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Jordan Completes Renovation of Longest Roman Water Tunnel

A Jordanian leads a caravan of camels in Jordan's ancient city of Petra AFP
A Jordanian leads a caravan of camels in Jordan's ancient city of Petra AFP
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Jordan Completes Renovation of Longest Roman Water Tunnel

A Jordanian leads a caravan of camels in Jordan's ancient city of Petra AFP
A Jordanian leads a caravan of camels in Jordan's ancient city of Petra AFP

The US Embassy in Amman announced the completion of the project to renovate and conserve the Roman tunnel in the Umm Qais northern Jordan, with a $160,000 fund from the US Ambassadors Fund for Cultural Preservation (AFCP).

Through its partnership with the Faculty of Archeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk University, the US Embassy has managed to restore the valuable historic site so that Jordanians, visitors, and tourists can enjoy its beautiful ancient architecture. The Yarmouk University, in cooperation with the US Embassy, ​​hosted a ceremony to announce the official opening of the site.

The Roman tunnel in Umm Qais is the longest Roman aqueduct known in the world, extending to 170 km from Jordan to Syria, which is nine times longer than the second longest water tunnel in Italy.

The AFCP grant had been allocated between 2015 and 2018. It enabled the Department of Conservation and Management of Heritage Resources at Yarmouk University to rehabilitate and promote the tunnel to host visitors and boost tourism in the site. The Ambassadors Fund for the Preservation of Cultural Heritage supports the protection of sites and cultural features around the world. Since 2001, Jordan has received more than $2 million grants to finance 18 projects to preserve cultural heritage in places such as Petra, Al-Baydha, Umm Al-Jimal, Abila, the Jordan Valley and the heart of the country.

US Chargé d’Affaires Jim Barnhart said the United States is proud to stand as a partner in preserving and protecting Jordan’s heritage sites, noting that tourism remains one of the foundations of Jordan’s economy. In 2016, the Faculty of Archeology and Anthropology at Yarmouk University launched the project aiming to maintain and renovate the water tunnel at the site of Umm Qais, northern Jordan, and one of the ten commercial cities of the Decapolis. Dr. Ziad Al Saad, the university's vice president for academic affairs, explained that this tunnel is the tallest of its kind in the ancient world.

It is a network of underground 170 km long tunnels, which was inaugurated by the Roman engineers in 90 AD to transport drinking water from an ancient lake in Syria to Umm Qais in northern Jordan. The AFCP project was dedicated to preserve and rehabilitate 2-3 kilometers of the tunnel located below the archaeological site on Umm Qais hill.

Saad explained that the importance of the project is emphasized in preserving and maintaining the cultural value of this water engineering system. It contributes to enhancing the cultural and historical identity of Umm Qais, and boosting the role of tourism and archeology in achieving sustainable development of the community.

He added that the project's executive procedures included the architectural documentation of the tunnel through modern techniques such as photogrammetry, 3D laser survey and the geographic information system (GIS), as well as the documentation of the damages in caused by environmental factors and the previous maintenance procedures using cement at the entrance to the tunnel.

The second phase of the project saw the maintenance and restoration works with minimal intervention in accordance with international standards for the restoration of historic sites.

These procedures had been accompanied by the renovation of infrastructure and mechanics that enable people to move in the tunnel, in order to offer a unique experience that takes visitors to the past and introduce them to the creativity of those who built this tunnel.

Saad stressed that the completion of this project will provide the required conditions to qualify Umm Qais tunnel to be added on the World Heritage List, which will give the site an added value and enhanced protection.

It will also pave the road for the implementation of future works to maintain the remaining parts of the tunnel. This responsibility requires more cooperation and coordination between the concerned local, regional and global institutions. Saad noted that the project remains subject to stability in the area of ​​the historic triangle in the north.

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Surprise Shark Caught on Camera for 1st Time in Antarctica’s Near-freezing Deep

In this image made from video and released by the University of Western Australia, a sleeper shark swims into the spotlight of a video camera in Antarctica in January 2025. (Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, Inkfish, Kelpie Geoscience via AP)
In this image made from video and released by the University of Western Australia, a sleeper shark swims into the spotlight of a video camera in Antarctica in January 2025. (Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, Inkfish, Kelpie Geoscience via AP)
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Surprise Shark Caught on Camera for 1st Time in Antarctica’s Near-freezing Deep

In this image made from video and released by the University of Western Australia, a sleeper shark swims into the spotlight of a video camera in Antarctica in January 2025. (Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, Inkfish, Kelpie Geoscience via AP)
In this image made from video and released by the University of Western Australia, a sleeper shark swims into the spotlight of a video camera in Antarctica in January 2025. (Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, Inkfish, Kelpie Geoscience via AP)

An ungainly barrel of a shark cruising languidly over a barren seabed far too deep for the sun’s rays to illuminate was an unexpected sight.

