A $15bn new canal for Istanbul

THERE IS NO such thing as a bad view of the Bosporus, the waterway that divides Istanbul between Europe and Asia. But the one from the bridge of the Gas Cobia, a 180-metre tanker, as it makes its way from the Sea of Marmara to the Black Sea, is hard to beat. Ottoman palaces slide past. Hagia Sophia soaks up the morning sun. The towers of the Rumeli Hisari, the fortress Sultan Mehmet II used to choke off supplies to the city he later conquered, march down to the shore. Passenger ferries and fishing boats bounce on the waves.