Food

DUBAI: A late-night craving for dessert led Hasan Sarwar to leave investment banking and build Peekabox, a Dubai-founded app that sells fresh unsold food from cafes, bakeries and grocery stores at discounts of 50 to 70 percent.

Sarwar was in a Dubai cafe at about 11 p.m. when he noticed the pastry shelves were still full.

“I simply asked them, I said: ‘What do you guys actually do with these items?’ And they said, ‘We make it in the morning, and then throw it the same day,’” he told Arab News. “All of these sort of very high-end pastries are getting thrown every single day.”

He went on to develop the idea, comparing it to Too Good To Go, a model he had used while at university in the UK. “We’ve grown up in Dubai. We know the UAE. We know the F&B space,” he recalled telling his parents.

He started alone. Three months in, he asked his brother Omair to join him as co-founder. “It was way too much work for one person,” Sarwar said.

The first brand to sign was Tim Hortons, part of Dubai’s Apparel Group, after a pitch that ran three months with no app and no demo. “I didn’t leave them alone for three months,” he said. Once the contract was signed, he used the name to bring other brands on, and boxes now come from coffee chains, bakeries, restaurants, grocery stores and hotel buffets.

Customers do not choose what they get. “If you say I have this exact item that you want, people are never going to buy full price,” Sarwar said, describing the surprise box as a way to gamify the purchase without cannibalizing full-price sales. His own highlight came from The Grey, an independent Dubai cafe — a strawberry tart, his favorite dessert, with croissants and pain au chocolat.

Getting there meant fighting the same objection on two fronts. Premium brands worried that discounting would dilute their brand equity, so he pointed them to luxury department store Harrods in London, which runs similar schemes, while customers had to be persuaded the food was fresh rather than left over. Both concerns were successfully countered, he said, pointing to the app’s 45 percent repeat order rate.

Peekabox is now in talks with Ne’ma, the UAE’s national food loss and waste initiative, under the Ministry of Climate Change and Environment.

It plans to open in Riyadh and Jeddah next year with franchise partners that have already committed to the launch. “In terms of Saudi (Arabia) as a market, people are more price sensitive for sure, and also the density of stores is greater,” he said.

London, United Kingdom – In a wheat field near High Wycombe in the rolling English countryside, Alex Nelms watched the harvest on his farm die in a matter of days.

His crop had looked strong until the first heatwave came in May, when temperatures surpassed 35 degrees Celsius (95 degrees Fahrenheit) just as his milling wheat entered its grain-fill phase, the critical weeks when the plant fattens its kernels.

“It just killed everything stone dead,” he told Al Jazeera. “Everything was finished really early, and when we were sort of full of optimism and hope, it was scuppered almost overnight.”

Nelms farms just over 2,000 acres (809 hectares) of arable land in south Buckinghamshire, on a business his grandparents founded in 1955. His uncle, who has worked the farm for more than 40 years, has just suffered the worst harvest of his career.

Last month, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said almost three-quarters of England, 71.3 percent, remained in drought. Rainfall in August reached just 34 percent of what would normally be expected by that point in the month, Defra said, and reservoir levels were 18.2 percentage points below where they should be for the time of year.

“We’re totally reliant on Mother Nature,” Nelms said, and nature did not deliver this year.

After a historically dry spring and a run of summer heatwaves, the farm is down roughly 1,000 tonnes on its average harvest, a shortfall of some $270,000 in revenue.

The farm, tucked in the Chiltern Hills, a steep, long ridge of white limestone rock, has no irrigation and never will.

“That has serious knock-on effects on our cash flow,” he said. A third consecutive difficult year would mean hard conversations with his bank and landlord, and farming to minimise risk rather than maximise output, “consequently, probably producing less food”.

‘Financial crisis point’

The National Farmers’ Union (NFU) says farmers are at a “financial crisis point” after the worst drought in 50 years, with historically low harvests, stunted grass growth, rising fuel and fertiliser costs, and a severe outbreak of bluetongue disease in livestock.

The union puts the gross production value loss of wheat at approximately $499m and the cost of replacing a shortfall in forage at roughly $45m.

NFU president Tom Bradshaw has said farmers now lack “breathing space” and are “increasingly exposed to geopolitical shocks, as well as repeated weather extremes, animal disease and global wars”.

He believes action is needed now to ensure the future of British farming “and enable the next generation to keep producing the nation’s food”.

To manage the risk, Nelms is diversifying, planting oilseed rape again on about 350 acres (142 hectares) for the first time in 20 years. He says that the crop’s usual insecticide protection, neonicotinoid seed treatments, is now banned, leaving it exposed to cabbage stem flea beetle and to game birds that can “absolutely nibble, eat, and destroy a crop”.

Growing it also means breaking a continuous wheat rotation that has kept a soil-borne disease called “Take-all”.

Tax allowances would make investing in grain storage and diversified income worthwhile, he said, as well as government-backed bridging loans, modelled on COVID-era support, to survive a bad year without permanent damage.

It is the kind of relief the NFU is pressing the government to provide nationally.

The union wants an interest-free “Keep Britain Growing” loan tied to drought losses, help covering the cost of disposing of livestock lost to bluetongue, faster planning permission for on-farm reservoirs, and clearer rules letting farmers access water as soon as levels allow, echoing Nelms’s case for storage on his farm.

“Drought conditions will continue to worsen until we receive sustained rainfall across the country and we still all have a role to play in conserving precious water supplies,” according to Philip Duffy, the Environment Agency’s chief executive, in a statement shared by Defra.

The Environment Agency has applied for a drought order to restrict abstraction from the River Severn, and 10 water companies, serving 30 million customers, now have restrictions in place.

“A few days or even weeks of wetter weather cannot reverse the impacts of several months of exceptionally dry conditions,” added Duffy.

Defra noted that the first meaningful rains since June have fallen but they have been patchy, so reservoirs and groundwater are still declining even as a handful of rivers see brief upticks in flow.

Despite the losses, Nelms is hopeful about farmers pulling together – sharing labour, machinery and market routes. He points to the Central Chiltern Farmer Cluster, where growers meet to talk through their problems and find solutions together.

“We’re working together, not competing with each other,” he said.

For a farm like Nelms’s, with no irrigation and no water in reserve, that patchiness is the problem. Soil parched from months without rain needs to absorb sustained rainfall before groundwater can even begin to recharge, let alone refill the reservoirs a future harvest might depend on.

“Our climate has changed,” Water Minister Emma Hardy, who chairs the National Drought Group, said late last month, “and we will continue to take all action necessary.”

A YouTuber set himself a £100 challenge to discover just how much food, drink, accommodation and entertainment he could squeeze into a night in Benidorm

The seemingly endless cost of living crisis is making even our weekly shop a major budgeting challenge. So it’s no surprise that some of us have given up on luxuries like holidays. With that in mind, YouTuber Ed Chapman set out to see how far £100 could take a holidaymaker in one of the most popular Spanish resorts.

Benidorm is renowned for “The Strip”, a street lined with garishly neon-lit English pubs and restaurants promising a traditional fried breakfast. It’s the ideal spot for a cheap and cheerful stag or hen weekend, but just how cheaply can you spend a night there?

Armed with €116 (£100), Ed scheduled a night out, a stay in a one-star hotel and a fun activity for the following day.

A key part of his plan was tracking down a hotel that wouldn’t leave him out of pocket. Ed explained that while he could have saved a bit of cash by opting for a hostel, he’d rather have a proper hotel room to himself.

And given what he paid for it, he said the room exceeded all expectations: “Believe it or not, we have a balcony,” he said. “I was sort of shocked by this for the price.”

The hotel bathroom also came as a welcome surprise: “This is a nice big modern shower. I was really shocked about this. You’ve got a toilet here. You’ve even got a little sink at the side as you’d expect, and a bathroom hand dryer in a holster,” reports the Express.

