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Royal Commission for AlUla, SETI Institute Collaborate to Develop AlUla Manara Observatory

The Royal Commission for AlUla logo
The Royal Commission for AlUla logo
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Royal Commission for AlUla, SETI Institute Collaborate to Develop AlUla Manara Observatory

The Royal Commission for AlUla logo
The Royal Commission for AlUla logo

The Royal Commission for AlUla has signed a cooperation agreement with SETI Institute to support the development of the AlUla Manara Observatory, which will act as a leading global center for innovation and excellence in space and astronomy sciences.

The agreement seeks to boost AlUla's status as a leading world destination for star and astronomy exploration tourism.

The collaboration will make AlUla Manara a hub for scientific advancement through joint research projects and initiatives for the growing astro-tourism sector in AlUla, and will provide educational opportunities to develop skills needed to work at the observatory, including supporting research and development programs with the latest systems and equipment. These advancements will enable scientists to conduct comprehensive space surveys and analyze data to identify new stars, planets, and comets.

Supervisor of the AlUla Manara program Eng. Nayef Al-Malik said that the collaboration strengthens AlUla’s role as a vital center for the exchange of science and knowledge.

He said that SETI Institute is one of the world’s leading organizations in research and scientific exploration, equipped with decades of technical expertise and knowledge in space and astronomy.

Al-Malik pointed out that the institute will support the development of data analysis systems for a range of telescopes planned for the observatory.

The observatory's educational centers will enhance local capabilities in space sciences using virtual reality. Furthermore, the awareness center will offer visitors to the observatory the chance to get familiarized with astronomy, in line with the commission’s vision to establish AlUla as a knowledge-sharing global center for research, innovation.

SETI Institute CEO Bill Diamond stressed that the institute’s mission is to share the results of its research with the world, noting that the collaboration with the Royal Commission for AlUla opens new horizons for advancing space sciences, education, and technology development.

"We envision the AlUla Manara Observatory as a beacon of discovery, equipped with advanced and modern telescopes to detect new planets and stars, pushing astronomical research to further frontiers,” Senior Planetary Astronomer and Director of Citizen Science at the institute Frank Marchis said.

He also said that their initiative in astronomical sciences will invite the community and tourists to “stargaze, explore AlUla’s rich scientific heritage, foster international collaboration, and revive humanity's deep connection with the universe.”

The AlUla Manara Observatory is set to open in several phases over the coming years, and carry out continuous research, collaboration, and educational initiatives.

AlUla Manara Observatory, currently under development, is located near the Gharameel area, in AlUla, which is one of the top 10% global locations with clear, dark skies.

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Varieties

Digital Age Brings Denmark’s 400-Year-Run Postal Service to Historic End

Mailboxes have been removed from all around Denmark. (EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Mailboxes have been removed from all around Denmark. (EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
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Digital Age Brings Denmark’s 400-Year-Run Postal Service to Historic End

Mailboxes have been removed from all around Denmark. (EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)
Mailboxes have been removed from all around Denmark. (EPA-EFE/Shutterstock)

Beside the railroad tracks of Copenhagen’s train station, right in the heart of the Danish capital, stands a red-brick building with an ornate façade and a copper-clad cupola still turning green over time.

When it opened in 1912 as the Central Post Building, its grandeur echoed the booming postal and telegraph services that crisscrossed Denmark, connecting Danes to one another.

A little over a century later and that building, now a luxury hotel, presides over a city, and a country, where the postal service no longer delivers letters, according to CNN.

Denmark’s state-run postal service, PostNord, will deliver its last ever letter on Tuesday, as the digital age brings its 400-year-run to an end. This makes Denmark the first country in the world to decide that physical mail is no longer either essential or economically viable.

Denmark’s postal service delivered more than 90% fewer letters in 2024 than in 2000. The US Postal Service delivered 50% less mail in 2024 than in 2006.
And as our correspondence has moved largely online – transfiguring into WhatsApp messages, video calls, or just an exchange of memes – our communication and language have changed accordingly.

Letters themselves “will change status” too, often coming to represent more intimate messages than their digital counterparts, said Dirk van Miert, a professor at the Huygens Institute in the Netherlands who specializes in early modern knowledge networks.

The knowledge networks that letters facilitated for centuries are “only expanding” in their online form, expediting both access to that knowledge as well as the rise of disinformation, he told CNN.

PostNord has been removing the 1,500 mailboxes scattered across Denmark since June. When it sold them off to raise money for charity on December 10, hundreds of thousands of Danes tried to buy one.

