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RAFAH, Gaza Strip — Israeli forces were battling Palestinian militants across the Gaza Strip on Sunday, including in parts of the devastated north that the military said it had cleared months ago, where Hamas has exploited a security vacuum to regroup. Israel has portrayed the southern Gaza city of Rafah as Hamas' last stronghold, saying it must invade in order to succeed in its goals of dismantling the group and returning scores of hostages. A limited operation there has expanded in recent days, forcing some 300,000 people to flee. But the rest of the war-ravaged territory seems to provide ample opportunities for Hamas. Israel has yet to offer a detailed plan for postwar governance in Gaza, saying only that it will maintain open-ended security control over the coastal enclave, which is home to some 2.3 million Palestinians. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rejected postwar plans proposed by the United States for the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the Israeli-occupied West Bank, to govern Gaza with support from Arab and Muslim countries. Those plans depend on progress toward the creation of a Palestinian state, something to which Netanyahu's government is deeply opposed. With the two close allies divided, Gaza has been left without a functioning government, leading to a breakdown in public order and allowing Hamas to reconstitute itself in even the hardest-hit areas. Palestinians reported heavy Israeli bombardment overnight in the urban Jabaliya refugee camp and other areas in the northern Gaza Strip, which has suffered widespread devastation and been largely isolated by Israeli forces for months. U.N. officials say there is a "full-blown famine" there. Residents said Israeli warplanes and artillery struck across the camp and the Zeitoun area east of Gaza City, where troops have been battling Palestinian militants for over a week. They have called on tens of thousands of people to relocate to nearby areas. "It was a very difficult night," said Abdel-Kareem Radwan, a 48-year-old Palestinian from Jabaliya. He said they could hear intense and constant bombing since midday Saturday. "This is madness." First responders with the Palestinian Civil Defense said they were unable to respond to multiple calls for help from both areas, as well as Rafah, on the southern edge of Gaza. Israeli troops have been battling militants there since the army seized the nearby border crossing with Egypt last week. Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, the top Israeli military spokesman, said troops are fighting in all parts of Gaza, "in areas where we have not yet operated and in places where we have." He said that in addition to Jabaliya and Zeitoun, forces were also operating in Beit Lahiya and Beit Hanoun, towns near Gaza's northern border with Israel that were heavily bombed in the opening days of the war. The military "is now going into Jabaliya for the second time and into Zeitoun for the third time, and it will continue to go in and out," columnist Ben Caspit wrote in Israel's Maariv daily, channeling the growing frustration felt by many Israelis more than seven months into the war. "Hamas' regime cannot be toppled without preparing an alternative to that regime," he wrote, drawing comparisons with the American wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. "The only people who can govern Gaza after the war are Gazans, with a lot of support and help from the outside." Five Israeli soldiers were killed in Zeitoun on Friday, and Palestinian militants fired a barrage of 14 rockets toward the Israeli city of Beersheba that night. Another rocket launched overnight damaged a home in the Israeli city of Ashkelon, the military said Sunday. The United Nations' agency for Palestinian refugees, the main provider of aid in Gaza, meanwhile said 300,000 people have fled Rafah since the operation began there. Most are heading to the heavily damaged nearby city of Khan Younis or Mawasi, a crowded tent camp on the coast where some 450,000 people are already living in squalid conditions. Rafah was sheltering some 1.3 million Palestinians before the Israeli operation began, most of whom had fled fighting elsewhere in the territory. Israel has now evacuated the eastern third of Rafah, and Hagari said dozens of militants had been killed there as "targeted operations continued." The United Nations has warned that a planned full-scale Rafah invasion would further cripple humanitarian operations and cause a surge in civilian deaths. Rafah borders Egypt near the main aid entry points, which are already affected. Israeli troops have captured the Gaza side of the Rafah crossing, forcing it to shut down. Egypt has refused to coordinate with Israel on the delivery of aid though the crossing because of "the unacceptable Israeli escalation," the state-owned Al Qahera News television channel reported, citing an unnamed official. U.S. President Joe Biden has said he won't provide offensive weapons to Israel for Rafah. On Friday, his administration said there was "reasonable" evidence that Israel had breached international law protecting civilians — Washington's strongest statement yet on the matter. Israel rejects those allegations, saying it tries to avoid harming civilians. It blames Hamas for the high toll because the militants fight in dense, residential areas. The war began when Hamas and other militants attacked southern Israel on October 7, killing around 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking another 250 hostage. They still hold about 100 captives and the remains of more than 30. Israel's air, land and sea offensive has killed more than 34,800 Palestinians, mostly women and children, according to Gaza's Health Ministry, which doesn't distinguish between civilians and combatants in its figures. Israel says it has killed over 13,000 militants, without providing evidence.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Give us 5 minutes, and we'll give you the world. Around the clock, Voice of America keeps you in touch with the latest news. We bring you reports from our correspondents and interviews with newsmakers from across the world.

