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☆ Amsterdam to Cruises: ‘Party Time Is Over’
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-21 | by ( Isabella Kwai | More About Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Amsterdam will bar cruise ships from docking in the city center as part of a broader effort to curb pollution and reduce the large numbers of tourists who visit the Dutch capital. The City Council passed a proposal on Thursday to close a terminal where more than a hundred cruise ships dock each year not far from the central train station. “The motivation of the proposal from the City Council was to reduce the number of tourists, but also for environmental reasons,” Amsterdam’s deputy mayor, Hester van Buren, said in a statement on Friday. The cruise ship measure was the latest attempt by Amsterdam to cap the number of visitors and crack down on bad behavior as the tourism industry has rebounded, addressing residents’ longstanding grievances linked to overcrowding and rowdy tourists. Last year, the city drew about 20 million visitors and in 2021, close to nine million tourists came either for a day trip or overnight, according to city data.

Persons: ”, Hester van Buren Organizations: The City Council, City Council Locations: Amsterdam, The

Hundreds of protesters stormed the Swedish Embassy in Baghdad early Thursday and set fire to parts of it ahead of a demonstration outside the Iraqi Embassy in Sweden, where recent Quran burnings have inflamed anger in the Muslim world. At the latest demonstration in Sweden on Thursday, Mr. Momika and another protester kicked around copies of the Quran and stomped on a replica of the Iraqi flag. In response, Iraq’s prime minister, Mohammed Shia al-Sudani, expelled the Swedish ambassador and directed Iraq’s chargé d’affairs to withdraw from the Iraqi embassy in Sweden, a government spokesman said. The severing of diplomatic relations came “in response to the repeated permission of the Swedish government to burn the Noble Qur’an, insult Islamic sanctities and burn the Iraqi flag,” Mr. al-Sudani said in a tweet. The Iraqi government also suspended the operating license in the country of the Swedish telecommunications company Ericsson.

Persons: Salwan, Eid, Momika, Mohammed Shia, Iraq’s, d’affairs, Mr, Sudani Organizations: Iraqi Embassy, Ericsson Locations: Swedish, Baghdad, Iraqi, Sweden, Stockholm

☆ With Offices Vacant, London’s Canary Wharf Seeks Growth Beyond Banking
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-14 | by ( Isabella Kwai | More About Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The gleaming skyscrapers of London’s east skyline, built almost 40 years ago, are home to the headquarters of the world’s biggest banks and tens of thousands of their office workers. As firms adjust to hybrid work, many are downsizing their physical footprint. HSBC became the latest, announcing recently that it would leave its longtime headquarters in Canary Wharf in late 2026 and move its 8,000 employees to a smaller space in London’s central banking district about three miles to the west. Its departure, on the heels of several other firms, has spurred speculation over the future of a district. The move comes as the owners of Canary Wharf, a purpose-built, 128-acre financial services hub, are pivoting to re-energize it, adding more residences, building labs to lure life-sciences groups and hosting cultural shows and activities.

Organizations: HSBC Locations: London’s, Canary, Canary Wharf

☆ Spain Rescues Migrants After Search for Missing Boat
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-10 | by ( Isabella Kwai | More About Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The migrants were “in good health” on a rescue vessel headed for Arguineguin, a coastal town on Gran Canaria, the Spanish authorities said. They declined to specify where the migrants had traveled from but said they were sub-Saharan Africa. Little more was known about the boats reported missing in Senegal, which is about 1,000 miles away from the Canary Islands. Many migrants have died in recent years trying to cross the Atlantic and the Mediterranean in attempts to get to Europe. In one of the worst such maritime tragedies, last month a boat that set sail from Libya capsized, killing hundreds of people off the coast of Greece.

Persons: Caminando Fronteras, Helena Maleno Garzón, ”, Maleno Garzón Organizations: Gran Canaria Locations: Gran, Spanish, Africa, Saharan Africa, Senegal, Canary, Europe, Libya, Greece

☆ ‘Urban Explorers’ and Accused Spies Chafe in Legal Limbo in Albania
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

“It’s quite similar to becoming a cat,” he said of his existence, wearing a cat T-shirt on a reporter’s recent visit to the apartment. “You depend on people bringing you food.”Mr. Zorin’s dismantled bicycle is stowed away in the apartment, and Ms. Timofeyeva pointed to it wryly as evidence of his innocence. According to Mr. Zorin, the group had chosen the abandoned arms factory because it looked run down, unaware that it was a military facility. Separated from the others after they entered the plant, Mr. Zorin said he was approached by two men and did not realize they were guards. During a police interrogation, which Mr. Zorin said lasted until the early hours of the following day, officers accused him of being a Russian spy and did not believe he was just an urban explorer.

