business — putting up his namesake Trump Tower in Manhattan and living there for decades — before parlaying his fame and wealth into politics.

As president, he is overseeing his own residential overhaul: adding a massive ballroom to the White House and adorning the Oval Office with the kinds of gold-plated fixtures that are a hallmark of his properties and aesthetic.

Varieties

US Congressman from Wisconsin Swims to Safety After Plane Makes Emergency Landing in a Lake

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) speaks, before US Vice President JD Vance discusses anti-fraud initiatives during a visit to Wisconsin Air National Guard's 128th Air Refueling Wing, at Milwaukee Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, July 8, 2026. (Reuters)
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) speaks, before US Vice President JD Vance discusses anti-fraud initiatives during a visit to Wisconsin Air National Guard's 128th Air Refueling Wing, at Milwaukee Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, July 8, 2026. (Reuters)
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US Congressman from Wisconsin Swims to Safety After Plane Makes Emergency Landing in a Lake

Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) speaks, before US Vice President JD Vance discusses anti-fraud initiatives during a visit to Wisconsin Air National Guard's 128th Air Refueling Wing, at Milwaukee Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, July 8, 2026. (Reuters)
Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-WI) speaks, before US Vice President JD Vance discusses anti-fraud initiatives during a visit to Wisconsin Air National Guard's 128th Air Refueling Wing, at Milwaukee Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US, July 8, 2026. (Reuters)

A Republican congressman said he had to swim to safety after a plane he was traveling in made an emergency landing in a lake late Saturday.

US Rep. Tom Tiffany says he was returning from the La Crosse County Lincoln Day Dinner when the light aircraft lost power as it approached Wausau Downtown Airport. The pilot made an emergency landing in Lake Wausau. They both ended up in the water and swam to safety.

“After landing, we called 911. As the plane began to submerge, we exited the aircraft and swam to a shallow area, where we waited until emergency responders reached us by boat," he wrote on X.

Emergency responders got both Tiffany and the pilot to a nearby hospital, where they were treated for minor injuries.

Tiffany is running for governor on the Republican ticket in Wisconsin and has been endorsed by President Donald Trump.

The plane Tiffany was traveling in was a single-engine, four-seat Bonanza aircraft.