Bloobloom in Spitalfields opening
The eyewear brand has opened a 615 sq ft store with its interior resembling 'a serene Mediterranean escape where thoughtful design meets tranquility creating a fully immersive customer experience'.
Alongside the brand's full collection of sustainably-made sunglasses and spectacles (priced from £99), is 'the full Bloobloom experience', including walk-in eye examinations with in-house opticians, adjustment and repair services and well as personalised style advice.
Abbas Manai, co-founder of Bloobloom, said: 'Opening in a prime spot in Spitalfields E1 is the perfect next step for [us]. This location allows us to deepen our connection with the East London community. Spitalfields E1 is an exciting shopping destination, and expanding our retail presence here helps us grow our reach.'
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Local France
11 hours ago
- Local France
8 big problems that France faces this autumn
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AFP
16 hours ago
- AFP
Posts falsely claim Toyota has unveiled a water-powered engine
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But this hypothesis has never been supported by solid scientific evidence, as AFP Fact Check previously explained in this debunk. The claim that Toyota is developing a water-powered engine is false. Hydrogen vehicles Toyota has not made any public announcements "unveiling" a water engine, as the post claimed. "We are not developing anything that could be described as a 'water engine'," Jean-Yves Jault, a representative of the Toyota Motor Corporation, said in an email to AFP on July 23. Jault called the claims circulating online "false information" and referred to a Forbes article that refutes the rumor (archived here). Toyota produces vehicles that use hydrogen as fuel. These cars, like the Mirai model, are fueled at specialised stations and equipped with lithium-ion batteries to store and manage energy (archived here). Robert Rapier, a chemical engineer and the author of the Forbes article, explained that "water as the power source for a vehicle is nonsense'. 'Although water can be an energy source, it is not a fuel. Water is actually the combustion product of hydrogen, which is a fuel. Water is produced when hydrogen is burned. Water can function as an energy source in some situations,' he added. Electrolysis process Electrolysis is a process where an electric current is passed through a substance to trigger a chemical reaction, splitting water molecules (H₂O) into hydrogen (H₂) and oxygen (O₂). The process requires a significant amount of electricity and is only effective when there is a stable energy source (archived here). Electrolysis does not produce energy; it consumes it to produce hydrogen, which is then used to power fuel-cell vehicles. Therefore, there must be a source of electricity, such as a battery, for electrolysis to work inside a car engine. 'But such a scenario would be inefficient, because each energy conversion stage involves efficiency losses. That's basic thermodynamics. Rather than use a battery to produce hydrogen via electrolysis, which then has to be converted into energy to power a car, it would be far more efficient (and practical) just to use the initial electricity directly without the conversion steps,' Rapier wrote in his article. Image Graphic explaining the steps necessary to produce green hydrogen, a source of energy seen as an option to decarbonize some heavy-polluting industries (AFP / Tatiana MAGARINOS, Gustavo IZUS) Several experts also confirmed this process to AFP Fact Check. Professor Plamen Punov of Sofia Technical University, who supervises student projects on hydrogen fuel cells, noted that the hydrogen used as fuel is not produced directly inside the vehicle (archived here). 'All these cars produce electricity in fuel cells that use pure hydrogen, pre-charged in bottles. I am not aware of such a vehicle existing, and theoretically it would be extremely inefficient and impractical," he wrote in an email to AFP Fact Check on July 7, 2025. Professor Boriana Tsaneva, a PhD in chemistry at the same university, also confirmed to AFP Fact Check via email that 'it is technically possible to use electrolysis to harness the residual energy of a moving vehicle', but this option is 'economically unreasonable'. Aside from the high costs and additional weight from installing an electrolysis cell and other components on board, Tsaneva added that the explosive gas mixture produced would be incredibly dangerous. This mixture cannot be stored safely and needs to be added immediately after production, she noted. Furthermore, the usable energy produced from burning the gas mixture is negligible. Water as coolant, not fuel The confusion likely stems from a patent filed by Toyota in 2023 for a hydrogen engine with a water-cooled system. 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As part of a long-term strategy toward carbon-neutral vehicles, Toyota is taking a multi-pronged approach. This includes the development of hydrogen fuel cells, hydrogen-powered combustion engines, and solid-state batteries, which could offer better performance for safety, range and power (archived here). Battery-powered electric vehicles dominate the zero-emission transport market, due to their affordability, higher fuel efficiency, and growing charging infrastructure (archived here). However, some automakers, including Toyota, are considering hydrogen-powered cars as a complementary solution for heavy-duty transportation and long-distance travel. Their large-scale development remains limited by high production costs and a still-underdeveloped refuelling network. Most analysts agree that the future of zero-emission mobility will rely on a mix of technologies: Batteries will remain the preferred option for passenger cars, while hydrogen could play a strategic role in specific sectors, such as long-haul trucks, heavy-duty vehicles and certain industrial uses (archived here). AFP has debunked other claims about the existence of water-powered cars here and here.
Euronews
20 hours ago
- Euronews
Greece prepares to launch its largest data centre yet
Greece is preparing to open its largest data centre yet, amid a boom in global demand driven largely by artificial intelligence (AI). On Tuesday, the energy and industrial company Metlen said it had delivered the new facility to Digital Reality, which owns more than 300 data centres worldwide. Called Athens-3 (ATH3), the new centre was built at an old industrial site in the town of Koropi, not far from Athens International Airport. The 8,600 square metre facility offers cloud services and data storage and management, and will serve Greece, southeastern Europe, and beyond. The rise of AI has spurred a race to build data centres that can provide the enormous computer power needed to train and use these models. In Europe, demand is projected to rise threefold by 2030, according to an analysis from McKinsey. In Greece, the launch of ATH3 represents the government's latest foray into these advanced technologies. "I have not hidden my ambition," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said at the inauguration of the ATH3 foundation in 2022. "In five years, the technology sector will contribute 10 per cent to our country's GDP". The ATH3 data centre adds to Digital Reality's existing facilities in Greece, including Athens-1 (ATH1), Athens-2 (ATH2), and Heraklion-1 (HER1). But the company is not Greece's only player in this space. Late last year, the French firm DATA4 held a ceremony for its new campus in Peania, which is also east of Athens. The ceremony, which was organised with the support of the Franco-Hellenic Chamber of Commerce and Industry, took place two months after DATA4 announced an investment of more than €300 million. DATA4 CEO Olivier Micheli said that investment is part of the company's plan to invest €7 billion in Europe by 2030, which would make it the bloc's leading data centre provider. Beyond France and Greece, it also operates in Italy, Spain, Poland, and Germany. The Peania data centre campus will be built on 75 acres of land. It is expected to be up and running by early 2027. The group estimates that by 2030 it will have created more than 7,000 permanent jobs on its campuses in Europe and more than 500 permanent jobs on its Greek campus.
