PLUGS with USB ports feel like a godsend when travelling abroad, as you don’t have to worry with adapters.
But it turns out that they risk doing more harm than good – and could end up costing you a fortune.
Sign up for the Travel newsletter
Thank you!
Travellers have been warned to not use USB ports at airports as it could lead to ‘juice jacking’Credit: Getty
The US Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has warned passengers that using USB ports in airports can potentially make your phone vulnerable to a cyber attack.
In a Facebook post, TSA said: “Hackers can install malware at USB ports (we’ve been told that’s called ‘juice/port jacking’).
“So, when you’re at an airport do not plug your phone directly into a USB port.
“Bring your TSA-compliant power brick or battery pack and plug in there.”
Juice jacking is essentially a form of cyber attack, where public USB ports are used to steal data from or install malware on a device.
The issue isn’t just limited to airports either, as any sockets with USB ports in a public place could be at risk – on board the plane, at train stations, in hotels and in coffee shops.
Through juice jacking, hackers can gain access to sensitive information such as passwords, emails and financial information.
Malware could also be installed, which allows hackers to track online activities – or even fully take over your device.
Firmware could also be impacted, meaning that the security measures on a device could be rendered useless.
The TSA also warned that travellers should not use public Wi-Fi, especially if planning to make online purchases.
So how do you protect your device?
According to cybersecurity company McAfee, “the most straightforward way to avoid juice jacking is to use your own charging cables, plugs and adapters.
They said: “By plugging into a standard electrical outlet rather than a public USB port, you eliminate the risk of data theft or malware installation through compromised USB ports.”
You could also carry a battery pack with you, but make sure to check your airline’s regulations as some do not allow power banks on board planes.
You can also use a USB data blocker, which is a small adapter that attaches to the end of your wire and blocks any transmission for a USB port.
This then only allows power to go through the cable to your phone.
First of all, it’s in Essex not London, and it’s bizarrely a regular filming destination for Hollywood directors – doubling up for everything from Venice to Gotham City.
Sign up for the Travel newsletter
Thank you!
From Batman to Indiana Jones and even Paddington Bear, the port town of Tilbury in Essex is a big star of the screenCredit: AlamyIt’s also home to Tilbury Town train station which has been hailed as ‘life-changing’Credit: Google
When Christian Bale was Batman, he spent time filming at the docks while it doubled up as Gotham City, as well as the nearby Coalhouse Fort on the edge of the River Thames.
The Coalhouse Fort was built in the 1860s to protect the Thames – and in the movie was made to look like a prison.
Christian Bale isn’t the only mega star to have spent time in Tilbury, Harrison Ford, Sean Connery and director Steven Spielberg visited the docks to film the third Indiana Jones movie; Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade.
They even used the docks as the background for a boat chase, which they pretended was Venice.
And perhaps the most famous star of them all – Paddington Bear.
Tilbury featured in the first Paddington Bear film, at the beginning of the movie when the bear migrates from Peru and ends up heading into London.
Tilbury Dock is located in Tilbury Town, which features a star-shaped, 16th century fort on the waterfront that was built to defend the river against enemy ships.
Most read in Best of British
It was in nearby West Tilbury that Elizabeth I rallied her army, awaiting the Armada in 1588.
You can now visit Tilbury Fort, as it’s managed by English Heritage, tickets for adults cost £8.60 and tickets for children are £5.
The speedboat chase in Indiana Jones was filmed in Tilbury, not VeniceCredit: UnknownThe star-shaped Tilbury Fort sits on the riversideCredit: Alamy
Meanwhile, the train station in Tilbury Town has been shortlisted as one of the most life-changing stations in the country.
It’s part of the World Cup of Stations Competition where a group of shortlisted stations in Britain battle it out head-to-head in a public vote.
People have shared their own stories about the train stations to celebrate 200 years of British railway.
Tilbury Town has been hailed as a “key point of arrival for people journeying to Britain.
“From emigrants and returning servicemen to post-war migrants seeking fresh opportunities, Tilbury became a symbol of hope and renewal.
“One of its finest moments came in June 1948, when the Empire Windrush docked at Tilbury, bringing hundreds of passengers from the Caribbean.”
The United States and China have started charging additional port fees on ocean shipping firms that move everything from holiday toys to crude oil, making the high seas a key front in the trade war between the world’s two largest economies.
A return to an all-out trade war appeared imminent last week, after China announced a major expansion of its rare earths export controls, and US President Donald Trump threatened to raise tariffs on Chinese goods to triple digits.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
But after the weekend, both sides sought to reassure traders and investors, highlighting cooperation between their negotiating teams and the possibility they could find a way forward.
China said it had started to collect the special charges on US-owned, operated, built or flagged vessels, but it clarified that Chinese-built ships would be exempted from the levies.
In details published by state broadcaster CCTV, China spelled out specific provisions on exemptions, which also include empty ships entering Chinese shipyards for repair.
Similar to the US plan, the new China-imposed fees would be collected at the first port of entry on a single voyage or for the first five voyages within a year.
