yachting costumes

9 Nautical Halloween Costume Ideas for Boaters

Looking for the best nautical Halloween costume ideas? You've come to the right place. For starters, pirate costumes are just so 2003. That’s the year Capt. Jack Sparrow entered our lives with Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl , kicking off a multibillion-dollar film franchise and spawning an endless parade of pirate costumes every Halloween.

Here are nine ideas for nautical-themed Halloween costumes that we guarantee nobody else will show up wearing at the dock party.

Nautical-Themed Halloween Costumes

Miami vice agent, yacht club member, the skipper, olympic sailor, martin brody, steelpan player, fly-fisherman.

If you can arrive at the party aboard a go-fast high performance boat , then this one will make you a legend. The classic Sonny Crockett outfit from the 1980s smash-hit TV show is as simple as a white suit with a pastel T-shirt underneath. It doesn’t even have to be a good T-shirt; if the neck hangs a little low from a thousand washings or—even better—if it’s torn, then all the better for showing off some of your chest hair a la Don Johnson in his prime. A cheap-o pair of black sunglasses from the $3 rack at the drugstore completes the look, as does a little sugar in a plastic sandwich bag that you can plant on a friend for a “drug bust.” If you can’t put together the ensemble at home, then you can find decent imitations online for about $30. Start your shopping here .

If you’re willing to invest some serious cash in this year’s costume, then head on over to the hottest jacket-maker in New York City’s SoHo neighborhood and dress yourself up like a yacht club member. Rowing Blazers is the talk of Vogue, GQ and the stylish set, pairing a hip streetwear vibe with the traditional style of blazers from crew clubs at Harvard and Yale universities. The blazers start at $295 for classic yacht-club navy, and if you’re willing to pony up more cash, you can have everything from seersucker to croquet stripe. A much more economical straw boater hat from Zappos will finish off the look.

No, not just any skipper; the skipper, the one and only, from the classic television show Gilligan’s Island. You probably already have most of the pieces that you’ll need for this costume in your closet: a cornflower blue polo shirt and a pair of khaki pants (the bulkier, the better). Add a blue skipper’s hat for less than $10 on Amazon and you’ll be ready to say hello to all your little buddies this Halloween.

Oh yes, you know who this is—he’s just better known as Richard Gere in the 1982 film An Officer and a Gentleman. Gere played Zack Mayo, a U.S. Navy aviation officer whose “get the girl” scene with Debra Winger, to this day, remains among the sexiest ever captured on film. Quite a few Halloween stores sell versions of the dress white uniform that Gere wore in the scene; add aviator glasses to this one from HalloweenCostumes.com to complete the look.

With the summer Olympic Games about to ramp up in Tokyo for 2020, there’s a Team USA store online selling all kinds of hats, jackets, pants, shorts, sweatshirts, T-shirts, socks, scarves, gloves and more. The clearance section on the website knocks as much as 65 percent off the original retail prices, which means you can afford to fully gear up in a way that not only will let you pass as an Olympic sailor this Halloween, but that also will make you Superfan No. 1 when it comes time for the opening ceremonies in July 2020.

The best part of this costume is that you get to walk around the Halloween party all night saying, “You're gonna need a bigger boat.” That’s right: It’s Roy Scheider’s character Martin Brody, police chief of Martha’s Vineyard, from the 1975 classic film Jaws. The costume is so easy to make, it’s practically not a costume at all. All you need is a dark blue T-shirt, a pair of jeans or khaki pants and, if you have it, a khaki jacket. (In the film, he takes the jacket off before shooting at the shark from the boat, so you’re good to go either way.) A half-smoked cigarette hanging out of your mouth is a must.

You’ve seen these guys from the boat for generations, making music on the beaches from the Jamaica to Trinidad. With a little bit of practice, you can sound, well, a little bit like them. Amazon sells steelpan instruments with mallets and carrying cases for less than $100; if you want to take the quality up a notch and really learn to play, then head to the Steelpan Store for the good stuff, including lesson books. Add a wig of dreadlocks and a Bob Marley T-shirt, and you’re good to go, mon.

