Thursday, June 30, 2022

Stunning Roman Mosaics Return Home To New Israeli Museum

A series of exceptional 1,700-year-old Roman mosaics have returned home to Israel, where the collection went on public display for the first time Monday after more than a decade touring the world’s top museums.

The mosaics were first discovered in the central city of Lod in 1996 but the Israel Antiquities Authority only fully unearthed the enormous, well-preserved artworks in 2009.

The collection stretches 17 meters by nine meters (56 feet by 30 feet). The mosaics feature a menagerie of animals, from fish and fowl to beasts that would have been exotic to ancient residents of Lod: an African elephant, rhinoceros and giraffe. Archaeologists believe the mosaics adorned an affluent villa in the 3rd or 4th centuries, after Lod was rebuilt as the Roman city of Diospolis.

But for more than a decade, while Israeli authorities raised funds for a museum, the mosaics had no permanent home. They went on display at museums around the globe, including New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Louvre Museum in Paris and The Hermitage in St. Petersburg, Russia.

The mosaics’ new home at the Shelby White and Leon Levy Mosaic Lod Archaeological Center features guided tours and interactive exhibits in Arabic, English and Hebrew. The museum is free for residents of Lod, a mixed Arab-Jewish city that saw bouts of sectarian violence in May 2021 during Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

“Like a mosaic which brings many pieces together to be one wonderful picture ... we are trying to bring all the local people — Jews and Arabs,” the museum’s project manager, Raanan Kislev, told The Associated Press.

The museum hopes it will be a key attraction for tour groups, as Lod is strategically situated between Jerusalem and Tel Aviv and next to the country’s main international airport. The museum is designed to recreate an ancient Roman villa like one that would have housed the mosaics.

“Our dream for this city — itself a mosaic of cultures — is being realized today right before of our eyes, as we dedicate this most important museum, placing Lod on the world tourism map,” said Mayor Yair Revivo.

By EMILY ROSE

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

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Pirate River Quest Announces Grand Opening At LEGOLAND® Florida For November 2, 2022

A brand-new, swashbuckling quest awaits families visiting LEGOLAND® Florida when the Pirate River Quest opens on November 2, 2022.

This November, board a family-friendly boat ride to search for Captain Redbeard’s lost treasure through an all-new hilarious adventure. The quest to uncover the lost treasure unfolds brick by brick as families face a variety of exciting sequences built within lush gardens telling the tales of the rowdy LEGO® pirate crew. Riders will sail through the natural waterways while following the all-new story featuring the newest LEGO pirate friend, Calico Jade, and other exotic LEGO creatures, including a flamboyance of bright flamingos, a troop of mischievous monkeys and even a fearsome kraken.

Set on the natural passageways of Lake Eloise and the historic Cypress Gardens, this one-of-a-kind canal tour is an adventure that families can only see at LEGOLAND Florida Resort!

Those interested in joining the crew can also keep their eyes peeled on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and YouTube as LEGOLAND Florida Resort shares “behind the bricks” moments of Pirate River Quest as it gets ready to set sail 11-2-22!

Visit LEGOLANDFlorida.com for more information.

Tuesday, June 28, 2022

China Reduces Quarantine For People Arriving From Abroad

BEIJING (AP) — China on Tuesday announced an easing of its quarantine requirement for people arriving from abroad but stopped short of lifting what remains a stringent COVID-19 policy compared to most other countries.

Anyone coming from outside the country will be required to stay in a quarantine hotel for seven days, followed by three days of home quarantine, the National Health Commission said in its latest pandemic response plan.

The previous plan called for 14 days in a hotel plus seven days of home quarantine. Some cities, including Beijing, have already reduced the hotel requirement to seven or 10 days in recent weeks, according to Chinese media reports.

China has kept tight restrictions on international travel under a “zero-COVID” strategy that seeks to keep the virus out and stop any infections from spreading through lockdowns and mass testing.

Other countries including the United States and Japan have opened their borders at least somewhat as vaccination has reduced the risk of serious cases and death. In Europe, passengers are facing long lines and delays as a surge in summer travel has overwhelmed airlines and airports.

Mi Feng, a spokesperson for China’s National Health Commission, described the new plan as not a relaxation of the country’s approach but an optimization to make it more scientific and precise.

Wang Liping, an infectious disease researcher for China’s Center for Disease Control, said the change reflects the relatively short 2- to 4-day incubation period for the omicron variant, which means most cases can be detected within a week.

Recent outbreaks in mainland China have largely eased. Just under 100 new cases were recorded on Monday, most among people who had arrived recently from overseas. None of the new cases were in Shanghai or Beijing.

The Shanghai Disney Resort announced that its Disneyland theme park will reopen on Thursday after a closure of more than three months because of the virus.

The number of visitors will be limited and a few attractions will remain closed, but most of the park will be open, Shanghai Disney said in a social media post. All guests will be required to show proof of a negative virus test taken within the previous 72 hours.

Shanghai Disneyland closed on March 21 ahead of a citywide lockdown that would paralyze what is China’s largest city and a major manufacturing, shipping and financial hub for two months.

Beijing’s Universal Studios theme park reopened last weekend after being closed for nearly two months because of an outbreak in the Chinese capital.

Monday, June 27, 2022

Ancient Home, Prayer Room Open At Rome’s Baths Of Caracalla

One the most spectacular examples of ancient Roman baths, the Baths of Caracalla, has become more spectacular. Authorities in Rome on Thursday opened to the public a unique private home that stood on the site before the baths, with a frescoed ceiling and prayer room honoring Roman and Egyptian deities.

The two-story home, or “domus,” dates from around 134-138 AD, during the reign of the Emperor Hadrian. It was partially destroyed to make way for the construction of the Caracalla public baths, which opened in 216 AD. The site today is a big tourist draw for the multi-leveled brick remains of the Imperial Roman baths, libraries and gyms and the marble mosaics that decorated the floors.

The home, believed to have belonged to a wealthy merchant’s family given the quality of the frescoes, therefore represents what was at the same site before the baths, and shows how the city evolved in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD, Daniela Porro, Rome’s archaeological superintendent, said at the opening.

The domus ruins were first discovered in the mid-19th century about 10 meters (yards) underneath the current ground level of the baths. They were excavated about a century later, with the inner prayer room and fragments of the frescoed dining room ceiling removed for restoration and conservation.

The prayer room had been briefly exhibited but has been closed to the public for 30 years. It reopened Thursday alongside some of the never-before-seen ceiling fragments that feature images of Bacchus, the Roman god of wine and agriculture, using prized Egyptian blue and Cinnabar red pigments, conservators said.

“Both the subject type and the particularity of the painting are unique in the Roman panorama of the Hadrianic age” when the domus was built, said Mirella Serlorenzi, director of the Caracalla site.

The inner temple features images of the Roman gods Jupiter, Juno and Minerva on one wall, and silhouettes of the Egyptian deities Isis and Anubis on other walls, evidence of the religious “syncretism” — the blending of different belief systems — that was common in Roman public monuments but not in domestic ones of the period.

“It’s the first time we find something like that in Rome, but also in the world because it’s not like there are a lot of them,” said Serlorenzi.

She noted that what experts know about Roman-era painting comes primarily from the towns of Herculaneum and Pompeii near Naples, which were destroyed and their remains preserved under layers of volcanic materials when Mt. Vesuvius erupted in 79 AD.

“So Roman painting after the 1st century AD has remained a mystery because we just haven’t had rooms so well conserved up to the ceiling,” Serlorenzi said.

The domus exhibit, entitled “Before the Baths: The House where Gods Lived Together” is now a permanent part of the Caracalla itinerary.

