What to know about travelling to Sicily after the eruption of Mount Etna
The eruption included a pyroclastic flow of hot rock, ash, and gas, along with a lava fountain from the volcano's southeast crater.
The Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre in Toulouse issued a red aviation warning, but flights are currently experiencing minimal disruptions.
Italy's National Institute of Geophysics and Volcanology reported that volcanic tremors preceded the eruption, which began around 3.50 am local time (2.50am BST) and has continued with increasing intensity.
The UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office has not issued new travel advice but advises tourists to follow local authority guidance and to be prepared for potential flight cancellations due to volcanic ash.
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Times
an hour ago
- Times
Tourism is not always to blame
Cities that want tourists to stay away, including Barcelona, should be careful what they wish for EMILIO MORENATTI/AP I t is the height of the summer holidays, and millions of tourists are now on their way to their favourite Spanish beaches or jostling through the narrow alleyways of Venice. In fact, rebounding vigorously from the slump during and after the Covid pandemic, tourism is at an all-time high: European countries hosted an estimated 756 million tourists last year, 46 million more than in 2023. The Greek island of Zakynthos drew 150 times more people than it has permanent residents. Little wonder that there has been a backlash: tourists are jeered and sprayed by water guns in Barcelona, Venice has introduced a daily tourist tax and cruise ships are increasingly unwelcome in the Canary Islands. Spain, the second most visited country in Europe (and the top one for British tourists), is experiencing particular overcrowding and hostility. The mayor of Barcelona has unveiled a €15 million plan to alleviate the congestion around the Sagrada Familia basilica, visited last year by 4.7 million people. He wants to regulate the proliferation of tourist shops, promote commercial diversity and enforce limits on bars. Apparently it is not working. Despite the 41 souvenir shops already crowding nearby streets, more are still being opened. Residents complain there is nowhere to buy bread and other staples. And young people find housing increasingly unaffordable, as landlords find it much more profitable to rent out properties to the thousands looking for Airbnb accommodation. These complaints — on the distortion of the housing market, the noise, traffic, drunkenness and loutish behaviour of many tourists (especially the British and Germans in Ibiza and other clubbing hotspots) — are being voiced increasingly stridently across Europe. Paris numbered more than 400,000 visitors per square kilometre in 2024, 20 times the local resident population. Central Athens and Copenhagen were also swamped. Amsterdam is now openly hostile to those coming to gawp at the red light district (and has tried to move the prostitutes to a distant designated venue). And tranquil Switzerland finds its slopes overcrowded in winter and Alpine summers ruined by cars and walkers. Take the train instead, it urges. The complaints are understandable. But tourism is not always to blame. A failure to build enough houses, poor traffic regulation, the refusal to see the environmental impact of huge cruise liners (especially in the Venice lagoon), profiteering by business monopolies — these all deflect blame and lay it on overtourism. The danger, however, is that overt hostility will be keenly felt by visitors, who may choose to take their holiday spending money elsewhere. Numbers will drop. The goose may not only stop laying golden eggs but will be cooked. Already some businesses in popular destinations are complaining that fewer people are coming after protests. Tourism is extraordinarily big business, not only in Europe but further afield: Thailand, New Zealand, Bali and the Gambia rely on visitors. On the whole, tourism does broaden most minds, though the risk of local exploitation is significant. But proper regulation is essential if it is not to increase xenophobia and prejudice. Countries such as Greece, helped back from the brink of bankruptcy by tourism, now find some heritage sites in danger. Responsible governments must treat their heritage, visitors and earnings responsibly.