The room, which set Ed back just £62, was something of a revelation, he said: “I didn’t expect such a good shower situation. And it is a very powerful shower as well. I’ve been really impressed with this for one night.”

For his evening meal, Ed nipped into a bar-restaurant called the Bulldog and went for a wallet-friendly jacket potato. For €6 – just over a fiver – he tucked into a perfectly decent jacket potato with baked beans, served alongside a side salad which, as he rightly noted, “no-one ever eats.”

Washed down with a “massive” pint of cider that brought his total spend to £9, it was a hearty and satisfying meal that set Ed up nicely for a bar crawl.

Spending an evening solo on Benidorm’s notorious “Strip” could have been quite a daunting prospect, but Ed says he had a brilliant time. Settling down with a pint of cider in one particularly “friendly” bar, he recounts how a complete stranger wandered over and planted a kiss on his ear: “Bit friendly, bit familiar,” he said.

Ed spent a couple of hours strolling around Benidorm, noting that while it’s widely regarded as a destination for a “lads’ holiday”, the ratio of men to women meant that romance was unlikely to be on the cards.

He did clock one club hostess, however, stripping a gleeful punter and giving him a smack on the bottom with a leather tawse, which was about as close to romance as the evening got.

With his night’s entertainment wrapped up, Ed headed back to his hotel room before venturing out the following morning for a fry-up, which set him back a very reasonable £5. However, after forking out on two bottles of water with his meal, the total breakfast bill came to £7.

Technically, the “entertainment” element of Ed’s getaway pushed him marginally over budget. His session at a water-park assault course set him back €16 (roughly £14).

Featuring Ed’s efforts to balance on some oversized vinyl beach balls and a go on a soggy trampoline, it proved a somewhat chaotic conclusion to the trip: “No one ever does this on Total Wipeout, do they?” Ed said, admitting that he’d spent £101 of his £100 budget.

The work by Oxford University, which is published in the International Journal of Cancer, defines any drink at 65 degrees Celsuis or above as “very hot” and posing a potential risk.

Consuming six or more hot drinks per day also raises the risk, according to data from 977,282 middle-aged men and women.

Although adding milk can cool drinks down slightly, a milky tea or coffee may still be far too hot, researchers say.

Tea made immediately after a kettle is fully boiled is touching boiling point, which is 100 degrees C (212 degrees F). Once poured into a cup, that lowers to around 90 or 95 degrees C.

The advice is to wait a few minutes before drinking so the beverage cools to a safer temperature.

Cancer Research UK says it’s difficult to put an exact time on how long a hot drink should be left to cool.

“But if you’re worried, we’d suggest just waiting until it’s comfortable to drink rather than drinking it while it’s still very hot,” the charity said.

Lead researcher Dr Keren Papier said research in South America – where many people drink a very hot herbal beverage called mate – had already shown a similar link between hot drinks and oesophageal cancer.

But she said: “More research is now needed to identify the exact drink temperatures linked to this increased risk.”

A separate study, external of 118 young adults who did multiple tastings of different black coffees found most only deemed the drinks to be too hot if the temperature was 70 degrees C or above.

According to one takeaway coffee cup manufacturer, the ideal temperature for hot coffee on the go is between 49 and 60 degrees C.

Should a barista want the coffee to stay hotter for longer – if a customer requests extra hot – it can be served at over 82 degrees C, says MTPak Coffee.

JAKARTA, Indonesia: Nearly 2,000 people, most of them students, fell ill in suspected food poisoning outbreaks linked to President Prabowo Subianto ‘s flagship Free Nutritious Meals program this week, raising fresh concerns about food safety as the government rapidly expands the multibillion-dollar initiative nationwide, officials said Saturday.

The incidents, reported between Tuesday and Thursday in East Java, Central Java, West Sumatra, Aceh and South Sulawesi, affected about 1,950 students, teachers and Islamic boarding school pupils who became sick after consuming meals distributed under the government program, known by its Indonesian acronym MBG.

The outbreaks are the latest setback for Prabowo’s signature free meals program, which has been rolled out across the archipelago despite repeated food poisoning incidents and corruption allegations.

The largest outbreak was reported in Central Java’s Rembang regency, where 752 students and 25 teachers at State Senior High School 1 Lasem, suffered diarrhea, nausea, vomiting and stomach pain after eating meals provided through the program, according to Rembang Health Office head Ali Syofi’i.

In Sidoarjo, East Java, 730 people, most of them students at the Manbaul Hikam Islamic boarding school, were affected in another suspected food poisoning incident linked to the program. Sidoarjo health office chief Lakhsmie Herawati Yuwantina said 706 victims had been discharged and were recovering at home.

Authorities also reported 276 suspected cases involving students and teachers in Agam regency, West Sumatra, where food distribution from the local nutrition service center was suspended pending an investigation. In Aceh’s Bener Meriah regency, 15 elementary school students and a school principal were treated after experiencing dizziness, nausea and other symptoms following a school meal.

Another 152 students from two junior high schools in Tana Toraja, South Sulawesi, were treated at three hospitals after developing symptoms consistent with food poisoning. Regent Zadrak Tombeq ordered hospitals and health centers to prioritize treatment for the victims.

No deaths have been reported, and authorities are investigating the causes of the outbreaks.

The latest incidents add to a growing number of food poisoning cases linked to the program since its launch in January 2025. According to Health Ministry surveillance data as of Sept. 2, food poisoning incidents associated with MBG have affected 50,059 people in 560 cases across 245 districts and cities in 36 provinces.

In a hearing with the House’s Commission IX overseeing health issues, National Nutrition Agency chief Sudaryono said internal reviews found that roughly 80 percent to 90 percent of previous food poisoning incidents were linked to failures to follow food safety procedures, including rules governing food storage, receipt of ingredients, temperature control and consumption deadlines.

“The recent incidents in Sidoarjo, Agam, Rembang and other areas have been a major blow for us,” said Sudaryono, who like many Indonesians uses a single name.

He said the agency was tightening oversight of meal providers and reviewing about 27,000 meal distribution centers nationwide. Inspectors have found hundreds of allegedly fictitious facilities, while at least 833 kitchens have been shut down for failing to meet hygiene and sanitation standards.

The free meals program aims to combat malnutrition and reduce childhood stunting by providing meals to nearly 90 million students, toddlers and pregnant women. The initiative, expected to cost about $28 billion through 2029, is a cornerstone of Prabowo’s administration and one of his key campaign promises.

Cape Town and Rio de Janeiro are two cities on most people’s bucket lists, but which one reigns supreme when it comes to the best – one writer compares the two

Days shaped by sand, surf and salt air. Nights by bars, beats and grills. All played out in a city somehow woven between soaring mountains and sun-swept shores. Sounds good, no? Well this is both Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro and South Africa’s Cape Town. Then chuck in vibrant waterfront neighbourhoods, primeval hiking trails, world-class food and drink, plus a melting pot of cultures and you’ve got what it takes to be the greatest city in the world. Which is what both have boldly claimed.

But they both can’t be right, so which takes the crown? I’ve lived in samba-soaked Rio, and recently spent a month exploring the city straddling Africa’s southern tip, so may just be qualified enough to have a say in the debate that’s enraged Brazilians and South Africans online. The neutral voice of reason ’n’ all that.

Weather

Rio has a glorious tropical climate. Hot and humid, with sweltering summers often as high as 40C. You’ll rarely feel cold, but if you’re of a sensitive disposition, it may be too much heat to handle. Plus biblical rains can wash your trip away.