“This tit-for-tat symmetry locks both economies into a spiral of maritime taxation that risks distorting global freight flows,” Athens-based Xclusiv Shipbrokers said in a research note.
Early this year, the Trump administration announced plans to levy the fees on China-linked ships to loosen the country’s grip on the global maritime industry and bolster US shipbuilding.
An investigation during the administration of former US President Joe Biden concluded that China uses unfair policies and practices to dominate the global maritime, logistics and shipbuilding sectors, clearing the way for those penalties.
China hit back last week, saying it would impose its own port fees on US-linked vessels from the same day the US fees took effect.
“We are in the hectic stage of the disruption, where everyone is quietly trying to improvise workarounds, with varying degrees of success,” said independent dry bulk shipping analyst Ed Finley-Richardson. He said he has heard reports of US shipowners with non-Chinese vessels trying to sell their cargoes to other countries while en route, so the vessels can divert.
The Reuters news agency was not immediately able to confirm this.
Tit-for-tat moves
Analysts expect China-owned container carrier COSCO to be the most affected by the US fees, shouldering nearly half of that segment’s expected $3.2bn cost from the fees in 2026.
Major container lines, including Maersk, Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM, slashed their exposure by switching China-linked ships out of their US shipping lanes. Trade officials there reduced fees from initially proposed levels, and exempted a broad swath of vessels after heavy pushback from the agriculture, energy and US shipping industries.
The Office of the US Trade Representative (USTR) did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Reuters.
China’s Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday said, “If the US chooses confrontation, China will see it through to the end; if it chooses dialogue, China’s door remains open.”
In a related move, Beijing also imposed sanctions on Tuesday against five US-linked subsidiaries of South Korean shipbuilder Hanwha Ocean, which it said had “assisted and supported” a US probe into Chinese trade practices.
Hanwha, one of the world’s largest shipbuilders, owns Philly Shipyard in the US and has won contracts to repair and overhaul US Navy ships. Its entities will also build a US-flagged LNG carrier.
Hanwha said it is aware of the announcement and is closely monitoring the potential business impact. Hanwha Ocean’s shares sank by nearly 6 percent.
China also launched an investigation into how the US probe affected its shipping and shipbuilding industries.
A Shanghai-based trade consultant said the new fees may not cause significant upheaval.
“What are we going to do? Stop shipping? Trade is already pretty disrupted with the US, but companies are finding a way,” the consultant told Reuters, requesting anonymity because he was not authorised to speak with the media.
The US announced last Friday a carve-out for long-term charterers of China-operated vessels carrying US ethane and liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), deferring the port fees for them through December 10.
Meanwhile, ship-tracking company Vortexa identified 45 LPG-carrying VLGCs — an acronym for very large gas carriers, a type of vessel — that would be subject to China’s port fee. That amounts to 11 percent of the total fleet.
Clarksons Research said in a report that China’s new port fees could affect oil tankers accounting for 15 percent of global capacity.
Meanwhile, Omar Nokta, an analyst at the financial firm Jefferies, estimated that 13 percent of crude tankers and 11 percent of container ships in the global fleet would be affected.
Trade war embroils environmental policy
In a reprisal against China curbing exports of critical minerals, Trump on Friday threatened to slap additional 100 percent tariffs on goods from China and put new export controls on “any and all critical software” by November 1.
Administration officials, hours later, warned that countries voting this week in favour of a plan by the United Nations International Maritime Organization (IMO) to reduce planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from ocean shipping could face sanctions, port bans, or punitive vessel charges.
China has publicly supported the IMO plan.
“The weaponisation of both trade and environmental policy signals that shipping has moved from being a neutral conduit of global commerce to a direct instrument of statecraft,” Athens-based Xclusiv said.
Shipping containers are seen at the port in Tianjin, China, Tuesday. The United States and China started charging one another port fees. Photo by Jessica Lee/EPA
Oct. 14 (UPI) — The Trump administration recently began charging fees for Chinese ships docking at U.S. ports, prompting China to retaliate.
The move, which has been long planned, is intended to correct the imbalance between American and Chinese shipbuilding businesses. The U.S. shipbuilding business has dwindled over the years as China has become dominant.
“This is symbolic — less than 1% of U.S. vessels docking in China annually are U.S.-flagged vessels, so the reality is this basically has no real impact,” Cameron Johnson, a senior partner at Shanghai-based supply chain consultancy Tidalwave Solutions, told Politico. “But it signals that Beijing will match every single effort the United States targets against China — if the U.S. sanctions a Chinese company, they’re going to sanction a U.S. company. If we impose export controls on technology, they’re going to do export controls on technology. We have just now escalated to a whole new level of trade warfare that nobody was expecting.”
Supporters say that China has used subsidies for an advantage in shipbuilding, and that the fees can deter ocean carriers from buying Chinese ships, The New York Times reported.
“Anything we can do to chip away at the disparity in shipbuilding that exists between the United States and China is to our benefit,” Mihir Torsekar, a senior economist at the Coalition for a Prosperous America, a group that supports many of Trump’s trade moves, told The Times.
