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French Wine In Space For 14 Months On Sale

By
Angel Gimalo
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Have you ever wondered how a bottle of French wine that orbited the Earth for more than a year would taste?

A bottle of Petrus 2000, which spent 14 months aboard the International Space Station is up for sale.

And the auction house Christie’s expects a sale price of 1 million U.S. dollars.

The buyer will also get a regular bottle of Petrus that stayed on Earth, alongside the space-aged bottle, to compare the two.

“Both were absolutely gorgeous, but again following the colour, the one that had remained on Earth for me was still a little bit more closed, a bit more tannic, a bit younger. And the one that had been up into space, the tannins had softened, the side of more floral aromatics came out. They were both beautiful. The one that had remained on Earth was a little younger than the one that had been to space.”

The wine was sent to space to see how the aging process would develop outside Earth’s atmosphere.

The wine is one of 12 bottles of Bordeaux, as well as 320 snippets of grapevines that were sent into orbit.

Other bottles from the dozen will remain unopened and Christie’s says there are no plans to sell them.

This is the first time bottles of wine were sent to space.

Milan Exhibit Displays Past, Present And Future Of High-Tech Droids

By
Angel Gimalo
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When speaking of robots, there’s no time like the present.

They can dance, send love, and many are even taking human jobs.

At an exhibit, ‘ROBOT. The Human Project’, held at MUDEC art museum in Milan, an avatar robot is even filling in for the co-curator.

Visitors can also sign up for a virtual visit to explore the exhibit, in the form of an avatar robot.

“The idea of this exhibit is to show different possibilities of the future of cohabitation and interaction between human beings and robots, and this is a good example.”

The exhibit displays the past, present and future of high-tech droids, ranging from a 16th century Renaissance creation to a droid supporting medical staff to fight COVID-19 in an Italian hospital today.

Also, the exhibit collaborated with leading research institutes to provide a window into the future of robots, including drawing knowledge from biology to improve artificial intelligence.

It runs from May first to August first this year.

Ethiopia designates Tigray’s former ruling party as terrorists

By
Henry Williams
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Ethiopian House of Peoples Representative Speaker Tagesse Chafo gestures to members of the Parliament in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, on May 6, 2021. - (Photo by Amanuel Sileshi / AFP)

Ethiopia’s parliament on Thursday designated the former ruling party of Tigray a terrorist organisation, a move critics fear could stoke persecution and frustrate efforts to assist those in the war-hit region.

The resolution, passed overwhelmingly in a parliament dominated by the ruling party, also applied the terrorist designation to the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), an armed group active in other parts of the country.

Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed has scheduled elections for June 5 despite the grinding conflict in Tigray and brutal ethnic violence in other parts of the country, which the OLA is accused of being involved in.

The terror designations were approved by Abiy’s Council of Ministers over the weekend, and deal a blow to the prospect of peace talks with the TPLF six months after the army entered Tigray to disarm and detain its leaders.

Attorney-General Gedion Timothewos said ordinary civilians would not be affected by the terror listings, and warned external actors against collaborating with the groups in question.

The US-based Tigray Center for Information and Communication said the designation would lead to “mass arrests” and provide cover for greater persecution of the minority group.

“This step was taken to provide prevalent ethnic profiling of Tigrayans and the criminalization of advocacy regarding the war on Tigray with a legal veneer,” the group said in a statement.

Abiy, a Nobel Peace laureate, has come under pressure over the conflict in Tigray, with the international community warning of a growing humanitarian disaster in the northern region.

The UN relief agency OCHA said aid provision in Tigray was based on needs, and “engagement with parties –– regardless of their national designation –– is intended strictly for humanitarian purposes”.

“We expect that the humanitarian exceptions are upheld and respected, and that the protections necessary to deliver humanitarian aid and assistance are extended to all humanitarian actors,” OCHA said in a statement to AFP.

The OLA, meanwhile, has been accused by the government of massacring civilians in the Oromia and Ahmara regions — allegations the group has denied.

UK: Arts Figures Criticise Plan To Cut University Funding For Creative Subjects

By
Koko Lawrence
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Singer Jarvis Cocker, actor Maxine Peake and author Bernardine Evaristo are among those to have criticised a plan to cut government funding for arts subjects at universities by almost 50%.

Arts courses are not among the official “strategic priorities”, with a cut from £36m to £19m proposed next year.

The Department for Education said the reduction would only affect “a small proportion” of universities’ income.

But Cocker argued the “astounding” move would hit poorer students hardest.

Peake, Evaristo and others have lent their support to a campaign launched by the Public Campaign for the Arts, which is urging Education Secretary Gavin Williamson to rethink his strategy.

The government has said subjects like music, dance, drama and performing arts, art and design, media studies and archaeology are “not among its strategic priorities”, according to the Office for Students, which distributes government funding to universities.

Mr Williamson said he would “potentially seek further reductions” to central funding for such courses in future years.

The government has asked for the money to be redirected to “subjects that support the NHS and wider healthcare policy, high-cost STEM [science, technology, engineering and mathematics] subjects and/or specific labour market needs”.

That is needed to “support the skills this country needs to build back better”, the Department for Education said.