If you don’t already own the gear that forms the basis of this Halloween costume, then you can find it all in the fly-fishing section at Cabela’s . It’s your choice on how deep you want to get into this character; start with the fishing vest full of lures, of course, and if you’re really feeling the vibe, then add the waders. You could carry a fly-fishing pole to complete the look, or go for the trout net—which also makes a handy carrying sack for cold beverages.

If you have ever dressed up as Santa Claus for Christmas, then you already have a key ingredient required for a Halloween costume of Poseidon, the god of the sea. That white beard is half the headgear you’ll need; pair it with a white wig, a crown and a trident, and you’re ready to face any threats that rise from the depths. Need to make the getup from scratch? Party City is one of several online stores that sell versions of the Poseidon look in adult and child versions.

For an extra-spooktacular Halloween, try Boat Camping

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7 Best Boating and Nautical Halloween Costume Ideas

Table of Contents

Forget about ghosts and goblins—Halloween is a great time of year to show the boating spirit! From love boat captains to sailors, fish, and mermaids, you have a lot of options to choose from when coming up with nautical costume ideas—for women, men, and kids alike.

Here are seven of the top boating and nautical costume ideas for Halloween:

• Classic pirate
• Swashbuckling pirate
• Pirate wench
• Boat captain
• Scuba diver

In the mood for more spooky-season content? Be sure to read the 7 Most Haunted Lighthouses in the United States .

Celebrate Halloween on a Boat! Browse Available Boat Rentals

1. Classic Pirate

Photo Courtesy of Chasing Fireflies.

Oh, the styling of a brocade coat that screams “yo, ho, ho, and a bottle of rum!” This women’s costume , complete with a black pirate hat and gold hoop earrings, really nails the look. And it comes with a pirate saber, just in case anyone else at the Halloween party has a few too many cups of grog and needs to be put in his place.

2. Swashbuckling Pirate

Photo Courtesy of Google Shopping.

This men’s costume   is officially called the Smiffy’s Pirate Deck Mate Captain Sea Ship—but you can call it the “swashbuckling pirate.” The headscarf and belt set the tone, and accessories like a sword, eye patch, and hand hook can complete the look.

3. Pirate Wench

Somebody had to serve grog and rum to all those classic and swashbuckling pirates back in the day. This women’s costume will get you a spot behind any bar, with a corset and head tie to complete the look.

4. Sexy Sailor

Photo Courtesy of HalloweenCostumes.com.

This Seven Seas Sailor costume is a sexy women’s take on a classy Merchant Mariner vibe, with a half-length top and thigh-high shorts that show off nearly every inch of your salty charm. The hat is borderline naughty nurse, but with an anchor decoration to make clear this look is all about the high seas.

5. Kid’s Marine Dress Blue

Photo Courtesy of Fantasy Toyland.

This kid’s costume is a smart-looking getup for any child who wants to give the impression that he or she is ready to take on official duties at the helm . Just be careful with the look of authority, because little Bobby or Bonnie might decide to start giving orders.

6. Sunny Scuba Diver

Photo Courtesy of Amazon.

Learn a few factoids about Jacques Cousteau and the early days of scuba diving, and you’ll be all set to rock this men’s scuba costume that includes a pair of fins and an air tank backpack. Diving goggles complete the look and are shaped in a way that will still let you eat and drink at the neighborhood Halloween party.

7. The Most Famous Sailor of All

Photo Courtesy of Party City.

What kind of Halloween party could be complete without a Popeye costume ? This one has tattooed muscle arm slip-ons (so you can skip eating the spinach to bulk up) and is an officially licensed version of the look from the classic cartoon.

Boatsetter is a unique boat-sharing platform that gives everyone — whether you own a boat or you’re just renting — the chance to experience life on the water. You can list a boat , book a boat , or make money as a captain .

Let your boat pay for itself. List, rent, earn — Only at Boatsetter.

Kim Kavin has been on boats in more than 50 countries and islands, including in the Caribbean, Mediterranean, South Pacific, Indian Ocean and Southeast Asia. She grew up learning to steer a ski boat and Hobie Holder at her grandfather’s lake house in New Jersey, and went on to spend time aboard everything from America’s Cup racing sailboats to submarines. 

