A surgical team has successfully separated Syrian Siamese twins Ihsan and Bassam at the King Abdullah Specialized Children’s Hospital at King Abdulaziz Medical City of the National Guards in Riyadh.
The twins were attached in the lower chest, abdomen, liver, and intestine areas.
The surgery was done in implementation of the directives of the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, and Prince Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz, Crown Prince and Prime Minister.
Head of the surgical team, Advisor at the Royal Court, and Supervisor General of the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Center (KSrelief), Dr. Abdullah Al Rabeeah, expressed happiness following the successful separation of Ihsan and Bassam.
The surgery lasted seven hours and 30 minutes and took place in five phases with the participation of 26 Saudi doctors specialized in the separation of twins.
He noted that this is the 58th successful surgery of the Saudi program for the separation of Siamese twins, which enjoys the support and follow-up of the King and Crown Prince.
Al Rabeeah thanked the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques and the Crown Prince for the generous support provided for the program. He also thanked the members of the medical and surgical team for their efforts and perseverance.
For their part, the twins’ parents expressed their appreciation and gratitude to King Salman and the Crown Prince, and commended the Kingdom’s great humanitarian work.
As temperatures hit a record roasting 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) across multiple cities in China, how to shield one’s skin from the sun and stay cool has become a hot topic in the country.
Accessories such as hats boasting ultraviolet (UV) protection to coverings known as “facekinis” which hide most of the face apart from the eyes are selling out – sported mostly by women seeking head-to-toe protection, Reuters said.
The trend has led to a boom in local brands that focus on sun protection products, such as Bananain, Beneunder and OhSunny.
Other larger brands, such as Anta, Uniqlo , Lululemon and Decathalon have also added clothing such as UV tinted hats and jackets to their local product assortment.
Data from Shanghai-based China Insights Consultancy shows that China’s sun protection apparel market will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.4% from 2021 to 2026, with the market size reaching 95.8 billion yuan ($13.24 billion) in 2026.
“We’re concerned about getting sunburned and tanned so we’re fully prepared,” said a 34-year-old business owner who gave her surname as Hong, referring to her outfit of a hat and arm sleeves as she visited Beijing’s downtown tourism area of Qianmen on Thursday.
Many female consumers in east Asia favor fair skin and sun protection products are also popular in neighboring countries such as South Korea. Analysts say the trend has really taken off in China this year.
Data from Alibaba Group’s Tmall shopping platform showed that during this year’s 618 shopping festival held last month, sales of “new generation” sun protection apparel grew 180% year-on-year, with the number of pieces of sun protection gear purchased per consumer two to three times higher than in previous years.
“Sunscreen blush masks” are also particularly popular, according to Tmall. The bottom half of the mask is white with pink at the top, so it appears the wearer has makeup on from a distance.
Li Hongmei, a 26-year-old Beijing resident, said she’s a fan of such masks, and also wears a sun protection jacket when going out.
“During the pandemic I didn’t put on makeup often because I’d wear a mask anyway,” she told Reuters as she browsed through a rack of sun protection clothing at Adidas. “Now I’m too lazy to return to makeup, I’d rather wear a sun protection mask and go out.”
Earth’s average temperature remained at a record high Wednesday, after two days in which the planet reached unofficial records. It’s the latest marker in a series of climate-change-driven extremes.
The average global temperature was 17.18 Celsius (62.9 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the University of Maine’s Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world’s condition. That matched a record set Tuesday of 17.18 Celsius (62.9 Fahrenheit), and came after a previous record of 17.01 Celsius (62.6 degrees Fahrenheit) was set Monday.
Scientists have warned for months that 2023 could see record heat as human-caused climate change, driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil, warmed the atmosphere. They also noted that La Nina, the natural cooling of the ocean that had acted as a counter to that warming, was giving way to El Nino, the reverse phenomenon marked by warming oceans. The North Atlantic has seen record warmth this year.
“A record like this is another piece of evidence for the now massively supported proposition that global warming is pushing us into a hotter future,” said Stanford University climate scientist Chris Field, who was not part of the calculations.
University of Maine climate scientist Sean Birkle, creator of the Climate Reanalyzer, said the daily figures are unofficial but a useful snapshot of what’s happening in a warming world.
While the figures are not an official government record, “this is showing us an indication of where we are right now,” said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration chief scientist Sarah Kapnick. And NOAA indicated it will take the figures into consideration for its official record calculations.
Even though the dataset used for the unofficial record goes back only to 1979, Kapnick said that given other data, the world is likely seeing the hottest day in “several hundred years that we’ve experienced.”
Scientists generally use much longer measurements — months, years, decades — to track the Earth’s warming. But the daily highs are an indication that climate change is reaching uncharted territory.
