Scientific

The island’s dark history of forced labour and harrowing conditions for prisoners of war has left a haunting legacy

In the late 19th century, this isolated Japanese island was a bustling town fuelled by its coal-mining industry. Today, it’s gradually being swallowed by the sea and reclaimed by nature, but given the island’s sinister past, perhaps it’s for the best that this once-thriving community has fallen into silence.

Hashima Island sits roughly 15 kilometres off Nagasaki, and was formerly a mining settlement. At its height in the late 1950s, the island housed more than 5,000 residents who lived in its towering apartment blocks — the ruins of which remain visible today.

Initially renowned for its undersea coal mines, the island also harbours a deeply troubling history.

The island was purchased by Mitsubishi in the late 19th century, and in 1916, work commenced on apartment blocks to house workers. There was a school, a kindergarten, a community centre and a hospital.

For leisure, residents could head to the cinema or visit the numerous shops, reports the Express.

Following the end of World War 2, Chinese and Korean prisoners of war were forced to labour on the island, either erecting buildings or toiling in the mines. These prisoners endured appalling and perilous conditions under Mitsubishi’s control.

Many perished from exhaustion and starvation — the precise death toll on the island ranges from 137 to as many as 1,300.

The people who laboured here dubbed the island “Jail Island” or even “Hell Island” — a stark contrast to the tranquil mining town it seemed to be. By the 1970s, coal reserves had largely run dry and the industry was in terminal decline.

This prompted many residents to abandon the island, and by the mid-70s, the mine had shut its doors for good, leaving the island completely deserted.

In 2009, Japan put forward a request for the island to be added to the UNESCO World Heritage List.

The move drew sharp criticism from the governments of North and South Korea and China, with Seoul arguing it would “violate the dignity of the survivors of forced labour”.

Eventually, South Korea and Japan struck a deal allowing the island to be included on the list, on the condition that Japan provided information acknowledging the use of forced labour.

However, in 2021, it emerged that Japan had failed to honour its side of the agreement, having not displayed adequate information regarding the use of forced labour.

The museum in Nagasaki, which documents the island’s history, reportedly contains no testimonies from Koreans about forced labour or discrimination, and the sole Korean testimony on display actually denies that forced labour was ever used.

The island of 32,000 is not one on the British holidaymakers’ Greek trail, at least not when compared to the likes of Crete, Cyprus or Mykonos

Jet2 has just begun flying to a beautiful Greek island home to rugged mountains, cobblestone alleys and fresh waterfalls.

In May 2026, the budget airline launched a new flight route from the UK to Samos, becoming only the second airline to offer direct flights to the island, after TUI.

From May to the end of October, Jet2 will be flying twice weekly from Manchester Airport, London Stansted and Birmingham to Samos, with fares from £48.

The island of 32,000 is not one on the British holidaymakers’ Greek trail, at least not when compared to the likes of Crete, Cyprus or Mykonos. But there are plenty of reasons why a visit to Samos is a great idea.

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For one, it’s a place of serious historical pedigree, home as it is to two UNESCO World Heritage Sites of Pythagoreion and Heraion, and as the supposed birthplace of the Greek goddess Hera.

Zeus’s sister/wife is far from the only famous child Samos has to shout about. It is also the birthplace of the Greek philosopher and mathematician Pythagoras, the philosophers Melissus of Samos and Epicurus, and the astronomer Aristarchus of Samos, the first known person to suggest that the Earth revolves around the Sun.

Samos is one of the greenest Greek islands, and its nature is genuinely impressive. It is quite different from the more barren, sun-bleached look of many other Aegean islands.

Forests and mountains are a big part of that. Much of the island is covered in dense pine and cypress forests, and Mount Kerkis dominates the western end, rising to around 1,434 metres. It’s one of the highest peaks in the Aegean and is popular with serious hikers. The summit trail takes about 5–6 hours round trip.

Rivers and waterfalls are unusual for a Greek island, yet Samos has several. The most famous is the Potami waterfall near Karlovasi in the west, where a river flows through a gorge shaded by plane trees into a series of cascading pools you can swim in. It’s one of the most scenic spots on the island.

Beaches range from busy, sandy coves to wild, pebbly stretches backed by cliffs. Psili Ammos in the east has fine golden sand, while spots like Mikro Seitani and Megalo Seitani on the northwest coast are only reachable on foot or by boat.