By NICOLE WINFIELD

Sunday, June 26, 2022

Dutch Government To Rein In Flights At Schiphol Airport

BRUSSELS (AP) — The Dutch government said Friday it will cut the maximum number of flights allowed each year at the country’s busiest aviation hub, Schiphol Airport, in an attempt to reduce noise and air pollution.

The decision — expected to take effect late next year — to cut the number of flights allowed from around 500,000 to 440,000 is a further blow to the airport. Schiphol has seen chaos in recent weeks amid security staff shortages, with hours-long lines of passengers waiting to board flights.

The airport last week announced it will have to reduce the number of passengers it can handle each day by around 13,500 over the busy summer period because of the staff shortages.

Schiphol, on the outskirts of Amsterdam, has been growing for years and has become a busy European hub and a significant driver of economic growth in the Netherlands, although it has seen business hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the government, which also is looking for ways to cut emissions of carbon and other pollutants such as nitrogen oxide, said that the growth must now be reined in.

“I want to offer certainty and perspective to both the aviation sector and local residents,” Infrastructure and Water Management Minister Mark Harbers said. “This decision forms the basis for a new equilibrium. Unfortunately, it contains a difficult message for the aviation sector, which is still fully recovering from the drastic consequences of the corona pandemic.”

Schiphol said in a written reaction that it supports a “well-thought-out approach” that leads to the airport’s stated goal of “connecting the Netherlands with the world as an increasingly quieter and cleaner Schiphol.”

But it said the plans announced Friday “lead to great uncertainty and much remains unclear. We see that major risks are being taken with regard to the quality of the network.”

Reacting Thursday to leaked news of the planned cuts, environmental group Greenpeace hailed the decision as a historic turning point.

“It is good that the Cabinet realizes that Schiphol has, for years, been flying beyond all boundaries when it comes to noise, nitrogen, ultrafine particles and the climate,” Greenpeace aviation expert Dewi Zloch said in a statement.

“This is an impetus for Schiphol to finally come up with a plan that takes into account the Paris Climate Agreement,” Zloch added.

Saturday, June 25, 2022

FBI Seizes Disputed Basquiat Artwork From Florida Museum

The FBI raided a Florida art museum on Friday and seized more than two dozen paintings attributed to artist Jean-Michel Basquiat following questions about their authenticity.

Orlando Museum of Art spokeswoman Emilia Bourmas-Fry said in a statement that they were complying with a warrant from the FBI for access to the ‘Heroes and Monsters’ exhibit, which is now in the government’s possession. She added that no one on the museum’s staff has been arrested.

“It is important to note that we still have not been led to believe the Museum has been or is the subject of any investigation,” Bourmas-Fry said. “We continue to see our involvement purely as a fact witness.”

According to a search warrant, federal art crimes investigators have been looking into the 25 paintings since shortly after their discovery in 2012. The controversy gained more attention shortly after the Orlando exhibit opened in February.

Basquiat, who lived and worked in New York City, found success in the 1980s as part of the Neo-expressionism movement. The Orlando Museum of Art was the first institution to display pieces said to have been found in an old storage locker years after Basquiat’s 1988 death from a drug overdose at age 27.

Questions about the artworks’ authenticity arose almost immediately after their discovery. The artwork was purportedly made in 1982, but experts have pointed out that the cardboard used in at least one of the pieces included FedEx typeface that wasn’t used until 1994, about six years after Basquiat died, according to the warrant. Also, television writer Thad Mumford, the owner of the storage locker where the art was eventually found, told investigators that he had never owned any Basquiat art and that the pieces were not in the unit the last time he had visited. Mumford died in 2018.

Orlando Museum of Art director Aaron De Groft has repeatedly insisted that the art is legitimate.

The exhibit was originally publicized to run through June 2023 in Orlando, the museum later announced it was ending next week. Bourmas-Fry said the art’s owners declined to extend the museum’s contract and were planning to send the works to Italy for exhibition.

“Based on my training and experience, I believe that the significantly advanced date of the international departure of the Mumford Collection from OMA is to avoid further scrutiny of the provenance and authenticity of the works by the public and law enforcement,” an FBI special agent wrote in the warrant request.

No criminal charges have been filed.

Friday, June 24, 2022

Greater Fort Lauderdale Summer Hotel And Attractions Offering LauderDeals During August And September


is back with deals and discounts on hotels and attractions. Most of the hotel and attraction deals run from June 1 to September 30 with some extending through the end of the year. Increased demand for hotel and vacation rentals this year as well as inflation means that prices are higher, so those deals are even more desirable this summer.

A range of hotel and attraction deals are posted now at VisitLauderdale.com/deals

Conrad Fort Lauderdale Beach hopes to lure both locals and visitors from outside Greater Fort Lauderdale with its Ultimate Beach Staycation that includes a waived resort charge, 50 percent off valet parking and a late checkout.

Fort Lauderdale Marriott Pompano Beach Resort & Spa’s Family Package includes daily breakfast buffets for two adults and two children plus turndown service and freshly baked cookies on arrival. If you’re looking for a wellness retreat

W Fort Lauderdale is waiving its resort fee in its Escape to The W Fort Lauderdale Package, meaning that fitness options like the beach boot camp, sunrise beach yoga, and beach bike rentals are included in your nightly rate, along with one free in-room movie to enjoy while you recuperate.

Attractions have money-saving deals listed, including Sunrise Paddleboards’ $59 off Jet Ski Tours offer.

There are numerous 2-for-1 offers at attractions including Flamingo Gardens, History Fort Lauderdale Sun & Fun Cycles, as well as the South Florida Adventure Pass with unlimited admission to multiple attractions for one low price.

Some deals are available all year, but most LauderDeals are offered from June 1 through September 30. Check the redeemable time frame on each LauderDeals listing to find out when you can take advantage of the savings.

Dine Out Lauderdale, your entrée into Greater Fort Lauderdale’s culinary scene, takes place this year during August and September. Diners will enjoy the very best tastes of Greater Fort Lauderdale at some of the area’s top restaurants by taking advantage of taste-tempting meals, all with at least three courses, for $35 or $45.

Spa Days, also taking place during August and September, tempts those in need of self-care with great prices on specialty treatments, some starting for as low as $99. Restaurant and spa treatment menus will be posted closer to the August 1 start date, along with all the other deals at visitlauderdale.com/deals.

Thursday, June 23, 2022

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Hypersonic Plane To Travel From New York To London In One Hour

The UK Space Agency announced its plan for a "space plane" that will travel between New York and London in one hour, and it's expected to hit the sky by the 2030s. In that case, insanely fast passenger aircraft will fly at Mach 5.4, which means really fast.

On Tuesday, at the UK space conference in Wales, the UK Space Agency CEO revealed that this high tech plane or rocket shuttle would be powered by a hypersonic engine. These speed capabilities will change air travel, capable of traveling five minutes at the speed of sound.

And shockingly enough, the Sabre (Synergetic Air-Breathing Rocket Engine) engine is fitted with a complex cooling system, far beyond what any typical aircraft would carry. The engine isn't terrible for the environment, will reportedly make a hypersonic travel option for commercial passengers. The main thing is to start the engine is like a hybrid of a rocket and an aero-engine fuelled by the combination of Oxygen, hydrogen, so it allows a rocket to breathe air. SABRE is supposedly greener and cheaper than current air travel.

Sabre Advances in Technology and New Trends

According to the Program Director Shaun Driscoll of Reaction Engines at the conference, heat has been the limiting factor. The pre-coolers are critical in the plane development because it contains liquid helium that can cool engine from more than 10, 000 degree Celsius to room temperature in one-twentieth of a second.

Sabre is intended to provide a lightweight, efficient propulsion system to create a space plane that draws Oxygen into the engine to use for combustion from take off until it reaches just over 4000 mph. Sabre is intended to carry a much lighter and convenient rocket engine because it would carry less fuel oxidant and a 50% faster engine than the supersonic turbojet Concorde.

