guarantees

Paying for the extra fees on a flight is a big no-no, but former check-in agent Ashley Bautista revealed this one travel hack that will guarantee a seat charge at no extra cost

When it comes to travelling for long hours, especially on a plane, comfort is the number one priority to start the holiday on the right foot.

The first challenge comes whilst booking your ticket. Airlines charge for almost everything, including seat selection – and there’s nothing worse than being stuck in the middle seat, or at the back of the plane away from your family and friends, especially on a long-haul flight.

As a former check-in agent at one of the world’s busiest airports, Ashley Bautista revealed what you can do instead to get your seat changed at no extra cost – and it works almost every time.

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Everyone has a preferred seat, whether it’s the window to take pictures of the sky, the emergency exit row for extra legroom, or the back of the plane to be close to the toilet. For that reason, airlines then began to implement charges for passengers to reserve their seats. The other option is to deal with your allocated seat, which is given based on the weight and balance of the aircraft.

According to MSE, a few airlines allow passengers to select their seats free of charge as soon as they book their flight. For example, Japan Airlines and Qatar Airways do this, with some exceptions. Virgin Atlantic also allows passengers to choose their own seat once check-in opens, and British Airways allows those with checked luggage.

If you’re travelling with a big group, the seat allocation system will always try to seat groups on the same booking together. However, if the bookings are, that’s a whole different story. But don’t worry, it’s not the end of the world.

READ MORE: Flight attendant names the best time to use the toilet during a flight

Ashley’s advice is to head to the airport check-in counter as soon as it opens, and politely ask the agent if there are any seats together available. Unless the flight is completely full, most of the time, the agent will put you together with the person you’re travelling with.

Another secret is that even if the flight appears to be full, airlines often don’t manage to sell their pricier extra-legroom seats or emergency rows. In fact, some airlines keep them empty and assign them to random passengers. So, it never hurts to ask for a seat upgrade.

Of course, there are no guarantees and on some occasions, you will have to wait until check-in closes or all passengers are seated. Then, you can move around as you wish, as long as you’re not causing a disturbance to other passengers on board.

Israel’s government has approved the plan ‘for the release of all captives’, fighting in Gaza to stop within 24 hours.

Hamas and Israel have concluded a second day of indirect negotiations on United States President Donald Trump’s proposal to end the war on Gaza, as senior Qatari and US officials headed to Egypt to join the talks.

Speaking at the White House on the second anniversary of the start of the war, Trump said that there was a “real chance” of a Gaza deal, as Tuesday’s talks wrapped up in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.

However, the day had opened with an umbrella of Palestinian factions – including Hamas – issuing a statement that promised a “resistance stance by all means”, stressing that “no one has the right to cede the weapons of the Palestinian people” – an apparent reference to a key demand for the disarmament of the armed group contained in Trump’s 20-point plan.

Senior Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said that the group’s negotiators were seeking an end to the war and “complete withdrawal of the occupation army” from Gaza. But Trump’s plan is vague regarding the exit of Israeli troops, offering no specific timeline for the staged rollout, which would only happen after Hamas returns the 48 Israeli captives it still holds, 20 of whom are thought to be alive.

A senior Hamas official who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity after Tuesday’s talks indicated that the group intends to release captives in stages linked to the withdrawal of Israel’s military from Gaza.

The official said that Tuesday’s talks had focused on scheduling the release of Israeli captives and withdrawal maps for Israeli forces, with the group stressing that the release of the last Israeli hostage must coincide with the final withdrawal of Israeli forces.

Hamas’s top negotiator, Khalil al-Hayya, said the group did “not trust the occupation, not even for a second”, according to Egyptian state-linked Al Qahera News. He said Hamas wanted “real guarantees” that the war would end and not be restarted, accusing Israel of violating two ceasefires in the war on Gaza.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu released a statement to mark the anniversary of the Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on October 7, 2023, that sparked Israel’s war on Gaza, calling the last two years of conflict a “war for our very existence and future”.

He said that Israel was “in fateful days of decision”, without alluding directly to the ceasefire talks. Israel, he said, would “continue to act to achieve all the war’s objectives: the return of all the hostages, the elimination of Hamas’s rule, and ensuring that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel”.

