The world’s first hydrogen-powered superyacht, named Aqua, was unveiled recently at the Monaco Yacht Show.
Showcased by Netherlands-based Sinot Yacht & Architecture Design, the proposed yacht’s only emission is water.
Its system is dependent on two 28 tonne vacuum-sealed tanks of liquified hydrogen stored at -423 degrees Fahrenheit.
Upon completion, Aqua will include cutting-edge technology, state-of-the-art design and all the lavish trappings of a luxury superyacht.
The exterior of Aqua is inspired by the flow of ocean swells, resulting in curved external lines and glass band windows. The yacht has been designed to provide those on board with the closest possible proximity to the water.
European Union governments agreed on Wednesday to add Japan to their small list of countries from which they will allow non-essential travel, while holding off until at least mid-June for British tourists, EU sources said on Tuesday.
Ambassadors from the EU’s 27 countries approved the addition of Japan at a meeting on Wednesday, with the change to take effect in the coming days.
EU countries are recommended gradually to lift travel restrictions for the current seven countries on the list – Australia, Israel, New Zealand, Rwanda, Singapore, South Korea and Thailand.
Individual EU countries can still opt to demand a negative COVID-19 test or a period of quarantine.
The EU last month eased criteria for adding new countries to the list, by changing to 75 from 25 the maximum number of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people in the previous 14 days.
Britain met that revised target but was left off the list because of an increase in COVID-19 cases arising from an infectious coronavirus variant first identified in India.
Britain recorded no COVID-19 deaths on Tuesday, for the first time since March 2020, but cases of the Indian variant doubled last week and the government has said it is too early to say whether Britain can fully drop restrictions on June 21.
EU diplomats said Britain could be added to the list, depending on the course of the variant, in mid-June, when a larger group of countries are expected to be considered.
The list is designed to eliminate inconsistency of travel restrictions across the bloc.
Anyone who thinks Londoners prefer to play it safe may have to recant that opinion as a pool positioned nearly 115 feet in the air opens to residents of the Embassy Gardens apartments.
London has become the first city in the world to have a floating pool in the sky.
According to pool developers, EcoWorld Ballymore, the “Sky Pool” will be “the largest freestanding acrylic pool structure in the world.”
The pool is 82-feet long and stretches across the rooves of the Embassy Garden, a high-end residential and business complex in London’s Nine Elms neighborhood.
The pool’s design team consists of structural engineer Eckersley O’Callaghan, HAL Architects, and acrylics fabricator Reynolds Polymer Technology, all of whom performed hours of vigorous strength testing on the pool structure to ensure its overall safety.
At 110 feet up in the sky “once you swim off, you can look right down. It will be like flying,” says O’Callaghan in a statement.
Israel’s parliament on Wednesday elected former centre-left politician Isaac Herzog as the country’s president, which though a largely ceremonial role, is meant to promote unity among ethnic and religious groups.
Herzog beat rival candidate Miriam Peretz, an educator and mother of two Israeli infantry officers killed in battle, by a vote of 87 lawmakers to 26.
He will assume the presidency next month, replacing Reuven Rivlin, who is ending his seven-year term.
First elected to parliament in 2003, Herzog, aged 60, went on to lead the Labour party and hold several portfolios in coalition governments. His most recent public post was as head of the Jewish Agency for Israel, which encourages immigration.
Defeated by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a 2015 national ballot, Herzog was picked as president as his former nemesis faced possible toppling by a cross-partisan alliance of challengers.
The struggle over the premiership has set off rancour in Netanyahu’s religious-rightist base. Many left-leaning Israelis have long demanded his ouster as he is under trial on corruption charges – which he denies.
Last month’s fighting between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza also touched off rare mob violence among the Jewish majority and Arab minority within Israeli cities.
Speaking in parliament while accepting the appointment, Herzog said Israel’s international standing and its good name in the family of nations, must be defended, anti-semitism and hatred of Israel, must also be stopped so as to preserve the pillars of democracy.”
US President Joe Biden has become the first sitting U.S. president to visit the Tulsa, Oklahoma, site where hundreds of Black Americans were massacred by a white mob in 1921, as he marked the country’s legacy of racial violence.
Biden oversaw a moment of silence for the victims after meeting with three people who lived in the district during the massacre – Viola Fletcher, Hughes Van Ellis and Lessie Benningfield Randle – and toured a museum dedicated to the incident.
Addressing an audience which included survivors of the Tulsa race massacre and their families, Biden said he came to help fill the silence because in silence wounds deepen.
His administration also planned steps to combat inequality including efforts to expand federal contracting with small, disadvantaged businesses, invest tens of billions of dollars in communities and pursue new efforts to combat housing discrimination.
Now between the ages of 101 and 107, the survivors who met with Biden asked Congress for “justice” this year and are parties to a lawsuit against state and local officials seeking several remedies for the massacre.
