The Israeli government will build a 100 billion shekel ($27 billion) rail expansion that will connect its outlying areas to metropolitan Tel Aviv and, in the future, could provide overland links to Saudi Arabia.

The announcement by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu followed a trip by top US officials to Saudi Arabia last week to advance a possible forging of formal relations between the Muslim powerhouse and Israel.

Opening the weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, Netanyahu appeared to sidestep the constitutional crisis that has roiled the country for seven months, denting its economy and shaking Western allies’ confidence in its democratic health.

Instead, he promoted infrastructure initiatives including the “One Israel Project”, which he described as designed to reduce travel time by train to the country’s business and government centres to two hours or less.

The plan is basically a revival of an idea promoted for years, though little progress has been made. The government in 2010 approved a similar multi-billion shekel initiative for a nationwide network that did not gain traction.

“I would like to add that in the future we will also be able to transport cargo by rail from Eilat to our Mediterranean, and will also be able to link Israel by train to Saudi Arabia and the Arabian peninsula,” he said in televised remarks.

“On this, too, we are working.”

Israel’s finance minister said the idea was to have the high-speed, north-south rail link ready in the next 10 years.

Severe weather warnings have been issued over strong winds and thunderstorms forecast in the UK.

Gusts could reach over 60mph in the most exposed parts of the southern England coast, the Met Office said.

Heavy showers and thunderstorms are expected in central and south-east England and Wales, with some locations facing 40mm of rain within a few hours.

The bad weather is being caused by an unseasonal deep area of low pressure for this time of year.

The yellow severe weather warning for wind on Wednesday, covering coastal southern England, is in force between 04:00 BST and 18:00.

The Met Office is warning of travel disruption, trees being damaged and seafront and coastal communities being affected by spray and large waves.

It forecast gusts reaching 50mph (80km/h) in some English Channel coastal areas, 55 to 60mph (86 to 97km/h) in the most exposed locations in the far south-west, and possibly higher speeds in exposed parts of coastal southern England.

In central and south-east England and Wales, there is a yellow severe weather warning for thunderstorms from 09:00 to 20:00, with the possibility of some flooding.

Some damage to buildings from lightning strikes, short-term loss of power, and train delays are expected, as well as standing water on roads.

Meanwhile, in parts of north-east England, a yellow severe weather warning has been issued for heavy rain and is in place from 11:00 and 20:00.

The Environment Agency has issued alerts warning flooding is possible in 19 areas across the country.

The wet weather has been bad news for holidaymakers enjoying the school holidays.

Heavy rain has raised water on the river Rhine in Germany to levels allowing cargo vessels to sail fully loaded, data from German inland waterways agency WSA said on Wednesday.

Data from the WSA’s website Pegelonline showed that the last shallow sectors of the river around Cologne had now reached levels generally permitting full vessel loads.

Dry weather in June meant the river became too shallow for vessels to sail fully loaded and ship operators imposed surcharges on freight rates to compensate for vessels sailing partly empty, increasing costs for cargo owners.

Commodity traders said full loads could now be taken on by ships along the entire river in Germany. Water at the chokepoint of Kaub had risen sharply allowing sailings with normal loads earlier this week.

“You cannot rule out low water problems again if the summer turns dry but I would not expect serious difficulties for the next few weeks,” one commodity trader said.

German industry is finding new ways to transport cargoes from coal to chemicals as increasingly frequent low water levels on the Rhine disrupt Europe’s largest economy, major cargo shippers told Reuters.

The Rhine is an important shipping route for commodities such as grains, minerals, coal and oil products, including heating oil. German companies faced supply bottlenecks and production problems in the summer of 2022 after a drought and heat wave led to unusually low water levels on the Rhine.

South Korea raised the hot weather warning to its highest level for the first time in four years, as parts of the country roasted in temperatures over 38 degrees Celsius (100.4 Fahrenheit), the interior and safety ministry said on Wednesday.

The scorching heat is estimated to have killed at least 22 people across the country as of Tuesday, more than triple the record of seven during the same period last year, an official at the National Fire Agency said.

The official temperature measured in the city of Yeoju, south of Seoul, hit 38.4C on Tuesday, the Ministry of the Interior and Safety said.

South Korea raised the heat warning level in its four-tier system to the highest as of 6 p.m. on Tuesday, the first time since 2019.

