Russia: Putin Family Values - Leonid Bershidsky

Russian President Vladimir Putin has always been extremely secretive about his two daughters, so much so that it's all but impossible to find their recent photos on the Internet. Now, however, the Kremlin seems to be doing little to stop a fast-spreading story that Putin's younger daughter Ekaterina lives in Moscow and heads a company that's involved in developing a $1.7 billion innovation center.

The Dutch press has long reported that Maria Putina lived with her Dutch boyfriend in a posh apartment building in Voorschoten, Netherlands. When a Malaysia Airlines passenger jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine, apparently by pro-Russian rebels, the mayor of the city of Hilversum angrily demanded that Maria be deported: Two-thirds of the passengers were Dutch citizens. He later apologized, but tabloids were already reporting she had fled her Dutch home.

As for Katerina, she was linked -- originally by the Korean press -- to the son of a retired South Korean admiral who once worked at the country's Moscow embassy. The admiral denied the rumors.

Read more: Putin Family Values - Bloomberg View

Pollution: The Ocean Cleanup, developing technologies to extract, prevent and intercept plastic pollution

Boyan Slat

The Ocean Cleanup, founded by Dutchman Boyan Slat, has unveiled its feasibility report recently, concluding that its concept is a viable method to clean the oceans from plastic.

The report is the result of more than a year of extensive scientific research in engineering, oceanography, ecology, maritime law, finance and recycling. The feasibility study was financially supported by crowd funding and professional in kind contributions. The research was done by an international team of over 100 experts, predominantly on a voluntary basis.

The next step, building and testing large-scale operational pilots, will be initiated as soon as sufficient funding has been raised. The conclusions of the study mark the end of the first phase of the project in which the assumption that a cleanup of the infamous ‘Great Pacific Garbage Patch’ is impossible has been disproven.

Within ten years’ time, almost half of the plastic could be removed. In the past few decades, millions of tons of plastic have entered the oceans, damaging ecosystems and entering food chains. “

 Boyan first became aware of the plastic pollution problem when diving in Greece, coming across more plastic bags than fish.

Unfortunately, the plastic does not go away by itself. Hence I wondered; Why can’t we clean this up?” says Boyan Slat, who then founded The Ocean Cleanup Foundation.

A cleanup has always been deemed impossible, costing many billions of dollars and taking thousands of years to complete. Besides, by catch and emissions from ships would likely cancel out the benefits. “I wondered; why move through the oceans, if the oceans can move through you? By attaching a system of long floating arms to the seabed, the oceans could basically clean themselves.” 

The 530-page report – reviewed by scientific peers – concludes it is a technically and financially viable method. 
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Read more: 19-Year-old invents feasible solution to cleanup ocean garbage patches: The Ocean Cleanup, developing technologies to extract, prevent and intercept plastic pollution