The Madre Fire in San Luis Obispo County area grew to nearly 70,800 on Thursday night, including Los Padres National Forest. It was 35,530 acres early Thursday. Photo by Bureau of Land Management/Facebook
July 4 (UPI) — The Madre Fire in central California expanded to 70,800 in two days, making it the largest wildfire this year in California.
In terms of size, the Madre Fire, at 110 square miles, is the largest wildfire in California this year, surpassing January’s Palisades and Eaton fires of 51,490 acres in densely populated Los Angeles County, Cal Fire said.
“As we approach the holiday weekend, the Madre Fire, the largest of 2025, is a stark reminder of potential dangers,” the U.S. Forest Service posted on Facebook on Thursday night.
Cal Fire is working with Bureau of Land Management and the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office to fight the fire.’
No injuries are building damage was reported.
The wildfire was reported Wednesday afternoon in San Luis Obispo County and has grown substanially and was 10% contained as of Friday afternoon. On Wednesday, it was 200 acres but by early Thursday, it had grown to 35,530 acres and 5% contained and hit 54,000 Thursday night.
The New Cuyama area is about 60 miles west of Bakersfield and 50 miles east of Santa Maria. Despite being 125 miles northwest of Los Angeles, smoke was extending into Southern California. The South Coast Air Quality Management District on Thursday afternoon issued a smoke advisory for the Los Angeles area, including Santa Clarita, the San Gabriel Valley and the San Bernardino Mountains.
“With the current weather, terrain, and fuel conditions this fire has seen exponential growth in less than 24 hours in multiple counties surrounding the San Luis Obispo County area,” the U.S. Forest Service – Los Padres National Forest posted on Facebook on Thursday afternoon. “Smoke impacts will be far-reaching.”
The cause remains under investigation.
Residents in San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties received evacuation orders and warnings, and Kern was added Friday. An evacuation center was set up at the California Valley Community Services District.
All Bureau of Land Management lands in Carrizo Plain National Monument are closed for public access.
Fifty structures have been threatened, according to Cal Fire.
Video from the University of California UC San Diego’s ALERTCalifornia camera network shows the fire spreading rapidly across the Carrizo Plain.
“The winds are pretty light during the day, but they do pick up pretty substantially in the afternoon and evening hours,” Ryan Kittell, with the National Weather Service, told KTLA-TV.
The 608 firefighters are contending with high winds.
United Nations report says global cocaine trade thriving, with 25 million users around the world in 2023.
Border authorities in United Kingdom have seized cocaine with a street value of $132m from a ship arriving from Panama.
Border Force Maritime director Charlie Eastaugh said on Saturday that the massive haul of 2.4 tonnes of the drug seized at the London Gateway port near the capital was “one of the largest of its kind”.
UK’s Home Office confirmed that the haul, found under containers on a ship arriving from Panama, was the sixth-largest cocaine seizure on record.
Specialist officers had detected the shipment earlier this month after carrying out an intelligence-led operation, moving 37 large containers to get at the stash.
The UK is one of Europe’s biggest markets for cocaine, according to the National Crime Agency. The UK government says cocaine-related deaths in England and Wales rose by 31 percent between 2022 and 2023.
On Thursday, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said the cocaine trade went from strength to strength in 2023, the latest year for which comprehensive data is available.
The Vienna-based agency’s annual World Drug Report showed that cocaine was the world’s “fastest-growing illicit drug market”, with Colombian production surging as demand for the drug expands in Europe and North and South America.
Around the globe, the estimated number of cocaine users also kept growing, reaching 25 million people in 2023, up from 17 million 10 years earlier, the UNODC said.
June 27 (UPI) — Federal officials have charged four people from California with what they call the largest COVID-19 tax credit fraud scheme ever identified in the United States, amounting to more than $90 million in payouts.
Two of the defendants are also facing attempted murder charges for shooting one of their co-conspirators, the FBI’s Los Angeles field office confirmed in a release.
Kristerpher Turner, Toriano Knox, Kenya Jones and Joyce Johnson are all facing federal conspiracy to commit mail fraud; mail fraud; and conspiracy to submit false claims charges.
Jones and Knox are also facing gun and attempted murder charges for shooting Turner in 2023, in an attempt to prevent him from speaking to authorities.
A federal indictment was unsealed earlier this month against all four.
Officials allege Turner operated the fraud ring that invoiced close to $250 million in COVID-19 relief payments to the federal government.
“In total, from approximately June 2020 and December 2024, the defendants and their co-conspirators submitted and caused the submission of fraudulent forms for at least 148 companies, seeking a total of approximately $247,956,938 in tax refunds to which they were not entitled,” the FBI statement reads.
The group ultimately received at least $93 million in Treasury checks from the IRS.
According to authorities, while Turner ran the scheme, Knox, Jones and Johnson served as recruiters, even luring friends and family members aboard and obtaining their personal or business information to submit false benefits claims.
“At some point during the scheme, the now-defendants learned that the IRS and others were making inquiries about their fraudulent activity,” the FBI statement reads, alleging Knox and Jones of carrying out a shooting to prevent him from acting as a witness.
Turner was shot in August of 2023 and is now paralyzed.
The FBI, IRS Criminal Investigation section and office of the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration were involved in the joint investigation.
All four defendants are facing maximum sentences of 20 years in federal prison for each fraud charge if convicted. Knox and Jones are also facing 30-year sentences if convicted of attempted murder charges, while the gun charges carry maximum penalties of life in prison.
The case is not the first multi-million-dollar fraud committed during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Earlier this month, a June Chicago laboratory owner received a seven-year prison sentence after being convicted of falsifying COVID-19 test results. Authorities contend the fraud scheme generated $14 million.
Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh – The sound of children at play echoes through the verdant lanes of one of the dozens of refugee camps on the outskirts of Cox’s Bazar, a densely populated coastal town in southeast Bangladesh.
Just for a moment, the sounds manage to soften the harsh living conditions faced by the more than one million people who live here in the world’s largest refugee camp.
