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Times
19-07-2025
- Sport
- Times
Work it! The best pro-led sports holidays to help improve your game
Athletes have a murky past with commercial crossovers. Cigarette cards were among the first examples of sports marketing, though we can hardly blame the players for that — they weren't asked to appear and certainly didn't get paid. Given the fleeting nature of an elite level sporting career, it's surprising that the pros entered the hospitality sector so late. But if you have been inspired by Wimbledon, the Tour de France or the Lionesses' efforts at Euro 2025, there's good news: plenty of hotels offer sports programmes in which the pros (and their coaches) are on hand to help. Just do it, as one commercial genius suggested. Of all the world's sporting challenges, surfing a tube is perhaps the greatest, and also looks the coolest — you're at one with your board as the wave barrels over you, but it can take years to master. Give yourself the best chance of achieving this with focused attention from the Spanish pro Lucía Martiño. She hails from Asturias on the Bay of Biscay, where the swells are especially gnarly, so she certainly knows what she is doing. Martiño is hosting a women-only camp from October 4 to 8 at Hotel Bitacora, on the south coast of Tenerife, where the surf is gentle but reliable and the buzz of Playa de las Americas is on hand for you to shake things off of an evening. Details Four nights' room-only from £410pp, including daily surfing with Martiño and a spa session ( Fly to Tenerife Just 23 milliseconds off the women's 100m world record, the St Lucian sprinter Julien Alfred's gold medal performance at the Paris Olympics was the stuff of legend. And guests at the BodyHoliday can turn this into their reality from October 6 to 11, when Alfred will run a weeklong workshop for aspiring athletes. There's an hour and a half of training each morning, as well as motivational talks over lunch and the opportunity to plan a personalised workout with Alfred. Take a little time to explore her home island too; it is one of the most beautiful in the Caribbean. Pigeon Island National Park is a ten-minute drive away and has walking trails for easy rambling. Details Seven nights' all-inclusive from £3,545pp, including flights, transfers and training workshops ( Michael Bradley played for the Toronto Raptors and Philadelphia 76ers, so he should be a slam dunk as director of the NBA Summer Basketball School, running until September 7 at the Westin Resort, Costa Navarino — one of several luxury resorts along this rugged coastal stretch on the southeastern tip of the Greek mainland. Under-18s can register for up to seven days of lessons focusing on teamwork and core on-court skills, while adult sessions are also available. Other sporting pursuits include golf and tennis. Away from the hotel, the vast expanse of beach is the perfect place to restore some head space — essential for the elite-level athlete. Children will be kept very happy at the on-site water B&B doubles from £395; basketball tuition from £285pp for three days ( Fly to Kalamata More than just a cycling tour, this is as close as you can get to riding like a pro on the Giro d'Italia. InGamba works with a number of former pros to provide guided rides all over Europe, but what makes it stand out is the service: a support van with a mechanic follows the group and prepares food for stops along the way. Each night is spent at a different hotel — typically small, family-run affairs. Eros Poli, an Olympic champion in 1984, leads the Northern Gems of Italy tour from Venice to Verona from August 10 to 16 — when guests aren't riding, he has plenty of stories that are sure to Seven nights' full board from £6,690pp, including bike hire, support van, branded cycling kit, laundry, daily massage and private transfers ( Fly to Venice Pine Cliffs Resort near Albufeira in the Algarve has a varied and long-established sports programme — Annabel Croft has a tennis academy here, and this summer the former Manchester United stars Louis Saha and John O'Shea are hosting training sessions for children up to 16 years old. Next month they'll pass the ball to the former Manchester United forward Dimitar Berbatov — the two-time Premier League champion will run sessions from August 10 to 16, focusing on ball control and composure in front of the goal, plus a bit on creative flair. Away from the pitch Pine Cliffs has direct access to to a beautiful beach. Details B&B doubles from £610; football coaching from £67pp a day ( Fly to Faro Rafael Nadal operates seven tennis centres across three continents, so it's no surprise that he doesn't take every session. For a guaranteed brush with greatness, however, look no further than the man who trained him: his uncle. Toni Nadal will run a training week from August 23 to 29 at the Rafa Nadal Tennis Centre at Sani Resort in the Halkidiki