Elbahrain.net “Our leader forever” was a slogan one often saw in Syria during the era of President Hafez al-Assad, father of today’s Syrian president.

The prospect that the dour, stern Syrian leader would live forever was a source of dark humor for many of my Syrian friends when I lived and worked in Aleppo in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Hafez al-Assad died in June 2000. He wasn’t immortal after all.

His regime, however, lives on under the leadership of his son Bashar al-Assad.

There were moments when the Bashar regime’s survival looked in doubt. When the so-called Arab Spring rolled across the region in 2011, toppling autocrats in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, and mass protests broke out in Yemen, Bahrain and Syria, some began to write epitaphs for the Assad dynasty.

But Syria’s allies – Iran, Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Russia – came to the rescue. For the past few years the struggle in Syria between a corrupt, brutal regime in Damascus and a divided, often extreme opposition seemed frozen in place.

Once shunned by his fellow Arab autocrats, Bashar al-Assad was gradually regaining the dubious respectability Arab regimes afford one another.

Was the nightmare of the Syrian civil war coming to an end? Had Bashar al-Assad won? Certainly, that was the assumption of many, despite the fact that large parts of Syria were controlled by a US-backed Kurdish militia and Turkish-supported Sunni factions; that Hezbollah, Iran and Russia propped up the regime; that the US controlled areas in eastern Syria; that Israel conducted air strikes whenever and wherever it saw fit; and that ISIS, though defeated, still managed to launch hit-and-run attacks.

That the government in Damascus was still standing after all that seemed an accomplishment in itself.

Yet it was an illusion of regime victory, suddenly shattered this week after the opposition, led by the once al-Qaeda-affiliated Jabhat al-Nusra – rebranded as Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham – launched an offensive out of Idlib province and in just 72 hours managed to storm all the way to the center of Aleppo.

By Saturday evening, Syrian accounts on social media were buzzing about government forces collapsing across the northern part of the country, with rebels advancing on the central city of Hama. It was there, in early 1982, that Bashar’s father had his army and intelligence services slaughter thousands of his opponents, ending an uprising led by the Muslim Brotherhood.

Why, in the span of just a few days, has the dam broken?

The obvious explanation is that Syria’s key allies – Russia, Iran, and Hezbollah – are all under pressure and let their guard down.

Hezbollah – which played a key role in bolstering the regime during the darkest days of the civil war – pulled most of its troops back home after October 7, 2023, to fight Israel, which has subsequently killed most of the group’s senior leadership.

Russia also played a key role in shoring up the government in Damascus after it dispatched troops and warplanes

Elbahrain.net On Disney’s newest cruise ship, the Treasure, kids ride a slide down to enter a children’s club. While they play and design their own Avengers costumes, adults can grab a cocktail at a bar themed to Disney’s classic ride, the Haunted Mansion. Later in the day, kids, parents and grandparents can meet up at a restaurant intricately themed to Pixar’s “Coco.”

That’s just a snapshot of what cruising looks like today versus a decade ago or more when some industry experts say many would-be cruisers still thought of it as something only grandparents did.

But after the pandemic, there has been a surge in new cruise passengers.

“Everybody wanted to cruise all of a sudden, and the cruise lines were coming up with more and more entertaining equipment, so you could do almost anything at sea. It’s not your parents’ Love Boat anymore,” said Beci Mahnken, president and CEO of MEI-Travel and Mouse Fan Travel. “You have rock climbing walls and ice-skating rinks and princesses, and all kinds of things to do on board ships.”

The race to add bigger and more elaborate features at sea has been intensifying in the years since the first megaship debuted more than three decades ago. Those ever-evolving offerings are paying off.

At her travel agency, Mahnken said she’s seeing demand for cruises at its highest in 25 years. She said there are spaces on large ships that cater to each age demographic, so family members can split up to find their own fun and rejoin each other later for quality family time.

A report by industry group Cruise Lines International Association shows more than 30% of families traveling by cruise go with at least two generations, and 28% of them go with three to five generations.

That intergenerational appeal seems to be helping drive a growing interest in cruise travel.

