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Erdogan Opens Huge Suspension Bridge Linking Europe and Asia

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends opening ceremony of the 1915 Canakkale Bridge over the Dardanelles, in Canakkale, Turkey March 18, 2022. (Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends opening ceremony of the 1915 Canakkale Bridge over the Dardanelles, in Canakkale, Turkey March 18, 2022. (Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters)
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Erdogan Opens Huge Suspension Bridge Linking Europe and Asia

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends opening ceremony of the 1915 Canakkale Bridge over the Dardanelles, in Canakkale, Turkey March 18, 2022. (Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan attends opening ceremony of the 1915 Canakkale Bridge over the Dardanelles, in Canakkale, Turkey March 18, 2022. (Presidential Press Office/Handout via Reuters)

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan opened a massive suspension bridge across Turkey's Dardanelles Strait on Friday, the latest in a series of major infrastructure projects which he has prioritized during his two decades in power.

Connecting Turkey's European and Asian shores, the 1915 Canakkale Bridge was built by Turkish and South Korean firms with an investment of 2.5 billion euros ($2.8 billion). It has the longest main span - the distance between the two towers - of any suspension bridge in the world.

Such mega projects have been central to Erdogan's achievements since his AK Party first came to power in 2002, including a new Istanbul airport, rail and road tunnels beneath Istanbul's Bosphorus strait, and a bridge over it.

"These works will continue to provide profit for the state for many years," Erdogan said at an opening ceremony on the anniversary of a 1915 Ottoman naval victory against French and British forces in the Dardanelles during World War One.

"These projects have a large share in putting our country ahead in investment, workforce and exports," he said.

Last year he launched what he previously called his "crazy project": a $15 billion canal in Istanbul intended to relieve pressure on the busy Bosphorus Strait. However critics have questioned the project's viability given Turkey's economic woes, environmental risks and public opposition.

Costly

Ahead of national elections scheduled for 2023, opinion polls have shown a slide in the popularity of Erdogan and his AK Party, boosting the opposition's prospects of ousting him.

The main opposition CHP has criticized the potential cost of the bridge to the public purse, with media reports saying the build-operate-transfer agreement includes an annual payment guarantee of 380 million euros ($420 million) to the operators or a total 6 billion euros over the duration of the accord.

Erdogan said the price for passenger vehicles to use the bridge would be 200 lira ($13.50).

Work on the Dardanelles bridge project was launched in March 2017, with more than 5,000 workers involved in the construction.

The 2,023 meter (1.25 mile) length of its midspan is an allusion to the Turkish Republic's 100th anniversary in 2023.

It is the fourth bridge linking the European and Asian shores in Turkey, alongside the three built in Istanbul.

Its towers are 318 meters (347.8 yards) high and the total length of the bridge is 4.6 km (2.9 miles) including the approach viaducts.

Until now, vehicles traveling between Anatolia and the Gallipoli peninsula had to cross the Dardanelles in a one-hour ferry journey, which including waiting time amounted to as much as five hours. The journey will now take around six minutes.

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World

Russia, North Korea Connect Road Bridge Ahead of Summer Opening

This handout image released by the Russian Transport Ministry on April 21, 2026, shows a ceremony marking the connection of the two sides of the new Russia-North Korea road bridge over the Tumen River, set to open this summer. (Handout / Russian Transport Ministry / AFP)
This handout image released by the Russian Transport Ministry on April 21, 2026, shows a ceremony marking the connection of the two sides of the new Russia-North Korea road bridge over the Tumen River, set to open this summer. (Handout / Russian Transport Ministry / AFP)
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Russia, North Korea Connect Road Bridge Ahead of Summer Opening

This handout image released by the Russian Transport Ministry on April 21, 2026, shows a ceremony marking the connection of the two sides of the new Russia-North Korea road bridge over the Tumen River, set to open this summer. (Handout / Russian Transport Ministry / AFP)
This handout image released by the Russian Transport Ministry on April 21, 2026, shows a ceremony marking the connection of the two sides of the new Russia-North Korea road bridge over the Tumen River, set to open this summer. (Handout / Russian Transport Ministry / AFP)

Russia and North Korea held a ceremony Tuesday to mark the joining of the first road bridge connecting the countries, set to open for traffic this summer, Moscow said.

Ties between the two heavily sanctioned countries have surged amid Russia's war on Ukraine, with Moscow and Pyongyang deepening economic, political, cultural and military links.

South Korea warned last week that Chinese and Russian support was helping revive the North Korean economy, which has struggled for years under sweeping international sanctions, almost complete international isolation and huge military investment.

Moscow's foreign ministry said the opening of the bridge would "become a truly landmark stage in Russian-Korean relations. Its significance goes far beyond a purely engineering task."

