Versuchen GOLD - Frei

Open to all Floating idea of global city swim network

The Guardian Weekly

|

July 04, 2025

Swimming in urban waterways should be a right, activists have said, as an international alliance aims to persuade politicians to clean up rivers so they can be used safely.

- By Ella Foote ROTTERDAM

Open to all Floating idea of global city swim network

At the world’s first Swimmable Cities summit in Rotterdam, more than 200 representatives from over 20 countries gathered and plunged into a local swimming spot that was once an industrial port.

The Swimmable Cities alliance was formed in response to the Seine cleanup for the 2024 Paris Olympics. The summit aims to build on this work and progress made in other European cities to create a global network of swimmable urban waterways.

Rotterdam’s Rijnhaven, once an industrial port on the south bank of the Nieuwe Maas, is now a designated swimming area with a floating pontoon park and the only legal place to swim in the centre of the city. Locals come for evening or lunchtime dips, children leap in and play.

WEITERE GESCHICHTEN VON The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

Feeling in a pickle? How leftover brine can give your cooking a kick

I’m an avid consumer of pickles. When I’ve finished a jar, how can I use the brine in my cooking?

time to read

2 mins

July 04, 2025

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

Cool retreats Hill stations swamped by tourists fleeing heat

Until recently, the drive up the mountainous road to Landour was a highlight of a visit to the hilltop town, as drivers enjoyed glorious Himalayan views and breathed in the cool forest air. Today, the journey is something to be endured with up to 1,000 cars a day clogging the narrow, winding road - slowing to navigate hairpin bends. A journey that once took five to six hours from Delhi can now take up to 10 hours, especially at weekends in May and June.

time to read

3 mins

July 04, 2025

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

How the rise of Zohran Mamdani has divided Democrats

The Friday night before election day, Zohran Mamdani, the 33-year-old democratic socialist running for mayor of New York City, walked the length of Manhattan, from Inwood Hill Park at its northern tip to the Battery - about 20km. Along the way, he was greeted by a stream of New Yorkers enjoying the sticky summer night - men rose from their folding chairs to shake his hand, drivers honked in support and diners leapt up to snap a selfie with the would-be leader of their city.

time to read

5 mins

July 04, 2025

The Guardian Weekly

‘It’s a fight for life’ Tipping points, doomerism and catastrophic risks

Climate expert Genevieve Guenther on the importance of correcting the false narrative that climate threat is under control... and why it is appropriate to be scared

time to read

5 mins

July 04, 2025

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

Call to revive the spirit of Greenham Common

In August 1981, 36 people, mainly women, walked from Wales to RAF Greenham Common in Berkshire to protest against the storing of US cruise missiles in the UK.

time to read

2 mins

July 04, 2025

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

Who are the jihadists waging a ghost war in the Sahel?

The scene is wearily familiar. It is dusk at a ramshackle military outpost, surrounded by miles of scrubby desert or on the outskirts of a major town.

time to read

3 mins

July 04, 2025

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

Will Ghibli's magic fade as the studio turns 40?

The beloved Japanese animation house faces an uncertain future, with its figurehead, 84-year-old Hayao Miyazaki, claiming he has made his final film

time to read

3 mins

July 04, 2025

The Guardian Weekly

The Guardian Weekly

The ripple effect

After America's blunt intervention, Donald Trump says the war between Iran and Israel is over. But the perceived readiness of the US to employ force instead of negotiations could have knock-on consequences around the world

time to read

4 mins

July 04, 2025

The Guardian Weekly

Broken justice...

Critics argue that far from shielding the world from the worst crimes, international law has protected states by helping them justify their wrongs. Is the system dying or merely in hibernation?

time to read

16 mins

July 04, 2025

The Guardian Weekly

While the death toll mounts, Israel's allies must help build a future for Palestinians

“We cannot be asking civilians to go into a combat zone so that then they can be killed with the justification that they are in a combat zone.” It defies belief that the Unicef spokesperson, James Elder, should have needed to spell that out last week.

time to read

2 mins

July 04, 2025

Listen

Translate

Share

-
+

Change font size