Conversely, Cape Town has a Mediterranean-style climate. Dry, warm summers with highs of a perfect 30C. Fantastic if it weren’t for one thing – the wind. Known as the “Cape Doctor”, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced. Sweeping in off the ocean, it can make a hot summer’s day feel like autumn. Worse, it can be downright violent, turning beaches into giant sandblasters, stinging your skin, near blinding you. Bad doctor.

Verdict: Rio is the winner.

Beaches

Oh my, what an amazing array of beaches they both have, like no other city in the world. Apart from each other, of course. Both have smaller arcing sands near the city centre, becoming longer and more pristine the further out of town you head.

Just south of the centre, Rio has the world-famous Copacabana and Ipanema beaches, broad stretches of golden sand where the whole city decants to at weekends to let it all hang out in too-scant swimwear.

Cape Town has the likes of smaller yet very pretty Sea Point, Clifton and Camps Bay, which were far more debonair than I expected. More like the Cote d’Azur than the Cape of Good Hope.

Further up the coast, Rio has beautiful Barra, and Cape Town kite-surf strewn Bloubergstrand, giant stretches of glorious open coastline pounded by those big blue waves.

But the key difference is that Rio’s waters are much warmer, whereas Cape Town’s side of the Atlantic is surprisingly cold year-round, plus that wiiiind, meaning you don’t see many people swimming – the complete opposite of Rio.

Verdict: Rio takes the crown.

Mountains

Both have an imperious plethora of peaks. Cape Town’s most famous is Table Mountain, which your eyes can dine upon from all over the city. Rio’s is craggy Corcovado, atop which the statue of Christ offers redemption to thousands of tourists daily. But there are countless breathtaking viewpoints from many other fantastically surreal mountains, plus hiking trails that transport you into oh-so-big nature – lush jungle in Rio, temperate forest in Cape Town – a world away from the urbanity below.

Verdict: All too amazing to call. Draw.

City centres

Surprisingly, their city centres are the least impressive aspect. Both have smallish downtowns and historical quarters, which are nice but nothing impressive compared to some global cities. Much better are the colourful colonial-era neighbourhoods – Lapa in Rio, Bo Kaap in Cape Town – where you can join the tourist hordes to get your Insta-pics.

Down by the water, Rio’s Port Zone has cool museums and galleries, while Cape Town’s upmarket V&A Waterfront is very pretty with great views and shops, albeit a tad generic. Then both have plush beach front neighbourhoods, where you can whimsically while away days on the golden sands or trendy terraces.

Verdict: Again, too close to call. Draw.

Food and drink

Both have excellent culinary scenes, especially their meats and barbecues. Yum. But Cape Town has a much broader option of cuisines and restaurants, local and international, and during the entire month I was there I didn’t have a single bad meal. Caipirinhas and other potent cocktails get the party rocking in Rio, but Cape Town’s wines are next level. Despite being of proud Provençal stock, I can freely admit their rosés were the best I’d ever tasted. Perfect sundowners.

Verdict: Cape Town is the clear winner here.

Prices

Both have similar prices, which are considerably cheaper than the UK and Western Europe. Decent budget meals are around £4-£10, and mid-level accommodation around £50-£100pn. There are plenty of upmarket options, which are also relatively good value for money.

Verdict: Draw.

Nightlife and music

Both cities come alive even more when the sun sinks into the ocean. Your more mainstream bars and restaurants line the beachfronts, while cool bar-clubs are found in the more hipster hoods of Ipanema and Lapa in Rio, and Bree St and Woodstock in Cape Town.

Both cities are home to world-class music, Rio sways to the sound of samba, rap and “funk”, whereas in Cape Town it’s Afro house, amapiano and 3-step that get things thumping.

Verdict: Cape Town (but mostly due to my penchant for house music), although if we were judging it on Carnival season alone, nothing comes close to Rio!

Vibe

Brazilians are famously some of the most friendly and welcoming people in the world, which is true for Rio, but like any big city, you get plenty of miserable buggers too. People of all shades were friendly with me when I was in Cape Town, yet seemingly not that much with each other.

Sadly, both cities are still riddled with historical divisions between class and race, yet in Cape Town the legacy of Apartheid looms large indeed, and as a tourist you unfortunately won’t see much of the native African side of the city. The division feels tense.

Verdict: Rio.

Overall verdict

My biggest gripe with Cape Town is that as a tourist, you only really see the predominantly rich, white neighbourhoods that feel more like Canada, the US and Australia than Africa.

In Rio, though, everywhere is very Brazilian, no matter the social makeup of the area. Plus the beaches are a leveller, especially Copacabana where the whole city congregates for communal sun-worshipping, eating, drinking, sport playing, and strutting of stuff, no matter if black, white or brown, muscle-bound or beer-belly beautiful – nobody seemingly cares.

And that, for me, is the key difference – which is why Rio is my overall winner.

Inclusion matters

The association uses its website, email lists, newsletters and neighbourhood flyers, and it enlists volunteers who walk around to make sure residents know about upcoming events. The association also has a welcome wagon to greet new neighbours and tell them what’s happening.

Kathi Eckert, a retired teacher who has lived in Hiltonia for more than 10 years, said personal contact still matters. Wearing a grey 250th-anniversary T-shirt and baseball hat, she chatted with people around the lawn before settling in with the group gathered along the street.

“We are so inundated with media, emails, ‘noise’ that it is hard to focus on what’s going on in our little world. A personal ‘reaching out’ to someone is so much more meaningful than just sticking a flyer in their screen door,” said Eckert, who informally lets neighbours know about upcoming events. “It’s not always possible, but we try.”

Even with those efforts, reaching people who are not already involved can be a challenge. Eckert said some neighbours may hesitate to attend because they assume the group is already well-established.

“We do tend to see a lot of the same people here, because I think we all have that same intent to keep community,” Eckert said. “But I have also heard that some people won’t come because they think we’re a clique. We’re not a clique unless we exclude people, and we don’t do that. We open this to everybody.”

The challenge is not only getting people through the door but creating the conditions for them to feel they belong once they arrive. For Reese, inclusivity means thinking beyond who is invited to how you’ve curated the space for the people who are there.

“If you are trying to host a gathering with the intent of getting a wide variety of people, some folks are going to have a question of, am I going to be safe there? And have you done your due diligence to make sure that I am?” she said. “These things don’t just happen, and I do think that we are in a moment where intentionality feels even more important.”

To create a space where people feel welcome and able to participate, Community Plate works to remove economic and other barriers. Guests can share a story or listen, bring a dish, buy something simple, or just come and eat. Organisers also encourage people to take leftovers home for themselves or neighbours who could use a meal. Their toolkit outlines ways to make community meals more accessible.

“We do our best to meet people where they are,” said Schatz.

But even the most intentional gatherings won’t work for everyone. Carter Florence, vice president of programmes at Meals on Wheels America, said there’s “no one silver bullet” when it comes to creating social ties. Through community dining and home-delivered meals, her organisation uses food as an entry point for social support, helping to build relationships and reduce isolation.

“For some people, the idea of eating with a group of people they may not know is actually really uncomfortable, and that wouldn’t be a very positive situation,” she said. “But the idea of someone that I’ve maybe seen periodically coming by and delivering a meal may be more beneficial.”

The individual nature of connection is what makes scaling these programmes complex. “You really want to be able to offer the type of connection that’s going to be most beneficial” for each person, Florence explained.

The idea has also made its way into policy. A report by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, published in July, highlighted how food-based activities are appearing in national and local strategies to strengthen social ties.

The report shows, for example, how Japan’s national loneliness plan includes community cafes and meal-delivery programmes. Seoul has introduced convenience stores where residents can prepare and share meals alongside accessing other forms of support. Several European countries have also backed communal-eating initiatives. The programmes differ, but they reflect a recognition that food can function not only as nutrition but also as a way to create social connections.

Back in Hiltonia, by early evening, people were folding up their chairs and packing the remains of their dishes to take home. The community’s next gathering was already planned for August: a National Night Out, where neighbours would block off the street and share another potluck.