The bridge, which crosses the Tumen River that marks the border between the two countries, will be able to handle up to 300 vehicles and 2,850 people a day, Russia's transport ministry said.

Russia and North Korea inked a defense treaty in 2024 that calls for military support in the case of either country being attacked.

Pyongyang that year sent thousands of troops to Russia to support its war on Ukraine. They were deployed to the western Kursk region to held fend off a months-long counter-offensive by Kyiv's troops.

Several senior Russian officials have visited North Korea recently, including the interior minister, currently in the country.

Russia's foreign ministry said the bridge would help "develop trade, economic and humanitarian exchanges" between Russia's Far East and North Korea.

North Korea does not publish official data on the size of its economy.

Its nominal gross domestic product was equivalent to about $30 billion in 2024, according to Seoul's official estimate -- a tiny fraction of the South Korean economy, one of the most developed in the world.

North Korea has long faced shortages. A famine in the mid-1990s killed hundreds of thousands of people, and reports indicate that the Covid-19 pandemic also pushed many into extreme hunger.

World

Germany Rejects Push to Suspend EU-Israel Cooperation Deal

Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Luxembourg, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Luxembourg, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP)
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Germany Rejects Push to Suspend EU-Israel Cooperation Deal

Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Luxembourg, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP)
Germany's Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul speaks with the media as he arrives for a meeting of EU foreign ministers at the European Council building in Luxembourg, Tuesday, April 21, 2026. (AP)

Germany on Tuesday poured cold water on calls to suspend the EU's cooperation deal with Israel, despite rising anger over the war in Lebanon and the situation in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Spain and Ireland had put the issue of halting the agreement back on the table at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg.

But German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul called the proposal "inappropriate".

"We have to talk with Israel about the critical issues," he said at the start of the meeting.

"That has to be done in a critical, constructive dialogue with Israel. That is what we stand for."

Attitudes towards Israel among EU member states, already hardened over its conduct in the war in Gaza, stiffened further after the Israeli invasion of Lebanon and a new law on the death penalty for Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.

"We need to act. We need to make sure that our fundamental values are protected," Irish foreign minister Helen McEntee said.

Facing alarm at the civilian toll exacted in the Gaza war, the EU last year already put on the table a raft of potential measures to punish Israel, including cutting trade ties or sanctioning government ministers.

But so far none of the steps laid out by Brussels has garnered enough support from member states to be put into action.

Suspending the entirety of the EU's cooperation agreement, as Spain and Ireland are pushing for, requires unanimity among the bloc's 27 countries and would almost certainly be blocked by allies of Israel.

More feasible could be suspending the part of the deal facilitating closer trade ties, a move that only requires support from a weighted majority of EU countries.

That would require a shift in position from EU heavyweights such as Germany or Italy.

Rome has already signaled a tougher line on Israel by suspending a defense agreement.

But EU officials and diplomats said it seemed there would not be sufficient support to take those actions, especially after a ceasefire was agreed in Lebanon.

"If the opinions of the member states have changed, then we can move forward with these decisions," said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

France and Sweden meanwhile re-upped an earlier call from some other EU countries for the bloc to consider halting the import of goods from Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are considered illegal under international law.

World

UN Maritime Agency Urges Help for Seafarers Stranded in Hormuz

Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Musandam, Oman, April 20, 2026. (Reuters)
Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Musandam, Oman, April 20, 2026. (Reuters)
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UN Maritime Agency Urges Help for Seafarers Stranded in Hormuz

Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Musandam, Oman, April 20, 2026. (Reuters)
Ships and boats in the Strait of Hormuz off the coast of Musandam, Oman, April 20, 2026. (Reuters)

The head of the UN maritime agency appealed on Tuesday for help for thousands of seafarers stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, as the Middle East war paralyzes the vital shipping route.

Around 20,000 seafarers and 2,000 ships have been stranded in the waterway since US-Israeli strikes on Iran on February 28 that triggered the war, according to the International Maritime Organization (IMO).

Around one-fifth of the world's crude and liquefied natural gas normally passes through the strait.

IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez told a maritime conference in Singapore on Tuesday that stranded sailors were suffering from stress and fatigue.

"We need to know everything that they're going through," he said.

Dominguez urged shipping companies to provide remote support to the sailors on areas like mental health.

He said some countries have established round-the-clock helplines for the seafarers, while others have been providing them with food.

But more could be done on a personal level, such as proactively reaching out to sailors to listen to them so they feel less isolated.

Shipping remained curtailed on the strait as the United States and Iran both warned they were ready for war, while the clock ticked down on a ceasefire set to expire Wednesday.