The report also noted that 27% of passengers in the past two years were first-time cruisers, an increase of 12% compared with the prior two-year period. And there were a total of 31.7 million cruise passengers worldwide in 2023, almost 7% more than the last pre-pandemic year, 2019. The growth comes as the industry focuses simultaneously on reducing its environmental footprint.

“We do know that ‘cruise’ is actually the most powerful segment of the travel space right now. It is growing, whereas other parts of the travel

Disney doubles down
It’s no wonder, then, that Disney is betting big on cruises. The Treasure is their sixth ship in the fleet, but the company announced in August an expansion to 13 ships around the world by 2031.

Across the industry, “there’s about 56 new ships on order for the next four years alone,” Valenta said. “So Disney isn’t really doing anything out of the ordinary in general in the cruise business. What is interesting is that Disney has very quickly decided to place a really large bet on diving into ‘cruise’ and owning more of the cruise space.”

Valenta said that is notable, coming from a company that is very cautious and strategic about what it does. He said it signals a confidence in the growth of cruising.

Two of Disney’s upcoming ships will be sailing exclusively in Asia. The Disney Adventure, Disney’s biggest ship yet, will launch in December 2025 out of Singapore, with a capacity for more than 6,000 passengers. In 2029, the Oriental Land Company, which owns Tokyo Disney Resort, will launch a Disney cruise ship out of Japan.

“It’s a smart move, because they already have Hong Kong Disney and Tokyo Disney … and Shanghai Disney,” Mahnken said. “They’re very popular. So to bring the brand over in terms of a cruise ship is again another brilliant move on their part. It’s a good risk.”

Those familiar with the Disney brand know that it involves deeply immersive stories and themes.

On the Treasure, which takes its maiden voyage in December, Disney fans will find the first cruise ship bar themed to a Disney ride: the Haunted Mansion. The lounge has an aquarium with a special effect, so that those walking around it will see “ghost fish” appear and disappear.

Disney told CNN that one of the original Imagineers of the Haunted Mansion attraction wanted to have an effect like that on the ride, but the technology wasn’t available in the 1960s. This effect is an homage to the original design team.

Another upcoming ship, the Disney Destiny, is expected to begin sailing in November 2025 and will be themed to heroes and villains. A new Hercules musical will debut on board.

Thomas Mazloum, president of Disney Signature Experiences, said Disney Cruise Line has the highest guest satisfaction ratings of his entire department, which also includes Disney theme parks, National Geographic expeditions, Aulani Resort in Hawaii and Disney Vacation Club.

Occupancy is high on Disney ships, at 98% across the five existing ships in fiscal year 2024, according to a company fact sheet.

“Forty percent of guests who cruise with us for the first time have told us that the only reason they cruise is because we happen to be in this space,” Mazloum said.

Competition on the high seas
Of course, everyone wants a piece of the same cruise passenger pie.

Bigger players, such as Carnival Corporation, Royal Caribbean Group and Norwegian Cruise Line, have more ships in their fleet than Disney Cruise Line and have been in the business longer.

In January, Royal Caribbean launched “Icon of the Seas,” the largest cruise ship in the world, with the largest ice arena at sea, the largest swimming pool at sea, six slides and the first family raft slides at sea.

Valenta said even non-cruise travelers may have seen it all over the news and social media when it launched, driving interest in cruising in general.

There are some cruise brands that still cater mainly to adults. But whereas cruising in the 1970s was more focused on couples and formal affairs, Mahnken said a cruise vacation now looks more like a theme park at sea.

And instead of relying only on public ports of call, cruise lines are creating their own private destinations by buying private islands just for their passengers to enjoy.

Competition over customers also means more competitive pricing.

She noted the “value perspective: a cruise can cost about anywhere from 15% to 20% less than a land trip, because of all the things [that] are included.”

Mahnken predicts cruising will stay very strong in the coming years because it provides a more cost-efficient option, especially for those wanting to explore different cities and countries, while still having a familiar place to sleep each night.

Elbahrain.net Buying a historic cruise ship he found on Craigslist back in 2008 was undoubtedly a life-altering decision for Chris Willson.