Described as the most persecuted people on the planet, the Rohingya Muslim refugees in Bangladesh may now be one of the most forgotten populations in the world, eight years after being ethnically cleansed from their homes in neighbouring Myanmar by a predominantely Buddhist military regime.
“Cox’s Bazar is ground zero for the impact of budget cuts on people in desperate need,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said during a visit to the sprawling camps in May.
The UN chief’s visit followed United States President Donald Trump’s gutting of the US Agency for International Development (USAID), which has stalled several key projects in the camps, and the United Kingdom announcing cuts to foreign aid in order to increase defence spending.
Seated outside his makeshift bamboo hut, Jahid Alam told Al Jazeera how, before being forced to become a refugee, he had worked as a farmer and also fished for a living in the Napura region of his native Myanmar. It was back then, in 2016, that he first noticed his leg swell up for no apparent reason.
“I was farming and suddenly felt this intense urge to itch my left leg,” Alam said. “My leg soon turned red and began swelling up. I rushed home and tried to put some ice on it. But it didn’t help.”
A local doctor prescribed an ointment, but the itch continued, and so did the swelling.
He soon found it difficult to stand or walk and could no longer work, becoming dependent on his family members.
A year later, when Myanmar’s military began burning Rohingya homes in his village and torturing the women, he decided to send his family to Bangladesh.
Alam stayed behind to look after the cows on his land. But the military soon threatened him into leaving too and joining his family in neighbouring Bangladesh.
The 53-year-old has been treated by Doctors Without Borders, known by its French initials MSF, in the Kutupalong region of Cox’s Bazar since arriving, but amputation of his leg seems likely. While some doctors have said he has Elephantiasis – an infection that causes enlargement and swelling of limbs – a final diagnosis is yet to be made.
Along with the disease, Alam has to also deal with stigma due to his disability.
“They call me ‘langhra’(lame) when they see I can’t walk properly,” he said.
But, he adds: “If God has given me this disease and disability, he also gave me the opportunity to come to this camp and try to recover. In the near future I know I can start a new and better life.”
Jahid Alam at the Cox’s Bazar refugee camp, Bangladesh [Valeria Mongelli/Al Jazeera]
‘The word “Amma” gives me hope’
Seated in a dimly lit room in a small hut about a 10-minute walk from Alam’s shelter, Jahena Begum hopes aid organisations will continue supporting the camps and particularly people with disabilities.
Her daughter Sumaiya Akter, 23, and sons, Harez, 19, and Ayas, 21, are blind and have a cognitive disability that prevents them from speaking clearly. They are largely unaware of their surroundings.
“Their vision slowly began fading as they became teenagers,” Begum says.
“It was very difficult to watch, and healthcare facilities in Myanmar could not help,” said the 50-year-old mother as she patted her daughter’s leg.
The young girl giggled, unaware of what was going on around her.
Begum’s family arrived in Cox’s Bazar about nine months ago after the military in Myanmar burned their house down.
“We made it to the camps with the help of relatives. But life has been very hard for me,” said Begum, telling how she had single-handedly brought up her children since her husband’s death eight years ago.
Doctors from MSF have given her children spectacles and have begun running scans to understand the root cause of their disability.
“Right now, they express everything by making sounds. But the one word they speak, which is ‘Amma’, meaning mother, shows me that they at least recognise me,” Begum said.
“The word ‘Amma’ gives me hope and strength to continue trying to treat them. I want a better future for my children.”
Jahena Begum, first left, with her three children, Sumaiya Akter, second from left, Ayas, third from left, and Harez, right, during an interview in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, earlier this month [Valeria Mongelli/Al Jazeera]
‘The pain isn’t just physical – it’s emotional’
Clad in a blue and pink striped collared shirt and a striped brown longyi – the cloth woven around the waist and worn by men and women in Myanmar – Anowar Shah told of fleeing Myanmar to save his life, on top of losing a limb to a mine blast.
Shah said he was collecting firewood in his hometown Labada Prian Chey in Myanmar when his leg was blown off by the landmine last year.
Myanmar is among the world’s deadliest countries for landmine and unexploded ordnance casualties, according to a 2024 UN report, with more than 1,000 victims recorded in 2023 alone – a number that surpassed all other nations.
“Those were the longest, most painful days of my life,” said the 25-year-old Shah, who now needs crutches to get around.
“Losing my leg shattered everything. I went from being someone who provided and protected, to someone who depends on others just to get through the day. I can’t move freely, can’t work, can’t even perform simple tasks alone,” he said.
“I feel like I’ve become a burden to the people I love. The pain isn’t just physical – it’s emotional, it’s deep. I keep asking myself, ‘Why did this happen to me?’”
Anowar Shah is a victim of a landmine explosion in Myanmar and lives in a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh [Courtesy of Anowar Shah]
More than 30 refugees in the camps in Bangladesh have lost limbs in landmine explosions, leaving them disabled and dependent on others.
All parties to the armed conflict in Myanmar have used landmines in some capacity, said John Quinley, director of rights organisation Fortify Rights, in Myanmar.
“We know the Myanmar junta has used landmines over many years to bolster their bases. They also lay them in civilian areas around villages and towns that they have occupied and fled,” he told Al Jazeera.
Abdul Hashim, 25, who resides in Camp 21 in Cox’s Bazar, described how stepping on a landmine in February 2024 “drastically altered his life”.
“I have become dependent on others for even the simplest daily tasks. Once an active contributor to my family, I now feel like a burden,” he said.
Since arriving in the camp, Hashim has been in a rehabilitation programme at the Turkish Field Hospital where he receives medication and physical rehabilitation that involves balance exercises, stump care, and hygiene education.
He has also been assessed for a prosthetic limb which currently costs about 50,000 Bangladeshi Taka ($412). The cost for such limbs is borne by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
“Despite the trauma and hardship, I hold onto some hope. I dream of receiving a prosthetic leg soon, which would allow me to regain some independence and find work to support my family,” Hashim said.