Green and Kroon stayed until the end, helping clean up before leaving about 7pm. While at the event, their next-door neighbours introduced them to a couple who recently moved into the area. The two couples chatted about life in Hiltonia and the house the newcomers were moving into. Green and Kroon hope to get to know their new neighbours better and plan to visit them once they have finished unpacking.

It was a small example of what organisers hoped the potluck would accomplish: turning neighbours who might otherwise remain strangers into people with a reason to meet again.

While they are still building relationships in the area, Kroon said they have made some close friends here.

“It’s hard to start forming these things,” she said. “But if there’s already something established that you can show up to, it’s a lot easier.”

Gaza City — Whenever Mervat Radwan hears the community kitchen in her displacement camp will serve lunch that day, she breathes a sigh of relief.

She takes a cooking pot and walks to the community kitchen with her nephew, six-year-old Ubay.

The meal is rarely enough for the seven people in her household, so she has to supplement it with whatever else she can find. A can of tuna, beans or peas from an aid parcel can help make the meal stretch further.

“Sometimes they give us a cooked meal, but it isn’t enough for seven people, so I try to find something besides it,” she told Al Jazeera.

Community kitchens are a vital source of food for families with little or no income in Gaza, but their operations have fluctuated sharply in recent months.

The kitchen near Radwan’s displacement site was closed for almost two months before resuming services for just two days a week.

Daily production in Gaza fell from about 1.5 million meals via 165 kitchens in mid-March to 698,000 served by 102 kitchens by July, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

This substantial reduction in the number of community kitchens operating in the Gaza Strip and the meals they serve has been attributed to severe funding shortages and rising operational costs, with charities facing difficulties securing sufficient food or cooking supplies.

Tinned food and charity

Radwan, 45, became the guardian of her three nephews when an Israeli air attack in northern Gaza on October 18, 2024, killed her 38-year-old brother Mohammad and his wife, Anwar, 33, and their one-year-old son, Yosuf.

Their three other children survived, but Nayef, now 14 years old, had shrapnel lodged in his head; Habib, 11, suffered burns to his body, while Ubay, who is now aged four, had also sustained severe burns.

For the past nine months, they have lived in a tent in Deir el-Balah with Radwan, her 70-year-old father, and her 40-year-old sister, Sanaa.

None of the carers has a regular source of income, so they are reliant on aid and charity to make it through to the next day.

The children have been left psychologically scarred by the loss of their parents, and their frail state is compounded by the family’s inability to source the basic necessities for existence, including food.

“It’s not just about taking them in; there is a lot of responsibility … food, drink, expenses, everything they need,” Radwan said.

When food is scarce, the adults skip meals so the children have enough to eat.

“My elderly father won’t eat until he knows his grandchildren have had enough … Maybe this is the most we can do in these difficult circumstances,” Radwan said.

Meat is an unaffordable luxury, and even fresh vegetables are difficult to find due to their scarcity and high costs. Some organisations operating in Gaza occasionally distribute vegetables, but their supply is sporadic.

For little Habib, his recovery relies on the food he eats, with a doctor telling Radwan that he must drink water frequently and eat foods with high water content, such as cucumbers, regularly.

But 1kg of cucumbers costs about 15 shekels ($4.50) and tomatoes cost 10 to 12 shekels ($3-3.60), prices the family can barely afford.

“If Ubay wants cucumbers, and the children like cucumbers, I buy three cucumbers, that’s it,” she says.

The World Food Programme said in July that even when there was food in markets, many households in Gaza struggled to source fresh vegetables, fruit and protein due to high prices.

About 77 percent of households in Gaza reported difficulties in this area, because their limited incomes were not enough to secure these costly staples.

The family’s limited diet is now affecting the children’s health. Habib has been suffering from kidney stones for about a year, which doctors said is due to his diet that is high in salt and almost completely based on canned goods.

Changing Habib’s diet is difficult when fresh food items are expensive and aid supplies, which the family relies on, consist mostly of tins of food.

For families like the Radwans, food assistance from charities helps them live another day, but a lack of diversity in their diets is costing them their health.

Betting on the experience

Investors, however, are more bullish on the eatertainment model than they are on traditional restaurants, Camillo says.

“A padel [another racket sport rising in popularity] court or a bowling lane is a much more durable, less trend-driven revenue stream than a dining room seat, and it comes with better real estate economics. It’s not competing purely on per-seat turns. F&B just juices the model on top of that.”

Private equity isn’t just investing in dine-in pickleball concepts because the sport is popular among Americans. Landlords are eager to lease to pickleball concepts for multiple reasons. Large indoor pickleball facilities can absorb anywhere from 30,000sq ft (2,800sq metres) to 70,000sq ft (6,500sq metres), giving new leases of life to former sites of shuttered big-box retail stores, department stores and grocery stores. Look at where many of these pickleball venues are located on a map, and you’ll see that they frequently correlate with suburban developments needing traffic.

Pickleball is “a draw for strip centres and malls as well as it brings in traffic where people will shop and eat after they are finished”, says Jeff Lichtenstein, CEO and broker at Echo Commercial Properties. “In South Florida, there is a lot of demand for this, especially in the summertime or when it rains as the country clubs and other communities don’t have indoor facilities. People need AC to play in the summer.”

In other words, investors aren’t simply betting on pickleball remaining popular. They’re betting that these venues can generate recurring revenue while helping revive struggling retail corridors. The business appeals to landlords and investors for the same reason it appeals to customers: It keeps people in one place longer.

For consumers, that extra time translates into something that has become increasingly difficult to find in the restaurant industry: value. Indeed, when dinner is paired with a fun activity, patrons are happier to hand over their credit card: 21 percent of Americans said they were willing to pay more at an eatertainment venue than at a traditional restaurant, according to a 2019 study conducted by SevenRooms, a data-driven hospitality platform.

“These eatertainment venues, pickleball or otherwise, are very popular now as people look for greater value when dining out,” says Maeve Webster, president of the food industry consultancy Menu Matters.

“Restaurants have been struggling with prices, quality, consistency and, as a result, their value proposition,” Webster added. “Places like this offer guests more than just a meal, which makes for a far greater value proposition. And all of this is coming at a time when people are placing a far greater emphasis on experiences and human connections.”

Increasingly, meeting up has become about more than just eating and drinking; people want to do something together. OpenTable, an online platform for learning about restaurants and booking reservations, reports a 46 percent year-over-year rise in experiential dining from 2024 to 2025, with 37 percent of consumers saying they wanted more of it in 2026.

The Physical Activity Council, which conducts an annual study to establish levels of personal activity and identify key trends in sports, fitness and recreational participation in the US, estimates that since 2020, the number of “inactive” Americans has dropped by 13.6 million, or 18 percent.

Those changing habits have helped eatertainment concepts attract private equity interest. But these firms must ensure return on their investment, which has increasingly taken the form of private corporate events and membership models. Monthly membership fees at the nation’s most popular dine-in pickleball venues range from $75 to $149 a month but include perks like food and beverage discounts and dedicated court times.

“From a recurring revenue perspective, when you make it a subscription, the business can forecast revenue more accurately,” Bhasin says. “They’re not making margin off the superusers. The users who only come in every couple weeks are where they make their margin.”

We’ve seen the recurring membership model become standard at country clubs, golf courses and bowling leagues. The more successful these businesses become financially, the more exclusive they risk becoming socially.

Bhasin hopes pickleball club operators can find ways to preserve affordability.

“My request to private equity companies is: Can we find a way to offer deals?” Bhasin says. “It’s meant to be a ubiquitous experience, but the prices are a barrier to entry.”

