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☆ Travel news: Underwater metro routes and marine discoveries
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Maureen O'Hare | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Get the latest news in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments. CNN —Incredible Italian home makeovers, jaw-dropping marine discoveries and ritzy new trains in Scotland and Taiwan: We’ve got all this and more in our latest roundup of news and features from CNN Travel. Massachusetts couple Doug and Leah Johnson renovated a 14th-century apartment in the town of Vasanello in Lazio that they bought for less than $14,000. Life on the railsAustralia and India are celebrating milestones in underwater travel. And on April 12, Kolkata’s new underwater metro route completed its maiden run, ahead of opening to the public in November.

☆ Fact Check-Ocean pulled to Earth by force of gravity
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-27 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The ocean is pulled down to Earth due to gravity, despite a viral post shared online falsely claiming that the planet’s oceans are held inside a “container,” with Antarctica forming the external ridge. The posts allude to flat earth conspiracies. OUR CONTAINER.”The ocean is pulled down to the irregular ellipsoid-shaped Earth due to gravity (here), however, and is not held together by containers on a flat surface. On Earth, per the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), “gravity pulls all objects ‘downward’ toward the center of the planet” (bit.ly/41XcxYq). The ocean is pulled to Earth due to gravity.

The northern and southern lights, which are usually confined to the Arctic and Antarctica, have generated awe and wonder for centuries. The northern lights were visible over St. Mary's lighthouse in Whitley Bay, England on Monday. The southern lights glowed over Lake Ellesmere on the outskirts of Christchurch, New Zealand on Monday. Over the next few years, the northern lights might appear further south more regularly, said Robert Massey, executive director at the Royal Astronomical Society. A National Weather Service employee took a photo of the northern lights in Maine on Sunday.

☆ Why I signed up to live on a cruise ship for three years
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-22 | by ( Francesca Street | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —When Sharon Lane heard about a cruise company offering a three-year-long voyage around the world, she immediately started fantasizing about life on board. While it’s long been Lane’s dream to live on a cruise ship full time, the steep cost has always been a barrier. I don’t know, the sky’s the limit.”Preparing for a new lifeSharon Lane will spend three years living on the MV Gemini cruise ship, pictured here. The 130-square-feet cabin has no window, but guests have been promised a screen that will broadcast live footage from outside the ship. Lane won’t disembark the ship in certain destinations, like Antarctica, where the cold air might aggravate her lungs.

☆ 'It totally backfired': The pitfalls of Alzheimer's genetic testing
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Julie Steenhuysen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +8 min

CHICAGO, April 21 (Reuters) - Wendy Nelson watched her mother slowly die of Alzheimer's disease, unable to move or swallow at the end. When her father's memory began to fail a year later, one of her two sisters doubted it could be Alzheimer's, Nelson said. THE TESTING REVOLUTIONUntil recently, most doctors tended not to order genetic tests to determine Alzheimer's risk, because there were no effective treatments to slow or prevent the disease. US regulators recommend genetic testing before starting treatment with Leqembi. Some members of families with increased genetic risk of Alzheimer's say it might be better not to know at all.

☆ Earth Day 2023: The world just failed its annual health checkup
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Laura Paddison | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

The WMO’s annual State of the Climate Report, published Friday ahead of Earth Day, is essentially a health checkup for the world. Global sea levels climbed to the highest on record due to melting glaciers and warming oceans, which expand as they heat up. “Communities and countries which have contributed least to climate change suffer disproportionately.”A man uses a hand fan in a park in central Madrid during a heatwave, on August 2, 2022. The hottest year on record, 2016, was the result of a strong El Niño and climate change, said Baddour. “This is really a wake up call that climate change isn’t a future problem, it is a current problem.

☆ Pace of rise in global sea level has doubled, UN climate report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Emma Farge | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/2] The remains of houses are pictured as rising sea levels destroy homes built along the shoreline, forcing villagers to relocate, in El Bosque, Mexico, November 7, 2022. Extreme glacier melt and record ocean heat levels - which cause water to expand - contributed to an average rise in sea levels of 4.62mm a year between 2013-2022, the U.N. agency said in a major report detailing the havoc of climate change. "We have already lost this melting of glaciers game and sea level rise game so that's bad news," WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas told a press conference. Rising sea levels threaten some coastal cities and the very existence of low-lying states such as the island of Tuvalu - which plans to build a digital version of itself in case it is submerged. Climate scientists have warned that the world could breach a new average temperature record in 2023 or 2024, fuelled by climate change and the anticipated return of warming El Niño conditions.

☆ Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets are melting rapidly and driving sea level rise, new satellite data finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Jack Guy | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —The Earth’s ice sheets lost enough ice over the last 30 years to create an ice cube 12 miles high, according to new research. They found that ice sheet melting has increased six-fold over the past 30 years, as record levels of planet-heating pollution push up global temperatures. The worst year for ice sheet loss was 2019, the report found, when the ice sheets lost around 675 billion tons of ice. Ice sheet melting now accounts for a quarter of all sea level rise – a fivefold increase since the 1990s. Otosaka expects the Greenland ice sheet to continue losing ice, but said it’s not yet clear what might happen to the Antarctic ice sheet.