The technology entrepreneur from Utah spent around 15 years painstakingly restoring the 293-foot vessel, which contains 85 cabins, a swimming pool and a theater, and even moved on board with his long-term partner Jin Li.

Willson says he poured his life savings into the passion project, and his extraordinary story was picked up by CNN and subsequently many other international publications.

His ultimate goal was to transform the neglected ship into a museum, but things didn’t quite go to plan.

In October 2023, Willson made the painful decision to sell the vessel, which began sinking around seven months later. Now its future looks bleak.

“We absolutely loved our time with that ship,” Willson tells CNN Travel. “It (selling) was probably the hardest thing I’ve done in my life.

“It haunts me and I lose sleep over it. I’m not happy about it.”

So where did it all go wrong?

Willson’s longstanding connection to the retired “pocket” cruise ship, built in Germany, began when he came across a sale listing on the Craigslist classified advertisements website and decided to investigate.

Feeling inspired, Willson decided to purchase his own slice of history. He won’t disclose how much he spent, but says he was able to “work out a really good deal with the owner.”

After doing some digging, he discovered that the vessel, originally named Wappen von Hamburg, was constructed by the Blohm and Voss shipyard in 1955 and had been the first significant passenger liner built by Germany after World War II.

Once he took the ship on, Willson arranged for it to be moved to the California river city of Rio Vista, where it stayed for a year, and renamed it the Aurora after spending his first night on board.

“I woke up to one of the most brilliant sunrises I had ever seen,” Willson told CNN back in 2022.

“It was forming an Aurora type effect with the clouds and water. I remember thinking at that time ‘Aurora’ was a fitting name.”

Willson was later offered a berth in San Francisco’s Pier 38, an arrangement that came to an end after around three years.

In 2012, he had the ship transferred back to the California Delta, California’s largest estuary, mooring the Aurora at Herman & Helen’s Marina in Little Potato Slough, located around 24 kilometers from the city of Stockton in California’s Central Valley.

“We wanted it in fresh water and we wanted it in shallow water,” he explains. “So it was absolutely the best possible location that we could have put it.”

Herman & Helen’s Marina closed down a few years later, but the ship remained at the site.

Although he had no prior experience working on ships, Willson dedicated himself to breathing new life into the Aurora, devoting countless hours to renovating it, with the help of volunteers.

“I’d gotten quite a ways,” he says. “I think we had 10 areas solidly restored and refurnished meticulously. These were kind of major areas. So we were pretty proud of that.

“So we were doing a pretty good job. We had marine engineers involved. (There was) no lack of people coming out to loan a hand.”

“We were working on the swimming pool and the forward decks, and replating all of the steel.

Aside from a few small donations, Willson says he funded the bulk of the renovation work himself.

Although he’s unsure of the exact amount he spent on maintaining the ship and “moving it forward” over the years, he estimates the figure to be well over $1 million.

“We were making terrific progress with the Aurora,” he says. “We had a successful YouTube channel. Everything was looking great.”

However, Willson says he faced much resistance from locals, who weren’t thrilled about having such a huge decommissioned ship moored nearby.

The fact that another large vessel, Canadian MineSweeper HMCS Chaleur, which was moored in the same area, sank in 2021 certainly didn’t help matters.

According to Willson, he received a “three-day notice to quit” on “several occasions,” but local authorities never “followed through with an eviction.”

He goes on to explain that things came to a head when 1940s military tugboat Mazapeta, stationed next to the Aurora, also sank in January, creating a “pollution issue.”

“Everything kind of changed from that point on,” he says, explaining that various local agencies became involved, and it became clear that “there was really no future for the Aurora” at that location.

Although Willson did consider moving the ship, he says he learned that the waterway would’ve likely needed a “million dollars worth of dredging for us to get out.”

However, in May, the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office announced that the Aurora was sinking.

“It has been determined the ship has suffered a hole and is taking on water and is currently leaking diesel fuel and oil into the Delta Waterway,” reads a statement posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, on May 22.

The ship was refloated by contractors hired by a Unified Command, according to the US Coast Guard, which confirmed that it had “recently changed ownership.”