Staying flexible

Despite signs of continued differences, the talks appear to be the most promising sign of progress towards ending the war yet, with Israel and Hamas both endorsing many parts of Trump’s plan.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari said the mediators – Qatar, Egypt and Turkiye – were staying flexible and developing ideas as the ceasefire talks progress.

“We don’t go with preconceived notions to the negotiations. We develop these formulations during the talks themselves, which is happening right now,” he said.

Al-Ansari told Al Jazeera that Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani will join other mediators – including Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner for the US – on Wednesday in Egypt.

Sheikh Mohammed’s “participation confirms the mediators’ determination to reach an agreement that ends the war”, al-Ansari said.

Even if a deal is clinched, questions linger about who will govern Gaza and rebuild it, and who will finance the huge cost of reconstruction.

Trump and Netanyahu have ruled out any role for Hamas, with the former’s plan proposing that Palestinian “technocrats” run day-to-day affairs in Gaza under an international transitional governance body – the so-called “Board of Peace” – that would be overseen by Trump himself and the divisive former United Kingdom Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Hamas’s Barhoum said the group wanted to see “the immediate start of the comprehensive reconstruction process under the supervision of a Palestinian national body”.

Israeli attacks continue

The second anniversary of the war, which was sparked by deadly attacks on Israel that were led by Hamas on October 7, 2023, saw Israel pressing on with its offensive in Gaza, drones and fighter jets strafing the skies, targeting the Sabra and Tal al-Hawa residential areas in Gaza City and the road to nearby Shati camp.

At least 10 Palestinians were killed in Israeli attacks across Gaza on Tuesday, according to the official Palestinian news agency Wafa, adding to the grim toll of more than 66,600 deaths over the entire conflict. At least 104 people have been killed in Gaza by Israeli forces since Friday, the day Trump called on Israel to halt its bombing campaign.

Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said on Tuesday that a boy had been shot in the head in eastern Gaza and that at least six Palestinians were killed in separate attacks across Khan Younis in the south of the Strip.

“Everyone’s waiting for a peace deal as the bombs continue to fall,” she said, reporting from az-Zuwayda in central Gaza. “The Israeli forces continue destroying entire residential neighbourhoods and residential areas where Palestinians thought they would go back and rebuild their lives.”

Marking the anniversary, ACLED, a US-based conflict monitor, said Gaza has endured more than 11,110 air and drone strikes and at least 6,250 shelling and artillery attacks throughout the war. Gaza’s dead accounted for 14 percent of total reported deaths from conflicts worldwide over the past two years.

The Gaza Health Ministry said 1,701 medical personnel had been killed in Gaza during the war.

Baltic and Nordic leaders in Denmark’s Copenhagen are meeting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is on a diplomatic drive trying to cement security guarantees for Kyiv in the event of a peace deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“The heads of state and government will discuss how the Nordic-Baltic countries can ensure further support for Ukraine on the frontline and in the negotiating room,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen’s office said in a statement on Wednesday.

The gathering brings together the leaders of the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) – Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden – with Zelenskyy to discuss Ukraine’s future.

Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on Tuesday that progress was being made on security guarantees for Ukraine, but he stressed that such measures would only be implemented after a peace agreement is reached.

“We need to coordinate the security arrangements with the United States, which essentially will provide the backstop for this … We’re focusing on these issues with our chiefs of defence, which are drawing the concrete plans of what this type of operation might look like,” Stubb told reporters.

“We’re making progress on this and hopefully we’ll get a solution soon,” he said, while cautioning that he was not optimistic about a ceasefire or peace agreement with Russia in the near term.

The ‘coalition of the willing’

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said he expected clarity at a summit of Ukraine’s allies on Thursday “or soon after” on what security guarantees Europe can offer Kyiv once the war halts.

“I expect tomorrow, or soon after tomorrow, to have clarity on what collectively we can deliver,” Rutte said at a news conference with Estonian President Alar Karis in Brussels. “That means that we can engage even more intensely, also with the American side, to see what they want to deliver in terms of their participation in security guarantees.”

United Kingdom Prime Minister Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron will co-host Thursday’s mostly virtual meeting of leaders of the so-called “coalition of the willing” – a collection of Western states working on long-term guarantees for Ukraine, and NATO. Zelenskyy moves on to meet Macron tonight in Paris ahead of that summit.

Western officials have said such guarantees are aimed at deterring Russia from launching another war after hostilities end, whether through a ceasefire or a permanent peace deal.