The highest “serious” warning is issued when the apparent temperature is expected at 35C or higher in at least 40% of the country’s 180 regions for three or more days. It can also be issued when the apparent temperature is likely to be 38C or higher for three or more days in 10% of the country.

In the southern county of Buan where the 25th World Scout Jamboree is taking place, some 400 participants have experienced heat-related symptoms on its opening day on Tuesday, officials said.

The committee said it had six helicopters and 70 hospital beds ready to transfer patients in case of emergency.

Some 43,000 people from across the globe are planned to take part in the camping festival which will run through Aug. 12, the committee said.

The government forecasts high temperatures to persist with oppressive humidity for the coming days, with the apparent temperature likely to hover around 35C in most parts of the country.

President Yoon Suk Yeol on Tuesday urged officials to step up measures to prevent further casualties, especially for people working outdoors, the elderly citizens and those living in makeshift houses without adequate air conditioning systems.

Taiwan will shut markets and schools in northern parts of the island including the capital Taipei on Thursday as slow-moving Typhoon Khanun was expected to brush past amid warnings of floods and high winds.

Typhoon Khanun, categorised by Taiwan’s weather bureau as the second-strongest typhoon level, slowly headed towards its northeastern coasts with maximum winds of 209 km (130 miles) per hour.

The storm hit power lines in Japan’s popular tourist destination Okinawa, knocking out electricity to more than 200,000 households on Wednesday morning and killing one man.

Northern cities including New Taipei, Keelung, Yilan and the capital Taipei will shut businesses and schools on Thursday. Taiwan’s stock and foreign exchange markets will also be closed.

Total rainfall of up to 0.6 meter (2 feet) was forecast in mountainous central Taiwan while 0.3 meter (1 foot) of rain was expected in the mountains near Taipei.

Typhoon Khanun was moving across the ocean in a westerly direction at 4 kph (2.4 mph), weather officials said, and was expected to skirt past Taiwan’s northern coasts late on Thursday before making a sharp turn to the northeast on Friday.

Nearly 30 domestic and international flights have been cancelled, and all domestic ferry lines will be suspended on Thursday.

An emergency response centre has been set up by the central government and hundreds of soldiers were on standby in northern cities, the defence ministry said.

China on Wednesday dispatched thousands of rescue workers to Zhuozhou, a flooded city of over 600,000 residents southwest of Beijing, as the remnants of Typhoon Doksuri continued to wreak havoc on swathes of the city twice the size of Paris.

Zhuozhou is in Hebei province, which has borne the brunt of the worst storms to hit northern China in over a decade, killing least 20 people. The city also borders Beijing, which was inundated with the most rainfall in 140 years between Saturday and early Wednesday, official data showed.

Authorities in Hebei have declared a state of emergency as rainfall averaged 355 mm (14 inches) since Saturday, the heaviest since at least July 2012. More than 134,000 Zhuozhou residents have been affected, with over one-sixth of the city’s population evacuated.

At the confluence of several rivers, Zhuozhou is one of the hardest hit cities in Hebei as floodwaters migrated downstream, according to state media, waterlogging residential areas more than twice the size of the French capital, and affecting nearly 650 hectares of agricultural land.

The local public security bureau said on Tuesday the city faced water shortages and a partial power outage, adding that it urgently needed rafts, life jackets and emergency supplies. Residents said waters rose as high as four metres (13 ft).

Some 9,000 rescuers have been dispatched to Zhuozhou, with more rescue teams rushing over from neighbouring Henan and Shanxi provinces, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

A satellite image taken on Tuesday showed Zhuozhou surrounded by floodwaters on three sides. The Global Times newspaper reported that a large amount of water was flowing from Beijing into three rivers around Zhuozhou.

Many Zhuozhou residents took to social media to complain about how long rescue and recovery efforts were taking. “We are taking on the flood water discharge from Beijing, so they should provide us with rescue and equipment, but there has been nothing,” a netizen vented on China’s popular microblog Weibo.

Floods have also hit warehouses in the city, a logistics hub. Hebei authorities said they had opened another flood diversion area in Yongding River on Wednesday to help ease the flooding.

BooksChina.com, an online bookstore, said on its WeChat account on Tuesday night their staff were waiting for rescue workers on the fourth floor of their flooded warehouse where over four million books were stored.

As the floodwaters flow south, the authorities in the city of Gaobeidian have evacuated 113,000 residents, as well as opened reservoirs to trap the excess water, Xinhua reported.

