Prince William has launched a five-year project to end long-term homelessness in the United Kingdom. He plans to use 1,30,000-acre land of his Duchy of Cornwall estate for public housing. William launched the initiative, called Homewards, by visiting pilot projects that have received grants of up to 500,000 pounds ($637,000) each from the Royal Foundation, the charity that supports his and his wife, Kate’s work. All of the initiatives, with more to be unveiled, involve collaborative efforts between local people, organisations and businesses to develop programs built as per the needs o
Singapore on June 20 became the most expensive city globally for luxury living. The city-state surpassed Shanghai and Hong Kong, said a report by Swiss wealth manager Julius Baer Group Ltd. The city-state was ranked fifth last year, while Shanghai was on the top as per the Global Wealth and Lifestyle 2023 report. The reason for its success has been attributed to reopening of its borders during the pandemic that contributed to its attractiveness to high-net-worth individuals. By the end of 2022, the city counted around 1,500 family offices, twice the number from the year before. Julius B
At least 135 countries represented at the Yoga session hosted at the United Nations headquarters in New York on the International Day of Yoga (June 21), creating a Guinness World Record for seeing the participation of most nationalities in a Yoga session. The Yoga celebration was led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his inaugural state visit to the United States, following an invitation from President Joe Biden and First Lady Jill Biden. PM Modi was joined by President of the77th session of the UN General Assembly Csaba Korisi and Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed. The event, c
In a remarkable archaeological find in decades, Etruscan and Roman statues were pulled from the mud in Tuscany in Italy with “the intuition” of a retired garbage man. After months of restoration, these statues were put on display at Quirinale Palace in Rome on June 22. About two dozen bronze statues from the third century BC to the first century AD were extracted from the ruins of an ancient spa. The statues were found in 2021 and 2022 in the hilltop village of San Casciano dei Bagni, a place known for its thermal baths. Archaeologists had long suspected ancient ruins could be discover
Gautam Adani has offered to provide free school education to children who lost parents in the Odisha train crash. The billionaire, in a tweet in Hindi, said it is a joint responsibility of all to support the victims and their families and give a better tomorrow to the children. The deadliest rain accident in nearly three decades left nearly 300 dead and hundreds injured. “We are all deeply disturbed by the train accident in Odisha. We have decided that the Adani Group will take care of the school education of the innocents who have lost their parents in this accident. It is the joint
London-based Canadian businessman Craig Cohon crossed the finish line on the Galata Bridge in Turkey on the morning of June 5 after five months of walking, to promote carbon capture. The climate activist walked 4,250 km (2,640 miles) from London to Istanbul. Cohon’s challenge saw him trek through 14 countries over 153 days. He was joined by a series of 77 guest walkers as he passed through 82 cities and towns on his journey. He said his efforts are a metaphor for the “action and consistency” needed to tackle climate change. The businessman-turned-climate activist walked 25 km to 3
A new study has found that a chemical formed when humans digest artificial sweetener sucralose is genotoxic, which means that it breaks up the DNA. The chemical is also found in trace amounts in the sweetener itself. Sucralose is a widely used artificial sweetener. Previous work by the same research team established that several fat-soluble compounds are produced in the gut after sucralose ingestion. One of these compounds is sucralose-6-acetate. The European Food Safety Authority has a threshold of toxicological concern for all genotoxic substances of 0.15 micrograms per person per day
Researchers have discovered in the Western Ghats (WG) 62 new species of plants that can withstand extreme dehydration. The newly discovered plants belong to the Desiccation-Tolerant (DT) Vascular Species that are capable of surviving amid extreme water scarcity. The species is known for entering a state of dormancy and reviving when water becomes available again. A recent study by scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) Pune, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), Government of India, has identified these new species that are many more than the
Microsoft has to pay $20 million to settle US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) charges that the tech company illegally collected personal information from children without their parents’ consent, the FTC said on June 5. The company had been charged with violating the US Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) by collecting personal information from children who signed up to its Xbox gaming system without notifying their parents or obtaining their parents' consent, and by retaining children's personal information, the statement from the FTC said. The order requires the tech gi
Seven of eight earth system boundaries (ESBs) that are critical for stability of the planet’s health and survival of species have already been crossed, said a research paper by the Earth Commission published in Nature journal on May 31, suggesting risks posed by climate crisis on humankind. According to scientists’ evaluation, ESB transgression is spatially widespread, with two or more ESBs already transgressed throughout 52 percent of the land area on the planet and impacting 86 percent of the population. India, along with other South Asian countries, Europe and parts of Africa, is an