Month: June 2024

SAUDI ARABIA: WORLD RECORD: Breaking Barriers: 23-year old Reem Al Aboud and Formula E Set an FIA Single-Seater Benchmark breaking World Record

This January, Saudi racer Reem Al Aboud set a new acceleration benchmark for an FIA single-seater by reaching 0-60mph in 2.49 seconds in an ABB FIA Formula E GENBETA car. Ahead of International Women’s Day, we reflect on the implications of this achievement for motorsport.

Every Federation Internationale de l’Automobile-sanctioned single-seater championship race begins with a standing start. The lights at the starting line flash on, and flash off. Idle cars roar to life, accelerating through the straight and into the waiting corner. 

How quickly these cars can accelerate depends on the series. F1 Academy goes from zero to 60mph in approximately 3.6 seconds. Formula 3 and Formula 2 manage in 3.1 and 2.9, respectively. Formula E’s GEN3 car takes 2.8. The current Formula 1 car takes 2.64. 

But F1’s 2.64 seconds is no longer the benchmark. Now, Formula E’s newly developed GENBETA car holds the title — and with a woman in the cockpit.

Last July, Formula E unveiled its GENBETA prototype at the ExCeL London. While testing the car, World Champion Jake Hughes clinched a top speed of 218.71km/h, smashing the Guinness World Record for fastest speed indoors by more than 50km/h. 

Having designated GENBETA as its development platform, Formula E sought to explore the model’s potential and performance further. The series set its sights on setting a second benchmark: the time an FIA single-seater takes to reach 0-60mph. 

Yet in chasing after the F1 benchmark, Formula E was not content with breaking only technological and physical barriers. So, to honour its founding commitment to social progress, it added motorsport’s longstanding gender barrier as yet another to break.

Accordingly, Formula E tapped 23-year-old Saudi female racer Reem Al Aboud to take the GENBETA’s driver seat. The 2023 Saudi Toyota Ladies Cup Champion has partnered with the series since 2018, when she became the first Saudi woman to test a Formula E car. 

Experienced in driving GEN2 and GEN3 cars  — plus breaking barriers across karting, hillclimbing and autocross series — Reem was Formula E’s choice for a 2024 FIA Girls on Track Ambassador. Naturally, she was their choice for the GENBETA test as well. 

And that choice certainly paid off. This January at Dirab Motor Park, Reem’s GENBETA car achieved 0-60mph in 2.49 seconds — besting F1’s by 0.15 seconds. 

Of course, the technological aspect of the January test is remarkable. Behind GENBETA’s new benchmark is its front powertrain kit, which previous Formula E models (and other road electric vehicles) only use for energy harvesting. However, GENBETA also turns on this kit for greater traction during acceleration, using it to produce 536 horsepower that will launch the car into action. Instant torque allows for instant acceleration and thus a 2.49-second 0-60mph time.

What’s also remarkable is that a woman is the face of this test. 

After all, motorsport’s gender barrier is cyclical. Doubt that female drivers can perform on par with their male counterparts dominates the sport. Doubtful investors shy away from funding young female drivers. Underfunded female drivers can’t enter, remain and progress through racing series. Series sorely lack female representation — when representation is what validates the reality that women can indeed perform. That lack of validation perpetuates the doubt about female drivers. And so, the cycle continues.  

But Reem’s benchmark throws a wrench into this cycle by tackling the doubt head-on. She reaffirms that when women are given the time on track they are so often denied, they can excel. That when women are included in the conversation, they can contribute to the technological developments that push this sport forward. That when this sport values women, women can bring equal — if not more — value to the sport in turn. 

As the face of this test, Reem represents the generations of women who have been denied from motorsport on the basis of their gender. Of women who challenge prejudice in cockpits, paddocks and audiences. Of girls who see Reem on their screens and wonder if they, too, can wrestle state-of-the-art cars at inhuman speeds. 

Reem breaks the cycle by showing them that they can, and that they should. 

In doing so, she and Formula E bring motorsport a step closer to a new era. One where women are no longer the exception, but the standard. 

source/content: femalesinmotorsport.com (headline edited)

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SAUDI ARABIA

LIBYA : Museum honouring Libyan artist Ali Gana’s memory finally opens in Tripoli

Bayt Ali Gana (“Ali Gana’s House” in Arabic) finally opened this year, and seeks to offer both retrospection and hope in the country.

A seemingly ordinary villa in the heart of Tripoli holds a lifetime of works by the late Libyan artist Ali Gana, whose family has turned his house into a unique museum.