On Wednesday, 38 million Americans were under some kind of heat alert, Kapnick said.
That included communities that aren’t used to feeling such heat. In North Grenville, Ontario, the city turned ice hockey rinks into cooling centers as temperatures Wednesday hit 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degrees Celsius), with humidity making it feel like 100.4 degrees (38 degrees Celsius).
“I feel like we live in a tropical country right now,” city spokeswoman Jill Sturdy said. “It just kind of hits you. The air is so thick.”
With many places seeing temperatures near 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37.8 degrees Celsius), the average temperature records might not seem very hot. But Tuesday’s global high was nearly 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (a full degree Celsius) higher than the 1979-2000 average, which already topped the 20th- and 19th-century averages.
High-temperature records were surpassed this week in Quebec and Peru. Beijing reported nine straight days last week when the temperature exceeded 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit), and ordered a stop to all outdoor work Wednesday as more high temperatures were forecast. Cities across the US from Medford, Oregon to Tampa, Florida have been hovering at all-time highs, said Zack Taylor, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service.
Alan Harris, director of emergency management for Seminole County, Florida, said the county has already surpassed last year for the number of days they’ve activated their extreme weather plan — something that happens when the heat index hits 108 Fahrenheit or greater.
“It’s just been kind of brutally hot for the last week, and now it looks like potentially for two weeks,” Harris said.
In the US, heat advisories include portions of western Oregon, inland far northern California, central New Mexico, Texas, Florida and the coastal Carolinas, according to the National Weather Service Weather Prediction Center. Excessive heat warnings are continuing across southern Arizona and California.
Football royalty made its way into the Royal Box at Wimbledon on Wednesday when David Beckham took his place on Centre Court.
Beckham, one of the most famous players in football history for both his ability on the field and his persona off it, attended Day 3 of the grass-court tournament a day after Kate, the Princess of Wales, was in the stands.
Beckham, sitting with his mother, has been a regular over the years at the All England Club.
On the soccer field, Beckham became a superstar while playing for Manchester United and helping the team win the Champions League, the Premier League and the FA Cup in 1999. That feat was matched by rival Manchester City this season.
Beckham also played for England’s national soccer team, but World Cup success eluded him despite some deep runs in the tournament.
Beckham is married to the former Victoria Adams, also known as Posh Spice of the British pop group the Spice Girls.
British adventurer Bear Grylls was also in the Royal Box on Wednesday.
Scotland will mark the coronation of King Charles and his wife Camilla on Wednesday with a grand procession, a fly-past and a service of thanksgiving.
Charles and Camilla were crowned in London’s Westminster Abbey in May in front of about 100 world leaders in Britain’s biggest ceremonial event for seven decades.
The 74-year-old succeeded his mother as king of the United Kingdom and 14 other realms when Queen Elizabeth died in September.
But in a nod to the historical fact that England and Scotland had different monarchs until the crowns were united in 1603, there will be separate Scottish celebrations to mark his coronation on Wednesday.
A People’s Procession, involving about 100 people representing various aspects of Scottish life, and a Royal Procession, featuring hundreds of service personnel, will be held along the Royal Mile in Edinburgh.
At a thanksgiving service in the city’s St Giles’ Cathedral, Charles will be presented with the Honors of Scotland – the Scottish crown jewels – including the new Elizabeth Sword, named after his mother and made to replace the one gifted to Scotland’s James IV by Pope Julius in 1507 but now too fragile to use.
“The Honors of Scotland have immense historical significance, having been present at many major ceremonial events over the past 500 years,” Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf said.
“Designed and crafted with care by some of Scotland’s finest artisans, the Elizabeth Sword is a fitting tribute to the late queen as Scotland prepares to welcome the new king and queen.”
The Stone of Destiny, the historic symbol of Scotland’s monarchy and nationhood, will be moved to the cathedral for the service, for which the king has commissioned five new pieces of music.
Charles will be joined by his eldest son and heir Prince William and his wife Kate.
A 21-gun salute will fire from Edinburgh Castle with a procession back to the Palace of Holyroodhouse. The Red Arrows aerobatic team will perform a flypast.
As with the coronation itself, there will also be protests on the Royal Mile by republicans.
“This pointless vanity parade in Edinburgh will cost Scottish taxpayers millions of pounds, and for what? So Charles can once again be center of attention for a day,” said Graham Smith, the chief executive of anti-monarchist group Republic who was arrested at the coronation in May.
Monday, July 3, was the hottest day ever recorded globally, according to data from the US National Centers for Environmental Prediction.
The average global temperature reached 17.01 degrees Celsius (62.62 Fahrenheit), surpassing the August 2016 record of 16.92C (62.46F) as heatwaves sizzled around the world.