Persons: “, ”, Mr, Timofeyeva, Zorin Locations: Russian

☆ France Arrests Over 1,300 in Unrest on Eve of Slain Teenager’s Funeral
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-01 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The authorities in France have stepped up their efforts to contain the unrest that has broken out this past week over the deadly police shooting of a 17-year-old, with officers arresting more than 1,300 protesters overnight, according to the Interior Ministry. The Interior Ministry described the overnight violence as being of a “lower intensity” than in previous nights, but scenes of unrest and clashes still gripped places like Marseille and Lyon. Since Tuesday, across France hundreds of cars have been set on fire, buildings have been damaged and stores in some cities have been looted. The police arrested 1,311 people overnight, and the Interior Ministry said that 79 officers had been injured. Over 45,000 officers, along with armored vehicles and specialty police units, were mobilized to clamp down on the riots.

Organizations: Interior Ministry Locations: France, Nanterre, Paris, Marseille, Lyon

☆ Burning of Quran in Stockholm Sparks Outrage in Muslim World
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( Alissa J. Rubin | Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The burning of a Quran outside a mosque in Sweden on one of the holiest days in Islam sparked outrage Wednesday in many Muslim countries and widespread condemnations of the Swedish authorities. The crowd became increasingly angry, scaling the wall surrounding the compound and pushing through an external gate. There was no sign that Iraqi diplomatic police forces attempted to stop them. The protesters did not enter the embassy itself, which was closed for the Islamic holiday, and eventually left. Iraq’s foreign ministry also condemned Sweden “for allowing an extremist to burn a copy of the holy Quran.”

Persons: Muqtada, Sadr, ” Locations: Sweden, Iraq, Swedish, Baghdad, Muqtada al, Sadr, Islam

☆ Andrew Tate Indicted on Charges of Human Trafficking in Romania
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-20 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Andrew Tate, an antagonistic online personality known for his misogyny, has been indicted in Romania on charges including human trafficking and forming an organized criminal group related to the abuse of women, prosecutors there said in a statement on Tuesday. Mr. Tate, 36, a British American former kickboxer, had been living in Romania and was arrested there in December last year along with his younger brother, Tristan Tate, and two Romanian women. They were initially held in a Bucharest jail. The four have been under house arrest since April as investigations continued into the charges that were laid against them after they were arrested, which included a rape charge against one suspect as well as human trafficking and forming an organized criminal group. With the indictment, they will now face a trial in a Bucharest court, thought it was unclear when that would take place.

Persons: Andrew Tate, Tate, Tristan Tate Locations: Romania, British American, Bucharest

Workers toiled over the weekend to clear the wreck and restore the mangled tracks. The authorities allowed some stranded trains, limited to a speed of about six miles an hour, to run past the site on Monday, though two affected side lines remained inactive. The suspended train service had hindered families of the victims from traveling to the town of the crash, Balasore in Odisha State, and claiming their loved ones. Some had arrived via special train services, others in cars on Monday morning provided by their local governments. Still more were making the grim journey, and officials said that the focus now was formally identifying the last of the victims.

Organizations: Workers Locations: Odisha State

☆ Rise in Sightings of Honeybee Swarms Has U.K. Beekeepers Scrambling
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-31 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The sight is one that beekeepers say is understandably intimidating to the ordinary person out for a walk: a sliver of sky suddenly darkening amid the collective roar of thousands of honeybees before they cluster on branches or bushes. In Britain, the behavior, known as swarming, typically takes place from May to July and is a natural process in which a honeybee colony splits in half and leaves with a queen bee in search of a new home. But the country is currently experiencing a greater numbers of sightings for this time of year, most likely thanks to unseasonably warm weather that followed a cold, wet spell. As a result, beekeepers and pest-control workers who catch the swarms are reporting a surge in calls for their help as members of the public spot the clusters in backyards, in chimneys and even on barriers along city streets. “We’re fully booked for the next four weeks,” said Rob Davies, a pest controller in Shropshire, in central England, who specializes in dismantling and rebuilding structures like chimneys to rescue honeybees, adding that he was getting “ridiculous” volumes of people calling for assistance.

Persons: We’re, ”, Rob Davies Locations: Britain, backyards, Shropshire, England

☆ England’s Water Companies Vow to Clean Up Their Sewage Dumping Act
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

England’s rivers and coastlines have long endured a foul problem — an astounding release of untreated sewage by water companies, some of it illegal, which critics say has sickened swimmers and polluted the country’s critical ecosystems. “It’s disgusting when you’re in the water and you see and smell sewage,” said Josh Harris, a spokesman for Surfers Against Sewage, a charity that monitors pollution and is among several groups leading an intensifying public outcry against the contamination of England’s waterways. Private water and sewage companies in England on Thursday admitted that they had not done enough to address the outpouring of sewage and announced a plan totaling 10 billion pounds, or about $12.4 billion, to modernize the country’s sewers. Last year alone, the companies sent sewage into rivers and seas for more than 1.75 million hours, amounting to 301,091 spills overall, or an average of 825 a day, according to government data, a slight reduction compared with the previous year largely because of drier weather, not preventive action from water companies, England’s Environment Agency said.