In the North African country still grappling with divisions and conflict after the fall of long-time dictator Muammar Gadhafi in 2011, “art comes last”, said Hadia Gana, the youngest of the artist’s four children.

A decade in the making and with the help of volunteers, she had transformed the classic-style Tripolitian villa her father had built, before dying in 2006 at age 70, into “the first and only museum of modern art in Libya”, Gana said.

Bayt Ali Gana (“Ali Gana’s House” in Arabic) finally opened this year, and seeks to offer both retrospection and hope in a country constantly threatened by violence and where arts and culture stand largely neglected.

“It is seen as something superfluous,” Gana said, adding that galleries in the war-torn country often focus solely on selling pieces rather than making art more accessible.

Once past a lush garden, visitors reach the museum’s permanent exhibition of paintings, sculptures and sketches by the masterful Ali Gana.

Other rooms include temporary exhibitions, and offer space for seminars and themed workshops.

Set on a wall, an old shipping container houses an artist residency for “curators and museologists” whose skills are scarce in Libya, said Hadia Gana.

Libyan artists had long been subject to censorship and self-censorship under Gadhafi’s four-decade rule, and “we couldn’t express ourselves on politics”, recalled Gana, 50, a ceramic artist.

Art “must not have barriers”, she said, proudly standing in the family-owned space for artistic freedom.

Bayt Ali Gana appears timeless, though the villa bears some signs of the unrest that followed the overthrow and death of Gadhafi.

A road sign riddled with bullets hangs from the gate that separates the museum from the private residence.

Mortar shells turned upside down sit among flowers in the garden, where visitors are offered cold drinks or Italian espressos in a setting that replicates Cafe Said, once owned by Ali Gana’s father in the old medina of Tripoli.

During the unrest that began in 2011, Hadia Gana said she feared “losing everything if a rocket hit the house”.

Then came the idea of creating a museum in the hopes of conserving her father’s precious works and archives.

Sporadic fighting, water or electricity cuts, and forced isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic have piled challenges on the family’s mission, while the Ganas steered clear of state funding or investors to maintain the independence of their nascent institution.

Gradually, the house morphed into a cultural centre celebrating Ali Gana’s calling to “teach and educate through art”, said his daughter.

It “is not a mausoleum”, but a hub of creativity and education, she said.

Gana’s archives also document traditional crafts and trades, some of which have now completely disappeared.

After taking power in a 1969 coup, Gadhafi had imposed a ban on all private enterprise, and “for 40 years, crafts became an outlawed activity”, said the late artist’s oldest son Mehdi, who now lives in the Netherlands.

He said that in his lifetime, Ali Gana took on a mission to “build archives in order to link Libya’s past to a possible future”.

It is “the nature of the family” to preserve and share knowledge, said matriarch Janine Rabiau-Gana, 84.

Hadia Gana lamented that while museums should be educational spaces, “here in Libya, we don’t have that notion yet”.

She said she wanted to avoid “making it a museum where everything is transfixed”.

Instead, “I wanted something lively, almost playful, and above all a place that arouses curiosity in all its beauty.”

source/content: thearabweekly.com (headline edited)

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LIBYA

EGYPTIAN Researcher records new unknown genus of rodents dating back 34 million years

About 34 million years ago, in the Eocene period of the Paleogene (the period from 66 to 23 million years ago), and in a tropical-like environment with forests and swamps in what is today the Qatrani Desert in Egypt’s Fayoum Depression, a genus of rodents that was not known before, used to live. 

In a new study published in PeerJ, researcher Shorouk Al-Ashqar, a member of the “Sallam Lab” team specialised in vertebrate fossils at Mansoura University, studied two skulls and a large group of mandibles of fossils belong to the “Qatranimys Safroutus”.

“But it wasn’t easy; the samples were very small and very thin and adhered to the solid rocky clay, which made preparing the samples for study very difficult. We had to make accurate CT scans to be able to study them in a three-dimensional image,” said Hesham Sallam, the lead author of the study. 

The newly discovered genus of rodents was called “Qatranimys Safroutus” which refers to the location of the discovery in the first word, whilst “safroutus” means too small in the Egyptian Arabic dialect.

The length of the molar of Qatranimys Safroutus was one millimetre, and its skull was about 1.5 centimetres long, and its weight did not exceed 45 grams. 