Many experts had thought sharks didn’t exist in the frigid waters of Antarctica before this sleeper shark lumbered warily and briefly into the spotlight of a video camera, researcher Alan Jamieson said this week. The shark, filmed in January 2025, was a substantial specimen with an estimated length of between 3 and 4 meters (10 and 13 feet).

“We went down there not expecting to see sharks because there’s a general rule of thumb that you don’t get sharks in Antarctica,” Jamieson said.

“And it’s not even a little one either. It’s a hunk of a shark. These things are tanks,” he added.

The camera operated by the Minderoo-UWA Deep-Sea Research Centre, which investigates life in the deepest parts of the world’s oceans, was positioned off the South Shetland Islands near the Antarctic Peninsula. That is well inside the boundaries of the Antarctic Ocean, also known as the Southern Ocean, which is defined as below the 60-degree south latitude line.

The center on Wednesday gave The Associated Press permission to publish the images.
The shark was 490 meters (1,608 feet) deep where the water temperature was a near-freezing 1.27 degrees Celsius (34.29 degrees Fahrenheit).

A skate appears in frame motionless on the seabed and seemingly unperturbed by the passing shark. The skate, a shark relative that looks like a stingray, was no surprise since scientists already knew their range extended that far south.

Jamieson, who is the founding director of the University of Western Australia-based research center, said he could find no record of another shark found in the Antarctic Ocean.

Peter Kyne, a Charles Darwin University conservation biologist independent of the research center, agreed that a shark had never before been recorded so far south.

Climate change and warming oceans could potentially be driving sharks to the Southern Hemisphere’s colder waters, but there was limited data on range changes near Antarctica because of the region’s remoteness, Kyne said.

The slow-moving sleeper sharks could have long been in Antarctica without anyone noticing, he said.

“This is great. The shark was in the right place, the camera was in the right place and they got this great footage,” Kyne said. “It’s quite significant.”

The sleeper shark population in the Antarctic Ocean was likely sparse and difficult for humans to detect, Jamieson said.

The photographed shark was maintaining a depth of around 500 meters (1,640 feet) along a seabed that sloped into much deeper water. The shark maintained that depth because that was the warmest layer of several water layers stacked upon each other to the surface, Jamieson said.

The Antarctic Ocean is heavily layered, or stratified, to a depth of around 1,000 meters (3,280 feet) because of conflicting properties including colder, denser water from below not readily mixing with fresh water running off melting ice from above.

Jamieson expects other Antarctic sharks live at the same depth, feeding on the carcasses of whales, giant squids and other marine creatures that die and sink to the bottom.

There are few research cameras positioned at that specific depth in Antarctic waters.

Those that are can only operate during the Southern Hemisphere summer months, from December through February.

“The other 75% of the year, no one’s looking at all. And so this is why, I think, we occasionally come across these surprises,” Jamieson said.

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17th Century Wreck Reappears from Stockholm Deep

The remains of a 17th century shipwreck is pictured after resurfacing in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)
The remains of a 17th century shipwreck is pictured after resurfacing in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)
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17th Century Wreck Reappears from Stockholm Deep

The remains of a 17th century shipwreck is pictured after resurfacing in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)
The remains of a 17th century shipwreck is pictured after resurfacing in Stockholm, Sweden, on February 17, 2026. (Photo by Jonathan NACKSTRAND / AFP)

A 17th century Swedish Navy shipwreck buried underwater in central Stockholm for 400 years has suddenly become visible due to unusually low Baltic Sea levels.

The wooden planks of the ship's well-preserved hull have since early February been peeking out above the surface of the water off the island of Kastellholmen, providing a clear picture of its skeleton.

"We have a shipwreck here, which was sunk on purpose by the Swedish Navy," Jim Hansson, a marine archeologist at Stockholm's Vrak - Museum of Wrecks, told AFP.

Hansson said experts believe that after serving in the navy, the ship was sunk around 1640 to use as a foundation for a new bridge to the island of Kastellholmen.

Archeologists have yet to identify the exact ship, as it is one of five similar wrecks lined up in the same area to form the bridge, all dating from the late 16th and early 17th centuries.

"This is a solution, instead of using new wood you can use the hull itself, which is oak" to build the bridge, Hansson said.

"We don't have shipworm here in the Baltic that eats the wood, so it lasts, as you see, for 400 years," he said, standing in front of the wreck.

Parts of the ship had already broken the surface in 2013, but never before has it been as visible as it is now, as the waters of the Baltic Sea reach their lowest level in about 100 years, according to the archaeologist.

"There has been a really long period of high pressure here around our area in the Nordics. So the water from the Baltic has been pushed out to the North Sea and the Atlantic," Hansson explained.

A research program dubbed "the Lost Navy" is underway to identify and precisely date the large number of Swedish naval shipwrecks lying on the bottom of the Baltic.

