Latest news with #Athenian
Time of India
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time of India
Zach Werenski and Odette Peters are soaking up sun-kissed luxury in Athens as part of their romantic European getaway
Image Via IG/odette_peters In less sporty terms, Zach Werenski and his fiancée Odette Peters are kissing these moments of calm away with an indulgent European sojourn. Away from the sightseeing, it's about celebrating love, companionship, and luxury. The couple's adventure is the perfect blend of fun and fashion: documenting moments of their trip that showcase their mutual love for travel and bonding, right before the big day. Zach Werenski and Odette Peters are catching up on some rest in Athens after touring Switzerland and Germany Having explored the picturesque towns of Central Europe, Zach Werenski and Odette Peters landed in Athens to stretch their romantic holiday a bit more. With its coastline and modern history, this Greek capital had all the splendor as a couple as they moved on into the next chapter of their pre-wedding adventure. They checked in at the famed Four Seasons Astir Palace Hotel, looking out over the serene Saronic Gulf and well suited for travelers seeking high-end solitude and tranquility. Image Via IG/odette_peters Odette threw yet another window for her followers into their Athenian escape, via Instagram stories. One of the shots showed the coastline in all its glory and glamour as luxury yachts floated under the sky of soul-good azure. From that elevated view, white sunbeds and umbrellas marked the edge of the glistening sea below, flanking the grandeur of the resort. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Esta nueva alarma con cámara es casi regalada en Carrodilla La Puntilla (ver precio) Verisure Undo Another story gave a glimpse of an even more intimate look: wooden decks lined with cushy lounge chairs aptly awaiting their lazy sun-deprived guests. Image Via IG/odette_peters The Greece leg followed a scenic tour through Luxembourg, Switzerland, and Munich, Germany, enjoying the culture, cuisine, and heritage of Europe. Each stop added another memory to their romantic sojourn, acting as both escape and a quiet celebration for their upcoming nuptials. Odette had also previously celebrated another milestone at a snug little bridal shower organized with family and close friends. Dressed in white lace, she frolicked around floral arrangements and entertaining bridal games, New York City being the backdrop to her bridal fittings, where she finalized her gown (after knocking on quite a few designer shops) with Jaxon James Couture. Also Read: Zach Werenski turns injury into inspiration with powerful Columbus comeback Zach Werenski and Odette Peters are making timeless memories at each stop on their itinerary that reflects the heart of their bonds. Now on their elegant European tour, right before the wedding, this is more than a vacation—this is an homage to their journey of love and the adventures waiting to be lived.
Toronto Star
5 days ago
- Politics
- Toronto Star
If Mark Carney has had a less than impressive start, this is the reason why
Delivering his maiden speech in the House of Commons on Monday, Prime Minister Mark Carney wisely tacked towards humility. 'I have much to learn from the members of this great House. I will make mistakes,' he said. 'I have no doubt that you will call them out, and for good reason.' Carney acknowledged that our parliamentary system may seem arcane and ritualistic. But, he said, 'it is on those traditions that our Athenian democracy is founded.'
Time of India
6 days ago
- General
- Time of India
Girl cadets torchbearers of change, courage & capability, says NDA convocation chief guest
Pune: Poonam Tandon, the vice-chancellor of Deen Dayal Upadhyay University, Gorakhpur, on Thursday said the passing out girl cadets of the NDA were the torchbearers of change, courage and capability, and their example would inspire generations to come. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Tandon was the chief guest at the convocation of the 148th course of the National Defence Academy (NDA). Addressing the cadets, she said, "Girls, your achievement today is not just your own. It is a breakthrough for thousands of young women across India, who look up to you." She continued, "You have proven that the pursuit of excellence and service knows no gender. Your presence here is historic, and your example will inspire future generations. I salute your grit, grace and determination." A total of 309 cadets were conferred a bachelor's degree from Jawaharlal Nehru University at the convocation. Eighty-four cadets were conferred degrees in the science stream, 85 in the computer science stream and 59 in the arts stream. Seventeen cadets from friendly foreign countries were also awarded degrees. In addition, the B Tech stream comprising 111 Navy and Air Force cadets received a "three-year course completion" certificate. These Naval and Air Force cadets would be conferred with the degree after the completion of one-year training at their respective pre-commissioning training academies — Indian Naval Academy (INA), Ezhimala, and Air Force Academy (AFA), Hyderabad, respectively. Tandon, the chief guest at the convocation, said parents had shown remarkable strength and resolve in offering their children in the service of our motherland. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now "I commend you for nurturing values of patriotism, discipline and courage in them. Your unwavering support is the wing beneath which we need their wings," she said. She said the cadets' degree was not merely a formal academic requirement. "It is a foundation, a launching pad to intellectual and professional excellence. As future leaders of men and women in uniform, you must strive to become not only physically fit and tactically sound but also mentally agile, emotionally intelligent and ethically grounded," she said. "The demand for modern warfare and global geopolitics necessitates the development of intellectual strength. As Thucydides, the Athenian historian and general, said over two millennia ago, the nation that makes a great distinction between the scholar and its warrior will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting done by fools," she added. Vice Admiral Gurucharan Singh, the NDA Commandant, addressing the convocation of the course, said, "I am confident that the first graduating batch of female cadets, along with their male counterparts, will carve a name for themselves as exemplary leaders of both men and women. Remember, your decisions will shape lives and your actions will inspire generations." He said, "The nation looks up to you with hope and trust, not just to defend its borders, but to uphold the values that make our society just, compassionate and strong. Serve with honour, lead with courage and remain forever true to the ideals you have sworn to protect. You are the torchbearers of a very proud legacy."