Jebel Qatrani Formation is famous for its rich rodent assemblages from the Eocene–Oligocene deposits, which contributes to enhancing our understanding of the origin and paleobiogeography of what scientists call the “Hystricognathi” which are an infraorder of rodents, distinguished from other rodents by the bone structure of their skulls.

Al-Ashqar said that the samples used in the study showed clear differences in the morphological characteristics of the upper and lower teeth. And by comparing these samples with the discovered rodents from Afro-Arabia, it was clear that it belongs to a new genus that has never been discovered before.

“We did not only record a new genus and species, but we were able to record the first bones of the skull of a large group to which the discovery belongs, called the “Phiocricetomys”, she added. 

Researchers from Mansoura University, the American University in Cairo, the Egyptian Environmental Affairs Agency, Duke University and the University of Salford participated in the study.

source/content: dailynewsegypt.com (headline edited)

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EGYPT

SAUDI ARABIA: Russian team takes first place in ‘ 2nd Arabic Hackathon’

  • An awards ceremony hosted by the King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language honored the top three teams in the event
  • Event aims to enhance the dictionary with innovative applications and new ideas

Russian team Spiderweb Network has won first place in the second Arabic Hackathon, scooping a prize of SR150,000 ($39,994) for their innovative idea.

Their project proposed an automatic enrichment system for the “Riyadh Dictionary” using three knowledge sources — the Arabic language expert community, artificial intelligence, and dictionaries found on the web.

An awards ceremony hosted by the King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language honored the top three teams in the event, which aims to enhance the dictionary with innovative applications and new ideas.

This global technical challenge is aimed at individuals and organizations with technical and linguistic skills from all over the world. Teams develop innovative technical solutions and digital platforms for automatic Arabic language processing to enhance its status among the world’s living languages.

Second place went to the Pioneers of Intelligence, a joint Algerian-French team who received SR100,000. Their project focused on using AI to provide terms and definitions from specialized fields in a fast and effective way, with the possibility of creating specialized lexicons such as the “Riyadh Medical Dictionary.”

The Saudi-Egyptian Arabic Examples team took third place and a prize of SR50,000 with their idea for an AI system that provides appropriate examples for the meaning of each word.

The second edition of the challenge saw a total of 546 participants, 57 percent of whom were female and 43 percent male, representing 30 countries in 142 competing teams.

Abdullah Al-Washmi, Secretary-General of the King Salman Global Academy for Arabic Language, highlighted the establishment’s commitment to promoting the use of the Arabic language and launching supportive initiatives.

The closing ceremony was accompanied by activities such as an exhibition by the Arabic Intelligence Center, which was launched in April and specializes in automated Arabic language processing.

The center includes several initiatives, such as: the “Suwar” platform for digital dictionaries, “Falak” for digital corpora, and the Riyadh Dictionary for Contemporary Arabic Language.

Al-Washmi said the center represented a significant leap in the digital transformation of Arabic language services by developing technologies that aided its use, analysis, understanding, and production.

source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)

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The Russian team won first place in the Arabic Hackathon challenge, which concluded in Riyadh on Thursday (June 6). / Russian team Spiderweb Network has won first place in the second Arabic Hackathon, scooping a prize of SR150,000 for their innovative idea. (KSGAFAL)

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SAUDI ARABIA

QATAR: Msheireb Downtown Doha (MDD) in Guinness World Records for ‘Largest Underground Car Park’

Msheireb Downtown Doha (MDD), Qatar’s pioneering sustainable and smart city district, has clinched the Guinness World Records title for the ‘Largest Underground Car Park’ with capacity of 10,017 spaces across six levels.

Locating car parking and building services underground has allowed the district to keep streets traffic-lite, enabling narrow, pedestrian-friendly walkways. This design improves connectivity across the wider city area, with underground basements extending over the entire district.

“We wanted to reclaim outdoor spaces for the community by removing vehicles from the streets around Msheireb,” said Msheireb Properties CEO engineer Ali al-Kuwari.

“The Guinness World Records for the Largest Underground Car Park is a testament to our dedication to creating a sustainable and innovative city district that prioritises the well-being of our community. By locating car parking and building services underground, we enabled architects to design attractive buildings with active façades on all sides.”

The MDD’s underground parking system ensures ample space for residents, tenants, and visitors. The facility boasts an intelligent parking system that guides drivers to available spaces, making the parking experience seamless and hassle-free.

The underground parking system also had a significant impact on building design by removing the need for back service entrances which improved street quality and aesthetic cohesion.

