Author: NY TIMES

A new fee for Venice day trippers. A looming ban on vacation rentals in Barcelona. Restrictions on the sale of alcohol in Majorca. At a time when overwhelmed European destinations are slapping tourists with restrictions and fees, Copenhagen is trying a different approach: rewarding visitors who act responsibly.Beginning July 15, tourists who demonstrate climate-friendly travel behavior by participating in the city’s green initiatives — including cycling, train travel and clean-up efforts — will be granted access to museum tours, kayak rentals, free meals and more.“We must turn tourism from being an environmental burden into a force for positive change,” said…

Climate change and contaminated water have combined to create an epidemic of kidney disease. Source link

At first, Rameau hotly pursued a reluctant Voltaire, who protested in a letter, “I don’t believe I have the talent to write lyrics.” Even after being convinced, Voltaire still dragged his feet, and his work on the text was temporarily derailed when he had to flee Paris for the countryside after the 1734 publication of his dangerously progressive “Lettres Philosophiques.”“Rameau rants, Rameau claims that I’ve cut his throat, that I treat him like a Philistine,” Voltaire complained as the composer demanded an allegorical prologue (then standard in opera) and other adjustments to soften the libretto’s modernizing impulses. Voltaire, for his…

A Russian strike destroyed a crowded children’s hospital in the center of Kyiv on Monday, part of a large-scale aerial bombardment that killed at least 20 people in cities across Ukraine.At least 50 people were wounded in the barrage, according to Ihor Klymenko, the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Officials cautioned that the toll would likely rise.In Kyiv, the local authorities said that at least nine people had been killed and another 23 wounded. It was not clear how many of the casualties were at the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital or at other locations in the city, where fires…

Worried about coming off as an exhibitionist at her daughter’s beach wedding, a reader wonders whether there is an age cutoff for wearing a two-piece. Source link

The yen’s collapse this year to a nearly four-decade low is undermining Japan’s plans for its largest military buildup in postwar history.The government has slashed orders for aircraft, and officials warn that further cuts may be imminent. Japan buys much of its military equipment from American companies, in transactions done in dollars. The government’s purchasing power has been drastically eroded by the yen’s diminishing value.“What we are achieving in terms of actual defense capabilities and our original target — the two are not lined up,” Satoshi Morimoto, a former Japanese defense minister, said in an interview. The value of the…

France’s left-wing parties surged unexpectedly in nationwide legislative elections on Sunday, denying the nationalist, anti-immigration National Rally party a majority in the lower house of Parliament.But no party appeared on track to secure an absolute majority, leaving one of Europe’s largest countries headed for gridlock or political instability.The results were compiled by The New York Times using data from the Interior Ministry, and they confirmed earlier projections showing that no single party or bloc would win a majority.Here are five takeaways from the election.Big Surprise No. 1There were two big surprises as France voted for a new Parliament in snap…

Boeing agreed on Sunday to plead guilty to a felony charge of conspiring to defraud the federal government over two fatal crashes of the 737 Max in 2018 and 2019, according to a late-night court filing.In the deal with the department, outlined in part in the court filing, Boeing also agreed to pay a $487.2 million fine — the maximum allowed by law — and invest at least $455 million over the next three years to strengthen its compliance and safety programs.The company will be put on probation, supervised by the Federal District Court for the Northern District of Texas,…

Huda Omari sat outside a broker’s office in Jordan for two days, waiting for her visa to make the annual hajj, or pilgrimage, to Saudi Arabia.In Egypt, Magda Moussa’s three sons pooled their resources to scrape together nearly $9,000 to realize a dream of accompanying their mother to the hajj. When she got the go-ahead for the trip, she said, relatives and neighbors in her village ululated in celebration.The dayslong pilgrimage is a profound spiritual journey and an arduous trek under the best of circumstances. ​But this year, amid record ​h​eat, at least 1,300 pilgrims did not survive the hajj,…

Prime Minister Viktor Orban of Hungary met with China’s leader, Xi Jinping in Beijing on Monday, courting another authoritarian partner after talks with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Moscow last week.In announcing Mr. Orban’s visit to Beijing, China’s official Xinhua news agency said only that Mr. Xi would hold an “in-depth discussion with him on issues of mutual interest.” The leaders last met two months ago, when Mr. Xi visited Budapest as part of a drive to restore Chinese influence in Europe.Chinese state television said that Mr. Xi and Mr. Orban were holding talks in the Diaooyutai State…