The residual circulation of Doksuri’s rain clouds continued to head north, prompting some areas in northeastern Harbin, a city of about 10 million people, to close schools, scenic spots, and suspend construction work until 3 p.m.(0700 GMT) on Thursday, according to a local government statement.

Residents in these areas were also advised to stay indoors.

In Japan, a typhoon has also struck its southwestern Okinawa prefecture. The storm is expected to veer westwards in the East China Sea, but then turn northeast, potentially towards Japan’s third largest island Kyushu.

Toyota (7203.T) on Wednesday unveiled the first hybrid version of its Land Cruiser that it will bring to North America and other key markets as it seeks to put a high-margin and iconic sports utility vehicle back on the map.

The world’s biggest automaker by sales said it will produce the new model of the brand that traces its roots to 1951 as well as a smaller, newly released variant at two factories in Japan and ship them overseas from there.

The new model will be sold as a hybrid in North America, Toyota said in its press release. Toyota will also release the new Land Cruiser with a gasoline or diesel powertrain in other markets, such as Europe or Australia, it said.

Hiroki Nakajima, Toyota’s chief technology officer, told Reuters the company will meet customer needs while bringing down carbon dioxide overall.

“We’ll offer vehicles that customers hope for,” he said.

Land Cruiser models are relatively big cars that come with a higher profitability for Toyota, just as is the case for some other models such as its Alphard van, said Seiji Sugiura, an analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute.

“Land Cruisers and Alphards have a high profitability even under the Toyota brand,” Sugiura said, adding that will go up further if models are sold under the Lexus brand.

The new Land Cruiser will become available in Japan in the first half of 2024, and come to the United States in the spring of that year, Toyota said, adding that suggested retail pricing in the United States will start in the mid-$50,000 range.

Toyota said it will offer gasoline and diesel-powered versions of the new Land Cruiser in markets such as Western and Eastern Europe and the Middle East, and also bring a smaller Land Cruiser version to Japan in the winter.

The Land Cruiser and the Lexus LX and GX, which are luxury SUVs, have together sold 11.3 million units as of the end of last month, Toyota said.

Kylemore Abbey is a former castle that nowadays serves as a Benedictine monastery, located in the cultural region of Connemara in the County of Galway, within the Republic of Ireland.

At first, the Kylemore Castle was built as a private home for the family of the English financier and textile manufacturer from Manchester, who later became a politician and Member of Parliament, Mitchell Henry, where the construction began in 1867 and it was completed by 1871.

It took 100 construction workers to finish this impressive work which was designed by the Irish actor, architect and novelist, James Franklin Fuller, with the help of course from Ussher Roberts.

Nestled at the base of the Druchruach Mountain, the castle is regarded to be one of Ireland’s most romantic buildings, due to the fact that it was conceived as a romantic gift of Mitchell Henry given to his wife.

Covering an area of about 3,700 square meters (40,000 square feet), there are over 70 rooms within the castle with a really thick principal wall, where 33 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms, 4 sitting rooms, a ballroom, billiard room, library, study, school room, smoking room, gun room and various offices and domestic staff residences for the butler, cook, housekeeper and other servants can be found.

One of the most striking features is the façade which is 43 meters (142 feet) wide and it is made of granite brought from Dalkey by sea to Letterfrack and from limestone brought from Ballinasloe.

The Mitchell Henry family owned the property until 1909 when the Duke and Duchess of Manchester bought it, however, after several years they were forced to sell it due to gambling debts.

The residents that can be encountered today are the Irish Benedictine Nuns who purchased the castle and the lands in 1920 after their were forced to flee Ypres in Belgium during the First World War, where they resided for several hundred years.

The nuns continued with their work of offering education to Catholic girls, opening an international boarding school and establishing a day school for girls from the locality, which made Kylemore Abbey one of the most significant place for the locals.

Nevertheless, the school acted as the main educator for most girls from Renvyle, Letterfrack and further afield for almost a century, when it was forced to close its gates in June 2010.

Still, as it is open to the public, there is a great experience for every visitor of the local woodland and lake shores, whereas together with the magnificent buildings, the Walled Garden is certainly one of the main trump cards of the property.

The impressively large Victorian gardens have been open since 1970s for public tours and walks in the “nature”, and together with the Gothic church, the craft shop, pottery studio, restaurant and tea rooms it is one of the well known places to visit in the area.