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Riyadh Season to Offer Diverse Events, World Championships

Turki Al-Sheikh, head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (PHOTO CREDIT: Turki al-Ogaili)
Turki Al-Sheikh, head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (PHOTO CREDIT: Turki al-Ogaili)
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Riyadh Season to Offer Diverse Events, World Championships

Turki Al-Sheikh, head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (PHOTO CREDIT: Turki al-Ogaili)
Turki Al-Sheikh, head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority (PHOTO CREDIT: Turki al-Ogaili)

The fifth “Riyadh Season” will launch on October 12, featuring new locations, major events, and concerts, as well as 12 Gulf, Arab, and international plays, according to Turki Al-Sheikh, head of Saudi Arabia’s General Entertainment Authority.
Riyadh Season has become a key economic attraction, drawing local and international investments. Last year, attendance more than doubled to over 20 million, compared to 10 million in its first season in 2019.
Al-Sheikh said that the new edition includes 14 entertainment areas, 11 world championships, in addition to 10 festivals and exhibitions.
He added that over 4,200 contracts have been signed, involving more than 2,000 companies, 95% of which are Saudi-owned.
Key partners include “Sela” from the Public Investment Fund, “Big Time” as the creative partner, and “SMG” as the media partner.
A new area called “The Venue” will be introduced in this year’s Riyadh Season. Spanning 9,425 square meters with a capacity of 8,000 square meters, it will host seven different events.
Al-Sheikh also announced that The Venue will feature a major global fashion event in collaboration with renowned Arab designer Elie Saab.
One of the key highlights this year is the Riyadh Season Tennis Cup event, which will feature the top six ranked tennis players in the world.
Additionally, the Middle East’s most influential marketing awards festival will be held in Saudi Arabia for the first time during this year’s Riyadh Season.
According to Al-Sheikh, “The Boulevard World” has expanded to 19 zones, a 35% increase, with 21 new attractions, five new areas, 300 restaurants and cafes, and about 1,400 stores—18% more than last year.
Five new countries will be featured in “The Boulevard World” this year: Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, South Africa, Iran, and Courchevel, a snowy area with a ski school and an all-day skiing experience.
He also revealed designs for the BLVD Business Park project, which will host several local and international entities and companies. Details were shared about the Boulevard Lane area, set to be developed in partnership with Saudi Airlines, featuring three converted Boeing 777 aircraft as commercial spaces and restaurants, along with 13 interactive experiences for all ages.
Improvement continues in various areas of the season, including "Wonder Garden," which has been upgraded to accommodate up to 23,000 people across nearly 500,000 square meters, featuring over 60 theatrical and roaming shows, 65 games and experiences, and more than 40 restaurants in a unique setting with three beautifully distinct garden areas.
As for VIA Riyadh, which hosted the press conference, Al Al-Sheikh said that it will be fully air-conditioned by summer 2025 to attract visitors year-round. This season will see improvements including upgraded cinema halls, new restaurants and cafes, and the renowned Ana Arabiya installation. Additionally, the season will feature the opening of a Christian Dior exhibition and museum, Dior café, gift shop, and 14 fashion-themed sections.
During the beautiful Riyadh winter, the "Dunes of Arabia" zone will be established to provide desert enthusiasts with immersive experiences such as sandboarding, desert driving, sand dune hiking, archery, and camel riding. Additionally, Al-Hosn Studios will open as one of the destinations in the Riyadh Season.
Souq Al-Awaleen, another free zone, reflects Saudi identity through a shopping experience, folk performances, handicrafts, and traditional clothing. As part of Riyadh Season's social responsibility initiatives, special days will also be organized for the children of martyrs and orphanages in the Boulevard World and Wonder Garden areas.

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Varieties

New York Seeks Rights for Beloved but Illegal ‘Bodega Cats’

Guest Dan Rimada, founder of Bodega Cats of New York holds a cat named Ashley in a bodega corner store on December 17, 2025 in New York City. (AFP)
Guest Dan Rimada, founder of Bodega Cats of New York holds a cat named Ashley in a bodega corner store on December 17, 2025 in New York City. (AFP)
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New York Seeks Rights for Beloved but Illegal ‘Bodega Cats’

Guest Dan Rimada, founder of Bodega Cats of New York holds a cat named Ashley in a bodega corner store on December 17, 2025 in New York City. (AFP)
Guest Dan Rimada, founder of Bodega Cats of New York holds a cat named Ashley in a bodega corner store on December 17, 2025 in New York City. (AFP)

Simba, a large cat with thick ginger and white fur, is one of thousands of felines that live in New York's corner shops known as "bodegas" -- even if their presence is illegal.

