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Travelling to these countries could put your safety at risk

Brits are reminded to check important information before jetting off on holiday, as the Foreign Office currently has travel warnings in place for 52 countries. The Government body advises people not to venture to these locations amid safety and security concerns.

And a further 24 countries have “all but essential travel” guidelines set by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Failing to adhere to these warnings can not only put your safety at risk but invalidate any travel insurance you have.

As reported by The Independent, political conflicts, natural disasters and safety concerns are some of the reasons the UK Foreign Office will advise people to avoid certain destinations.

Among these current restrictions are advice against “all travel” and “all but essential travel” to entire countries or parts of countries in Europe, Africa, Asia and South America.

Of a total of 226 countries or territories with foreign travel advice pages, 76 are currently flagged as having no-go zones due to security issues, health risks and legal differences with the UK.

Below is the full list of countries on the FCDO “do not travel” list.

FCDO advises against all travel

• Afghanistan
• Belarus
• Burkina Faso
• Haiti
• Iran
• Iraq
• Israel
• Mali
• Niger
• Palestine
• Russia
• South Sudan
• Syria
• Yemen

FCDO advises against all travel to parts

• Algeria – all travel to within 30km of Algeria’s borders with Libya, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Tunisia
• Armenia – within 5km of the full eastern border between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the M16/H26 road between the towns of Ijevan and Noyemberyan
• Azerbaijan – within 5km of the Azerbaijan-Armenia border
• Benin – northern border regions
• Burundi – FCDO advises against all travel to Mugina, Cibitoke, Bukinyayana, Bubanza and Mpanda communes, and parts of Ntahangwa commune, specifically the RN5 road north of Melchior Ndadaye International Airport
• Cameroon – Bakassi Peninsula, parts of the Far-North Region, North-West Region and South-West Region and within 40km of the Central African Republic, Chad and Nigeria borders
• Central African Republic – against all travel except to the capital, Bangui
• Chad – Borkou, Ennedi Ouest, Ennedi Est and Tibesti provinces, Kanem Province, including Nokou, Lake Chad region and within 30km of all Chad’s other borders
• Congo – within 50km of the Republic of Congo-Central African Republic border in Likouala Region
• Côte d’Ivoire – FCDO advises against all travel within 40km of the borders with Burkina Faso and Mali, to the Northern Zanzan and Savanes provinces and to Comoé National Park
• Democratic Republic of the Congo – within 50km of the border with the Central African Republic, the province of Kasaï Oriental, the Kwamouth territory of Mai-Ndombe Province and provinces in Eastern DRC
• Djibouti – Djibouti-Eritrea border
• Egypt – within 20km of the Egypt-Libya border and the North Sinai Governorate
• Eritrea – within 25km of Eritrea’s land borders
• Ethiopia – international border areas, the Tigray region, Amhara region, Afar region, Gambela region, Oromia region, Somali region, Central, Southern, Sidama and South West regions and Benishangul-Gumuz region
• Georgia – South Ossetia and Abkhazia
• India – within 10km of the India-Pakistan border and Jammu and Kashmir
• Indonesia – Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, Mount Sinabung, Mount Marapi, Mount Semeru, Mount Ruang, Mount Ibu
• Jordan – within 3km of the border with Syria and all but essential travel to all other areas
• Kenya – Kenya-Somalia border and northern parts of the east coast
• Lebanon – areas in Beirut and Mount Lebanon Governorate, the South and Nabatiyeh Governorates, the Beqaa Governorate, the Baalbek-Hermel Governorate, the Akkar Governorate, the city of Tripoli and Palestinian refugee camps
• Libya – advises against all travel to Libya except for the cities of Benghazi and Misrata
• Mauritania – Eastern Mauritania and within 25km of the Malian border
• Moldova –Transnistria
• Mozambique – Cabo Delgado province, parts of Nampula province and Niassa province
• Myanmar (Burma) – Chin State, Kachin State, Kayah State, Kayin State, Mon State, Rakhine State, Sagaing and Magway regions, Tanintharyi Region, Shan State North, North Mandalay Region, and East of the Yangon-Mandalay Expressway in Bago region
• Nigeria – Borno State, Yobe State, Adamawa State, Gombe State, Katsina State, Zamfara State and the riverine areas of Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Cross River states
• Pakistan – within 10 miles of the border with Afghanistan, areas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and the Balochistan Province
• Philippines – western and central Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago
• Saudi Arabia – within 10km of the border with Yemen
• Somalia – advises against all travel except the western regions Awdal, Maroodijeh and Sahil, for which it advises against all but essential travel
• Sudan – against all travel except to the Hala’ib Triangle and the Bir Tawil Trapezoid, for which it advises against all but essential travel
• Togo – within 30km of the border with Burkina Faso except for the city of Dapaong and the N1 highway leading to it from the south
• Tunisia – parts of Western Tunisia, including the Tunisia-Algeria border and Southern Tunisia, including the Tunisia-Libya border
• Turkey – within 10km of the Turkey-Syria border
• Ukraine – all regions of Ukraine with the exception of some western areas, for which it advises against all but essential travel
• Venezuela – border areas, the Orinoco Mining Arc, south of the Orinoco river and the Zulia state. All but essential travel to all remaining areas of Venezuela
• Western Sahara – within 30km of ‘the Berm’ boundary line and areas south and east of the Berm boundary line

