
More than 1,500 flights cancelled on July 3-4 due to French air traffic controllers' strike
"Airlines for Europe (A4E) strongly condemns the French air traffic control (ATC) strike taking place today and tomorrow," it said.
"Tens of thousands of travellers in France and across Europe have seen their summer getaway grounded as French air-traffic controllers walk out during the Grand Départ; one of the busiest periods for summer travel," it added.
Hashtags

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
I'm a travel agent...this is the first thing I ALWAYS do when entering a hotel room - and it's not unpacking
A travel agent has revealed a checklist of essential tasks every holidaymaker must do before settling into their hotel room. While it's common for many people to unpack or appreciate the view from their balcony when first arriving at their accommodation, Dimple Chudasama-Adams insists it should be the last thing guests should be doing. The seasoned traveller, from Birmingham, UK, regularly shares 'secret' tips and travel advice with her 5,400 following on Instagram. In a recent video, posted to her account @escape_the_ordinary_by_dimple, Dimple unveiled her 'travel pro checklist' of five crucial jobs to do in hotel rooms or rented accommodation to ensure safety, comfort and and optimum hygiene. The first is checking for bed bugs, which is crucial on arrival as it can help prevent an infestation in your own home once your trip has come to an end. Bed bugs are excellent hitchhikers and can easily attach themselves to luggage, clothing, and other items, so thoroughly inspecting the room before unpacking can help prevent their spread. Dimple advises holidaymakers to 'pull back sheets and inspect mattress corners' for dark spots that could indicate the presence of bed bugs. Her next piece of advice is to wipe down high-touch surfaces in hotel rooms, such as remote controls, light switches and door handles, which is crucial for hygiene. These surfaces are frequently touched by multiple guests and can harbour germs and bacteria, potentially spreading and resulting in illness. Dimple's third tip is ensuring the doors lock and the safe functions properly, which is vital for security and peace of mind, and preventing unauthorised access and potential theft. The travel expert also urges guests to 'check the minibar and take photos' to avoid surprise charges at checkout. Taking photos upon arrival provides evidence of the minibar's original state and can be used to dispute any discrepancies that could later occur. Many minibars also use sensors or are manually checked by staff, resulting in accidental or inaccurate charges. Dimple's fifth and last word of advice, aimed at solo travellers, is to lock doors with a wedge or lock, which is crucial to enhance safety and security in an unfamiliar place. This provides an extra layer of protection against unauthorised entry, giving guests peace of mind and time to react in the event of an intrusion. Dimple's advice generated mixed responses in the comments, with some viewers suggesting their own top tips while others accused the travel agent of being 'paranoid'. Dimple's advice generated mixed responses in the comments, with some viewers suggesting their own top tips while others accused the travel agent of being 'paranoid' One person wrote, 'Paranoid much?' while another commented, 'Maybe umm, don't travel? Geez.' Meanwhile, another holidaymaker suggested: 'Perhaps check the fire exit routes first.' A second added, 'Check that the toilet flushes, the sink drains and you have enough toilet paper.' It comes as a safety expert has issued a warning to guests staying in hotels, guesthouses and B&Bs to watch out for five spots in rooms that contain the most dirt.


The Guardian
6 hours ago
- The Guardian
Crete wildfire forces 5,000 to evacuate as Europe heatwave continues
A wildfire fanned by gale-force winds has forced the evacuation of about 5,000 people on the Greek island of Crete, authorities and hotel association officials have said, as large swathes of continental Europe baked in a punishing early summer heatwave linked to at least nine deaths. About 230 firefighters, along with 46 fire service vehicles and helicopters, were battling the blaze on Thursday after it broke out 24 hours earlier near Ierapetra, on the south-east coast of the island – the country's largest – threatening to engulf houses and hotels. A fire brigade spokesperson, Vassilis Vathrakogiannis, said: 'There are wind gusts in the area, some measuring nine on the Beaufort scale, triggering rekindling and hindering firefighting efforts.' He added that four settlements had been evacuated. The president of the regional hotels' association, Yorgos Tzarakis, said about 3,000 tourists and 2,000 residents had been moved, mostly overnight, as a precaution. A small number of people fled into the sea and were rescued by local fishermen and divers. Residents and tourists were taking shelter at an indoor stadium and some had left Crete by boat, authorities said. Local media reported some homes had been damaged. An estimated 5,000 more holidaymakers left south-east Crete independently. Ierapetra's mayor, Manolis Frangoulis, said firefighters were working to prevent flare-ups during a lull in high winds. 'Thankfully no one was hurt but it's a difficult situation,' he said. Like the rest of Crete, Ierapetra – a seaside resort with a permanent population of 23,000 – accommodates thousands of tourists in the summer. The island's arid, uneven landscape, criss-crossed by gullies, makes it hard for firefighters to tackle blazes. A separate fire was raging in the Halkidiki region of Greece, with 160 firefighters and 49 vehicles involved in the emergency response. In Turkey, thousands of people fled blazes in Cesme and Ödemiş in the western coastal province of İzmir. An elderly man died in the blaze near Ödemis, about 60 miles east of the city of İzmir, in one of three villages evacuated in the area. 