South Korean Government To Announce Additional New Sites For Public Housing

By
Angel Gimalo
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After decades of growth, South Korea has a skyline to match, a coast-to-coast line of apartments. Here, apartment complexes in the Yeouido-dong section of Seoul. Illustrates SKOREA (category i), by Chico Harlan © The Washington Post. Moved Monday, Sept. 16, 2013. (MUST CREDIT: Photo for The Washington Post by Shin Woong-jae)

The amount of new housing supplied in South Korea this year is expected to be at an all-time high.

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki said on Thursday at a ministerial meeting on the property market, that roughly 500, 000 houses will go onto the market this year.

This includes private housing, which accounts for about 360-thousand to 390-thousand homes, and public housing which makes up about 92-thousand homes.

The government will also announce additional new sites for public housing this month as part of plans aimed at cooling the overheated real estate market.

The minister said that the government will go all out to meet its housing supply goals.

Seoul’s Sejong-Daero Forest Street Construction Complete

By
Angel Gimalo
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After nine months, construction on Seoul’s Sejong-daero Forest Street is now complete.

The one-and-a-half kilometer street runs from Sejong-daero intersection, passes through Namdaemun and ends at Seoul Station.

Roads parallel to it have been narrowed so the sidewalks can accommodate more people.

Visitors can walk or ride bicycles along the street, which is flanked by trees and flowers.

There are also restaurants and cultural facilities nearby so it’s hoped the street will also boost the local economy.

UK: Royal Family Celebrates Archie’s Birthday Through Photos

By
Koko Lawrence
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The royal family rang in Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor’s second birthday with lots of photo tributes, despite relationship rifts and reports of racist “concerns and conversations” within royal ranks.

Queen Elizabeth, Prince Charles, and new vloggers Prince William and Kate Middleton’s social media accounts all posted tributes to the little one as he turned 2 on Thursday.

“Wishing Archie Mountbatten-Windsor a very happy 2nd birthday today,” the Royal Family’s account said, alongside a photo of Meghan Markle and Prince Harry during the photo call where they introduced Archie to the world on May 8, 2019.

The Prince of Wales’ social media account posted a black-and-white photo of Charles looking on as Harry holds Archie.

Kate and William’s account posted a photo from Archie’s christening day to mark the little one’s big day.

“Wishing Archie a very happy 2nd birthday today,” they wrote.

Harry and Meghan, who stepped back as senior working royals in January 2020, recently spoke about where their relationship stands with some members of the royal family during an interview with Oprah Winfrey.

Korea International Cooperation Agency To Fund Senegal Agriculture

By
Angel Gimalo
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South Korea has promised to provide Senegal with 21 million dollars in aid to support the country’s agricultural development and local startups.

The Korea International Cooperation Agency, under the foreign ministry, announced that some of the funds will go to developing a greater variety of crops by 2026, while some of it will be used to develop a new model town.

A part of the aid will also go to developing a startup incubation program at a tech university in Senegal.

South Korea To Build World’s Biggest Wind Farm Under Carbon Neutrality Plan

By
Angel Gimalo
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President Moon Jae-in laid out an ambitious goal for South Korea to become one of the world’s top five countries in offshore wind power by 2030.

He believes shifting to renewable energy will be a short cut to carbon neutrality and creating a future growth engine.

On Thursday, Moon was briefed on plans to establish a 6 gigawatt off-shore wind power complex near Ulsan as part of the Korean New Deal initiative.

” By 2030, we will build the world’s biggest floating wind power complex. The government and private sector together will invest 36 trillion won (US$ 32 bil.) and create 210,000 jobs. Ulsan will become the industrial capital of the clean energy era… as we move on from the era of fossil fuels.”

A floating wind turbine can be installed on seabeds as deep as 60 meters, giving them access to more consistent wind speeds.

The president emphasized, offshore wind can contribute to achieving the goal of becoming carbon neutral by 2050.

He pledged full government support as well as cooperation with the National Assembly.

Once constructed, the complex is expected to help reduce over 9 million tons of carbon emissions a year.

G7 Ministers Renew Commitment To Denuclearization Of Korean Peninsula

By
Angel Gimalo
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The top diplomats of the Group of Seven countries have expressed their concerns over the human rights violations in North Korea and urged the North to refrain from provocative actions and to return to talks.

They’ve also called for a strengthening of cooperation to respond to the North’s cyberattacks which fund its weapons programs.

The ministers also expressed concerns over some countries not enforcing international sanctions placed on the regime.

The joint statement, issued at the end of the G7 Foreign and Development Ministers’ meeting in London on Wednesday, reads: “we call on North Korea to refrain from provocative actions and to engage in a diplomatic process with the explicit goal of denuclearization. We remain committed to the goal of complete, verifiable and irreversible abandonment of all of North Korea’s unlawful weapons of mass destruction and ballistic missile programs… in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolution.”

Notably, the term “Complete Verifiable and Irreversible Abandonment” emerged… replacing the initial “CVID”… in which the last “D” stands for “dismantlement”… and interchangeably it also meant “denuclearization.”

The two terms “CVIA” and “CVID” mean the same but “CVIA,” which was first used in a UN Security Council resolution in 2006, is thought to make North Korea less resistant.

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