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Spain, a long-time favorite destination for British holidaymakers, is implementing a series of new regulations aimed at curbing the negative impacts of mass tourism. British tourists, who made up the largest proportion of Spain’s record-breaking 94 million visitors in 2024, are among those who will be affected.

According to The Metro, Spaniards in popular tourist hotspots like Barcelona and Tenerife have voiced concerns about overcrowding, rising housing costs, and the overall impact of tourism on their communities, leading to local protests. In response, local authorities have begun enforcing stricter rules to manage tourism more effectively.

New Rules Travelers Should Know:

These new measures aim to mitigate the issues caused by overtourism and ensure a more sustainable and respectful environment for both residents and visitors. British tourists planning trips to Spain or the Canary Islands this year should familiarize themselves with these regulations to avoid unexpected fines or charges. 

Tourist Tax

Balearic Islands: Overnight charges may rise, depending on accommodation quality. Cruise ship passengers will face a 200% increase.

Barcelona: The Tourist tax is set to double per person per night. Children under 16 are exempt in both cases.

Banned Beach Items and Behaviour

– Gran Canaria: A list of banned items includes:
    – Smoking or vaping
    – Playing music in sunbathing areas
    – Cooking on the beach
    – Collecting shells or rocks
    – Public sex
    – Obstructing access routes
 

Walking Tour Caps

Mallorca: Walking tours will be limited to 20 people per group in Palma.

Resident-Only Areas

Mallorca: Sóller has introduced a “residents only” zone, restricting hire cars from the town centre.

Debunking the “Three-Year” Tourist Ban

Malaga: A new law prevents the registration of new holiday rentals in 43 districts, but tourists can still book hotels and existing rentals.

Alcohol Ban

Llucmajor, Palma, Calvia, and Sant Antoni: A late-night drinks ban prohibits the sale of alcoholic drinks from 9:30 pm to 8 am. Party boats are also restricted.

Authorities in Argentina have arrested Russian cult leader Konstantin Rudnev, the founder of the Ashram Shambala religious group, in a human trafficking case. They are examining the possibility of a 22-year-old woman and her infant being coerced into a scheme that allows him to be granted Argentine citizenship by having the child born in the South American nation.

Police have arrested over a dozen Russian nationals, including Rudnev, who are believed to be part of the religious group, CNN reported.

Pregnant Woman Sparks Arrest

The investigation began after the Russian woman arrived at a hospital in the Patagonian city of Bariloche to give birth on March 21. She was accompanied by two other women. 

This was not their maiden visit as the hospital staff saw them four days earlier when they struggled to share how they were connected to the pregnant lady as well as their residence in the region.

As per Argentina’s prosecutor and police reports, the pregnant woman looked nervous and malnourished, while she was not allowed to speak much by her two companions.

Soon after, the doctors were alarmed by the condition of the woman and her companions’ behaviour.

After the child was born, the two women asked the hospital authorities to document the newborn’s last name as ‘Rudnev,’ insisting that he was the father of the child, the prosecutor’s report states.

Konstantin Rudnev Arrested

A week after the incident, the Argentine police managed to locate Konstantin Rudnev and arrested him at the Bariloche airport on March 28. 

According to Meduza, a total of 14 people were arrested as they attempted to fly to Brazil. Out of these, eight were taken into custody at the airport in Bariloche, while six others were arrested in Buenos Aires.

The two women, who accompanied the mother to the hospital, were arrested in a raid of their shared home in the region.

Argentina prosecutor Fernando Arrigo believes that the woman might have been a victim of the Ashram Shambala. However, none of them have been charged with a crime yet, as criminal investigations start with an arrest.

His office is probing 21 Russian nationals in total. They have been accused of “being part of a criminal organisation that, for the purposes of sex trafficking and slavery, recruited a 22-year-old woman brought from Russia,” CNN reported.

Rudnev, a mechanical engineering graduate turned religious leader, established the religious group in 1989.

He used to tell his followers that he was an “alien from Sirius” and a messiah sent to the planet to save people. 

Ashram Shambala earlier had its reach in Russia’s 18 regions and nearly 30,000 members, with several of them worshipping Rudnev after severing ties with family.

Rudnev was sentenced to 11 years in jail by a district court in Siberia in 2013 after being accused of rape, violent sexual acts and drug trafficking.

Passengers aboard British Airways flight BA252, a Boeing 777 plane, from the Cayman Islands to London had to endure an unexpected travel experience this week, spending almost 23 hours on board.

With a planned stop in Nassau, Bahamas, the Boeing 777 departed George Town, Grand Cayman, on time on Tuesday, April 8, at 6:21 pm EST. But the flight was diverted to Gander International Airport in Newfoundland, Canada, due to a medical emergency.

After a five-hour trip, the flight touched down in Gander, but the crew was then running out of the legally allowed number of hours to fly the aircraft.

