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TOKYO, Japan (AFP) — Muggles in Japan can discover how the Harry Potter films were made at a new amusement park opening in 2023 in Tokyo, Warner Bros said Tuesday, in the latest expansion of the multibillion-dollar wizarding franchise. The attraction, offering visitors a behind-the-scenes look into the production of the eight-hit movies, is the second of its kind, modeled on the original permanent studio exhibition in Britain. “The Studio Tour Tokyo” will stretch across […]
by Camille BAS-WOHLERT COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AFP) — The melting of Greenland’s ice cap has gone so far that it is now irreversible, with snowfall no longer able to compensate for the loss of ice even if global warming were to end today, according to researchers. “Greenland’s glaciers have passed a tipping point of sorts, where the snowfall that replenishes the ice sheet each year cannot keep up with the ice that is flowing into the […]
by Amélie BOTTOLLIER-DEPOIS Agence France Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — Long-dormant viruses brought back to life; the resurgence of deadly and disfiguring smallpox; a dengue or zika “season” in Europe. These could be disaster movie storylines, but they are also serious and increasingly plausible scenarios of epidemics unleashed by global warming, scientists say. The COVID-19 pandemic that has swept the globe and claimed over 760,000 lives so far almost certainly came from a wild bat, […]
PARIS, France (AFP) — A rocket that blasted off from French Guiana successfully placed two communications satellites into orbit Saturday, launch firm Arianespace said. The Ariane 5 rocket took off at 2204 GMT from Kourou, the European Space Agency’s space centre in the South American territory, the company said in a statement. Two satellites on board — belonging to the intergovernmental provider Intelsat and Japan’s Broadcasting Satellite System Corporation — were later successfully placed into […]
PORT LOUIS, Mauritius (AFP) — A ship that has leaked more than 1,000 tonnes of oil in pristine waters off the coast of Mauritius has split in two. The bulk carrier MV Wakashio ran aground on a coral reef off the southeastern coast of Mauritius on July 25 and began oozing oil more than a week later, threatening a protected marine park boasting mangrove forests and endangered species. Mauritius declared an environmental emergency and […]
NEW YORK, United States (AFP) — New York’s museums, art galleries and other cultural institutions will be allowed to reopen starting August 24, state governor Andrew Cuomo said Friday after a five-month shutdown due to the coronavirus. However, there will be mandatory face masks, timed ticketing with staggered entry and just 25 percent occupancy, he tweeted. The reopening does not include performing arts venues, which will remain shut until the end of the year. […]
by Géza Molnar / Balazs Wizner Agence France-Presse ZÁHONY, Hungary (AFP) — The 150-odd competitors meeting on the banks of Hungary’s second largest river carried somewhat unusual equipment for a boat race — protective gloves, rubber boots and large bags. Their challenge was to collect as much rubbish as possible from the Tisza, in the northeast of the country on the Ukrainian border, navigating it on rafts, built themselves from trash, for nine days. “Every […]
BERLIN, Germany (AFP) — Daimler has approved settlements worth $2.2 billion over emissions cheating software in its diesel vehicles in the US, the German carmaker said Thursday. The company has “reached an agreement in principle with various US authorities to settle civil and environmental claims regarding emission control systems of approximately 250,000 diesel passenger cars and vans in the United States,” it said in a statement. The agreement includes $1.5 billion to be paid to US […]
BELGRADE, Serbia (AFP) — Muja has lived through multiple bombing campaigns and several countries — all while never leaving a tiny pool in Belgrade’s zoo for 83 years, making him the world’s oldest captive alligator. While zookeepers don’t know his exact hatch day, the reptile arrived in Belgrade this week in August of 1937 from a German zoo. “He’s an older gentleman and we respect his age,” Jozef Edvedj, the zoo’s veterinarian, told AFP with […]
by Robin MILLARD Agence France Presse GENEVA, Switzerland (AFP) — The WHO on Thursday urged countries to invest billions of dollars in searching for COVID-19 vaccines and treatments — calling it a snip compared to the vast economic cost of the coronavirus crisis. The World Health Organization insisted it was a smarter bet than the trillions of dollars being thrown at handling the consequences of the global pandemic. The UN agency’s chief Tedros Adhanom […]
by Patrick GALEY PARIS, France (AFP) — Wind and solar produced a record 10 percent of global electricity in the first half of 2020 as the world’s coal plant fleet ran at less than half its capacity, analysis published Thursday showed. Despite a near-record drop in power demand due to the pandemic, renewables accounted for 1,129 terawatt-hours in January-June, compared with 992 in the first six months of 2019, according to a report by the […]
by Issam AHMED WASHINGTON, United States (AFP) — A species of frog from the Brazilian rainforest has become the first amphibian shown to live in a harem, where one male mates with two females who remain loyal to him. So-called polygyny is thought to be the most common mating system among animals and has previously been found in bony fishes, reptiles, mammals, birds, and even some invertebrates, Fabio de Sa, a zoologist at Universidade Estadual […]