The Independent
an hour ago
- The Independent
‘Exciting' new diagnostic method can detect tiny traces of cancer
Scientists have found a new way to find tiny traces of cancer which could help 'revolutionise' care for patients with a certain form of blood cancer. Giving patients a whole-body MRI scan can detect minuscule amounts of myeloma, also known as minimal residue disease, even when traditional tests showed no signs of cancer, researchers found. Usual tests include blood tests and bone marrow biopsies, CT scans and X rays. Experts said that this scanning technique can provide an important insight into how well patients are responding to treatment and whether they might relapse. Myeloma is a type of blood cancer that develops from plasma cells in the bone marrow. The condition is sometimes called multiple myeloma because it affects more than one part of the body. The disease is not considered curable but treatment can control it. Researchers at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and The Institute of Cancer Research, London, tracked 70 myeloma patients who were having a stem cell transplant. They were all given a whole-body MRI before and after the treatment. Writing in the Blood Cancer Journal, experts said that one in three patients had signs of residual disease on whole-body MRI after treatment – which can be given to patients without the use of radiation. Overall survival was also significantly shorter in those with positive MRI findings. The Royal Marsden has already adopted the the whole-body imagine technique and it could help shape cancer care for patients around the country in the future. One patient under the treatment of the hospital described how the scanning technique 'extended his life' and enabled him to 'continue serving' the country. Air Vice-Marshal Fin Monahan, chief fire officer for South Wales Fire and Rescue Service, was diagnosed with myeloma in 2009 while serving in the RAF. He has since relapsed twice, but thanks to whole-body MRI scans, his cancer was detected much earlier than would have been possible with a traditional CT scan. The father of three, 57, said: 'With the constant threat of relapse, myeloma patients are in a long-term mental battle with this insidious disease. 'However, being part of the whole-body MRI scan study at the Royal Marsden allowed my cancer to be closely watched and resulted in me being treated sooner than I would have been under normal protocols. 'This not only extended my life but after diagnosis, I returned to flying jets and to active operational duties. 'I would eventually not be allowed to fly on medical grounds due to myeloma but paved the way to establishing the first training programme of Ukrainian forces in 2015 and I was called upon to run Nato air operations after the invasion of Ukraine. 'This cutting-edge treatment not only extended my life but allowed me to continue serving my country.' Study chief investigator, Professor Christina Messiou, consultant radiologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust, and professor in imaging for personalised oncology at The Institute of Cancer Research, said: 'This study shows that whole-body MRI gives us valuable information about how well the myeloma has responded to treatment that other tests may miss. 'It's exciting that we now have a standardised, non-invasive imaging method that can be used across cancer centres. 'Whole-body MRI doesn't involve radiation or intravenous injections, which is important for patients who may require lifelong monitoring. 'This is an important step towards smarter and kinder precision diagnostics for patients with cancer' Professor Martin Kaiser, consultant haematologist at The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust and professor in molecular haematology at The Institute of Cancer Research, London, added: 'Access to this gold-standard precision imaging with whole-body MRI has revolutionised care for myeloma patients. 'As the treatment options for myeloma increase and factors such as disease distribution across the body are increasingly understood as important to treatment response, the relevance of the whole-body MRI for personalising treatment will only increase over time.' Around 6,200 people are diagnosed with the condition each year in the UK and charity Myeloma UK estimates that there are around 33,000 people living with myeloma in the UK.
