Saudi Cabinet reiterates efforts to end Israeli aggression against Palestinians
Updated 03 July 2024
Arab News
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Cabinet on Tuesday reiterated the Kingdom’s tireless efforts alongside its partners at the political and humanitarian levels to halt the Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
For nearly nine months, Israel has been carrying out a devastating ground an air incursion inside the Gaza Strip after Hamas militants attacked Israeli settlements bordering the enclave.
The Kingdom and allies have been pushing for a ceasefire to end the conflict and bring relief to the more than 2 million people living in the Palestinian territory.
Separately, ministers welcomed the discovery of seven oil and gas deposits in the Kingdom’s Eastern Province and Empty Quarter.
On Monday, Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman said Saudi Aramco had discovered “two unconventional oil fields, a reservoir of light Arabian oil, two natural gas fields, and two natural gas reservoirs,” SPA reported.
During the meeting, chaired by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah, ministers said awarding contracts for the second phase of the Jafurah gas field development and the third stage of the expansion of the master gas system falls within continuing development and economic diversification effort, and strengthens the Kingdom’s leadership position in global energy markets.
Saudi Aramco on Sunday granted 16 agreements for phase two development at Jafurah, worth a combined total of around $12.4 billion.
An additional 15 one-time complete contracts, worth around $8.8 billion, have been awarded to commence phase three expansion of the master gas system, which delivers natural gas to customers across Saudi Arabia.
The cabinet highlighted the launch of a geographical survey project for renewable energy in the Kingdom, which is considered the first of its kind in the world, and reflects the commitment to achieving national targets in the production of renewable energy.
This contributes to reaching the optimal energy mix for generating electricity, supporting the Kingdom’s trend towards exporting electrical energy, and producing clean hydrogen.
How AI is unlocking the creative potential of Saudi Arabia’s burgeoning fashion industry
Midjourney, Luma Labs and Krea AI are just some of the programs that are transforming how fashion designers work
As with many creative industries, there are anxieties about just how involved AI ought to be in the design process
Updated 26 July 2024
Rahaf Jambi
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia has witnessed a remarkable transformation in its fashion industry in recent years, emerging as a vibrant and dynamic regional hub of creativity. Now, thanks to the power of artificial intelligence, more opportunities are fast emerging.
With a blend of traditional influences and modern innovation, Saudi designers have been captivating global audiences, redefining cultural norms, and showcasing the Kingdom’s rich heritage through contemporary fashion.
The establishment of the Fashion Commission in 2020 has led to the launch of showstopper events such as Riyadh Fashion Week. One particularly innovative event that took place alongside October’s fashion week was the Tasawar exhibition.
Created by social media platform Snapchat, Tasawar — or “to imagine” in Arabic — welcomed visitors to explore a virtual reality gallery showcasing the creations of five Saudi designers and allowed guests to virtually try on clothing.
Abdullah Al-Hammadi, the managing director of Snapchat in Saudi Arabia, said that the exhibition was the first of its kind in the Middle East combining technology with the world of fashion.
“In the Tasawar exhibition, visitors can visit five rooms of Saudi designers where they will learn about their stories and the use of different augmented reality technologies in each room,” Al-Hammadi told Arab News.
By adjusting the filter in a room, the theme could be altered to help immerse visitors in the worlds of the various designers and their sources of inspiration.
Among the five designers who took part in the exhibit was Mohammed Khoja, owner of the fashion brand Hindamme, who praised the exhibit’s inventive use of AI. “Tasawar by Snapchat is the best example of how AI can be used in fashion effectively,” Khoja told Arab News.
“We created a universe for Hindamme and immersed users both in the digital as well as physical space. We created a mirror where users could try on digital pieces from Hindamme as well as special filters and lenses that take users on experiential journeys.”
File photo showing participants in the Tawasar xhibition held in October 2-23 at the King Abdullah Financial District, as part of Riyadh Fashion Week. (Supplied)
However, as with other creative industries, there are anxieties about how just involved AI ought to be in the design process and what its encroachment could mean for fashion brands and culture more generally.
Although Khoja believes AI can be a valuable tool for research, he says that it should not be used as a primary design tool, as it may “handicap the designer’s own authentic identity and creativity.”