Tunis, Tunisia — Tunisian security forces stormed the bar association in Tunis and arrested the lawyer and political commentator Sonia Dahmani after she made comments on television about the state of the country, her lawyers said. The arrest late Saturday was covered live by the France 24 news channel, which said it was forced to cut its broadcast, and that its crew had been assaulted and a cameraman briefly detained. Dahmani's attorney Dalila Msaddek in a post on Facebook reported a "police attack against the bar association headquarters" with "lawyers assaulted and the abduction of colleague Sonia Dahmani to an unknown location." Islam Hamza, another lawyer in Dahmani's defense team, confirmed to AFP that Dahmani had been arrested. Tunisian media reported Dahmani was under investigation under the controversial Decree 54, which outlaws "spreading false news" online or in the media and "incitement to hate speech." Journalists and opposition figures argue the law has been used to stifle dissent. Msaddek said the pundit was summoned to court on Friday to explain her remarks but refused to appear. A court then issued a warrant ordering law enforcement to bring Dahmani before the investigating judge. Dahmani told journalists before her arrest that she refused to appear "without knowing the reasons for this summons." During a show on the Carthage Plus TV channel on Tuesday, she responded to another pundit's claim that migrants from sub-Saharan African countries were seeking to settle in Tunisia. "What extraordinary country are we talking about?" she asked sarcastically, triggering angry reactions from some Tunisian social media users. France 24, whose team had been at the bar association at the time of the arrest to report on an event in support of Dahmani, said in a statement that police officers forced the crew to stop transmitting live footage. The police "violently" removed the camera from its tripod and detained cameraman Hamdi Tlili, who "was released after about 10 minutes," said the network. It condemned what it said was a "brutal intervention by security forces that prevented journalists from practicing their profession as they were covering a lawyers' protest for justice and in support of freedom of expression." Signed by President Kais Saied in September 2022, Decree 54 mandates up to five years in prison for the use of communications networks to "produce, spread [or] disseminate ...  false news" or to "slander others, tarnish their reputation, financially or morally harm them." Since the decree came into force, more than 60 journalists, lawyers and opposition figures have been prosecuted under it, according to the National Union of Tunisian Journalists. The North African country is a key departure point for thousands of migrants who risk perilous Mediterranean Sea crossings each year hoping for a better life in Europe. But the situation of sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia has worsened, particularly after a speech by Saied last year in which he painted "hordes of illegal migrants" as a demographic threat. 

TORGIANO, Italy — The Prada Group is expanding its production footprint in Italy, including dozens of new jobs at its knitwear factory in Umbria, leaning into "Made in Italy" as integral to the brand's ethos and developing new artisanal talent to ease the luxury group through a generational shift in its workforce. Prada CEO Andrea Guerra, who was brought in last year as part of the generational change in family-run Prada's management, said at an unveiling of the expanded plant Tuesday that the company is investing 60 million euros ($65 million) in production this year. At Torgiano, Prada has added 30 new jobs this year, alongside 65 last year, bringing the workforce to some 220 employees, mostly women, to create knitwear for the Prada and Miu Miu brands, a key category for the group. The site had just 39 employees when Prada bought it in 2001. "For many years, Torgiano was a small, important place, linked to the Umbrian knitwear tradition,'' mostly dedicated to product research and development, Guerra said. "In the last six or seven years, with the extraordinary growth in knitwear, we decided to create an all-around industrial hub," adding production to a reinforced R&D center. The innocuous low-slung plant, identified by a simple, small Prada nameplate near the gate, is at the heart of a network that includes dozens of smaller companies that together create some 30,000 pieces of knitwear a month for the global luxury group. They include red crocheted Miu Miu culottes to soft gray Prada cardigans that have become a trademark. Guerra described the Milan-based fashion group's manufacturing footprint in central Italy as a "network of intelligent relationships and craftsmanship merged with a constant capacity to bring innovation to the market." Prada's investments to exert greater control over its supply chain stand out against the backdrop of a recent investigation that revealed sweatshop conditions in Chinese-owned factories producing luxury goods for other Italian brands in the Lombardy region, where the Italian fashion capital Milan is located. The production arm of Giorgio Armani has been put under receivership as part of an ongoing supply chain probe. Prada has focused on what it calls vertical integration of its supply chain — working with smaller companies, some with just a handful of craftspeople, that provide specific, sometimes unique, skills. For its knitwear operation, Prada works with some 60 smaller companies that it refers to as "partners" or "collaborators." "Contractors, subcontractors, that is not something tied to this world. There are production phases that are assigned to our collaborators, our partners,'' Guerra said, adding: "The way I work inside, and the way I work outside needs to be the same." Lorenzo Bertelli, marketing director and head of corporate social responsibility who is slated to take over the company from his parents Patrizio Bertelli and Miuccia Prada, said a strong governance is the key to avoiding "such incidents." He credited his father with starting Prada on the road to integrating its supply chain in the 1990s. Audits of suppliers, which have so far been voluntary, will become mandatory in 2025 under the Corporate Sustainability Reporting legislation, aimed at controlling abuses, said Stefania Saviolo, a fashion and luxury expert at Milan's Bocconi University. Publicly quoted companies like Prada, which are used to a level of transparency and reporting, will likely have an easier time than others, she said. Integrating the supply chain doesn't just mean that a major player buys up smaller companies, she said, but they may invest in specific machinery, or help them secure bank financing. "It is not ownership, it is a longer transaction along the model of partnership,'' Saviolo said, adding that such relationships also provide a sense of security to the smaller companies more vulnerable to market crashes. Noting that the luxury and fashion industries have long relied on third-party manufacturing, Bernstein global luxury goods analyst Luca Solca said the kind of investments by Prada to integrate manufacturing processes in-house "is a sort of catch-up with best-in-class-players in the industry." A key part of Prada's investments are aimed at securing know-how into the next generation, a transition the company has been preparing also in its management and creative roles. Finding new workers with both experience and passion is difficult, even in a region where knitwear is part of the local tradition, said Lorenzo Teodori, who runs the Torgiano plant. To fill that gap, Prada runs an internal academy as needed at its 23 Italian production sites to train young craftspeople. The next one in Torgiano starts in the fall, with experienced workers training the next generation. "Through the Prada Academy, we have seen how this dialogue is still alive and successful,'' Bertelli said. "We need it to train the future technicians of tomorrow, who in turn will be the teachers in the future. It is a fundamental cycle for our group."