Times
2 hours ago
- Times
The ‘haunted' Venice plague island locals are turning into paradise
In a wild and remote island in the Venetian lagoon, nature provides a respite from the stresses of the tourist crush. Bushes burst with juicy blackberries, lavender hums with bees and the air is a cacophony of screeching birds. Thorny paths wind through dense woodland and past shaded glades, opening onto distant views of Venice's working class Giudecca district and Porto Marghera's industrial sprawl. 'From here, you start to have some pretty amazing views,' said Sandro Caparelli, 53, a landscape specialist who has long been a habitué of the abandoned island of Poveglia, as he takes in the panorama. A visit to Poveglia — a tight cluster of three islands, two natural and one manmade — feels closer to a rainforest expedition than traipsing along the crowded streets and canals of Venice's historic centre, 6km north by boat. There is no running water or electricity, and access comes in the form of a homemade wooden jetty. Yet residents' long-coveted dream of making the outcrop a paradise getaway is about to become a reality. The Poveglia per Tutti (Poveglia for Everyone) activist group plans to transform the untamed outcrop into a natural oasis open to locals and like-minded visitors alike. There will be a herb garden, pond and reception area shaded by trees. 'This is the part of the island that will remain more wild, where nature will reign supreme' says Caparelli, a founding member of the group and now the project manager overseeing the island's transformation, as he strides past bushes of thistles, pungent mint, ailanthus trees and towering oaks. The activists got the green light this month after years of court battles over stalled bureaucracy, more than a decade after first fending off a financial offer from Luigi Brugnaro, the wealthy man who is now Venice's mayor. Italy's public property agency has awarded them a six-year lease for the upper island. Their victory has become a symbol of defiance, proving that locals on the frontline of overtourism can wrest potential luxury playgrounds from the clutches of hotel developers. The burning question now is whether tourists will descend on what has remained — until now — Venice's best kept secret. 'There's a real risk,' says Caparelli, after steering his boat past privatised islands. 'Do we really want a vaporetto [water bus] with a public stop here? It's a big question.' Poveglia was first settled as early as the 5th century as a safe haven during Barbarian raids. The Venetian Republic turned it into a quarantine station for plague victims in 1793, and buildings on the central island were later turned into a psychiatric hospital. Abandoned and sealed off in the 1960s, it gained a reputation as haunted, earning nicknames such as 'the island of no return' and 'the island of ghosts'. According to local legend, plague victims were once dumped there in a mass grave. • Want to visit new Venetian island? You can't More recently, Venetians with boats have used it for illicit barbecues, full-day get-togethers and sleepovers in tents. 'My daughter was practically brought up here,' says Caparelli, kicking aside a few stray boxes attesting to recent gatherings. 'We can pass through here because we cropped it for a party,' he explains, stepping through a canopied passageway. The push to save the island began in 2014 when the state put a 99-year lease up for auction. Determined not to let their retreat go the same way as San Clemente and the newly rebranded Isola delle Rose, which have been snapped up by hospitality giants to become five-star resorts, some 200 Giudecca residents set out to raise the €20,000 needed to enter the bidding. The effort brought together a diverse range of locals including university professors, tour guides and taxi boat drivers. In just over a month, more than 4,000 donors contributed about €450,000. • Italian island goes up for sale — but locals want to buy it back The association was ultimately outbid by Brugnaro, who offered €513,000. But his bid was deemed 'inadequate', and the auction was scrapped. Poveglia per Tutti sought a shorter lease, twice taking the state to court to force a response. Horse-trading helped win over the public property agency, and the University of Verona launched a joint three-year PhD programme, now in its second year, using Poveglia as a pilot project to develop a replicable questionnaire-based system to measure the environmental and social impact of regeneration projects. 'It needs to remain a place of peace,' said Fabrizia Zamarchi, 62, the association's president, enjoying Venetian 'cicchetti' tapas in Giudecca, along a stretch of water facing the historic centre beyond. 'We will find a way to discourage the tourist groups … Poveglia must remain as it is.' Over in the historic centre, however, news of the island's transformation is getting around. 'I love history and I'm very interested in the history of Venice,' says Wyman Yip, 50, a Hong Kong-born history teacher in a Dublin secondary school. 'I read about the island, with its abandoned chapel and plague victims buried there … If I had time I'd definitely visit it.' • Picnics and concerts save secret Venice haven from builders Ga Eun Lee, 23, a visitor from Seoul, was also curious. 'It could become an attractive place,' she says after seeing pictures, 'but for now it needs a bit of care'. For Caparelli, the immediate priority is to build a solid jetty to replace the makeshift one, and the association will draw up a detailed timeline for the entire project from September. While it is not covered by the agreement, the project manager cannot help imagining Poveglia's middle island — with its crumbling former hospital shelters, rusty machinery and collapsed staircases in rooms overrun by trees — being brought back to life at some point. Yet even the immediate six-year lease could evaporate at any moment. The agreement includes a clause allowing the public property agency to terminate the concession if a serious buyer steps forward. 'If an investor came along willing to renovate the whole complex … that would clearly mean revoking the agreement,' said Angelo Pizzin, deputy director of the Veneto branch of the agency. 'We'd have no choice.'
