The United Nations has said that the world’s glaciers dissipated significantly last year and many of them will disappear. It added that saving the glaciers is essentially a lost cause as climate change indicators have reached record highs. The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) underlined that the last eight years have been the warmest ever observed and greenhouse gas concentrations, such as carbon dioxide, have increased tremendously. “Antarctic sea ice fell to its lowest extent on record and the melting of some European glaciers was, literally, off the charts,” the WMO said in
A 24,500-square-feet plot in Jumeirah Bay in Dubai has sold for 125 million dirham ($34 million or ₹278 crore), making it the most expensive plot to be sold in the UAE, says a report. Worth 5,100 dirham per square foot, the plot has been sold to an international buyer, who will build a mansion on the plot, the report adds. Earlier, the most expensive land deal in the UAE was 91 million dirham ($24 million), according to property consultant Knight Frank. The sale “solidifies the island’s status as a super-prime destination,” Knight Frank said in a press release announcing the deal.
Skywatchers in Europe, Asia and North America were treated on the night of April 23 to witness the most widespread displays of the aurora borealis (northern lights or) since the autumn solar storms of 2003. Similar impressive shows of the aurora australis (southern lights) were seen in Australia and New Zealand. The widespread international display of lights was due to a severe solar storm. An intense solar storm has the northern lights gracing the skies farther south than usual. A blast of superhot material from the sun recently threw sweltering gases known as plasma towards Earth at abou
India’s first water-based metro, Kochi Water Metro recorded a footfall of 6,559 passengers on the first day of service. The water metro was formally inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday, April 25. The commercial operations started at 7 am on Wednesday and closed at 8 pm. Initially, the service — an eight electric-hybrid boats — will ply on two routes of High Court-Vypin and Vyttila- Kakkanad. On its first day, the water metro operated every 15 minutes in the High Court-Vypin route from both terminals. The service on the Vyttila-Kakkanad route began on Thursday. A
A portrait by Anglo-Hungarian painter Philip de Laszlo of two Indian soldiers who fought in World War-I was placed under a temporary export bar by the government of the United Kingdom. It has been done to allow time for a UK institution to acquire the work to prevent it leaving the country. The ₹6.6-crore unfinished painting depicts cavalry officers Jagat Singh and Man Singh. The unfinished portrait is valued at around GBP 650,000. The painting is extremely rare in depicting active Indian participants in the First World War. It shows cavalry officers Risaldar Jagat Singh and Risaldar Man
Japan, South Korea and the United States have conducted a joint missile defence exercise directed at countering North Korea’s growing nuclear arsenal. South Korea and the US also launched separate bilateral drills on April 17 with about 110 warplanes, including advanced F-35 fighter jets, that will go on through April 28. North Korea had recently conducted one of its most aggressive weapons displays in years by flight-testing for the first time an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) powered by solid fuel. It is considered a more movable, harder-to-trace weapon and could directly ai
The Government of South Korea is looking at imposing tourism fees at Jeju Island, a destination famous for its blue skies and canola blossoms to never-ending coastal roads. The proposal is yet to be passed at the National Assembly of South Korea. Jeju Island has long been touted as the “Hawaii of Asia.” An increasingly popular holiday destination for domestic and foreign tourists, its booming tourism has also led to an overload of garbage and sewage. This has threatened the island’s marine ecosystem and the livelihood of its residents. Under the new plan, tourists are expected to pay
New York City topped a new list of the world’s wealthiest cities in 2023, according to the list compiled by London-based consultancy Henley & Partners. The US city is followed by Japan’s Tokyo and Silicon Valley’s Bay Area. Mumbai featured at the 21st position in the list, while Delhi, Bengaluru, Kolkata and Hyderabad too made to the list. The list covered 97 cities across nine regions worldwide (Africa, Australasia, CIS, East Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia) and has four Indian cities. It ranked the cities based on the number of
India is now the world’s most populous country, according to the United Nations. The country has surpassed China in population, says the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) report titled ‘The State of World Population Report, 2023’. The report found India's population to be 1.4286 billion, while China's population stands at 1.4257 billion, making a difference of 2.9 million. Since 1950 when the UN started to collect population data, it is the first time that India’s population has overtaken China’s population. New Delhi is the most populated city in India with 30 million in
There were a total of 1,93,230 Indian visitors to Singapore in the first three months of this year, which is about 3.5 times more than the 54,530 who arrived in 2022, according to Singapore Tourism Board (STB. Singapore arrivals are now at two-thirds pre-Covid levels as Indian visitors surge 350% from last year. The STB announced that the number of visitors to Singapore was far beyond expectations, with over 2.9 million arrivals in the first quarter of this year, which is 62 per cent of 2019’s first three months. Indians accounted for the fourth-largest source of tourist arrivals in t