CNN —China is making “significant progress” building the country’s fifth research facility in Antarctica after a several years-long lull in construction, according to a report by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). The site – a research station China has hailed as a means to expand its scientific investigation in the Antarctic – could also be used to enhance the country’s intelligence collection, according to CSIS. In February 2020, a team of US inspectors visited the station, where they were hosted by station leader Wang Zhechao of the Polar Research Institute of China. China has established four scientific research bases in Antarctica since 1984, according to the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Under the 1959 treaty Antarctic Treaty, to which China is party, activities on the continent are restricted to “peaceful purposes.”Military personnel are allowed to conduct scientific research, but may not set up bases, test weapons of carry out maneuvers.

☆ China ramps up construction on new Antarctic station, report says
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Michael Martina | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

[1/3] A satellite view with overlays shows areas to be developed at the new Chinese station under construction, on Inexpressible Island, Antarctica, January 2, 2023. CSIS told Reuters that while the U.S. still maintains a larger research presence in Antarctica – including the biggest facility in its McMurdo station – China's footprint is growing faster. China's fifth station will be 200 miles (320 km) from the McMurdo station, it said. Under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, to which China is party, activities on the continent are restricted to "peaceful purposes." A 2022 Pentagon report said China's new Antarctic infrastructure was likely intended in part to strengthen its future claims to natural resources and maritime access and improve PLA capabilities.

☆ China ramps up construction on new Antarctic station –report
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-18 | by ( Michael Martina | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

☆ Fact Check-Images purporting to show ancient alien artifacts unearthed during World War Two are AI-generated
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-17 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Images created through AI of ancient alien artifacts alongside Nazi soldiers have been shared online, with some claiming they show secret discoveries in Antarctica or Egypt. Similar posts were shared on Facebook (here) and (here). The images, however, can be traced back to the Instagram page of Infinite Odyssey, an online magazine that claims to be “the first fully A.I. The post sharing the images carries a disclaimer that reads “WRITTEN BY A.I. Images purporting to show ancient alien artifacts were generated through AI.

☆ Medieval monks' observations of the moon reveal unexpected
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

CNN —Medieval observations of the moon are helping present-day researchers study a mysterious cluster of volcanic eruptions on Earth. Monks, and other scribes from the era, made detailed descriptions of lunar eclipses, when the moon is fully in Earth’s shadow. Guillet believes medieval manuscripts contain an important source of information about a string of large but little-understood volcanic eruptions on Earth. These dates correspond with five major volcanic eruptions identified from traces of volcanic ash found in polar ice cores — in 1108, 1171, 1230, 1257 and 1276. “These eruptions were significantly more powerful than some of the most well-known volcanic eruptions in recent history,” Guillet said.

☆ Rising Antarctic ice melt will dramatically slow global ocean flows, study finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-29 | by ( David Stanway | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

REUTERS/Natalie Thomas/SINGAPORE, March 29 (Reuters) - Rapidly melting Antarctic ice is dramatically slowing down the flow of water through the world's oceans, and could have a disastrous impact on global climate, the marine food chain and even the stability of ice shelves, new research has found. The "overturning circulation" of the oceans, driven by the movement of denser water towards the sea floor, helps deliver heat, carbon, oxygen and vital nutrients around the globe. But deep ocean water flows from the Antarctic could decline by 40% by 2050, according to a study published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. Ocean overturning allows nutrients to rise up from the bottom, with the Southern Ocean supporting about three-quarters of global phytoplankton production, the base of the food chain, said a second study co-author, Steve Rintoul. Reporting by David Stanway; Additional reporting by Gloria Dickie in London; Editing by Alex RichardsonOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ The Earth has tilted on its axis differently over the last few decades due to melting ice caps
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-21 | by ( Aylin Woodward | Marianne Guenot | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Earth's axis — the invisible line around which it spins — is bookended by the north and south poles. But their geographic locations aren't fixed: As the Earth's axis moves, so do the poles. If you average out thousands of years of observation the Earth's axis points in a single direction — toward the North Star, also known as Polaris. The recent change to Earth's axis won't affect our everyday lives, but it could slightly tweak the length of our days. But let's be clear that this would be a tiny, tiny, tiny effect," he said.

☆ Health experts call for a ban on toxic 'forever chemicals' after EPA moves to cut them from tap water
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-18 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | Jessica Orwig | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Toxic PFAS, aka "forever chemicals," are in water, food, furniture, and clothes across the US. The EPA's new proposal to limit the substances in drinking water is a step in the right direction. On Tuesday the US Environmental Protection Agency proposed strict limits on six per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water. The chemicals are prolific in everyday human environments — in our water, food, air, and even the dust in our homes. That means more and more of them are getting into the environment — and drinking water — every day.