For each mailbox, they paid either 2,000 ($315) or 1,500 ($236) Danish krone, depending on how worn they were.

Instead of posting letters, Danes will now have to drop them off at kiosks in shops, from where they will be couriered by private company DAO to both domestic and international addresses. PostNord will continue delivering parcels, however, as online shopping remains ever popular.

Denmark is one of the world’s most digital nations; even its public sector utilizes several online portals, minimizing any physical government correspondence and making it much less reliant on postal services than many other countries.

Still, the need for physical correspondence continues around the world, even if it is diminished.

Almost 2.6 billion people remain offline, according to the UN-affiliated Universal Postal Union, and many more “lack meaningful connectivity,” thanks to inadequate devices, poor coverage and limited digital skills. Rural communities, women and those living in poverty are among the worst affected, it added.

And even in countries like Denmark, some groups who are more reliant on postal services, like older people, may be adversely affected by the changes, advocacy groups say.

“It’s very easy for us to access our mail on the phone or a website... but we forgot to give the same possibilities to those who are not digital,” said Marlene Rishoej Cordes, a spokesperson for the DaneAge Association, which advocates for older people.

The letter has undergone transformations before, in both medium and style. “It changed formats from papyrus or wax tablets... then paper later on, vellum in the Middle Ages, and now we have electronic devices,” said Van Miert.

In the 17th century, following the traditions laid down by great philosopher-letter-writers, like Cicero and Erasmus, students were taught “how to write a proper letter, a letter of consolation, praise or congratulations,” he added. “For a diplomatic letter, a wholly different style was required than for a personal, or what they called a familiar, letter.”

Letters have come to represent an “element of nostalgia” and a permanence that technology cannot match, Nicole Ellison, a professor at the University of Michigan specializing in computer-mediated communication, told CNN.

Still, like the students who altered their letter-writing styles according to different contexts, digital communication has evolved to compensate for some of the personal touches and emotional cues a handwritten letter can convey.

Nonetheless, the demise of the letter is already sparking nostalgia in Denmark.

“Look closely at the picture here,” one Danish user on X said, alongside a photo of a mailbox. “Now in 5 years I will be able to explain to a 5-year-old what a mailbox was in the old days.”

Varieties

Cities Around the World Welcome 2026 with Fireworks and Heightened Security

Fireworks are seen over Sydney Harbour during the New Year's Eve midnight display, at Mrs Macquaries Point in Sydney, 01 January 2026. EPA/DAN HIMBRECHTS
Fireworks are seen over Sydney Harbour during the New Year's Eve midnight display, at Mrs Macquaries Point in Sydney, 01 January 2026. EPA/DAN HIMBRECHTS
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Cities Around the World Welcome 2026 with Fireworks and Heightened Security

Fireworks are seen over Sydney Harbour during the New Year's Eve midnight display, at Mrs Macquaries Point in Sydney, 01 January 2026. EPA/DAN HIMBRECHTS
Fireworks are seen over Sydney Harbour during the New Year's Eve midnight display, at Mrs Macquaries Point in Sydney, 01 January 2026. EPA/DAN HIMBRECHTS

From Sydney to Paris to New York City, crowds rang in the new year with exuberant celebrations filled with thunderous fireworks or light shows, while others took a more subdued approach.

As the clock struck midnight in Japan, temple bells rang and some climbed mountains to see the year’s first sunrise, while a light show with somersaulting jet skis twinkled in Dubai. The countdown to 2026 was projected onto the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, while in Moscow people celebrated in the snow, The Associated Press reported.

In New York City's Times Square, revelers braved frigid temperatures to celebrate with the famed New Year’s Eve ball drop.

In Rio de Janeiro, crowds packed more than 4 kilometers (2 1/2 miles) of the city’s Copacabana Beach for concerts and a 12-minute fireworks show, despite high tides and large waves that rocked barges carrying fireworks.

Other events were more subdued. Hong Kong held limited celebrations following a recent fire at an apartment complex that killed 161 people.

Australia saluted the new year with defiance less than a month after its worst mass shooting in almost 30 years.

Crowds bundled up against the chilly temperatures cheered and embraced as the New Year’s Eve ball covered in more than 5,000 crystals descended down a pole and confetti fell in Times Square.

Revelers wearing tall celebratory hats and light-up necklaces had waited for hours to see the 12,350-pound (5,602-kilograms) ball drop. The festivities also included Tones and I performing John Lennon's “Imagine” just before midnight.