Chinese-owned shipping companies must pay the levies, as well as non-Chinese-owned companies, when they send Chinese-made ships to U.S. ports.
The new fees will also target all foreign car-carrying ships that come to the United States. Car-makers lobbied against the fees, arguing that they could add hundreds to the cost of a vehicle. Shipping analysts say it could take many years for the U.S. shipbuilding industry to build a car-carrier ship.
“The idea that these fees will lead to anyone ordering a U.S.-built car carrier are, I think, extremely remote,” Colin Grabow, an associate director at the Cato Institute, told The Times.
The port fees levied against Chinese ships are $50 per ton, with the fee set to increase by $30 per ton each year over the next three years. Politico reported. China’s port charges will also annually escalate to a maximum of $157 in 2028.
“If the goal is to get U.S. shipbuilding back up and running, we think there are other ways that we need to focus on doing that — just putting fees on Chinese vessels isn’t going to solve that issue,” said Jonathan Gold, vice president of supply chain and customs policy at the National Retail Federation, told Politico.
A YOUNG woman was pushed to the ground and “sexually assaulted” while walking down a road as a man, 27, has been arrested.
Detectives have arrested a man following the incident that took place in the early hours of Sunday morning in Liverpool.
A woman in her 20s reported that a man on a bike had been following her while she was walking down Crosby Road South at around 5.45am.
The suspect then proceeded to cover her mouth with his hand and push her to the floor.
After the victim desperately screamed for help, the man fled the scene.
Merseyside Police have arrested a 27-year-old man from Litherland on suspicion of sexual assault.
He currently remains in custody for questioning.
Detective Chief Inspector Nick Suffield said that the incident is deeply concerning and left the victim “extremely shaken.”
In a statement he said: “This is a deeply concerning incident and our investigation continues.
“The victim was understandably left extremely shaken and we will support her through this process.
“A man has been arrested, but I would still urge anyone who lives in the area to check your own, CCTV, dashcam and any doorbell devices should there be anything which helps this work.
“Any information could be vital, so let us make the assessment.”
Extensive witness and CCTV enquiries are continuing.
Anyone with information on the incident should contact the Merseyside Police social media desk @MerPolCC on X and Facebook quoting reference 25000780190
Hundreds gathered in Beirut to mark five years since the deadly port explosion that killed over 218 people, renewing calls for justice and accountability. Protesters urged Lebanon’s leaders to act, hoping the stalled judicial investigation will soon be completed.
When 2,750 tonnes of ammonium nitrate exploded in Beirut’s port on August 4, 2020, it ripped through the city, killing more than 218 people. Among them was three-year-old Alexandra Naggear.
Five years later, the investigation into who is at fault for the blast has been delayed, and at times derailed, by political interference.
“The most important thing for us is not for the decision, but for full justice to happen,” Tracy Naggear, Alexandra’s mother and a key activist advocating for the blast’s victims, told Al Jazeera by phone. “And we won’t accept a half-truth or half-justice.”
As the fifth anniversary of the tragedy approaches, there is some optimism that the judicial investigation is finally moving in the right direction after facing obstacles, mostly from well-connected politicians refusing to answer questions and the former public prosecutor blocking the investigation.
A decision from the lead prosecutor is expected soon, activists and legal sources familiar with the matter told Al Jazeera. And while the road to justice is still long, for the first time, there is a feeling that momentum is building.
Justice derailed
“You can feel a positive atmosphere [this time],” lawyer Tania Daou-Alam told Al Jazeera.
Daou-Alam now lives in the United States, but is in Lebanon for the annual commemoration of the blast, which includes protests and a memorial.
A protester holds up a picture of three-year-old Alexandra Naggear, who was killed in the Beirut port explosion [Kareem Chehayeb/Al Jazeera]
Her husband of 20 years, Jean-Frederic Alam, was killed by the blast, which was one of the largest non-nuclear explosions in modern history.
Daou-Alam is also one of nine victims suing the US-based company TGS in a Texas court for $250m, claiming it was involved in chartering the Rhosus, a Moldovan-flagged ship that carried the ammonium nitrate into Beirut’s port in 2013.
She told Al Jazeera that the case is more about “demanding accountability and access to documents that would shed more light on the broader chain of responsibility” than it is about compensation.
The population of Beirut is used to facing crises without government help. Numerous bombings and assassinations have occurred, with the state rarely, if ever, holding anyone accountable.
Frustration and a sense of abandonment by the state, the political system, and the individuals who benefit from it already boiled over into an uprising in October 2019, less than a year before the blast.
In the immediate aftermath of the explosion, residents cleaned up the city themselves. Politicians who came for photo opportunities were chased out by angry citizens, and mutual aid filled the gap left by the state.
The end of Lebanon’s 15-year civil war in 1990 set the tone for the impunity that has plagued the country ever since. Experts and historians say militia leaders traded their fatigues for suits, pardoned each other, awarded themselves ministries and began rerouting the country’s resources to their personal coffers.