As the flagship project of Msheireb Properties, MDD has been designed to revive the historical downtown area with a new architectural language that is modern yet inspired by traditional Qatari heritage. The district incorporates the latest smart city technology and sustainability features, making it a model for future urban development’s worldwide.

Raafat Tawfik, Guinness World Records Official Adjudicator, said: “We are thrilled to recognise MDD for its outstanding achievement in creating the Largest Underground Car Park. This feat showcases the district’s commitment to innovation, sustainability, and enhancing the urban living experience.”

MDD’s underground parking is just one of the many features that make the district a unique and attractive destination. With its pedestrian-friendly streets, diverse mix of residential, commercial, and retail offerings, and cultural attractions such as the Msheireb Museums, the district has become one of Qatar’s go-to destinations for residents and visitors alike, a statement added.

source/content: gulf-times.com (headline edited)

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QATAR

SAUDI ARABIA to become 1st G20 country to replace all street lights with energy-saving LEDs: official

Saudi Arabia is set to become the first G20 country to install LED street lights to conserve energy, said a top official of the National Energy Services Co., known as Tarshid. 

Speaking during a panel titled “Saudi Vision 2030 Outlook” on the first day of the Global Project Management Forum 2024 taking place in Riyadh from June 2 to 3, Mohammed Muaafa, technical services director of Tarshid, said the company has worked on a large number of projects to conserve electricity in various types of commercial and residential projects across the Kingdom.

These efforts are in line with the Kingdom’s target of producing 50 percent renewable electricity by 2030 and achieving net-zero emissions by 2060.

“We will be the first country in G20 that fulfills this goal of turning all the street lamps into energy-saving ones,” Muaafa said.

The top official said Tarshid’s main objective is to reduce the consumption of electricity and reduction of emissions.

He said the project provided us energy savings of 70-75 percent.

The Global Project Management Forum 2024 is designed to bring together the most influential global community of project managers and diverse stakeholders for immersive learning, networking, and collaboration.

The two-day annual aims to highlight the latest developments in the field of project management across various sectors and serve as a platform for industry experts to share creative ideas to achieve their professional goals.

source/content: arabnews.com (headline edited)

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Mohammed Muaafa, technical services director of Tarshid, speaks at a panel titled “Saudi Vision 2030 Outlook” on the first day of the Global Project Management Forum 2024 taking place in Riyadh from June 2 to 3. AN photo

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SAUDI ARABIA

MOROCCO: Soufiane Choubani: Founder of Morocco’s First National Team in World’s Biggest Debating Championship

In an exclusive interview with Morocco World News, Soufiane Choubani, a leader in the Moroccan debate community on local and international stages, shares his story and vision for his robust debate community, the first of its kind in the country.

In 2014, Soufiane Choubani established the Morocco Debate Association (MDA) – a non-profit that is the first of its kind in the country. 

Today, a little over a decade, the MDA continues to make groundbreaking history both at home and abroad – with one of its teams, the Atlas Lions of Debate, set to compete in the world’s biggest debating championship in Panama this year.

Soufiane Choubani : The driving force behind the Moroccan Debate Association 

Soufiane, who founded both the MDA and the Moroccan National Debate Team (MNDT), is a former professor who holds a Master’s in Higher Education from Kean University in New Jersey. The driving force behind Morocco’s inaugural national debate team’s success, Soufiane is also the author of the book, “The Magic of Motivation”, and an international debate coach. 

In an interview with Morocco World News (MWN), Soufiane talked about the origin story of the debate team. 

“In 2013, we Moroccans were feeling very ambitious after and with the on-going Arab Spring. I wanted to help the situation but I was just an introverted English teacher who barely went out,” he said.  

“At the same time, my teams were winning local championships in Morocco back-to-back. So I got the idea (that) if I could form a national debate team and have them compete in the world championship and do well, that would inspire more people in North Africa to learn debating and feel confident to compete with the best in the world. That’s how the MNDT was born.” Soufiane Choubani told MWN. 

Soufiane’s personal journey with debate began at a young age. 

“⁠I was introduced to debating in my American high school and I saw first-hand how it benefited me in my academic and personal life. So, when I had the chance to spread this in Morocco, I didn’t miss the opportunity” Soufiane told MWN

Over the years, Soufiane has acquired a wealth of competitive debate experience that deeply informs the MDA’s debating strategies. His firsthand experience with international debating competitions has provided him with a unique perspective on what it takes to be outstanding in debate. 