region of Greece. Hosted on clay courts, the Elite Tennis Clinics are aimed at intermediate to advanced players, but juniors are welcomed as well as adults. Off court the resort is a huge complex of five hotels with ten blue flag-rated beaches within easy reach, so you can be as active as you wish. Details Six nights' full board for up to five in a two-bedroom family suite from £11,805, including five tennis coaching sessions and transfers ( Fly to Thessaloniki The giants of the Bundesliga clearly like a bit of beach time, and the Maldives makes a good swap for Munich, whatever the time of year. Elite coaches from Bayern will be hosting training camps for children up to 17 at the Patina Maldives resort in August, October and December. Patrick Kaupp, who works closely with the Bayern Munich youth squad, will lead the sessions until August 5, with the goal of developing technical skills and tactical awareness on and off the ball. For parents, the fact there is not much else to do but swim and sunbathe should come as a blessed relief. Details Five nights' half-board for two adults and two under-12s from August 1 to 6 from £8,467, including a wildlife cruise excursion and speedboat transfers; football coaching from £60 per child ( Fly to Malé With the Winter Olympics in February on the horizon, what better way to refine your technique than with a four-time veteran of the Games? Chemmy Alcott made her Olympic debut in Salt Lake City in 2002 and competed in all five of the alpine disciplines throughout her career. Alcott is now the face of Ski Sunday and her coaching camp at Bear Lodge in Arcs 1950, in the French Alps, next April promises to be a little less intense, with daily lessons for all levels, as well as post-ski yoga and fitness sessions. There will be a Q&A session one evening focusing on Alcott's racing and TV career. Details Seven nights' half-board from £1,299pp, including transfers ( Fly to Geneva
The Guardian
27-06-2025
- Climate
- The Guardian
Weather tracker: France hit by severe thunderstorms
After several days of intense heat, large parts of France were hit by a major outbreak of severe thunderstorms on Wednesday night as powerful supercells swept north-east across the country. A low pressure system that originated near Portugal tracked over the unusually warm Bay of Biscay towards northern France late on Wednesday, bringing a strong upper-level disturbance over land that had been intensely heated through the day. As a result, several long-lived supercells formed, producing large hailstones, frequent lightning, damaging winds and torrential rainfall. Hailstones of up to 8cm in diameter caused significant damage to property, crops and vehicles, while rainfall totals up to 150mm in places brought flash flooding, including in Paris. Ferocious winds also brought down pylons and trees, killing two people and bringing power cuts to 110,000 homes. Just north-east of Paris, a gust of 140kph was recorded, the strongest of the outbreak, while supercells elsewhere produced winds up to 126kph. One especially long-lived storm sustained gusts of 90-135kph over several hundred miles as it travelled from the south-west corner of the country to its north-east. Over the course of the night, more than 70,000 lightning strikes were also recorded. A lightning strike recorded in Deux-Sévres in the commune of La Peyratte had an intensity of 517 kiloamperes, 20 times the average strike intensity. Although temperatures reduced a little after the storms, they are expected to rise again and reach the high 30s Celsius in the south of France over the weekend before this spreads northwards into much of the rest of the country next week. Meanwhile, Australia's south-east coast is continuing to experience chilly conditions as its first winter month concludes. An area of low pressure centred to the south of the country earlier this week allowed cold air to push in from the south. Temperatures fell up to 10C below average in parts of Victoria, New South Wales and Tasmania, with widespread frosts and snow predicted. Across the Australian Alps, ski resorts have reported up to half a metre of snow in just a couple of days. This follows the country's first snow storm of the season, which occurred in the first week of June and gave about a metre of snow to some resorts in just four days. The low pressure system earlier in the week also brought strong, gusty winds to the south-east. Australia's Bureau of Meteorology issued several warnings earlier this week for damaging winds, with gusts of up to 120kph expected. These winds have contributed to large waves and high tides, which have led to coastal erosion and infrastructure damage. Although high pressure has built in places, cold conditions are expected to remain for much of eastern Australia in the coming days.
New York Times
12-06-2025
- Science
- New York Times
Submarines Are Hard to Detect. Climate Change Might Make It Even Harder.
