Sunday, August 25

In case you missed it, our Architecture section in Your News Hub Travel is finally out, and we have two fascinating articles about a greener highway coming to Dubai and a massive stadium being built in Morocco. You can check out more on those in the first two expandables below.

New Travel article: Urban design firm URB is planning to build a massive green highway along Dubai's Sheikh Zayed Road, among other sustainability-themed projects.

You can read more into this Travel article here.

New Travel article: Morocco has unveiled their first renderings of a massive new stadium coming near Casablanca for the 2030 FIFA World Cup, and it will be the world's largest soccer stadium once completed.

You can read more into this Travel article here.

Israel struck Hezbollah in Lebanon last night, claiming that it was in self-defense after a major attack by Hezbollah on the same day.

Back on July 30, Israel conducted operations in both Iran and Lebanon that killed major Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Hezbollah senior commander Fuad Shukr, and they have been awaiting a response from Hezbollah for weeks. You can read more into that incident here. Shukr was one of Hezbollah's founders and maintained his position as military chief of staff until his death, which prompted Hezbollah to vow to retaliate strongly.

Then, early this morning, the tension snapped. Israel sent over 40 missiles and dozens of drones into Lebanon as pre-emptive strike, hitting several Hezbollah targets. They claimed that they knew a Hezbollah attack was on the way, and responded before the attack even began. In retaliation, 320 rockets and numerous drones from Hezbollah arrived in Israel during the day, striking 11 military targets. Many were struck down by Israel, but numerous others slipped through their defenses, and Hezbollah considered the operation a complete success. Israel continued to strike southern Lebanon throughout the day, but Hezbollah is preparing more drones and strikes that will hit areas further south in Israel.

Israel’s defense minister, Yoav Gallant, has declared a state of emergency for the next 48 hours (beginning early this morning), and Tel Aviv's Ben Gurion Airport was temporarily shut down for a couple of hours after the strikes. Air raid sirens blared across northern Israel as they prepared for Hezbollah's next round of attacks, which could come at any moment. However, it will be up to Israel to ensure that the conflict does not escalate into another full-out war.

Preliminary investigations have concluded that the sinking of British tech billionaire Mike Lynch's yacht was not because of a waterspout, and Italian authorities are opening a manslaughter investigation.

The yacht, named Bayesian, was sailing near the coast of the Italian island of Sicily when it suddenly sank extremely quickly in the middle of a storm. While the Italian Coast Guard reported that it was because of a waterspout, experts thought otherwise-- another boat out in the storm had been sailing in front of it, and they noticed that when they looked back at Bayesian after 16 minutes of staring ahead, it had disappeared.

It had originally been out there for a celebration sailing trip after Mike Lynch was acquitted from a recent trial involving the sale of his company, Autonomy, to Hewlett-Packard. Out of the original 22 people onboard, made up of 12 passengers and 10 crew, 15 survivors managed to escape in a lifeboat. One body, confirmed to be the ship's chef, was found immediately, while six others remained missing until yesterday. You can read more about the initial sinking in our previous daily update here.

Then, five bodies were found in one cabin, and another sixth missing body, confirmed to be Lynch's 18 year old daughter Hannah, was found on Friday. You can read more about the search-and-rescue operation in our previous daily update here.

Because of its quick sinking, experts determined that it was not a waterspout that sank the boat, but crew negligence. They stated that if some hatches were left open, it could have contributed to the rapid sinking of the ship, which could be due to being inebriated or just carelessness. However, once the crew arrived into Italy after being rescued, none of them went through any drug or alcohol tests because of their terrible state.

Italian authorities have confirmed that they will not know the true cause of the sinking until Bayesian is fully recovered-- operations on bringing up the sunken yacht can commence now that all of the bodies have been found. Investigations will begin as soon as the boat comes up, but the manslaughter case is continuing.

Fact of the Day (Reader's Digest): The temperature of Earth’s core is almost 11,000 degrees Fahrenheit-- as hot as the surface of the sun. It is made up of mainly iron (85%) and nickel (5%), but also includes what are called siderophiles -- elements that dissolve in iron -- including gold, platinum, and cobalt. It also contains a massive amount of sulfur-- 90% of all sulfur on Earth is found in its molten core.

Quote of the Day (Gracious Quotes): We never know the worth of water till the well is dry. (Thomas Fuller)

Word of the Day (Merriam-Webster): Jeremiad (noun)- Jeremiad refers to a long cautionary or angry rant about something. It can also refer to a similarly prolonged lamentation, or expression of great sorrow or deep sadness.

In a Sentence: His jeremiad about trivial problems with the campsite didn’t go over well with his friends.