New York — All dogs coming into the U.S. from other countries must be at least 6 months old and microchipped to help prevent the spread of rabies, according to new government rules published Wednesday. The new rules require vaccination for dogs that have been in countries where rabies is common. The update applies to dogs brought in by breeders or rescue groups as well as pets traveling with their U.S. owners. "This new regulation is going to address the current challenges that we're facing," said Emily Pieracci, a rabies expert at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention who was involved in drafting the updated regulations. The CDC posted the new rules in the federal register on Wednesday. They take effect Aug. 1 when a temporary 2021 order expires. That order suspended bringing in dogs from more than 100 countries where rabies is still a problem. The new rules require all dogs entering the U.S. to be at least 6 months, old enough to be vaccinated if required, and for the shots to take effect; have a microchip placed under their skin with a code that can be used to verify rabies vaccination; and have completed a new CDC import form. There may be additional restrictions and requirements based on where the dog was the previous six months, which may include blood testing from CDC-approved labs. The CDC regulations were last updated in 1956, and a lot has changed, Pieracci said. More people travel internationally with their pets, and more rescue groups and breeders have set up overseas operations to meet the demand for pets, she said. Now, about 1 million dogs enter the U.S. each year. Dogs were once common carriers of the rabies virus in the U.S. but the type that normally circulates in dogs was eliminated through vaccinations in the 1970s. The virus invades the central nervous system and is usually a fatal disease in animals and humans. It's most commonly spread through a bite from an infected animal. There is no cure for it once symptoms begin. Four rabid dogs have been identified entering the U.S. since 2015, and officials worried more might get through. CDC officials also were seeing an increase of incomplete or fraudulent rabies vaccination certificates and more puppies denied entry because they weren't old enough to be fully vaccinated. A draft version of the updated regulations last year drew a range of public comments. Angela Passman, owner of a Dallas company that helps people move their pets internationally, supports the new rules. It can especially tricky for families that buy or adopt a dog while overseas and then try to bring it to the U.S., she said. The update means little change from how things have been handled in recent years, she said. "It's more work for the pet owner, but the end result is a good thing," said Passman, who is a board member for the International Pet and Animal Transportation Association. But Jennifer Skiff said some of the changes are unwarranted and too costly. She works for Animal Wellness Action, a Washington group focused on preventing animal cruelty that helps organizations import animals. She said those groups work with diplomats and military personnel who have had trouble meeting requirements, and was a reason some owners were forced to leave their dogs behind.

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican crossed a key milestone Thursday in the runup to its 2025 Jubilee with the promulgation of the official decree establishing the Holy Year. It's a once-every-quarter-century event that is expected to bring some 32 million pilgrims to Rome and has already brought months of headaches to Romans. Pope Francis presided over a ceremony in the atrium of St. Peter's Basilica for the reading of the papal bull, or official edict, that laid out his vision for a year of hope: He asked for gestures of solidarity for the poor, prisoners, migrants and Mother Nature. "Hope is needed by God's creation, gravely damaged and disfigured by human selfishness," Francis said in a vigil service afterward. "Hope is needed by those peoples and nations who look to the future with anxiety and fear." The pomp-filled event, attended by cardinals, bishops and ordinary faithful, kicked off the final seven-month dash of preparations and public works projects to be completed by December 24, when Francis opens the basilica's Holy Door and formally inaugurates the Jubilee. In a novelty, Francis announced in the papal bull that he would also open a Holy Door in a prison "as a sign inviting prisoners to look to the future with hope and a renewed sense of confidence." For the Vatican, the Holy Year is a centuries-old tradition of the faithful making pilgrimages to Rome to visit the tombs of Saints Peter and Paul, and receiving indulgences for the forgiveness of their sins in the process. For the city of Rome, it's a chance to take advantage of some 4 billion euros ($4.3 billion) in public funds to carry out long-delayed projects to lift the city out of years of decay and neglect. "In a beautiful city, you live better," said the Vatican's Jubilee point-person, Archbishop Renato Fisichella, who himself is not indifferent to the added bonus of Jubilee funding. "Rome will become an even more beautiful city, because it will be ever more at the service of its people, pilgrims and tourists who will come." Pope Boniface VIII declared the first Holy Year in 1300, and now they are held every 25 years. While Francis called an interim one devoted to mercy in 2015, the 2025 edition is the first big one since St. John Paul II's 2000 Jubilee, when he ushered the Catholic Church into the third millennium. As occurred in the runup to 2000, pre-Jubilee public works projects have overwhelmed Rome, with flood-lit construction sites operating around the clock, entire swaths of central boulevards rerouted and traffic snarling the city's already clogged streets. The Tiber riverfront for much of the city center is now off limits as work crews create new parks. Piazzas are being repaved, bike paths charted and 5G cells built. The aim is to bring the Eternal City up to par with other European capitals and take advantage of the 1.3 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in special Jubilee funding and some 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) more in other public and post-pandemic EU funds that are available. "It's really putting our patience to the test," said Tiziana Cafini, who operates a tobacco shop near the Pantheon and says she has taken to walking to work rather than riding a bus into the city center because it gets stuck in traffic. "And it's not just in the center. There are an infinite number of construction sites all around Rome." Though she knows the discomfort will be worth it in the end, the end is still pretty far off. In addition to the Jubilee construction, there's a longer-term, separate project to extend Rome's Metro C subway line into Rome's historic center which has encountered years of delays thanks to archaeological excavations of ancient Roman ruins that must be completed first. For the next four years at least, central Piazza Venezia and its Imperial Forum-flanked boulevard to the Colosseum are scheduled to be congested and blighted by giant, 14-meter-high green silos that are needed for the subway drilling operation. "We're upset, but we're Romans, we'll make do," Cafini said. Rome Mayor Roberto Gualtieri said recently he was satisfied with the pace of the Jubilee works so far, noting that they got off to a months-delayed start due to the 2022 collapse of Premier Mario Dragi's government. But Gualtieri promised they would be completed on time. And in a nod to Romans and tourists who have suffered from the traffic chaos and acute shortage of taxis already, he promised that an extra 1,000 taxi licenses had been approved and would be in use by December. Yet as of late last month, only two of the 231 city projects had been completed; 57 were under way and another 44 were expected to be started by the end of May, Gualtieri told reporters. Another 18 are up for bids, seven have been assigned, 90 are planned. Thirteen have been canceled. "We have recovered a lot from the initial delay," Gualtieri told the foreign press association, adding that he expected the "essential" projects to be completed on time. Other projects were always planned to take longer than the Jubilee but were lumped into the overall project to take advantage of the accelerated timeframe. The most significant project, and one that has caused the greatest traffic disruption to date, is a new Vatican-area piazza and pedestrian zone connecting Castel St. Angelo with the Via della Conciliazione boulevard that leads to St. Peter's Square. Previously, a major thoroughfare divided the two landmarks, causing an unsightly and pedestrian-unfriendly barrier. The new works call for a tunnel to divert the oncoming traffic underneath the new pedestrian piazza. But that project required re-routing and replacing a huge underground sewage system first, which has only recently been completed. Now crews are working through the night to try to complete the tunnel in time.

