Nigeria’s Senate has approved the China Development Bank as the new financier for a rail project, which is set to cost close to a billion dollars.

Another Chinese lender had been due to fund the line between Kaduna and Kano – the largest city in the north – but it pulled out in 2020.

When President Muhammadu Buhari came to power eight years ago, he prioritised upgrading the country’s poor transport network and power supply.

However, funding has been a major constraint.

Parliament has approved several billion dollars worth of loans from Chinese and other international lenders but funds have yet to materialise.

If president-elect Bola Tinubu takes over in May, he will inherit a raft of challenges including double-digit inflation and widespread insecurity.

Cruise Saudi has teamed up with high-end hotel brand Aman to launch a new, ultra-luxury yacht aimed at very high net worth travelers, it was announced on Monday.

The 183-meter superyacht Aman at Sea will have 47 spacious suites along with amenities including an Aman-style spa with a Japanese relaxation garden, several international Michelin-quality restaurants, and an on-board beach club, giving guests access to the water from the stern of the yacht.

The vessel was unveiled by Cruise Saudi’s Managing Director Fawaz Farooqui at the Seatrade Cruise Global event in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

He featured on a panel discussing how leading luxury hotel brands Aman, Four Seasons, Orient Express and Ritz Carlton are changing the cruise ship landscape by launching luxury ships to rival operators such as Regent Seven Seas and Silversea.

Fawaz revealed the new Aman at Sea superyacht will have a 2:1 crew ratio to guests, placing a priority on the guest space ratio while creating the biggest suites in the industry.

The panel also discussed the type of ships being built by hoteliers, how the offering contrasts with big-name cruise liners, how hotels are competing to attract customers new to cruising, and the role they play in opening up new destinations for cruises.

Aman at Sea is expected to be ready for cruising by 2027.

A Guinea-Bissau flagged cargo ship with 14 crew members on board sank off Turkiye’s Mediterranean coast on Wednesday, killing at least three of them.

Five people were rescued while efforts continued to find the other missing crew, officials and news reports said.

The Joe 2 sank off the coast of Kumluca, in Antalya province, while heading to Ukraine from the Turkish port of Iskenderun, said Gov. Ersin Yazici said. It was transporting aluminum.

The cause of the ship sinking was not immediately clear. An investigation has been launched by the chief prosecutor’s office for Kumluca.

The Turkish Coast Guard Command said it received a distress call at 3:47 a.m. and dispatched a vessel, several boats and two helicopters.

Two crew members were rescued by the coast guard helicopters while three others were saved by other vessels in the area, it said.

All of the crew were Syrian nationals.

The rescue efforts were being hampered by a storm.

About 120 residents living near Colombia’s Nevada del Ruiz volcano have been evacuated, officials said, after increased seismic activity.

A 1985 eruption by the volcano that killed 25,000 people is considered the worst natural disaster in Colombian history and one of the deadliest eruptions of the 20th century.

The governor of the Caldas department, Luis Carlos Velasquez, said around 40 families living near the volcano would be relocated as a “preventative” measure.

Some of the homes near the smoking crater are not reachable via cell phone or radio, he said, making it difficult to warn them in case of an emergency.

There has recently been a “significant increase in seismic activity,” the ministry of mines said in a statement last week while Colombia’s SGC geological service warned of a “probable eruption within days or weeks.”

And President Gustavo Petro tweeted: “We have an orange alert due to the change in seismology at the Ruiz volcano. Mayors must prepare the protocols for this state of alert.”

According to Colombia’s UNGRD disaster risk management unit, the orange level meant the likelihood of an eruption “bigger than any in the last decade.”

Severe thunderstorms were expected to bring hail, strong winds — and the threat of tornadoes — to parts of the Midwest and South that are reeling from a weekend of deadly weather.

Officials warned residents to have shelter ready Tuesday night before going to sleep.

At least two tornadoes were confirmed Tuesday in Illinois as storms targeted the state and eastern Iowa and southwest Wisconsin before nightfall. Areas of southern Missouri, Arkansas, southwestern Oklahoma and northeastern Texas were most at risk overnight.