They are expected to centre on continued military support for Kyiv, along with an international force to reassure Ukraine. However, European leaders have made clear that such a force would only be feasible with US participation.

United States President Donald Trump last month promised American involvement, but Washington has yet to spell out what it would contribute. Rutte sought to reassure eastern NATO members that resources for Ukraine’s security guarantees would not come at the expense of the alliance’s own defences.

“We have to prevent spreading our resources too thinly, and this means that we always have to look at what the impact will be on the NATO plans,” he said.

Moscow, meanwhile, rejects the idea of European peacekeeping troops on the ground in Ukraine, and insists that any future settlement must reflect what it calls “new territorial realities”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told Indonesia’s Kompas newspaper that regions annexed by Russia – Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia and Kherson – must be “recognized and formalized in an international legal manner” for peace to last.

Trump has suggested any eventual deal would involve Ukraine ceding some territory, but many analysts believe one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s core demands will be Ukrainian recognition of Moscow’s control over the parts of Donbas still under Kyiv’s authority.

Zelenskyy has repeatedly rejected such concessions, warning that losing any territory would embolden Russia to launch new attacks in the future. The Ukrainian constitution also forbids it.

Russia takes more territory in Kherson

As diplomacy continues behind the scenes, Russia’s assault continues to intensify across eastern Ukraine. Its forces claim to have encircled and now captured “about half” of Kupiansk, a strategic city in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Moscow’s Ministry of Defence also claimed its forces had seized the settlement of Fedorivka in Donetsk.

In the skies, Russia launched a sweeping overnight air campaign, striking targets across nine regions. Ukrainian officials said at least four railway workers were injured, while Poland scrambled defence aircraft as explosions echoed near its border.

Ukraine’s emergency services reported that five people were injured and 28 homes damaged in an attack on the Znamianka community in the Kirovohrad region. In Khmelnytskyi, transport services faced “significant schedule disruptions” after strikes damaged residential buildings and triggered fires.

Local authorities said two people were killed in Russian shelling of Polohivskyi district in Zaporizhia, while separate attacks caused deaths in Kherson, Kyiv region and Donetsk. The independent news outlet Kyiv Independent reported at least five civilians killed across the country in the latest wave of strikes.

Russia said it had shot down 158 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours, while claiming that Ukrainian attacks across its border killed 12 people and wounded nearly 100 in the past week. In the Belgorod region, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said a Ukrainian drone strike injured three people in the village of Proletarsky.

The diplomatic manoeuvring comes as Putin seeks to deepen ties with North Korea and China. His meeting on Wednesday with Kim Jong Un in Beijing, alongside Chinese President Xi Jinping at a grand military parade, underscored the growing partnership between Moscow and Pyongyang.

Trump responded by accusing the three leaders of conspiring against the United States – a claim dismissed by the Kremlin.

Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov says discussing Ukraine security issues without Russia is a ‘road to nowhere’.

Russia has warned that attempting to resolve security issues relating to Ukraine without the participation of Moscow is a “road to nowhere”, days after European leaders met US President Donald Trump to discuss security guarantees for Kyiv.

“We cannot agree with the fact that now it is proposed to resolve questions of security, collective security, without the Russian Federation. This will not work,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday.

“I am sure that in the West and above all in the United States they understand perfectly well that seriously discussing security issues without the Russian Federation is a utopia; it’s a road to nowhere.”

The minister’s comments come two days after US President Donald Trump hosted Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy alongside prominent European leaders at the White House, and days after Trump met with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Trump is trying to steer Putin and Zelenskyy towards a settlement more than three years after Russia invaded its neighbour, but major obstacles remain.

The Russian official said any summit between Putin and Zelenskyy “must be prepared in the most meticulous way” so the meeting does not lead to a “deterioration” of the situation around the conflict.

Lavrov also accused European leaders of making “clumsy attempts” to change the US president’s position on Ukraine.

“We have only seen aggressive escalation of the situation and rather clumsy attempts to change the position of the US president,” he said, referring to Monday’s meeting.

“We did not hear any constructive ideas from the Europeans there,” Lavrov added.

NATO talks

NATO military chiefs are due to meet on Wednesday to discuss the details of potential security guarantees for Ukraine amid efforts to broker a ceasefire to Russia’s offensive.

NATO’s Military Committee said that 32 defence chiefs from across the alliance would hold a video conference.

