The Dragon Bravo fire and artistic swimming: photos of the day
A couple take pictures from an outcropping as smoke from the Dragon Bravo fire fills the Grand Canyon. Despite recent rains, two wildfires have been burning out of control near the canyon's North Rim, fuelled by recent strong winds, high temperatures and low humidity Photograph:People walk past dried lava from a previous volcanic eruption as they make their way to a watch a fresh eruption Photograph: Jakob Vegerfors/EPA
Trees burn during a wildfire Photograph: Manon Cruz/Reuters
Disorder after an attempted small boat crossing to the UK Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA
Smoke rises amid ruins in the northern Gaza Strip, as seen from southern Israel Photograph: Ohad Zwigenberg/AP
Relatives of Palestinians killed in an Israeli attack mourn as their bodies are brought to Nasser hospital Photograph: Abed Rahim Khatib/Anadolu/Getty Images
A Bedouin fighter shouts slogans in the village of Mazraa on the outskirts of Sweida during clashes between Bedouin clans and Druze militias Photograph: Ghaith Alsayed/AP
Participants stand to attention at Pidpillya camp in the Kyiv region where young people aged 16-24 undergo six days of intensive physical and psychological training Photograph: Tetiana Dzhafarova/AFP/Getty Images
A night tour of the Colosseum Photograph: Yara Nardi/Reuters
Austria's Anna-Maria Alexandri and Eirini-Marina Alexandri compete in the women's duet technical preliminary of artistic swimming at the world aquatics championships in Singapore Photograph: Lee Jin-man/AP
Storks on the dome of a mosque, where they have nested for about four years. Each spring they return to lay eggs and stay until autumn, raising and teaching their young to fly Photograph: Hilmi Tunahan Karakaya/Anadolu/Getty Images
Photograph: AFP/Getty Images
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Daily Mail
4 hours ago
- Daily Mail
Travellers invade seaside town: Residents fury a amid reports of fighting, rubbish dumping and dirty nappies thrown in the sea
Residents in a popular seaside town have been left furious by a group of travellers that have 'taken over' the favoured destination. Multiple caravans arrived on the seafront lawns in Burnham-on-Sea in Somerset, on 13th July, and for nearly a fortnight have caused 'significant anxiety' and 'issues' for local residents. The travellers have set up camp in a prominent site on the coastal resort, with 15 vehicles parked on the lawns on the South Esplanade near the Sailing Club. While another 10 caravans and vehicles pitched up on the green at Priory Gardens on Tuesday afternoon. Locals and holidaymakers have reported fighting, rubbish dumping and some have even seen dirty nappies being thrown into the sea. Cheryl Boley, a retiree who has lived in the area for 60 years and walks past the occupied parking space every day and said since the travellers moved in she's seen, tyres, fridges and even faeces dumped along the once-beautiful seaside town. Mr Boley, said: 'We are fuming every time this happens. It goes on three or four times every year. 'But what can you do? Weston-super-Mare has put in bollards to stop it, but that's so expensive. 'They leave rubbish behind, tyres, fridges. human waste. 'We've heard they threw nappies over into the sea - we didn't see it ourselves, but with what gets left behind sometimes, it wouldn't be surprising. 'It makes my blood boil. We live by the law. We have a caravan - if we parked it here, we'd be kicked out immediately.' A retired man from Whitebridge, who sails with the local club opposite the camp said he has noticed a spike in vandalism because of infighting among the travellers and revealed he was shocked to see someone smashing a car windscreen. He said: 'I gather the family's had a fight. 'There's a car with its whole windscreen smashed up, and they've parked another car to block it from being towed away. 'Everyone's been watching it from the local pub.' An engineer who lives a mile from the site but takes his young son to play in the area, said the locals have come to expect it and revealed it happens every year. The father-of-two: 'We've lived here the last seven, eight years. Every year they come, they take up somewhere new for a few weeks, they're moved on, they come back. 