France Bans Short Haul Flights & South Koreans Get a Year Younger | WEF | Top Stories of the Week

This week's top stories of the week include: 0:15 France bans short haul flights - The ban is likely to take effect in 2023.

Initially, it will affect only 3 routes, between Paris Orly and Lyon, Bordeaux and Nantes.

France’s citizens’ assembly on climate issues first proposed the law in 2021 but a number of airports contested it.

Now the European Commission has declared the proposed ban to be legal.

1:31 South Koreans get a year younger - The country is ending its traditional method of counting ages.

South Korean babies are counted as 1 year old when they’re born.

Then a year is added to everyone’s age on 1 January.

There’s a separate way of calculating age for joining the army or when you can legally smoke and drink.

This means starting from zero at birth and adding a year every 1 January.

Since 1962, the country has also used the international counting method for medical and legal documents.

This can lead to some confusing situations... 2:45 What is nuclear fusion?

- US scientists have made a major breakthrough in nuclear fusion by producing more energy from a nuclear reaction than was used to make it.

This is known as ‘ignition’ and it could herald the age of nuclear fusion energy.

4:10 Carbon neutral spaceship - Spaceship Neptune isn’t powered by rockets, instead, it’s lifted 30 kilometres above Earth by a gigantic balloon.

Big enough to fit a whole football stadium inside.

SpaceBalloon is filled with renewable hydrogen, which means no CO2 emissions