So far, a total of 14 prosthetic limbs have been distributed and fitted for camp inhabitants by the aid group Humanity & Inclusion, who have expertise in producing the limbs in orthotic workshops outside the refugee camps.
Both Hashim and Shah are a part of the organisation’s rehabilitation programme, which has been providing gait training to help them adapt to the future, regular use of prosthetic limbs.
Tough decisions for aid workers
Seeking to ensure refugees in the camps are well supported and can live better lives after fleeing persecution, aid workers are currently having to make tough decisions due to foreign aid cuts.
“We are having to decide between feeding people and providing education and healthcare due to aid cuts,” a Bangladeshi healthcare worker who requested anonymity, for fear his comment could jeopardise future aid from the US, told Al Jazeera.
Quinley of Fortify Rights pointed out that while there are huge funding gaps because of the aid cuts, the Rohingya refugee response should not fall on any one government and should be a collective regional responsibility.
“There needs to be a regional response, particularly for countries in Southeast Asia, to give funding,” he said.
“Countries connected to the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) in the Middle East could also give a lot more meaningful support,” he said.
He also recommended working with local humanitarian partners, “whether it’s Bangladeshi nationals or whether it’s Rohingya refugee groups themselves” since they know how to help their communities the best.
“Their ability to access people that need support is at the forefront, and they should be supported from governments worldwide,” he said.
For the estimated one million refugees in Cox’s Bazar, urgent support is needed at this time, when funds grow ever scarce.
According to a Joint Response Plan drawn up for the Rohingya, in 2024, just 30 percent of funding was received of a total $852.4m that was needed by the refugees.
As of May 2025, against an overall appeal for $934.5m for the refugees, just 15 percent received funding.
Cutting the aid budgets for the camps is a “short-sighted policy”, said Blandine Bouniol, deputy director of advocacy at Humanity & Inclusion humanitarian group.
It will, Bouniol said, “have a devastating impact on people”.
People walk past a wall topped with barbed wire at a Rohingya refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh [Valeria Mongelli/Al Jazeera]
ADELANTO, Calif. — As federal immigration agents conduct mass raids across Southern California, the Adelanto ICE Processing Center is filling so rapidly it is reigniting longtime concerns about safety conditions inside the facility.
In less than two months, the number of detainees in the sprawling complex about 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles has surged from around 300 near the end of April to more than 1,200 as of Wednesday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
The largest detention center in California, Adelanto has for years been the focus of complaints from detainees, attorneys and state and federal inspectors about inadequate medical care, overly restrictive segregation and lax mental health services.
But now, critics — including some staff who work inside — warn that conditions inside have become increasingly unsafe and unsanitary. The facility, they say, is woefully unprepared to handle a massive increase in the number of detainees.
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“It’s dangerous,” a longtime Adelanto detention center staff member told The Times, speaking on condition of anonymity because they did not want to lose their job. “We have no staffing for this and not enough experienced staff. They’re just cutting way too many corners, and it affects the safety of everybody in there.”
On Tuesday, U.S. Rep Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park), toured Adelanto with four other Democratic members of Congress from California amid growing concern over the rapidly increasing number of detainees and deteriorating conditions inside the facility.
The facility’s manager “has to clearly improve its treatment of these detainees,” Chu said at a news conference after inspecting the facility for nearly two hours.
Some detainees told lawmakers they were held inside Adelanto for 10 days without a change of clothes, underwear or towels, Chu said. Others said they had been denied access to a telephone to speak to loved ones and lawyers, even after repeatedly filling out forms.
“I was just really shocked to hear that they couldn’t get a change of underwear, they couldn’t get socks for 10 days,” Chu told The Times. “They can’t get the PIN number for a telephone call. What about their legal rights? What about the ability to be in contact with their families? That is inhumane.”
Immigration Customs and Enforcement and GEO Group, the Florida-based private prison corporation that manages the Adelanto detention center, did not answer The Times’ questions about staffing or conditions inside the facility. The Times also sent questions to Homeland Security assistant secretary for public affairs Tricia McLaughlin, but they were not answered.
Lucero Garcia, third from left, gave an emotional account about her uncle who was taken from his work at an Orange County car wash. She and others were outside the Adelanto ICE Processing Center on Tuesday.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Over the last two weeks, new detainees have been forced to sleep on the floors of common areas without blankets and pillows and have spent days in the facility before they were provided with clean clothes and underwear, according to interviews with current detention center staff, immigration attorneys, and members of Congress who toured the facility. Some detainees have complained about lack of access to medication, lack of access to drinking water for four hours, and being served dinner as late as 10 p.m.
One detainee was not allowed his high blood pressure pills when family tried to bring it in, said Jennifer Norris, a staff attorney at Immigrant Defenders Law Center. In some cases, she said, lax medical care has led to emergencies: a Vietnamese man passed out last week because staff didn’t provide him with his necessary medication.
“It’s clear that with the ramp up enforcement, Adelanto just does not have the staff to keep pace with the aggressive enforcement that’s happening now,” Norris said. “It is bizarre. We spend millions of dollars on ICE detention and they’re not even able to provide basic necessities for the new arrivals.”
Long before Trump administration officials announced in May they were setting a new national goal of arresting 3,000 unauthorized immigrants a day, Adelanto workers worried about understaffing and unsafe conditions as the center processed new detainees.
At the end of last year, the facility held only three people. As of Wednesday, the number had swelled to 1,218, according to the ACLU of Southern California.
The climb is only partly due to the ICE agents’ recent escalation of immigrant raids.
The 1,940-bed Adelanto facility has been operating at a dramatically reduced capacity since 2020 when civil rights groups filed a class-action lawsuit demanding a drastic reduction in the number of people detained at Adelanto on the basis that they faced severe risk of contracting COVID-19. A federal judge forced the detention center to release detainees and prohibit new intakes and transfers.
But a series of federal court orders this year — the most recent in early June — has allowed the facility to fully reopen just as federal immigration agents fan out into neighborhoods and workplaces.