'I don't know their backgrounds, their history. But I don't think they should be taking up all the parking space, especially in the summer. He added that he no longer feels safe in the town, adding: 'I've seen them letting dogs loose as well. Small dogs, luckily, but it doesn't feel safe - you never know.' Pat Baldock, a retiree who drives in from East Huntspill for a walk in the area each morning, said: 'They come every year, but not usually for as long as this. 'I don't mind if they come for a night or two if they pay for parking on the roads - but it's illegal what they're doing here. 'I usually park right on that road where they're parked for my walk, and I pay for that. I live here, I want to help my local community. 'I'm not angry with them as people. But I'm angry when they stay here and they tear up the gardens. The local confessed they were worried it will encourage others to pitch their caravans and ruin the local area, adding: 'I'm worried, when they get to stay as long as this, that it makes the area seem like an easy place to park up. Then they'll come every spring, every autumn, and think, ooh, look how easy it is to pitch up here. 'And it's lovely here, it's not quite someone's private back garden, is it? No wonder they want to be here.' On Friday a total of nine caravans have remained parked up on the green space of Burnham-on-Sea's south esplanade since July 13 - but some vans have left and come during that time, locals say. The trailers are parked opposite Burnham-on-Sea's motorboat and sailing club, and club members have been watching with interest what one member of the club called 'a family fight' that seems to have broken out amongst the travelling group. Two of the several cars parked by the trailers, which locals walk past to reach the apex of the area's notable sea walk, have smashed windscreens. Locals say they have been told the caravans are expected to be 'moved on' by Saturday. But currently washing lines remain strung out in the sunshine and some members of the group seem to be using the beach's toilet and washing facilities a few hundred metres from the camp. The delay in moving them on has been blasted by local MP Ashley Fox, who said the council's work to initiate legal proceedings had been 'slow.' Mr Fox, has issued a strongly worded statement expressing concern over Somerset Council's handling of the unauthorised encampment. 'I'm extremely concerned by Somerset Council's slow response to yet unauthorised traveller encampment in Burnham-On-Sea,' says the MP Mr Fox. 'The group arrived on 13th July, yet I learned the Council won't even go before a judge to start the eviction process until 25th July. That's 12 days of delay and it's simply not acceptable.' He adds: 'People in Burnham are rightly frustrated. These incidents keep happening and too often, the response from the Council is far too slow. Our local traders rely on the summer season to make a living, and they deserve better than this.' 'Rather than striving to serve the public, Somerset Council give the impression of trying to get away with doing as little as possible. They are slow and unresponsive.' Somerset Council's Lead Member for Communities, Housing Revenue Account, Culture and Equalities, Councillor Federica Smith-Roberts said: 'Our team, in collaboration with the police, acts at the earliest opportunity when an unauthorised encampment is reported and treats the matter with urgency to ensure the legal process is set in motion. 'However this is a nationally established procedure with the legal system at the centre, and just like any other local authority the Council has to work within the time frame prescribed by legislation and scheduling of the Courts.' 'After liaising with Police, the Council officer in charge of the operation issued a Formal Notice to Leave (Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 section. 77) on 15 July, at the earliest opportunity after relevant forms are completed.' 'The Council then listed its application to the Magistrates Court - the earliest date available for a hearing is 25 July. If the Council is successful, the Court will issue an Order to be served on the encampment. 'For any non-compliance with the Order, the Council will be required to engage with bailiffs to initiate eviction proceedings, this can add further delays before control of the land is again obtained. 'We share people's frustration regarding the process and we would be happy to liaise with the MP to lobby Government to work with the legal system on measures to allow these situations to be dealt with more quickly.'