US General Alexus Grynkewich, who oversees NATO’s operations in Europe, will also take part in the talks.

Kyiv’s European allies are looking to set up a force that could backstop any peace agreement, and a coalition of 30 countries, including European nations, Japan and Australia, have signed up to support the initiative.

Military chiefs are considering how that security force might work. The role that the US might play is unclear. Trump on Tuesday ruled out sending US troops to help defend Ukraine against Russia.

Russia has repeatedly said that it would not accept NATO troops in Ukraine.

When United States President Donald Trump invited his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy for talks at the White House on Monday, the European leaders rushed to Washington, DC to stand alongside Zelenskyy in a show of support.

The last meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy, held in February at the Oval Office, did not go down well for the Ukrainian leader. He was publicly berated and blamed for the Ukraine war – which was actually started by Russia in February 2022.

The European leaders wanted to ensure Kyiv’s interests were taken into consideration days after Trump rolled out a red-carpet welcome to Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska talks.

And much to their relief, the fraught issue of Ukraine’s security guarantees did emerge as one of the key talking points in the White House talks. Trump, who has ruled out NATO membership for Kyiv, offered a US role in the security of Ukraine.

While the specifics of the security guarantees have not been revealed, Trump added that European countries would be the “first line of defence”.

Here is more about Ukraine’s security guarantee, what the US role would be, and how would it be different from NATO security?

What has Trump said?

“When it comes to security, there’s going to be a lot of help,” Trump told reporters on Monday, referring to the US role in Ukraine’s security.

Trump added that European countries would be involved in providing these security guarantees.

“We have people waiting in another room, right now, they’re all here from Europe,” Trump said during a summit at the White House attended by Zelenskyy and a group of European allies. “Biggest people in Europe. And they want to give protection. They feel very strongly about it, and we’ll help them out with that.”

“They are a first line of defence because they’re there, but we’ll help them out,” Trump said.

In an interview with Fox News on Tuesday, the US president said European ground troops could be part of security guarantees but ruled out deployment of US ground troops to Ukraine.

“When it comes to security, they’re willing to put people on the ground,” he told Fox News, referring to European allies whom he met in the White House on Monday.

“We’re willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air, because no one has the kind of stuff we have, really, they don’t,” Trump said.

Ukraine has been seeking NATO membership to boost its security against Russian aggression, but the Trump administration has ruled that out, calling it “unrealistic”. On Tuesday he reiterated Ukraine won’t be able to join NATO.

Trump had been asking Europe to take the front seat in providing security guarantees for Ukraine.

The European leaders who attended the summit on Monday included French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte.

Marina Miron, a postdoctoral researcher at the defence studies department at King’s College London, told Al Jazeera that Trump’s language was notably ambiguous during the summit because neither the US nor the Trump administration is genuinely willing to become directly involved.

What has Zelenskyy said?

In a post on X recapping his meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy wrote that security issues are “a key issue, a starting point towards ending the war.”

“We appreciate the important signal from the United States regarding its readiness to support and be part of these guarantees,” Zelenskyy wrote. However, he did not specify what these guarantees would be.

When a reporter asked Zelenskyy what security guarantees Ukraine needs, he responded, saying, “Everything.”

Later, Zelenskyy told reporters that the guarantees would be “formalised on paper within the next week to 10 days.”

“There will be discussions, and we are preparing the relevant formats,” he later wrote in a post on X, adding that “national security advisors are also in constant contact now.”

Separately, the Ukrainian leader added that Ukraine would buy US weapons worth $90bn.

What could the security guarantees for Ukraine include?

“Ukraine wants a lot, but how much of those security guarantees that Ukraine envisages it will get is another question,” said Miron.

She said that even the Ukrainian side has not spelled out exactly what security guarantees it requires, and details such as the number of troops required have not been specified.

Keir Giles, a Eurasia expert at the think tank Chatham House told Al Jazeera that support for Ukraine could take many forms, ranging from written promises — which risk being as ineffective as the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, when Russia pledged to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty but ultimately did not — to the actual deployment of Western troops to deter further Russian aggression.

One possible way security guarantees could be provided to Ukraine would be if Ukraine’s allies provided on-ground peacekeeping forces in Ukraine to supplement the Ukrainian army.

Giles said that this option has been, until now, consistently ruled out by the US, and by European states without US backing.