Kim is a PADI-certified scuba diver and animal lover who always enjoys a good, long look around a coral reef. Her award-winning writing and editing regularly appears in national marine magazines and on leading websites. In her early years, she was a Dow Jones editing intern and a graduate of the University of Missouri-Columbia School of Journalism. When she’s not writing, Kim can usually be found hiking northwest New Jersey’s beautiful park trails with her adopted shelter mutt, Ginger.

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Innovative Costume of the 21st Century: The Next Generation

By: Sandy Bonds

The World Costume Design Curatorial committee is proud to announce its second major exhibition entitled Innovative Costume of the 21 st Century: The Next Generation. This exhibit was conceived through the collaboration between A.A. Bakhrushin State Central Theatre Museum, OISTAT, and USITT. The world premiere will be held at the State Historical Museum in Moscow, Russia, June-August 2019.

This exhibition will feature innovative work of young professionals, students, independent costume and fashion designers, and interpreters and costume makers from 57 nations worldwide who started their career between 2000 and 2018. Costume renderings, collages, photographs, computer-generated designs, videos, and 3-D costumes created by designers for cinema, opera, ballet, theatre, devised work, performing arts, and fashion will be showcased.

This project is an international endeavor to identify how media, technology, and shifting national identities form us afresh and affect our perception and practice of theatre, breaking previously established boundaries and principles.

We intend to document the new artistic vocabulary originated by the next generation of the emerging artists and create a platform for a dialogue on the topical issues in the field of modern design and technology.

Learn more.

Image Credit: Andrey Bartenev Photograph: Ivan Onoprienko

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January 2015

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Front Page »

News & notices:.

• Rising Star Winner
• 2015 Election Results
• Rigging Inspections
• Announcements
• Andi Lyons Honored
• ASTC'16 Challenge
• Costumes in Moscow
• Innovator Loren Schreiber
• Green Alliance Update
• In Memoriam - Peter Cott
• LiNK to Continue
• Last Word: Joy Emery
• Around the Institute
• Contributing Members
• Spotlight on Giving
• Sustaining Members
• USITT's Executive Director
• Regional Sections

Conference & Stage Expo:

• Cincy Bound
• New at Stage Expo
• Fellows in Conversation
• Student Ambassadors

For the Record:

View issue as a pdf », contact the editor », search the archives, sightlines archive », news & notices, costume exhibit to open in moscow.

Caitlin O’Connor- La Traviata, co-production among the Lyric Opera of Chicago, Houston Grand Opera, and the Royal Canadian Opera Company

Costume Design @ the Turn of The Century, the most comprehensive international costume design exhibit ever curated, will open in June and coincide with PQ 2015. Designs will be exhibited in the galleries of the A.A. Bakhrushin State Museum in Moscow, Russia.

Machine Dazzle (performance piece not clearly identified)

Candace Donnelly: Haroun and the Sea of Stories at New York City Opera

The Bakhrushin Museum, considered Russia’s foremost stage museum, has the largest collection of theatre art in Russia and is well known around the world. The exhibit will be presented in at least six of the Bakhrushin galleries throughout Moscow. USITT member Igor Roussanoff is collaborating with the director of the Bakhrushin, Dmitry Rodinov, to organize this extensive multi-country collection conceived to represent seminal costume designs between 1990 and 2015. The 24 countries represented include the United States of America, Japan, Hungary, Finland, The Netherlands, Australia, Spain, Venezuela, Italy, Serbia, Belgium, Slovakia, Pakistan, Brazil, United Kingdom, Denmark, Russia, Canada, Czech Republic, Ukraine, Mexico, Germany, and Poland.

The exhibit website is at www.worldcostumedesign.com .

Curators from each country are reviewing submitted designs. Those selected will be sent to the museum for final curation. USITT members Susan Tsu, Laura Crow, and Alexandra Bonds served as curators for entries from the United States. Among the designers advanced to Moscow are two of the costume designers honored by USITT monographs, Willa Kim and Carrie Robbins. Both award-winning designers are known and admired for their costume designs on Broadway and in regional theatres.