Times
5 hours ago
- Times
I'm sleeping in a caravan so I can put my cottage on Airbnb
I am writing this by candlelight at the wobbly knee-high desk of a caravan situated in my friend's backyard. There is no electricity, no water and no toilet, so I have to use an old outside one. I am running a wi-fi hotspot off my phone. As the light fades I'll be forced to bed by 9pm, in an old sleeping bag I'm sharing with my dog, where I'll fall asleep dreaming of my lovely cottage — where I have my own toilet, my own bed and my own office, with an ergonomic chair in it. I am spending the week in this absurd set-up not because I fancied a cheap off-grid escape (although using an outdoor loo is a novelty) but because I've rented my Somerset cottage out, like other mad middle-class people across the country this summer. In tourist hotspots families are fleeing to cash in on visitors, making themselves Airbnb-homeless and performing accommodation gymnastics as they look for somewhere to stay themselves. As Airbnb has become ubiquitous — not to mention the source of anger over overtourism and second homes — so it has spawned another trend among a squeezed middle class looking for extra cash to pay climbing mortgages. When I was hoping to move to Cornwall I viewed one farmhouse with a long stretch of garden where, the estate agent explained, the owner erected a tent every summer to make thousands a week from renting the house. He didn't say quite what the Americans who rented it made of looking out to see the homeowner sleeping under canvas. • 'First-time buyers want cheaper homes — not bigger mortgages' A friend with a house on the coast sleeps in her car over summer, parking down lanes and showering at the gym because she can make thousands a week from renting her pretty cottage to tourists. Others go to crash with their parents or sleep on friends' sofas. I will be rotating between friends across the country who are happy to put me up on their sofas or in their spare rooms in exchange for some extra childcare during the holidays. As well as coming back and forth to the off-grid caravan, I'll be borrowing a tent for week or travelling whenever I can. After all, if I can make a rental of my own cottage coincide with my holiday, I'll have covered the cost of it. A family I know in Gloucestershire with a large beautiful house that rents for more than £400 a night take themselves off to a single hotel room for a week when they rent it. Another very wealthy family I've heard about, with a gorgeous old manor house in Devon that they lease to tourists for thousands during peak summer season, stay with their rather less wealthy relatives, relocating their pedigree dogs and custom Land Rovers to a council house in the suburbs. • Stick or twist — should you sit tight or buy a home now? I have heard about a woman who moves to a cramped new-build around the corner from her Instagram-gorgeous north London cottage when she lets it out over the summer, and another with a stunning East End townhouse she vacates to sofa-surf with friends. Ophelia, a photographer, has spent summers renting out her flat in Hackney while she goes back to her mum's in Suffolk, often popping back to London for work on day trips or hauling her things across town. 'I remember I stayed with one of my friends around the corner once while I rented my flat out in Hackney, dragging my clothes and all my photography equipment down eight flights of stairs so I could crash on her sofa for a week,' she says. The playwright P Burton-Morgan is renting out the family home in rural Somerset for three weeks back-to-back over summer to fund a forthcoming theatre tour. The plan is sofa-surfing between different friends, family and even former parents-in-law to make it work. 'It's a precarious juggle of friends with kids doing sleepover swaps, generous family members and then people we vaguely know who seem sympathetic. I try to rotate between friends so no one gets too bored with us. And find ways to reciprocate, like doing some gardening. Parents in the creative industries have always scrabbled around in this kind of gift-economy way, it's just more of that dialled up a notch. We'll probably run out of willing hosts soon, but while it's still sunny there's always camping. • Why landlords are now in the market for holiday lets 'I am in the process of converting my shed so I can sleep in it and rent out the house. You just go, 'At what point is the tail wagging the dog?'' Others agree that the fallout of Airbnbing the family home isn't always worth it. 'It was a nightmare,' one person tells me, recounting how they rented out their beautiful home to a group who threw a huge party. 'The neighbours complained, they left empty bottles of booze everywhere and vomit in the children's bedrooms.' Once Ophelia rented her spare room to a man 'who thought I had gone out for the night, so I came back to find him in the sitting room sleeping with a girl'. And then there's the toll on those friends you beg, borrow and steal from. A friend tells me of the time a couple they knew offered to house-sit while they were on holiday. It was only later that it transpired they had invited their extended family along too — all while making a quick buck renting out their own home. When the candles run out in the caravan, I will have to stop writing and instead spend the evening pining for my home, reminding myself that, for all the inconvenience, I'm one of the lucky ones.
ITV News
7 hours ago
- ITV News
What do locals in Scotland think of Donald Trump?