'The village was evacuated but an elderly, bedridden patient could not be saved,' a local MP told Turkish TV. Vathrakogiannis said the risk of destructive wildfires remained 'very considerable' in July, the hottest month of the year in Greece, although the country had largely escaped the heatwave still gripping other parts of southern and central Europe. Nearly 500 firefighters were battling wildfires in eastern Germany that severely injured two emergency workers and forced the evacuation of more than 100 people near Gohrischheide, on the border between the states of Saxony and Brandenburg. The blazes had burned through hundreds of hectares of heathland and were still not under control on Thursday, with firefighters unable to tackle outbreaks on a former military training area with unexploded ammunition. Sign up to Headlines Europe A digest of the morning's main headlines from the Europe edition emailed direct to you every week day after newsletter promotion The worst of the weather appeared to be over in France, with the south-east the last area expected to record temperatures of up to 36C, but parts of Austria, Croatia, Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia and Spain were all forecast to hit the mid-30s on Thursday. Italian authorities issued red alerts – meaning that the heat is so intense it poses a risk not just to the sick and elderly but the young and fit too – for 18 cities, including Bologna, Genoa, Milan, Palermo, Rome and Turin. Officials in Rome said temporary blackouts were possible as power consumption by air-conditioners surged. At least five people have died in the heatwave in Italy, including two, aged 75 and 60, on beaches in Sardinia. Temperatures on the island, where wildfires have been raging, have exceeded 40C in recent days. In Genoa, an 85-year-old man died of heart failure in hospital. A 47-year-old construction worker died near Bologna and a 53-year-old woman died in Palermo. A measure halting outdoor work, for example, on construction sites and farms, during the hottest part of the day has taken effect nationwide, although it is not an obligation and many people are continuing to work their normal hours. In Spain, the media reported that the two victims of a wildfire that consumed more than 5,500 hectares of mostly agricultural land in Torrefeta i Florejacs in Lleida province were aged 32 and 45, and had died of smoke inhalation. Temperatures in central Albania reached 40C on Thursday, and with little rain expected until September fears are rising for local agricultural output. Serbia's state meteorological institute also warned 'extreme drought' was affecting crops. Scientists have said Europe's heatwaves have arrived earlier than usual this year, with temperatures surging by up to 10C in some regions as warming seas encourage the formation of a 'heat dome' over much of the land mass, trapping hot air.


Times
8 hours ago
- Times
How Picasso and Old Trafford nerves inspired Juan Mata's art exhibition
Juan Mata is speaking to me from Asturias in northwest Spain. It is a chat via Zoom and so to bridge the gap to London I hold up my tea, which is in a bright red and yellow Valencia CF-branded mug, and in a flash we are smiling and joking like old friends. 'Valencia was very important for me, it was the beginning of everything. So yeah, it should be also in the conversation,' Mata, who made 174 appearances for the Spanish club before joining Chelsea, with whom he won the Champions League, Europa League and FA Cup, in 2011, and then Manchester United three years later. His is an exceptional career in which he also won the World Cup and the Euros with Spain, and it is not over yet. He spent last season in Australia with Western Sydney Wanderers and has yet to decide if he will return there in August. His friends warned him, when he told them he was joining the A-League, that Australia was a cultural desert. And why should this have worried them? Because Mata, 37, loves art. He loves it so much that he has curated, for Manchester, an exhibition, Football City, Art United, where visitors can experience collaborations between 11 artists and 11 footballers. It is an intriguing idea, the most compelling of which comes from the imagination of Eric Cantona, and is about encouraging visitors to understand the pressures of fame by picking out at random a member of the public and placing them under a constant spotlight as they explore the art space. Is such a spotlight something that has been a strain for Mata over his career? 'I love to be anonymous,' he says. 'I love to be in places where you don't get so much attention. I enjoy very much the attention on the pitch. I like to be a kind of protagonist on the pitch every time I try to play football. But off the pitch I'm more comfortable not being in the spotlight and being a bit more relaxed. I had experiences in Japan [with Vissel Kobe] and in Australia where you can live a little bit more relaxed than in certain cities in Europe due to the relevance of football. But one who has been, and still is and probably will always be, in the spotlight is Eric Cantona.' As someone who knows exactly who is her favourite painter — and Mata very politely asks me to spell out Vilhelm Hammershoi so he can look him up — I naturally want to know who is his favourite, but he says it is a process that has taken him from Picasso to Pollock. 'I love to be anonymous and in places where you don't get attention' 'It's for me difficult to have one favourite thing,' he says. 'Whenever I did interviews in the past about one movie, one song, one book, I have many, so it's difficult to single one out. My journey with art started when I was living in Madrid and Reina Sofía is one of my favourite museums. So whenever I wanted to disconnect, apart from doing many other things, I used to go there. And when I saw Guernica, the Picasso painting, for the first time, it was quite striking. After that, and as I got older, I started to read more and visit more galleries and exhibitions, and when I was living in England, I used to go to Whitworth Gallery a lot, which I love. 