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Jill Biden Stresses from Cairo Support for Youth Education, Women Empowerment

Jill Biden toured the landmarks of Al-Azhar Mosque (Al-Azhar)
Jill Biden toured the landmarks of Al-Azhar Mosque (Al-Azhar)
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Jill Biden Stresses from Cairo Support for Youth Education, Women Empowerment

Jill Biden toured the landmarks of Al-Azhar Mosque (Al-Azhar)
Jill Biden toured the landmarks of Al-Azhar Mosque (Al-Azhar)

First Lady Jill Biden stressed the importance of supporting youth education and empowering women, during her first visit to Egypt on Friday.

Biden landed in Cairo Friday, on the second leg of her six-day trip across the Middle East, North Africa and Europe that seeks to promote empowerment for women and education for young people.

The First Lady visited Al-Azhar Mosque, inspected its historical features and corridors, and listened to an explanation by the President of Al-Azhar University, Salama Daoud, about the history of the mosque.

“Al-Azhar Mosque is one of the most important mosques in Egypt, and one of the most famous ancient mosques in the Islamic world. It was established more than 1083 years ago, to be the most important institution for spreading and teaching moderate and enlightened Islam,” Daoud said.

According to an official statement, “women received great attention from Al-Azhar during the era of the sheikh of Al-Azhar, Dr. Ahmed Al-Tayyib, who was keen to support and empower women” working in the mosque.

The American First Lady expressed her happiness at her visit to Egypt and the Al-Azhar Mosque, thanking Daoud for his warm reception.

She also stressed “the importance of supporting youth education and empowering women, and the need for peoples strengthen relations between them.”

Jill Biden also visited the pyramids area in Giza, and stopped in front of the Great Pyramid of Khufu.

She was accompanied during the visit by the Egyptian Minister of Tourism and Antiquities, Ahmed Issa, the Chargé d’Affaires of the US Ambassador to Cairo, John Desrocher, and the Secretary-General of the Supreme Council of Antiquities in Egypt, Mostafa Waziri.

Issa granted a pharaonic necklace-shaped souvenir to Biden at the end of her tour at the Giza Pyramids.

The First Lady also visited a technical school in Cairo, accompanied by the Egyptian Minister of Education and Technical Education, Reda Hegazy, and a number of Egyptian officials.

“Together, the United States and Egypt are working with local companies to bring on-the-job training to the classroom,” she said on Twitter.

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Giant Coral Colony Discovered in Red Sea

This natural wonder could become a key highlight for tourists at AMAALA. Photo: RSG
This natural wonder could become a key highlight for tourists at AMAALA. Photo: RSG
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Giant Coral Colony Discovered in Red Sea

This natural wonder could become a key highlight for tourists at AMAALA. Photo: RSG
This natural wonder could become a key highlight for tourists at AMAALA. Photo: RSG

Red Sea Global (RSG) has announced the significant discovery of a giant coral colony in the Red Sea (of the Pavona species) within the waters of AMAALA on the northwestern coast of Saudi Arabia.

Rivalling the size of the current world record holder—a 32-by-34-meter colony found in the Pacific—this remarkable new find is the largest coral colony of this type documented in the Red Sea to date.

According to a statement issued by the RSG on Sunday, this natural wonder could become a key highlight for tourists at AMAALA on diving excursions, offering a unique and unforgettable experience.

Access would be permitted in line with RSG’s responsible tourism ethos, minimizing any potential impact while allowing visitors to witness the breathtaking beauty of the Red Sea’s underwater world.

“The discovery of a coral of such extraordinary dimensions demonstrates the ecological significance as well as the pristine beauty of the Red Sea,” said RSG’s Head of Environmental Protection and Regeneration Ahmed Alansari.

“At RSG, we believe it is critically important to protect our coral reefs. In particular, these giants represent a time capsule of information, providing the ideal tools for tracing past oceanographic transformations that can help us model responses to future environmental changes,” he stated.

“Understanding how this coral has survived for so long will be crucial for protecting other reefs in the Red Sea and potentially all over the world, for generations to come,” he added.

According to the statement, determining the age of these giant corals with minimal impact is challenging due to the invasive nature of accurate dating techniques and the absence of published growth rates for this particular species of coral in the Red Sea. However, estimations have been made based on the coral’s size, growth rates of this species found in the Pacific, and results from photogrammetry efforts. Using these tools, the coral cluster is estimated to be between 400 and 800 years old.

Upcoming studies by researchers from RSG and King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) will help pinpoint the coral’s age more accurately and provide insights into the environmental conditions in which it has thrived.

Coral in the Red Sea is known for its particular resilience, adapting genetically to naturally warmer waters and higher salinity levels. This colony will be subject to ongoing monitoring and research to understand what makes these giants so resilient to multiple stressors over long time periods and to help inform conservation efforts for other reefs in the Red Sea and around the world.
The two RSG scientists who discovered the giant coral colony, Rhonda Suka and Sylvia Jagerroos, are now leading its mapping and documentation.
Suka said: “Finding such an invaluable specimen was a truly mind-boggling experience. This colony’s resilience gives us hope for the continued success of corals in the Red Sea, particularly in the face of increasing environmental and anthropogenic stress.”

“A coral this massive is incredibly rare. Mapping these giants is an important part of conserving them, something the ‘Map the Giants’ project is doing on a global scale by identifying and documenting these vital giant coral structures, which it classes as anything larger than five meters. This is the second colony RSG has submitted to the project in the last few months,” said Jagerroos.

The statement disclosed that AMAALA is set to welcome its first guests later this year with the ambitious goal of becoming the world’s most comprehensive health and wellness destination. Launching with more than 1,400 hotel rooms across eight luxury resorts, it will welcome some of the most renowned wellness operators globally, offering a wide array of programs tailored to diverse lifestyles and well-being needs.
This follows RSG’s other destination, The Red Sea, which began welcoming guests in 2023 and now has five hotels open.