GEA Chairman Announces October 21 Launch for Riyadh Season 2026
Chairman of the Board of Directors of the General Entertainment Authority (GEA) Turki Alalshikh announced that Riyadh Season 2026 will open on Wednesday, October 21, featuring a 10-week program of championships, concerts, performances, and entertainment experiences, the Saudi Press Agency reported on Saturday.
Alalshikh made the announcement in a promotional video previewing the season's sporting, entertainment, and arts events, which he said would reinforce Riyadh's standing as a destination for premier events and audiences from around the world.
The seventh edition's lineup includes world-class boxing and wrestling matches, UFC bouts, and the Six Kings Slam tennis tournament, alongside concerts, theatrical and comedy performances, and events designed for children and families.
Boulevard World returns as one of the season's principal zones, gathering global cultures and destinations in a single location, while Boulevard City opens with new content and Wonder Garden offers a range of rides and activities. Other zones and events include The Groves, the Farmers' Market, and the Ana Arabia exhibition at VIA Riyadh, with further programs spread across multiple locations in the capital.
The season runs under the theme "Big Time," drawing visitors from Saudi Arabia and abroad.
New Road Lanes Open in Makkah to Ease Congestion, Aid Pilgrims
The Royal Commission for Makkah City and Holy Sites has opened traffic on several newly developed lanes along the Third Ring Road and Prince Saud Al Faisal Road, reducing travel times by more than 90%.
The expansion includes an additional 1.5-kilometer stretch on the Third Ring Road connecting the Prince Mutib intersection to the Grand Mosque intersection via the Prince Sultan intersection, SPA reported.
Traffic flow was also inaugurated on the final section of Prince Saud Al Faisal Road, linking the Prince Mohammed bin Salman axis to Abdulqadir Koshak Street through the Prince Naif bin Abdulaziz intersection.
These openings are part of integrated infrastructure projects designed to ease traffic congestion, improve road safety, and streamline access for residents, visitors, and pilgrims during the Hajj and Umrah seasons.
IUCN: Indonesia Fires Threatens Critically-endangered Orangutan
Wildfires that tore through Indonesian Borneo's vast tropical forests have piled pressure on critically endangered Bornean orangutans, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said Saturday.
Indonesia has been battling fires for weeks in parts of Borneo and Sumatra, sending suffocating haze across the islands and neighboring Malaysia and Singapore.
Fires are currently burning within habitats containing 52 percent of Borneo's orangutan population, including 13 of the 20 largest remaining populations, it said.
"Fire and smoke exposure impose measurable physiological, behavioral and ecological costs on orangutans in peat forest habitats," the conservation network said, according to AFP.
During haze, orangutans show signs of fat breakdown despite eating more and resting more, suggesting elevated energy demands likely from an immune system forced to work harder, it said.
Wildfires have also been reported in the habitats of five gibbon species across Sumatra and Borneo, the conservation network said.
"Gibbons breathe the same smoke-laden air as the people living alongside them, and there is every reason to expect they suffer similar respiratory harm, on top of habitat loss and disruption to the behaviors that keep wild populations viable."
As of Tuesday, Indonesia had rescued 100 animals, including 53 orangutans, that were threatened by the blazes, a forestry ministry spokesman said.
Conservationists call on the authorities to go beyond first response and implement prevention measures.
"Emergency response must be followed by sustained investment in preventing future fires," Ronna Saab of Forum Konservasi Orangutan Indonesia (FORINA) said in a statement.
Those measures include "protecting and rewetting peatlands, addressing drainage and deforestation, and ensuring burned forests are protected from subsequent conversion and appropriately restored," Ronna said.
The Indonesian government said more than 202,000 hectares of land were burnt countrywide between January and July, the latest available data.
The Nusantara Atlas project has put the number at closer to 900,000 hectares between January and August.
7th Person Killed by Bear in Russian Region in a Month
A Russian woman has been fatally mauled by a bear in her garden, the seventh such death in her Siberian region this month, state investigators said, amid a nationwide spate of killings that experts blame on climate change and human incompetence.
A video released by investigators in Siberia's Krasnoyarsk region some 3,000 km (1,864 miles) east of Moscow showed them walking through a wooded area and inspecting the corpse of the brown bear which carried out the attack.
The state TASS news agency said the bear had killed the 51-year-old woman in the village of Voznesenka after she saw the creature trying to get into a pen in her garden where she kept domestic animals.
"The bear lunged at the woman. The predator was shot dead by a neighbor of the deceased," TASS reported, according to Reuters.
Experts cited in Russian media said that bears — which have attacked humans in at least 11 regions across Russia this year and killed at least 20 people — have been forced to look further afield for food this year because an early and dry spring meant there was a lack of berries for them to feed on in September.
People are also guilty of leaving food waste out in the open where it attracts bears and of ignoring safety rules, the experts said, while in at least one region the authorities stand accused of failing to keep bear numbers down.