“As soon as the judge lifted the order, they just started slamming people in there,” an Adelanto staffer told The Times.
Eva Bitrán, director of immigrant rights at the ACLU of Southern California, said “almost everybody” held in the Adelanto facility had no criminal record before they arrived in the detention center.
“But even if they had a criminal record, even if they had served their time in criminal custody and then been brought to the ICE facility, nobody deserves 10 days in the same underwear,” Bitrán said. “Nobody deserves dirty showers, nobody deserves moldy food.”
The Adelanto ICE Processing Center.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Mario Romero, an Indigenous worker from Mexico who was detained June 6 at the Ambiance Apparel warehouse in downtown L.A., was one of dozens who ended up in Adelanto.
His daughter, Yurien Contreras, said she and her family were traumatized after her father was “chained by the hands, feet and waist,” taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown and then “held hostage” in a van from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m. with no access to water, food or a restroom.
“Little did we know,” she said, “it was only the beginning of the inhumane treatment our families would endure.”
At Adelanto, she said, officials try to force her father to sign documents without due process or legal representation. The medical care was “less than minimal,” she said, the food was unsustainable and the water tasted like Clorox.
Yurien Contreras’ father was taken by ICE agents from his workplace at Ambiance Apparel in Los Angeles.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times)
Lucero Garcia told The Times she was concerned about her 61-year-old uncle, Candido, who was detained June 9 as he worked at his job at Magnolia Car Wash in Fountain Valley.
But when she visited him Saturday, “he didn’t want to share much,” she said. “He’s worried more about us.”
This is not the first time the Adelanto detention center has faced scrutiny.
In 2018, federal inspectors issued a report finding “serious violations” at the facility, including overly restrictive detainee segregation and guards failing to stop detainees from hanging braided bed sheet “nooses.”
But two staffers who spoke to The Times said they had never experienced such unsafe conditions at Adelanto.
As the prison population has increased over the last few months, they said, staff are working long hours without breaks, some even falling asleep driving home after their shifts and having car accidents. Shift duty officers with no security experience were being asked to make decisions in the middle of the night about whether to put detainees who felt threatened in protective custody. Officers, including people from food service, were being sent to the hospital to check on detainees with tuberculosis and hepatitis.
“Everyone’s just overwhelmed,” a staffer said.
Officers working over their allotted schedules were often tired when they were on duty, another staffer said.
In May, a detainee went into anaphylactic shock and ended up intubated in the hospital, the staffer said, because an officer wasn’t paying attention or was new and gave the detainee, who’s allergic to seafood, a tray that contained tuna.
At a May meeting, the warden told all executive staff that they needed to come to work dressed down on Tuesdays and Thursdays, the staffer said, because they would have to start doing janitorial work.
On June 2, a detainee at the Annex facility made his way from a medical holding area, through four locked doors, all the way back to his dorm unescorted, the staffer said — a major security breach.
“If he would’ve wanted to escape he would’ve been gone,” the staffer said. “All he did is push the buttons to access the doors and they were open for him, no questions. Apparently, whoever was in central control was too tired to check or too inexperienced.”
The detention center was becoming unsanitary, the staffer said, with trash bins not promptly emptied, bathrooms not cleaned and floors not mopped as they should be.
As new waves of detainees flooded into the facility over the last two weeks, the staffer said, the facility was chaotic and lacking basic supplies.
“We didn’t have enough to provide right away,” they said, “so we’re scrambling to get clothes and mattresses.”
Mark Ferretiz, who worked as a cook supervisor at Adelanto for 14 years until April, said former colleagues told him officers were working 16- to 20-hour shifts multiple days in a row without breaks, officers were slow to respond to physical fights between detainees, and food was limited for detainees.
“They had five years to prepare,” Ferretiz, who had served as a union steward, said of his former supervisors. “I don’t know the reason why they weren’t prepared.”
While the supply shortages appeared to ease some in recent days — a shipment of clothes and mattresses had arrived by Tuesday, when members of Congress toured — the detention center was still understaffed, the current staffer said.
Detainees were being served food on paper clam-shell to-go boxes, rather than regular trays, a staffer said, because the facility lacked employees to wash up at the end of mealtimes.
“Trash pickup’s not coming fast enough, ” a staffer said, noting that piles of trash sat outside, bagged up, beside the dumpsters.
In a statement last week, GEO Group Executive Chairman George C. Zoley said fully opening the Adelanto facility would allow his company to generate about $31 million in additional annualized revenues.
“We are proud of our approximately 350 employees at the Adelanto Center, whose dedication and professionalism have allowed GEO to establish a long-standing record of providing high-quality support services on behalf of ICE in the state of California,” Zoley said.
But after touring the facility, members of Congress said officials did not provide answers to basic questions.
When Chu asked officials about whether California immigrants were being taken to other states, she said, they said, “We don’t know.”
ESSEX is set to be the proud owner of the world’s largest inflatable obstacle course.
Braintree Village will be the home to an action-packed activity area and assault course – just in time for the summerholidays (and questionable weather).
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The inflatable obstacle course is great for adults and kidsCredit: Supplied
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The Monster boasts a 300m playground, 40 hurdles and mega slideCredit: Supplied
Named The Monster, people can take on the huge obstacle course from Saturday 19th July to Sunday 31st August.
Based in the Essex shopping outlet, the area will be transformed into a giant playground with 300 metres of inflatable fun for everyone.
You’ll find more than 40 obstacles including the 18-metre Mega Slide, the chaotic Exterminator and the House of Hell.
The Monster has toured Canada and the USA – plus has had sell-out events at London’s Alexandra Palace and Birmingham’s NEC.
The gigantic arena – which is the biggest of its kind in the area – is welcome to people of all ages.
Guests can take part in daytime sessions for families and youngsters.
Plus adult-only evening experiences with street food and drink available to enhance a festival vibe.
Josef O’Sullivan, Centre Director at Braintree Village, commented: “We’re thrilled to welcome The Monster to Braintree Village this summer.