Submarines are among the most advanced and deadly weapons systems in the world. Armed with torpedoes, cruise missiles and sometimes intercontinental ballistic missiles, they're capable of operating deep below the surface for months at a time and are notoriously hard to detect. Now, their ability to hide in the vast oceans may be getting a boost from an unlikely source: climate change. The waters where many submarines lurk have been quickly warming, as humans pump out greenhouse gasses and oceans absorb the excess heat that gets trapped in the atmosphere. And that warming, according to a recent paper produced by the NATO Defense College in Rome, can have a powerful effect on how sound, the primary means of detecting submarines, behaves underwater. It could make large areas of the oceans impenetrable to submarine hunters. 'We observed, in most areas that we looked at, a reduction in the range of detection,' said Mauro Gilli, a researcher who studies military technology. His team modeled the way sound waves moved through the depths from 1970 to 1999. And they compared it with the way current climate modeling predicts they will move between 2070 and 2099. There were significant differences. The researchers found that in the North Atlantic, where Russian submarines play cat and mouse with NATO forces, the distances at which they can be heard will shrink significantly. This could be by almost half in the Bay of Biscay, off the coasts of France and Spain. There were similar dynamics in play in the western Pacific, where Chinese and American submarines operate and where detection ranges could shrink by up to 20 percent. The underlying science has been well understood since before World War II, when scientists discovered that sound, which travels faster through warmer water, tends to bend toward cooler layers, where it moves more slowly. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
BBC News
06-06-2025
- General
- BBC News
Joint UK and French military exercise on D-Day training beach
An amphibious warfare exercise involving UK and French troops is taking place on a Devon beach that was used to train soldiers for D-Day. Exercise Catamaran is a two-week training operation spilt between North Devon and the Bay of Biscay, involving 11 warships, aircraft and about 3,000 from the two nations are being launched ashore on Devon's Braunton Burrows beach, which was used to train soldiers for the D-Day landings on 6 June Royal Navy's Maj Gen Rich Cantrill said the "highly complex" amphibious operations require regular practice and the joint exercise is "echoing our history" from World War Two. The Royal Navy and Marine Nationale task group is operating under the control of the joint French and British Combined Joint Expeditionary Force, along with Spanish troops. Seaborne and helicopter commando raids are taking place on the beaches in North Devon before moving to the Bay of Biscay on Saturday. The Royal Navy said the purpose of the exercise was to test the ability of allied nations to operate effectively together in a wartime Gen Cantrill said the Royal Navy was delighted to participate in the French-led exercise and host its initial phase off the Devon coast."Amphibious operations are highly complex and so require regular practice," he said."We must stand united as allies, echoing our history from WWII and maintaining our ability to project power from sea to added: "As warfare evolves, as we've seen with Ukraine, we have to adapt, and the Royal Navy is significantly transforming its Commando Force and the way it delivers operations in the littoral." The D-Day landings involved the simultaneous landing of tens of thousands of troops on five separate beaches in Royal Navy said the exercises taking place on the anniversary of D-Day reflected the "continued relevance" of these operations 81 years since the largest amphibious landing in history. French commander of naval operations, Vice Adm Emmanuel Slaars, said the amphibious operations were "demanding". "You have to deal with the sea state and the weather, he said. "We know when we look back to history that is was an essential parameter of the decision to launch D-Day."The second phase of the exercise from Saturday until 15 June will will see training carried out in the Bay of Biscay. Royal Marines will operate from French Navy ships and air assaults will be launched from Royal Navy Air Station Yeovilton in Somerset onto the French coastline.
Asharq Al-Awsat
27-05-2025
- Science
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Scientists Date the Oldest Known Tools Made from Whale Bones to 20,000 Years Ago
Scientists have pinpointed the oldest known evidence of humans making tools from whale bone. The bones, fashioned into narrow projectiles for hunting, had been uncovered in excavations dating back over a century in the Bay of Biscay near Spain and France. Scientists figured the tools were quite ancient, but many were small fragments so it was hard to determine their age. Technological advancements in the past decade have now made it possible to date the oldest of the tools to about 20,000 years ago. Scientists found that the bones came from blue whales, fin whales, sperm whales and other species, The AP news reported. 'Humans and whales have clearly been encountering one another for a long time,' said Vicki Szabo with Western Carolina University, who studies the history of whaling and was not involved with the latest research. Scientists think that ancient humans were crafting whale bone instruments in places including the Arctic and South Pacific. There's been solid evidence of whale bone tools dating back to about 5,000 years ago, but the new research published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications pushes the timeline back. Ancient humans weren't necessarily hunting whales, said study author Jean-Marc Petillon with the French National Centre for Scientific Research. More likely, they were scavenging the bodies of beached whales and fashioning their dense, heavy bones into tools to hunt reindeer or bison. The tools indicate that ancient people in the area took advantage of resources near the sea for survival. They likely also collected seashells and fished. Finding such evidence has been difficult as rising sea levels disrupt coastlines across the globe, scientists said. 'It's one more contribution to the importance of coastal environments for human groups, even in this long past," said Petillon.
