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Saudi Arabia: AlUla Advances to 85th Place in IMD Smart City Index 2026

AlUla seeks to become an ideal destination for living, working and visiting. SPA
AlUla seeks to become an ideal destination for living, working and visiting. SPA
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Saudi Arabia: AlUla Advances to 85th Place in IMD Smart City Index 2026

AlUla seeks to become an ideal destination for living, working and visiting. SPA
AlUla seeks to become an ideal destination for living, working and visiting. SPA

AlUla has recorded the highest improvement in the IMD Smart City Index 2026, advancing from 112th place in 2025 to 85th this year, placing it among the most improved cities globally in this edition of the index.

This result reflects AlUla's ambition to become an ideal destination for living, working and visiting.

This achievement is a continuation of the comprehensive and sustainable development objectives pursued by the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU) since its establishment, and in line with the AlUla vision, which targets the development of infrastructure, improvement of services, and enhancement of quality of life for the people and residents of AlUla, whilst preserving the unique natural and cultural environment of the governorate.

This year's edition of the index measures city performance across key pillars including quality of life, service efficiency, technology, environmental sustainability, and smart governance.

These pillars are central to the commission's priorities and are being continuously advanced in partnership with stakeholders across the public and private sectors.

On the quality of life front, RCU continues to develop services for the people and residents of AlUla, spanning education, healthcare, infrastructure, and public utilities, within an approach that balances urban development requirements with the preservation of the destination's identity.

Sustainability also serves as a foundational pillar within the comprehensive development framework for the governorate. In this regard, RCU has announced the lifting of the suspension on land sales and transactions in central and southern AlUla, a strategic step that opens the door for citizens and investors to participate in real estate activities within a regulated environment.

On the education front, RCU has established an integrated system that encompasses a language institute offering instruction in five languages, a scholarship program that has benefited more than 690 students, teacher qualification programs in which more than 800 educators have enrolled, and community activities that have engaged approximately 7,400 students.

In the area of transport, RCU has completed the expansion of AlUla International Airport, increasing its annual passenger capacity from 400,000 to 700,000, doubling the number of passport control lanes, and integrating smart technologies to enhance the passenger experience, alongside the introduction of smart mobility solutions within the governorate.

RCU continues to develop infrastructure through the construction of power stations and water storage facilities, as well as the enhancement of public utilities, all within the framework of the second masterplan, "Path to Prosperity", which aims to elevate quality of life and advance community development

This progress aligns with the objectives of Saudi Vision 2030 and reflects the accelerating transformation AlUla is undergoing across urban development and sustainability, supporting its ambitions to establish itself as a leading international cultural and tourism destination, and contributing to its growing presence on global smart city rankings.

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Varieties

Scientists Dig Up Southeast Asia's Largest Dinosaur in Thailand

Artist reconstruction of the Cretaceous Period sauropod dinosaur Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis, whose fossils were unearthed in Thailand, seen in this illustration released on May 14, 2026. Patchanop Boonsai/Handout via REUTERS
Artist reconstruction of the Cretaceous Period sauropod dinosaur Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis, whose fossils were unearthed in Thailand, seen in this illustration released on May 14, 2026. Patchanop Boonsai/Handout via REUTERS
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Scientists Dig Up Southeast Asia's Largest Dinosaur in Thailand

Artist reconstruction of the Cretaceous Period sauropod dinosaur Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis, whose fossils were unearthed in Thailand, seen in this illustration released on May 14, 2026. Patchanop Boonsai/Handout via REUTERS
Artist reconstruction of the Cretaceous Period sauropod dinosaur Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis, whose fossils were unearthed in Thailand, seen in this illustration released on May 14, 2026. Patchanop Boonsai/Handout via REUTERS

Along a meandering river in a warm and arid region that is now Thailand roughly 113 million years ago, a plant-eating behemoth almost 90 feet (27 meters) long browsed on the treetops without much fear of predators due to its sheer size. This was Nagatitan chaiyaphumensis, the largest-known dinosaur from Southeast Asia, Reuters reported.