Biden’s visit comes during a racial reckoning in the United States as the country’s white majority shrinks, threats increase from white supremacist groups and the country re-examines its treatment of African Americans.
Biden, a Democrat who won the presidency partly on the strength of Black voter support, made fighting racial inequality a key platform of his 2020 campaign and has done the same during his short tenure in the White House.
Ivory Coast’s government was to meet with the party of former president Laurent Gbagbo on Wednesday for talks on what his supporters have announced as his impending return.
In an apparent sign of discord, Communications Minister Amadou Coulibaly said the date of June 17, announced by the party on Monday, had not been previously agreed by the government.
Gbagbo is a highly controversial figure in Ivory Coast, where he was forced out a decade ago after a civil war that claimed several thousand lives.
He was then hauled off to The Hague to face charges of crimes against humanity arising from that conflict.
He was acquitted in 2019, and an appeal against that ruling failed in March, opening the way for his return.
Speculation of when that will be has been building for months, and his supporters say they want to welcome him in triumph.
But the government is in favour of a lower profile, wary of potential unrest if tens of thousands of his supporters turn out.
Coulibaly, who is also government spokesman, said that in order to set a date “consensually… arrangements must be implemented,” notably for Gbagbo’s “safety”.
Wednesday’s talks will bring together the minister of national reconciliation, Kouadio Konan Bertin, and the leaders of the FPI, officials said.
Gbagbo’s refusal to concede defeat in presidential elections in 2010 triggered a showdown with victor Alassane Ouattara and dug a deep rift in the country along north-south lines.
With a new transitional government following the second coup in nine months, Mali’s interim President Colonel Assimi Goita on Wednesday named the country’s new civilian prime minister.
Choguel Kokalla Maiga’s appointment was widely expected, being the leader of the 5 June-Rally of Patriotic Forces movement, the same group that took part in the overthrow of former President Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta last year.
Keita was forced out by young army officers, led by Goita, following mass protests over perceived corruption suggesting that there has been support among some civilians for the new coup on May 24th.
Goita said he had little choice to intervene after what he called “disorder” in the country.
Army officers upset with a government reshuffle detained President Bah Ndaw and Prime Minister Moctar Ouane who were later released and resigned.
The transitional president asked for support for his preference of a prime minister from the opposition M5 movement, a once-powerful group which the military sidelined after the August coup.
Goita also said that the new prime minister will carry out a broad consultation between the different factions.
However, at a crisis summit in Ghana on Sunday, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) decided to suspend Mali from the 15-nation bloc and urged Goita to appoint a new civilian premier and forge a new “inclusive government”.
Burundi has reopened its Gatumba border with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) from the town of Uvira following a long period of closure due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He added that in relation to the quarantine at Bujumbura International Airport, they have issued recommendations that have been submitted to the High Authority.
According to the local media, all foreigners entering Burundi through the Gatumba border will have to pay US$30 for the COVID-19 test while Congolese living in Burundi will be allowed to return to the DRC through this border free of charge.
Chantal Nsabimana, a Burundian is returning home after being stranded in DRC. She says she has been blocked for a year and three months from leaving the DRC because the borders were closed while on a family visit in Uvira (eastern Congo).
Another Congolese trader said the reopening is not going to help them as they cannot cross the border since they don’t have that $30 for the mandatory Covid-19 test for non-Burundians.
The Gatumba border was closed in March 2020 as part of the fight against the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. Meanwhile, on the DRC side, the Kavimvira border has been reopened since August 2020.
From June 14th, middle schools in the Seoul area will be able to have more students back in the classroom as schools’ capacity limits will be increased to two thirds from the current one third under level 2 social distancing measures.
This comes as the Education Ministry is eyeing the full opening of schools when the second semester begins in August.
“Dear citizens, it is time for full support from all sectors related to education, including systematic expansion of face-to-face classes with the goal of full attendance so that the learning deficit caused by COVID-19 can be fully recovered.”
Hardest hit by the attendance limits were middle schools in the capital region.
The attendance rate for these schools is currently at under 50 percent as the region is under social distancing level two.
There are exemptions for elementary and high schools nationwide, allowing them to have more than 67 percent of their capacity.
And in other regions with lower social distancing levels middle school attendance rate was at 80 percent.
Online classes were in place for those who didn’t go to school, but the general consensus is that in-person classes are much better for students.
“I like in-person classes because I can talk to my classmates also I can concentrate better.”
“I think schools are like small communities. I can talk to my friends and teachers and learn how to cooperate with one another.”
Another eased measure is that vocational high schools, which rely heavily on on-site education will have full in-person attendance as long as the distancing measures don’t rise above level 2.
“The Minister added that by the middle of this month, the steps toward full attendance in August will be clearer. In addition, a project will be launched to make up for the loss in learning caused by remote lessons, not just to fill gaps in students’ knowledge, but to boost their confidence and emotional stability
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