sacramento, california — California could soon deploy generative artificial intelligence tools to help reduce traffic jams, make roads safer and provide tax guidance, among other things, under new agreements announced Thursday as part of Governor Gavin Newsom's efforts to harness the power of new technologies for public services.  The state is partnering with five companies to create generative AI tools using technologies developed by tech giants such as Microsoft-backed OpenAI and Google- and Amazon-backed Anthropic that would ultimately help the state provide better services to the public, administration officials said.  "It is a very good sign that a lot of these companies are putting their focus on using GenAI for governmental service delivery," said Amy Tong, secretary of government operations for California.  The companies will start a six-month internal trial in which state workers test and evaluate the tools. The companies will be paid $1 for their proposals. The state, which faces a significant budget deficit, can then reassess whether any tools could be fully implemented under new contracts. All the tools are considered low risk, meaning they don't interact with confidential data or personal information, an administration spokesperson said.  Newsom, a Democrat, touts California as a global hub for AI technology, noting 35 of the world's top 50 AI companies are located in the state. He signed an executive order last year requiring the state to start exploring responsible ways to incorporate generative AI by this summer, with a goal of positioning California as an AI leader. In January, the state started asking technology companies to come up with generative AI tools for public services. Last month, California was one of the first states to roll out guidelines on when and how state agencies could buy such tools.  Generative AI, a branch of AI that can create new content such as text, audio and photos, has significant potential to help government agencies become more efficient, but there's also an urgent need for safeguards to limit risks, state officials and experts said. In New York City, an AI-powered chatbot created by the city to help small businesses was found to dole out false guidance and advise companies to violate the law. The rapidly growing technology has also raised concerns about job losses, misinformation, privacy and automation bias.  While state governments are struggling to regulate AI in the private sector, many are exploring how public agencies can leverage the powerful technology for public good. California's approach, which also requires companies to disclose what large language models they use to develop AI tools, is meant to build public trust, officials said.  The state's testing of the tools and collecting of feedback from state workers are some of the best practices to limit potential risks, said Meredith Lee, chief technical adviser for the University of California-Berkeley's College of Computing, Data Science and Society. The challenge is determining how to assure continued testing and learning about the tools' potential risks after deployment.  "This is not something where you just work on testing for some small amount of time and that's it," Lee said. "Putting in the structures for people to be able to revisit and better understand the deployments further down the line is really crucial."  The California Department of Transportation is looking for tools that would analyze traffic data and come up with solutions to reduce highway traffic and make roads safer. The state's Department of Tax and Fee Administration, which administers more than 40 programs, wants an AI tool to help its call center cut wait times and call length. The state is also seeking technologies to provide non-English speakers information about health and social services benefits in their languages and to streamline the inspection process for health care facilities.  The tools are to be designed to assist state workers, not replace them, said Nick Maduros, director of the Department of Tax and Fee Administration.  Call center workers there took more than 660,000 calls last year. The state envisions the AI technology listening along to those calls and pulling up specific tax code information associated with the problems callers describe. Workers  could decide whether to use the information. Currently, call center workers have to simultaneously listen to the call and manually look up the code, Maduros said.  "If it turns out it doesn't serve the public better, then we're out $1," Maduros said. "And I think that's a pretty good deal for the citizens of California."  Tong wouldn't say when a successfully vetted tool would be deployed, but added that the state was moving as fast as it can.  "The whole essence of using GenAI is it doesn't take years," Tong said. "GenAI doesn't wait for you."