The Boeing 777 was then scheduled to land at Keflavik International Airport in Reykjavik, Iceland so that a fresh crew could safely fly the plane to London.

According to data from FlightRadar24, the BA252 finally touched down at London’s Heathrow Airport after another two and a half hours in the air on Wednesday, April 9, at 10:38 pm local time.

The trip from Nassau to London took 11 hours longer than expected because of two detours. The flight departed the Bahamas at 10.24 pm EDT on April 8 and arrived in London 19 hours later.

Elsewhere, a passenger attempted to open a jet door over the Indian Ocean, forcing a flight from Bali, Indonesia, to Melbourne, Australia, to make a U-turn.

On Tuesday, passengers were evacuated from an American Airlines aircraft in Georgia following reports of smoke and a burning smell in the cabin.

Simon Calder, travel correspondent for The Independent, claimed that British Airways’ decision to send a new crew to Iceland was the “least-bad option.”

Mr Calder considered other possibilities such as “staying on the ground at Gander and resting the crew there,” which were dismissed.

Despite the challenges, airlines continue to be the safest mode of transportation, with millions of passengers taking smooth flights every day.

Earlier in April, an American Airlines flight from New York City to Tokyo had to make a U-turn due to a “maintenance issue”.

Several travellers were left stuck in Dallas overnight after preparing for a 14-hour journey straight to Tokyo.

Flight 167 took off from John F. Kennedy International Airport at approximately 11 am on Monday. After approximately seven hours of travel over the Pacific Ocean close to Alaska, the Boeing 787 was forced to make a five-hour diversion.

Shortly after 10 pm local time, it landed at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport, forcing travellers to endure a taxing 12-hour detour.

A pod of more than 60 orcas, better known as killer whales, have been spotted attacking and killing an 18-metre-long pygmy blue whale off Western Australia’s coast, in what is being described as only the fourth recorded instance of such an event happening. The dramatic incident transpired in Bremer Canyon, a marine park off the coast of Bremer Bay on Monday (Apr 7) with a whale watching tour nearby.

The pygmy blue whale is listed as endangered and is a smaller subspecies of the blue whale, which is the largest animal on Earth. As per a report in ABC, the killer whales chased and exhausted the pygmy whale before devouring it. At one point, over 30 orcas converged on the lone whale which struggled to escape.

“The intense ordeal lasted less than 40 minutes from when we first saw the blue at the surface to when the battle was over. As the blue whale’s fate was sealed, orcas celebrated with breaches and tail slaps,” Naturaliste Charters Whale Watching said in a statement.

“This is only the fourth recorded instance of orcas hunting a blue whale here—an extraordinary reminder of their role as apex predators in the ocean.”

Orcas killing whale sharks

In November last year, scientists documented evidence that orcas hunted whale sharks, the world’s largest shark species that can grow up to 40 feet. The orca pod, using a novel and cunning technique, was found hunting and killing the whale sharks in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Mexico.

After collating and analysing media footage collected between 2018 and 2024, scientists found that orcas displayed a collaborative hunting technique to kill whale sharks. They focused on attacking the pelvic area and bleeding out the whale sharks by hitting them at high speed.

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Ocras and their feeding habits

Contrary to popular belief, orcas are the largest of the dolphins, immediately recognisable by their unique black-and-white complexion. They sit atop the food chain and have a diverse diet – often consisting of fish, penguins and sea lions.

Their behaviour resembles that of a wolf pack as a deadly pod can contain up to 40 individuals. They all use effective, cooperative hunting techniques which makes them one of the deadliest creatures in the water kingdom.

The Trump administration rejected a federal judge’s order to provide by Friday a status update on a wrongly deported Salvadoran migrant’s return to the United States, calling the deadline “impracticable”. 

“Foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines, in part because it involves sensitive country-specific considerations wholly inappropriate for judicial review,” Trump administration attorneys wrote in a filing.

Lawyers for Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, in their own filing, expressed outrage for the “arrogance and cruelty” of the Trump administration, accusing it of continuing to “delay, obfuscate and flout court orders while a man’s life and safety is at risk.”

After a Friday hearing that lasted barely half an hour, district judge Paula Xinis said the government had “failed to comply”.

The administration would have to file a declaration on Abrego Garcia’s status “each day… until further order”, starting on Saturday.

She further scheduled a new in-person hearing for April 15.

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran living in the eastern state of Maryland and married to a US citizen, was arrested March 12 by immigration police. He was among more than 200 people deported on March 15 to a notorious prison in El Salvador as part of Donald Trump’s migration crackdown.

Abrego Garcia’s family has continued to proclaim his innocence, and a Trump administration lawyer has acknowledged that his expulsion followed an “administrative error.” 

Supreme Court battle

A federal court had ruled in 2019 that he could not be expelled to El Salvador, where his life could be in danger.