The television hosts interviewed visitors who were attending from such places as Florida, Mexico and South Korea, and read people's wishes for the new year.

A sixth grader from Dallas, Texas, told one of the hosts that he wants to get good grades in 2026 and have a better year.

Police in the city had planned additional anti-terrorism measures at the ball drop, with “mobile screening teams.” It was not in response to a specific threat, according to NYPD Commissioner Jessica Tisch.

Moments after the ball dropped it rose again, sparkling in red, white and blue, to mark the country’s upcoming 250th birthday.

A few miles away in a decommissioned subway station, Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor during a private event just after midnight Thursday.

A heavy police presence monitored crowds watching fireworks in Sydney.

Many officers openly carried rapid-fire rifles, a first for the event, after two gunmen targeted a Hannukah celebration at Bondi Beach on Dec. 14, killing 15.

An hour before midnight, victims were commemorated with a minute of silence, and the crowd was invited to show solidarity with Australia’s Jewish community.

New South Wales Premier Chris Minns had urged residents not to stay away from festivities, saying extremists would interpret smaller crowds as a victory: “We have to show defiance in the face of this terrible crime."

Indonesia scaled back festivities in solidarity with communities devastated by floods and landslides in parts of Sumatra a month ago that killed over 1,100. Fireworks on the tourist island of Bali were replaced with traditional dances.

Hong Kong rang in 2026 without fireworks over Victoria Harbor after the massive fire in November. Facades of landmarks were turned into countdown clocks and a light show at midnight.

And in Gaza, Palestinians said they hope the new year brings an end to the conflict between Israel and Hamas.

“The war humiliated us,” said Mirvat Abed Al-Aal, displaced from the southern city of Rafah.

Around Europe Pope Leo XIV closed out the year with a plea for the city of Rome to welcome foreigners and the fragile. Fireworks erupted over European landmarks, from the Colosseum in Rome to the London Eye.

In Paris, revelers converged around the glittering Champs-Élysées avenue. Taissiya Girda, a 27-year-old tourist from Kazakhstan, expressed hope for a calmer 2026.

“I would like to see happy people around me, no war anywhere,” she said.

“Russia, Ukraine, Palestine, Israel, I want everybody to be happy and in peace."

In Scotland, where New Year’s is known as Hogmanay, First Minister John Swinney urged Scots to follow the message of “Auld Lang Syne” by national poet Robert Burns and show small acts of kindness.

Greece and Cyprus turned down the volume, replacing traditional fireworks with low-noise pyrotechnics in capitals. Officials said the change was intended to make celebrations more welcoming for children and pets.

Varieties

Heavy Snow in Poland Leaves Drivers Stranded in Tailbacks of up to 20 Km

Cars drive on a road during heavy snowfall in central Warsaw, Poland, 30 December 2025. (EPA)
Cars drive on a road during heavy snowfall in central Warsaw, Poland, 30 December 2025. (EPA)
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Heavy Snow in Poland Leaves Drivers Stranded in Tailbacks of up to 20 Km

Cars drive on a road during heavy snowfall in central Warsaw, Poland, 30 December 2025. (EPA)
Cars drive on a road during heavy snowfall in central Warsaw, Poland, 30 December 2025. (EPA)

Heavy snowfall in Poland caused tailbacks stretching as far as 20 km (12.43 miles) on a motorway between ​the capital Warsaw and the Baltic port city of Gdansk during the night, police said on Wednesday.

While the situation left hundreds of people trapped in their cars in freezing conditions, by the early hours of ‌Wednesday morning traffic ‌was moving again, ‌according ⁠to ​police.

"The ‌difficult situation began yesterday after 4 p.m., when the first trucks on the S7 route... began having trouble approaching the slopes," said Tomasz Markowski, a spokesperson for police in the northern city of ⁠Olsztyn.

"This led to a traffic jam stretching approximately ‌20 kilometers overnight." Deputy Infrastructure Minister ‍Stanislaw Bukowiec ‍told a press conference that nobody had ‍been hurt as a result of the difficult situation on the roads.

Anna Karczewska, a spokesperson for police in Ostroda, said officers had ​tried to help drivers who found themselves stuck. Ostroda lies on ⁠the highway about 40 km west of Olsztyn.

"We helped as much as we could, and we had coffee and hot tea for the drivers, which the Ostroda City Hall had prepared for us," she said.

State news agency PAP reported that there had also been some disruption to railways and airports, ‌but that services were returning to normal.