“Over the last several weeks, response contractors, Global Diving and Salvage and subcontractors, successfully refloated the vessel and removed an estimated 21,675 gallons of oily water, 3,193 gallons of hazardous waste, and five 25-yard bins of debris was removed from the vessel,” said a statement shared by California Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Office of Spill Prevention and Response on June 28.

“There were no observations of oiled wildlife throughout the response.”

The City of Stockton has since taken over the operation.

According to Connie Cochran, community relations officer for the City of Stockton, there was “was no clear ownership” for the Aurora when the situation occurred and the city is currently “figuring out how to dispose of the vessel.”

“We’re hoping to be getting it out of there in the coming weeks,” Cochran told CNN, pointing out that the size of the ship, along with its location, in an area that isn’t actually within the city limits, has made things even more difficult.

Elbahrain.net More than three months after the $40 million Bayesian superyacht sank off the coast of Sicily, killing seven people including British tech titan Mike Lynch and his 18-year-old daughter, plans to raise the luxury vessel are on the horizon.

And it will cost around $30 million to bring it to shore, according to those who want to manage the complex salvage.

This week, a consortium of insurers led by British Marine, which insure the yacht owned by the Lynch family, presented eight possible salvage plans to the prosecutor’s office in Termini Imerese, near the Porticello fishing port where the yacht went down in bad weather in the early morning of August 19, according to both the consortium and the prosecutor’s office.

The groups that tendered bids for the salvage operation have not been publicly named and are under strict non-disclosure gag orders set by prosecutor Raffaele Cammarano, who is in charge of the preliminary criminal investigation.

One plan that involved removing the 18,000 liters of fuel still onboard was immediately discarded due to environmental concerns, an official with the prosecutor’s office told CNN.

The remaining plans all involve rotating the 55.9-meter (184-foot) yacht, which weighs 534 tons, nearly 90 degrees onto the seabed without removing the fuel or dismantling the 72-meter (236-foot) mast.

The wreckage now rests on its right side some 50 meters (164 feet) below sea level, meaning the tip of the mast will stick out above the surface some 22 meters (72 feet) once the yacht is upright on the seabed and before it is lifted out of the water.

Plans vary on how to best raise it once stabilized. Some suggest using a harness system and giant cranes on salvage barges or specially-built piers to lift it, others a buoyancy system similar to what was used to right the Costa Concordia cruise ship. That ship sank off the Tuscan island of Giglio in 2012 and the subsequent marine salvage operation remains the largest and most expensive ever attempted. A buoyancy system would incorporate balloon-like devices that would float the vessel slowly.

Once the Bayesian superyacht is righted on the seabed and lifted to the surface of the water, it will either be towed, carried, or sailed to a secure port depending on the condition of the hull. It will most likely be taken to the nearby port of Palermo, some 8.4 nautical miles away, where it will be sequestered by law enforcement officials who will investigate the cause of the disaster and recover any sensitive data onboard.

Fifteen people survived the accident, including Lynch’s wife Angela Bacares and nine crew members. The ship’s captain, New Zealander James Cutfield, the engineer and a deckhand are all under investigation for manslaughter but have been allowed to leave the country.

The other crew members and passengers were questioned at length in the days after the accident. No formal criminal charges have yet been filed.

The prosecutor Cammarano said that the criminal investigation into culpability will hinge on what investigators find when the ship is brought to shore, including whether doors were left open or improperly secured, or whether a design flaw led to the sinking.

The salvage plans include ensuring that the hull, doors and mast stay intact to aid in the investigation. Bayesian manufacturer Perini Navi has said the yacht was “unsinkable” and blames the captain and his crew for negligence that caused the vessel’s demise.

The superyacht, which was originally named Salute and then renamed after the Bayesian computation theory when Lynch’s family bought it, was kitted out with luxury fixtures and state-of-the-art navigational technology, as well as watertight safes containing what is believed to be highly sensitive data that Lynch always traveled with.

The yacht is insured for around $2.1 billion, according to records filed in Italy, which lists several different insurance companies that covered the ship for liability as well as its engine and hull.