london — Thousands of ride-or-die Taylor Swift fans who missed out on her U.S. concert tour last year or didn't want to buy exorbitantly priced tickets to see her again found an out-of-the-way solution: Fly to Europe.  The pop star is scheduled to kick off the 18-city Europe leg of her record-setting Eras Tour in Paris on Thursday, and planeloads of Swifties plan to follow Miss Americana across the pond in the coming weeks. The arena where Swift is appearing said Americans bought 20% of the tickets for her four sold-out shows. Stockholm, the tour's next stop, expects about 10,000 concertgoers from the U.S.  A concert might sound like an odd raison d'etre for visiting a foreign country, especially when fans can watch the Eras Tour from home via the documentary now streaming on Disney+. Yet online travel company Expedia says continent-hopping by Swift's devotees is part of a larger trend it dubbed "tour tourism" while observing a pattern that emerged during Beyonce's Renaissance world tour.  Some North American fans who plan to fly overseas for the Eras Tour said they justified the expense after noticing that tighter restrictions on ticket fees and resales in Europe made seeing Swift perform abroad no more costly — and potentially cheaper — than catching her closer to home.  "They said, 'Wait a minute, I can either spend $1,500 to go see my favorite artist in Miami, or I can take that $1,500 and buy a concert ticket, a round-trip plane ticket, and three nights in a hotel room," Melanie Fish, an Expedia spokesperson and travel expert, said.  That was the experience of Jennifer Warren, 43, who lives in St. Catharines, a city in the Niagara region of Ontario. She and her 11-year-old son love Swift but had no luck scoring what she considered as decently priced tickets in the U.S. Undeterred, Warren and her husband decided to plan a European vacation around wherever she managed to get seats. It turned out to be Hamburg, Germany.  "You get out, you get to see the world, and you get to see your favorite artist or performer at the same time, so there are a lot of wins to it," said Warren, who works as the director of research and innovation for a mutual insurance company.  The three VIP tickets she secured close to the stage — "I would call it brute-force dumb luck" — cost 600 euros ($646) each. Swift subsequently announced six November tour dates in Toronto, within driving distance of Warren's home. "Absolute nose-bleed seats" already are going for 3,000 Canadian dollars ($2,194) on secondary resale sites like Viagogo, Warren said.  Trend reflects hunger for 'experiences' Hard-core fans trailing their favorite singer or band on tour is not a new phenomenon. "Groupie" emerged in the late 1960s as a somewhat derogatory word for the ardent followers of rock bands. Deadheads took to the road in the 1970s to pursue the Grateful Dead from city to city.  More recently, music festivals such as California's Coachella and England's Glastonbury, and concert residencies in Las Vegas by the likes of Elton John, Lady Gaga and Adele, have attracted travelers to places they wouldn't otherwise visit, Fish noted.  Travel and entertainment analysts also have spoken of a pent-up consumer demand for "experiences" over material objects since the coronavirus pandemic. Some think the willingness of music lovers to broaden their fandom horizons is part of the same mass cultural correction.  "It does seem like it's more than a structural shift, maybe a personality transformation we all went through," said Natalia Lechmanova, the chief Europe economist for the Mastercard Economics Institute.  As Swift hopscotches across Europe, Lechmanova expects restaurants and hotels to see the same boost that Mastercard observed within a 2.5-mile (4-kilometer) radius of concert venues in the U.S. cities she visited in 2023. The U.S. dollar's strong value against the euro may also increase retail spending on apparel, memorabilia, beauty products and supplies for the friendship bracelets fans exchange as part of the Eras Tour experience, the economist said.  Former college roommates Lizzy Hale, 34, who lives in Los Angeles, California, and Mitch Goulding, 33, who lives in Austin, Texas, already had tickets to see the Eras Tour in Los Angeles last summer when they decided to try to get ones for Paris, London or Edinburgh, Scotland, too. They saw a Europe concert trip as a makeup for travel plans they had in May 2020 to celebrate Goulding's birthday but had to cancel due to the pandemic.  Goulding managed to secure VIP tickets for one of Swift's three Stockholm shows. He, Hale and two other friends scheduled a 10-day trip that also includes time in Amsterdam and Copenhagen.  "As people who enjoy traveling and enjoy music, if you can find an opportunity to combine the two, it's really special," said Hale, who is pregnant with her first child.  Eras Tour creates 'Swiftonomics' The local economic impact of what the zeitgeist has termed "Swiftonomics" and the "Swift lift" can be considerable. It's no wonder the exclusive arrangement Singapore's government made with Swift to make the city-state her only tour stop in Southeast Asia earlier this year aroused regional jealousy.  No European governments have complained of their countries not being among the dozen selected for the Europe leg of the Eras Tour, although some fans have expressed surprise that Gelsenkirchen, a city with a population of about 264,000 is one of the three cities in Germany that made the cut.  Airbnb reported Tuesday that searches on its platform for the U.K. cities where Swift is performing in June and August — Edinburgh, Liverpool, Cardiff and London — increased an average of 337% when tickets went on sale last summer.  Not to be outdone when it comes to trend-spotting, the property rentals company cited the demand as an example of "passion tourism," or travel "driven by concerts, sports and other cultural events."  In Stockholm, 120,000 out-of-towners from 130 countries — among them 10,000 from the U.S. — are expected to swarm Sweden's capital this month, Stockholm Chamber of Commerce Chief Economist Carl Bergqvist said. Stockholm is the only Scandinavian city on Swift's tour, and airlines added extra flights from nearby Denmark, Finland and Norway to bring people to the May 17-19 shows, he said.  The city's 40,000 hotel rooms are sold out even though prices skyrocketed for the tour dates, Bergqvist said. Concert visitors are expected to pump around 500 million Swedish kroner, or more than $46 million, into the local economy over the course of their stays, an estimate that does not include what they paid for Swift tickets or to get to Sweden, he said.  "So this is going to be huge for the tourism sector in Sweden and Stockholm in particular," Bergqvist said.  Clubs, bars cater to Swifties Nightclubs, restaurants and bars are seizing the opportunity to cater to fans with Taylor Swift-themed events, such as karaoke, quizzes and after-concert dance parties.  Houston resident Caroline Matlock, 29, saw Swift more than a year ago when the Eras Tour came to the Texas city. Now she's making more friendship bracelets and trying to learn a few words of Swedish as she prepares to see the 3 1/2-hour show in Stockholm. The idea of seeing Swift in Europe was her friend's, and Matlock needed some persuading at first.  "I was like, 'I only want to go if it's a country I haven't been to. I've seen Taylor Swift,'" she said.  Visiting the Scandinavian cities of Oslo and Gothenburg is on their itinerary. The concert is the last night of the trip and Matlock looks forward to interacting with Swifties from other countries: "Americans tend to have a very obsessive culture, especially Taylor Swift-related, so I'm curious if the crowd will be more toned-down."  It remains to be seen if the music tourism trend has legs as long and strong as Swift's and Beyoncé's, and if it will carry over to Billie Eilish, Usher and other artists with world tours scheduled next year. Expedia's Fish thinks other big-name artists in Europe this summer will prove that booking a foreign trip around a concert is catching on.  Kat Morga, a travel consultant based in Nashville, a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee, isn't so sure. Morga saw Swift perform in Nashville last year and helped two clients with school-aged children book European family vacations this summer that include seeing Swift in concert. But she thinks the difficulty of navigating ticket purchases through language barriers, currency conversions, international banking regulations and the risk of cancellations will limit the appeal of regular gig getaways.  "I think this is an anomaly," Morga said. "People aren't typically going to build their $20,000 huge family vacation only because Taylor Swift is there. She's the one-off. She's special."  Booking Holdings CEO Glenn Fogel, whose company operates Booking.com, priceline.com, agoda.com, Kayak and OpenTable, is even less enthusiastic about concert tours as a tourism instigator. The Swift Effect causes a "little blip" when the superstar goes to smaller destinations, but for the worldwide travel industry, "one star touring around does not make a difference," he said.  "It may just shift it a little bit. A person was going to go to the Caribbean for a week vacation. Instead that person (says), 'Let's travel to the Taylor Swift thing,'" Fogel said. "It doesn't increase it. It just moves it from here to there." 