Still, a dine-in pickleball venue membership is much more affordable for the average American than, say, a country club, where monthly dues can range from a few hundred dollars to $2,000 on top of a hefty initiation fee.

Electric Pickle offers free court reservations every day until 4pm from June through August. The promotion makes the experience more affordable, but it’s also smart business strategy. If most guests visit in the evening, free daytime court reservations may generate food and beverage sales that otherwise wouldn’t exist.

Sept. 4 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Friday signed two executive orders aimed at strengthening the country’s ranching industry.

Trump has been facing criticism from beef producers since he waived tariffs on up to 300,000 metric tons of imported beef in an effort to ease rising costs as the nation heads into the midterm elections.

Trump’s first executive order directs the Interior Department to study removing gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act list, allowing ranchers to kill them on their properties. Gray wolves are a major threat to herds in the West.

The second executive order would allow ranchers to process their beef and sell directly to consumers, instead of going through USDA inspections.

“People have been asking for this change for decades, and we’re getting it done,” Trump told reporters at the White House. “This is the largest-ever government effort to change all federal rules and regulations necessary to support our ranchers and our farmers.”

Beef prices have risen this year due to drought and high feeding costs. The United States currently maintains the smallest herd since the 1950s.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association said it was “disappointed” by Trump allowing more foreign beef to flow into an industry already under severe stress.

“While America’s cattle producers share the goal of keeping groceries affordable for consumers, flooding the market with government-subsidized, below-market beef is not the way to rebuild the American cattle herd,” the association previously said in a statement.

“Cattle markets have already turned sharply lower this morning, to the detriment of farmers and ranchers.”

AN emotional Michael Owen has revealed his son’s eye condition has left him so blind he has to ‘cut his food for him’.

The former England footballer has four children with his wife Louise, including son James, 20.

James was diagnosed with Stargardt disease – a degeneration of his retina, and in 2019, Michael revealed his son was “clinically blind”.

During an appearance on the Great Company podcast this week, Michael, 46, opened up to Jamie Laing about James and his condition.

He said: “I look at it and think, do you know what, every time we sit at a restaurant, he’s by my side.

“Because I read him the menu and I need to cut his food, because he can’t.

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“Whenever we’re watching racing, he’s by my side because I’m giving a commentary.

“Whenever he wants to go…he needs his dad to take him. I’m his taxi driver.”

Michael continued: “I get to spend three times more time with my lad because he’s got an eye condition.

“Now I might be a selfish b*****d but I think that is…I love it and I wouldn’t want it any different.

“And of course I’d give my eyes to him in an instant, if we could swap, of course I would. But let’s take the positive, he is so bright, he just doesn’t sit back and pity himself.

“In fact it’s quite the opposite, he gets out there and he laughs at himself.”

While Michael is clearly proud of James and his other children, daughters Gemma, Jessica and Emily, he also admitted on the podcast that he doesn’t tell them he loves them.

He said: “I never ever tell my kids I love them. I don’t say anything like that.

“I just assume my actions would show them that I love them. It’s a bad thing. I think most of us are like that.”

Wheat prices have risen sharply amid disruptions to Black Sea exports as the Russia-Ukraine war continues and as changing weather patterns cause droughts that have sharply reduced production.

Over the past month, Russia and Ukraine have stepped up attacks on each other’s grain terminals on the Black Sea. With Russia the world’s largest wheat exporter, and Ukraine among the top 10 grain-producing countries, these attacks have taken their toll on global wheat and grain supply.

Chicago wheat futures, the global benchmark for the grain market, hit a three-year high on Friday, before nudging down 0.54 percent on Monday to $7.79 per bushel by 02:00 GMT. Authorities in Russia’s Rostov region called a state of emergency on Friday after announcing that port closures and navigation disruptions in the Sea of Azov and Black Sea basin have led to a pile-up of agricultural products at farms.

Meanwhile, the rising temperatures and lack of rain have threatened to cut this year’s wheat harvest in South Africa’s Swartland, which produces about 20 percent of the country’s wheat.

Here’s what we know:

What impact is the Russia-Ukraine war having on prices?

Over the past month, strikes on ports, vessels and grain facilities amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict have disrupted grain terminals and forced shippers to delay or cancel cargo loadings during the peak export season.

While Russian missile attacks have impacted Ukraine’s grain exports, Ukraine’s drone attacks in the Sea of Azov have also sharply curtailed Russian shipments of both grain and wheat. At the same time, attacks on Russia’s Novorossiysk and Taman ports have increased shipping costs out of its Black Sea ports.

According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Infrastructure, in July, Ukraine suffered 35 Russian attacks on vessels in port, 22 at sea and 67 on port facilities. By comparison, the total number of vessel strikes for the whole of 2025 was just 14.

On Friday, Kyiv’s agricultural minister said recent Russian air attacks have destroyed around 90 percent of retailers’ food logistics. With transport of wheat curtailed, prices have risen, raising fears of food insecurity around the world.

Joe Glauber, a research fellow emeritus in the director general’s office at the International Food Policy Research Institute, said that the issue, therefore, is less the amount of wheat being produced and more about the cost of getting it to buyers and consumers.

“There’s plenty of wheat in Russia and Ukraine, and ultimately that wheat will make it out on to the market. But right now it can’t, or it comes out with a very high cost, and so wheat prices have reflected that,” he told Al Jazeera.

“There’s a lot of wheat in the world…it’s not a question of availability, it’s a question of affordability,” he added.

Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, usually spends around $3bn per year on importing wheat. In the first half of 2026, it sourced more than 82 percent of its stock from Russia and Ukraine.

In Asia, second-largest wheat importer Indonesia bought $361m of wheat from Ukraine and $102m from Russia between 2023 and 2024, according to the Observatory of Economic Complexity. Indonesia usually sources between 15 percent and 20 percent of its wheat from the two countries.

An official at Indonesia’s Flour Millers’ Association told Reuters last week that current stocks can meet immediate food-grade wheat requirements. “But we don’t have abundant or excess supply. We have to look at other origins such as Bulgaria, Australia, Romania and Argentina for cargoes that do not get shipped from Russia and Ukraine,” the official said.

How does climate change fit into this?

Besides the war in Ukraine, droughts and drier weather patterns have taken a toll on wheat production and contributed to rising prices.

According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), as of July 1, the US, also one of the biggest wheat exporters, is forecast to yield “46.7 bushels per acre, down 0.1 bushels from last month and down 8.2 bushels from last year’s average yield of 54.9 bushels per acre”.

“If realised, the United States yield would be the lowest since 2015,” the USDA said.

In a report updated on August 14, the department wrote: “This year’s small crop is a product of long-term decline in US wheat acreage and widespread drought impacts on HRW [Hard Red Winter wheat] production in the Great Plains States. Total wheat supplies are forecast down 13 percent from the previous year, with larger beginning stocks dampening the effect of the smaller crop.”

For Canada, the world’s sixth-largest wheat producer, the USDA’s Foreign Agricultural Service found that for the 2026-2027 production year, total production is forecast to be 34.6 million metric tons (MMT) – also 13 percent lower than the year before – due to reduced planted area and a return to lower-than-average yields.

Amid the heatwaves that have hit European countries over the past three months, wheat production in the bloc has also reduced. According to COCERAL, the European association of trade in cereals, oilseeds, rice, pulses, olive oil, oils and fats, animal feed and agrosupply, the excessive heat is expected to reduce grain crops in 2026 by around 9 million tonnes to 286 million tonnes.

In a report published in July, COCERAL said: “The weather has started to affect corn pollination in the southern half of France and in Hungary. More damage is expected from the forecast heat in other parts of the EU.”

The El Nino weather pattern is also expected to bring drier-than-usual conditions to the Southern Hemisphere this year, with South Africa and Australia expected to experience droughts as a result.

What can be done to mitigate all this?