FCDO advises against all but essential travel

The FCDO clarifies: “Whether travel is essential or not is your own decision. You may have urgent family or business commitments which you need to attend to. Only you can make an informed decision based on your own individual circumstances and the risks.”

• Bahrain
• Cuba
• Qatar
• Kuwait
• North Korea
• United Arab Emirates

READ MORE: UK holidaymakers warned of new £100 charge kicking off this weekREAD MORE: Man who left the UK for Australia realises ‘three things are better at home’

FCDO advises against all but essential travel to parts

• Angola – Cabinda Province, except Cabinda city and border areas in Lunda Norte Province
• Bangladesh
• Bolivia – Chapare region
• Brazil – four river areas towards the west of Amazonas State – along the Amazon River and its tributaries west of the town of Codajás and east of the town of Belém do Solimões, the Itaquaí River, the Japurá River and along the Rio Negro and its tributaries north or west of the town of Barcelos
• Cambodia – within 20km from the land border with Thailand
• Colombia – within 5km of borders and parts of northern, central and southern Colombia and the Pacific Coast
• Ecuador – seven coastal region provinces and within 20km of the Ecuador-Colombia border
• Ghana – Bawku Municipality
• Guatemala – within 5km of the Mexican border and the towns of Santa Ana Huista, San Antonio Huista and La Democracia
• Kosovo – the municipalities of Zvečan, Zubin Potok and Leposavic, and areas of Mitrovica north of the river Ibar
• Laos – Xaisomboun Province
• Malaysia – Eastern Sabah coastal islands
• Mexico – parts of Baja California, Chihuahua, Sinaloa, Tamaulipas, Zacatecas, Guanajuato, Michoacán, Jalisco, Colima, Guerrero and Chiapas
• Papua New Guinea – Hela and Southern Highlands provinces, Enga Province in the Highlands, except Wabag District
• Peru – within 20km south of the Peru-Colombia border and the Valley of the Apurímac, Ene, and Mantaro River
• Rwanda – Rusizi district
• Tanzania – within 20km of the Tanzanian border with Cabo Delgado Province in Mozambique
• Thailand – parts of the south, near the Thailand-Malaysia border and within 20km of the land border with Cambodia

To check the travel advice for a country before you visit, see the Foreign Office’s complete guide here.

DELTA Goodrem’s first album in half a decade is just around the corner.

The Australian singer, 41, has opened up to The Sun about the project – admitting fans won’t have long to wait.

Chatting ahead of a surprise pop set in Camden, London with Australian chocolatey biscuit Tim Tam, Delta said: “I have finished the new album.

“When Eurovision came up I was in the studio already as it was naturally time to create the new album.

“I am doing a new video next week when I am back in Aus again for the next song.

“That will be straight out the gate and the new album will be there straight away.”

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The record, her eighth, will be Delta’s first since 2021’s Bridge over Troubled Dreams.

During her north London set, Delta performed her Eurovision track Eclipse for the first time in the UK.

The Born To Try singer will represent Australia next month at this year’s contest in Vienna, Austria.

Previously speaking to The Sun, Delta admitted while she’s toyed with the idea of doing Eurovision for a few years, it wasn’t until she opened up about her dreams to Bizarre last May that things really started taking shape.

Delta said: “This is, literally verbatim, all your fault. It is all on you — Bizarre started this.

“Your article went back to the Aussies who were like, ‘Do you want to do this?’ So thank you. I have a big job to do.”

Delta will head to Vienna this May to compete with her song Eclipse and it ticks every box, with an infectiously camp chorus and a complex piano bridge.

A beaming Delta explained: “From your article, people started reaching out.