“AI is primarily a search tool that predicts what you want to see,” he said. “So when you search different themes, you get a mashup of what AI creates for you.
“Suggestions from AI are interesting, but they don’t come from your emotions. That is why I think AI will never truly replace our natural creativity as designers.
“AI is great, however, when used as a tool to perform routine functions and can save us a lot of time and energy in that respect.”
Riyadh Fashion Week collaborated with Snapchat to showcase the creations of five Saudi Arabian designers at the Tasawar exhibition, which uses augmented reality and AI to bridge the physical and digital realms. (AN photo by Rahaf Jambi)
Dalia Darweesh, a personal stylist and editor of List Magazine, also views AI as a useful tool for creating mood boards and looks for clients based on their body shape, saving a significant amount of time.
“When it comes to fashion brands, AI can help analyze trends and customers preferences for future products,” she told Arab News. “In some cases, fashion brands can offer virtual fittings, making online shopping a seamless experience.”
She added: “One of my favorite businesses that utilizes AI is Taffi Inc., an online platform offering personalized styling services through an AI assistant in addition to professional stylists as well.
“I dislike the idea of AI taking over the world, especially within the creative industry. Yet, if it helps in assisting and delegating tasks, then it is essential to use.”
Fashion journalist Mohammed Yousif is likewise cautious about the applications of AI in the industry. “AI can significantly help reduce the number of errors,” he told Arab News. “It also can help sustainable brands to achieve a better result from their eco-friendly and ethical systems.”
Riyadh Fashion Week collaborated with Snapchat to showcase the creations of five Saudi Arabian designers at the Tasawar exhibition, which uses augmented reality and AI to bridge the physical and digital realms. (AN photo by Rahaf Jambi)
However, he added: “Regarding the creative process, I think this is where designers might lose the core of their job. It’s for the designers to come up with ideas, pick fabrics and colors. That’s what makes them different from each other and that’s simply what creates an identity for the brand.
“I also believe that creativity is a human trait. Even if AI can be creative, it won’t be as authentic and influential as humans.”
Asked whether AI could allow top fashion designers to create a lasting “digital legacy” even after their passing, Yousif was skeptical. “I don’t think programming fashion is a smart idea, because fashion breaks itself when it becomes repetitive,” he said.
“Keeping an identity is important, but I imagine if Christian Dior had done this. I don’t think we would enjoy the work of John Galliano today. Same thing goes with Coco Chanel and Karl Lagerfeld. They both kept the founders’ style in a way that fits what’s new in fashion and at the same time allowed them to bring their own creativity.
“So why would any designer decide the future of their brand when you can never predict the future of fashion? Maybe your style won’t work later. Many of the brands we know today would’ve been forgotten if they hadn’t hired designers with a new style. Think of Gucci and Tom Ford.”
Riyadh Fashion Week collaborated with Snapchat to showcase the creations of five Saudi Arabian designers at the Tasawar exhibition, which uses augmented reality and AI to bridge the physical and digital realms. (AN photo by Rahaf Jambi)
This has not stopped emerging and established fashion designers from experimenting with the technology and incorporating it into aspects of their work.
At the WWD (Women’s Wear Daily) Global Fashion Summit held in Riyadh on June 6, US fashion designer Norma Kamali said that her brand will release a full collection this October that was created with the help of AI, experimenting with how it interprets past Kamali designs.
“It’s not like a copy of Norma Kamali: It’s something new, and I can tweak it, I can play with it,” she said. “But ultimately, I do plan to live to 120, so when I have to pass on the baton, my team will be trained to be able to use it, too.”
She added: “I’m teaching it to think the way I do, to behave the way I do, to kind of use what I think about when I’m creating a collection.”
However, Kamali also has her reservations. “AI is not a creative person, and that’s something that’s hard to replace,” she said. “AI can support a creative person, can extend a creative person’s possibilities, and the creative person can use AI as a tool.”
