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Editor’s Note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter. Get the latest news in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments. CNN  —  Buying and renovating a home in Italy was something Doug and Leah Johnson had often dreamed about. The couple, who are based in Gloucester, Massachusetts, say they’d sometimes go to view houses while vacationing in the European country. But splashing out on a property there hadn’t seemed like a viable option until Doug came across a listing for a 14th-century apartment in the town of Vasanello, located in the Italian region of Lazio, with a sale price of just 13,000 euros (about $13,450). “The idea of something that was built in the 14th or 15th century was just really intriguing,” Doug Johnson tells CNN Travel, explaining that he has a penchant for “fixing up old buildings.” He immediately saw potential…

Editor’s Note: Rinu Oduala is the founder and director of Connect Hub Nigeria, an online platform for building social networks and organizing mass movements. The views expressed in this commentary are her own. Read more opinion on CNN. Lagos CNN  —  As the sun began to rise over the bustling city of Lagos, Nigeria, a group of young people dressed in t-shirts and jeans were already gathered outside a polling station. Joining the slow-moving queue, these young, educated voters had one common goal – to make a difference. They had grown up in a country plagued by corruption, poverty and political instability, and were tired of waiting for change to come from the top. They remember the day, in October 2020, when the sound of gunshots and screams filled the air as the military opened fire on unarmed protesters in Lagos, the second-largest city in Africa – in what became…

A Leopard 2 tank is seen at the Armored Corps Training Center in Munster, Germany, on February 20. (Focke Strangmann/AFP/Getty Images/File)Ukrainian soldiers have nearly completed their training on Leopard 2 battle tanks in Munster, Germany, according to a spokesperson for the special training command of its armed forces, the Bundeswehr. The spokesperson — who is routinely not named — told CNN that with training now concluding, it would soon be feasible for Germany to deploy the Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine. Germany has so far vowed to supply Ukraine with 18 of the latest A6 model Leopard 2 tanks. The spokesperson said the Ukrainian soldiers were “highly motivated” and used the five-week training “more than effectively.” The spokesperson said the soldiers were trained 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week, over the past five weeks. The spokesperson said they were trained as drivers, gunners, technicians, commanders and maintenance personnel.The soldiers were first taught how to maneuver the main battle…

Written by Rebecca Cairns, CNNCall to Earth is a CNN editorial series committed to reporting on the environmental challenges facing our planet, together with the solutions. Rolex's Perpetual Planet initiative has partnered with CNN to drive awareness and education around key sustainability issues and to inspire positive action."I'm willing, more than most people, to go through some discomfort."That's how American conservation photographer Tim Laman ended up with water rising over his knees in a marshy river delta at midnight, his camera gear floating by his side. "I got myself into a situation," he admits. Laman was in Venezuela's Orinoco Basin searching for scarlet ibises, bright orange-red birds that roost among the tangle of mangrove roots and sticky mudflats at dusk. He wanted to photograph the birds in the evening and morning light -- which meant spending the night on a fixed plywood raft in the middle of the river. But…

Reuters  —  It is a problem the butler of “Downton Abbey” might have sympathized with. Highclere Castle in southern England, where the early 20th century period drama about the lives of aristocrats and their servants was filmed, is facing a serious staffing crunch. The reason is the dearth of workers from the European Union, which has forced owner Fiona Carnarvon to mothball the castle’s main business of hosting larger weddings on the site of the Emmy- and Golden Globe-winning show. “We have stopped being able to offer any weddings of any substantial size because of Brexit,” Carnarvon, a countess who owns Highclere with her husband, the eighth Earl of Carnarvon, said. “There are no staff,” she said, speaking from the morning room at the Victorian castle that sits on a 5,000-acre estate. It used to host around 25 weddings with more than 100 guests a season. Weddings with around 20…

