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Geopolitics, currency moves and extreme weather are increasingly playing into tourists’ considerations for their next vacation and affecting classic holiday destinations.Staple European spots France, Spain and Croatia, for example, have been facing record-breaking heat in recent weeks, which triggered wildfires in some locations. Conflict in the Middle East has meanwhile meant that tourists in nearby Cyprus were able to see missiles and smoke in the sky from the beach.Sluggish economic growth and inflationary fears, largely linked to U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies, appear to be making consumers more cautious with their spending.U.S. travelers are cutting back on summer Europe…

Ukrainian military personnel prepare a Leopard 2A4 tank ahead of a training exercise conducted by the Spanish military, at the San Gregorio military base outside Zaragoza, Spain, on Monday, March 13, 2023. Paul Hanna | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesLONDON — European stocks opened lower on Wednesday as global market sentiment wavered.The pan-European Stoxx 600 was trading 0.3% lower by 8:20 a.m. in London (3:20 a.m. ET), with most sectors and all major regional bourses in negative territory.Regional bourses traded higher on Tuesday as global markets reacted broadly positively to the outcome of talks between U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders at…

A bus crash in northwestern Afghanistan killed at least 79 people returning from Iran, including 19 children, an official said. Two people were also injured in the crash, Ministry of Interior spokesperson Abdul Mateen Qani told The Associated Press.Tolo News, citing the official, said the accident happened Tuesday around 8:30 p.m. local time in Herat province. The bus collided with a truck and a motorbike, causing a massive fire that killed many on the spot, the outlet reported.Traffic accidents are common in Afghanistan, mainly due to poor road conditions and driver carelessness.Nearly 1.8 million Afghans have been forcibly returned from…

Woman with Signos wearable and appSource: SignosThe Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved the first-ever glucose monitoring system specifically for weight loss from the startup Signos, establishing a new option for Americans to manage their weight. Current treatment options for losing weight – popular drugs like GLP-1s and surgical interventions – are typically limited to patients with obesity or a certain BMI. Obesity drugs such as Novo Nordisk’s Wegovy and Eli Lilly’s Zepbound can also be difficult to access due to their high costs, limited U.S. insurance coverage and constrained supply.But now, any patient can purchase a Signos membership to…

Target beat Wall Street’s earnings and sales expectations and reaffirmed its outlook on Wednesday, even as the company’s sales and traffic across its stores and website declined.Yet the Minneapolis-based retailer pointed toward the future – and its focus on getting back to growth – by naming its next CEO. Chief Operating Officer Michael Fiddelke, who has also served as Target’s CFO, will step into the role on Feb. 1. He will succeed CEO Brian Cornell, 66, who will become executive chair of Target’s board of directors. Fiddelke is a 20-year Target veteran. The company’s shares fell more than 6% on Wednesday…

JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel is preparing to launch an expanded military operation in Gaza City, possibly in the coming days, even as negotiators scramble to bring Israel and Hamas to a ceasefire to end 22 months of fighting.The Israeli military said Wednesday that the country’s defense minister has approved plans to begin a new phase of operations in some of Gaza’s most densely populated areas, and that it would call up 60,000 reservists and lengthen the service of an additional 20,000 reservists currently serving. It comes as human rights groups warn that a humanitarian crisis could worsen in Gaza, where…

VIENNA (AP) — The Eurovision Song Contest 2026 will take place in Vienna.Austria’s public broadcaster ORF, which will organize the world’s largest live music event, announced the location Wednesday morning.Following Austrian singer JJ’s victory with “Wasted Love” in Basel this spring, the music competition will be held in May 2026 at the Wiener Stadthalle. “After thorough examination and based on a unanimous jury assessment, ORF has concluded that Vienna’s bid is the most attractive not only in terms of infrastructure and logistics, but also economically,” ORF Director General Roland Weissmann said.Innsbruck also applied to host the event. It will be…

The recent diplomatic maneuvering between Washington and Moscow over Ukraine provides a textbook example of how American foreign policy elites continue to confuse grand gestures with strategic coherence. The March ceasefire proposals, Donald Trump’s phone diplomacy with Putin and the subsequent shifts in negotiating positions reveal not diplomatic sophistication but the persistent American tendency to treat complex geopolitical conflicts as problems that can be solved through the right combination of pressure and inducements. Limits of presidential diplomacy President Trump’s recent summit with Vladimir Putin in Alaska, which produced “great progress” but no concrete agreement, exemplifies the fundamental misunderstanding that has…

The logo of Japanese company SoftBank Group is seen outside the company’s headquarters in Tokyo on January 22, 2025. Kazuhiro Nogi | Afp | Getty ImagesShares Japan’s SoftBank Group plunged as much as 9.2% Wednesday, as technology stocks in Asia declined, tracking losses in U.S. peers overnight.The tech-focused investment firm saw shares drop for a second consecutive session, following its announcement of a $2 billion investment in Intel. Intel shares rose 6.97% to close at $25.31 Tuesday stateside.Other Japanese tech stocks also declined, with semiconductor giant Advantest falling as much as 6.27%. Meanwhile, shares in Renesas Electronics and Tokyo Electron were last…

MUMBAI, India (AP) — The monsoon season has brought parts of Mumbai, India’s financial and entertainment capital, to a halt.The disruption has hit local trains, a lifeline of the city’s transport system. Many areas are inundated with knee-deep water, forcing people to wade through the floods. Commuters walk on waterlogged railway tracks after trains were disrupted due to heavy rainfall in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/ Rafiq Maqbool) Commuters walk on waterlogged railway tracks after trains were disrupted due to heavy rainfall in Mumbai, India, Tuesday, Aug. 19, 2025. (AP Photo/ Rafiq Maqbool)Read More A cyclist rides…