'It's one of my favourite spaces in Manchester. And then I started to get to know people, like Hans [Ulrich Obrist, artistic director of the Serpentine Gallery and co-curator of the Football City project]. I also met people in Spain, art historians, and I started to learn about the different periods in time. And then I started to realise, oh, okay, I like abstract expressionism, for example. So I like Pollock, I like Lee Krasner, I like [Mark] Rothko. But I also like [René] Magritte, a surrealist. And I also like architecture, for example, Le Corbusier or Tadao Ando. It was very common to see buildings from him when I was living in Japan. And in Japan, I had the chance to go to Naoshima, which is this beautiful island full of art. So it's difficult to pick a single, one artist. It's just a process.' Mata switches effortlessly from discussing art to football, which is why, presumably, this new exhibition is possible. Visitors will gain entry through a tunnel devised by Edgar Davids, the former Dutch midfielder, which is supposed to help the public experience what it feels like to leave the quiet of the dressing room and then stride into a baying arena. 'For me, the tunnel at Old Trafford has always been really special,' he says. 'I mean, it's that beautiful stadium, the Theatre of Dreams, and you're there every two weeks walking through that tunnel and getting to a pitch where you know there's going to be 75,000 people. 'It's quite intense, but also exciting. So it's just the moment before you have to perform and it's the moment where you actually can think about what you want to do. And you can feel the nerves of your team-mates, you can see the opposition team at the same time, lining up. I think it's a very, very important ritual that we have in the sport.' The time difference in the Antipodes meant Mata could not watch as many United games as he would have liked, but he saw enough to understand the club suffered a 'tough season'. 'I like the coach [Ruben Amorim], a young coach with a lot of positivity and energy, and hopefully he can turn things around. Of course, there has been a change in the ownership of which are trying to create financial sustainability in the club. I think they admitted that that was their priority. So hopefully from now on they can really grow on the pitch. That's what I would love. I love the club. 'I like Pollock, I like Krasner, I like Rothko. But I also like Magritte' 'I have so many friends there. I speak a lot with Bruno [Fernandes], who is a very enthusiastic player. And when things are not going well, he suffers a lot. So, I hope that this year is the year where things can be a bit more stable on the pitch and they can really build and bring United where I believe they should be, which is fighting for the biggest trophies there are.' I mention how the arrival of Amorim was widely assumed to mean Fernandes would struggle to be involved. 'I think if Bruno doesn't fit into any system, you should create a system in which he can fit because he is just so good as a player and as a person, as a leader,' Mata says. 'I think he is instrumental for Man United.' United's decline is one of football's great mysteries, as is the way Spain, at club and international level, know how to win so unerringly. When Chelsea won the Conference League in May it brought to an end a run of 27 finals involving Spanish domestic and international teams that they had won. Mata also won the Champions League and Europa League with Chelsea DARREN WALSH/GETTY IMAGES 'I don't have the 100 per cent accurate reply,' he says, before giving as close to a complete assessment as you will get, 'but I think it's a combination of things. 'I think one is the relevance and importance of football in our society and of course it is the same in England too and in other countries. But in Spain, football is like a religion. You have the big teams, you have the smaller teams, which in the smaller cities everyone follows. 'All kids play football since the age of two or three. Before more than now, I would say, and I think that's something generational. But we have, I believe, a good understanding of the game. 'We have good coaches, so we have good education coming through the academies. We have teams that normally give opportunity to the players, so we have a good system of how to get to our first team with the academy, with Segunda División and the different leagues that we have. We have, I would say, a good mentality and a good understanding of what being a professional football player means. So, like you say, competition is something that we are born with. 'I saw foxes… I don't know if that's a sign that my spirit animal is a fox' 'We always think about playing in a nice way, but also trying to win all the time. I remember when I was in the Spanish national team, under-15 and under-16, we were always competing for winning. I think that gets into your DNA. Basically, I think it's a great system, a good context, great coaches, and innate talent with the ball, which comes from so many people playing in the streets, in the parks and everywhere else.' Mata believes Spain's all-enveloping football culture has been key to their success in the sport ANTHONY DEVLIN FOR THE TIMES And then comes the most surreal moment of any interview I have conducted with an elite player as Mata asks me if he should be buying chicken for the foxes that cross his path. This is because Ella Toone's artwork is inspired by the United midfielder's spirit animal, which is a Shetland Pony — which leads me to wonder if Mata has a spirit animal. 'Lately, and this is actually very good timing for your question, I keep seeing foxes. I don't really know what that means, but over the last year, I was living in London for some time before going to Australia and I was seeing foxes more often than other people that I know, especially at night. So I don't know if that's a sign that my spirit animal is a fox.' Cue a lecture from me on how I keep an extended family of foxes going with shed loads of fresh chicken every week. 'Oh, wow. OK,' he says. 'Good idea.' And my work is done.