ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jan 14, 2026--
Bodrum Anatolian High School, located in Türkiye, has been named the winner of the 2026 Zayed Sustainability Prize in the Global High Schools – Europe & Central Asia category. The school was recognised for its innovative wildfire prevention system that uses drones and solar energy to detect and respond to fires.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20260114281577/en/
The project, known as ‘IYTIMS’ (Intelligent Youth Technology for Integrated Monitoring System), will deploy drones equipped with thermal sensors to identify fire risks and release boron-based fire-suppressing capsules—all powered by solar energy. Students will design and operate the system as part of their STEM curriculum to address the growing threat of wildfires in Türkiye.
The project will protect approximately 1,200 hectares of land, avoid around 20,000 tonnes of CO₂ emissions, generate about 50,000 kWh of solar power, and train nearly 1,500 students in STEM and AI skills.
Dr. Lamya Fawwaz, Executive Director of the Zayed Sustainability Prize, praised the school’s innovation: “The Zayed Sustainability Prize honours youth who turn creativity into action. Bodrum Anatolian High School’s wildfire prevention project demonstrates how innovation and collaboration can protect both people and the environment. It is a testament to what young minds can achieve when guided by purpose and possibility.”
Berrin İpek, Principal of Bodrum Anatolian High School, said: “Winning the Zayed Sustainability Prize is not just an award for Bodrum Anatolian High School, but a recognition of our students’ dreams and determination. This achievement is a testament to their commitment to building a more sustainable future. Together we will continue to work with hope and inspiration for a better world.”
The US $150,000 award will enable the school to enhance its drone systems, expand solar capacity, and conduct regional awareness campaigns to prevent wildfires through education and technology.
The Zayed Sustainability Prize honours organisations and high schools driving impactful and innovative solutions across the categories of Health, Food, Energy, Water, Climate Action, and Global High Schools. Since its inception, the Prize has positively impacted the lives of over 400 million people worldwide, carrying forward the visionary legacy of the UAE’s founding father, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan.
Since 2013, the Prize has awarded 68 high schools under its Global High Schools category from countries in the following regions: The Americas, Sub-Saharan Africa, Middle East & North Africa, Europe & Central Asia, South Asia, and East Asia & Pacific. To date, the Prize’s Global High Schools winners have impacted the lives of over 56,599 students and 480,660 people in their wider communities.
Source: AETOSWire
2026 Zayed Sustainability Prize Awards Ceremony (Photo: AETOSWire)
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two senators from opposite parties are joining forces in a renewed push to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, an effort that has broad public support but has repeatedly stalled on Capitol Hill.
Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York and Republican Sen. Ashley Moody of Florida on Thursday plan to introduce legislation, first shared with The Associated Press, that would bar lawmakers and their immediate family members from trading or owning individual stocks.
It's the latest in a flurry of proposals in the House and the Senate to limit stock trading in Congress, lending bipartisan momentum to the issue. But the sheer number of proposals has clouded the path forward. Republican leaders in the House are pushing their own bill on stock ownership, an alternative that critics have dismissed as watered down.
“There’s an American consensus around this, not a partisan consensus, that members of Congress and, frankly, senior members of administrations and the White House, shouldn’t be making money off the backs of the American people,” Gillibrand said in an interview with the AP on Wednesday.
Trading of stock by members of Congress has been the subject of ethics scrutiny and criminal investigations in recent years, with lawmakers accused of using the information they gain as part of their jobs — often not known to the public — to buy and sell stocks at significant profit. Both parties have pledged to stop stock trading in Washington in campaign ads, creating unusual alliances in Congress.
The bill being introduced by Gillibrand and Moody is a version of a House bill introduced last year by Reps. Chip Roy, a Republican from Texas, and Seth Magaziner, a Democrat from Rhode Island. That proposal, which has 125 cosponsors, would ban members of Congress from buying or selling individual stocks altogether.
Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna of Florida tried to bypass party leadership and force a vote on the bill. Her push with a discharge petition has 79 of the 218 signatures required, the majority of them Democrats.
House Republican leaders are supporting an alternative bill that would prohibit members of Congress and their spouses from buying individual stocks but would not require lawmakers to divest from stocks they already own. It would mandate public notice seven days before a lawmaker sells a stock. The bill advanced in committee Wednesday — which Luna called “a win” — but its prospects are unclear.
Magaziner and other House Democrats, including Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, wrote in a joint statement Wednesday that they “are disappointed that the bill introduced by Republican leadership today fails to deliver the reform that is needed.”
The Senate bill from Gillibrand and Moody would give lawmakers 180 days to divest their individual stock holdings after the bill takes effect, while newly elected members would have 90 days from being sworn in to divest. Lawmakers would be prohibited from trading and owning certain other financial assets, including securities, commodities and futures.
“The American people must be able to trust that their elected officials are focused on results for the American people and not focused on profiting from their positions,” Moody wrote in response to a list of questions from the AP.
The legislation would exempt the president and vice president, a carveout likely to draw criticism from some Democrats. Similar objections were raised last year over a bill that barred members of Congress from issuing certain cryptocurrencies but did not apply to the president.
Gillibrand said the president “should be held to the same standard” but described the legislation as “a good place to start.”
“I don’t think we have to allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good,” Gillibrand said. “There’s a lot more I would love to put in this bill, but this is a consensus from a bipartisan basis and a consensus between two bodies of Congress.”
Moody, responding to written questions, wrote that Congress has the “constitutional power of the purse” so it's important that its members don't have “any other interests in mind, financial or otherwise.”
“Addressing Members of Congress is the number one priority our constituents are concerned with,” she wrote.
It remains to be seen if the bill will reach a vote in the Senate. A similar bill introduced by Gillibrand and GOP Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri in 2023 never advanced out of committee.
Still, the issue has salience on the campaign trail. Moody is seeking election to her first full term in Florida this year after being appointed to her seat when Marco Rubio became secretary of state. Gillibrand chairs the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm.
“The time has come," Gillibrand said. “We have consensus, and there’s a drumbeat of people who want to get this done.”
FILE -Sen. Ashley Moody, R-Fla., speaks during the confirmation hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee for Kash Patel, President Donald Trump's choice to be director of the FBI, at the Capitol in Washington, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Ben Curtis, File)
FILE - Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., leaves the Senate chamber after voting on a government funding bill at the Capitol in Washington, March 14, 2025. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite, File)
