Latest news with #TheQuest
The Courier
27-05-2025
- General
- The Courier
£30k memorial planned for 21 St Monans men killed in fishing tragedy
A Fife community is creating a £30,000 memorial to 21 men killed in a 19th century fishing disaster. Three St Monans boats, were lost after being caught in a severe storm in November 1875.. The tragedy left 11 women widowed and 43 children fatherless, and devastated the close-knit community. Two further boats from nearby Cellardyke also went down in the disaster. Now St Monans villagers aim to commemorate the local lives lost through the creation of a memorial garden. The area at the corner of East Street and Station Road will include vessel-shaped pedestals, one for each boat lost. And each will be engraved with the names of the men who died. A sculpture is also planned. It is hoped the memorial will be unveiled in November, in time for the disaster's 150th anniversary. The three St Monans boats – The Quest, The Beautiful Star and The Thane – went down as they returned from Norfolk. The crews had been fishing for herring off the coast of Lowestoft and Great Yarmouth. And the tragedy also touched the community of King's Lynn in Norfolk, where eight of the recovered fishermen were laid to rest. The memorial has been designed by local architect Fermin Beltran Dos Santos. And is hoped it will provide a place of reflection and remembrance. Along with the pedestals, it will include a new community planter, seating and a community noticeboard, Hugh Wallace, from the St Monans Memorial Garden Committee, said it would be a reminder of the sacrifices made by fishermen, both in the 1875 tragedy and throughout the village's maritime history. The community is holding a series of fundraisers to pay for the project. And an online Crowdfunder page is already up and running. It is hoped representatives of the King's Lynn community, and the wider fishing fraternity, will attend the official dedication ceremony. Mr Wallace added: 'The committee is dedicated to creating a beautiful and meaningful space that will stand as a testament to the village's heritage and the enduring bravery of its fishing community.'
Al Arabiya
02-04-2025
- Business
- Al Arabiya
Exclusive Trump's tariff plan signals historic break from global trade: Yergin
A new tariff regime set to be unveiled within hours by US President Donald Trump marks what may be the single most dramatic break from the global economic order since the end of World War II. According to renowned author and economic historian Daniel Yergin, we are witnessing a 'reversal of an eight or nine decade trend' away from free trade, ushering in a new era defined by tariff walls, trade nationalism, and protectionism. Speaking to Al Arabiya News' Hadley Gamble on the eve of what is expected to be a major announcement from Trump detailing a sweeping new American tariff regime, Yergin warned that the assumptions underpinning decades of global economic integration were now being overturned. 'I've heard the Secretary of Commerce say what we want to do is build a tariff wall around the United States,' said Yergin. 'We're kind of going back to the years of William McKinley at the end of the 19th century, which was a very complicated time because you had a couple of major financial panics at the same time.' Yergin, a Pulitzer Prize-winning author and Vice Chairman of S&P Global, is one of the most influential voices in energy and geopolitics. His books, including The Prize, The Quest, and The New Map, are considered foundational texts for understanding global energy systems and their geopolitical implications. 'What we're seeing,' he added, 'is a reversal of an eight or nine-decade trend that began in 1934 under Franklin Roosevelt… to a view that the United States has been taken advantage [of], even though the United States has been doing better than any of the other industrial nations. And so we're at a great turn in history.' This new period of economic nationalism, Yergin said, is deeply intertwined with the US-China rivalry. He noted that protectionist instincts were already present during the Biden administration but have become more pronounced under Trump. 'The Biden administration was also rather protectionist… famously, Joe Biden did not invite Tesla and Elon Musk to the electric vehicle summit at the White House in 2021, allegedly because it was not a union shop,' he said. The tariffs are likely to reshape global supply chains and the future of advanced manufacturing. But Yergin cautioned that while announcements of new American factories abound, the jobs may not follow. 'The factories that will be built – this is an age of robotics. They're not going to be bringing jobs. This is not going to take us back to Detroit or Cleveland or Youngstown, Ohio. These are going to be different types of factories.' Yergin described the unfolding trade war as part of a much broader 'great recalibration' – a moment in which countries are being forced to re-evaluate not only their trading relationships, but also their energy systems, economic structures, and geopolitical alignments. On the energy front, Yergin delivered a sobering assessment. 'The energy transition is in need of a major rethink,' he told Gamble. 