Source: Lonely Planet
Security & Justice
Southern Lebanon Endures Massive Damage: 40,000 Homes Leveled Across 37 Towns
Israeli forces have systematically destroyed entire neighborhoods in southern Lebanon, leveling more than 37 towns and wiping out over 40,000 residential units, according to Lebanon's National News Agency.
Tuesday, November 5, 2024
Gaps in Coastal Radar Enabled Israeli Raid in Batroun, Army Commander Says
Lebanon’s army chief, General Joseph Aoun, detailed to Caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati how Israeli forces likely exploited gaps in the country's coastal radar system during the recent raid carried out in Batroun. The briefing comes as Lebanese officials seek answers on how Israel’s elite Shayetet 13 unit carried out the landing undetected.
Monday, November 4, 2024
Opinion
The Emptying of Baalbek Is a Moment to Take Stock
“Large numbers of people continue to flee their homes every day, as Israel’s military operations in Lebanon have been going on unabated.” These disturbing words could be from almost any news report about Israel’s invasion of its northern neighbour over the past month. However, they can be found in a report by the Norwegian Refugee Council’s Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre issued on July 27, 2006.
Saturday, November 2, 2024
A Future Without Hezbollah
At the end of September, when Israel’s campaign to destroy Hezbollah was reaching its height, I met one of the group’s supporters in a seaside café in western Beirut. He was a middle-aged man with a thin white beard and the spent look of someone who had not slept for days. He was an academic of sorts, not a fighter, but his ties to Hezbollah were deep and long-standing.
Thursday, October 31, 2024
Sports
Tottenham Forward Son Heung-min Crowned Asia’s International Player of the Year
Tottenham forward Son Heung-min was crowned as Asia’s International Player of the Year for the fourth time by the Asian Football Confederation at its annual awards ceremony Tuesday.
Wednesday, October 30, 2024
Real Madrid Launch Investigation into Racist Insults After El Clasico Defeat
Real Madrid has launched an investigation into racist insults directed at players during Saturday’s 4-0 home loss to Barcelona in LaLiga, it said on Sunday.
Monday, October 28, 2024
Monday 30 August 2021 13:41:42
Visiting Venice? You May Need to Pay an Entry Fee Starting Next Summer
With travel picking up again in Italy, Venice is once more mulling ways to limit the number of tourists allowed inside the city by moving ahead with plans to introduce an entry fee for visitors next summer.
For a long time now, the lagoon city has been concerned with finding ways to reduce overcrowding while also making sure that both residents and tourists can enjoy all that Venice has to offer. The latest solution dates back to 2018 when the local administration decided that all visitors would be charged an entry fee ranging from €3 to €10—a scheme that was meant to be implemented last summer but was put on hold because of the pandemic.
According to local media, that scheme will now be introduced in summer 2022 and it would require visitors to book and pay their fee in advance. The fee would be paired to electronic turnstiles located at Venice's main access points to help regulate the access of tourists to the city. All residents, workers and students that need to enter Venice on a daily basis would have the virtual key to the turnstiles through an app on their smartphones, and tourists would fill the remaining spots each day by booking their entrance.
Prices will start from €3 in low season and could increase to €10 in high-season. Residents and their relatives, children under six and people staying in local hotels will not have to pay an entry fee. The move is aimed at day-trippers instead.
The Times reports that the council approved the plan last week and the administration is keen to move ahead after years of postponing it. It comes as visitor numbers increase again, with 80,000 people a day visiting in late summer, according to the newspaper.
And in what might just be a first step in the push to reinvent and regulate mass tourism, Venice formally banned cruise ships from the historic city center in April after UNESCO warned the city about the "damage caused by a steady stream of cruise ships."
