Yes, you read that correctly -- subterranean. While the idea of a semi-underwater hotel isn't novel -- the recent underwater suite at the Conrad Maldives Rangali Island being a notable example -- InterContinental Shanghai Wonderlandis a new concept.

Built into the side of a quarry in the Sheshan Mountain Range, the hotel has 336 rooms on 18 floors.

Shimao Wonderland InterContinental was built inside a quarry.

Sixteen of the floors are underground, with the lowest two submerged inside a 33-foot-deep aquarium.

Guests in those rooms can watch fish swim by -- and they also get 24/7 personal butler service while they do it.

The hotel has been nicknamed the "earthscraper," as it's the opposite of a skyscraper.

A natural wonder

Built by Studio JADE+QA in association with British firm Atkins, behind the Burj Al Arab Hotel in Dubai, the "pit hotel" required innovative engineering solutions and more than 5,000 people to complete.

Guests who don't get the aquarium views will all have a room balcony with views of purpose-built waterfalls spilling down the quarry walls. There's also a glass-bottomed walkway for exploring the area further.

For thrillseekers, the hotel makes use of its position inside a craggy pit to provide bungee jumping and rock climbing opportunities.

And if you just need to unwind after all that adventure? There's a bar -- appropriately called The Quarry.

Living landscapes

Set near the Sheshan Mountain Range, Sheshan National Forest Park and Chenshan Botanic Gardens, the 61,000-square-meter resort aims to be a home base for environmentally minded travelers.

The architectural plan was designed to reduce impact on the environment by keeping the majority of construction within the disused pit.

"This is such a unique opportunity that gives me some really interesting ideas of reshaping the relationship between city and nature," the hotel's architect, Martin Jochman, says of the property.

In addition, the hotel plans to generate its own geothermal and solar energy to power everyday functions.

On site, there's also a green rooftop that disappears into the surrounding landscape and doubles as a place where travelers can relax and explore.

Over 40s 'have more babies' than under 20s

Women over 40 are having more babies than the under 20s for the first time in nearly 70 years, official figures for England and Wales show.

The Office for National Statistics data showed there were 697,852 live births in 2015.

There were 15.2 births per 1,000 women aged over 40, compared with just 14.5 per 1,000 women in their teens.

The last time the over 40s had the higher fertility rate was in 1947, in the wake of WWII.

The figures show two key trends in who is having children and when in England and Wales.

An old-fashioned girl-and-her-giant-robot story, "Bumblebee" is unexpectedly appealing, a "Transformers" prequel played at a much more modest pitch. Cleverly set in 1987 (when, incidentally, the toy-driven original animated series ended), this well-tuned vehicle leverages that nostalgia factor for all It's worth, especially in its pop-culture touchstones.

Hailee Steinfeld stars in "Bumblebee."

The film opens on the Autobots' home planet of Cybertron, where they're promptly forced to retreat. One of the soldiers, B-127, is dispatched to Earth, hoping to prepare it for his brethren -- and not incidentally, thwart any evil Decepticons that might follow him there.

In the movie's clunkiest twist, the yellow fellow initially crashes among a group of government operatives, led by the hard-charging Agent Jack Burns (John Cena). It's mostly an excuse for a big action sequence before the movie segues into a lower-key mode, after the Autobot soon to be christened Bumblebee is taken in by Charlie Watson (Hailee Steinfeld), a just-turned-18-year-old desperate for a car, even if it's a beat-up Volkswagen Beetle.

Still grieving over her father's death, Charlie is very much in need of a pal to shake her out of her funk. Like Elliott in "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial," she must conceal Bumblebee from her mom (Pamela Adlon, odd casting that), while learning to communicate with her new ride, who uses song snippets to respond.

The "E.T." reference is perhaps too charitable, since "Bumblebee" is just as much a mechanized "Mighty Joe Young." The net effect, though, is to set up an us-against-the-world dynamic, creating an excuse for Charlie to bond with the nerdy neighbor (Jorge Lendeborg Jr.), who, until this new development, struggles to muster the courage to speak to her.

Notably, director Travis Knight is an animation veteran, whose credits include "Kubo and the Two Strings" and (as a producer) "The Boxtrolls." "Bumblebee" definitely has a more family-friendly feel, which doesn't mean there's not plenty of action involving giant mechanized warriors beating the oil out of each other.

Most happily, the movie (written by Christina Hodson) proves disarmingly witty, working "The Breakfast Club" into its shtick, referencing the Cold War not long before the Berlin Wall comes tumbling down and indulging in teen hijinks -- like toilet-papering a house -- that Bumblebee embraces with a little too much gusto.

Admittedly, some of this praise comes from a place of utter skepticism with a five-film franchise that -- under the stewardship of director Michael Bay -- is a sort-of poster child for empty-headed blockbusters that play well internationally because explosions are a universal language and the dialogue's mostly irrelevant anyway.

The production notes refer to this as a "kinder, gentler" take on "Transformers," which sounds better than a "quieter, less irritating" one.

Even grading on a curve, though, this is a solidly executed story, tapping the familiar theme of a troubled kid whose life is changed by an extraordinary visitor. And it's grounded in reality thanks to Steinfeld, a budding star basically reprising the character she played in the indie film, "The Edge of Seventeen," only with a lot more destruction of property.