Many designers seem to agree that AI’s greatest strength when applied to the fashion industry is its role as a research assistant. Rakan Al-Shehri, brand and design lead at Adhlal, believes one major benefit of AI is the acceleration of the creative process
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“In the past, creatives often depended on platforms like Pinterest, Shutterstock, Pexels, and social media to create mood boards and visuals across different design disciplines,” he told Arab News. “With AI, you can now create highly precise visual references in the early stages of your creative process.
“For example, if I’m designing a brand identity for a fashion retailer that specializes in menswear, I want to transform the brand narrative into cohesive visual instruments for marketing campaigns, social media, websites, and more.
“With the story ready, I can simply go to Midjourney (AI generator) and write a prompt that generates numerous visual references. This allows me to gather inspiration and create a mood board in a matter of minutes instead of spending hours searching through vast visual libraries for inspiration.”
Al-Shehri said that another significant benefit “is cost efficiency.”
“As a freelance designer, external tools and stock imagery websites can be expensive and often exceed project budgets,” he said. “With AI, you have access to unlimited visual elements that are either free or fairly priced.”
One program Al-Shehri is particularly fond of is Midjourney — a generative AI that creates images from natural language descriptions similar to OpenAI’s DALL-E. “Midjourney is, in my opinion, the best AI visual-generating platform available,” he said.
“It has multiple functionalities that are easy to use. One of my favorites is the ‘/blend’ feature, which allows me to blend old visual styles with modern work to quickly generate new styles for exploration.
“I use Midjourney almost daily and highly recommend it to anyone in the creative industry.
Photos created by AI. (Supplied)
Another generative AI that is proving popular among fashion designers is Krea.ai. “Krea builds amazing art-driven web-based tools that offer more control over the generated visuals, making it ideal for visual arts rather than commercial graphics,” said Al-Shehri. “I spend many hours experimenting with it.”
Luma Labs and its “Dream Machine,” which makes high quality, realistic videos from text and images, has also transformed the creative process.
“Luma Labs specialize in video and motion generation, and some of my favorite photographers and art directors use it extensively,” said Al-Shehri. “It’s an extremely beneficial tool for fashion photographers.”
For now, at least, fashion designers should not fear being replaced by an AI-Armani or Robo-Rabanne. Instead, says Al-Shehri, they can use these tools to streamline and accelerate their work.
“Overall, AI in its current state is an incredible tool that elevates the creative process for artists and designers,” he said.
DAMMAM: The Eastern Province Municipality conducted 3,447 inspection tours to health and commercial establishments in the Dammam Metropolitan area during the first half of 2024.
The municipality said that it aims to promote healthy and safe environments in all health establishments, and monitor health and safety standards in food shops.
During the first half of the year, 5,787 health certificates were issued and 9,266 people were trained in the education center for employees.
The Eastern Province Municipality said that it will continue inspection tours to all food establishments, ensuring that health and safety standards are met.
This will elevate the quality of municipal services and enhance levels of compliance, the municipality said.
Saudi Arabia working hard to reverse land degradation and desertification, says official
Kingdom’s representative to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization says nation has ‘taken up the challenge’ and calls on others to do the same
Riyadh will host the UN Convention to Combat Desertification’s COP 16 summit in Riyadh in December this year
Updated 25 July 2024
Arab News
ROME: Saudi Arabia is working hard to reverse land degradation, and calls on the international community to commit to the battle against desertification, an official from the Kingdom said on Thursday during an event at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization headquarters in Rome.
Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, the country’s permanent representative to the FAO, said the Kingdom is committed to the restoration of land through its Saudi Green and Middle East Green initiatives, one of the aims of which is to rehabilitate 200 million hectares. Riyadh will also host the UN Convention to Combat Desertification’s COP 16 summit in Riyadh from Dec. 2 to 13 this year.
“Saudi Arabia has taken up the challenge of avoiding, restoring and reversing the process of land degradation,” Al-Ghamdi said in Rome as he urged global participation at COP 16.
Mohammed Al-Ghamdi, the country’s permanent representative to the FAO, said the Kingdom is committed to the restoration of land through its Saudi Green and Middle East Green initiatives. (AN Photo)
As the world grapples with increasing degradation of land and the effects this has on food security and climate change, he said the summit in Riyadh offers a critical opportunity for nations to commit to collaborative action and ambitious restoration targets.