Researchers have unearthed skeletal remains of Nagatitan, a member of the dinosaur lineage called sauropods known for having a long neck, long tail, small head and four columnar legs.

The fossils of this Cretaceous Period dinosaur were first spotted by a villager in Thailand's northeastern province of Chaiyaphum. Scientists over a period of years then dug up spine, rib, pelvis and leg bones including a front leg bone - the humerus - measuring 5.8 feet (1.78 meters) long.

Based on the dimensions of its humerus and femur, the corresponding hind leg bone, the researchers estimated Nagatitan's body mass at 25 to 28 tons. Its head and teeth were not among the fossils recovered, but the researchers have a good idea of its feeding preferences based on other sauropods.

"Nagatitan was probably ⁠a bulk ⁠browser that focused on consuming high volumes of vegetation that required little to no chewing such as conifers and possibly seed ferns," said Thitiwoot Sethapanichsakul, a University College London doctoral student in palaeontology and lead author of the research published on Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

The climate was probably subtropical, with some forests, but also savanna-like and shrubland habitats. Nagatitan lived alongside various other dinosaurs as well as flying reptiles called pterosaurs. The rivers were teeming with crocodiles and fish including freshwater sharks.

The ecosystem's largest predator was a relative of the giant African meat-eating dinosaur Carcharodontosaurus, probably about 26 feet (8 meters) long and around 3.5 tons.

"At that size, it was dwarfed by ⁠Nagatitan. At full size, Nagatitan likely had very little to fear in terms of predation," Sethapanichsakul said.

Predators probably avoided attacking healthy adults of any large sauropod species because of the danger of being squashed. But they may have targeted old or sick adults or vulnerable babies.

"Indeed, sauropods are known to have grown very quickly after hatching, and this probably relates to the dangers of predation. The sooner sauropods could become large, the safer they were because they would have been more difficult to tackle," University College London paleontologist and study co-author Paul Upchurch said.

Sauropods included the largest land animals in Earth's history. Nagatitan was huge by any standard, but not on the scale of some South American sauropods such as Argentinosaurus and Patagotitan that topped 100 feet (30 meters) long.

Nagatitan's name references Naga, a serpent-like being in some Asian religious traditions that is prominently depicted in various Thai temples. In all, there are 14 named dinosaurs known from Thailand.

The names of several large sauropods include the word titan.

Sethapanichsakul said it might be appropriate ⁠to call Nagatitan Southeast Asia's ⁠last "titan" because the region became a shallow sea later in the Cretaceous, meaning no more sauropods would live there.

Nagatitan provides insight into sauropod diversity in the region. Not many sauropods are known from Southeast Asia, and Nagatitan is the largest and the geologically youngest of them. Nagatitan belonged to a subgroup of sauropods that possessed bones with lots of internal air sacs and thin walls, traits that lightened their skeletons.

This group originated around 140 million years ago, achieved a global distribution and, around 90 million years ago, became the only sauropods left worldwide, thriving until the dinosaur age ended 66 million years ago with an asteroid impact.

Nagatitan lived at a time when Earth's atmospheric carbon dioxide levels were climbing, corresponding to high global temperatures.

"Sauropods seem to have become particularly large at this time, with gigantic forms living in South America, China, probably North Africa, and now with Nagatitan a fairly large one in Southeast Asia," Upchurch said.

"This possible relationship between large body size and high climatic temperatures is not fully understood, but it's likely that the high temperatures had an impact on the plant fodder that was important to sauropods, which were very large-bodied herbivores. Nagatitan gives a glimpse of the period leading up to the eventual peak in body size and temperatures about 10 to 15 million years later," Upchurch said.

Varieties

US: Tourist Arrested after Video Shows Rock Hurled at Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal's Head

Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk was charged with harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal after being seen throwing a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal. Photo: US Attorney's Office District of Hawaii
Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk was charged with harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal after being seen throwing a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal. Photo: US Attorney's Office District of Hawaii
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US: Tourist Arrested after Video Shows Rock Hurled at Endangered Hawaiian Monk Seal's Head

Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk was charged with harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal after being seen throwing a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal. Photo: US Attorney's Office District of Hawaii
Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk was charged with harassing and attempting to harass a protected animal after being seen throwing a rock at a Hawaiian monk seal. Photo: US Attorney's Office District of Hawaii

A tourist who drew widespread condemnation in Hawaii after a witness recorded him chucking a coconut-sized rock at “Lani,” a beloved, endangered Hawaiian monk seal off a Maui beach, was arrested Wednesday by federal agents.