Design of Supersonic Planes Skies Faster Than Sound

The Government had already invested 74 million dollars into SABRE. In contrast, the Reaction engine continues to use the space plane's experimental engine until it reaches 25 times the sound's speed to enter space.

However, the company aims to create a reusable vehicle that uses fuel efficiently, like a jet engine with a rocket's power. The hypersonic plane strives to match Rolls-Royce, BAR Systems, and Boeing superfast model to take people or cargo into space and back for just a fraction of the current cost.

Source: https://www.traveller365.com/

Wednesday, June 22, 2022

Stonewall Visitor Center Will Be Dedicated To LGBTQ History

A visitor center dedicated to telling the story of the LGBTQ rights movement will open next door to the Stonewall Inn, according to an announcement Tuesday by the nonprofit that will manage the center in partnership with the National Park Service.

The groundbreaking for the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center in New York City’s Greenwich Village neighborhood will take place Friday, with the center expected to open in summer 2024, said Ann Marie Gothard, board president of Pride Live, an LGBTQ advocacy organization.

“The opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center is a remarkable moment in the history of Stonewall,” Gothard said. “We honor all those who came before us, most especially the queer people fighting for equality at the Stonewall riots.”

The Stonewall National Monument became the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ history when it was dedicated in 2016 across the street from the Stonewall Inn, where patrons fought back against a police raid on June 28, 1969, and helped spark the contemporary LGBTQ rights movement.

The Stonewall rebellion is commemorated every year with Pride marches in cities across the U.S. and the world.

This year’s Pride Month in New York kicked off June 1 with the dedication of a rainbow flag at the Stonewall monument, the first rainbow flag to fly daily on federal land. The ceremony followed a yearslong battle by activists to ensure that a rainbow flag would fly on federal land at the Stonewall monument.

The 7.7-acre monument includes the park known Christopher Park, across from the Stonewall, but does not include the Stonewall itself, which is still a bar. The visitor center will be housed in the storefront adjoining the Stonewall, which was part of the bar in 1969.

Gothard said that when the national monument was created in 2016 “it became clear that a visitor center was needed.”

The Stonewall visitor center will offer in-person and virtual tours, lectures and visual arts displays dedicated to the history of the LGBTQ rights movement, Gothard said.

Although it will be managed by Pride Live, the center will also serve as home base for National Park Service staff members.

“The visitor center and its exhibits will celebrate and acknowledge LGBTQ+ accomplishments and serve as a place where people can learn about and connect with the LGBTQ+ community’s ongoing struggle for civil liberties,” National Park Service Director Chuck Sams said in a prepared statement.

Corporations including Google and JPMorgan Chase are providing funding for the center.

“It’s vital to create safe and inclusive spaces for the LGBTQ community, and we are proud to support the opening of the Stonewall National Monument Visitor Center, a space that will memorialize the legacy of Stonewall,” said William Floyd, Google’s senior director of public policy.

By KAREN MATTHEWS

Tuesday, June 21, 2022

Hong Kong’s Iconic Jumbo Floating Restaurant Capsizes At Sea

Hong Kong’s iconic Jumbo Floating Restaurant has capsized in the South China Sea less than a week after it was towed away from the city, its parent company said Monday.

The restaurant encountered “adverse conditions” on Saturday as it was passing the Xisha Islands, also known as the Paracel Islands, in the South China Sea, and water entered the vessel and it began to tip, according to Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises Ltd.

The company said no one was injured, but that efforts to save the vessel failed and it capsized on Sunday.

“As the water depth at the scene is over 1,000 meters, (it makes it) extremely difficult to carry out salvage works,” it said in a statement.

It said the company “is very saddened by this accident.”

The Jumbo Floating Restaurant, almost 80 meters (260 feet) in length, had been a landmark in Hong Kong for over four decades, serving Cantonese cuisine to over 3 million guests including Queen Elizabeth II and Tom Cruise.

It closed in 2020 due to the pandemic and laid off all its staff. Aberdeen Restaurant Enterprises said the restaurant became a financial burden to its shareholders, with millions of Hong Kong dollars spent on its inspection and maintenance even though it was not in operation.

The restaurant was towed away last Tuesday. The company said it planned to move it to a lower-cost site where maintenance could be carried out.

It said that prior to its departure, the vessel had been thoroughly inspected by marine engineers and hoardings were installed, and all relevant approvals were obtained.

“The company is now getting further details of the accident from the towing company,” the statement said.

Monday, June 20, 2022

In Addition To Numerous Strict Conditions For Entering Japan, Visa-Free Travel From The U.S. Is Currently Suspended.

As of June 10, Japan reopened to travelers from 98 countries, including the United States, but with a whole host of specific conditions—including the need for a visa.

Prior to closing its international borders in 2020 due to the pandemic, Japan had exempted U.S. travelers from the need to obtain a visa for entering the country for leisure travel. But that exemption has now been suspended, according to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

“Currently, foreign nationals/people who are willing to enter Japan need a visa newly issued by embassies or consulates or consular office of Japan,” the foreign ministry stated in its latest update about entry requirements.

So, if you’re thinking of heading to Japan, you will need to make an appointment at the closest Japanese embassy or consulate or apply for a visa by mail. Be aware that some Japanese embassies and consulates might have a backlog of visa applications to process and it could take longer than usual to obtain one.

“Due to the tremendous amount of visa applications we are processing, we cannot provide you with any status updates,” stated the Consulate-General of Japan in San Francisco on its website.

The need to obtain a visa is in addition to several more hurdles travelers must cross to get into Japan. Earlier this month, Japanese authorities outlined the new rules for foreign travelers, and they include obtaining private medical insurance that covers medical expenses related to COVID-19 infection, wearing a mask at all times unless there is a specific exception, and traveling under the supervision of an organized tour group.

Japan’s reopening plan divides countries and regions into red, yellow, or blue categories depending on COVID-19 risk. People from countries in the blue category (such as the United States) will be able to bypass quarantine as long as they pass a predeparture COVID test, regardless of vaccination status. Those in the yellow category (which includes such countries as India, Lebanon, and Portugal) will also be able to skip a quarantine period with proof of vaccination. However, visitors from the red group—which consists of Pakistan, Fiji, Albania, and Sierra Leone—must take an on-arrival test and quarantine for a period of time.

With the easing of entry restrictions, Japan also increased its daily entry limits from 10,000 foreign arrivals to 20,000 per day in June—still a fraction of the 31.88 million foreign tourists (or an average of 87,000 tourists per day) who entered Japan in 2019.

Source: https://www.afar.com/magazine/

Sunday, June 19, 2022

Thailand Drops Registration For Visitors, Outdoor Mask Rule

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand is lifting a pre-arrival registration requirement for foreign visitors that was seen as onerous and a drag on the recovery for its ailing tourism industry.

The government’s COVID-19 center also said Friday that an outdoor mask mandate would be dropped as of July 1 except in crowded venues. The mask mandate was not controversial in Thailand and generally obeyed.

Thailand began gradually easing entry requirements late last year. But through April, it still required even fully vaccinated travelers to undergo RT-PCR tests upon arrival and stay in a government-approved hotel for one night until the results were known.

Registering for the “Thailand Pass” required online copies of vaccination documents, insurance policies and other documents to be submitted, after which visitors would receive a QR code for use during travel. The requirement had already been dropped for Thais and will be dropped for foreign visitors on July 1.

The registration process — beset at times by delays and glitches — was seen as discouraging tourists to Thailand, where the lucrative tourism sector was battered by the coronavirus pandemic.