Antasia Nalmpanti is the general manager of Casa Cook Samos, a hotel on the island with rooms from €243.

She told the Mirror: “Samos is one of those rare Greek islands that still feels genuinely undiscovered – and that’s a big part of what makes it so special. Unlike many Mediterranean destinations, it hasn’t been shaped by mass tourism; the pace is slower, the landscape is wilder, and the locals are incredibly welcoming.

“Our hotel, Casa Cook Samos, was designed to mirror exactly that spirit – inspired by the architecture of a traditional Samian village, nestled between lush hillsides and the Aegean, with private beach access and a restaurant that genuinely tastes of the island. Guests arrive looking for something real and unspoiled. Samos delivers that, every single time.

“At Casa Cook Samos, our goal is also to bring people together and revive the spirit of parea – the Greek tradition of sharing moments, stories, food, and connection, just as people once gathered around the village square. Guests can experience this feeling at our Parea Bar, where conversations flow naturally, and during our Samian Dinner, where a local yiayia joins us to prepare traditional dishes and share the island’s culinary heritage. It’s these authentic moments of togetherness that make a stay on Samos truly memorable.“

The Canary Islands are experiencing a tourism crisis, with activists warning the coastline is unsustainable as locals say the ‘land is being destroyed and speculated on’

The Canary Islands have witnessed mounting demonstrations in recent years. Frustration has been building amongst residents, who argue the surge in tourism to the sun-soaked Spanish archipelago is unmanageable. They point to outdated regulations that allow property speculators to purchase land for hotels and holiday flats, while paying only minimal tax.

Consequently, Canarians claim they receive the lowest average salaries in Spain and face difficulties securing affordable accommodation. Yet now they have a further complaint against holidaymakers. The islands are suffering coastal erosion at an alarming pace. Campaigners say the Canary Islands’ coastline is on the brink of disaster.

Each year, based on a report from SOS Costas Canarias, approximately 21⁄2 miles of coastline disappears. Anne Striewe, the foundation’s director, states that hotels, apartment blocks, housing estates and marinas, amongst other structures, are being constructed on this “lost” territory.

The organisation cautions that throughout the eight islands, roughly 18% of the territory within the first 500 metres from the sea has already been developed. Beyond protected natural areas (PNAs), this figure skyrockets: it surpasses 40% on multiple islands and coastal sections, reaching 43% in Lanzarote and Gran Canaria.

Nearly 20% of the living space on the Canary Islands is dedicated to tourism – in comparison to around 4% on the Spanish mainland. Five municipalities on the Canaries possess more tourist beds than permanent inhabitants: Yaiza (Lanzarote), Pájara (Fuerteventura), Mogán (Gran Canaria), San Bartolomé de Tirajana (Gran Canaria) and Adeje (Tenerife).

Ms Striewe highlights that, beyond holiday accommodation, there is a vast array of tourist-related infrastructure including access roads, golf courses and desalination plants, which fail to show up in hotel occupancy figures yet remain part of the same problem.

Sharon Backhouse, director of GeoTenerife, told Sky News that the Canary Islands are a “biodiversity jewel in the Atlantic,” yet local authorities provide minimal protection for the islands’ natural habitats.

She warned that each year more “beautiful landscapes are cemented over” to make way for new tourist resorts.

She added: “The problem with these resorts is that we just don’t have enough resources in terms of water, what happens to all the rubbish, how is it all recycled.”

Carmelo Javier León, director of the UNESCO Chair in Tourism and Sustainable Economic Development at the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPCG), describes a conflict between those who wish to protect the islands’ natural beauty and “the development of ever more accommodation options.”

The authors of the SOS Costas Canarias report are demanding an immediate halt and the scrapping of planning permissions for undeveloped coastal land.

They argue that the seemingly relentless construction not only obliterates irreplaceable natural habitats and undermines the very scenic beauty that attracted tourists to the islands in the first place, but also dramatically heightens the risk of localised flooding. Approximately 80,000 inhabitants are already vulnerable to coastal flooding risk, yet almost half of flood-susceptible territory has already been designated for housing.