While the Russia-Ukraine war continues, in July 2022, the year the war started, a Black Sea Grain Initiative was brokered to allow for the safe exports of grain, food and fertiliser from Ukrainian ports to stabilise and lower global food prices.

While that agreement held, more than 1,000 ships full of grain and other foodstuffs left Ukraine, according to the EU. However, Russia ended the agreement in July 2023.

The answer to the current crisis is far from easy, experts say.

Bringing prices down now would necessitate a major shift in war strategy by both Russia and Ukraine, while the impact of climate change could be mitigated by governments implementing policies including improving water management on farms through the use of reservoirs to support drought-affected crops and reduce the loss of production.

Moreover, Glauber explained, while alternative routes exist to ship out grain from Russia and Ukraine, they are costly, adding that a return to a possible Black Sea Grain Initiative “would help calm wheat markets a lot”.

One answer may be for other countries to step in.

According to Glauber, during the 2022 global grain price surge, other wheat producing countries such as India exported more to make up for shortages.

“India, for example, had record exports in 2022. It’s probably less likely this year, just because of El Nino and other other factors affecting them, but they could also provide more wheat. I think the world wheat market proved very resilient in 2022, and I expect we’ll see the same in in 2026,” he said.

A new influencer fad is ready to hit Instagram and TikTok by storm, three years after the croissant XXL by acclaimed French pastry chef Philippe Conticini won our hearts

If you were on social media in 2024, then you will know about the giant croissant.

The bloated continental breakfast item took the post-Covid world by storm, triggering food influencers to flock to Paris to film themselves marvelling at its impressive proportions.

Known as the croissant XXL, it was the doughy-brainchild of acclaimed French pastry chef Philippe Conticini. The 1kg whopper debuted in his Paris bakeries before making it across the Channel to Phillipe’s Islington cafe, inspiring other Instagram-savvy food creators along the way.

Christophe Michalak delivered the le big pain aux raisins (350g), Yannick Delpech dropped la chocolatine XXL and Parisian department store Galeries Lafayette tried big pain au chocolat (a relatively svelte 320g).

Type any of those names into the Instagram or TikTok search bars, and you’ll be inundated with photos of glamorous people attempting to cram the medium-dog-sized pastry into their mouths. Clearly, these videos are a hit. The first clip that comes up on Instagram is less than 10 seconds long and has 116,000 likes.

In social media terms, this is all very old news. The big croissant fad came and then, just as quickly, it went. But now there is a new big food trend on the scene. On a recent trip to Gothenburg, I visited the beautiful district of Haga, the city’s oldest neighbourhood. It’s a great place to explore, to wander down the pedestrianised cobbled streets packed with excellent homeware, furniture, book and clothing shops. And also Café Husaren. The cosy wood-paneled spot is the inventor of the massive ‘hagabullar’ cinnamon buns.

Stretching close to a foot from edge to edge, these enlarged treats are a significantly puffed-up, Instagram-friendly version of a good that is firmly baked into Swedish life.

The average Swede eats cakes and pastry equivalent to 316 cinnamon buns per year, according to the country’s tourist board, and the act of taking fika (a cake-and-food-focused period of time) is so important that two coffee breaks per day are an unwritten rule in many Swedish workplaces.

The hagabullen has been described as a “masterpiece and the epicentre of a luxurious fika”. One happy reviewer called them a “dream and very delicious, but only suitable for a person with great hunger.”

And this is the problem. The hagabullar are simply too big to be enjoyable. They contain too much stuff. While it is undeniably fun to buy novelty-sized things (foam fingers, big Chuppa Chups at airports, etc.), sometimes bigger is not always better. Particularly when it comes to food. The smaller something is, the stronger its ratio of surface area to innards is. The oversized croissants and hagabullar simply have too much inside and not enough outside to be tasty.

But then again, no one can tell that in an Instagram post. Nor can they see the waste that’s left over. The overly doughy croissants left to the pigeons; the belly-busting hagabullar that prove too much for an influencer to handle; the bin full of unfinished lattes bought so people can pose next to a pink wall in LA.

In fairness to Café Husaren, it’s not only an elegant place with an array of absolutely delicious baked goods, but it’s been selling the hagabullar for over 40 years. Far longer than the croissant XXL. Regardless, I was sad to see Swedes and tourists buying a hagabullar, snapping a pic and then discarding the majority of the sweet bun. Hagabullar sat, unloved, on several vacated tables close to mine.

Conticini’s XXL croissant is advertised as feeding eight people, but in reality, it is often nibbled by one or maybe two influencers, photographed, and then dumped.

They say that you eat with your eyes as much as with your stomach. While this is true, this kind of social media-friendly food is 90% for the eyes and far too little for the tum.

All of this is in service of an algorithm that rewards extremes, whether that be the biggest, the most extravagant (see Eating with Tod’s ‘tuna fight club video) or the grossest (see muckbang). It’s designed to shock in its extremity, which means it is ripe for ridicule.

Juliette Moreno is a Cordon Bleu-trained chef whose videos making fun of these trends have won her more than 400,000 Instagram followers. Her most recent efforts have seen Juliette create a huge Minion cookie, Monster energy drink soufflé, rat meringues, and hot dogs boiled in the dishwasher.

Her videos are funny because they take ideas that have been percolating on Instagram and TikTok to their most extreme possible end. She fills up the boot of a car with tiramisu so we don’t have to. Because we shouldn’t.

Around 645 million people didn’t have enough food to eat in 2025, according to the WHO, but the world produces food for two billion more people than currently exist. On a planet where Sudan and Gaza are currently facing famine, maybe we should give the big food videos a break for a while.

AROUND the world are some very weird and wonderful McDonald’s and now, some of the best in Turkey have just been revealed.

They have been selected by McDonald’s itself, with one in particular being selected for its incredible views over the Turkish Riviera and it even has evening DJ sets.

McDonald’s has put together a list of its best restaurants in the country calling them the ‘7 Wonders of McDonald’s’.

The seven restaurants were picked for their stand-out architecture, location and overall experience.

One that stands out is one in Yalıkavak on the Bodrum peninsula which was picked for its beautiful views across the ocean.

McDonald’s said: “The restaurant combines the atmosphere of the Aegean with stunning sunset views.

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“A remarkable option for those seeking a restaurant with a view in Yalıkavak, it offers a spacious setting for those wanting to take a break for a meal or coffee around Yalıkavak Marina.”

It proves to be popular with visitors too and the McDonald’s has made several appearances on social media.

One visitor made a TikTok about the spot and called it the ‘most luxurious McDonald’s’.

As she walked through, she showed off the beautiful views across the Turkish Riviera with yachts in the marina.

Some of the best views are from the rooftop terrace where guests can dig into their meal while overlooking the marina.

Another TikTok revealed that when the sun goes down, a DJ takes over the terrace and turns the evening into an event.

In the comments, one person wrote: “Wow, make McDonald’s premium.”

Another visitor called the restaurant the ‘best McDonald’s in the world’.

They added: “The restaurant needs to meet the sea view and nature uniquely. I love the landscape and mill; history, nature and sea are a perfect place. The most beautiful McDonald’s restaurant in the world.”

Guests can tuck into McDonald’s classics like hamburgers, chicken burgers and chicken nuggets.

But there are other specialities that you don’t get in the Köfte Burger, the Adana Style Meatball Wrap, onion rings, ice cream sundaes and churros.

There’s also the option to buy McFloat drinks which are Coca Cola and flavoured sprite with ice cream on top.

The newest battleground in the Los Angeles mayoral race is at your favorite taco stand, as Mayor Karen Bass and her opponent, Councilmember Nithya Raman, spar over how they plan to run the city and treat its street vendors.

The Los Angeles Police Department told Bass’ office it had erroneously issued criminal citations to vendors around MacArthur Park, Bass spokesperson Paige Sterling told The Times on Thursday.