Washington Post
7 days ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
This philosopher believed that beauty could save democracy
In the poem 'Socrates and Alcibiades,' the German Romantic writer Friedrich Hölderlin asks why the famed Athenian philosopher fell in love not with a fellow genius, but with a handsome youth. Although he was renowned for his looks, Alcibiades was notoriously rash and silly. Shouldn't Socrates, of all people, rise above such temptations? Shouldn't he prefer sagacity to charm? On the contrary, Hölderlin concludes, 'the wise, in the end, often bow to what is beautiful.' There is a broader lesson in this poetic parable: Beauty, the verse suggests, can be more powerful than argument.
Atlantic
28-05-2025
- Business
- Atlantic
Who Killed America's Shipbuilding Industry?
Tom Stimson / FPG / Getty Despite being economically and militarily reliant on shipping, the U.S. has an astonishing lack of maritime capacity. 'He who commands the sea has command of everything,' the ancient Athenian general Themistocles said. By that standard, the United States has command of very little. America depends on ocean shipping. About 80 percent of its international trade by weight traverses the seas. The U.S. needs ships to deliver nearly 90 percent of its armed forces' supplies and equipment, including fuel, ammunition, and food. Commercial shipyard capacity is essential for surge construction of warships and sealift-support ships that transport equipment and troops in times of national emergency. Yet the U.S. has an astonishing lack of maritime capacity. Of the tens of thousands of large vessels that dot the oceans, a mere 0.13 percent are built in the United States. China, by contrast, fulfills roughly 60 percent of all new shipbuilding orders and has amassed more than 200 times America's shipbuilding capacity. Not only do most U.S. imports and exports travel on foreign-built ships, but those ships are owned and crewed almost exclusively by nine giant carriers based in Europe and Asia. By the end of 2024, these carriers had organized into three cartels that controlled about 90 percent of the U.S. containerized-shipping trade. From the July 1870 issue: The shipping of the United States After a ship arrives at a U.S. port, the crane that lifts containers from its cargo hold will probably have been made by a single Chinese corporation that produces 80 percent of all ship-to-shore cranes in the United States. China also makes 86 percent of the truck chassis onto which containers are loaded. Some 95 percent of the containers themselves are built in China. In the early days of the pandemic, some consequences of America's loss of control over ocean shipping were suddenly thrown into relief. Foreign cartels raised the cost of spot contracts on certain shipping lanes by up to 1,000 percent while making a record $190 billion in windfall profits. They also rejected hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of U.S. agricultural exports, preferring to race back to China with empty containers to fill with more profitable Chinese imports while American-grown food rotted on the docks. The national-security implications of America's lack of shipbuilding and shipping capacity are also becoming dire. Because so few commercial ships fly the American flag and employ American mariners, the U.S. faces a critical shortage of civilian sailors needed to crew Navy support vessels. In November 2024, the Navy confirmed that it would lay up 17 support vessels, some delivered as recently as January 2024, because of crew shortages. More alarming are shortages of support ships themselves. The U.S. would need more than 100 fuel tankers in the event of a conflict in the Pacific. It has access to about 15. This should never have happened. In the middle of the 20th century, the U.S. had a thriving, well-regulated ocean-shipping industry. Then the country turned its back on the system that made it all possible. At the turn of the 20th century, the ocean-shipping industry was plagued by a phenomenon known as 'ruinous competition.' Carriers engaged in ruthless rate wars, reasoning that even if they moved cargo often at below-average cost, this would at least help defray the high fixed cost of operating a freighter. But the strategy was unsustainable. Years of continuous losses pushed many in the industry to the brink of insolvency. To avoid total collapse, the carriers banded together to form unregulated cartels in order to reduce supply and fix prices. The cartels provided some stability, but at the public's expense. They offered secretive rebates to large operators that agreed to ship exclusively on cartel vessels, and they often refused to deal with shippers that did business with competitors. The cartels also engaged in price discrimination, offering steep discounts and rebates to big shippers—and recouping their losses by charging higher prices to smaller shippers that lacked the power to demand favorable terms. The resulting unequal prices and access to transportation services harmed smaller manufacturers, farmers, and ports. At the same time that cartels were squeezing U.S. shippers, the U.S. government was neglecting maritime policy. Since the end of the Civil War, the United States had refused to allocate public resources to shipbuilding, while foreign governments, especially the British, subsidized their shipping and shipbuilding steeply. By 1901, U.S.