Joining a movie series that has consistently added up to less, creatively speaking, than the sum of its parts, for once there really is more to "Bumblebee" than meets the eye.

What U.S.-Russian cooperation in space might look like in ten years: a moon base.

Iconic grunge band Temple of the Dog is reuniting for their first ever tour. The band originally consisted of Chris Cornell and Matt Cameron from Soundgarden, with Eddie Vedder, Jeff Ament, Stone Gossard and Mike McReady from Pearl Jam. Vedder's name is omitted from the press release and video, so he may not be taking part in the reunion.

The band's first and only album was released in 1991 and the band is using the tour to celebrate the 25-year anniversary of the record. Cornell started the band as a tribute to Andrew Wood of Mother Love Bone. Wood died of a heroin overdose in 1990. Cornell enlisted the help of Stone Gossard and Jeff Ament who were Wood's bandmates in Mother Love Bone.

Behind the singles "Hunger Strike" and "Say Hello to Heaven" the album would eventually go platinum in the US and Canada. The record initially sold poorly, but saw a resurgence in popularity following Pearl Jam's sudden rise to fame in 1992.

The fully reformed band will play 5 shows across the US in November. Full list of dates and venues are at templeofthedog.com.

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CIA concludes Saudi crown prince ordered Jamal Khashoggi's death, official says

(CNN)Emmanuel Macron is braced for one of the toughest tests of his 18-month presidency on Saturday with planned protests over rising fuel taxes set to bring France's roads to a halt.

Opposition has mounted to France's spiraling fuel costs, which has seen diesel prices surge 16% this year from an average €1.24 ($1.41) per liter to €1.48 ($1.69), and even hitting €1.53 in October, according to UFIP, France's oil industry federation.

A grassroots movement -- dubbed the "gilets jaunes" or "yellow vests" in reference to the hi-vis safety vests worn by drivers -- has galvanized motorists up and down the country, who are now threatening to cause blockages on arterial road networks.

Agence France-Press reports that 700 blockages are planned for Saturday, while website www.blocage17novembre.com states that protests are planned in all 95 of France's mainland departments.

A petition on Change.org has also received more than 850,000 signatures, calling on the French government to lower the cost of fuel.

The price hike is in large caused by a leap in the wholesale price of oil, with Brent Crude oil -- a benchmark for worldwide oil purchases -- increasing by more than 20% in the first half of 2018 from around $60 a barrel to a peak of $86.07 in early October.

French protesters are however not directing their anger at Opec for reducing oil production, or at the US administration for implementing tariffs on Iran, crippling its oil exports.

Macron is instead bearing the brunt of widespread French chagrin, with many protesters furious at the current leader's extension of hostile environmental policies implemented under François Hollande's government.

Notably, taxes were increased by 8 centimes last January on diesel, and by 4 centimes on petrol. Tax on diesel will also increase by another 6.4 centimes in 2019, and by 2.9 centimes for petrol. These rises follow many decades of under-taxation of diesel in France.

(CNN)As we reach the end of one of the most dramatic weeks in the Brexit debacle, what have we learned about the state of the negotiations, the politics of the United Kingdom and the mindset of the European Union?

Possibly that farce is more interesting than static fear, and that we live in a world of least bad options.

Brexit, as ever, is at an impasse. Rewind to Wednesday evening and that seems an absurd thing to say. British Prime Minister Theresa May had reached an agreement with the European Union on its withdrawal from the bloc and her Cabinet, after hours of tense discussion, had given her the nod to finalize that deal and take it to Parliament. Brexit, it seemed, was in its final stretch.

Then Thursday happened. At 8:50 a.m., May's Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab quit the Cabinet in protest over her deal, triggering the resignation of several other government ministers. The Prime Minister looked weaker by the minute.

Pubgoers in London watch a broadcast of Theresa May's press conference.

May then had to face a grueling three-hour session in the House of Commons, where MP after MP from all sides of the political divide said they couldn't support her Brexit plan. It was more than an hour before a single MP voiced support for her.

Hot on the heels of this indignity, rumors began to swirl that her Premiership was not long for this world, as rabble-rousing backbenchers publicly declared that they had lost confidence in her leadership and were actively seeking to remove her from power.

At the center of this mess is the fact that Theresa May has come to personify a deal that very few UK politicians can get on board with. Those who want to scrap the whole thing and remain part of the EU are ignoring the fact that this is not a decision the UK can make unilaterally.

The Brexiteers who think that May has capitulated and given too much to Brussels willfully overlook the fact that there is hardly any time left to renegotiate anything. The withdrawal agreement is done -- this was a negotiation between 28 nations; one cannot suddenly reopen it (though there is some room to maneuver on the associated political declaration around a future partnership).

A delegation from Easter Island is preparing to visit London to ask for the return of a huge statue from the British Museum.

The 2.5-meter basalt figure has been part of the museum's collection since 1869 -- but now the islanders want it back.

500-year-old sculptures confirmed as Michelangelo's only surviving bronzes

Easter Island, known as Rapa Nui in the local language and governed by Chile, is famous for the moai statues that dot its landscape.

A delegation including Carlos Edmunds, president of the council of Rapa Nui elders, and Felipe Ward, Chile's minister for national property, will travel to London to underline the significance of the moai and discuss its future. The group will arrive in the UK capital next week, the Guardian reported.