Preliminary investigations found that the explosion was caused by ammonium nitrate stored at Beirut port in improper conditions for six years.
They also found that many top officials, including then-President Michel Aoun, had been informed of the ammonium nitrate’s presence, but chose not to act.
Judge Fadi Sawan was chosen to lead the full investigation in August 2020, but found himself sidelined after calling some notable politicians for questioning. Two ministers he charged with negligence asked that the case be transferred to another judge.
Replacing him in February 2021 was Judge Tarek Bitar. Like Sawan, Judge Bitar called major political figures in for questioning and later issued arrest warrants for them. Among them are Ali Hassan Khalil and Ghazi Zeiter, close allies of Lebanon’s Speaker of Parliament Nabih Berri, who still refuse to respond to Judge Bitar’s requests and claim they have parliamentary immunity.
Despite much popular support, many of Judge Bitar’s efforts were impeded, with Lebanon’s Internal Security Forces at times refusing to execute warrants and the former Court of Cassation public prosecutor, Ghassan Oueidat, ordering his investigation halted.
A man stands near graffiti at the damaged port after the explosion. In Beirut on August 11, 2020 [Hannah McKay/Reuters]
A new era
In early 2025, Lebanon elected a new president, Joseph Aoun, and a new prime minister, Nawaf Salam.
In their inaugural addresses, both spoke about the importance of finding justice for the victims of the port explosion.
“The current justice minister seems determined to go all the way, and he has promised that the judge will no longer face any hurdles and that the ministry will provide all help required,” Karim Emile Bitar, a Lebanese political analyst with no relation to the judge investigating the port explosion, told Al Jazeera.
Human Rights Watch reported in January 2025 that Judge Bitar had resumed his investigation, “after two years of being stymied by Lebanese authorities”.
On July 29, Salam issued a memorandum declaring August 4 a day of national mourning. On July 17, Aoun met with the families of victims killed in the explosion.
“My commitment is clear: We must uncover the whole truth and hold accountable those who caused this catastrophe,” Aoun said.
Oueidat, the former public prosecutor, was replaced by Judge Jamal Hajjar in an acting capacity in 2024, before being confirmed as his successor in April 2025.
In March 2025, Hajjar reversed Oueidat’s decisions and allowed Judge Bitar to continue his investigation.
Legal experts and activists have been pleased by the progress.
“Actual individuals implicated in the case are showing up to interrogations,” Ramzi Kaiss, Lebanon researcher at Human Rights Watch, told Al Jazeera. Among them are Tony Saliba, the former director-general of State Security, Abbas Ibrahim, former director-general of the General Directorate of General Security, and Hassan Diab, prime minister at the time of the explosion.
But this is still not enough for those wanting justice to be served after five years of battles, activists and experts note.
“We are asking for laws that are able to protect and support the judiciary and the appointments of vacant judge [posts], so these things will show the government is on our side this time,” Daou-Alam said.
Even with the new government pushing for accountability, some are still trying to disrupt the process.
Hassan Khalil and Zeiter still refuse to appear before Judge Bitar, and a fight has emerged over the country’s judicial independence.
“We can only get justice if the judiciary acts independently so that they can go after individuals and so the security services can act independently without political interference,” Kaiss said.
Protesters lift placards depicting the victims of the 2020 Beirut port blast during a march near the Lebanese capital’s harbour on August 4, 2023, marking the third anniversary of the deadly explosion [Joseph Eid/AFP]
Time for accountability
The last few years have been a turbulent period of myriad crises for Lebanon.
A banking collapse robbed many people of their savings and left the country in a historic economic crisis. Amid that and the COVID-19 pandemic came the blast, and international organisations and experts hold the Lebanese political establishment responsible.
“The time has come to send a signal to Lebanese public opinion that some of those responsible, even if they are in high positions, will be held accountable,” political analyst Bitar said.
“Accountability would be the first step for the Lebanese in Lebanon and the diaspora to regain trust,” he said, “and without trust, Lebanon will not be able to recover.”
Still, Bitar maintained, progress on the port blast dossier doesn’t mean every answer will come to the forefront.
“This crime was so huge that, like many similar crimes in other countries, sometimes it takes years and decades, and we never find out what really happened,” he said.
Blast victim Tracy Naggear noted that “[our] fight… is mainly for our daughter, for Alexandra, of course”.
“But we are [also] doing it for all the victims and for our country,” she said. ‘[It’s] for every single person that has been touched by the 4th of August, from a simple scratch to a broken window.”
Houthis promise more attacks unless Israel ends its offensive on Gaza and lifts the siege.
Israel’s military has launched new air raids on Yemen’s Hodeidah port, targeting what it described as Houthi-linked sites used to stage drone and missile attacks against Israel and its allies.
Minister of Defence Israel Katz on Monday said the military was “forcefully countering any attempt to restore the terror infrastructure previously attacked”.