Warning of already alarming global levels of land degradation, Zhimin Wu, director of the FAO’s Forestry Division, said a third of agricultural land has already been degraded by human activities.
Raja Omar, an adviser at the National Center for Vegetation Cover in Saudi Arabia, outlined the Kingdom’s comprehensive approach to the restoration of diverse landscapes, from rangelands to mangroves, and stressed the importance of ensuring such efforts are sustainable in the long term.
Princess Nourah University launches academic acceleration scheme
Updated 25 July 2024
SPA
RIYADH: The Deanship of Admission and Registration at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University launched the Academic Acceleration System for the 2024-2025 academic year targeting secondary education female students admitted to the university. The system aims to accelerate the educational path for female undergraduates according to their abilities and educational excellence, enabling them to graduate sooner.
The system is divided into two tracks. The first consists of academic acceleration to pass the foundation year, a concept designed for women in secondary education admitted to the university.
It enables them to enroll directly in courses from the major they would like to pursue without having to enroll in foundation year courses. The second track consists of a comparison process after passing tests in specialized education, under which the student enrolls in the remaining courses that were not included in the system.
Female students wishing to apply for the academic acceleration system are required to be admitted to the university through one of two tracks, either in the engineering foundation year or the health foundation year, with a composite score rate of no less than 89 percent.
Chills and thrills as City Walk horror house opens its doors in Jeddah
Horror House of Raya and Sakina takes visitors back in time to a rural Egyptian village
Updated 25 July 2024
Afshan Aziz
JEDDAH: A new attraction at City Walk, part of this year’s Jeddah Season, promises to fascinate and terrify in equal measure.
The spine-chilling Horror House of Raya and Skena takes visitors back in time to a rural Egyptian village steeped in evil, horror, and mystery.
Raya and Skena, Egypt’s most infamous serial killers, left a grisly legacy that has fascinated and horrified for over a century.
In late 1919 and throughout 1920, the sisters led a fearsome gang in Alexandria, targeting mainly women, and committing a string of murders and robberies. Their reign of terror sparked widespread panic and left an indelible mark on Egyptian crime history.
The siblings were arrested along with their husbands and other gang members after police found a number of corpses buried beneath one of their houses. They were charged with the murder of 17 people and later sentenced to death.
The horror house experience begins as visitors step into the recreated house of Raya and Skena. As they leave the courtyard, they find themselves transported back in time to a foreboding rural Egyptian village. The atmosphere is thick with a sense of impending doom, as evil forces seem to lurk in every shadowy corner.
Visitors navigate this frightening setting, where they are besieged by wicked presences, leading to a confrontation fraught with danger and confusion. The attention to detail and historical accuracy, combined with modern horror elements, give this experience a magical touch of horror and excitement.
“This was the most thrilling experience of my life,” said Syeda Sarah, a Jeddah resident. “It felt like stepping into a real-life horror story. The atmosphere, the details — everything was spot on.
Raya, above and Sakina, Egypt’s most infamous serial killers, left a grisly legacy that has fascinated and horrified for over a century. (Wikipedia)
“They give you a lamp at the door, which you carry inside as you walk through the dark rooms, encountering horrifying characters in Egyptian attire. The sight of Skena sitting in the corner, screaming, was terrifying. The realism in recreating Egypt is incredible.”
Another resident, Jumana, who visited the attraction with a group of friends, shared a similar sentiment.
“The Horror House of Raya and Skena is truly a unique concept," she said.
“My friends and I were on edge the entire time, and the historical aspect made it even more fascinating. I am from Egypt, and often heard this story from our relatives when we visited.
“This horror house brought those stories to life. There were many unexpected elements, like a fake head falling from the ceiling or a dead body wrapped in a white cloth. The banging of utensils by characters in Egyptian attire was incredibly creepy. It’s a must-visit for anyone coming to City Walk, especially to experience the Cairo zone and this horror house.”
The City Walk attraction has become a must-see for thrill-seekers, offering a blend of fear, fascination, and a sense of stepping into a dark chapter of Egypt’s past.
Visitors can book tickets at the zone or through the Saudi Events app to avoid queues.