Others whose costume designs are being considered are: Marianne Custer, Judith Dolan, Deborah Dryden, Joel Ebarb, Connie Furr-Soloman, Raphael Jaen, Jenny Kenyon, Wendy Meaden, Susan Mickey, Michelle Ney, Sabrina Notarfrancicso, Linda Pisano, Kristina Tollefson, and Nic Ularu.

Participation in this international exhibit reflects the mission of USITT to provide members with access to opportunities on the global stage.

Susan Mickey- School for Lies, Chicago Shakespeare Theatre

Volume LV, Number 1

A Brief History of Superyachts

And how they explain the world..

Tim Murphy January+February 2024 Issue

James Clapham

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When the US targeted Russia’s oligarchs after the invasion of Ukraine, the trail of assets kept leading to our own backyard. Not only had our nation become a haven for shady foreign money, but we were also incubating a familiar class of yacht-owning, industry-dominating, resource-extracting billionaires. In the  January + February 2024  issue of our magazine, we investigate the rise of American Oligarchy—and what it means for the rest of us. You can read all the pieces  here .

The luxury yacht may be the world’s most exclusive form of transportation. But there are only a hundred-some that meet the definition of a gigayacht—a pleasure craft 295 feet or longer. Their opaque ownership records offer a glimpse of modern wealth and power: Over two dozen are linked to Gulf royals, businessmen, or states, and 20 to citizens (past or current) of the former Soviet Union. At least 23 have reportedly belonged to Americans, including founders of Microsoft, Netscape, Amazon, WhatsApp, and Snapchat. The widow of a German retailer who thrived under Hitler owned one; a UK tax exile and a Formula 1 dad still do. Yugoslav strongman Tito’s old yacht makes the list; Dominican dictator Trujillo’s does too. Take a cruise through the history of the vessels and their—somewhat—more modest sister ships.

1895: Nineteen years before World War I, the future King Edward VII of England punches his nephew, Kaiser Wilhelm II, in the face, after the German’s 121-foot yacht, Meteor II , defeats the royal Britannia in a race off the Isle of Wight.

1954: Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis ushers in an era of postwar one-upmanship with his 325-foot Christina O . It features a pool that converts into a dance floor, furniture made from whale foreskin, and pornographic carvings.

1963: During his final birthday party aboard the presidential yacht Sequoia , JFK chases future Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee’s wife, Antoinette, into the bathroom and gropes her. “I guess I was pretty surprised, but I was kind of flattered, and appalled, too,” she says later. The ship’s visitor logs are destroyed after Kennedy’s assassination.

1984: King Fahd of Saudi Arabia builds the record-breaking 482-foot Prince Abdulaziz .

1987: Sen. Gary Hart (D-Colo.) drops out of the presidential race just before photos emerge of him with model Donna Rice aboard the yacht Monkey Business .

1988: Donald Trump acquires Nabila , which previously belonged to the Saudi arms dealer Adnan Khashoggi and was featured in the James Bond film Never Say Never Again . He renames it Trump Princess , adds a disco, and changes the helipad’s “H” to a “T.”

1991: After one of Trump’s casinos files for bankruptcy, he sells Trump Princess to his bank—which flips it to a Saudi prince. A new yacht, the Trump Princess II , which he boasted would be “something in excess of 400 feet long, closer to 500 feet,” is never built.

British publisher Robert Maxwell’s body is found in the Atlantic Ocean, where he had been cruising on a 180-footer named for his daughter—the Lady Ghislaine . The vessel is eventually resold to Anna Murdoch, Rupert’s second wife.

1994: At a cocktail party on the oligarch Petr Aven’s yacht in the Caribbean, Boris Berezovsky meets Roman Abramovich, calling him a “nice boy who wanted to discuss commercial projects.” He and Abramovich begin working together to acquire Sibneft, a Russian state oil company.

1997: Construction ends on The Limited and Victoria’s Secret owner Les Wexner’s ­316-foot Limitless . The project was overseen by his good friend Jeffrey Epstein.

1999: Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison buys the 191-foot Izanami from a Japanese seller. He changes the name to Ronin , he said later , after “the local newspapers started pointing out that Izanami was ‘I’m a Nazi’ spelled backwards.”

