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☆ Vietnam’s vintage 1960s steam locomotives are back on the rails
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-27 | by ( Jessie Yeung | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +3 min

CNN —Train enthusiasts and history buffs alike will soon have a new Southeast Asian destination to visit, as Vietnam prepares to unveil a revamped pair of vintage steam locomotives from the 1960s. The two Revolution Express locomotives are the last working steam trains in Vietnam, dating from when the country was still a French colony, according to hospitality brand Wafaifo Optimisers, which is managing the project. In recent years, the trains have been slowly restored to working condition using original parts, and crafted by the last remaining steam engineers working for the national railway system. Wafaifo & Revolution ExpressVietnam declared its independence from France on September 2, 1945 – a claim that neither France nor the United States recognized. By 1954, Vietnam signed the Geneva Accords – splitting the country into two halves, the Communist-led north and US-supported south, and kicking off the bloody Vietnam War, which would last nearly two decades.

Persons: Wafaifo Optimisers, Wafaifo, ”, Michael Gebbie Organizations: CNN, Revolution, Lang Co, Indochina Rail Tourist Service, Revolution Express, Geneva Accords, Communist, UNESCO Locations: Vietnam, Da Nang, Hue, Lang, Lang Co, Indochina, Revolution Express Vietnam, France, United States, Saigon, Chi Minh City

☆ This is the world’s rarest passport
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-01 | by ( Lola Méndez | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +7 min

CNN —The Sovereign Military Order of Malta – also known as the Knights of Malta – isn’t just a religious Catholic order with nearly 1,000 years of history. After World War II, the use of the diplomatic passport took on characteristics of passports used in other countries. Today, there are only around 500 of the diplomatic passports in circulation – making it the rarest passport in the world. robertharding/Alamy Stock Photo“The Order grants passports to members of their government for the duration of their mandate,” de Petri Testaferrata says. Once when I arrived at the Bangkok airport, a crowd of operators at passport control wanted to see my rare passport and take a selfie with it,” Balfour tells CNN.

Persons: Malta –, It’s, King, Spain, Napoleon Bonaparte, Daniel de Petri Testaferrata, Angelo, ” de Petri Testaferrata, Marianna Balfour, “ They’ve, ” Balfour, De Petri Testaferrata, John Kellerman, Anne, de Valette, Paschal II, ” Dane Munro, Don’t, Grand, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Caravaggio, St John’s, St John ”, Finnbarr Webster, Casa Rocca Piccola, de Piro, Munro, Marquis Nicholas de Piro, Knight of Malta Don Pietro Rosselli Organizations: CNN, Knights, Knights of Malta – isn’t, United Nations, Sovereign Council, Souverain, Fort, UNESCO, “, Casa Magazzini, National Library of Malta, of, Supreme, Grand Masters, of Ambassadors, St, Maltese Association of Locations: Malta, Knights of Malta, Jerusalem, Maltese, Rome, of Malta, St, robertharding, Bangkok, France, United Kingdom, United States, Knights, Valletta, Mdina, Knight

NEW YORK (AP) — Lorrie Moore, Naomi Klein and the Egyptian writer Ahmed Naji are among the finalists for National Book Critics Circle awards. Honorary prizes are going to Judy Blume and to a longtime ally of Blume's in the fight against book bans, the American Library Association. On Thursday, the critics circle announced nominees in seven competitive categories, ranging from fiction to debut book to best translation. The other fiction nominees are Justin Torres' “Blackouts,” winner of the National Book Award last fall; Teju Cole's “Tremor,” Daniel Mason's “North Woods”; and Marie NDiaye's “Vengeance Is Mine,” translated from the French by Jordan Stump. The book critics circle, founded in 1974, consists of hundreds of reviewers and editors from around the country.