His approach extends beyond traditional debate training, embracing a holistic development of debaters that prepares them not only for competitions, but also for skilful engagement with complex global issues. 

The legendary milestones of MDA

Under the dynamic leadership of Soufiane, the MDA has flourished, achieving success in both national and international arenas.

The Moroccan National Debate Team went on to become the first North African team in history to compete in the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC); also known as the world’s oldest high school debate tournament with teams representing over 60 different countries from five different continents. 

When asked by MWN to share the most remarkable team achievement, Soufiane replied that it was winning the High School Parliamentary Debate World Congress back-to-back in 2021 and 2022, as well as winning the Best English-as-a-foreign-language (EFL) University Debate in Africa award in 2023. 

He also added to the list of his personal accomplishments teaching the quarterfinals of the 2024 Eurasian Schools Debating Championships.

More than debate teams: a community 

Since becoming president, Soufiane has come up with many strategies and initiatives all aiming to achieve the success his association has reached so far.

Among the exciting learning experiences that the Moroccan Debate Association offers is a Moroccan youth debate camp. This summer program is open to both Moroccan and international students. 

During this week-long program, participants are introduced to various public speaking formats, including debating, leadership and diplomacy, and Model United Nations (MUN) . 

The camp provides lectures, exercises, workshops, and social activities and a tournament on the last day in order to put to use all the learned skills. The top three speakers are awarded prizes for their performance.

The success of MDA stems from the national coaching staff’s dedication and passion to actively contribute to the Moroccan debate community, enabling individuals to harness the power of words. As a result of dedicated volunteers, the MDA has provided public speaking and debating workshops to more than 800 Moroccans between 2014 and 2017.

Soufiane welcomes successful coaches from all over the world.

One such example is Ahmad Tousif Jami, an accomplished Bangladeshi champion debater in his own right, who is the head coach of the MDNT, set to participate in the World Universities Debating Championship (WUDC) in Panama at the end of 2024.

Soufiane told MWN that one of his favorite MDA success stories is Alia Kafil , Morocco’s team captain for the World Schools Debating Championship (WSDC) 2020 to 2022. She was the first-ever North African to rank among the top 100 debaters, from a pool of over 400 international participants, at a WSDC. The skilled orator is now a student at Columbia University in New York City and is planning to compete in the WUDC in Panama.

MDA’s pursuit of open social dialogue on pressing world issues 

Soufiane’s debate community’s vision reaches out to even more than teaching debate, but also has initiatives that help communities in need and bring social awareness to world issues. 

This Past April,the MNDT participated in an international online charity debating competition, “Free Palestine Debate Open”, that was organized by University of Ljubljana Debate Society. 

The registration fees were collected for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), in an effort to increase awareness about the situation of Palestine. Additionally, the open-spaced forum at the end of the debate tournaments was meant to be a space of support for Palestinians and discussion around the challenges that this community faces. 

In a note that stirred intensity, one of the debating motions in the competition was: “this house believes that the PA (Palestinian Authorities) should abolish itself, reinstating Israeli rule as the direct occupying power, until Palestinians achieve meaningful self-governance”. 

Despite covering a sensitive topic involving international participants with diverse beliefs, debaters effectively succeeded in having a respectful –albeit heated – debate in which they demonstrated their skills including critical thinking and persuasive arguments. 

Debaters on both sides of the motion admirably maintained personal neutrality in the face of such a challenging topic, mounting rational and robust arguments even while many hold strong personal views on the Israeli occupation.

Soufiane says that participating in such a debate promotes inclusivity, enabling debaters from diverse backgrounds to think critically about social issues, understand different points of view, and develop their ability to communicate and argue effectively in a respectful and rational way. 

These skills, when shared and appreciated across the country, could help influence the development of a more thoughtful and conscientious society for all. 

Due to the efforts from Soufiane, the MDA has been a beacon of personal growth for numerous Moroccans, providing an environment where all voices can be heard. Through its debates, workshops, and events, members have honed their critical thinking, public speaking, and argumentation skills. 

When asked about his hopes for the future of Morocco Debating Association, Soufiane shared his vision to MWN. . 

“My long-term goal for the association is to have the Moroccan National Debating Team (MNDT) officially funded by the Moroccan government so it becomes free for students to build a national institute of debating in English, Arabic, and Berber (Amazigh).”

source/content: moroccoworldnews.com (headline edited)

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Soufiane Choubani’s debating team

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MOROCCO