2001: Months before Enron files for bankruptcy, former CEO Jeffrey Skilling asks a company executive for advice on finding a yacht broker. “This industry is known for crooks and thieves,” he warns Skilling.

2002: House Majority Whip Tom DeLay (R-Texas) promises to strip “corporate kingpins of their ill-gotten gains,” after scandals rock Enron and WorldCom. “We’re coming after the yacht.”

2003: DeLay charges donors $500,000 a pop for tickets to a yacht cruise.

2005: Ellison shoots down rumors he issued orders midconstruction to have his newest yacht, the 454-foot Rising Sun , extended to outdo Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s recently launched 414-foot Octopus .

Rep. Duke Cunningham (R-Calif.) pleads guilty to federal bribery charges after being caught living rent-free on a yacht, called the Duke-Stir , that was moored in Washington, DC, and owned by a defense contractor.

Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum’s 531-foot Dubai surpasses Prince Abdulaziz as the world’s longest yacht.

2006: Media mogul Barry Diller reveals the world’s longest sailing yacht, the 305-foot Eos , whose prow features a 9-foot-tall sculpture of his wife, Diane von Furstenberg.

2007: Diller opens a Manhattan corporate headquarters­­ at a Frank Gehry­–designed building that itself has been likened to a sailboat . It’s across the street from where Eos ties up.

2008: George Osborne, the No. 2 official in the UK’s Conservative Party, relaxes on Russian aluminum magnate Oleg Deripaska’s yacht while vacationing with his family in Greece. He denies an accusation that he solicited funds, explaining in a statement that they discussed “Russian history” and drank tea.

2009: As his marriage falls apart, Tiger Woods retreats to a 155-foot yacht called Privacy .

2010: Abramovich’s new ship, Eclipse , surpasses Dubai as the world’s longest yacht. The 533-foot vessel features a submarine, anti-missile systems, and lasers to thwart paparazzi .

2011: During an unsuccessful suit seeking $5 billion he believed Abramovich owed him from the sale of Sibneft, an exiled Berezovsky claims that his former partner helped purchase the yacht Olympia for Vladimir Putin. When the BBC publishes a supporting account from another Russian businessman five years later, Abramovich’s lawyers dismiss the allegation as “a rehash of speculation and rumours.”

2012: As GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney faces criticism for holding investment funds in the Cayman Islands, his campaign invites donors to party on Cracker Bay . The ship, owned by the founder of The Villages retirement community, flies the Cayman Islands’ flag.

2013: UAE leader Khalifa bin Zayed al Nahyan launches the 593-foot Azzam , surpassing the Eclipse .

2014: The Wall Street Journal reports that Ellison has basketball hoops on “at least two of his yachts” and had someone follow in a smaller boat “to retrieve balls that go overboard.”

2016: Allen’s Tatoosh drags its anchor through a protected zone in the Cayman Islands, destroying 14,000 square feet of coral.

2017: After leaving office, Barack and Michelle Obama retreat to the South Pacific aboard David Geffen’s yacht, where they’re joined by Oprah, Tom Hanks, and Bruce Springsteen.

Abramovich’s business partner, Eugene Shvidler, blocks views of the Statue of Liberty while anchoring his 370-foot Le Grand Bleu in New York Harbor for a month.

Addressing the national Boy Scout Jamboree, Trump tells an anecdote widely assumed to allude to sex parties on a yacht belonging to the developer of the Levittown suburbs. “You’re Boy Scouts, so I’m not going to tell you what he did,” he said. “But you know life.”

Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) buys a yacht and on the same day votes to cut taxes on yachts.

2018: Rupert Murdoch is airlifted to UCLA after collapsing on a yacht trip with his fourth wife, Jerry Hall. “He kept almost dying,” a source tells Vanity Fair .

Republican Florida Gov. Rick Scott designates a billionaire donor’s marina as a special anti-­poverty opportunity zone.

Someone unties Seaquest , a superyacht belonging to Trump administration Secretary of Education (and billionaire) Betsy DeVos, causing it to crash into a dock on Lake Erie.

Businessman Jho Low, who financed The Wolf of Wall Street , is accused of taking part in a $4.5 billion scheme to siphon Malaysian state development funds and using some to purchase a $250 million yacht.