Editor’s Note: Sign up for Unlocking the World, CNN Travel’s weekly newsletter. Get the latest news in aviation, food and drink, where to stay and other travel developments. CNN  —  From a cabin concept that completely eradicates the middle seat to a swanky design that takes single-aisle aircraft business class to a new level, this year’s Crystal Cabin Awards shortlist offers an exciting glimpse at aviation’s potential future. Every year the Crystal Cabin Awards showcase innovative ideas that reconceptualize the airplane cabin experience. There are eight categories, with awards spotlighting everything from eco-friendly innovations – such as an AI-based food waste app idea from German airline Lufthansa – to next generation concepts straight from the university classroom. Julia Grosser, a spokesperson for the Crystal Cabin Award Association, says this year’s shortlist suggests aviation is turning a corner after the uncertainty of the peak pandemic years. “Airlines, manufacturers, and suppliers are…

CNN  —  Former President Jimmy Carter, who remains in hospice care, has asked Joe Biden to deliver his eulogy following his death, the president said Monday. “He asked me to do his eulogy – excuse me, I shouldn’t say that,” Biden told supporters during remarks at a fundraiser in Rancho Santa Fe, California, according to a pool report. “I spent time with Jimmy Carter, and it’s finally caught up with him. But they found a way to keep him going for a lot longer than they anticipated, because they found a breakthrough,” the president continued. Biden was likely referring to Carter’s long battle with cancer. In 2015, the former president announced that four spots of cancer had spread to his brain, but following treatment, he was pronounced cancer-free in December of that year. He faced a series of health scares in 2019 and consequentially underwent surgery to remove pressure on…

Written by Tim Lister, CNNThe Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York has quietly reclassified some of its paintings. Two artists, once labeled Russian, are now categorized as Ukrainian and a painting by the French Impressionist Edgar Degas has been renamed from "Russian Dancer" to "Dancer in Ukrainian Dress."For one woman in Kyiv, Ukraine, these changes are a vindication of sorts. Oksana Semenik, a journalist and historian, has been running a months-long campaign to persuade institutions in the United States to relabel the historical works of art she believes are wrongly presented as Russian.At the Met, they include work by Ilya Repin and Arkhip Kuindzhi, artists whose mother-tongue was Ukrainian and who depicted many Ukrainian scenes, even if the region was in their day part of the Russian empire. Repin, a renowned 19th century painter who was born in what is now Ukraine, has been relabeled on the Met's catalog…

CNN  —  Queensland, Australia, has seen record-breaking flooding, with residents of some areas warned against traveling because of large crocodiles sighted in the floodwaters. The flooding, caused by heavy rain, has been particularly severe in Burketown, a small community in the north of the state about 1,300 miles northwest of the state capital Brisbane. Aerial images show roads and houses submerged. Almost 100 residents had to be airlifted to higher ground, according to a Reuters report. Floodwaters in Burketown reached record levels, according to Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology on Tuesday, with the river rising above the previous highest level of 6.78 meters recorded in 2011. On Monday, Queensland Police warned residents to stay out of the floodwaters as a helicopter had spotted “two very large crocs” in the waters. The warning was made in a video posted to Twitter, which showed police rescuing a baby kangaroo from the floodwaters. In…

London CNN  —  Credit Suisse acknowledged “material weakness” in its financial reporting Tuesday as it scrapped bonuses for top executives in the wake of the bank’s worst annual performance since the global financial crisis. The embattled Swiss lender also said chairman Axel Lehmann had proposed to “voluntarily waive” a share award worth 1.5 million Swiss francs ($1.6 million) for the 2022-2023 financial year, given the firm’s “poor financial performance.” Credit Suisse (CSGKF) said in its annual report that it had found “the group’s internal control over financial reporting was not effective” because it failed to adequately identify potential risks to financial statements. The revelations come just days after the bank delayed the publication of the annual report after an eleventh-hour query from the US Securities and Exchange Commission over cash flow statements for 2019 and 2020. The board concluded that the “material weakness could result in misstatements of account balances…