Arriving foreigners must still show proof they have been vaccinated or provide negative COVID-19 test results, the Center for COVID-19 Situation Administration announced. But a requirement to hold an insurance policy has been dropped.

Many countries in Southeast Asia count on tourism as an important source of revenue, and in the past few months have eased their entry requirements.

Thai health officials said Friday 1,967 new cases and 19 deaths related to COVID-19 were confirmed in the previous 24 hours. The country has had more than 4.4 million cases and 30,422 fatalities since the pandemic began.

Saturday, June 18, 2022

Europe Wilts Under Early Heat Wave From Med To North Sea

A blanket of hot air stretching from the Mediterranean to the North Sea is bringing much of Western Europe its first heat wave of the summer, with temperatures Friday exceeding 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) from London to Paris.

Meteorologists say the unusually early heat wave is a sign of what’s to come as global warming continues, moving up in the calendar the temperatures that Europe would previously have seen only in July and August.

“In some parts of Spain and France, temperatures are more than 10 degrees higher — that’s huge — than the average for this time of year,” Clare Nullis, a spokesperson for the World Meteorological Organization in Geneva, said.

In France, some 18 million people woke to heat wave alerts affecting about a third of the country Friday. Forest fire warnings were issued from the Pyrenees in the south to the Paris region.

Tourists dunked their feet in fountains near the Eiffel Tower or sought relief in the Mediterranean.

France has introduced numerous measures to cope with extreme summer temperatures following a deadly heat wave in 2003 that killed about 15,000 people.

On Friday, schoolchildren were allowed to skip classes in the 12 western and southwestern French regions that were under the highest alert. The government stepped up efforts to ensure nursing home residents and other vulnerable populations could stay hydrated.

Temperatures in France have mounted all week and passed 39 C (102.2 F) in the southwest Friday. Nighttime temperatures are also unusually high, and the heat is stretching to normally cooler regions in Brittany and Normandy on the Atlantic Coast.

Matthieu Sorel, a climatologist at national weather service Meteo France, told public broadcaster France-Info that temperatures are expected to break several records. He called the exceptionally early long stretch of hot weather a “marker of climate change.”

Britain recorded its hottest day of the year so far, with the temperature reaching 32.4C Celsius (90 Fahrenheit) at Heathrow Airport near London just after midday.

The heatwave prompted organizers of the Royal Ascot horse racing event to relax their famously strict dress code, with men allowed remove their jackets and ties once the traditional carriage procession by members of the royal family had ended.

In the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, people boarded trains to the nearest North Sea beach early Friday afternoon while others took to boats and stand-up paddle boards on one of the city’s historic ring of canals.

In Germany, where firefighters were tackling several wildfires including one south of the capital Berlin, the national weather service predicted that the big sweat would continue over the weekend, as the heat moves into central and Eastern Europe. It follows an unusually dry spring in Western Europe, with authorities ordering water to be rationed in northern Italy and parts of France and Germany.

Experts say climate change is already affecting rainfall patterns and evaporation rates across the region, with knock-on effects for agriculture, industry and wildlife.

“Heat waves are starting earlier,” said Nullis, from the U.N. weather agency. “They’re becoming more frequent and more severe because of concentrations of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, which are at record level. What we’re witnessing today is, unfortunately, a foretaste of the future.”

She noted that extreme temperatures hit other parts of the globe in recent weeks. Nearly a third of Americans were under some form of heat advisory this week. During months of scorching temperatures, India and Pakistan saw the mercury scrape past 50 C (122 F) in some places.

By FRANK JORDANS
The current heat wave in Europe started almost a week ago in Spain, where temperatures reached 43 C (109.4F). Spanish authorities hope the weather will begin to cool again Sunday.

The intense temperatures and a lack of rain has helped fuel wildfires across Spain, taxing firefighting capacity.

The heat made itself felt also at a meeting in Madrid, where experts and policymakers gathered to discuss ways to tackle drought and the increasing spread of deserts across the globe.

Friday, June 17, 2022

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Thursday, June 16, 2022

Italy Creates New Museum For Trafficked Ancient Artifacts

Italy has been so successful in recovering ancient artworks and artifacts that were illegally exported from the country it has created a museum for them.

The Museum of Rescued Art was inaugurated Wednesday in a cavernous structure that is part of Rome’s ancient Baths of Diocletian. The Octagonal Hall exhibition space was designed to showcase Italy’s efforts, through patient diplomacy and court challenges, to get valuable antiquities repatriated, often after decades in foreign museums or private collections.

Exhibits in the new museum will change every few months as the objects on display return to what experts consider their territory of origin, many of them places that were part of ancient Etruscan or Magna Grecia civilizations in central or southern Italy.

The inaugural exhibit revolves around some 100 of 260 artifacts recovered by the nation’s paramilitary Carabinieri art squad from the United States and brought back to Italy in December 2021.

The pieces on display, which were found during clandestine digs and illegally exported, include exquisitely carved Etruscan figurines and imposing painted jars from several centuries B.C. The items previously were held by museums, auction houses and private collections.

The new Rome museum is exhibiting objects “never before seen in Italy,″ said Massimo Osanna, director general of Italy’s state museums. In his previous role, Osanna had long been in charge of reviving the fortunes of Pompeii, the ancient Roman city near Naples, one of the world’s most famed archaeological cites that itself was heavily looted by antiquities thieves of past generations.

The recently recovered antiquities are from before the Roman era, dating back to the 8th to 4th centuries B.C. Many of them came from the area near modern-day Cerveteri, which is awash with remnants of the flourishing Etruscan civilization in west-central Italy.

One particularly striking piece, from the 7th century B.C., is a ceramic jar, painted red on white and towering more than a meter (40 inches) high. Decorated with images of horses and cats, it depicts the mythological scene of the blinding of Polyphemus, a man-eating one-eyed creature.

The choice of the jar’s decoration probably indicates that the Etruscan elite were bilingual and “fascinated with Greek myth,″ Osanna told The Associated Press in an interview. They were ”Etruscan heroes that identified with Greek heroes,” he said.

Italian Culture Minister Dario Franceschini explained the decision to opt for a series of rotating exhibits in the new museum instead of establishing a permanent collection of rescued art.

“We thought it’s right to have the pieces return to the places where they were stolen from,″ Franceschini said.

In some cases, experts don’t know the exact original location of the antiquities, underlining the irreparable damage done when archaeological treasures are clandestinely snatched away. Pieces with unknown origins will be returned to the general geographic area.

The exhibition space is part of the National Roman Museum. Its current exhibit runs until October 15, then the museum will display a different batch of recovered antiquities.

Among the show-stoppers at the current exhibit of “rescued art” are two terra cotta heads, sliced vertically in half, part of a group of Etruscan votive pieces from the 4th-to-3rd centuries B.C.

Another striking piece is a well-preserved, intricately decorated Etruscan funeral box, decorated with images of a warrior, horse and a cat.

While Italy proudly boasts of regaining some 3 million artifacts and artworks since a special Safeguarding of Cultural Heritage unit of the Carabinieri was established in 1969, it is also trying to inspire countries to give back ancient pieces that are identified with other cultures.

Earlier this month, Italy returned to Athens a frieze fragment of the Parthenon that had been in an archaeological museum in Sicily. Franceschini, Italy’s culture minister, contended that the so-called “Fagan fragment” was in Italy legitimately but said his country wanted to “affirm the principle of the restitution of cultural wealth to reconnect artistic historical patrimony with the places and peoples of origin.”

Carabinieri Commanding Gen. Teo Luzi spoke wistfully at the new museum’s debut of hopes that Italy’s would one day reclaim “Victorious Youth,” a footless bronze statue that was found by an Italian fishing boat in the Adriatic Sea in 1964. It was eventually purchased by the J. Paul Getty Museum in California.