In March, Starmer declared that a “coalition of the willing” would come together to draw up a peace plan to end the war in Ukraine. This coalition, a temporary group of volunteer countries, would provide security guarantees to ensure the end of the war in Ukraine.

However, Starmer did not specify whether the coalition would continue to provide security guarantees after the war ended, or whether member states would put boots on the ground in Ukraine.

Russia cited Kyiv’s NATO ambitions and NATO enlargement in Eastern Europe as one of the key reasons for launching its war on Ukraine.

Since the Russian invasion, Kyiv has been pushing to be granted NATO membership, which would offer it security under Article 5 of the 32-member alliance. Under Article 5, if one or more NATO members are subjected to an armed attack, it will be regarded as an attack against all members.

Trump’s special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, told the news agency CNN that Russia had agreed to allow the US and Europe to “effectively offer Article 5-like language to cover a security guarantee” to Ukraine.

However, Ukraine’s NATO membership is currently on hold. Before the summit on Monday, Trump said there will be “no going into NATO by Ukraine” as part of a ceasefire agreement.

Miron said that Trump is likely to push for a peace deal, signalling to Ukraine that regaining lost territories militarily is unlikely.

Hence, Ukraine faces a tough choice: “Either they keep on fighting or they accept things as they are, and if they keep on fighting, the chances are that they will lose even more. From my understanding, if Ukraine continues fighting, they are not going to be counting on US support,” Miron from King’s College said.

She added that if Russia resumes aggression in Ukraine, it’s uncertain whether NATO members would intervene, as NATO currently appears unwilling to get directly involved or confront Russia.

Meanwhile, Starmer will host a virtual meeting of the coalition of the willing on Tuesday.

What’s next?

There are still no signs of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine.

After the White House summit on Monday, Trump said he spoke to Putin and is making arrangements for a meeting between Putin and Zelenskyy. Zelenskyy said he is ready” to meet the Russian leader one-on-one.

In a Truth Social post where he laid out this plan, Trump said that after the bilateral meeting between the Ukrainian and Russian leaders, there will be a trilateral meeting between Putin, Zelenskyy and Trump.

According to United States President Donald Trump, it is possible to end the war in Ukraine – all that is needed is Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s agreement.

But for Zelenskyy, agreeing to anything that means losing territory to Russia is not only difficult, but may be impossible under Ukraine’s constitution.

Several European leaders are joining Zelenskyy in Washington, DC for his crucial talks with Trump – after the US leader’s recent summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska.

There are reports of a possible deal on offer.

But is it possible for Zelenskyy to agree to a deal without ceding any land to Russia?

And what does it all say about Europe’s position in the world?

Presenter: Adrian Finighan

Guests: 

Peter Zalmayev – Executive director of the Eurasia Democracy Initiative

Jean-Marc Rickli – Head of Global and Emerging Risks at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy

Mattia Nelles – CEO and co-founder of the German-Ukrainian Bureau think tank

IT’S been hailed a ‘game-changer’ when it comes to getting to sleep on hot nights.

But would you sleep on a gel pillow designed to keep your dog or cat cool in a heatwave?

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Pet cooling mats can be found at many high street stores in the UK, and whilst they are designed for animals, some people have been buying the gadgets for themselves – or nicking them from their four-legged friends.

Commenting on a TikTok video calling for people to share their ‘unhinged tips on how to stay cool’ during hot spells, one social media user wrote: “Borrowed by cat’s gel cooling mat as she’s uninterested in it and it’s a lifesaver.”

With temperatures set to hit the mid-30s in parts of the UK this week, I’m happy to give anything a go in a bid to stave off the extreme heat and get some kip.

There are lots available to buy including a Sunny Daze Cooling Dog Mat for just £5 at petsathome.com, or a slightly larger and more plush Weashume Dog Cool Gel Pad for £10.99 on amazon.

I opt for one from Chillmax costing just under £6 on Amazon, which has dozens of five-star reviews online.

When it arrives it doesn’t look much. It’s a simple blue mat filled with cooling gel.

But manufacturers claim it absorbs excess heat and dissipates it away for up to three hours, giving your skin a lovely cool feeling.

There’s no water so no refilling is necessary.

You simply pop it in the fridge and get it out when your pet needs a rest so they can lay on it and cool down.

I popped it in the fridge during the day, then laid it over my sheet when it was time for bed.