NAIROBI, Kenya — Armed with gardening hoes while others cradled bamboo seedlings, students gathered outside their school in Kenya's capital. They hoped the fully grown bamboo would help to filter filthy air from one of Africa's largest trash dumps next door. More than 100 bamboo plantings dot the ground around Dandora secondary school, which shares a name with the dumpsite that was declared full 23 years ago. Hundreds of trucks still drive in daily to dump more trash. Allan Sila, 17, said sitting in his classroom is like studying in a smelly latrine. Acrid smoke billowing from the burning of trash fills the air every morning, hindering visibility and leaving some students with respiratory issues. "Asthma is a disease that is commonly known," Sila said. The school's principal, Eutychus Maina, recalled being greeted by the smell and smoke when he was posted to the school last year. He knew he had to do something. "My motivation for initiating the bamboo project in the school was to mitigate the effects of the dumpsite. It really pollutes the air that we breathe," he said. He said he researched online and came across the use of bamboo. He believes it will help reduce the cases of respiratory infections in the community. The fast-growing bamboo has been promoted by the United Nations and others for its high uptake of carbon dioxide. Aderiana Mbandi is an air quality research and policy expert at the United Nations Environment Program, based in Nairobi. She said the impact of air pollution is felt in all parts of the body including the brain, and the best way to reduce its effects is minimizing exposure. The seedlings the students began planting last August are already nine feet (three meters) tall. The giant bamboo variety is expected to reach 40 feet when mature, depending on soil conditions. Students hope the bamboo will help transform the school compound into a green haven in the litter-strewn Dandora neighborhood. The publicly funded school relies on donations to afford the seedlings that retail at 400 Kenyan shillings ($3) each. But the school management is determined to keep going until bamboo lines the 900-meter wall that separates the school and the dumpsite. The Dandora dump occupies about 50 hectares (123 acres) of land and receives more than 2,000 tons of waste daily from around Nairobi, home to 4 million people. Its stench can be smelled kilometers (miles) away. UNEP, in partnership with the Stockholm Environment Institute, deployed sensors to the Dandora neighborhood from October to April to monitor pollution levels from the dumpsite. Out of the 166 days monitored, only 12 had a daily average of excellent air quality according to World Health Organization guidelines. Nairobi's air is also polluted by emissions from secondhand cars that make up much of the city's transport. Other pollutants include smoke from industries that are often located near residential areas. The Dandora school is also planting trees including jacaranda and grevillea. Student Josiah Nyamwata called them easy to obtain and easy to plant. "The other advantage is that the trees will be helpful in order to boost our air circulation around our school," he said. The air isn't the school's ' only challenge. Vultures from the dumpsite are a nuisance at mealtimes. Students guard their plates from being snatched.

NAIROBI, Kenya — Winnie Makinda, 35, says she is facing the worst crisis and lowest moment of her life because of the Kenyan government's response to floods that devastated her poor community in the capital, Nairobi. The floods and mudslides swept away people and inundated homes, killing at least 267 people and affecting more than 380,000, according to government statistics. The floods are fueled by unusually heavy rainfall during Kenya's rainy season, which starts in March and sometimes extends to June. The hardest hit are people living close to rivers, including the Mathare River running through Nairobi. To save lives in the future, the government last week ordered evacuations and the demolition of structures and buildings that had been built illegally within 30 meters (98 feet) of riverbanks. Officials say that at least 181,000 people have been moved since last week and that measures have been taken to provide temporary shelter, food and other essentials. But the demolitions have led to more suffering as those affected say they are being carried out in a chaotic and inhumane way. At least three people have died in the past week when bulldozers brought down structures on top of them, according to rights groups, family members of the deceased and residents who spoke to The Associated Press. Among those killed was Makinda's 17-year-old son, Ian Otieno, who was crushed to death when an excavator brought down a wall of the Pentecostal Evangelistic Fellowship of Africa church while he was inside helping save property. “The driver of the excavator refused to listen to the pleas by the women that there were children inside the church,” Makinda said amid sobs. Otieno was the only one of her eight children attending school, and he carried the family’s hopes for a better future. A single parent of four sons and four daughters, Makinda faces forceful eviction this week from the $15-a-month tin shack she calls home in Kenya’s populous Mathere slums. One of her children is suffering from sickle cell anemia, which often leaves her bed-ridden and in need of costly treatment, and her youngest needs frequent medical attention after being scalded by boiling water around the torso. Overwhelmed by her situation, Makinda tried to jump into the raging waters of the Mathare River to “end the stress." Her neighbors stopped her Wednesday and calmed her by giving her a local moonshine called Changaa, which is popular in rural and low-income areas of the capital. Makinda makes $2 a day washing other people's clothes and says she can barely afford one proper meal a day for her children let alone pay hospital bills. And now she must raise money for her son's burial, a costly exercise for most people in western Kenya, and move to a new house. “My son's body is lying in the mortuary without preservation because I have not paid. I cannot even afford transportation to the morgue,” she said. Like hundreds of poor Kenyans whose houses are being demolished, Makinda feels betrayed and abandoned by the government. Some say they were evicted without the legally recommended three-month notice period that should be given before action is taken. They also say they have not received the $75 in aid to look for alternative accommodation that President William Ruto has pledged. Millicent Otondo, 48, a mother of three, lost both her home and her 20-year-old business during this week's demolition. The caretaker of a five-story building that was brought down, Otondo recounted how engineers marked the building housing her shop and home for demolition, which prompted people to break into it and steal her entire stock. “I am really bitter because police stood by as people looted my belongings,” Otondo said from a local primary school where she has received temporary shelter. Otondo says she has not received the $75, and even if she did, it wouldn't cover her rent and is a drop in a bucket compared with the $6,000 in losses from her property that was looted. She also wondered why the building was demolished despite it not being within 30 meters of the riverbank. The government has defended itself against opposition accusations it was ill-prepared for the impact of the floods despite early warnings. “I don't think anyone would be prepared for the weather extremes we are seeing,” Environment Cabinet Secretary Soipan Tuya said in an interview with local broadcaster Citizen TV. “Some parts of this country have never seen floods