“It’s such a unique, exciting attraction that will bring something totally new to the area.
“We’ve seen such a positive reaction to the recent limited-run activities that we have brought to the outlet, and we’re certain that this is going to be the most hotly anticipated event yet.
“We look forward to sharing more details about The Monster soon – it’s set to be an unforgettable summer at Braintree Village.”
Ticket prices and sessions will be confirmed in the coming weeks.
Children must be aged 6 years or 1-metre tall to take part.
Guests are encouraged to sign up to the outlet’s member rewards club, PLUS+, for priority access to tickets and exclusive announcements.
The exciting summer news follows a range of fresh stores opening at the outlet.
Shoppers have gone wild for Essex’s first ever Crocs store, Joules and Belstaff.
For more sensory overload and stimulation, Haribo’s first flagship UK store can be found round the corner in Kent‘s Bluewater.
Its Bluewater debut is Haribo’s first store in the UK that is outside of a designer shopping outlet.
The brand already has 10 locations across factory destinations in the likes of Ashford and Gunwharf Quays inPortsmouth.
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The assault course is coming to Braintree, EssexCredit: Supplied
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The Monster is the largest inflatable obstacle course in the worldCredit: Supplied
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There are adults-only sessions where you’ll find a festival vibeCredit: Supplied
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The epic activity arena can be found at Braintree VillageCredit: Supplied
Poland will be taking the throne as the biggest – and busiest – airport in Europe with its expansion, the Solidarity Transport Hub, offering a smoother travel to major cities in the country and beyond
EU airport to over throne London Heathrow in capacity and size by 2032
Warsaw Solidarity Airport in Poland has a confirmed year for its complete construction: 2032. It’s set to welcome millions of passengers a year and is planning to overtake London Heathrow Airport and Dubai International Airport’s size and capacity.
As reported by the Construction Briefing, it will be able to handle 40 million passengers per year. The airport will become the largest airport in the country and one of the largest in Europe, with plans to expand its capacity to 100 million passengers annually.
Located 24 miles outside Warsaw, the construction will begin in 2026, with the first phase of the construction opening up to the public by 2032. Interestingly, Warsaw Solidarity Airport was built to replace Warsaw Chopin Airport since it was reaching its capacity of 20 million passengers.
Not only that, the airport is planning to expand even more by adding two 3.8km runways, which will be 2.5km apart, to accommodate simultaneous take-offs and landings. A third runway is also being considered for the future.
Warsaw Solidarity Airport’s Solidarity Transport Hub to become the new travel revolution
A new gateway to Europe
The Centralny Port Komunikacyjny (CPK), also known as the Solidarity Transport Hub is a multi-billion euro project planned by the Polish government and other investors, involving building passenger terminal railway stations and transport hubs. It aims to make it much easier for locals and visitors to get around.
Opening its first phase in 2027, the central terminal will be used as a major transportation hub, which will be directly connected by air travel with a high-speed rail station and a regional bus terminal, providing a much more comfortable transfer between air, rail and road transport.
The CPK’s ‘Y-line’ will be connected to a high-speed rail network, making it much faster and more convenient for people to travel between major cities in Poland, including Warsaw, Lódz, Wroclaw and Poznan with an average journey time of 40 minutes.
The CPK’s ‘Y-line’ will be connected to a high-speed rail network, taking you to major cities in Poland in under 40 minutes
Over 1,800 km of high-speed rail lines are planned, connecting to over 10 major metropolitan areas. There are also other plans to turn it into an international transport hub with connections to Western Europe, the Baltics, and the Balkans.
Speaking to Notes from Poland, Foster + Partner’s Grant Brooker explained: “Our ambition is to create an accessible building that will improve the travel experience. We believe CPK will completely change the way people travel around Poland and will also become a new gateway to Europe and the rest of the world.”
Costing £25bn, it will also create a total of +150,000 jobs – boosting Poland’s economy
Economic impact: +150,000 new jobs
The Solidarity Transport Hub isn’t only an infrastructure project, but also a major economic initiative. The project is expected to create up to 150,000 new jobs, which will contribtue significantly to Poland’s economy. According to the Solidarity Transport Hub’s site, it will also provide exhibitions, conference facilities and offices.
The estimated cost of the Centralny Port Komunikacyjny project is approximately PLN 131.7 billion, which converted to British Pounds, is £25 billion. This also includes an additional £8 billion for airport construction.
With Poland’s airline, LOT, being one of the biggest beneficiaries, the hub is expected to make Poland the new “travel capital” in Europe by becoming a central gateway for international air travel and transfer points between East and West.
US President Donald Trump has said he is “not happy” with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, following Moscow’s largest aerial attack yet on Ukraine.
In a rare rebuke, Trump said: “What the hell happened to him? He’s killing a lot of people.” He later called Putin “absolutely crazy”.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier said Washington’s “silence” over recent Russian attacks was encouraging Putin, urging “strong pressure” – including tougher sanctions – on Moscow.
Air sirens warning of incoming drones and missiles sounded again in many regions of Ukraine early on Monday.
At least three people, including a child, were injured in the north-eastern city of Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.
Speaking to reporters in New Jersey late on Sunday, Trump said of Putin: “I’ve known him a long time, always gotten along with him, but he’s sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don’t like it at all.”
Asked about whether he was considering increasing US sanctions on Russia, Trump replied: “Absolutely.” The US president has repeatedly threatened to do this before – but is yet to implement any restrictions against Moscow.
Shortly afterwards, Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social that Putin “has gone absolutely crazy”.
“I’ve always said that he wants all of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!”
But the US president also had strong words for Zelensky, saying that he “is doing his country no favours by talking the way he does”.
“Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” Trump wrote of Zelensky.
Despite Kyiv’s European allies preparing further sanctions for Russia, the US has said it will either continue trying to broker these peace talks, or “walk away” if progress does not follow.
Last week, Trump and Putin had a two-hour phone call to discuss a US-proposed ceasefire deal to halt the fighting.