Donald Trump is on a trip to Scotland, but what do people make of his visit? ITV News' Ben Chapman reports from Turnberry The US President Donald Trump is now halfway through his private visit to Scotland. He is here primarily to play golf and to open his newest course, but he is fitting in meetings with the prime minister, first minister and president of the European Commission. He is famously proud of his Scottish heritage, but what do people here make of this unusual presidential visit? Locals in Girvan, the closest town to Trump's luxury golf resort, had mixed views ahead of his arrival on Friday. One man said: 'There's enough trouble going on in the world at the moment without Donald Trump coming to Scotland to play golf. He's flying thousands of miles for a game of golf. I think his focus should be elsewhere. If anything good comes of it, then great, but I have my doubts.' While a woman said: 'I think it's great that he visits Scotland because his mother is from Scotland and he has invested a lot in Scotland. "He employs a lot of people in the region, and he looks after the places where he is running his business, which is great for this local economy.' "He's just such a controversial figure, and I just don't understand what he's up to. He's just causing chaos and confusion around the whole world," another man said. 'The US government won't be paying for it because it's a private trip, so I think the bill will land at the doorstep of the Scottish people. He should take some of his profits and pay for the expenses.' This mother and daughter had different views on whether Trump's visit was welcome or not. The mother said: 'I don't think it's worth it. Not for a private visit. There will be local disruption, and there is a cost implication as well. I mean, the Americans will obviously pick up some of the security, but there will also be an obligation on Police Scotland. I mean not just to police the visit but also the protests that are going to obviously result over the weekend.' Meanwhile, her daughter said Trump "brings a lot of good things to the community here". "I don't agree with everything that he does politics wise, but I think he's done a lot for the area, and I think, well, good luck to him," she added. On Friday night at Prestwick airport, more than 1,000 people camped out with deck chairs and picnic blankets to catch a glimpse of Air Force One touching down on Scottish soil. Many waited for hours to claim their spot. Surprisingly, there were no obvious protesters. Instead, the crowd was made up of dedicated plane spotters and locals who were excited to have the President of the United States and his plane land in their town. Some wore Make America Great Again caps and carried pro-Trump flags to welcome him. Samuel Ackroyd and James Swan were among those who waited more than eight hours to catch a glimpse of Air Force One. They told ITV News: 'I like Trump, but it's mainly about seeing Air Force One. 'This is a big bucket list item for aviation enthusiasts. Many of us want to see the Boeing 747-200. 'It's a great privilege to see the President of the United States land here.' A mother and her son, who came down from Fife, said: 'We've come down from Fife today to see President coming for the first time. We've never plane spotted in Ayr before but we wanted to be here today for this.' On Saturday morning, Trump was out on the golf course bright and early, but unlike his last visit as president, there were no protesters on the beach next to the Turnberry course. There was just the odd Trump supporter hanging around to try and see him in person. This couple travelled to Ayrshire from Liverpool to show their support. The man said: 'We support MAGA (Make America Great Again) and Trump and what he's doing. We've just made our way down to the golf course to try and catch a glimpse of him. Mainly because it might be the only chance we ever get to see him here. I know he's doing a state visit in London, but that will be all private escorts and everything, so we thought we'd try to see him while we can.' In the afternoon, planned anti-Trump protests took place in Aberdeen and Edinburgh, far from the president's eyes. Many there said they were frustrated and angry that he is being welcomed by our prime minister and first minister, and that he is coming on a private golfing trip that is costing taxpayers here. 'Trump's not welcome in Scotland. He has done too much damage globally. He's a global leader, but he doesn't like one or think like one. And we didn't vote for him here, yet he's here in Scotland today, and we're not happy about it. "He claims Scottish heritage, but he is not from Scotland. He doesn't share our values. We care about people. We care about diversity. Scotland has people in every single country in the world. He's just focusing on making America great. What does that even mean? It doesn't mean anything.' 'He wants to come and see his businesses, then let him pay for the security. Let him pay for the police. He's always bragging about how rich is, even though he didn't release his tax returns. So let him use some of all that money that he's had from all that winning and all those fantastic trade deals. 'He keeps telling everyone he's really wealthy and he's got all this money. Let him pay for it. I see, absolutely no reason why we should pay one penny for that orange walloper.' 'I am an American living here now, and he is just an embarrassment. I don't even want to go back to America right now. This is just a little part I can do because I'm not there. I can still vote, but I can't go to any protest there, so I just want to come out here and support everyone. I feel good that there are other people sharing my sentiment. 'He's like an evil genius. I don't know what it is, but he's Teflon Don. That's his nickname. These people are just kissing the ring because they feel they need to. "And I think once he is gone, whether it's a cheeseburger too many or whatever, I think it'll all go away because I don't think anybody has his level of depravity.' On Monday, Trump is set to meet the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer. On Tuesday, he will open his new golf course in Aberdeenshire, which is named after his Scottish mother, Mary Anne MacLeod. He is due to leave Scotland on Tuesday afternoon.