The Israeli military claimed that the “port serves as a channel for weapons used by the Houthis to carry out terrorist operations against Israel and its allies”.
The Houthi movement, which controls large parts of northern Yemen, later claimed responsibility for drone and missile attacks on locations in Israel, including Ben Gurion airport, Ashdod and Jaffa.
In a statement, Houthi military spokesperson Yahya Saree said the strikes were a direct response to the attacks on Hodeidah and Israel’s continued bombardment of Gaza.
“The drone attack successfully achieved its objectives,” he said, adding that operations would continue until Israel ends its offensive on Gaza and lifts the siege.
Since Israel launched its war on Gaza in October 2023, the Houthis have carried out several attacks on shipping lanes in the Red Sea, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza. Israel has responded with repeated strikes on Houthi targets, particularly in Hodeidah, a key entry point for goods and aid into Yemen.
“The Houthis will pay a heavy price for launching missiles toward the State of Israel,” Katz said.
Earlier this month, the Houthis claimed responsibility for an attack on the Greek-owned vessel Eternity C, which maritime officials said had killed four people.
Syria has finalised an $800m agreement with Dubai-based DP World to redevelop its Tartous port in a bid to speed up post-war reconstruction.
State news agency SANA said the deal was signed in Damascus on Sunday between DP World and the General Authority for Land and Sea Ports, in the presence of Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.
Syrian officials described the deal as a key step towards modernising the country’s logistics infrastructure.
“This strategic move will bolster our port operations and logistics services,” SANA quoted an unnamed official as saying.
Since the fall of former President Bashar al-Assad in December, Syria’s new leadership has been pushing to re-establish economic ties with international companies and bring the war-torn country back into the global market.
Speaking after the signing, DP World CEO Sultan Ahmed bin Sulayem said Syria’s economic potential remained strong, noting the Tartous port could play a central role in reviving local industry.
“Syria possesses valuable assets,” he said, “and Tartous is an essential hub for trade and exports. We aim to transform it into one of the world’s leading ports.”
‘Laying the groundwork’
DP World manages dozens of port facilities across Europe, Africa and Asia and has been expanding its reach in the Middle East.
Qutaiba Badawi, who heads Syria’s port authority, said the agreement marked more than just a commercial venture.
“We are laying the groundwork for a new era of maritime development, positioning Syria again on the international economic stage,” he said.
The Tartous deal follows several high-profile contracts signed in recent months.
In May, Damascus entered a 30-year agreement with French shipping company CMA CGM to operate Latakia port. That same month, Syria inked a $7bn energy deal with a coalition of Qatari, Turkish, and US firms to revive the country’s power sector.
Earlier this month, the United States said it will revoke its designation of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham as a “foreign terrorist organization” as Washington softens its approach to post-war Syria.
Last month, US President Donald Trump issued an executive order lifting several longstanding sanctions on Syria, which Washington said would support the country’s reconstruction. The US Treasury noted the decision would ease restrictions on companies considered vital to Syria’s rebuilding and governance.
Western sanctions had hampered reconstruction efforts for years, further crippling an economy already shattered by more than a decade of civil war and human rights abuses under al-Assad’s rule.
The place names are tiny poems: Silent Street, where sound was deadened with straw out of respect for convalescing soldiers during the Anglo-Dutch wars of the late 17th century; Smart Street, named after a benevolent merchant and library builder, William Smarte; Star Lane for Stella Maris, Our Lady of the Sea; Franciscan Way, leading to Grey Friars Road, evokes monkish times. Thirteen medieval churches rise above the old town, some in disrepair. Others are renascent: St Mary-le-Tower was recently redesignated as a minster in recognition of its value to the community and its 1,000 years of existence. That’s not so long ago in a town settled very early – perhaps as early as the fifth century, and established by the seventh – by the Anglo-Saxons.
You have to rummage to find historical treasures, which lie scattered, disguised, buried, bullied. The town has one of the best-preserved medieval cores in the country, but local planners wrapped it in roads, houses and, latterly, retail and leisure centres. Things are revealed by walking: the Tooley’s Court almshouses; lemon-hued, half-timbered Curson Lodge; gloriously pargeted Ancient House; an opulent town hall; and an ostentatious former post office on Cornhill, the main square. Seen from between the columns and arches of Lloyds Avenue, it could be Trieste or Venice, minus the overtourism and rip-off cappuccinos.
Curson Lodge dates to the 15th century. Photograph: Alan Curtis/Alamy
Erica, from The Friends of the Ipswich Museums, shows me around the mansion in Christchurch Park. Only four families ever lived here – the Withypolls, Devereux, Fonnereaus and Cobbolds – each associated with their times’ trades and trends: Atlantic merchant-adventurers, titled nobles, Huguenot linen traders, brewers and bankers. A standout exhibit is a patinaed oak overmantel rescued from a house on Fore Street that belonged to Thomas Eldred, who sailed round the world with Thomas Cavendish on his 1586-8 circumnavigation. The flagship Desire gave its name to a port on the Patagonian coast. In a corner hangs a portrait of Admiral Edward Vernon, who participated in the War of Jenkins’ Ear between Britain and Spain in the mid-18th century and the capture of Portobelo in Panama; he wore grogram cloth and is thought to have introduced toasts of rum-and-water – or “grog” – to the navy.