Persons: — Lorrie Moore, Naomi Klein, Ahmed Naji, Judy Blume, Blume's, Moore, “, Justin Torres, ” Daniel Mason's “, Marie NDiaye's, Jordan Stump, Grace E, Tina Post's, ” Nicholas Dames, ”, Myriam Gurba's, Naji, Katharine Halls, Matthew Zapruder's “, ” Susan Kiyo Ito's, David Mas, Patricia Wakida, Jonathan Coe's Martin Luther King, Gregg Hecimovich, Hannah Crafts, Anna, Rachel Shteir's, Betty Friedan, Jonny Steinberg's, Winnie, Nelson, Saskia Hamilton's “, ” Kim Hyesoon's, ” Romeo Oriogun's, Robyn Schiff's, Kareem Abdulrahman, Natascha Bruce, Dorothy Tse's ”, Don Mee, Kim Hyesoon's, ” Todd, ” Maureen Freely’s, Tiffany, Indonesian Norman Erikson Pasaribu's, John Leonard, Ariana Benson's, ” Emilie Boone's, ” Victor Heringer's “, ” Tahir Hamut Izgil's, Donovan X, Martin J, Siegel's, Blume, Becca Rothfield, Marion Winik Organizations: American Library Association, Rotten, PEN America, U.S, Washington Locations: Egypt, Indonesian

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — Only a week into the job, the North Dakota Republican Party's executive director has resigned after a media outlet publicized some of his social media posts that were demeaning toward women and dismissed concerns raised by Black people about racism. The party announced the resignation Monday of Dave Roetman, who previously worked for the South Dakota GOP. But they also included crass comments, such as replying “she seems nice” to several posts of women in revealing clothing, and responding unfavorably to a woman in a plus-sized swimsuit. She said the search committee “looked at everything,” and that the disparaging posts were "kind of buried.”Sanford said Roetman resigned after they talked about his posts following the Forum article. Roetman had succeeded Samantha Holly, who resigned in September as executive director, citing “several obstacles that have made it difficult for me to continue working here” in her resignation letter.

Persons: Dave Roetman, “, Roetman, ” Roetman, I’m, Sandi Sanford, ” Sanford, Sanford, Samantha Holly, Summer Ballentine Organizations: N.D, North Dakota Republican, South Dakota GOP, News Service, Twitter, Associated Press Locations: BISMARCK, U.S, Jefferson City , Missouri

☆ Big startups are a bust so prestige investors are fighting for deals into tiny European companies
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-05 | by ( Callum Burroughs | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +4 min

Funding to European startups across the board dropped by almost 60% to $23 billion in the first six months of 2023, according to Crunchbase data. ElevenLabs, a London-based artificial intelligence startup founded by Google and Palantir alumni, pulled in $18 million at a $100 million valuation a year after it was founded. Mistral, another European startup set up by ex-Facebook and DeepMind staffers, raised $113 million a month after it was founded. AI has been of particular interest to investors with similar hype surrounding a deal for London-based text-to-voice startup ElevenLabs. Industry stakeholders believe that teams springing from already successful companies to set up their own startups will be very attractive with some predicting startups founded between 2022 and 2024 primed to be very in demand in the future.

Persons: Andreessen Horowitz, David Schreiber, Duco van, Pivot, Marc, Antoine Lacroix, Romain Libeau, Sifted, Filip Dames, Dames Organizations: Google, Mistral, Facebook, Ventures, Cocoa, Club, Cherry Ventures, Sequoia, Industry Locations: Europe, London, Paris, Berlin

☆ Nikola Jokic, an Elusive Superstar, Has a Hold on Denver
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-03 | by ( Sopan Deb | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

About two miles from downtown Denver, the yellows, oranges and reds of a spray-painted mural fill the cracked, gray cement wall of a building that houses a temporary employment agency. The mural rises about 20 feet and depicts an expressionless Nikola Jokic next to a much more emotive Jamal Murray, his eyes narrowed and arms extended as though he is wielding a bow and arrow. Thomas Evans, a 38-year-old artist, finished the mural of the two Denver Nuggets stars recently as the team prepared to begin the N.B.A. He said the mural inspired him and some collaborators to write the song as a tribute to Jokic. James is the biggest star in the N.B.A., with four championship rings, piles of endorsement deals and a constant presence on social media and television.

Persons: Nikola Jokic, Jamal Murray, Thomas Evans, Damien Lucero, Lucero, Dame, Dame D.O.L.L.A, Damian Lillard, ”, —, LeBron James, James Organizations: Denver Nuggets, Miami Heat, Portland Trail Blazers, Los Angeles Lakers, Nuggets, Western Conference Locations: Denver, Portland, Jokic

☆ Brave Dames and Melancholy Detectives
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( Sarah Weinman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

But Isaacs had never deliberately written a mystery series character until 2019’s “Takes One to Know One,” which introduced the former F.B.I. agent and occasional translator Corie Schottland Geller. Corie returns in BAD BAD SEYMOUR BROWN (Atlantic Monthly Press, 400 pp., $28), fully adjusted to life in her suburban Long IslandMcMansion with her handsome judge husband and daughter. license, and because of the pandemic, her parents have fled Queens and moved in, too. And like other Isaacs characters, Corie Geller is wonderful company for the reader.