☆ What’s in Our Queue? bell hooks and More
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-11 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

What’s in Our Queue? bell hooks and MoreI’m a reporter covering international breaking news. When I’m not keeping abreast of geopolitics and current affairs, I try to escape into the inner lives of other human beings. Here are five things I have been watching, listening to and reading →

☆ What Will Happen During the Coronation
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-06 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

King Charles III, Britain’s first new monarch in 70 years, will be crowned on Saturday in a ceremony at Westminster Abbey in London. Here’s what to expect for the day. (All times are local time in Britain.) The day’s events are expected to involve 7,000 parading troops — the largest procession at a state event since the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II in 1953. 10:20 a.m. Charles and Camilla, the queen consort, will leave Buckingham Palace in a horse-drawn stage coach and arrive at Westminster Abbey, a journey that is scheduled to take 33 minutes.

☆ What to Know About the U.S.-Philippines Alliance
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-01 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden is meeting President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines on Monday at the White House, part of a four-day U.S. visit by Mr. Marcos intended to signal a strengthening alliance between the two countries. Former President Rodrigo Duterte of the Philippines was more conciliatory than his predecessors toward China and at times more confrontational with the United States. Mr. Marcos, elected last year, has moved closer to Washington. Here’s a brief breakdown of the relationship between the United States and the Philippines, which have long had a close — though at times unsteady — relationship:Are the U.S. and the Philippines allies? The Philippines, the oldest American treaty ally in the Asia-Pacific region, has long been a strategic anchor for American influence and military power in the western Pacific, but it is a relationship complicated by historic grievances.

☆ London’s Coronation Countdown: Travelers Arrive, Others Flee
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-29 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

U.S. travelers — Britain’s biggest inbound market — are expected to lead next week’s swell of arrivals. Flight bookings from the United States to Britain are about 10 percent higher in May compared to in May 2019, before the pandemic, according to VisitBritain. According to Hopper, the booking app, they are also more expensive — round-trip airfares from the United States to London over coronation weekend averaged $733 in mid-April, 21 percent higher than a year earlier. After the coronation dates were announced, searches for Airbnb rentals in London during the coronation weekend surged, according to the company, which reported U.S. travelers among the top guests in London around the coronation dates, along with travelers from Britain, France, Australia and Germany (the company declined to share booking numbers). By late March, hotel bookings in London on the booking platform Expedia were 60 percent higher for the coronation weekend compared to the same time last year.

☆ A Rocket Took Off From Sweden. Part of It Landed in Norway.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-26 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

When Sweden sent a research rocket 155 miles into the air at 7:20 a.m on Monday, the expectation was that it would land in the same country from which it had been launched. The route taken by the TEXUS-58 rocket on its return from zero gravity to the Esrange Space Center was longer than anticipated, and part of it parachuted down 25 miles northwest of its original target, in a mountain range. As it happens, that turned out to be in Norway. And although nobody was injured, the mishap was enough to cause some rare diplomatic friction between the two Scandinavian neighbors. The rocket part that came down in the far northern municipality of Malselv, roughly nine miles into Norwegian territory, was about 13 feet long and weighed about 1,650 pounds.

☆ Fighting Intensifies in Khartoum as Sudan Cease-Fires Fail
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Isabella Kwai | Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Fighting in Sudan intensified on Thursday morning as a bombardment by warplanes in the center of the capital, Khartoum, amounted to one of the most fearsome assaults yet in the violent days-long clashes. With two generals vying for power over the country, residents in Khartoum said that the fighting had destroyed hospitals, airfields and homes, and left civilians caught in the crossfire. Despite repeated international calls for a cease-fire, proposed pauses in the fighting have not held. A shaky truce that allowed some residents to flee from parts of Khartoum on Wednesday night has since collapsed. And concerns are mounting that the chaos could draw nearby nations — including Egypt, which has troops in Sudan; Chad; Ethiopia; and Libya — into the conflict.

☆ What We Know About the Fighting in Sudan
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-20 | by ( Isabella Kwai | Cora Engelbrecht | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

☆ Booking the Paris Olympics for 2024? What You Need to Know.
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-06 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

How do I buy tickets? Ticket sales for the Paris Olympics’ almost 10 million spectator spots have already begun, but it’s not too late to snag some of your own. The first phase of sales, in which some 3.25 million tickets were sold, ended in March. If you missed that, don’t worry: There’s still time to enter the draw for the second phase of ticket sales, which closes on April 20 at 6 p.m. Central European Time. There are more than 750 events to choose from, so perusing the Paris 2024 calendar, seating plans and ticket prices ahead of booking is a good idea.

☆ On the Scene: London Reacts to Truss News
▼ + stars: | 2022-10-20 | by ( Isabella Kwai | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

On the Scene: London Reacts to Truss NewsHenry Nicholls/ReutersThe announcement from Prime Minister Liz Truss of Britain that she would resign is the latest episode of political instability in the U.K. I combed the rainy streets in London to gauge people’s reactions. Here’s what I saw →

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