Igor Mykhaylovych Lytvynchuk, 38, of Covington, Washington, is charged with harassing a protected animal, the US attorney's office in Honolulu said, adding that National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration special agents arrested him near Seattle. He was scheduled to appear in US District Court in Seattle on Thursday.

The court docket didn’t list an attorney, and a person who answered the phone at a number associated with Lytvynchuk declined to comment.

A state Department of Land and Natural Resources officer last week investigated a report of Hawaiian monk seal harassment in Lahaina, the community that was largely destroyed by a deadly wildfire in 2023. A witness showed the officer video of the seal swimming in shallow water while a man watched from shore, The Associated Press reported.

“In the cellphone video, the man can be seen holding a large rock with one hand, aiming, and throwing it directly at the monk seal," prosecutors said a criminal complaint. The rock, described by a witness as the size of a coconut, narrowly missed the seal's head, but caused the “animal to abruptly alter its behavior,” the complaint said.

When a witness confronted the man, he said "he did not care and was ‘rich’ enough to pay any fines," the complaint said.

Maui Mayor Richard Bissen, in a video posted on social media after the incident, vowed consequences for anyone who harms Hawaii's wildlife.

“Many of our residents know her, watch over her and care deeply about her well-being,” he said. “Lani, we have your back.”

Lytvynchuk is charged with harassing and attempting to harass an endangered Hawaiian monk seal.

Hawaiian monk seals are a critically endangered species. Only 1,600 remain in the wild.

If convicted, Lytvynchuk, faces up to one year in prison for each charge. He also faces a fine of up to $50,000 under the Endangered Species Act and a fine of up to $20,000 under the Marine Mammal Protection Act.

Varieties

Historic Swiss Solar-powered Plane Crashes Into Sea

(FILES) The Solar Impulse 2 solar powered airplane flies off Kapolei, Hawaii, on March 3, 2016 on a all-day test flight. (Photo by Eugene TANNER / AFP)
(FILES) The Solar Impulse 2 solar powered airplane flies off Kapolei, Hawaii, on March 3, 2016 on a all-day test flight. (Photo by Eugene TANNER / AFP)
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Historic Swiss Solar-powered Plane Crashes Into Sea

(FILES) The Solar Impulse 2 solar powered airplane flies off Kapolei, Hawaii, on March 3, 2016 on a all-day test flight. (Photo by Eugene TANNER / AFP)
(FILES) The Solar Impulse 2 solar powered airplane flies off Kapolei, Hawaii, on March 3, 2016 on a all-day test flight. (Photo by Eugene TANNER / AFP)

The experimental plane Solar Impulse 2, which completed a historic round-the-world trip in 2016 without using jet fuel, crashed into the Gulf of Mexico recently, its owner revealed.

Flown by Swiss pilots Bertrand Piccard and Andre Borschberg, Solar Impulse 2 circumnavigated the globe in 17 stages, covering a remarkable 26,700 miles (43,000 kilometers) across four continents, two oceans and three seas, in 23 days of flying without using a drop of fuel.

Three years after the globe-trotting flight, the solar-powered vessel was sold to Skydweller Aero, which converted the aircraft into a drone to carry out "controlled ditching," the company said in a press release issued Tuesday.

Skydweller Aero said Solar Impulse 2 took off from Stennis, Mississippi on April 26 but crashed into the Gulf of Mexico on May 4, AFP reported.

"Ultimately, a record-breaking flight of 8 days and 14 minutes validates the reality of perpetual, solar-powered flight in a military mission-relevant environment," the company said, in reference to a US Navy exercise in which the vessel was used.

The US National Transportation Safety Board said it was investigating the accident.