In 2018, Italy’s highest court ruled that the museum had to surrender the statue to Italy. But the museum, insisting that the statue was fished out of international waters, has challenged the order.

Some treasures have so far eluded Italy’s efforts to obtain them.

Contributed by By FRANCES D'EMILIO

Wednesday, June 15, 2022

Yellowstone Flooding Forces 10,000 To Leave National Park

RED LODGE, Mont. (AP) — More than 10,000 visitors were ordered out of Yellowstone as unprecedented flooding tore through the northern half of the nation’s oldest national park, washing out bridges and roads and sweeping an employee bunkhouse miles downstream, officials said Tuesday. Remarkably, no one was reported injured or killed.

The only visitors left in the massive park straddling three states were a dozen campers still making their way out of the backcountry.

Yellowstone National Park, which celebrates its 150th anniversary this year, could remain closed as long as a week, and northern entrances may not reopen this summer, Superintendent Cam Sholly said.

“The water is still raging,” said Sholly, who noted that some weather forecasts include the possibility of additional flooding this weekend.

The Yellowstone River hit historic levels after days of rain and rapid snowmelt and wrought havoc across parts of southern Montana and northern Wyoming, where it washed away cabins, swamped small towns and knocked out power. It hit the park just as a summer tourist season that draws millions of visitors was ramping up.

Instead of marveling at massive elk and bison, burbling thermal pools and the reliable blast of Old Faithful’s geyser, tourists found themselves witnessing nature at its most unpredictable as the Yellowstone River river crested in a chocolate brown torrent that washed away everything in its path.

“It is just the scariest river ever,” Kate Gomez of Santa Fe, New Mexico, said Tuesday. “Anything that falls into that river is gone.”

Waters were only starting to recede Tuesday, and the full extent of the destruction may not be known for a while. It was not expected to have affected wildlife.

Closure of the northern part of the park will keep visitors from features that include Tower Fall, Mammoth Hot Springs and the Lamar Valley, which is known for viewing wildlife such as bears and wolves. Old Faithful, Yellowstone Lake and viewing the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone are on the park’s southern loop road and likely to be reopened.

Sholly said the backpackers who remained in the park had been contacted. Crews were prepared to evacuate them by helicopter, but that hasn’t been needed yet, he said.

Sholly said he didn’t believe the park had ever shut down from flooding.

Gomez and her husband were among hundreds of tourists stuck in Gardiner, Montana, a town of about 800 residents at the park’s north entrance. The town was cut off for more than a day until Tuesday afternoon, when crews reopened part of a washed away two-lane road.

While the flooding can’t directly be attributed to climate change, it came as the Midwest and East Coast sizzle from a heat wave and other parts of the West burn from an early wildfire season amid a persistent drought that has increased the frequency and intensity of fires that are having broader impacts. Smoke from a fire in the mountains of Flagstaff, Arizona, could be seen in Colorado.

Thoman, a climate specialist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said a warming environment makes extreme weather events more likely than they would have been “without the warming that human activity has caused.”

“Will Yellowstone have a repeat of this in five or even 50 years? Maybe not, but somewhere will have something equivalent or even more extreme,” he said.

Heavy rain on top of melting mountain snow pushed the Yellowstone, Stillwater and Clarks Fork rivers to record levels Monday, according to the National Weather Service.

Officials in Yellowstone and in several southern Montana counties were assessing damage from the storms, which also triggered mudslides and rockslides.

Some of the worst damage happened in the northern part of the park and Yellowstone’s gateway communities in southern Montana. National Park Service photos showed mud and rock slides, washed out bridges and roads undercut by churning floodwaters of the Gardner and Lamar rivers.

In Red Lodge, Montana, a town of 2,100 that’s a popular jumping-off point for a scenic, winding route into the Yellowstone high country, a creek running through town jumped its banks and swamped the main thoroughfare, leaving trout swimming in the street a day later under sunny skies.

At least 200 homes flooded in the city and in Fromberg, Carbon County authorities said.

Residents described a harrowing scene where the water went from a trickle to a torrent over just a few hours.

The water toppled telephone poles, knocked over fences and carved deep fissures in the ground through a neighborhood of hundreds of houses. Power was restored by Tuesday, though there was still no running water in the affected neighborhood.

Heidi Hoffman left early Monday to buy a sump pump in Billings, but by the time she returned her basement was full of water.

“We lost all our belongings in the basement,” Hoffman said as the pump removed a steady stream of water into her muddy backyard. “Yearbooks, pictures, clothes, furniture. Were going to be cleaning up for a long time.”

On Monday, Yellowstone officials evacuated the northern part of the park, where roads may remain impassable for a substantial length of time, Sholly said. But the flooding affected the rest of the park, too, with park officials warning of yet higher flooding and potential problems with water supplies and wastewater systems at developed areas.

The rains hit just as area hotels have filled up in recent weeks with summer tourists. More than 4 million visitors were tallied by the park last year. The wave of tourists doesn’t abate until fall, and June is typically one of Yellowstone’s busiest months.

It was unclear how many visitors to the region remained stranded, or how many people who live outside the park were rescued and evacuated.

Mark Taylor, owner and chief pilot of Rocky Mountain Rotors, said his company airlifted about 40 paying customers over the past two days from Gardiner, including two women who were “very pregnant.”

Taylor spoke as he ferried a family of four adults from Texas, who wanted to do some more sightseeing before heading home.

“I imagine they’re going to rent a car and they’re going to go check out some other parts of Montana — somewhere drier,” he said.

At a cabin in Gardiner, Parker Manning of Terre Haute, Indiana, got an up-close view of the roiling Yellowstone River floodwaters just outside his door. Entire trees and even a lone kayaker floated by.

In early evening, he shot video as the waters ate away at the opposite bank where a large brown house that had been home to park employees, who had evacuated, was precariously perched.

In a large cracking sound heard over the river’s roar, the house tipped into the waters and was pulled into the current. Sholly said it floated 5 miles (8 kilometers) before sinking.

The towns of Cooke City and Silvergate, just east of the park, were also isolated by floodwaters.

In Livingston, residents in low-lying neighborhoods were told to leave and the city’s hospital was evacuated as a precaution after its driveway flooded.

Officials in Park County, which includes Gardiner and Cooke City, said extensive flooding throughout the county had made drinking water unsafe in many areas.

The Montana National Guard said Monday it sent two helicopters to southern Montana to help with evacuations.

In the hamlet of Nye, at least four cabins washed into the Stillwater River, said Shelley Blazina, including one she owned.

“It was my sanctuary,” she said Tuesday. “Yesterday I was in shock. Today I’m just in intense sadness.”

The Yellowstone River at Corwin Springs crested at 13.88 feet (4.2 meters) Monday, higher than the previous record of 11.5 feet (3.5 meters) set in 1918, according to the National Weather Service

Yellowstone got 2.5 inches (6 centimeters) of rain Saturday, Sunday and into Monday. The Beartooth Mountains northeast of Yellowstone got as much as 4 inches (10 centimeters), according to the National Weather Service.
In south-central Montana, flooding on the Stillwater River stranded 68 people at a campground. Stillwater County Emergency Services agencies and Stillwater Mine crews rescued people Monday from the Woodbine Campground by raft. Some roads in the area were closed and residents were evacuated.

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

10 Locations To Celebrate Same-Sex Weddings In The State Of Yucatan

Merida, Mexico – “Love is love” is the chant we hear in celebration of the right for same-sex couples to wed. What may be one of the most noble and hopeful moments in many a life is today legal in about 30 countries. In 2021, the Yucatan passed laws that made same-sex weddings legal in the state, and earlier this year, those laws went into effect, making the millennia-old destination an alternative setting for this most important occasion.

