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'Flying over Berlin' on Europe's Highest Swing

Hotel worker Wendy Sorice swings 120 meters above the rooftops of Berlin. RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP/File
Hotel worker Wendy Sorice swings 120 meters above the rooftops of Berlin. RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP/File
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'Flying over Berlin' on Europe's Highest Swing

Hotel worker Wendy Sorice swings 120 meters above the rooftops of Berlin. RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP/File
Hotel worker Wendy Sorice swings 120 meters above the rooftops of Berlin. RALF HIRSCHBERGER / AFP/File

Pascal Vent let out a nervous laugh as he peered down at the ground from Berlin's newest tourist attraction, a swing on the top of a 40-storey tower block.
Billed as the highest swing in Europe, the contraption on top of a hotel next to Berlin's famous TV tower is a novel way to take in the city -- with a dose of adrenaline thrown in.
Once strapped into a harness, customers are propelled forward so that when they are at the high point of the swing, there is nothing between them and the ground 120 meters (nearly 400 feet) below.
"After the first few swings, you get used to it and you feel free," said Vent, a media worker who wanted to try out the swing for his 36th birthday.
"I came here to feel a bit younger," he said.
The swing, which charges around 20 euros ($22) for five minutes, has attracted more than 100 visitors a day since it opened in June.
Victoria Voigt, a 34-year-old care worker, discovered the attraction via social media.
"It feels a bit like flying," she said.
Wendy Sorice, a 30-year-old hotel worker, described the experience as an "adrenaline rush" and said she could happily have done it for longer than five minutes.
But her boyfriend was not so enthusiastic -- overcome by vertigo, he stayed on the ground to film her instead.
"We wanted to create something simple and easy to access," said Andi Hoefer, managing director of the company that set up the swing, which operates several attractions in Germany.
The company had previously offered base jumping from the top of the building, but it attracted only limited interest.
The swing offers some competition for the 368-meter TV tower, a famous symbol of the former East Germany with sweeping views across Berlin.
"They have sloping windows, but we have a terrace and fresh air," Hoefer said.
And the fact the attraction beats the record for the highest swing in Europe, previously held by a 100-meter swing in Amsterdam? "Pure chance," he said.

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Those Samsung Smartphones Given to Olympic Athletes? They May Violate Sanctions on North Korea

People pass by an advertisement of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Z Flip 6 at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP)
People pass by an advertisement of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Z Flip 6 at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP)
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Those Samsung Smartphones Given to Olympic Athletes? They May Violate Sanctions on North Korea

People pass by an advertisement of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Z Flip 6 at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP)
People pass by an advertisement of Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Z Flip 6 at a subway station in Seoul, South Korea, Wednesday, July 31, 2024. (AP)

South Korean officials on Thursday said providing Samsung smartphones to North Korean athletes at the Paris Olympics would violate UN Security Council sanctions against the country over its nuclear and missile program.

The South Korean technology giant is a major Olympic partner, and its newest Galaxy Z Flip 6 smartphones are being given to all athletes competing at the Games.

The International Olympic Committee confirmed that the phones were sent to the Olympic village, then later said the North Korean athletes had not received them. It's unclear where the phones might have went.

South Korea’s Foreign Ministry said smartphones are among the items banned under Security Council Resolution 2397 passed in 2017, which prohibits the supply, sale or transfer to North Korea of “all industrial machinery.”

The resolution doesn’t make a distinction between North Korea’s government and its people, and South Korean officials made clear the smartphones would be banned however they entered the country.

Lee Jaewoong, the ministry’s spokesperson, said it would be “critical to prevent the prohibited items from going into North Korea.”

He said the Seoul government was making “necessary diplomatic efforts” to ensure sanctions are upheld but refused to provide details.

The issue also arose during the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, where the North Koreans refused to receive Samsung devices that the organizing committee had offered under condition that they return them before heading home, according to South Korean officials.

North Korea sent 16 athletes to the Paris Games to compete in seven sports, including wrestling, swimming, table tennis and boxing.

North Korea did not participate in the 2020 Summer Games in Tokyo in 2021 because of the country's self-imposed lockdown during the coronavirus pandemic. The IOC then barred the country from participating in the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing as punishment for refusing to send a team to Tokyo.