before.” Experts say the devastating rains are a result of a mix of factors, including the country’s seasonal weather patterns and human-caused climate change, as well as natural weather phenomena. However, observers point out that the government received early warnings of the floods from the metrological department in October. “This is hypocrisy and insensitivity of the highest order,” said rights activist Boniface Mwangi. “The government knew the floods were coming, and even set aside 10 billion [$76 million] to prepare a nationwide response. What happened to those funds?” He said the government also abdicated its responsibility by allowing the building of houses on land near rivers and swamps. “Greed is the reason people are dying. Corrupt civil servants approved and issued title deeds for riparian lands,” he said. And amid the death and destruction caused by floods, the government is demolishing houses in the name of bringing development through a government affordable housing program, he said. “Demolishing people’s homes in the name of affordable housing is a sign that we have a tone-deaf government. People living in shanties can’t afford to pay for houses costing millions. Their entire life's wages can’t buy any of the houses the government is building,” Mwangi said.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Ruby Chen's son, Itay, was killed in the Hamas attack on October 7. But unlike scores of other families of soldiers killed that day, Chen doesn't have a grave to visit because his son's remains are held captive in Gaza. The absence of a final resting place is being felt acutely now, as Israel marks its Memorial Day for fallen soldiers, when cemeteries are brimming with relatives mourning over the graves of their loved ones. "Where are we supposed to go?" Chen said. "There is no burial site for us to go to." Memorial Day is always a somber occasion in Israel, a country that has suffered through repeated war and conflict throughout its 76-year history. But Chen's torment underscores how this year it has taken on a profound and raw sadness coupled with percolating anger over the failures of October 7 and the war it sparked. Families of the fallen, along with broad segments of the public, are demanding accountability from political and military leaders over the blunders that led to the deaths of hundreds in the deadliest attack in the country's history. "Too many people were killed on that day because of a colossal misjudgment," said Chen, who for months thought his son was still alive after he was snatched into Gaza, before receiving confirmation earlier this year that he was dead. "People who made the misjudgment need to pay, from the prime minister down." Israel marks its Memorial Day for fallen soldiers and victims of attacks beginning at sundown Sunday with an official ceremony and smaller events the following day at military cemeteries across the country. The solemnity is then abruptly interrupted by the fanfare of Independence Day, which begins Monday evening. Grouping the two days together is intentionally meant to highlight the link between the costly wars Israel has fought and the establishment and survival of the state, a contrast that this year will be hard to reconcile at a time when Israel is actively engaged in warfare and Israelis feel more insecure than ever. With the trauma of October 7 looming large, each day is expected to feel dramatically different from previous years. More than 600 Israeli soldiers have been killed since Hamas launched its surprise attack on October 7, when thousands of militants rampaged across southern Israeli military bases and sleepy communities on a Jewish holiday. Roughly 1,200 people were killed that day, about a quarter of them soldiers, and another 250 were taken captive into Gaza, according to Israeli authorities. The attack sparked the war, now in its eighth month, which has killed more than 34,700 Palestinians, most of them women and children, according to local health officials. The militants stormed past Israel's vaunted defenses, bursting through a border fence, blinding surveillance cameras and battling the country's first line of defense soldiers, many of whom were outnumbered. Itay Chen, an Israeli American, was one of them. Militants reached roughly 20 different locations in southern Israel, stretching into cities beyond the belt of farming communities that straddles Gaza. It took hours for the region's most powerful military to send reinforcements to the area and days for it to clear all the militants. The attack shook Israel to its core. It shattered the broad trust the country's Jewish population has long placed in the military, which has compulsory enlistment for most Jewish 18-year-olds. Beyond the crisis of confidence in the military, the attack smashed Israelis' faith in their government and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose public support plummeted. Thousands of people take part in weekly protests demanding early elections so that a new leadership can take over. Military and defense leaders have said they shoulder the blame for what transpired during the attack, and the country's head of military intelligence resigned as a result. But Netanyahu has stopped short of accepting responsibility, saying he will answer tough questions after the war and even blaming his security chiefs last year in a late night post on X he later deleted. His refusal to own up to his role has infuriated many. But many Israelis have also lost patience with the protracted war, where soldiers continue to die and where thousands have been wounded. The war's twin aims, of defeating Hamas' governing and military capabilities and freeing the hostages, have not been accomplished, casting a shadow over events typically meant as a salute to the military's prowess, said Idit Shafran Gittleman, an expert on the military and Israeli society at the Institute for National Security Studies, a Tel Aviv think tank. Tens of thousands of Israelis also remain displaced from the country's south and volatile north. "Since October 7, Israelis have asked themselves how they will endure Memorial Day and Independence Day. And I don't think anyone has an answer," she said, adding that the one thing that might improve public sentiment is elections and a new government. The anger that has surged is likely to boil over at the Memorial Day ceremonies, which take place at military cemeteries across the country. The ceremonies are typically seen as sacred, solemn and apolitical, even though they are attended by government ministers and lawmakers. Some families have asked that the ministers refrain from joining, fearing a repeat of last year, when attendees at multiple ceremonies yelled at lawmakers who supported a divisive government plan to overhaul the judiciary. "This is an event that the failing leadership and the failing security apparatus led us to," Eyal Eshel, whose daughter, Roni, was killed at a base stormed by militants on October 7 and who is leading the charge to prevent ministers from attending, told Israeli Channel 12. "Respect the families' request: Don't come." Regardless, ministers are still slated to fan out across cemeteries nationwide. But other changes are being made to reflect the somber mood, especially for Independence Day. The official ceremony marking the start of celebrations will be scaled down and have no live audience. The traditional air force flyover has been canceled. Israelis are wondering what the right way to celebrate is — and whether there is much to celebrate at all. "People have stopped believing that the country is able to defend us," said Tom Segev, an Israeli historian. "The basic faith in the ability of the state to ensure a good future here has been undermined."