Yucatan is a romantic destination by nature, nestled in the midst of an atmosphere of mysticism, magic, color, history and locales pulled right from the screening of a romantic film In addition, with one of the most exquisite cuisines in Mexico, it is the ideal place to live and celebrate love.

The following are just some of the locations ready to help design a romantic getaway, be it a destination wedding or just a secluded moment with your beloved.

Zazil Tunich (Zaziltunich.com/en) is a 65-foot-deep cavern/cenote located in Valladolid and features more than 500,000 years of stone formations. Zazil Tunich has been named one of the most spectacular cenotes in the region and, with thousands of stalagmites and stalactites, it is the biggest one in Yucatan. For those not looking to do a traditional Western wedding ceremony, the location offers the opportunity to have a Maya commitment ceremony or to have a purification ceremony in the sacred water of Xibalba inside Zazil Tunich. The cenote is surrounded by Hacienda Selva Maya, which can accommodate large wedding celebrations.

In Izamal is a 100% Yucatecan family business that runs the exclusive hotels of Rinconada del Convento, San Antonio de Padua and Tuul Hotel, offering authentic backdrops for expressive weddings and spectacular events, leveraging the magical and colonial atmosphere that Izamal transmits to its visitors. The strategic location of its facilities — 38 guestrooms in three hotels — allows guests to easily convene
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Villa Mercedes Merida, Curio Collection by Hilton. In addition to elegant rooms and colonial architecture, this venue has three restaurant spaces, seven meetings rooms, a pool and a garden for weddings. Centrally located in capital city Merida, it can also serve as the location for rehearsal dinners and, with 127 guestrooms, a place for the wedding party to stay at an economical rate.

Chable Resort & Spa (Chablehotels.com/yucatan/events/weddings/) is a magical backdrop for destination weddings. Surrounded by beautiful gardens, the luxury complex radiates romance and sophistication. Tropical gardens boast a marvelous view of the original 19th-century walls of the former hacienda, while the exquisite cenote deck is situated in the heart of the wellness-spa. The property can accommodate weddings of up to 100 people.

Hacienda San Antonio Hool (Sanantoniohool.com/) dates back to the 17th century and has great historical and cultural value. The exotic gardens, which can host events for up to 700 people, create the perfect setting for this monumental building, since special interest was put in designing them using exuberant local endangered species such as the guayacán, machiche and palo de tinte trees, as well as many original fruit trees and flower shrubs from the region.

Hacienda Temozon. A Luxury Collection Hotel, Temozon Sur has 28 rooms and event space that guests often use for weddings. The property boosts extensive gardens surrounded by storybook coral walls, white moldings and Mayan architecture. Couples can relax in the on-site spa, uniquely located in a cenote. (Marriott.com/en-us/hotels/midtl-hacienda-temozon-a-luxury-collection-hotel-temozon-sur).

Hacienda Xcanatun by Angsana is surrounded by four acres of private gardens, filled with lush vegetation and bright tropical flowers that highlight the beauty that made it one of the most important haciendas in the Yucatan. Just 15 minutes away from downtown Merida, Hacienda Xcanatun by Angsana is located in an enclave where history and tradition come together. Restored to its 18th century grandeur as one of the most iconic henequen (sisal) haciendas in the Yucatan, the resort features 18 historic suites that fuse contemporary details with local touches and 36 brand new, exquisitely designed suites, offering the effortless harmony between nature and modern spaces. (Angsana.com/mexico/hacienda-xcanatun)

For those looking for a beach wedding, the Yucatan Riviera in Puerto Progreso offers paradisiacal beaches with soft white sands and beautiful emerald green waters, all surrounded by a great variety of flora and fauna. Kokomo Beach Club (Kokomo.mx) offers the retreat-like atmosphere of a private venue with almost 200 feet of private beach-front space. It’s also a six-room boutique hotel.

For those looking to take advantage of the destination wedding and follow it up with a honeymoon, the historic but luxurious one-room properties of Casa Azul by Private Haciendas (Privatehaciendas.com/azul.html) and … Hotel Oriundo Luxury Nature (Facebook.com/Oriundo-Luxury-Nature-Villas-103314095626210/) will fit the bill.

Yucatan is home to a plethora of professional wedding planners, who can coordinate all details of a same-sex couple’s special day. The international airport of capital city Merida offers nonstop flights from Miami, Houston, Dallas, San Diego and Oakland/San Francisco.

Monday, June 13, 2022

EU Lawmakers Endorse Ban On Combustion-Engine Cars In 2035

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Parliament threw its weight behind a proposed ban on selling new cars with combustion engines in 2035, seeking to step up the fight against climate change through the faster development of electric vehicles.

The European Union assembly voted in Strasbourg, France, to require automakers to cut carbon-dioxide emissions by 100% by the middle of the next decade. The mandate would amount to a prohibition on the sale in the 27-nation bloc of new cars powered by gasoline or diesel.

EU lawmakers also endorsed a 55% reduction in CO2 from automobiles in 2030 compared with 2021. The move deepens an existing obligation on the car industry to lower CO2 discharges by 37.5% on average at the end of the decade compared to last year.

Environmentalists hailed the parliament’s decisions. Transport & Environment, a Brussels-based alliance, said the vote offered “a fighting chance of averting runaway climate change.”

But Germany’s auto industry lobby group VDA criticized the vote, saying it ignored the lack of charging infrastructure in Europe. The group also said the vote was “a decision against innovation and technology” a reference to demands from the industry that synthetic fuels be exempt from the ban, which European lawmakers rejected.

If approved by EU nations, the 2035 deadline will be particularly tough on German automakers, who have focused on powerful and expensive vehicles with combustion engines while falling behind foreign rivals when it comes to electric cars.

The 2030 CO2-reduction target and ban on combustion engines in 2035 were proposed last year by the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm. Cars account for around 12% of European emissions of greenhouse gases, which are blamed for increasingly frequent and intense heat waves, storms and floods tied to climate change.

The governments of EU member nations need to give their verdicts in the coming weeks or months before a final EU agreement on the tougher car emission requirements is approved.

The car law is being scrutinized as part of a package of EU draft climate legislation covering a range of other polluting industries.

The EU plans to slash greenhouse gases by 55% in 2030 compared with 1990 rather than by just a previously agreed 40% over the period.

A big portion of the cuts would come from power plants and factories. These two sectors, unlike cars, have their greenhouse gases curbed in the EU by a European emissions-trading system that every year reduces the total supply of required pollution permits.

Earlier Wednesday, the EU parliament failed to advance that part of the climate package because of a split over the pace at which the free allocation of some emission permits — as opposed to the auctioning of them — should be phased out.

The assembly asked its environment committee to reopen deliberations on the matter. As a result, the EU parliament also delayed its decisions on two related initiatives.

One is the creation of a Social Climate Fund to help vulnerable households cope with the planned clean-energy revamp — an issue that has become more politically sensitive as Russia’s war in Ukraine has sent fuel prices soaring.

Sunday, June 12, 2022

Renaissance Synagogues Being Restored In Venice’s Ghetto

Venice’s Jewish ghetto is considered the first in Europe and one of the first in the world, and a new effort is underway to preserve its 16th-century synagogues for the Jews who have remained and tourists who pass through.

For nearly two years, restorers have been peeling away paint and discovering the original foundations of three of the ghetto’s synagogues, which are considered the only Renaissance synagogues still in use, art historian David Landau said.

Landau is spearheading the fundraising effort to restore the synagogues and nearby buildings both for Venice’s small Jewish community, which numbers around 450 people, and for tourists who can visit them on a guided tour through the Jewish Museum of Venice.