The National Weather Service issued tornado warnings in Iowa and Illinois on Tuesday evening and said a confirmed twister was spotted southwest of Chicago near Bryant, Illinois.

Officials said another tornado touched down Tuesday morning in the western Illinois community of Colona. Local news reports showed wind damage to some businesses there.

The storms were expected to hammer some areas hit by severe weather and possibly dozens of tornadoes just days ago that killed at least 32 people, meaning more misery for those whose homes were destroyed in Arkansas, Iowa and Illinois.

The fierce storms that started Friday and continued into the weekend spawned deadly tornadoes in 11 states as the system plodded through Arkansas and onto the South, Midwest and Northeast.

Critically endangered freshwater pearl mussels have been discovered living in two Scottish lochs.

Scientists said the protected species, which is vulnerable to pollution and poaching, had previously only been found in rivers.

Researchers using remotely-operated underwater drones and snorkelling equipment made the discoveries in lochs in Sutherland and the Trossachs.

Scotland’s nature agency, NatureScot, said they likely entered the lochs by clinging to the gills of fish.

Early in their life cycle the mussels live harmlessly on young salmon and trout, before dropping off to live on riverbeds.

NatureScot’s Iain Sime said other lochs would now be surveyed for the species.

He said: “Other mussel species, including the much more widespread swan and duck mussels, are known to live and breed in Scottish lochs, but up until now we’ve had no evidence to suggest that pearl mussels routinely do this too.

“This project was an exciting first step in exploring our lochs and we’re keen to do further surveys to better understand more about this critically endangered species.”

He added: “We don’t yet know whether they can breed in lochs and we want to learn more about a loch pearl mussel’s relationship with their host fish.”

Freshwater pearl mussels are similar in shape to common marine mussels, but can grow larger and live for up to 130 years in fast-flowing rivers.

In history, Julius Caesar’s admiration of pearl mussels is cited by his biographer as a motive for the first Roman invasion of Britain in 55BC.

Jacinda Ardern has been appointed a trustee of the Prince of Wales’ prestigious environment award, Kensington Palace has confirmed.

Prince William said it was an honour to welcome the former leader of New Zealand to the Earthshot Prize.

Ardern resigned in January saying she no longer had “enough in the tank” to lead the country.

The former prime minister said she was “humbled and excited to be working with the Earthshot team”.

Speaking of the appointment, Prince William said Ardern’s “life-long commitment to supporting sustainable and environmental solutions” and her experience would “bring a rich infusion of new thinking to our mission”.

“Four years ago, before the Earthshot Prize even had a name, Jacinda was one of the first people I spoke to, and her encouragement and advice was crucial to the prize’s early success.

“I am hugely grateful to her for joining us as she takes the next steps in her career,” he added.

The Earthshot Prize was created by Prince William to fund projects that aim to save the planet.

Last year’s awards in December, hosted by Prince William and Princess Catherine, saw five prizes handed out to winners from the UK, India, Australia, Kenya and Oman.

On joining Earthshot’s board of trustees, Ms Ardern said since its creation she had believed in the prize’s “power to encourage and spread not only the innovation we desperately need, but also optimism”.

The former prime minister of New Zealand attended the Earthshot Prize Innovation Summit in New York in September 2022 where she spoke on behalf of Prince William, who had stayed in the UK following the death of the late Queen Elizabeth.

Chair of the board of trustees Christiana Figueres said she was “thrilled” to welcome Ms Ardern and had long been inspired by her “work as a catalysing force in the effort to combat climate change”.

Since her resignation, Ms Ardern is also due to serve as an unpaid special envoy for the Christchurch Call, which she co-founded in 2019 to bring technology companies and countries together to combat extremism, according to Reuters news agency.

Prince William and Ms Ardern have met on numerous occasions, including when the former leader of New Zealand visited Kensington Palace during a visit to Britain in July last year.

Alongside his wife Catherine, Prince William also visited New Zealand in 2019 where he met survivors of the Christchurch mosque attacks.