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CAIRO, Canada — Canadian authorities are urging all remaining residents in the northeastern part of the province of British Columbia to leave immediately, despite improving weather conditions, after thousands have already been evacuated due to a fast-growing wildfire. The blaze, which started Friday, almost doubled in size the following day, reaching about 17 square kilometers. BC Wildfire Service maps showed the fire burning just a few kilometers west of Fort Nelson's city limits. Online footage shared by locals showed thick plumes of smoke rising high into the sky with houses in the foreground. In some photos, haze seemed to cover wide areas. The Northern Rockies Regional Municipality and Fort Nelson First Nation issued a joint statement warning people staying behind that "emergency medical services are not available, nor are groceries or other amenities." The municipality mayor, Rob Fraser, said most of the 3,500 residents in and around Fort Nelson, B.C., have been evacuated, adding that police were going door to door to ensure everyone got out. He said the Parker Lake fire is one of three major wildfires near Fort Nelson, located in the far northeastern corner of British Columbia, about 1,600 kilometers from Vancouver. Health authorities said Fort Nelson General Hospital has been safely evacuated and closed until further notice. Resident Bud Streeper posted a video update from the area on Saturday, saying that the winds that had whipped the Parker Lake wildfire into exponential growth on Friday night diminished overnight, reducing fire activity around the town. The high winds pushed smoke from the blaze into parts of neighboring Alberta on Saturday, putting the city of Edmonton under an air quality advisory with hazard levels rated at 10-plus — or "very high risk" — forecast. Meteorologists are not anticipating rain and have advised people to stay indoors. Authorities in Alberta also issued an alert about a wildfire nearly 25 kilometers southwest of the oil sands city of Fort McMurray that can impact visibility on highways in some areas. No evacuation order has been given so far. In 2023, Canada witnessed a record number of wildfires that have also caused choking smoke in parts of the U.S. and forced tens of thousands of people to evacuate across British Columbia. 

BARCELONA, Spain — Catalonia is holding a regional election on Sunday whose outcome will reverberate in Spain's national politics. The ballot will be a test both for the strength of the separatist movement in the wealthy northeastern part of Spain and for the policies of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez. More than 5.7 million voters are eligible to choose lawmakers for the regional parliament based in Barcelona. Separatists have held the regional government for more than a decade. But polling and a national election in July show that support for secession has shrunk somewhat since former regional president Carles Puigdemont led an illegal – and futile – breakaway bid in 2017. Puigdemont is a fugitive from Spain's laws since he fled the country days after his failed secession attempt. But that isn't stopping him from running in this election as he campaigns from southern France. He has said that he will return to Spain when the newly elected lawmakers convene to choose a regional president at some point after the election. By that time, Puigdemont hopes to be cleared of any legal troubles after Spain's parliament gives final approval to a contentious amnesty for him and hundreds of other separatists. The amnesty forms part of Sánchez's intense push to reduce tensions in Catalonia that also included the pardoning of jailed high-profile separatists. If voters don't validate that by coming out in support of his Socialist party, then it would be a blow to the leader who heads a minority coalition in Madrid. Sánchez has campaigned alongside Salvador Illa, the candidate of the Socialists. Illa won the most votes in a 2021 regional election but was unable to stop separatist Pere Aragonès from forming a government. The election will feature a battle inside the separatist camp between Puigdemont's conservative Together party and Aragonès's Republican Left of Catalonia. An upstart pro-secession, far-right party called Catalan Alliance, which rails against unauthorized immigration as well as the Spanish state, will hope to earn parliamentary representation. A total of nine parties are running and no single one is expected to come close to winning enough votes to reach the absolute majority of 68 seats in the chamber. So deal-making will be critical.

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KATHMANDU, Nepal — One of greatest climbing guides on Mount Everest has scaled the world's highest peak for the 29th time, extending his own record for most times to the summit, expedition organizers said Sunday. Kami Rita reached the 8,849-meter peak at 7:25 a.m. local time Sunday along with other climbers, said Mingma Sherpa of the expedition organizer Seven Summits Treks. He was reported in good health and already on the way down to lower camps. Kami Rita had climbed Mount Everest twice last year, setting the record for most climbs on the first and adding to it less than a week later. He and fellow Sherpa guide Pasang Dawa have been competing with each other for the title of most climbs of the world's highest peak. Pasang Dawa has 27 successful ascents of the mountain. Kami Rita first climbed Everest in 1994 and has been making the trip nearly every year since. He is one of many Sherpa guides whose expertise and skills are vital to the safety and success each year of foreign climbers who seek to stand on top of the mountain. His father was among the first Sherpa guides. In addition to his Everest climbs, Kami Rita has scaled several other peaks that are among the world's highest, including K2, Cho Oyu, Manaslu and Lhotse. Mingma Sherpa said the weather on the mountain was good and favorable for climbing to the summit. The first set of climbers reached Everest's summit just a few days ago and there are hundreds more who will be attempting to get up the mountain this month. Nepalese authorities have issued hundreds of climbing permits to foreign climbers, At least as many local Sherpa guides will be accompanying them during the climbing season.