Ipswich traded with northern Europe from Saxon times, growing to become a Hanseatic League port, exporting wool and woollen cloth, and importing wine from Bordeaux.
On the harbour front is Isaacs on the Quay, a pub carved out of an old maltings. Behind it, at 80 Fore Street, is – according to Historic England – “the last surviving example of a 15th- to 17th-century Ipswich merchant’s house with warehouses at the rear opening directly on the dock front, where merchandise was unshipped, stored and distributed wholesale or sold retail in the shop on the street front”. The local council considered filling the harbour in to build houses, but a festival in 1971 showed the area could be a place of recreation as well as cultural preservation; the Ipswich Maritime Trust, still very active, grew out of this showdown. Things to see and do: Willis Building; river cruise on the sailing barge Victor; free A Peep into the Past tourat Christchurch Mansion; Blackfriars monastery ruins
Ramsey, Isle of Man
The Manx Electric Railway to Laxey and Snaefell summit. Photograph: Allan Hartley/Alamy
Travelling overland to Ramsey from Douglas, you have a premonition of how important the sea must once have been. The meandering road and heritage electric railway both scale a mountain on the journey. Doing the trip on foot or horseback must have been hell. The Isle of Man’s longest river, the Sulby, plummets and meanders down from the uplands to meet the sea at Ramsey. Vikings, as well as Scots, entered the Isle of Man here. Its name derives from the Old Norse for “wild garlic river”.
The small working port breaks up a shoreline of sand and pebble beaches backed by apartment buildings and grand-seeming hotels. Timber and aggregate are massed up on the wharves. A bulk carrier called Snaefell River is moored beneath a single tall crane. To the south is the long Queen’s Pier, once a landing stage. Victoria never disembarked, but the pier recalls her visit. Above town is the Albert Tower. The consort made landfall.
Once Ramsey was a popular seaside resort, with Steam Packet ships to Kirkcudbright and Garlieston in Dumfries and Galloway; Liverpool and Whitehaven (I can see the Cumbrian fells). A swing bridge – closed to motorised traffic – connects the northern beach to Ramsey town centre, a likeable mishmash of Victorian buildings housing pubs, food and drink outlets, antique and bric-a-brac shops – and a very 80s strip mall with a Tesco, a drycleaner, a model shop and tattooists.
On the edge of town, I find myself at Grove House, now a museum. It was the holiday home of the island’s second most famous Gibb family. Duncan Gibb was a shipping agent from Greenock. The house reaches out to foreign climes. A tiger skin on the floor of the drawing room. A leopard skin in the bedroom. Mahogany furniture from a primeval forest. Curtains from India. A japanned backgammon set. When the men sailed away or died out, a matriarchy took over.
The Trafalgar pub, on West Quay, must have seen so many deals and binges, squabbles and scuffles. I drink an Odin’s mild in the corner. Locals look bristlingly familiar with one another, conspiratorial, as if they know something I never will. Things to see and do: Manx Electric Railway to Laxey and Snaefell summit;Ramsey Nature Reserve beach walk; walk up to Albert Tower; the TT
The Pendle witches were imprisoned at Lancaster Castle. Photograph: Tara Michelle Evans/Stockimo/Alamy
It’s easy not to notice the River Lune or the Lancaster Canal. The former snakes north of the town centre, often behind buildings – supermarkets, an enterprise zone – and is cut off by the city’s notorious roads. The canal sneaks up from the south-west, hopping across the river near a McDonald’s. Anyway, the natural movement here for pedestrians is upward and inland.
The Romans took the high road. Marching through north Lancashire, operating in conjunction with naval transports, they could look out for landing troop detachments. A Roman fort was built on the hill now occupied by Lancaster Castle. It dates from the 12th century, as does the name of Lancashire, and is infamous as the place the Pendle Witches were imprisoned prior to their trial, sentencing and hanging. A small exhibition in a dungeon of the Well Tower recounts the key points of the story, reminding us Jack Straw refused to pardon them in 1998. The castle housed a prison till 2011; its Shire Hall is still used as a courtroom.
Lancaster was once England’s fourth largest slave port, with at least 122 ships sailing to Africa between 1700 and 1800. Local merchants were involved in the capture and sale of around 30,000 enslaved people. Slave-produced goods from the West Indies included sugar, dyes, rice, spices, coffee, rum and, later, cotton for Lancashire’s mills. Fine furniture, gunpowder, clothing and other goods were produced in and around Lancaster and traded in Africa for enslaved people, or sent to the colonies.