It was pretty hard to lay my entire body weight down on it as it felt icy cold. I really had to grit my teeth.

I laid on it feeling pretty uncomfortable, but after around five minutes, the initial discomfort eased, my body adjusted to the cold and I drifted off to sleep pretty quickly.

This was quite an achievement as I’ve been really tossing and turning of late due to the frequent spells of hot weather.

In fact, I think I fell asleep at least 45 minutes faster than I had on previous hot nights. It was actually quite calming too and refreshing.

The coolness wears off after a few hours and though it was soft enough to lay on, I woke up feeling a little uncomfortable.

But I just pulled it out from under me and tossed it on the floor.

The next night I tried putting it on top of my pillow case but I found the cold felt too extreme against my face.

It was a little better inside the pillow case, but still I preferred it near my body.

This funny little pet pillow has become a must-have in my bedroom now for hot nights.

Even better as it’s so small, you can easily take it away with you if you need to. No need to lug a big fan around instead.

You can also wipe it clean, making it a good gel option as most are built into the pillow and can’t be washed.

You can sit on it whilst working if you want to, though I did not find this comfortable.

But I didn’t mind using it as a foot rest on hot working days and it can also be used as a laptop cooling pad.

My kids kept stealing it saying it kept them cool so I guess I might be buying more to keep us all as cool as cucumbers.

Others have said similar pet mats are not only helpful in the heatwave but hot flushes, too.

One Amazon reviewer said it was brilliant for menopausal women, especially for the price.

You can spend £20 to £30 on a pet cooling pillow, but most of us won’t want to pay that much when the heatwave doesn’t last long in the UK.

Similar products designed for humans also tend to be more pricey.

This is wallet-friendly and effective. For less than £6 this is a real bargain. If it’s good enough for Fido, it’s good enough me.

No more sweaty nights here.

After hours of travelling, waiting in the baggage hall to be reunited with your suitcase can be a long, drawn out process – but not for everyone

After hours of travelling, collecting your baggage is the last – but most important – thing you want to do.

To avoid the long waiting time at the conveyor belt, there’s one type of suitcase that will be “guaranteed” as first to come out – or one of the first ones at least, according to an airport worker.

If you’re in a situation where you have to check in your bag, and you haven’t got much time in between, there’s one hack revealed by an employee from a regional US airport that will help you get your bags much faster – and a former check-in agent has agreed it does actually work.

READ MORE: Flight attendant shares one £1.22 item every passenger should carry on-board

Speaking to Quora, the employee said: “Bags will always be loaded front to back on the bag carts so if you check last your bags will be in the last bag cart.” Nonetheless, this trick can be quite risky, as passengers might be missing the check-in closing time.

However, there’s another trick, which is probably far easier to do: ask the check-in agent to add a fragile sticker to your luggage before sending it off. This is because bags identified as fragile are often loaded last, therefore, they’re the first ones to come out.

Travel expert Katy Nastro from Going also said that being a frequent traveller and earning a status with a specific airline comes with a lot of benefits, including the priority of your bags being offloaded first.

She explained that airlines have special tags for those types of passengers, so employees have it much easier to identify them and separate them from the rest.

READ MORE: ‘I spent 48 hours in EU capital city and paid less than a night out in London’

However, Jesse Neugarten, another airline expert from Dollar Flight Club, revealed that the only way your bag is guaranteed to come out one of the first ones is by travelling in First Class. He said: “Baggage for first-class passengers often travels on a separate cart and is sorted for fast delivery.”

“It’s one of the few consistent perks airlines still prioritise – and yes, it often works,” he added.

If you’re planning on travelling soon, but don’t want to spend thousands of pounds on a First Class ticket, you might want to consider trying out one of these hacks. Although they’re not completely guaranteed, it never hurts to try.

The Palestinian group Hamas has submitted its response to a United States-backed ceasefire proposal, but a leading official from the group said the proposed deal offered “no guarantees to end the war”.

Speaking to Al Jazeera on Saturday, Basem Naim said that Hamas had still “responded positively” to the latest proposal relayed to it by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, despite the Palestinian group saying that the proposal was different to one it had agreed upon with Witkoff a week earlier.

“One week ago, we agreed with Mr Witkoff on one proposal, and we said, ‘This is acceptable, we can consider this a negotiating paper,’” Naim said. “He went to the other party, to the Israelis, to get their response. Instead of having a response to our proposal, he brought us a new proposal … which had nothing to do with what we agreed upon.”

