GLOBAL DIARY

New York City Is Sinking

New York City is sinking in part due to the extraordinary weight of its vertiginous buildings, worsening the flooding threat posed to the metropolis from the rising seas, new research has found. This sinking is exacerbating the impact of sea level rise which is accelerating at

Eu Countries Seek To Reclaim Land From The Mafia

According to a report, more than 19,000 properties in Italy have been confiscated from groups like the Sicilian Mafia, the Calabrian ‘Ndrangheta and the Neapolitan Camorra to date, and there are 991 nonprofits running social reuse projects across the country. But increasingly other European countries have begun to implement social reuse of confiscated property. As many as 19 nations have to some degree, including Spain, Belgium, Bulgaria, Romania and the Netherlands, according to a report by CHANCE, a European civil society network. “Social and public reuse of confiscated assets is one of the most important political and social innovations of recent years,” it concluded.

Tens of thousands gathered in the center of Belgrade on May 26th in support of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic in a show of power following big antigovernment protests over two mass shootings that killed 18 people earlier this month. Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto and secessionist Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik were among the speakers at the “Serbia of Hope” rally which drew busloads of people from around Serbia and neighbouring Bosnia and North Macedonia.

Source: Reuters around twice the global average as the world’s glaciers melt away and seawater expands due to global heating. The water that flanks New York City has risen by about 22cm, since 1950 and major flooding events from storms could be up to four times more frequent than now by the end of the century.

Tens of thousands of opposition supporters, streamed into the rain-drenched streets a day after the president’s followers staged an equally big rally in the capital. Outside the RTS TV headquarters, the crowds blew whistles and booed loudly. They say that according to the laws, state TV should be unbiased as a public broadcaster, but that it has been openly pro-government. Held for the fourth time since the early May shootings, the opposition-led protests appear to be shaping up into the biggest revolt against Vucic’s rule. The rallies initially erupted in response to two back-to-back mass shootings earlier this month that left 18 people dead and 20 wounded, many of them children from an elementary school.

SEVEN SWIDISH MUNICIPALITIES RUN ON FOSSIL-FREE FUELS

In southern Sweden, cities in the Skåne region such as Malmö and Lund have committed themselves to eliminating fossil fuels and reducing CO2 emissions across a number of municipal services. Thanks to the production of biogas and the use of wind power, polluting

The Biggest Tech Companies Are Cutting Costs

fuels such as petrol, oil, coal and natural gas have been minimised. Decarbonising transportation has been a top priority. Among the various initiatives taken, the municipality of Lund has developed a groundbreaking system for business travel. City employees now have access to a fleet of green vehicles via a booking system. Depending on their needs and the distance to be covered, the platform offers commuters cars running on biogas and electricity, but, more importantly, it offers bicycles.

King Charles III (74 was anointed and crowned on Saturday in Britain’s biggest ceremonial event for seven decades, a sumptuous display of pageantry dating back 1,000 years. In front of a congregation of about 100 world leaders and a television audience of millions, the Archbishop of Canterbury, the spiritual leader of the Anglican Church, slowly placed the 360-year-old St Edward’s Crown on Charles’ head as he sat upon a 14thcentury throne in Westminster Abbey. Queen Camilla (75) was officially identified with her new title for the first time on the invitation for King Charles III coronation.

Facebook’s parent company Meta axed 11,000 jobs in November, about 13 per cent of its workforce at the time. Meta and other tech companies have been hiring aggressively for at least two years and in recent months have begun to let some of those workers go. Early last month, Meta posted falling profits and its third consecutive quarter of declining revenue. Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta to axe another 10,000 employees in a fresh round of job

Cuts

In February, it said a downturn in online advertising and competition from rivals such as TikTok weighed on results. Last month, Amazon also paused construction on its second headquarters in Virginia following the biggest round of layoffs in the company’s history and its shifting plans around remote work.

How influential is cultural diplomacy in times of crisis?