The Ashton Memorial, in Lancaster’s Williamson Park, has views across Morecambe Bay to the Lakeland fells. Photograph: Rob Atherton/Alamy
The slave trade and abolition trail, revised by Lancaster University professor Alan Rice, takes in churches, with their memorials to merchants who made money from slavery; the Sugarhouse, a nightclub on the site of a former refinery; Gillow’s Warehouse, which imported slave-harvested mahogany to make furniture; and 20 Castle Park, home of the slave-owning Satterthwaite family. On the abolition side are a Friends Meeting House (Quakers were among the earliest opponents of slavery) and, most poignantly, three benches in and near Williamson Park provided by philanthropists for the vagrant poor – including cotton workers laid off during the cotton famine caused by anti-slavery measures taken by Lancashire firms.
The small city of Lancaster, with its university campus and would-be genteel airs, looks and feels innocuous, and altogether unconnected to stormy seas. But it’s the nexus of a significant dark maritime history. Things to see and do: Ashton Memorial; Maritime Museum; Gallows Hill; Judges’ Lodgings.
A Gaza-bound aid boat illegally seized in international waters by Israeli forces has been towed into Ashdod Port, with the dozen international activists who were on board now facing detention and deportation.
The Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC), which launched the ship to draw international attention to the looming famine in besieged Gaza, said it was captured at about 4:02am (01:02 GMT) on Monday, about 200km (120 miles) from Gaza, arriving at Ashdod as night fell.
Earlier, the coalition released a video from the vessel, which left Sicily on June 1, showing the activists – among whom are climate campaigner Greta Thunberg and French member of the European Parliament Rima Hassan – with their hands up as Israeli forces boarded the vessel and “kidnapped” them.
Adalah, a Palestinian legal centre representing the activists, said they were expected to be held at a detention facility before being deported.
It said that Israel had “no legal authority” to take over the ship, which was in international waters, heading not to Israel but to the “territorial waters of the State of Palestine”.
The arrests of the 12 “unarmed activists” amounted to “a serious breach of international law”, it said in a statement.
Huwaida Arraf, an FFC organiser, told Al Jazeera there had been no contact with the activists since they had been detained in the early hours of Monday.
“We have lawyers on standby who are going to demand they have access to them tonight – as soon as possible,” she said.
The Madleen, she noted, was sailing under a United Kingdom flag when it was forcibly seized by Israeli commandos.
“So Israel went into international waters and attacked sovereign UK territory, which is blatantly unlawful. And we expect strong condemnation, which we have not yet heard from the United Kingdom,” she said.
The UK government urged Israel to handle its detention of the activists “safely with restraint, in line with international humanitarian law”.
“We have made clear our position in relation to the humanitarian situation in Gaza. The PM has called it appalling and intolerable,” said a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
Francesca Albanese, the United Nations special rapporteur for the occupied Palestinian territory, said: “Israel has absolutely no authority to intercept and stop a boat like this, which carries humanitarian aid, and more than everything else, humanity, to the people of Gaza.”
Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh, reporting from Jordan’s capital Amman, said the activists would be accused of entering Israel illegally.
“These activists had no intention to enter Israel. They wanted to reach the shores of Gaza, which are not part of Israel,” she said.
“But that is how they will be processed, and they will be deported because of that.”
‘A form of piracy’
Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs portrayed the voyage as a public relations stunt, saying in a post on X that “the ‘selfie yacht’ of the ‘celebrities’ is safely making its way to the shores of Israel”.
It said the passengers were “undergoing medical examinations to ensure they are in good health”, adding that all passengers were expected to return to their home countries.
Government spokesperson David Mencer reserved special scorn for 22-year-old Thunberg. “Greta was not bringing aid, she was bringing herself. And she’s not here for Gaza, let’s be blunt about it. She’s here for Greta,” he said.
In a prerecorded video message that was shared by the FFC, Thunberg said: “I urge all my friends, family and comrades to put pressure on the Swedish government to release me and the others as soon as possible.”
The Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs said it was in contact with Israeli authorities.
“Should the need for consular support arise, the Embassy and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will assess how we can best help the Swedish citizen/Greta Thunberg resolve her situation,” said a spokesperson in a written statement to the Reuters news agency.
United States President Donald Trump, who targeted Thunberg in 2019, dismissed her statement. “I think Israel has enough problems without kidnapping Greta Thunberg,” he said.
French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said the president had asked Israeli authorities to release the six French nationals on board as soon as possible, calling the humanitarian blockade of Gaza “a scandal” and a “disgrace”.
Turkey condemned the interception as a “heinous attack”, while Iran denounced it as “a form of piracy” in international waters.
Israeli Minister of Defence Israel Katz said the activists would be shown videos of atrocities committed during the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on southern Israel.
Hamas condemned the seizure of the boat as “state terrorism” and said it saluted its activists.
More killings at aid distribution point
On the ground in Gaza, Israeli forces continued their onslaught, killing 60 Palestinians since dawn, according to medical sources who spoke to Al Jazeera.
Among them were three medics, killed in Gaza City, as well as 13 hungry aid seekers, killed near an Israeli- and US-backed aid distribution site in southern Gaza.
More than 130 people have been killed near distribution points run by the shadowy Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) since late May.