“I was really deeply offended by the state of the synagogues,” said Landau, a Renaissance specialist who bought a home in Venice 12 years ago. “I felt that the synagogues were in very bad condition. They had been altered beyond recognition over the centuries, and needed to be kind of cared for and loved.”

He has secured about 5 million euros to date and expects workers can complete the restoration process by the end of 2023 if the rest of the funding comes through, although the original outstanding 4 million euros has now ballooned to 6 million euros because of soaring building costs.

Venice’s ghetto dates from 1516, when the republic forced the growing numbers of Jews into the district where the old foundries, or “geti” as they were known, had been located. The area, which was locked down at night, became what is considered Europe’s first ghetto and remains the hub of Venice’s Jewish community in the Cannaregio area.

The first synagogue dates from 1528 and was built by German Ashkenazi Jews. Others followed and served different groups, including one for Spanish Sephardic Jews and one for Italian Jews.

None is visible from the street, as strict rules imposed by Venice’s rulers didn’t allow Jews to practice their faith openly. All the synagogues are hidden away on the top floors of seemingly normal buildings that on the lower levels held cramped living spaces for Jewish families.

The synagogues have remained operational continuously, except for the years of World War II during the German occupation.

The head of Venice’s Jewish community, Dario Calimani, said the restoration project was necessary both to maintain the religious and cultural life of Venice’s Jews today and to preserve the community’s history.

“They are a testimony to the life that it was, to the history of our community, small community,” he said.

Saturday, June 11, 2022

Israeli Divers Haul Trash From Ancient Site For Oceans Day

CAESAREA, Israel (AP) — Divers visiting the ancient seaport of Caesarea on Israel’s Mediterranean coast occasionally find treasure, but on Friday they searched for trash.

Twenty six scuba-diving volunteers removed around 45 kilograms (100 pounds) of garbage from between the sunken pillars and submerged ruins of the historic site of Caesarea Maritima as part of a United Nations World Oceans Day initiative.

Dozens more at sites along Israel’s Mediterranean coast and on the Red Sea reefs in the Israeli resort of Eilat removed more than 150 kilograms (330 pounds) of trash. The cleanup included bottles and bags, ghost nets, fishing lines, aluminum cans, lost towels and other odd items, including a beach lounger, that were polluting coastal waters.

The events were organized by the Israeli Diving Federation with support from the Environmental Protection Ministry and Nature and Parks Authority, which manages the coastal areas, including Caesarea’s Roman-period port.

The U.N. marked World Oceans Day on Wednesday, but the scuba diving volunteers were taking to the water to clean the sites on Friday and Saturday, Israel’s weekend.

The U.N.’s environment program says the equivalent of a garbage truck full of plastic is dumped into the ocean each minute. Plastic waste can take centuries to degrade, and causes extensive damage to marine ecosystems.

Friday, June 10, 2022

Travelore News: US Lifts COVID-19 Test Requirement For International Travel

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is lifting its requirement that international air travelers to the U.S. take a COVID-19 test within a day before boarding their flights, easing one of the last remaining government mandates meant to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

A senior administration official said the mandate expires Sunday at 12:01 a.m. EDT, saying the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has determined that it’s no longer necessary. The official, speaking Friday on the condition of anonymity to preview the formal announcement, said that the agency would reevaluate the need for the testing requirement every 90 days and that it could be reinstated if a troubling new variant emerges.

The Biden administration put in place the testing requirement last year, as it moved away from restrictions that banned nonessential travel from several dozen countries — most of Europe, China, Brazil, South Africa, India and Iran — and instead focuses on classifying individuals by the risk they pose to others. It came in conjunction with a requirement that foreign, non-immigrant adults traveling to the United States need to be fully vaccinated, with only limited exceptions.

The initial mandate allowed those who were fully vaccinated to show proof of a negative test within three days of travel, while unvaccinated people had to present a test taken within one day of travel.

In November, as the highly transmissible omicron variant swept the world, the Biden administration toughened the requirement and required all travelers, regardless of vaccination status, to test within a day of travel to the U.S.

Airline and tourism groups have been pressing the administration for months to eliminate the testing requirement, saying it is discouraging people from booking international trips. Many other countries have lifted their testing requirements for fully vaccinated and boosted travelers in a bit to increase tourism.

In February, the groups argued the testing requirement was obsolete because of the high number of omicron cases already in every state, higher vaccinations rates and new treatments for the virus.

“I’m glad CDC suspended the burdensome coronavirus testing requirement for international travelers, and I’ll continue to do all I can to support the strong recovery of our hospitality industry,” Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., said in a statement.

The lifting of the requirement comes six weeks after a federal judge ended the CDC’s mask requirement for mass transit, including trains, planes, buses and transit hubs, saying the agency exceeded its authority. The Biden administration is appealing that ruling, saying it aims to protect the CDC’s ability to respond to future health emergencies.

The official said the CDC will continue to recommend COVID-19 testing prior to air travel of any kind as a safety precaution

Japan Eases Foreign Tourism Ban, Allows Guided Package Tours

Japan on Friday eased its borders for foreign tourists and began accepting visa applications, but only for those on guided package tours who are willing to follow mask-wearing and other antivirus measures as the country cautiously tries to balance business and infection worries.

Friday is the first day to start procedures needed for the entry and arrivals are not expected until late June at the earliest, even though airport immigration and quarantine offices stood by for any possible arrivals.

The Japan Tourism Agency says tours are being accepted from 98 countries and regions, including the United States, Britain, China, South Korea, Thailand and Singapore, which are deemed as having low infection risks.

Japan’s partial resumption of international tourism that was halted during the coronavirus pandemic is being carried out under guidelines based on an experiment conducted in late May. It involved about 50 participants, mostly tour agency employees from Australia, Singapore, Thailand and the United States.

In one case, a tour for a four-member group was cancelled when one of the participants tested positive for COVID-19 after arriving in Japan.

“We expect the resumption of inbound tourism will help stimulate the local economy,” Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Tetsuo Saito told reporters Friday. “We will continue to make effort to recover demand for tourism while balancing anti-infection measures and social and economic activities.”

Under the guidelines, participants are requested to wear face masks most of the time and to purchase insurance to cover medical costs in case they contract COVID-19. The rules don’t set a cap for the number of people in one group, but tour guides must be present throughout the tour.

After facing criticism that its strict border controls were xenophobic, Japan began easing restrictions earlier this year. On June 1, it doubled its cap on daily entries to 20,000 people a day, including Japanese citizens, foreign students and some business travelers.

The daily limit will include the package tour participants for the time being, and officials say it will take some time before foreign visitors can come to Japan for free, individual tourism.

Business groups based in Japan representing the Group of Seven countries and European Union, in a joint statement Friday, welcomed Japan’s gradual resumption of foreign tourism, but call on the government to “to further ease border control measures to facilitate an environment where people, goods, money and digital technologies can move freely, thus advancing Japan’s economic growth.”

They called on Japan to follow examples of other G-7 countries and resume individual tourism, eliminate testing at airports, lift the daily entry cap and resume international flights at more than a dozen regional airports.

Japan’s inbound tourism business has lain dormant during the pandemic and even though the country welcomes tourists and their spending, infection concerns persist among Japanese, especially in popular tourist destinations.

Unlike most Western countries where mask-wearing has largely been abandoned, most people continue to wear them even in situations, such as outdoors in uncrowded settings, where they are no longer requested.

Japan is still reporting more than 10,000 new COVID-19 cases daily, though the number in Tokyo is below 2,000.

The latest mask wearing rules call for people to wear them on public transport systems, in hospitals and other public facilities. People can doff their masks outdoors when others are not around or talking loudly.