The US president said he believed the call had gone “very well”, adding that Russia and Ukraine would “immediately start” negotiations toward a ceasefire and “an end to the war”.
Ukraine has publicly agreed to a 30-day ceasefire.
Putin has only said Russia will work with Ukraine to craft a “memorandum” on a “possible future peace” – a move described by Kyiv and its European allies as delaying tactics.
The first direct Ukrainian-Russian talks since 2022 were held on 16 May in Istanbul, Turkey.
Aside from a major prisoner of war swap last week, there was little or no progress on bringing a pausing in fighting closer.
Russia currently controls about 20% of Ukrainian territory. This includes Crimea – Ukraine’s southern peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014.
The trail is short but steep, and it smells of sage. A few hundred feet below, I see moms with strollers on a path beside the San Diego River. Above, I see granite cliffs and hear the hollers of unseen climbers.
“Rope!” says one.
“Hey,” says another. “There’s a ram’s horn down here!”
A climber tosses rope near Kwaay Paay Peak.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
This is the Climbers Loop Trail at Kwaay Paay Peak, one of my new favorite spots in the biggest city park that you’ve never heard of: Mission Trails Regional Park in San Diego.
No, this park is not downtown like its more famous sibling, Balboa Park. But Mission Trails, eight miles northeast of downtown and 15 miles from the beach, is the biggest city-owned park in California. Along with the trickling river and a dam that dates to the early Spanish missionary days, the landscape includes 65 miles of trails on more than 8,000 acres of rugged mountains, hills and valleys.
It looks like a healthy slice of Arizona, and it covers more territory than Balboa Park, L.A.’s Griffith Park, San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park and Irvine’s Great Park combined.
Also, it used to be my backyard. Throughout my teen years, my family lived on a cul-de-sac at the base of Cowles Mountain, the highest summit in the park and the city. The chaparral began 40 feet from my back door.
Almost as often as we loitered at the mall and ogled the guitars at American Dream Music, my friends and I wandered the mountain slopes, wading through the sagebrush and nosing around the granite boulders, sidestepping coyote scat, and generally walking that fine line between high jinks and delinquency.
Officially, the park was younger than we were, having been established in 1974. But it contained such deep and obvious history, even the teenage me could appreciate it.
For millennia before the Spanish showed up and built a dam to serve their first Alta California mission, the Kumeyaay lived in these hills.
The Old Mission Dam dates to the early Spanish missionary days.
During World War I, the Army used the area, known as Camp Elliott, for tank and artillery training. During World War II, the Marines did the same, leaving plenty of ordnance behind — including some that exploded in 1983, killing two boys. (Even now, after various cleanup efforts, signs warn that unexploded shells “might still exist.” If you see something suspicious, report it and don’t touch it.)
Once military officials decided they didn’t need the land, local leaders stepped in and began putting together a park in the 1960s and ‘70s. The city added Cowles Mountain in 1974. The visitor center followed in 1995. The Cedar fire of 2003 burned about 2,800 acres, which have long since regrown.
The park’s visitor center includes educational exhibits and a gift shop.
I had a great time brushing up on that history and wandering Mission Trails for two days this spring — my longest spell in those hills since high school. Overnight I slept in a cabin at Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, about two miles east of the park, where several recycled-water lakes are surrounded by well-kept fishing spots, walking paths, playgrounds and a campground.
Also, I have to note that I was in Mission Trails for more than three hours before I saw any graffiti. I’m not sure that’s doable in Griffith Park.
The Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve, which includes cabins, is two miles from San Diego’s Mission Trails Regional Park.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
It’s unlikely many people outside San Diego County know this place exists. But local hikers and birders turn out in force. Climbers like Kwaay Paay Peak (elevation: 1,194 feet) and mountain bikers, equestrians and anglers have their own favorite park territories. You can camp at Santee Lakes or, on weekends, put up a tent in the park’s Kumeyaay Lake campground.
Kumeyaay Lake.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
Mission Trails has the highest peak in the city (Cowles Mountain at 1,591 feet). It has the compact Kumeyaay Lake and the larger Murray Reservoir (a.k.a. Lake Murray), which has fishing, kayaking and canoeing about three miles south of the park visitor center.
But many would say the park’s Main Street is Father Junipero Serra Trail, a paved path that runs alongside the San Diego River, mountains rising on either side.
Father Junipero Serra Trail runs alongside a stretch of the San Diego River.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
The long, flat Father Junipero Serra Trail is a great, easy hike for beginners.
(Christopher Reynolds / Los Angeles Times)
“I just started coming in the last few weeks,” hiker Sumeya Sayd, 23, told me one day as she stepped off the Serra Trail. Like me, she had hiked Cowles Mountain as a youth and overlooked the rest of the park.
Now, inspired by a Muslim American Society group chat, Sayd has been hiking the Serra and Climbers Loop trails more often and thinking about the Mission Trails five-peak challenge — five peaks in the park, each over 1,000 feet.
You can walk or pedal on the Serra Trail, which stretches 2.6 miles and connects the park visitor center to the Old Mission Dam. (Ordinarily, there’s a lane open to vehicular traffic, but because of a sewage-line improvement project, cars will be banned until summer of 2028.)
“This is Desert Wishbone-bush,” I overheard Justin Daniel saying one day along the trail. Daniel, who held aloft a purple flower, was leading a group of about 15 people from the California Native Plant Society.
Soon the group moved on to the California Buckwheat and Daniel added that “we have the most native plants in California for one county,” along with “more native bees than you can shake a stick at.”
How urban is this urban park? Not very. No museums, no zoos, no restaurants. Still, its busiest trail gets an estimated 780,000 hikers a year. That’s the route to the top of Cowles Mountain from Navajo Road and Golfcrest Drive.
When I lived in the neighborhood, many people still called Cowles Mountain “S Mountain,” because just about every fall from the 1930s into the 1970s, San Diego State freshmen used lye and white paint to make a big S near the top, 400 feet high and visible for miles.