Praised for warding off pests, so-called bodega cats are also a cultural fixture for New Yorkers, some of whom are now pushing to enshrine legal rights for the little store helpers.

"Simba is very important to us because he keeps the shop clean of the mice," Austin Moreno, a shopkeeper in Manhattan, told AFP from behind his till.

The fluffy inhabitant also helps to entice customers.

"People, very often, they come to visit to ask, what is his name? The other day, some girls saw him for the first time and now they come every day," said Moreno.

Around a third of the city's roughly 10,000 bodegas are thought to have a resident cat despite being liable to fines of $200-$350 for keeping animals in a store selling food, according to Dan Rimada, founder of Bodega Cats of New York.

Rimada photographs the felines for his social media followers and last year launched a petition to legalize bodega cats, which drew nearly 14,000 signatures.

"These cats are woven into the fabric of New York City, and that's an important story to tell," he said.

- Pressure point -

Inspired by Rimada's petition, New York City council member Keith Powers has proposed a measure to shield the owners of bodega cats from penalties.

His legislation would also provide free vaccinations and spay or neuter services to the felines.

But animal shelters and rights groups say this wouldn't go far enough.

While Simba can nap in the corner of his shop with kibble within paw's reach, many of his fellow cats are locked in basements, deprived of food or proper care, and abandoned when they grow old or fall ill.

Becky Wisdom, who rescues cats in New York, warned that lifting the threat of fines could remove "leverage" to encourage bodega owners to better care for the animals.

She also opposes public funds being given to business owners rather than low-income families who want their cats spayed or neutered.

The latter is a big issue in New York, where the stray cat population is estimated at around half a million.

- Radical overhaul -

Regardless of what the city decides, it is the state of New York that has authority over business rules, said Allie Taylor, president of Voters for Animal Rights.

Taylor said she backs another initiative proposed by state assembly member Linda Rosenthal, a prominent animal welfare advocate, who proposes allowing cats in bodegas under certain conditions.

These would include vet visits, mandatory spaying or neutering, and ensuring the cats have sufficient food, water and a safe place to sleep.

Beyond the specific case of bodega cats, Taylor is pushing for a more radical overhaul of animal protection in New York.

"Instead of focusing on one subset of cats, we need the city to make serious investments, meaning tens of millions of dollars per year into free or low cost spay, neuter and veterinary care," she said.

Varieties

Warming Climate Threatens Greenland’s Ancestral Way of Life

Musher Nukaaraq Lennert Olsen offers some dry food to his dogs after a ride near the "dog town" ofSisimiut, Greenland on January 31, 2026. (AFP)
Musher Nukaaraq Lennert Olsen offers some dry food to his dogs after a ride near the "dog town" ofSisimiut, Greenland on January 31, 2026. (AFP)
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Warming Climate Threatens Greenland’s Ancestral Way of Life

Musher Nukaaraq Lennert Olsen offers some dry food to his dogs after a ride near the "dog town" ofSisimiut, Greenland on January 31, 2026. (AFP)
Musher Nukaaraq Lennert Olsen offers some dry food to his dogs after a ride near the "dog town" ofSisimiut, Greenland on January 31, 2026. (AFP)

Standing in his boat with binoculars in hand, hunter Malik Kleist scans the horizon for seals. But this February, the sea ice in southwestern Greenland has yet to freeze, threatening traditional livelihoods like his.

"Normally the seals are on the ice or in the more calm waters. But today we had to sail all the way into the fjords to find them," the 37-year-old tells AFP.

The Arctic region is on the frontline of global warming, heating up four times faster than the rest of the planet since 1979, according to a 2022 study in scientific journal Nature, causing the sea ice to retreat.

Seals rely on pack ice to give birth, to rest and for protection.

Hunters increasingly have to sail farther along the jagged coast of Sisimiut, navigating into the fjords for several hours to find them.

Traditionally, hunters' boats would head straight out to sea, slowly pushing through the ice and creating holes that attract seals coming up for air.

But without any ice, "it's too windy and the waves are too big," Kleist says.

Last year was exceptionally warm in the vast autonomous territory, with several temperature records beaten, according to the Danish Meteorological Institute (DMI).

In December, the Summit Station, located at the height of Greenland's ice sheet, recorded an average temperature of -30.9 degrees C (-23.6 Fahrenheit), 8.1C higher than the December average during the period 1991-2020.

"It affects everything we do. Because normally around November, December the ice comes. And this year there's no ice, so it affects our living a lot," Kleist says.

- Financial woes -

For the same reason, the government has also had to postpone the annual winter musk ox hunt that was due to start on January 31.