It’s unclear how popular the package tours options will be with foreign tourists, most of whom have to apply for tourist visas that can take weeks to obtain. But the yen is trading at 20-year lows against the U.S. dollar and weak against other major currencies, which would make traveling in the high-cost country something of a bargain.

Foreign tourist arrivals fell more than 90% in 2020 from a record 31.9 million the year before, almost wiping out the pre-pandemic inbound tourism market of more than 4 trillion yen ($30 billion).

Thursday, June 9, 2022

Caesars Atlantic City Plans Lobby, Casino Floor, Pool Upgrades This Year

Caesars casino will renovate its casino floor, lobby, valet area and outdoor pool this year as part of a $200 million makeover, its parent company said Tuesday.

Caesars Entertainment said the work is part of a $400 million investment it is making in its three Atlantic City properties, which also include Harrah’s and the Tropicana.

“This major investment demonstrates our ongoing commitment to elevating guests’ experiences at our resorts as well as advancing the Atlantic City tourism economy,” said John Koster, regional president for the company’s Eastern Division.

The Boardwalk casino will get a new lobby and valet area.

It also will renovate its outdoor pool on the rooftop of Qua Baths & Spa, including cabanas.

The casino recently completed renovations to 750 hotel rooms and suites featuring a Roman theme and elements of the Atlantic City beachfront. It also plans restaurant projects including Nobu Atlantic City, a restaurant and hotel within Caesars.

Nobu Hotel Atlantic City will open following the restaurant’s debut, on the top three floors of Caesars Centurion Tower and will feature redesigned rooms and suites with Japanese-inspired decor.

The casino has said chef Gordon Ramsay will open the East Coast’s first Gordon Ramsay Hell’s Kitchen restaurant at Caesars this summer.

The projects at Caesars casino will cost $200 million, half the company’s $400 million investment into Atlantic City that should be completed by the end of 2023.

Wednesday, June 8, 2022

CDC's Travel Advisory On Monkeypox: 'Practice Enhanced Precautions'

(CNN) — The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has an "Alert -- Level 2" advisory for travelers to "practice enhanced precautions" because of the spread of monkeypox, a rare disease that's a cousin of smallpox.

On its advisory, the CDC said that the "risk to the general public is low, but you should seek medical care immediately if you develop new, unexplained skin rash (lesions on any part of the body), with or without fever and chills."

The CDC has three types of levels it might issue as cases have been reported in dozens of destinations. The levels are:

• Watch -- Level 1: Practice usual precautions • Alert -- Level 2: Practice enhanced precautions • Warning -- Level 3: Avoid nonessential travel

On its website, the CDC has not applied levels to specific destinations, as it does with Covid-19.

Level 2 precautions

The CDC has the following recommendations for travelers as we're in Level 2:

• Avoid close contact with sick people, including those with skin or genital lesions.

• Avoid contact with dead or live wild animals. This includes rodents such as rats and squirrels and nonhuman primates such as monkeys and apes.

• Avoid eating or preparing meat from wild game or using products derived from wild animals from Africa such as creams, lotions and powders.

• Avoid contact with contaminated materials used by sick people such as clothing, bedding or materials used in healthcare settings or with materials that came into contact with infected animals.

Where monkeypox has been reported
France is one of the destinations that has reported cases of monkeypox.

Usually associated with tropical Africa, confirmed cases of monkeypox are now global. The CDC says cases have been reported in Europe, North America, South America, North Africa, the Middle East and Australia.

Here is a CDC list of destinations with confirmed cases as of June 6:

• Argentina

• Australia

• Austria

• Belgium

• Canada

• Czech Republic

• Denmark

• England
• Finland

• France

• Germany

• Gibraltar

• Hungary

• Ireland

• Israel

• Italy
• Latvia

• Malta

• Mexico

• Morocco

• Netherlands

• Northern Ireland

• Norway

• Portugal
• Scotland

• Slovenia

• Spain

• Sweden

• Switzerland

• United Arab Emirates

• United States

• Wales

The United Kingdom (England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland), Spain and Portugal have so far reported the most cases, each with more than 100 as of June 6. All other destinations reported fewer than 100 cases as of June 6. Click here to see a current CDC global outbreak map.

Symptoms of monkeypox

The palms of a monkeypox case patient in the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1997. Brian W.J. Mahy/CDC/Handout/Reuters

There is an incubation period of some seven to 14 days, the CDC said. Initial symptoms are typically flu-like, such as fever, chills, exhaustion, headache and muscle weakness, followed by swelling in the lymph nodes, which help the body fight infection and disease.

"A feature that distinguishes infection with monkeypox from that of smallpox is the development of swollen lymph nodes," the CDC said.

Next comes a widespread rash on the face and body, including inside the mouth and on the palms of the hands and soles of the feet. It can also spread to genital areas.

The painful, raised pustules are pearly and fluid-filled, often surrounded by red circles. The lesions finally scab over and resolve over a period of two to three weeks, the CDC said.

What you should do if you get sick

The CDC says first avoid contact with others. Other advice:

"If possible, call ahead before going to a healthcare facility. If you are not able to call ahead, tell a staff member as soon as you arrive that you are concerned about monkeypox."

The CDC says your should tell your doctor any of the following if true in the month before developing symptoms:

• You had contact with a person that might have had monkeypox.

• You are a man who has had intimate contact (including sex) with other men.

• You were in an area where monkeypox has been reported or in an area where monkeypox is more commonly found (Cameroon, Central African Republic, Côte d'Ivoire, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Nigeria, Republic of the Congo, Sierra Leone and Sudan).

If you are sick and could have monkeypox, the CDC says delay travel by public transportation until you have been cleared by a healthcare professional or public health officials.

Source: https://www.cnn.com/travel/

Tuesday, June 7, 2022

The Williams Convertible Crossbody Tote By R. Riveter, Providing Income To Military Spouses


The Williams Convertible Crossbody Tote. The refined commuter bag - Not only does this bag provide mobile flexible income for military spouses across the country, it's the perfect everyday companion to keep you organized and marching onward. Whether your mission is the perfect carpool drop-off or a first-rate presentation to the board of directors - The Williams bag has your back (and your 13" laptop)
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Ample volume and a sophisticated utility, the Williams bag features a sizeable zippered main compartment with an interior zippered pocket to keep valuables secure. Also offers three open exterior pockets for quick access.

Each R.Riveter handbag takes a journey across the country before arriving at your doorstep. Components are crafted by independent military spouses in their homes around the nation, and shipped to R.Riveter's FabShop to be assembled into a one-of-a-kind product.

Base Width 11.5" x Base Depth 4.5" x Height 13" x Opening Width 16" x Handle Drop 9" Weight 2 lbs 18oz 100% cotton canvas with a water-resistant conditioning English Bridle Leather - For care instructions please visit HERE 2 Leather handles and a removable 1" adjustable crossbody strap One interior zipper pocket, 8"w x 5"h

Inspiration Behind the Name

The Williams Tote was inspired by Cathay Williams.

In 1844, Cathay Williams was born a slave in Independence, Missouri. (Ironic, right?)

Cathay was "freed" by the Union Forces who then volun-told her she would work as a cook and laundress. Not wanting to be a burden on her family when the Civil War ended, Cathay posed as a man - William Cathay - to join the newly formed 38th Infantry Regiment known as the Buffalo Soldiers.

(Talk about a "We Can Do It" attitude.)

Crazy enough, it took years for her identity as a woman to be discovered. While the details of Cathay's death are unknown, we do know this - Cathay was a woman determined to course her own life, the first black woman to enlist and the only female Buffalo Soldier.

For more information, how to order, please visit: https://www.rriveter.com/?rfsn=6626095.76b40e&utm_source=refersion&utm_medium=affiliate&utm_campaign=6626095.76b40e and use code: TRAVELOREREPORTRR for a 10% discount.