“Then one of the songwriters, Jonas Myrin, who I wrote the song with, took a screengrab of the article and sent it to me saying, ‘Delta, if you ever go to Eurovision, I want to write the song with you’.

“He’s in Sweden. Sure enough he flew to Australia when I said I was doing it.

“Even the first question I got asked when doing my first Australian interview was, ‘We heard it all started from an article from the UK,’ and yes, it did.”

It’s been three years since Australia last qualified for the live final, which adds to the pressure on Delta, who has sold eight million records worldwide.

Delta added: “Of course I am nervous, but it’s so joyous and I am so excited to be a part of it.”

ABOARD THE CRESCENT — There’s something melodic about watching the sun rise over a rural stillness broken only by the rhythms of steel wheels on tracks. Or so we tell ourselves.

In this case, being aboard a train at all owed more to politics than poetry.

Congress and President Trump were mired in their latest budget stalemate, one rooted in his immigration crackdown and the tactics of federal forces he has sent to U.S. cities. But this impasse has upended a foundational constant of American life today: easy air travel.

In Atlanta, my hometown airport, cheerfully marketed as the world’s busiest, had descended into organized chaos. Unpaid federal employees called out from work, leaving a diminished security staff to screen travelers frustrated by hours-long waits in line. I wanted to get to Washington for the NCAA basketball tournament. So I eliminated the risk of a missed flight and booked the train overnight and into game day across a 650-mile route.

In this fraught moment in U.S. politics, I slowed down and thought about things we take for granted. Who ever ponders the conveniences of that 20th century innovation, the airplane, that makes 21st century hustle possible? We book and board. An unconscious, first-world flex of modernity. It’s even rarer to grapple with the inconvenience.

My decision had taken me further back, to the 19th century and another defining innovation: the long-distance train.

A 14½-hour weekend train ride is time aplenty to appreciate how completely politics, economics, social strife and fights over identity and belonging have always affected the order of our lives, including how, when and where we move around in these United States. But Amtrak’s Crescent also allowed me to see the expanse of our collective experience.

I traversed the urban, suburban and rural breadth of East Coast America. I learned how other travelers came aboard. And in that, I found the portrait of people, past and present, who refuse to be as paralyzed as some of their elected leaders.

Convenience on the railways

There is little glamour late night in a crowded Amtrak station. Children are up past bedtime and tended by frazzled parents. Older adults struggle with luggage and stairs.

Airports are not red-carpet affairs either, of course. But there is a certain cache to Delta’s Atlanta-Washington flights. They typically take about two hours gate to gate. They often are slotted at a midpoint gate of the concourse nearest the main terminal. That is almost certainly a nod to members of Congress who use it, but who have lost some airline perks during this extended partial shutdown — which as of Sunday is the longest government shutdown in U.S. history.

In normal circumstances I can get from my front porch to Capitol Hill or downtown in as little as 4½ hours. Security lines these days could at least double my overall air travel time.

The train is still longer, and time is money, we are taught. But certainty has value, too, even if it means an 11:29 p.m. departure. And at the Amtrak station, there were no standstill lines, no Transportation Security Administration agents, no ICE agents as stand-ins.

Passengers who arrived mere minutes before departure made it on board and found seats quickly — assigned in boarding order, not predetermined zones that yield jammed aisles. There’s no in-seat service or satellite TV. But even coach seats, the lowest Amtrak tier, are as spacious as airline first-class — and there is Wi-Fi, so it’s not the 19th century or even 20th century after all.

On board, I heard one crew member joke, “I’m no TSA agent.”

The pathways of history

As a boy in rural Alabama, I counted train cars and wondered where they were headed. I’ve since read diary entries and letters from my grandmother and her sisters recounting World War II-era weekend trips to Atlanta.

The South’s largest city has a historical hook too. Originally named “Terminus,” Atlanta developed in the antebellum era as a critical intersection of north-south and east-west rail routes. That is what drew Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman for one of the Civil War’s seminal campaigns that helped defeat the Confederacy.

A century after the Civil War, Delta chose Atlanta for its headquarters rather than Birmingham, Ala., which was the larger city as of the 1960 census. The company’s decision was tied up in tax breaks for the airline, named for its crop duster origins in the Mississippi Delta region. According to some interpretations, Delta’s decision was made easier because of the more overt racism of Alabama’s and Birmingham’s leaders as they defended Jim Crow — a code that, among other acts, allowed states to segregate the passenger trains that predated Amtrak.