Bass has ordered LAPD to stop issuing criminal citations to vendors and is working to remove any charges issued in error, Sterling said. The mayor’s office also asked LAPD to make sure that these citations aren’t happening citywide.

“The Mayor and her team will continue meeting with street vendors to implement policies and programs based on their needs. Street vending is a quintessential part of L.A.’s world-class food scene and a livelihood for thousands of hardworking Angelenos,” Sterling said in a statement.

The sudden focus on street food comes after Bass faced scrutiny for saying street vendors should not be allowed to set up in front of brick-and-mortar restaurants at a mayoral debate last week at the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn.

“Just like you shouldn’t have encampments in front of restaurants or in front of schools, you just should not do that,” Bass said.

Critics, including Raman, said Bass was directly comparing homeless encampments to street vendors.

Raman followed up on negative interpretations of her Sherman Oaks statement with a one-two punch, showing up with supporters and television cameras at the famous Brothers Cousins Tacos stand on Sawtelle Boulevard on Wednesday night to mark the release of a pro-street-vendor policy plan.

“When you come for our street vendors, you’re coming for the heart of L.A.,” Raman said of Bass.

In the plan, Raman hopes to create an Immigrant Economic Opportunity Hub, which would offer permitting support, microloans and legal help. Wednesday night, after a vegetarian quesadilla dinner, she said the city should provide pathways for food stands that make fresh food to get permits and grow their businesses, including potentially working toward a brick-and-mortar location.

Also included is a proposal to create special vending zones in L.A.’s iconic vending corridors, although the plan doesn’t outline where such opt-in zones could be. These corridors would include infrastructure like shared sinks, power, lighting, shade and restrooms.

“What we have in our plan is a plan for street vendor districts that can ensure that vendors and brick-and-mortar businesses are not in conflict with one another; that they’re actually able to share streets,” Raman said.

When asked the same question she faced at the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn., whether she would allow food stands to sit in front of a brick-and-mortar restaurant, Raman said Wednesday she believed there were ways to keep food stands and restaurants from intruding upon each other, but didn’t say whether that would be enforced by distance requirements, ticketing or otherwise.

When talking about the Gerhardt brothers, Hudson, a quarterback, and Bailen, a receiver, first-year Village Christian coach Rand Holdren says there’s never a boring moment when the two are together.

“I want to send them off to their room,” he joked about the brothers bickering with each other.

What brothers don’t occasionally raise their voices, and fight over food, gifts and clothes?

In Village Christian’s 34-0 win over Huntington Park last week, Hudson, a senior, completed 11 of 13 passes for 170 yards and two touchdowns. Bailen, a junior, caught four passes for 91 yards and one touchdown. Of course, if Bailen ever drops a pass, big brother might give him a nasty look.

Holdren left Maranatha to take over the Village Christian program.

“The first day of spring practice, we had nine kids,” he said. “I quickly realized why they called me.”

He’s up to 25 players and hoping the Gerhardt brothers will continue to be entertaining in games and in huddles.

This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email eric.sondheimer@latimes.com.

THIS travel club can save you a whole lot of money when going on holiday – and Sun readers can try it out for just £1.

Ever wanted to swap those noisy airport cafes and hard airport seats for somewhere a little more comfy and relaxed, where free food and drink is flowing?

Try Travelzoo for 30 days for £1

For £1, you could bypass the airport chaos entirely and kick back in a stylish, comfy airport lounge with ice-cold drinks, super-fast Wi-Fi and somewhere to put your feet up

Travelzoo are a money-saving club where members can bag a load of travel benefits, including free airport lounge access if your flight is delayed.

The membership costs £30 for the year, which is already a steal.

But Sun readers can bag a 30 day free trial for only £1 by clicking here.

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So before your next holiday, you could be chilling in an airport lounge with bottomless food and drinks (including alcohol) in exchange for that quid rattling around in your pocket.

We all know the dreaded feeling. You’ve dragged your bags through the terminal, braved the queues, and finally made it to the gate – only to look up at the screen and see the dreaded words: DELAYED.

Suddenly, you’re searching for a seat in a packed airport terminal, clutching a soggy-yet-expensive airport sandwich.

But if you’re a Travelzoo member, you get access to over 1,600 lounges across 500+ airports in more than 100 countries.

The way this works is simple. When your flight is delayed by one hour or more, you get airport lounge tickets automatically sent to you by email or text.

Inside these stylish lounges you’ll find things like private and comfy seating, free Wi-Fi and charging points, and even showers, desks and sleep pods in some locations.

Try Travelzoo for 30 days for £1

You’ll also get complimentary food and drink, which includes alcohol.

So even if your flight is delayed for multiple hours, you know you’ll have access to good-quality food, drinks and even somewhere to nap.

“As soon as I got the delay notification from Delta, I received an email with lounge pass PDFs” writes one Travelzoo member, Holly.

“Our flight ended up being delayed six times and the lounge pass was a lifesaver.

“This lounge had free food, drinks, snacks, Wi-Fi, showers, etc. It was worth it!”.

Another member, Angela, said she used it at London Heathrow after a delayed flight saga.

She said: “Travelzoo notified me of our delay and sent vouchers to a lounge that was way better than the one my credit card had.”

Usually, access to these airport lounges would require an elite membership status with an airline, or an expensive day pass.

However you can access these lounges with Travelzoo no matter who you are flying with, even with economy class tickets.

Airport lounge day passed typically cost between £30 – £40, whereas a Travelzoo membership costs £30 for an entire year.

That means just one delayed flight would justify the cost of an entire year’s membership.

You could easily spend over £30 on meals and drinks for the family in the airport Wetherspoons, but instead you’ll have your own less-crowded, more comfy zone with access to all the snacks and drinks you’ll need.

Best of all, you can register up to three travel companions on your itinerary for free – meaning your family or mates get the VIP treatment right alongside you.

Travelzoo members don’t just get airport lounge benefits – they also get access to super cheap holidays.

There are members-only sales and hand-picked holiday deals that give members access to some of the best holiday bargains out there.

For example, members can bag Benidorm package holidays for £179pp, a two-night staycation for two in Northumberland for £89, or a charming English inn stay for £59.

Members will be alerted when flash holiday sales go live, and can bag these exclusive discounts before anyone else.

Sun readers can try Travelzoo for 30 days for just £1 by clicking the button below.

Try Travelzoo for 30 days for £1

Prices correct at the time of publication.

Tasting the food and drink specialities of a particular region is one of the great joys of travelling. Whether it was discovering the perfect pastry in Scandinavia, sipping a memorable glass of wine on a vineyard tour in France, or enjoying the fruits of the truffle season in Italy, we’d love to hear about your favourite regional food discoveries in Europe.

The best tip of the week, chosen by Tom Hall of Lonely Planet wins a £200 voucher to stay at a Coolstays property – the company has more than 3,000 worldwide. The best tips will appear in the Guardian Travel section and website.

Keep your tip to about 100 words

If you have a relevant photo, do send it in – but it’s your words we will be judging for the competition.

We’re sorry, but for legal reasons you must be a UK resident to enter this competition.

The competition closes on Monday 31 August at 10am BST

Have a look at our past winners and other tips

Read the terms and conditions here

If you’re having trouble using the form click here. Read terms of service here and privacy policy here.

Aug. 21 (UPI) — Dozens of people across 15 states have been sickened by alfalfa sprouts tainted with E. coli bacteria and salmonella, federal health officials said Friday.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a safety alert that 55 people have suffered symptoms such as severe stomach cramps, diarrhea, fever, nausea and/or vomiting after consuming alfalfa sprout sold in grocery stores under the Calco and Everything Sprouts brands.

Four hospitalizations have resulted from the outbreak.