The southern US has been suffering under an intense heat dome in recent weeks. In China, an enduring heatwave continued, with temperatures above 35C (95F). North Africa has seen temperatures near 50C (122F).
And even Antarctica, currently in its winter, registered anomalously high temperatures. Ukraine’s Vernadsky Research Base in the white continent’s Argentine Islands recently broke its July temperature record with 8.7C (47.6F).
“This is not a milestone we should be celebrating,” said climate scientist Friederike Otto of the Grantham Institute for Climate Change and the Environment at Britain’s Imperial College London.
“It’s a death sentence for people and ecosystems.”
Scientists said climate change, combined with an emerging El Nino pattern, were to blame.
“Unfortunately, it promises to only be the first in a series of new records set this year as increasing emissions of [carbon dioxide] and greenhouse gases coupled with a growing El Nino event push temperatures to new highs,” said Zeke Hausfather, a research scientist at Berkeley Earth, in a statement.
Kate, the Princess of Wales, had the best seat in the house Tuesday on Centre Court at Wimbledon — in the front row of the Royal Box and right next to Roger Federer.
The future queen, wearing a mint green blazer, made her way down to her seat only moments before Federer was feted ahead of the opening match on Day 2 of the grass-court tournament.
Federer, an eight-time champion at the All England Club, sat between the princess and his wife, Mirka.
The first match on a wet second day of Wimbledon — with the retractable roof closed — featured Elena Rybakina against American opponent Shelby Rogers. As is tradition at the most traditional of all tennis tournaments, Rybakina opened play on Tuesday as the defending women’s champion.
Kate has been somewhat of a regular visitor to Wimbledon since marrying Prince William, even attending in the past with sister-in-law Meghan Markle. The late Queen Elizabeth II, William’s grandmother, made only a handful of trips to the All England Club during her 70-year reign. Her last appearance in the Royal Box was in 2010.
King Charles III has taken his seat in the Royal Box at times but not since taking over as monarch from his mother. Elizabeth died last September and Charles had his coronation in May.
Rybakina won that opening match 4-6, 6-1, 6-2, and two-time Wimbledon champion Andy Murray was up next against Ryan Peniston. In 2013, Murray won the first of his two Wimbledon titles, ending a 77-year wait for a British men’s champion at the All England Club.
His second Wimbledon title came in 2016, and he also won the Olympic gold medal at the 2012 London Games on the same Centre Court grass — beating Federer in the final.
Federer, who turns 42 on Aug. 8, announced his retirement from tennis at the end of last year following a series of knee operations.
Besides Princess Kate and the Federers, Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe was also in the Royal Box — sitting behind the trio.
Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a British-Iranian charity worker who was detained in Tehran for almost six years. She was freed last year.
The UK sweltered through its hottest June since records began in 1884, the country’s weather agency said Monday, adding that human-induced climate change means such unusual heat will become more frequent in the next few decades.
The average temperature for June in the UK hit 15.8 degrees Celsius (60.4 Fahrenheit) — 0.9C hotter than the joint previous record of 14.9C in 1940 and 1976, according to the Met Office’s provisional figures.
Meteorologists say that thanks to climate change, the chance of beating the previous joint record has at least doubled since the 1940s.
“Alongside natural variability, the background warming of the Earth’s atmosphere due to human-induced climate change has driven up the possibility of reaching record high temperatures,” said Paul Davies at the Met Office. “By the 2050s, the chance of surpassing the previous record of 14.9°C could be as high as around 50%, or every other year.”
Large areas of the country, from the Orkney Islands in northern Scotland to Cornwall in southwest England, set regional high temperature records last month, with many experiencing mean temperatures that were 2.5C more than average.
The highest temperature recorded last month was 32.2C — much higher than typical maximum temperatures, which hover around the low 20s for this time of year, the weather agency said.
Fisheries experts say that the hot weather killed thousands of fish across the country.
Met Office scientists have said that 2022 was the hottest year on record for the UK, with an annual mean temperature of 10.03C — 0.89C higher than the 1991-2020 average.
All of the 10 annual highest temperature records have occurred in the past 20 years, clearly demonstrating how global warming has affected British climate, they added.
Walaa Hammad has found a niche repairing mobile phones from her home, offering services to other women in the conservative Palestinian enclave of Gaza who fear allowing male technicians access to their photos and social media accounts.
Hammad set up her business with the help of “Amjaad for Community Creativity and Development”, a non-governmental organization that aims through workshops and other activities to empower unemployed female graduates and help them to find jobs
Economic opportunities in the blockaded Gaza Strip, where half the population is unemployed, are hard to come by, especially for women. But sometimes, being a woman can prove an advantage.
“There is privacy for women to come and repair their mobile phones. Even men can come and ask me to fix the phones of their wives and sisters because they fear for their privacy and the photos,” said Hammad.