On this night, I heard many languages and accents, notable given the role that immigrant labor played in building the U.S. rail system and especially striking now with immigration — legal and illegal — at the forefront in Washington, my destination. I saw faces that reflected U.S. pluralism, a different mix from what my grandmother and aunts would have seen a lifetime ago.

The array of voices celebrated the freedom and ease of rail travel. So did Agatha Grimes and her friends after they boarded in Greensboro, N.C., as part of a long weekend trip to celebrate her 62nd birthday.

“I got stuck in the Atlanta airport last week,” Grimes said, as her group laughed together in the dining car. “It’s just nuts.”

Beretta Nunnally, a self-described “train veteran” who organized their trip, said, “There’s no worry about parking. No checking bags. You come to the station, you get where you‘re going, and you come home.”

An era for planes, trains and automobiles

Still, that is not as easy in the United States as it once was.

Just as politics, economics and subsidies helped expand U.S. railroads, those factors diminished the network as auto manufacturers, oil companies, road builders and, finally, airline manufacturers and airlines commanded favor from politicians and attention from consumers.

Riding hours across rural areas, I noticed the junkyards where kudzu and chain-link fencing framed rows of rusted automobiles. I saw the farmland and equipment that helps feed cities and the rest of the nation. I awoke to see the night lights of office towers in Charlotte, N.C., and its NFL stadium. I saw vibrant county seats — and I thought of countless other towns like them that are not thriving as they sit disconnected from passenger rail and far from the Eisenhower-era interstate system that we crossed multiple times on our way.

In each setting, voters — conservatives, liberals, the extremes and betweens — have chosen their representatives, senators and a president who now set the nation’s course.

When I arrived in Washington, I paused to enjoy Union Station’s grand hall and its Beaux Arts appeal, and I lamented how much splendor has been lost because so many striking U.S. terminals have been razed. I stepped outside and looked up at the Capitol dome.

While I had slept, the Senate managed a bipartisan deal to fund all of the Department of Homeland Security except immigration enforcement. As I continued northward, House Republican leaders rejected it. The stalemate continued.

The president, however, took executive action to pay TSA workers, and their paychecks may resume within days, though long airport lines may continue awhile longer.

I was a weary traveler but renewed citizen. I had a game to get to. And the train rolled on.

Barrow writes for the Associated Press.

March 20 (UPI) — At least five people were injured Friday after a Delta Air Lines flight hit severe turbulence on its final approach to Sydney, Australia.

Delta told the BBC that Flight 41 from Los Angeles with 160 passengers and crew on board “encountered brief turbulence” as it landed at Sydney Airport, injuring four flight attendants.

The Airbus A350 touched down “safely and normally,” said a Delta spokesperson.

Three of the injured were taken to hospital by ambulance crews waiting on the tarmac after sustaining what paramedics determined were “musculoskeletal and lower back concerns.”

“I believe five were assessed; in total three were transported to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital with minor injuries,” said Lisa Frow, manager of NSW Ambulance’s Mascot station.

Delta said none of those hurt were passengers, but Australian media listed two 71-year-olds, a 60-year-old-woman and a 37-year-old woman among the injured.

In July, more than two dozen passengers aboard a Delta Air Lines Airbus A330 were hospitalized after it was buffeted by “significant turbulence” en route from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam.

The flight diverted and landed safely at Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport with 25 passengers taken to area hospitals.

In June, five people were injured when an American Airlines Airbus A321 hit “unexpected turbulence on flight from Miami to Durham, N.C.

Three flight attendants and two passengers were taken to the hospital.

Passengers reported an unconscious man, a flight attendant with a broken arm and another burned by hot water from a drinks cart.

The American Airlines incident is under investigation by the Federal Aviation Administration, as is standard for incidents where there are injuries.

In May 2024, one person died and 71 were injured, seven critically, aboard a Singapore Airlines flight from London to Singapore that ran into unexpected extreme turbulence when it was at cruise altitude.

The flight deck declared an emergency, but landed the Boeing 777 safely at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport. Health officials determined that Briton, Geoff Kitchen, died of a suspected heart attack.

The incident prompted Singapore Airlines to revise its seat belt policy so that it would no longer provide hot beverage or meal service when the fasten seatbelt sign was illuminated

While strong or severe turbulence — where disturbed air pitches an aircraft violently upward or downward, creating G-forces of up to 1.5 — is on the increase, it remains extremely rare, with only one in 7,000 flights affected.

However, experts warned that flying was likely to become rougher more often in the future due to climate change as temperature changes and shifting wind patterns impact atmospheric conditions.