'A lot of the expectations, a lot of the planning, a lot of the spending was really crystallized during COVID, when demand was down and prices were down… And the consequence of that is that you had these straight lines, linear lines, that went to 2050 net zero, when almost half the world's emissions were not even covered by them.' Far from displacing fossil fuels, he argued, the rise of renewables has come alongside a resurgence in oil and coal. '2024 wind and solar were at the highest levels they ever were. 2024 oil and coal were at the highest levels they were ever. And natural gas would have been there, except for Russia's invasion of Ukraine,' he said. Despite enormous political capital invested in green agendas, the numbers tell a different story: 'In the latest data we had – in 2022, 81 percent of the world's energy was hydrocarbons. In 2023 it was 80.5 percent. A one half of 1 percent change.' That sluggish progress, Yergin explained, is not merely a failure of will, but a reflection of scale and feasibility. 'The numbers used for the Baku UN conference would say about 5 percent of world GDP over a number of years has to be spent [on the transition]. Now, developing countries don't have 5 percent of their GDP.' Even developed nations are constrained. 'In Washington… there's this problem of this $36.5 trillion debt where the interest payments are greater than defense spending. So, you know, just the money's not there to do [it] on scale.' Added to that, the growing electricity demands of artificial intelligence threaten to increase fossil fuel reliance. 'We saw this at the [CERAWeek] energy conference – electricity for AI. And in the United States, that means more natural gas going into it.' Yergin warned that all these dynamics point to an energy future that is messy, uneven, and politically fraught. 'The notion that you're just going to draw a line and get to net zero by 2035 – that's why we say the energy transition is going to be multi-dimensional. It's going to unfold at different paces in different regions, with different mixes of technology and of critical importance, different priorities by different governments.' Those different priorities are already leading to divergent strategies. In Europe, the rise of populism is fueling a backlash against regulatory excess and green targets. 'You're going to see it a lot in the battles over the budget, and you're also going to see it in the rise of the populist parties.' Russia, according to Yergin, wasn't without its problems either. Sanctions had not stopped the war economy. It had, however, said Yergin, driven Moscow into the arms of Beijing. 'Russia's basically become an economic dependency of China,' he said. Yergin concluded by reiterating his view, the world had entered an unpredictable new phase. The long-dominant assumptions about free trade, clean energy, and global integration are now under siege. 'It is recalibrating and reassessing and recognizing that those simple graphs that go to 2050 – [that] is not the way the world's going to go,' he stated.
Yahoo
12-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Interactive town-wide challenge launches in Helston: are you up for The Quest?
Helston's Spring Thing has announced its full line-up for the "first-of-its-kind" community event. The Spring Thing, which will take place from Friday, March 21, to Sunday, March 23, will feature a range of activities to welcome spring. The event's centrepiece is The Quest, an interactive, town-wide challenge that, as stated on the organisers' website, requires participants to solve riddles and uncover hidden stories around Helston. This adventure was devised by a panel of 'Helston experts'. On the Friday, people can enjoy a Jazz Jam in the Garden featuring young and experienced musicians from Cornwall. Also scheduled for the first day is a Twilight Harp Meditation session guided by Alice Wonder, a musician known for blending live string music with spoken word. The Saturday will see various workshops, including a pasty-making session led by Ann Muller, founder of Ann's Pasties. This workshop invites participants to get hands-on experience at The Guildhall. Meanwhile, the community plant swap at the Band Room offers participants a chance to propagate Helston's Flora Day flower. For art enthusiasts, there are activities at the Clay Trap, where ceramic artists Finn Leaman and Rosa Lily James will conduct a Clay Spring Thing Workshop. The Clay Spring Thing Workshop. (Image: supplied) The town's Museum of Cornish Life will also host a traditional craft corn dolly-making session. Spring Tide Wheels & Seaweed Pressing and a Shadow Puppet Workshop & Play, among other activities, will also take place on the Saturday. An all-female Morris dancing group, Kernow, will present a special performance near the Grylls Monument. Meanwhile, the Blue Anchor Inn will host Helston's first skittles tournament, accompanied by local folk music. The Sunday will feature more workshops such as Pegrum's Pasta Masterclass at 42 The Living Room and an archaeology workshop at the Museum of Cornish Life. The event will offer a Pegrum's Pasta Masterclass. (Image: supplied) Trevow, Helston's Old Chapel, will host the Discovering 42 Fresh Eyes Workshop, while those inclined towards literature can join a poetry walk with artist Ben Sanderson. Lastly, a two-hour guided walk through the Cober Valley, dubbed the Coose & Cober Walk, will also be part of Sunday's festivities. The Helston Spring Thing is free and open to all. However, owing to limited space for certain events, attendees are encouraged to book early on the festival's website The event, supported by funds from Cornwall Council's Town Delivery Fund, is being run by the Helston Place Shaping Board. Spring Thing can also be followed on Instagram and Facebook for updates. The event offers residents a chance to indulge in various activities while celebrating the arrival of spring in the town.