Some 38 of the 55 of the cases have been recorded in Minnesota and Wisconsin combined, with fewer cases reported in North and South Dakota, New York, Washington state, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, New Hampshire and Florida.

CDC officials warned that the number of illnesses is likely to increase as investigators continue their probe.

The tainted food was determined to originated from Everything Sprouts, a Minneapolis-based hydroponic grower.

“Traceback information from Minnesota and Wisconsin restaurants identified alfalfa sprouts distributed by Everything Sprouts as a source of illness in this outbreak,” the CDC said in a statement.”[The Food and Frug Administration] is working to determine if there are additional sources of contaminated sprouts and if there is a common seed supplier.”

The same company last year was issued a warning letter by the FDA following an inspection that produced what it called “serious violations” of the Produce Safety Rule, Minnesota Public Radio reported.

Inspectors documented roof leaks that allowed water to drip near or onto exposed mung bean sprouts while condensation from refrigeration equipment was also found dripping in areas where sprouts were grown or stored.

Enjoy a two or three-night break sailing from Plymouth or Portsmouth to Santander with our great 2 for 1 offer

We’ve teamed up with Brittany Ferries to give readers a Spanish mini-cruise this Autumn and save pounds with an exclusive 2-for-1 offer.

We have two great offers with prices starting from as little as £49.50 per person* and both packages include en suite cabin accommodation and all port charges. You can travel from September 15 to November 2 with this great offer.

From Plymouth, sail on Brittany Ferries’ luxurious flagship Pont-Aven for two days and nights, with fine French food and wine served in elegant surroundings, a choice of bars with live entertainment, a large boutique with tempting duty-free prices, and even a spa and swimming pool. From Portsmouth, sail on the stylish and contemporary Salamanca for three nights, with the elegant Restaurant Azul, casual dining at La Taberna, the lively Plaza Mayor bar inspired by Salamanca’s famous city square, and a boutique with a great range of duty-free products.

En route to Spain, you can also spot wildlife. The Bay of Biscay is one of the most remarkable and reliable places to spot whales and dolphins in the world.

On arrival, both ships dock in Santander – the capital of Cantabria – with a little time to explore this vibrant resort city on foot. With tree-lined boulevards, elegant plazas, beautiful parks and a bustling town centre packed with shops, cafes and tapas bars, it offers a wonderful taste of northern Spain. Pont-Aven docks right in the heart of the city, with up to three hours ashore.

From Plymouth, departures operate on Wednesdays and Sundays. From Portsmouth, choose a Friday evening departure returning Monday, or a Monday evening departure returning Thursday.

HOW TO BOOK: Click here to take up this offer. The offer is subject to availability.

Terms and conditions

The 2-for-1 discount applies only during the promotional period.

The promotional offer applies to a round trip as part of one booking i.e. departure and return. Departing and returning to Plymouth or Portsmouth – Santander.

Plymouth departures: The £49.50 per person price is based on 3 or 4 people sharing a 4-berth inside cabin.

Portsmouth departures: The £64.50 per person price is based on 2 people sharing a 4-berth inside cabin.

Single supplement of £94.50 applies

The offer is valid for foot passengers only.

Travel period is September 15 – November 2, 2026.

Full payment is required at the time of booking. It’s non-refundable and no amendments to bookings can be made.

The offer is bookable via the website only.

The offer is subject to availability.

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Locals often spot celebrity visitors such as the Mad Max star Mel Gibson and Dangerous Liaisons actor John Malkovich

Jet2Villas is offering holidaymakers a fresh way to explore Spain. The popular airline has added a new region of Spain to its Jet2Villas portfolio – in an area more and more Brits are heading to instead of Andalucia and the Canary Islands.

The area Jet2 is expanding to is popular with Hollywood film celebrities, who have been spotted in local restaurants. Stars such as Mel Gibson and John Malkovich have stayed in the region on more than one occasion – and it’s becoming increasingly popular with Brits as an alternative to spots like the Balearics.

Jet2Villas announced today that it has added Galicia to its programme for the very first time. The northern Spanish region has joined the Jet2Villas portfolio, as the Which? Recommended Provider continues to broaden its villa holiday range in response to increasing demand.

Situated on Spain’s north-west coast, Galicia is celebrated for its lush landscapes, Atlantic shoreline, beaches and fishing villages, as well as cities such as Santiago de Compostela, A Coruña and Vigo. The region is also well-known for its seafood and culinary delights.

Its blend of coastline, countryside, culture and cuisine makes Galicia ideally suited to families, groups and couples seeking a more independent villa break and the opportunity to experience a different side of Spain, away from the country’s more traditional resort hotspots.

The area is steadily growing in popularity. Last year, travel journalist Simon Calder explored the region’s appeal for the Independent. He spoke to Jessica Harvey Taylor, head of press for the Spanish Tourist Office in the UK, who said: “Obviously we’re well aware that the vast majority of our UK holidaymakers are still visiting our five most popular regions: Valencia, Andalucia, Catalonia, and then our islands, the Balearics and the Canaries.

“But it’s very encouraging to see that there’s increased appetite in our northern regions, namely Galicia, Asturias and the Basque country. I think there are multiple reasons. Obviously climate plays a part and not everybody wants the extreme heat that we’ve seen in recent years in the southern Med.

“But there’s much more to it than that. Increasingly, the UK public is realising that they can supplement a beach holiday with something a little bit more adventurous.”

Hollywood legend Mel Gibson, one of the biggest and best-paid actors of the 1990s, has a soft spot for Spain’s northern towns. El Pais reports that the Mad Max star has been spotted dining at a local restaurant in A Fonsagrada in Lugo, and later in Santiago de Compostela, where he took in the cathedral and stayed at the historic Hostal dos Reis Católicos. John Malkovich is a regular visitor to Ponte Maceira, Costa da Morte and A Coruña, the Spanish newspaper revealed.

In the spring of 2019, he returned once more and enjoyed a meal at restaurant Casa Salvador in A Baña alongside Spanish actress Marisa Paredes. The addition of Galicia forms part of a broader expansion which has seen Jet2Villas add more than 1,000 new properties to its portfolio for Summer 26, bringing the total number of available villas to over 4,000 across more than 52 destinations.

The airline says its villa holidays can offer travellers private pools and outdoor space, multiple bedrooms and generous shared living areas, making them ideally suited to families holidaying together, multi-generational groups and gatherings of friends. Jet2Villas has recorded its highest ever number of villa bookings for a summer season, with over 100,000 customers and counting, highlighting the enduring demand from families and groups for holidays offering the convenience of a package holiday combined with the space, privacy and flexibility of a villa break.

David Hills, Chief Customer Officer of Jet2, said: “We’re delighted to introduce Galicia to Jet2Villas for the first time, giving customers even more choice when it comes to villa holidays in Spain. With more than 1,000 new villas added to the collection and a record number of villa customers for Summer 26, we’re continuing to grow our programme in response to strong demand.”

The Xunta De Galicia tourist information website outlines a host of reasons why visitors might be tempted to head there. It says “Miles of coastline, fine sandy beaches, small fishing ports and outstanding gastronomy make the Rías Baixas one of the favourite destinations for travellers looking to combine nature, culture and the sea.

“A journey through the O Grove Peninsula, the Illa de Arousa or the Muros and Noia estuaries reveals sheltered coves, scenic waterfront walks and viewpoints overlooking breathtaking landscapes. After a day at the beach, there’s nothing better than enjoying fresh seafood and fish by the sea, paired with one of Galicia’s renowned wines with Designation of Origin.”

It also highlights that inland Galicia is home to the spectacular Ribeira Sacra, where the Sil and Miño rivers have carved deep canyons lined with centuries-old vineyards, historic monasteries and forests waiting to be explored.

For further information and to book, visit: www.jet2villas.com