Now the S is long gone, but through the years I’ve seen foot traffic grow. I’ve hiked it solo, with my daughter and with a friend facing a profound loss. Even though the route to the top from the Golfcrest trailhead is just 1.5 miles, every time it’s a bit more challenging than I expect — 950 feet of elevation gain, irregular steps, crumbling rocks. In the old days, I used to get up and down in 90 minutes. Nowadays, my knees complain and the round trip takes two hours.
Fortunately, the view from the top still hits me like a surprise every time: the hills of Mexico to the south, the coastline to the west, the miles of undeveloped slopes and valleys to the north. In a perfect hiker’s world, maybe there would be no line of utility towers slicing through the Fortuna Mountain portion of Mission Trails and no humming radio towers atop Cowles Mountain. But this is a city park after all. In this vast expanse of nature, that’s easy to forget.
Cowles Mountain is the highest peak in the park.
Where to hike
Mission Trails Regional Park has nearly 65 miles of trails. Here are some to try.
If you’re looking for an easy hike and you’re a newbie, start with the long, flat 2.6-mile Father Junipero Serra Trail. Two other easy routes, well suited to kids, are the Kumeyaay Lake Nature Trail (1 mile around the lake; full of birdsong in the mornings) and the 1.5-mile Visitor Center Loop Trail.
For a longer, mostly flat hike with ample shade, try the park’s Oak Canyon Trail, where a little seasonal waterfall materializes among the rock formations near the far end of the 3.4-mile out-and-back route. That trail has only 240 feet of elevation gain; park rangers call it a “moderate” challenge.
It’s 1.5 miles to the top of Cowles Mountain from the trailhead at Golfcrest Drive and Navajo Road. If you start instead at Big Rock Park in Santee, it’s a 2.5-mile climb to the top. Rangers classify both routes as difficult.
For a stiffer challenge, you can try climbing to the South Fortuna or North Fortuna peaks. (Distances vary, depending on route). Also, there’s the brief, steep Climbers Loop Trail (rated difficult, with 400 feet of altitude gain in a 1-mile round trip).
Down the road, there may be new challenges, because the park is still growing. In the last year, Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation executive director Jennifer Morrissey said, the park has added more than 100 acres through a pair of acquisitions at its northern edges. Eventually the park may also add a safe river-crossing near the visitor center — a possibility rooted in tragedy. In early 2021, 21-year-old trailrunner Max LeNail died in a sudden storm while trying to cross the San Diego River near the visitor center. His family is hoping to build a footbridge in his memory, but for now, the nearest crossing is several miles away.
The Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve includes 10 cabins.
Where to stay
The Kumeyaay Lake Campground (2 Junipero Serra Trail, San Diego; [619] 668-2748) is part of Mission Trails Regional Park. It includes 46 dry/primitive campsites, open Friday and Saturday nightly only. No RV hookups. Rates begin at $26 nightly.
Santee Lakes Recreation Preserve (9310 Fanita Parkway, Santee; [619] 596-3141) includes 290 RV spots, about 12 tent-camping sites and 10 cabins. The RV and tent camping spots rent for $62-$111 nightly. Cabins go for $137-$265. There’s plenty of fishing and boating, but no swimming in the recycled water of the lakes. The preserve has a space set aside for a lakefront restaurant with ample deck, but two concessionaires have closed there since 2021 and 2024. Preserve management has said another restaurant will open soon.
The view from atop Cowles Mountain at Mission Trails Regional Park, San Diego.
A small town in western France has set a new world record for the largest gathering of people dressed as Smurfs, organisers say, with more than 3,000 participants counted over the weekend.
Landerneau, a town of 16,000 in Brittany’s far west, had twice previously attempted to claim the record from Lauchringen, a German town that brought together 2,762 Smurfs in 2019.
But on Saturday, the French enthusiasts finally broke through, assembling 3,076 people clad in blue outfits, faces painted, donning white hats and singing “smurfy songs”.
The Smurfs – created by Belgian cartoonist Peyo in 1958 and known as “Schtroumpfs” in French – are tiny, human-like beings who live in the forest.
The beloved characters have since become a global franchise, spawning films, television series, advertising, video games, theme parks and toys.
“A friend encouraged me to join and I thought: ‘Why not?’” said Simone Pronost, 82, dressed as a Smurfette.
Albane Delariviere, a 20-year-old student, made the journey from Rennes, more than 200km (125 miles) away, to join the festivities.
“We thought it was a cool idea to help Landerneau out,” she said.
Landerneau’s mayor, Patrick Leclerc, also in full Smurf attire, said the event “brings people together and gives them something else to think about than the times we’re living in”.
Pascal Soun, head of the association behind the gathering, said the event “allows people to have fun and enter an imaginary world for a few hours”.
Participants were relieved to have good weather, after last year’s attempt was hampered by heavy rain that deterred many from attending.
US President Donald Trump, who promised to end America’s foreign military campaigns, has paid a visit to US troops stationed in Qatar. Trump praised the US’s deadly arsenal, hit out at his predecessor and made fun of France.
Walmart, the world’s largest retailer, will have to start raising prices later this month due to the high cost of tariffs, executives have warned in a clear signal that United States President Donald Trump’s trade war is filtering through to the US economy.
As a bellwether of US consumer health, Walmart’s explicit statement on Thursday is also a signpost for how the trade war is affecting companies as Walmart is noted for its ability to manage costs more aggressively than other companies to keep prices low.
Walmart’s shares fell 2.3 percent in morning trading after it also declined to provide a profit forecast for the second quarter, even as the company’s US comparable sales surpassed expectations in the first quarter.
Net sales rose 2.5 percent to $165.6bn, a hair shy of estimates, while same-store sales were up 4.5 percent. Walmart’s quarterly adjusted profit was 61 cents per share, ahead of the analyst consensus for 58 cents per share.