Israel maintains tight control of Gaza’s land and sea borders, citing security concerns linked to Hamas, the group which controls the coastal territory.
Those restrictions have devastated Gaza’s economy and left many of its women, like Hammad, struggling to find work after graduating from college.
Highlighting the challenge facing Gazan women, the NGO that helped Hammad said it had initially offered to train 10 women and was shocked when some 1,600 women applied for help.
Hammad’s neighbor, Wafaa Abu El-Hanoud, was among her first customers.
“You can’t be sure a man wouldn’t open the phone, see the pictures and chat. But from one woman to another, it is safer.”
Beirut motorists pull up to a drive-through counter — not for fast-food, but to exchange empty bottles and cardboard for cash, a novelty in a country long plagued by garbage crises.
Festering landfills often overflow in crisis-hit Lebanon, waste is burnt illegally at informal dump sites and rubbish floats off the coast in the Mediterranean Sea.
State-run recycling has largely fallen by the wayside in a nation that has been grappling with a three-year-long economic collapse, said AFP.
“The government used to be in charge of this sector and now it is bankrupt,” said Pierre Baaklini, 32, founder of Lebanon Waste Management.
Around a year ago he started the first “Drive Throw” recycling station and opened a second in February in Burj Hammoud, a Beirut suburb known for its proximity to a landfill.
With more than 80 percent of Lebanon’s population living in poverty, the poorest eke out a meager living picking through dumpsters for anything they can sell for recycling or scrap.
Baaklini said his customers are generally environmentally conscious and among the minority “with sufficient income”.
People drive up to the station in their cars, register their details and place bags and boxes of loosely sorted recyclables on the counter. Workers accept everything from cardboard to plastic, glass, metal, e-waste, batteries and even used cooking oil.
A sign lists the prices — a kilogram (2.2 pounds) of cardboard is worth 2,000 Lebanese pounds (around two cents), while aluminum cans are worth 50,000 pounds a kilogram.
Rony Nashef, 38, handed over bulging bags of plastic, in a country where many rely on bottled water for drinking.
Recycling “is definitely a much better solution to Lebanon’s trash problem”, he said.
Incompetence and corruption caused a spectacular waste crisis in Lebanon in 2015, when rivers of garbage filled the streets and ran into the sea, leading to protests by thousands and harming the country’s image.
No viable long-term solution has since been found, and the destruction of two sorting plants in a catastrophic August 2020 explosion at Beirut port worsened the problem.
‘For the community’
Behind the scenes at Drive Throw, the recyclables are sorted carefully, while the plastic is later shredded and cleaned.
The two facilities have taken in a total of 450 tonnes of recyclables, founder Baaklini said, adding that the materials are sold to both local and international clients.
“What we are doing here is also about education” and awareness-raising, he said, as school students sometimes visit the facility to learn about recycling.
Environmental engineer Ziad Abichaker said recycling had always been neglected by authorities.
Only “about 10 percent” of Lebanon’s daily waste load of 5,000 tons is recycled, said Abichaker, who heads Cedar Environmental, a group that specializes in “zero waste” technologies.
Authorities were studying a national waste management plan but there has been no progress due to institutional deadlock, he said.
A caretaker government with limited powers has been at the helm for more than a year.
Abichaker said “90 percent of the sorting plants built over the years” with money from international donations had stopped working, pointing to “faulty designs” and “corruption”.
In Burj Hammoud, Renata Rahme, 47, said the first time she rolled up to the Drive Throw recycling station, she didn’t know she was supposed to separate the materials.
“Now I’m trying to do more sorting,” said Rahme, a film producer who brought in a crate with lights and other small electrical appliances.
“The point is not the monetary return as much as participating in the initiative,” she said. “We’re trying to do something better for the community, for the country, for society.”
The Saudi Arabia Railways (SAR) said the operational plan of Al-Mashaer Train to the Holy Sites during the Hajj season 1444 Hijri has been successful, having transported 2.13 million passengers over 2,208 trips to Mina, Arafat and Muzdalifah.
SAR said that the train started operating to the Holy Sites on the seventh day of Dhu Al-Hijjah and stopped operating on the 13th of the same month, the last day of Tashreeq.
It added that 22,000 people were transported on the first trip of the train. Breaking down figures, it said that Al-Mashaer train transported 298,000 pilgrims from Mina to Arafat, 297,000 to Muzdalifah, and 396,000 to Mina.
During the three days of Tashreeq, more than 1.12 million passengers moved from Mina 1, Mina 2, Muzdalifah 3, and Arafat 3 stations to Mina 3 station (Al-Jamarat).
انشئ حساباً خاصاً بك لتحصل على أخبار مخصصة لك ولتتمتع بخاصية حفظ المقالات وتتلقى نشراتنا البريدية المتنوعة