2019: Actress Lori Loughlin is arrested in a college admissions bribery scheme . Her daughter, USC student Olivia Jade, is vacationing in the Bahamas— on a yacht belonging to USC board of trustees chair Rick Caruso.

Following an investigation into corruption in the Nigerian oil industry, the US government auctions off businessman Kolawole Aluko’s Galactica Star , six years after Jay-Z rented out the vessel for Beyoncé’s 32nd birthday. A former Enron unit attempts to claim a portion of the proceeds.

Clarence Thomas visits an Indonesian preserve for Komodo dragons with billionaire Harlan Crow on the conservative megadonor’s Michaela Rose .

ArtNet reports that a $450 million (reputed) da Vinci that was supposed to be in an Abu Dhabi museum has been spotted hanging in Mohammed bin Salman’s personal yacht, Serene .

Kylie Jenner holds her 22nd birthday party on Low’s yacht, now under new ownership.

2020: “[I]solated in the Grenadines avoiding the virus,” Geffen writes on Instagram from Rising Sun , which he purchased in 2010. “I’m hoping everybody is staying safe.”

Steve Bannon is arrested off the coast of Connecticut by US Postal Police while aboard the fugitive Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui’s 150-foot Lady May .

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. dresses up as a character from the TV show Trailer Park Boys for a costume party aboard a NASCAR mogul’s yacht. He later posts a photo of himself to Instagram with his fly unzipped and his arms around his wife’s assistant.

2021: NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre testifies that he took refuge on Illusions , a Hollywood producer’s yacht, after the Newtown and Parkland mass shootings. “I remember getting there going, ‘Thank God I’m safe, nobody can get me here.’”

During a bitter divorce, the Daily Mail reports that Tatiana Akhmedova, wife of the Russian Azerbaijani billionaire Farkhad Akhmedov, hired a team of British special forces veterans to seize his yacht, Luna , in an effort to enforce a Marshall Islands court ruling. They settle instead, and he keeps the boat.

Port Azure , dubbed the world’s first harbor designed exclusively for megayachts, opens in Gocek, Turkey. It bills itself as a place where “problems big and small go away.”

2022: Amid reports a historic bridge will be dismantled so Amazon founder Jeff Bezos’ newly built Koru can leave Rotterdam’s shipyards, residents threaten to pelt the sailboat with eggs . The city changes plans.

A Ukrainian mechanic is arrested in Mallorca for attempting to sink a vessel owned by his boss, a Russian arms dealer.

Biden promises oligarchs he’s going to “take their ill-begotten gains” after the invasion of Ukraine. “We’re going to seize their yachts.”

Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder avoids a congressional subpoena on the team’s misogynistic culture while cruising the Mediterranean on his yacht, Lady S .

Missing Russian superyachts are spotted waiting out sanctions at Port Azure.

Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) criticizes Joe Biden for vacationing in Delaware while vacationing on a luxury yacht in Italy.

After sailing through Fiji on his yacht Aquarius , briefly retired Disney CEO Bob Iger tells friends he misses his wife and is bored with life.

New York Republican congressional candidate George Santos brokers a $19 million deal to sell a superyacht called Namaste to a Long Island car dealer.

Bankrupt crypto exchange FTX reveals in court filings that founder Sam Bankman-Fried’s hedge fund once spent $2.5 million on a yacht, which a top executive named Soak My Deck .

2023: Bezos takes possession of Koru . The $500 million, 417-foot sailboat comes with a bust that resembles his fiancée Lauren Sánchez—and its own second, 246-foot “shadow” support yacht with crew quarters and a hangar for the helicopter she pilots.

After divorcing Jerry Hall, Rupert Murdoch vacations on the Christina O with Abramovich’s ex-mother-in-law.

As TV and movie writers and actors strike, the Wall Street Journal reports that Iger, now back at work, has been regaling visitors to his Burbank office about the new, longer yacht he’s building.

Measuring Contest

Iconic gigayachts through the years

1931: Sea Cloud , Marjorie Post: 359 ft.

1981: Atlantis II , Stavros Niarchos: 380 ft.