Yahoo
06-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
First Loch Ness monster sighting in 2025 reported. Could mystery finally be solved?
A man on the shores of Scotland's Dores Beach said he saw the elusive Loch Ness monster emerging from the depths of the loch, the first potential Nessie sighting reported to The Loch Ness Centre in 2025, the organization says. Winter often brings bad weather and the loch's surface can be choppy and shrouded in mist, leading to fewer reported sightings, Aimee Todd, the center's marketing manager, told USA TODAY on Thursday. But on Jan. 29, when the latest purported photo of the mythical creature was taken, the waters were calm and the conditions ideal for spotting unusual activity, according to Todd. Todd said she was thrilled to learn of the latest sighting. "I just thought it was brilliant because it really shows like the wave," Todd said. "And it looks like there is like some kind of dark mass under the water pushing up that wave." 🚨 2025's First Potential Nessie Sighting! 👀🐉Loch Ness has kicked off the year with an exciting mystery! A visitor at... Posted by The Loch Ness Centre on Wednesday, March 5, 2025 Todd said the center has reached out to experts including Alan Mackenna of Loch Ness Exploration to verify that image is not a case of mistaken identity. She said often seals, birds or even boat wakes can be mistaken for Nessie and she is waiting to get more information from the man who took the photo on his cellphone and has not been publicly identified. The Loch Ness Centre has worked with Mackenna's organization and the University of Aberdeen to use cutting-edge technology to probe the depths of the loch and has invited hundreds of people around the world to participate in surface watching events, Todd said. During a massive search in 2023, Mackenna's team used drones and other technology to surveil the lake. "Every observation adds to our understanding, whether it's potential evidence of Nessie or new insights into the loch's unique ecosystem," Mackenna said in a statement about the latest sighting. The center will be holding the search for Nessie dubbed "The Quest" again in May, Todd said, and volunteers will monitor the surface of the lake at 13 different locations for over six hours. Searchers will also venture out on the center's boat and use a hydrophone to detect acoustic signals under the water, she said. Loch Ness Monster hunt in photos: See Scotland's biggest search for Nessie in 50 years There have been nearly 1,160 reported sightings of the creature over the years since it was first reportedly spotted in 564, according to the official Loch Ness Monster Sightings Register. Still, no definitive proof of the monster's existence has ever been found and it's widely considered a myth. Some have theorized Nessie might be a Jurassic-era reptile like a Plesiosaur, a giant fish or even an eel. Researchers who analyzed DNA samples from the icy waters of the Scottish lake identified about 3,000 different species, but the results ruled out the presence of large animals such as dinosaurs. Still, Todd said she believes in the possibility. "I don't think there's a been a definitive answer for yes or no just too many sightings and too many descriptions from like photos, from films, and just like witness statements as well that are all too similar," she said. Nagina Ishaq, general manager of the center called the latest sighting "particularly captivating" and said the organization remains "committed to solving the mystery of Nessie once and for all." "Our previous collaborations with the University of Aberdeen and Loch Ness Exploration allowed us to advance our research efforts significantly, and this potential sighting is a reminder that the mystery of Loch Ness is far from solved," Ishaq said in a statement. "We continue to explore every possibility, and are committed to uncovering the truth.' Contributing: Emily DeLetter, USA TODAY; Reuters This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: First Loch Ness monster sighting in 2025. Could the mystery be solved?
