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Scientists uncover ancient hills and swamps that disappeared as sea levels rose across northern Adriatic
Venice is famed for being a floating city, but research shows the land it sits on once lay many miles inland. Dramatic changes in sea level over 10,000 years have reshaped the northern Adriatic coastline, with much of the land that our ancestors roamed now lying beneath the waves.
Samuele Ongaro, at the University of Southampton, and colleagues combined seismic data with sedimentary cores from the coastal basins of northern Italy, Slovenia and northern Croatia to model changes in sea level across the region and reconstruct past landscapes over the past 10,000 years.
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© Photograph: Paulo Amorim/Getty Images
© Photograph: Paulo Amorim/Getty Images
© Photograph: Paulo Amorim/Getty Images
If ever enacted, proposals by Marine Le Pen and the AfD leader, Alice Weidel, to hollow out EU institutions would be a continental act of self-harm
Following the Brexit referendum in 2016, Marine Le Pen was in a predictably celebratory mood. Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, she told one interviewer, was the first breach in the “Brussels Wall”. Ms Le Pen’s Front National party was at that point committed to taking France down the same path, given the chance. But as the UK’s self-inflicted economic wounds became a cautionary tale for the rest of Europe, the notion of Frexit was put on ice.
Instead, Ms Le Pen now hopes to lead far-right allies in hollowing out the EU from within. This month, both she and the leader of Alternative für Deutschland, Alice Weidel, outlined their visions of a “Europe of nations” in which EU institutions would be stripped of both cash and power. Ms Weidel’s “new deal for Europe” would abolish elections to the European parliament, and seek German opt-outs in areas such as migration, defence and common borrowing. Ms Le Pen’s party, now called National Rally, proposes slashing French contributions to the EU budget by 60% over a five-year presidential term, and ending the role of Brussels in proposing common policies for the 27 member states.
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© Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA
© Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA
© Photograph: Christophe Petit-Tesson/EPA
Fifteen establishments join trial scheme to encourage parents and children to talk while dining out
A group of restaurants in Sardinia are banning families from using smartphones and other devices at the table in a quest to encourage conversation.
The initiative, called A tavola senza schermi or At the table without screens, is being spearheaded by Anna Cau, the children’s ombudsman for the Italian island. It is part of a campaign to curtail excessive screen use among children and inspire interaction during meals.
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© Photograph: Awakening/Getty Images
© Photograph: Awakening/Getty Images
© Photograph: Awakening/Getty Images
© Yara Nardi/Reuters
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