2003: Octopus , Paul Allen: 414 ft.

2005: Rising Sun , Larry Ellison: 454 ft.

2010: Eclipse , Roman Abramovich: 533 ft.

2013: Azzam , Sheikh Khalifa: 593 ft.

Illustrations by Anthony Calvert

The Few, The Loud

Some famous faces aboard gigayachts

Steven Spielberg reeled out his anchor off Cannes.

A part of Katy Perry got stuck exiting a dinghy on her way to Barry Diller’s yacht.

Mohammed bin Salman purchased his yacht, Serene , just hours after he saw it.

Jerry Jones made a draft pick aboard his Bravo Eugenia to deepen the Cowboys’ bench.

Mariah Carey was engaged to a gigayacht owner, before the fantasy ended.

A GOP Official and Election Denier Voted Illegally Nine Times. That’s Not Even the Worst Part.

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Sketch of a Nadir-Shah costume, "Almast" opera

The bolshoi theatre moscow, russia.

The sketch was created by R. Makarov

• Title: Sketch of a Nadir-Shah costume, "Almast" opera
• Creator: R. Makarov
• Location: Moscow, Russia
• Type: Sketch of a costume
• Rights: The Bolshoi Theatre

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First Thing: Israel launches deadly airstrike on Syria

War monitor reports Israeli airstrike in Syria has killed more than 40 people , mainly troops. Plus: ecocide in Gaza

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Good morning.

At least 36 Syrian soldiers were killed in an Israeli airstrike on an area near Hezbollah weapons depots in Syria’s Aleppo province, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights has said.

The Syrian defense ministry is saying civilians were among the dead, while Reuters is reporting that the strike killed five Hezbollah members.

“The aggression resulted in the martyrdom and injury of a number of civilians and military personnel and caused material losses to public and private property,” the Syrian defense ministry said in a statement.

Why is Israel attacking Syria? Since civil war began in Syria in 2011, Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes on targets there as it seeks to cut off the Hamas ally Hezbollah’s supply routes to Lebanon. The frequency of these strikes has increased since Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza began after the 7 October attacks. While Iran-backed Hezbollah is Lebanese, it has sent militants into Syria to support its ally, President Bashar al-Assad.

What has Israel done to combat Hezbollah in Lebanon? Israel has exchanged near-daily, cross-border fire with Hezbollah in Lebanon since the Gaza war began, creating fears of a major regional conflagration. An Agence France-Presse tally estimates that at least 346 people have been killed in Lebanon – mostly Hezbollah fighters, but also including at least 68 civilians – in clashes with Israel over the past six months.

Russian police detain journalist who filmed last video of Alexei Navalny alive

The journalist Antonina Favorskaya filmed the last video of the Russian opposition politician Alexei Navalny before he died in a Russian prison. Russian authorities have since detained Favorskaya , accusing her of taking part in an “extremist organization” by posting on the social media platforms of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation. However, Favorskaya did not publish anything on the foundation’s platforms, Navalny’s spokesperson, Kira Yarmysh, said, suggesting that Russian authorities targeted her because she was doing her job as a journalist.

Favorskaya was one of six journalists across Russia held this month, the media freedom organization Reporters Without Borders said.

In other news …

The US National Park Service is being sued over its plan to remove Puerto Rico’s famous stray cats from a historic district in the US territory .

A Texas appeals court has thrown out a Texas woman’s five-year prison sentence for trying to cast a provisional ballot in the 2016 presidential election that was rejected.

The Biden campaign raised a $25m “money bomb” at a star-studded event featuring Barack Obama and Bill Clinton .

Bolivian Indigenous groups are objecting to Colombia’s plans to recover the remains of an 18th-century galleon believed to be carrying gold, silver and emeralds worth billions .

A federal court has ruled to allow South Carolina Republicans to use their discriminatory congressional map for the 2024 election , despite an earlier finding that the same plan discriminates against Black voters .

Stat of the day: Cocoa prices rose to all-time highs on commodity exchanges

Cocoa prices on commodity exchanges in London and New York reached more than $10,000 a tonne for the first time this week, the result of the third consecutive poor harvest in west Africa. Extreme weather in Ghana and Ivory Coast, which together produce more than half of the global cacao crop, has led to a global shortage of cacao.