-built vessels carried a mere 8 percent of national trade, and U.S. shipyards were left with little business aside from naval contracts. The combined results of cartelization and government inaction were perilous. After World War I broke out in Europe in 1914, Great Britain, France, and Italy immediately diverted most of their shipping capacity to support their war efforts. Because the United States was so reliant on European shipping, freight rates soared. Foreign lines increased the rate to charter a vessel or ship key goods by about 20 times. The United States was effectively cut off from the rest of the world. As the maritime historian Salvatore R. Mercogliano noted in Sea History magazine, 'The domestic economy went into a recession as goods piled up on the docks and imports stopped arriving in American ports.' In response to the emergency, Congress passed a series of bills that poured public funds into bolstering U.S. shipping and shipbuilding capacity. Both the immediate and long-term results were spectacular. Extensive public investment led to the construction of more than 2,300 vessels for World War I and more than 5,500 vessels during World War II. The United States became the world's preeminent shipbuilder, assembling vessels at a scale and speed previously unheard of. The U.S. built the Liberty-class cargo ship SS Robert E. Peary, for example, in a little more than four days during the height of World War II. But Congress recognized that simply pouring money into maritime capacity was not enough. It needed to set market rules for ocean shipping, both to forestall destructive competition and to ensure that ocean carriers operated in the public interest. To do this, Congress created a new agency, the United States Shipping Board (later replaced by the Federal Maritime Commission), which was charged with regulating the industry like a public utility. Cartels were required to submit their operating agreements to the government, which in turn disapproved or altered agreements it found to be discriminatory or unfair. Carriers were not allowed to engage in price discrimination, offer deferred rebates, or employ other underhanded tactics that excluded competition. These laws were not always effectively enforced, but they were a significant improvement over the status quo. During the 1980s, however, Congress and Ronald Reagan abandoned the regulated-competition approach. Reaganites argued that the FMC, which at the time had a budget of just $11.8 million, had become a bloated bureaucracy, and reasoned that the U.S. could achieve economic efficiency and lower shipping prices if ocean carriers were not required to treat all shippers equally. To that end, Congress passed a series of bills during the Reagan and Clinton administrations that stripped the FMC's ability to regulate ocean-carrier cartels. The first-order effect was a return to the destructive competition and underhanded exploitation that had characterized the early-20th-century market. As the rise of containerization led to ever larger ships, fixed costs grew. This increased carriers' incentives to fill empty space on ships, even at steep discounts, because at least they would lose less money than if the space were unsold. Still, profits fell, and carriers turned to waves of mergers made possible by the federal government's simultaneous retreat from antitrust enforcement. In the seven years after President Ronald Reagan signed the Shipping Act of 1984, seven major carriers were snapped up by the competition, compared with just one during the entire period from 1966 to 1983. American-flag carriers, which had higher costs than foreign counterparts, were particularly hurt by the rate wars, especially after the Reagan administration withdrew subsidies that had helped U.S. carriers defray the costs of paying crews livable wages. Foreign corporations acquired American President Lines and SeaLand, the two largest U.S. carriers at the time, in 1997 and 1999 respectively, leaving the United States with no globally competitive ocean carriers. Meanwhile, shipyards in Asia began to enjoy massive government subsidies. From the April 1943 issue: We build ships The consequences were nearly identical to the pattern in the early 1900s. Shipbuilding all but disappeared in the United States. Today, the U.S. produces five or fewer large commercial vessels a year, and shipyards almost exclusively rely on naval contracts. Worse, at a time of escalating tensions with China, the United States has virtually no surge capacity to build naval or sealift ships. In fact, China builds all the commercial ships that the U.S. government contracts to provide military support. A bipartisan bill in Congress and a recent executive order seek to address the problem. The plans aim to levy tariffs on Chinese-owned ships and create new tax incentives to spur investment in shipyards, among other provisions. These ideas, though helpful, are too simplistic and small-bore. The central problem is not just inadequate investment or insufficient tariffs. It is the abandonment of a system of regulated competition that structures the industry to meet public purposes. Restoring a robust version of that system would revive the government's ability to direct cartels to operate in the public interest. Carriers would be required to offer all shippers, big and small, similar prices and terms of service. This would ensure that market competition focuses on who provides the best products at the best prices instead of who enjoys the favor of a handful of foreign cartels. Government regulation of carriers would prevent them from excessively raising prices in times of tight capacity and engaging in ruinous price wars during times of slackening demand. Combined with robust public investment in shipping, shipbuilding, port services, and mariner training, this system would re-create the market rules we once used to address the challenge of unregulated monopolies in ocean shipping. A new era of American maritime greatness is possible. Support for this project was provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
