Fatma Tanis

The government has ambitious plans to diversify the oil kingdom — and that means revamping the world's biggest petroleum producer.

These days, some young people in the conservative kingdom also use Tinder to find a match.

The Saudi kingdom says it is trying to wean the economy off an oil and foreign worker dependency. Employers say it has not been easy.

Activities once forbidden — cinema, music, women driving — are now OK. It makes some Saudis nervous. "I talk to younger people, they are happy with it," says a Saudi woman. "But older people are not."

The influential Saudi CEO discusses what she's done to get more women working.

Allowing cinemas is part of a modernization drive by the Saudi government, which hopes to create more business opportunities and become a regional film hub. But it's a tough place to be a filmmaker.

The violence includes "some of the most awful crimes we have ever seen," including beheadings and cutting children's throats, U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein tells NPR.

Watching from afar as the devastation unfolds in Texas has been difficult for anyone paying attention. But that experience is magnified for expatriate Houstonians — like NPR's producer Fatma Tanis.