Irma Ferrer, a lawyer for Urban Planning Transparency and Civic Action Against Corruption, highlights that this demonstrates the institutions are failing to operate properly. “In urban planning and environmental matters, legislation is not enacted to defend the public interest,” she complains.

She added that the islands now possess an economy which is essentially “based on the destruction of the land and on speculation.”

WASHINGTON, May 19 (UPI) — President Donald Trump‘s move to build a national missile defense system would leave millions of Americans vulnerable to nuclear attack despite the program’s exorbitant cost, the author of a new scientific report said at a press conference Tuesday outside the U.S. Capitol.

The report simulated a “best case scenario” in which the Golden Dome system shot down 80% of incoming missiles, said Ira Helfand, the report’s main author and a co-founder of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an anti-nuclear weapons organization.

Under those circumstances, more than 300 warheads still would reach the United States, the report found, and that Russia would have a 95% chance of being able to destroy any one of 132 major population centers in which a combined 75 million Americans live.

“Let’s be clear what Golden Dome is: a vanity project of one person, Donald Trump,” said Rep. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., using Trump’s chosen moniker for the missile defense system. McGovern was one of two Massachusetts lawmakers who led the press event.

“We must suffer the Trump arch, the Trump ballroom, the Trump battleship and now Trump’s Golden Dome. Each are the egotistical fantasies of an aging man who needs psychiatric care,” McGovern said.

Soon after taking office in 2025, Trump directed the Defense Department to develop a homeland air and missile defense system. The order called for protecting the U.S. “against ballistic, hypersonic, advanced cruise missiles and other next-generation aerial attacks from peer, near-peer and rogue adversaries.”

This initiative, later named Golden Dome for America, echoes earlier missile defense efforts, such as President Ronald Reagan‘s Strategic Defense Initiative, commonly known as Star Wars. It was never fully build or deployed.

“Building an effective and reliable shield against any realistic attack by nuclear-armed ICBMs is technologically infeasible for the foreseeable future,” said Laura Grego, a physicist who specializes in nuclear security at the Union of Concerned Scientists.

“But also attempting to build one would be hugely expensive — wasting time and resources — and accelerate the nuclear arms race.”

The report was released by the Nobel Peace Prize-winning International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War, Physicians for Social Responsibility and Back from the Brink, all advocates for abolishing nuclear weapons.

The press conference came after a Congressional Budget Office report released last week found that a missile defense system designed to counter a small-scale nuclear attack would cost $1.2 trillion.

A more robust system in line with Trump’s aspirations of “ending the missile threat to the American homeland,” would come with a $3.6 trillion price tag, according to a 2025 estimate by the American Enterprise Institute, a right-of-center think tank. Trump initially offered a price tag of $175 billion for the project.

“The Golden Dome is fool’s gold,” said Sen. Ed Markey, D-Mass. “It’s a gold-plated boondoggle that will enrich defense contractors and ignite a new nuclear arms race.”

Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, told Medill News Service that he did not agree with the report’s conclusion that the Golden Dome would be too ineffective and costly to justify. On the contrary, Scott said, nuclear modernization efforts underway by U.S. rivals required a response.

“The weapons coming from China and Russia are faster and stronger,” Scott said. “And we have to be able to pick them up faster.”

Between 2014 and 2024, the estimated number of Chinese nuclear warheads doubled, from 250 to roughly 500, according to the China Power Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

China, however, has maintained a no-first-use policy since it first detonated a nuclear weapon in 1964, which commits Beijing to only employ its nuclear weapons in response to a nuclear attack by another country.

When asked about claims made by Helfand and others at the press conference that the Golden Dome would spur a new global nuclear arms race, Scott disagreed again.

“It’s a defensive system,” he said, “not an offensive system.”

The planned outlays for the Golden Dome come in tandem with other Trump administration priorities that have raised eyebrows on Capitol Hill, including a $1.5 trillion defense spending package for 2027, $400 million for a new White House ballroom that will sit atop a bunker and $29 billion so far for the war in Iran.

At the same time, in its proposed budget, the White House moved to cut non-defense discretionary spending by 10%. The spending category comprises public health, scientific research and scores of other domestic programs.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Markey said the United States doesn’t have trillions of dollars to waste on a system that “is not going to protect the American people,” and he decried funding cuts to social programs that “actually do provide security for families in their own homes.”