In a statement released earlier on Saturday, Hamas had said that it had submitted a response to Witkoff, and that the proposal “aims to achieve a permanent ceasefire, a comprehensive withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, and ensure the flow of aid” to Palestinians in Gaza.

Hamas added that 10 living Israeli captives would be released as part of the agreement, as well as the bodies of 18 dead Israelis, in exchange for an “agreed-upon number of Palestinian prisoners”.

Witkoff called Hamas’s response “totally unacceptable”.

“Hamas should accept the framework proposal we put forward as the basis for proximity talks, which we can begin immediately this coming week,” the envoy said in a post on social media. “That is the only way we can close a 60-day ceasefire deal in the coming days in which half of the living hostages and half of those who are deceased will come home to their families, and in which we can have at the proximity talks substantive negotiations in good-faith to try to reach a permanent ceasefire.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed Hamas’s response, “As Witkoff said, Hamas’s response is unacceptable and sets the situation back. Israel will continue its action for the return of our hostages and the defeat of Hamas.”

Israel has now killed more than 54,000 Palestinians since October 2023, with starvation looming across Gaza after weeks of Israeli blockade, and only a small flow of aid since Israel allowed it to resume in mid-May.

Starvation

With hopes for a permanent truce seemingly fading once again, the level of hunger and desperation inside Gaza grows, with Israel allowing only a trickle of humanitarian aid into the Strip after it had imposed a total blockade for more than two months. The UN warned on Friday that all of the 2.3 million population of Gaza is now at risk of famine. That came after it said in mid-May that one in every five Palestinians there is experiencing starvation.

The World Food Programme (WFP), which has enough food ready near Gaza’s borders to feed the besieged territory’s entire population for two months, renewed its call for an immediate ceasefire as the only way to get the food to starving Palestinians.

The UN’s food agency said in a statement that it brought 77 trucks loaded with flour into Gaza overnight and early on Friday, but they were stopped by people trying to feed their starving families.

The US- and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) is continuing with its own controversial aid distribution, which other aid groups say could violate humanitarian principles and militarise the delivery of desperately needed food. The Gaza Government Media Office said this week that at least 10 Palestinians had been killed by Israeli forces while trying to get aid.

“We went to this new area and we came out empty-handed,” resident Layla al-Masri said of a new GHF distribution point. “What they are saying about their will to feed the people of Gaza are lies. They neither feed people nor give them anything to drink.”

Another displaced Palestinian, Abdel Qader Rabie, said people across the besieged territory have nothing left to feed their families. “There’s no flour, no food, no bread. We have nothing at home,” he said.

Rabie said that every time he tries to get a box of aid at the GHF, he is swarmed by hundreds of other people trying to get it. “If you are strong, you get aid. If you are not, you leave empty-handed,” Rabie added.

There are also other risks. Families have reported that people have gone missing after reaching GHF distribution points.

“One of these cases is a man from the al-Mughari family – The family is appealing to the ICRC, OCHA, the civil defence teams, to go and search for him in that area – very close to the Netzarim Corridor [in central Gaza],” said Hind Khoudary, reporting from Deir el-Balah, central Gaza. Israeli authorities rejected the accusation, Khoudary added.

Bombing and forced displacement

The Israeli army is continuing its attacks on Gaza, with the spokesperson of the territory’s civil defence saying that approximately 60 homes had been bombed in the last 48 hours in Gaza City and northern Gaza.

On Saturday, there were also reports from across Gaza of the Israeli bombing killing at least 20 Palestinians. More than 3,900 Palestinians have been killed since Israel unilaterally broke a ceasefire in March and resumed its devastation of Gaza, despite growing international condemnation.

Since Friday’s early hours, the Israeli army has also ordered “all residents” of southern Khan Younis, Bani Suheila, and Abasan to evacuate immediately after it said rockets were earlier fired. “The [army] will aggressively attack any area used as a launching pad for terrorist activity,” military spokesperson Avichay Adraee said in a statement. The area of southern Gaza “has been warned several times in the past and has been designated a dangerous combat zone”, he added.

According to the UN, nearly 200,000 people have been displaced in the past two weeks alone, with displacement orders now covering the entirety of Gaza’s northernmost and southernmost governorates, as well as the eastern parts of each of the three governorates in between.