☆ I'm a travel influencer who's sailed to Antarctica 3 times. It's a notoriously treacherous journey — but it's so worth it.
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Fortesa Latifi | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

The Drake Passage is an ocean passage ships take to Antarctica. Alyssa Ramos, a travel influencer, has crossed it three times back and forth — and keeps going back. As a travel influencer, I've always had those bucket list destinations that are just dreams to me. The Drake Passage is a body of water between the southern edge of South America and the lonely continent of Antarctica. You just have to accept that you're going to throw up and be prepared with anti-nausea medications.

☆ 'You're in the room for a reason': How to stop doubting yourself at work, says Linda Fagan, first woman commandant of the Coast Guard
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +3 min

She knew she'd join the Coast Guard as a teenager, but "my long-term plan was graduate, be an officer," she says. Here's how she built her legacy in the Coast Guard, as well as her advice for any woman doubting herself at work. "You can't be on the water in New England and not notice the Coast Guard," she says. As a sophomore in high school, she learned there was a Coast Guard Academy where she could receive a bachelor's then serve in the Coast Guard herself. Women had only begun to be let into the Coast Guard Academy in 1976, just five years before she herself would attend.

☆ Meet 6 trailblazers in the NFL, Coast Guard and more: 'Success isn't being the first,' it's having 'many others follow'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Morgan Smith Gili Malinsky Ashton Jackson Jennifer Liu | Morgan Smith | Gili Malinsky | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

"There was something about the Coast Guard, the missions, seeing the small boats that just spoke to me," she says. Fagan ended up attending the U.S. Coast Guard Academy and her first tour of duty in 1985 took her to Antarctica. From there, the Coast Guard would offer a new assignment every couple of years. Of all 32 teams in the NFL, less than 10 have a Black or female president. "To me, the definition of success isn't being the first — it's to have many, many others follow behind you."

☆ Take a Plunge Under Antarctica’s Ice, With Robots
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-03 | by ( Daniela Hernandez | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Glaciologists are using robots to capture close-up views of ice shelves, floating platforms of ice that slow down the flow of ice into the ocean. They can use the measurements robots collect to improve climate models that predict sea-level rise. Icefin/NASA PSTAR RISE UP/Schmidt/Dicheck

☆ Fact Check-Images of ‘spaceship’ in Antarctica were created by a digital artist
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-28 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Two digitally created images depicting a flying saucer covered in snow have been shared on social media alongside claims they are “leaked” photographs of a spaceship found in Antarctica circa “1945-1950.”Examples are viewable on Twitter (here) and Instagram (here) . Reuters, however, found higher-resolution versions of the images in Facebook groups dedicated to showcasing digital artworks (here) (here) . User Zach Heishman, who posted the content to the Facebook groups AI Art Universe and AI Generated Art, has described himself as the creator of the images (ibb.co/cyxYGvJ). These images were digitally created, they are not authentic historic photographs of a spaceship found in Antarctica. Update Feb. 28, 2023: Replacing paragraph 5 to include response from digital artistThis article was produced by the Reuters Fact Check team.

☆ Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk have been publicly criticizing each other for years — but now Meta is mirroring Twitter
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-25 | by ( Hallam Bullock | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

With the launch of Meta Verified, Mark Zuckerberg is appearing more like Elon Musk by the day. Now, let's look at why people are starting to say that Zuckerberg "idolizes Elon Musk." With the announcement of Meta Verified, Meta's new verification subscription service for Facebook and Instagram, many have drawn comparisons between Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. Schilsky added: "I think it's clear that Mark Zuckerberg idolizes Elon Musk." Black VCs like Beta Boom's Kimmy Paluch are addressing long-standing diversity, equity, and inclusion issues in the industry head-on.

☆ These high school sweethearts have visited 112 countries. Here's how they pay for it on a budget
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-24 | by ( Audrey Wan | Chris Dwyer | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +8 min

Hudson and Emily Crider have visited 112 countries, but their journey together began long before that. Hudson and Emily Crider in high school. Hudson and Emily Crider on a safari in Kenya, Africa. Hudson and Emily Crider camping during their self-drive safari in the Serengeti in Tanzania. Hudson and Emily Crider

☆ Animals full of PFAS 'forever chemicals' have been found on every continent except Antarctica, new report finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-22 | by ( Morgan Mcfall-Johnsen | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Animals, birds, and fish across the planet are contaminated with forever chemicals, a new report found. Though they're useful for resisting water, heat, and stains, PFAS do not break down in the environment, earning them the "forever chemicals" nickname. The new report suggests that contamination from forever chemicals may pose yet another threat to many species' survival. Cleaning up these emission sites is key to stopping more forever chemicals from building in the environment. "It will take regulatory action to move the entire market and country away from dependence on these chemicals," Andrews said.

☆ Ukraine’s Troops Came From Concert Halls and Antarctic Labs, and It Still Needs More Fighters
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-19 | by ( Alistair Macdonald | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

BAKHMUT, Ukraine—A scientist who swapped Antarctica for Bakhmut, a famed ballet dancer and the actor who dubbed Captain America into Ukrainian all left stellar careers to fight on the front-line. All three ended up hospitalized or dead, highlighting that while ordinary Ukrainians are committed, fighting with an improvised army poses danger not only for combatants but also for Ukraine’s prospects on the battlefield as it mobilizes fresh volunteers and conscripts.

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