☆ ‘Cinema’s First Nasty Women’ Review: The Defiant Dames of Silent Film
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-17 | by ( David Mermelstein | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ NWSL bans four coaches, fines teams after misconduct inquiry
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Jan 9 (Reuters) - The National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) has handed lifetime bans to four former coaches and fined the Chicago Red Stars and Portland Thorns $1.5 million and $1 million respectively, part of sweeping sanctions from a misconduct inquiry. An independent investigator brought in by U.S. Soccer found last year that abuse and misconduct "had become systemic" in the NWSL. Former North Carolina Courage coach Paul Riley, Racing Louisville coach Christy Holly, Chicago Red Stars coach Rory Dames and Washington Spirit coach Richie Burke will each be subject to "permanent exclusion" from the league. Arnim Whisler, who owns the Red Stars, and Thorns owner Merritt Paulson have agreed to sell their teams. The NWSL is compelling the owners of both teams to hire sporting staff that is "completely distinct" from their respective men's teams.

☆ More finance needed for Africa's energy transition opportunities
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Bate Felix | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

DAKAR, Dec 1 (Reuters) - Africa's transition to cleaner fuels and power generation presents investors with opportunities across the value chain, but more direct financing is needed on projects, the head of a South African independent power producer, said on Thursday. The South African government has unveiled a five-year $84 billion transition plan to cut carbon emissions and harness other economic opportunities from the energy transition. "We want to build an African energy champion based on clean energy. POOL OF CAPITALHowever, a key question that remains to be answered on African's energy transition and its capacity to adapt to the impact of climate change, is that of finance. Anibor Kragha, executive secretary of the African Refiners and Distributors Association, acknowledged that projects on the continent were struggling to tap available finance for energy transition.

☆ Energy crisis highlights need to broaden renewables' supply chain
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Laila Kearney | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

[1/2] Enel CEO Francesco Starace speaks during the Reuters NEXT Newsmaker event in New York City, New York, U.S., December 1, 2022. REUTERS/Brendan McDermidNEW YORK, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The global energy crisis sparked by war in Ukraine has underscored how parts of the renewables supply chain might face similar struggles if not quickly diversified, energy executives told the Reuters NEXT conference this week. "Out of this crisis, you learn that there are many other things that might follow this same pattern," said Francesco Starace, CEO of Italy's Enel (ENEI.MI), speaking at the conference on Thursday in New York. Starace noted how solar panels are produced overwhelmingly in China, saying that, and the manufacture of other energy components critical to transitioning from fossil fuels, are potential problem areas. South Africa, the most industrialized country in Africa, will need to add more than 50,000 megawatts (MW) of new power generation capacity to help meet demand and stabilize its grid, Brian Dames, chief executive officer of African Rainbow Energy & Power, said at a Reuters NEXT panel on Wednesday.

☆ Un tunel bombarbat în Primul Război Mondial, descoperit în Franța cu rămășițele a sute de soldați germani în el
▼ + stars: | 2021-03-22 | by ( ) www.jurnal.md time to read: +4 min

Pentru a aproviziona forțele germane și fără ca francezii să știe, trupele germane construiseră un tunel subteran de 300 de metri pe partea de nord a crestei. Moartea a râs de ce adunase și a stat de pază pe baricadă, astfel încât nimeni să nu poată scăpa”, a mai mărturisit el. În momentul în care s-a târât în întuneric, căutând apă, a dat peste o lanternă și a încercat să o aprindă. Tunelul descoperit în urma unei acțiuni ilegaleDe-a lungul timpului, copacii și frunzele au crescut deasupra câmpului de luptă, ascunzând locul unde fusese tunelul germanilor. El și echipa sa au găsit sute de canistre cu mască de gaz, două schelete, precum și o serie de arme.

Persons: francez Craonne, Karl Fißer, Fißer, Alain Malinowski, Pierre Organizations: Times Locations: Franța, francez, Paris, Aisne ., amator

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