There wasn't enough snow and ice to transport the massive animals that roam the Arctic tundra back from Kangerlussuaq where they are predominantly found, around 165 kilometers (103 miles) away. Greenland has no roads connecting its towns.

That has left some Sisimiut hunters with less income than usual.

"This time of year there is not much to hunt. So we rely on musk ox meat and skin," Kleist says.

"Many of my fellow hunters are struggling with money right now."

Every part of the animal, from the fur to the meat, is either used or sold.

The summer hunting season has therefore gained importance, enabling Greenlanders to fill their freezers to get them through the winter months, he tells AFP over a steaming bowl of fish stew.

The shorter winter season has also impacted another key activity in Greenland, one that has become increasingly important to the tourism sector: dogsled tours.

In the Sisimiut neighborhood where the dogs are kept, their thunderous barking mounts as Nukaaraq Olsen, a 21-year-old musher, attaches them to the sled.

Raring to get going, his 18 dogs are hard to hold back. Twenty minutes later, the group bounds off.

But the road is bumpy, and several times Olsen has to get up to manually push the sled, stuck on the tundra's rocks in patches where there is no ice.

"This year we had a lot of hot, warm days, even though it's December or January," he says.

Other parts of the route are no longer safe to use, due to repeated melting and freezing of snowfall which causes uneven layers, he explains.

- Dehydrated dogs -

The dogs' health is also affected by the changing climate.

They are used to quenching their thirst with snow, but with little or no snowfall, they can easily get dehydrated. Mushers have to take that into account when caring for their animals.

Many have even had to get rid of their dogs, the business of maintaining them no longer profitable with the dogsled season shrinking to just two months, says Emilie Andersen-Ranberg, a researcher at the University of Copenhagen who runs a dog clinic in Sisimiut.
Others, such as 72-year-old Johanne Bech, are finding novel ways to adapt.

She plans to put wheels on her sled to continue running dogsled tours during the summer period.

That solution is growing in popularity, as "the window with snow is getting more and more narrow," the veterinarian says.

Over the past 20 years, the number of sleddogs has been halved from 25,000 to 13,000, according to a 2024 article from the University of Greenland in 2024.

Yet Johanne Bech remains optimistic about the future.

"I hope this is just for a short time, so we can go back to a little more stable snow or more ice in the future."

Varieties

January Was Fifth Hottest on Record despite Cold Snap

This handout photo taken on February 7, 2026 and received on February 10 from Japan's Ministry of Defense shows members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force's 5th Infantry Regiment, stationed in Aomori Prefecture, carrying out snow removal work in a town within Aomori Prefecture. (Photo by Handout / Japan's Ministry of Defense / AFP)
This handout photo taken on February 7, 2026 and received on February 10 from Japan's Ministry of Defense shows members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force's 5th Infantry Regiment, stationed in Aomori Prefecture, carrying out snow removal work in a town within Aomori Prefecture. (Photo by Handout / Japan's Ministry of Defense / AFP)
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January Was Fifth Hottest on Record despite Cold Snap

This handout photo taken on February 7, 2026 and received on February 10 from Japan's Ministry of Defense shows members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force's 5th Infantry Regiment, stationed in Aomori Prefecture, carrying out snow removal work in a town within Aomori Prefecture. (Photo by Handout / Japan's Ministry of Defense / AFP)
This handout photo taken on February 7, 2026 and received on February 10 from Japan's Ministry of Defense shows members of the Japan Ground Self-Defense Force's 5th Infantry Regiment, stationed in Aomori Prefecture, carrying out snow removal work in a town within Aomori Prefecture. (Photo by Handout / Japan's Ministry of Defense / AFP)

The planet experienced its fifth-hottest January on record despite a cold snap that swept across the United States and Europe, the EU's climate monitor said Tuesday.

The Northern Hemisphere was hit by severe cold waves in the final weeks of January as a polar jet stream blew icy air into Europe and North America, according to the Copernicus Climate Change Service.

But monthly temperatures were above average over much of the globe, including in large parts of the Arctic and western North America, according to Copernicus.

"January 2026 delivered a stark reminder that the climate system can sometimes simultaneously deliver very cold weather in one region, and extreme heat in another," said Samantha Burgess, strategic lead for climate at the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF).

The average global temperature in January was 1.47C above preindustrial times.

Europe endured its coldest January since 2010, with an average temperature of 2.34C, the service said.

The United States, meanwhile, was hit by a monster winter storm that dumped snow and crippling ice from New Mexico to Maine. It was linked to more than 100 deaths.

The planet remains in an extended run of human-driven warming, with 2024 setting a record high, 2023 ranking second 2025 now third warmest.