“Cocoa prices have tripled over the last year. While we have only passed on a fraction of the price increase to consumers in 2023 … we may need to make responsible adjustments to pricing in the future given the persistently high cocoa prices,” a Nestlé spokesperson told the Guardian.

Don’t miss this: The one-year anniversary of the imprisonment of US journalist Evan Gershkovich in Russia

One year ago, masked Russian officers grabbed the American journalist Evan Gershkovich at a steakhouse in Ekaterinburg, on spying charges that are entirely unsupported by evidence. The Wall Street Journal reporter has been behind bars ever since , held in the infamous Lefortovo prison on the outskirts of Moscow where the Soviet author Alexander Solzhenitsyn was once detained.

… or this: The forced contraception of Greenlandic women

Between 1966 and 1970, it is estimated that 4,500 women and girls in Greenland were forcibly fitted with intrauterine devices (IUDs) in an attempt to reduce the population of the former Danish colony, with many more procedures carried out without consent in subsequent decades. Today, 143 Greenlandic women are suing the government of Denmark for what they describe as a violation of their human rights. “I was only a child,” said one woman, Bula Larsen. “I was only 14.”

Climate check: Ecocide in Gaza

The human cost of Israel’s invasion of Gaza, launched after the Hamas attack on 7 October, is being compounded by an environmental crisis . Analysis of satellite imagery provided to the Guardian shows the destruction of about 38-48% of tree cover and farmland, with olive groves and farms reduced to packed earth. Soil and groundwater has been contaminated by munitions and toxins and the air polluted by smoke and particulate matter. The sea is choked with sewage and waste.

“What’s left is devastation,” said Samaneh Moafi, Forensic Architecture’s assistant director of research. “An area that is no longer livable.”

Last Thing: Ukraine’s Antarctic scientists

As Russia’s war on Ukraine rages through its second year, Ukrainian scientists in Antarctica are fighting in another war at the country’s Vernadsky base: taking on the climate crisis through their research and studies. This does not exempt them from serving in the war at home. When news of the Russian invasion reached Vernadsky, the marine biologist Andrii Zotov hitched a lift on a yacht to Argentina, took a bus to Chile, flew to Poland and within two weeks was with an army unit on the frontline in Ukraine.

“He took five bullets and was too heavily injured to fight more,” said Vadym Tkachenko, a biologist who recently completed his second Antarctic winter at Ukraine’s Vernadsky base. “He returned to work on phytoplankton at the National Antarctic Scientific Centre in Kyiv. He will be back here for the handover.”

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WGA and More Unions Pen Letter to Congress Demanding ‘Urgent Action’ on AI Protections for Writers and Journalists

By Jennifer Maas

Jennifer Maas

TV Business Writer

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The Writers Guild of America ( WGA ) and other unions representing film and TV writers and journalists sent a letter to Congress Thursday urging protections for their industries in any legislation regarding Artificial Intelligence .

Addressed to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the letter was co-signed by the NewsGuild-CWA, Writers Guild of America East (WGAE), Writers Guild of America West (WGAW), and National Association of Broadcast Employees and Technicians (NABET-CWA).

WGA was on strike from May 2-Sept. 27, with one of the key sticking points in its new deal with Hollywood studios being protections against generative AI.

In the letter, the unions ask Schumer to urge Congress to “take urgent action” to make sure AI legislation includes:

• Ensuring AI does not replace journalists and creative professionals or replicate work produced by these professionals without consent or fair compensation, whether or not they own the copyrights to their work
• Safeguarding against the use of AI to surveil workers and their work product
• Protecting professional voice, likeness and performance and written talent
• Codifying workers’ rights to bargain collectively over AI policy in the workplace.

“We strongly urge the Senate to pass meaningful legislation that protects writers and other creative professionals working in film, television, news, podcasts and online media from the existential threat of AI,” WGA East president Lisa Takeuchi Cullen said. “AI is a rapidly advancing technology posing numerous real-world consequences. There must be strong legal guardrails put in place to ensure that this tool is not abused by companies to the detriment of a writer’s work.”

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