Many US companies have either slashed or pulled their full-year expectations in the wake of the trade war, as consumers stretch their budgets to buy everything from groceries to essentials at cheaper prices. But Walmart’s statement will resonate nationwide, as roughly 255 million people shop in its stores and online weekly around the world, and 90 percent of the US population lives within 10 miles of a Walmart.
US shoppers will start to see prices rise at the end of May and certainly in June, Walmart’s Chief Financial Officer John David Rainey said in a CNBC interview. On a post-earnings call with analysts, he said the retailer would also have to cut back on orders as it considers price elasticity.
As the largest importer of container goods in the US, Walmart is heavily exposed to tariffs, and even though the US and China reached a truce that lowered levies for imports on Chinese goods to 30 percent, that’s still a high cost to bear, executives said.
“We’re very pleased and appreciative of the progress that has been made by the administration to bring tariffs down … but let me emphasise we still think that’s too high,” Rainey said on the call, referring to the tariff cuts negotiated over the weekend.
“There are certain items, certain categories of merchandise that we’re dependent upon to import from other countries and the prices of those things are likely going to go up, and that’s not good for consumers,” he added.
Other retailers also said they would be boosting prices. German sandal maker Birkenstock on Thursday said it plans to raise prices globally to fully offset the impact of the US tariff of 10 percent on European Union-made goods.
US consumer sentiment ebbed for a fourth straight month in April, signaling watchful purchasing, while the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) contracted for the first time in three years during the first quarter, fanning worries of a recession.
Narrow margins
Walmart’s CEO Doug McMillon said the retailer would not be able to absorb all the tariffs’ costs because of narrow retail margins, but was committed to ensuring that tariff-related costs on general merchandise – which primarily come from China – do not drive food prices higher.
To mitigate the impact, Walmart is working with suppliers to substitute tariff-affected components, such as replacing aluminium with fibreglass, which is not subject to tariffs.
Despite these efforts, McMillon noted that adjusting costs is more challenging in cases where Walmart imports food items like bananas, avocados, coffee, and roses from countries such as Costa Rica, Peru, and Colombia.
Analysts said Walmart was better positioned than rivals, as its scale enables it to lean on its suppliers and squeeze out efficiencies to shield customers from tariffs, but only so much.
“There will likely be some demand destruction from tariffs; a complete wreck is unlikely,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.
Walmart on Thursday kept its annual sales and profit forecast intact for fiscal 2026, but withheld second-quarter operating income growth and earnings per share forecasts, citing a “fluid operating environment … [which] makes the very near term exceedingly difficult to forecast at the level and speed at which tariffs could go up”.
Terminal 4 of Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas in the Spanish capital has been struggling to deal with a reported insect infestation this week, as political tensions grow over rough sleeping at the airport
Milo Boyd Digital Travel Editor and Commercial Content Lead
13:19, 15 May 2025
As many as 500 people a night have been sleeping at the airport(Image: Europa Press via Getty Images)
The largest airport in Spain has been hit by an apparent bed bug outbreak, with passengers and workers claiming they’ve been bitten.
Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport has been fumigated this week following widespread reports of insect outbreaks, including bed bugs. Some holidaymakers have photographed bite marks they claim to have received during transit through Europe’s second-largest airport.
Airport workers have reported insect bites, prompting the airport’s managing body to hire a pest control company that has fumigated hallways, furniture, and check-in belts for bedbugs, ticks, and cockroaches.
However, a Naturalia report into the alleged outbreak downplayed it, suggesting the bites were “a one-off incident with no determined origin.” The company said in a statement: “The presence of bed bugs is associated with the movement of people and not with the facilities. In the short to medium term, the situation should return to normal.”
Politicians are split about what to do regarding the rough sleeping(Image: Getty Images)
AENA, the airport’s operator, has explained that inspections, monitoring, and prevention treatments had been carried out, and whenever an insect was identified in very limited and defined areas, specific actions were taken. The airport operator assured that it had worked “in coordination” with the cleaning company and the specialised firm to incorporate all necessary hygienic measures and has kept the companies to which these workers belong informed at all times.
It’s not the only issue which airport officials are facing. There are also 421 people without permanent homes sleeping in the airport, according to the latest census conducted by the NGO Cáritas. On occasional nights since February as many as 500 people have been bedding down in one of the terminals, InfoBae reports.
According to a report in El Mundo, the situation in the airport is getting worse. “What began as a large group of homeless people spending the night, night after night, on Level 1 of Terminal 4 of Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas Airport has finally become overwhelming. They can now be found on any floor, in any corner, despite the temperature reduction at nightfall or the constant messages over the PA system that resonate every few minutes,” the newspaper writes.
Many living there are struggling to get by in a city where living costs and housing prices have shot up in recent years. One Honduran man found himself with no fixed place to stay after moving to Spain two years ago. He sends photographs of tourist attractions in the city to his mum back home, to convince her that he’s prospering in Europe.
But living in the airport is tough. “They stole everything while I was sleeping… I imagine it was someone else desperate from here. They took my transport card, my cell phone, my passport, the only 60 euros I had,” the distraught man told El Mundo.
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During the day many leave the airport and head into the city where they wait with signs offering their services. “Then a van comes and chooses us. But of course, some ask for 60 euros, others 40, others 20… In the end, the one who earns the least is the one who gets the job. He ends up being the most exploited, but at least at the end of the day he has 20 euros in his pocket. This life is very complicated,” the Honduran man explained.
Terminal 4 – where most people who sleep at the airport bed down for the night – has become difficult to navigate for some holidaymakers. The bathrooms are often occupied by people living there and the departure halls have become crowded.
People sleeping rough in the airport have spoken of the struggles they face there(Image: Europa Press via Getty Images)
This week it was reported that AENA will start limiting access to the terminal outside of the busiest times of the day. During parts of the day with fewer flights only passengers with boarding passes, their departing and arriving companions, and airport staff will be able to access the airport terminals, 20 Minutos reports.
A spokesperson for the airport operator has said it will continue to collaborate with social organizations in the third sector to ensure that people experiencing homelessness can access decent housing.