Varieties

China Has Slashed Air Pollution, but the ‘War’ Isn’t Over 

This picture taken on February 11, 2026 shows pedestrians walking along an overpass as traffic snarls in Beijing. (AFP)
This picture taken on February 11, 2026 shows pedestrians walking along an overpass as traffic snarls in Beijing. (AFP)
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China Has Slashed Air Pollution, but the ‘War’ Isn’t Over 

This picture taken on February 11, 2026 shows pedestrians walking along an overpass as traffic snarls in Beijing. (AFP)
This picture taken on February 11, 2026 shows pedestrians walking along an overpass as traffic snarls in Beijing. (AFP)

Fifteen years ago, Beijing's Liangma riverbanks would have been smog-choked and deserted in winter, but these days they are dotted with families and exercising pensioners most mornings.

The turnaround is the result of a years-long campaign that threw China's state power behind policies like moving factories and electrifying vehicles, to improve some of the world's worst air quality.

Pollution levels in many Chinese cities still top the World Health Organization's (WHO) limits, but they have fallen dramatically since the "airpocalypse" days of the past.

"It used to be really bad," said Zhao, 83, soaking up the sun by the river with friends.

"Back then when there was smog, I wouldn't come out," she told AFP, declining to give her full name.

These days though, the air is "very fresh".

Since 2013, levels of PM2.5 -- small particulate that can enter the lungs and bloodstream -- have fallen 69.8 percent, Beijing municipality said in January.

Particulate pollution fell 41 percent nationwide in the decade from 2014, and average life expectancy has increased 1.8 years, according to the University of Chicago's Air Quality Life Index (AQLI).

China's rapid development and heavy coal use saw air quality decline dramatically by the 2000s, especially when cold winter weather trapped pollutants close to the ground.

There were early attempts to tackle the issue, including installing desulphurization technology at coal power plants, while factory shutdowns and traffic control improved the air quality for events like the 2008 Olympics.

But the impact was short-lived, and the problem worsened.

- Action plan -

Public awareness grew, heightened by factors like the US embassy in Beijing making monitoring data public.

By 2013, several international schools had installed giant inflatable domes around sport facilities to protect students.

That year, multiple episodes of prolonged haze shrouded Chinese cities, with one in October bringing northeastern Harbin to a standstill for days as PM2.5 levels hit 40 times the WHO's then-recommended standard.

The phrase "I'm holding your hand, but I can't see your face" took off online.

Later that year, an eight-year-old became the country's youngest lung cancer patient, with doctors directly blaming pollution.

As concerns mounted, China's ruling Communist Party released a ten-point action plan, declaring "a war against pollution".

It led to expanded monitoring, improved factory technology and the closure or relocation of coal plants and mines.

In big cities, vehicles were restricted and the groundwork was laid for widespread electrification.

For the first time, "quantitative air quality improvement goals for key regions within a clear time limit" were set, a 2016 study noted.

These targets were "the most important measure", said Bluetech Clean Air Alliance director Tonny Xie, whose non-profit worked with the government on the plan.

"At that time, there were a lot of debates about whether we can achieve it, because (they were) very ambitious," he told AFP.

The policy targeted several key regions, where PM2.5 levels fell rapidly between 2013 and 2017, and the approach was expanded nationwide afterwards.

"Everybody, I think, would agree that this is a miracle that was achieved in China," Xie said.

China's success is "entirely" responsible for a decline in global pollution since 2014, AQLI said last summer.

- 'Low-hanging fruits' gone -

Still, in much of China the air remains dangerous to breathe by WHO standards.

This winter, Chinese cities, including financial hub Shanghai, were regularly among the world's twenty most polluted on monitoring site IQAir.

Linda Li, a running coach who has lived in both Beijing and Shanghai, said air quality has improved, but she still loses up to seven running days to pollution in a good month.

A top environment official last year said China aimed to "basically eliminate severe air pollution by 2025", but the government did not respond when AFP asked if that goal had been met.

Official 2025 data found nationwide average PM2.5 concentrations decreased 4.4 percent on-year.

Eighty-eight percent of days featured "good" air quality.

However, China's current definition of "good" is PM2.5 levels of under 35 micrograms per cubic meter, significantly higher than the WHO's recommended five micrograms.

China wants to tighten the standard to 25 by 2035.

The last five years have also seen pollution reduction slow.

The "low-hanging fruits" are gone, said Chengcheng Qiu from the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).

Qiu's research suggests pollution is shifting west as heavy industry relocates to regions like Xinjiang, and that some cities in China have seen double-digit percentage increases in PM2.5 in the last five years.

"They can't just stop all industrial production. They need to find cleaner ways to produce the output," Qiu said.

There is hope for that, given China's status as a renewable energy powerhouse, with coal generation falling in 2025.

"Cleaner air ultimately rests on one clear direction," said Qiu.

"Move beyond fossil fuels and let clean energy power the next stage of development."