Israel engaged the group to distribute aid amid its total blockade on all imports, including food, fuel and medicine, as Israel ramped up its offensive after breaking its ceasefire agreement with Hamas in March.
The United Nations and other aid groups have refused to cooperate with the GHF, accusing it of lacking neutrality and suggesting the group has been formed to enable Israel to achieve its stated military objective of taking over all of Gaza.
“Israeli authorities have blocked the delivery of safe and dignified aid at scale to the people of Gaza for over three months now,” said the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, on Monday.
“We are not asking for the impossible. Allow us to do our work: assist people in need and preserve their dignity,” it said.
On Monday, Israeli aircraft also bombed tents sheltering displaced families in al-Katiba square in Gaza City, causing additional deaths and injuries.
They also targeted the Shaarawi and Haddad buildings in the Tuffah neighbourhood, east of Gaza City, resulting in multiple casualties.
At least one person was killed and others injured in an artillery attack on Old Gaza Street in Jabalia, in the north.
Israel has killed at least 54,927 people in Gaza since the start of the war, a figure estimated to be far lower than the actual death toll.
Norco High’s softball program under coach Richard Robinson has been setting the standard for excellence in the Southern Section for years. The top-seeded Cougars will seek to add a seventh section title on Saturday in the Division 1 final against El Modena in a 7 p.m. game at Bill Barber Park in Irvine.
This team has lots of top hitters. Leighton Gray is batting .455 with 40 hits, eight home runs and 25 RBIs. Ashley Duran has six home runs, 34 RBIs and a .438 batting average. Tamryn Shorter is hitting .407 with 37 hits, nine home runs and 24 RBIs. Sophomore Coral Williams has emerged as a quality pitcher with a 16-0 record, backed by junior Peyton May.
El Modena has gotten hot in the playoffs behind second baseman Kaitlyn Galasso and shortstop Kylie Tafua. Don’t doubt that the Vanguards can score runs if needed. They were able to knock off high-scoring Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 6-4 in the quarterfinals and scored 13 runs in a semifinal win over Temescal Canyon. …
Cal State Northridge will be the site for three City Section softball championship games on Saturday, with the featured matchup at 3 p.m. in the Open Division in which Carson will try to defeat Granada Hills for a third consecutive year. The Division I final at noon has Port of Los Angeles facing Legacy. Taft faces Marquez in the Division II final at 9 a.m.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
Note: Finals May 30-31 at 3 p.m. at Birmingham (Divisions III-IV); at 9 a.m. (Division II), 12:15 p.m. (Division I) and 3:30 p.m. (Open Division) at TBD.
Top-seeded Corona won with ace Seth Hernandez on Tuesday but now must get past Big VIII League rival Norco on the road with Ethin Bingaman pitching against freshman standout Jordan Ayala. This is the game the Panthers might be most vulnerable.
St. John Bosco, the Trinity League champion, is playing at Villa Park in a noon matchup. Villa Park defeated Aquinas on Tuesday. Los Alamitos is playing at Santa Margarita in a matchup of teams that didn’t win league titles.
Mira Costa, with a 26-game winning streak, faces Mission League champion Crespi on the road in a 2:15 start at Hartunian Field. The Celts have No. 2 pitcher Tyler Walton ready to go.
The winners advance to Tuesday’s semifinals. …
The City Section Division III baseball championship will take place Friday at Stengel Field, with University playing Jefferson at 3 p.m. Then the Division II final has Port of Los Angeles playing Chavez at 6 p.m. …
Grant Leary of Crespi won the Southern Section individual golf title on Thursday, shooting a 66.
This is a daily look at the positive happenings in high school sports. To submit any news, please email [email protected].
Estonia redirects maritime traffic to prevent future incidents after Russia’s detention of the Green Admire oil tanker.
Russia has detained a Greek oil tanker sailing under the Liberian flag as it left the Estonian port of Sillamae on a previously agreed route through Russian waters, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs says.
In a statement published on Sunday, the ministry added that the vessel, the Green Admire, was undertaking a navigational route established in a deal between Russia, Estonia and Finland.
The Baltic nation will redirect traffic to and from Sillamea exclusively through Estonian waters to prevent similar incidents in the future, it added.
“Today’s incident shows that Russia continues to behave unpredictably,” Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said. “I have also informed our allies of the event,” he said, referring to other NATO members.
Estonian Public Broadcasting (EPB), citing the Transport Administration, reported that the Greek tanker was carrying a cargo of shale oil destined for Rotterdam in the Netherlands. It added that such incidents had never occurred before.
Vessels leaving Sillamae usually move through Russian waters to avoid Estonia’s shallows, which can be dangerous for larger tankers, the EPB said.
The incident took place after the Estonian navy on Thursday tried to stop an unflagged tanker that was said to be part of a Russian “shadow fleet” of vessels sailing through Estonian waters. Russia responded by sending a fighter jet to escort the tanker, violating Estonia’s airspace.
The “shadow fleet” is meant to help Moscow maintain its crude oil exports to avoid Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.
