News Headlines - 01 May 2019

▽One Image of Japan’s Royals Tells a Story of Demographic Crisis - The New York Times

During the short, solemn ceremony on Wednesday in which the new emperor of Japan, Naruhito, 59, accepted the sacred sword, jewels and seals that signify his right to sit on the throne, he was flanked by just two people. Standing ramrod straight to his right was his younger brother, Prince Akishino. To his left was his aging uncle, Prince Hitachi, who sat in a wheelchair.
It was striking visual evidence of the imperial family’s looming existential crisis: It has precious few heirs left.
Like Japan itself, the imperial family has a demographic problem. Just as Japan’s population is shrinking and aging, so is the royal family’s. The line of succession, which is limited to men, is only three people long.

▽Thailand's King Maha Remarries, Appoints New Wife as Queen | Time

Thailand’s King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who will have his official coronation on Saturday, has appointed his consort as the country’s queen.
An announcement Wednesday in the Royal Gazette said Suthida Vajiralongkorn Na Ayudhya is legally married to the 66-year-old king, and is now Queen Suthida.
Although she has been in the public eye for about three years, there has been little official information released about her and the news was a surprise to many Thais. Suthida is reported to be 40 years old and to have previously worked as a flight attendant for Thai Airways International. The two reportedly met on a flight.

▽CNN and BBC pulled off the air by Venezuela's government - CNN

CNN was taken off the air by the Venezuelan government on Tuesday moments after the network broadcast a feed that showed military vehicles running over protesters in Caracas.
DirecTV, Net Uno, Intercable, and Telefónica all received orders from Venezuela's government regulator Conatel to block CNN. (DirecTV and CNN are both owned by AT&T.)
A BBC spokesperson told CNN that BBC Global News had also been taken off the air in the South American country.

▽Poles stage banana protest over removal of 'indecent' artwork - Reuters

Around 1,000 people, many eating bananas to make their point, protested in front of Warsaw’s National Museum on Monday over a decision last week to remove artworks deemed “indecent” by the museum’s director.
One work, a 1973 video “Consumer Art” by Polish artist Natalia LL and stills from the video, show a woman eating a banana in sometimes lascivious poses. Only the video was removed on Friday according to the museum’s officials.

▽Ifo study casts doubt on electric vehicles′ climate-saving credentials | DW

When the ifo institute released its findings shortly before Easter, its verdict amounted to no less than the slaughtering of a sacred cow of German climate policy: electromobility.
The claims made by former ifo president Hans-Werner Sinn, physics professor Christoph Buchal and ifo energy expert Hans-Dieter Long could deal a big blow to this country's efforts to reduce traffic-related CO2 by 40% over the next decade... The research trio compared the CO2 footprint of a Tesla Model 3 with those of a Mercedes 220d diesel car and a Mercedes C Class model converted from petrol to liquefied natural gas (LNG).
Their focus was on the cars' whole life cycle emissions — from the first nut welded right down to the cars' final kilometer. The life cycle in terms of distance driven was arbitrarily set at 150,000 kilometers (93,205 miles) for better judgement.