The administration has said it is powerless to secure Abrego Garcia’s return and insisted he was part of MS-13, a Salvadoran gang the United States classified as terrorist in February.

Last week, judge Xinis said she had seen no evidence Abrego Garcia was a gang member and ordered the government to “effectuate” his return to the United States by April 7 at the latest.

The conservative-dominated Supreme Court later held that the administration was indeed required to “facilitate” Garcia’s return and to ensure that he be treated as if he had never been wrongly deported. 

But the justices also directed Xinis to clarify her order — saying she may have exceeded her authority and needed to reflect “due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

She subsequently amended her wording to say the government must take “all available steps to facilitate” his return “as soon as possible”.

At that point, Xinis also directed the administration to provide an update on Abrego Garcia’s current location and detention status, and to explain by Friday the legal grounds on which he was detained.

Test of power

At the hearing Friday, the Trump administration said it needed more time, requesting an April 15 date for response to the judge’s questions and a postponement of the hearing to April 16.

Xinis refused, maintaining Friday’s hearing and extending the deadline to provide an update within hours.

The Trump administration wrote that it was “unable to provide the information… on the impracticable deadline set by the Court.”

Most of those expelled along with Abrego Garcia were accused by the administration of belonging to a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, which Washington has labeled a terrorist organization.

The case represents the only time the administration has acknowledged wrongly deporting anyone, though the Justice Department subsequently suspended the lawyer who made that concession, saying he had failed to vigorously defend the government position. 

The administration has described the case as a key test of the president’s power to conduct sensitive national security-related operations.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Albert Saniger has been charged with fraud after it was found that his artificial intelligence (AI) shopping app, Nate, relied on Philippines call centre employees to complete the purchases manually. The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) said Saniger promoted a “scheme filled with smoke and mirrors”.

“As alleged, Albert Saniger misled investors by exploiting the promise and allure of AI technology to build a false narrative about innovation that never existed,” said Matthew Podolsky, the acting United States attorney for the Southern District of New York.

“This type of deception not only victimises innocent investors, it diverts capital from legitimate startups, makes investors skeptical of real breakthroughs, and ultimately impedes the progress of AI development.”

Saniger founded the app in 2018, raising over $50 million in funding from investors such as Coatue and Forerunner Ventures. More recently, he raised $38 million in Series A funding in 2021, led by Renegade Partners.

He promoted his product to investors and the public as a “magic shopping app” that simplified online shopping as customers could buy items from any e-commerce site with a single tap using the Nate app. Saniger claimed that the app took care of the rest of the checkout process, including billing and shipping information, using AI.

However, as per the Department of Justice, the app’s automation rate “was effectively zero per cent”. Hundreds of contractors, or “purchasing assistants”, in a Philippines call centre did the legwork and manually completed the purchases occurring over the Nate app.

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Previous instances

Saniger is not the only entrepreneur with a startup that has allegedly exaggerated its AI capabilities. According to a report in Business Insider, AI legal tech unicorn EvenUp used humans to do much of its legal work, despite claiming otherwise.

“The former employees said they witnessed numerous problems with EvenUp’s AI, including missed injuries, hallucinated medical conditions, and incorrectly recorded doctor visits,” the report highlighted.

Similarly, in 2023, AI-powered drive-thru company Presto Automation was found being powered by humans in the Philippines, after claiming to be “one of the largest labour automation technology providers in the industry”.

An Indian-origin municipal councillor has been charged with participating in a mafia-run gambling operation, according to New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin. Anand Shah, 42, was one of 39 people charged with “racketeering, gambling offences, money laundering, and other crimes”, Platkin said on Friday.

He said the charges were filed following raids at 12 locations in the state, including 4 poker clubs.

Another person of Indian descent, Samir S Nadkarni, 48, from Longwood, Florida, was also among those charged and was described as a “sportsbook sub-agent/poker host”.

Shah was a rising politician in New Jersey, serving his second term as a municipal councillor in Prospect Park, a New York suburb, and was in charge of finance, economic development, and insurance.

Platkin said, “The arrest of a sitting council member only adds fuel to that fire” of public distrust of elected officials.

Shah “was identified as allegedly managing illegal poker games and an online sportsbook in association with the Lucchese Crime Family”, according to Platkin’s office.

“Lucchese Crime Family” is one of the dreaded Italian-American mafia groups in the US, which also works with people of other ethnicities.

Sportsbook gambling involves betting on sports tournaments.

According to officials, the gambling operation was a $3 million operation.

Platkin said that while mob activity has been “romanticised” in movies and television, “the reality isn’t romantic or cinematic. It’s about breaking the laws the rest of us follow and, ultimately, it’s about money, control, and the threat of violence”.

Officials said that the gambling operations were run from social clubs or behind legitimate businesses like restaurants, and also included gambling machines.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday.

Russia has designated its first post-Soviet era foreign minister Andrei Kozyrev as a “foreign agent” over his views on President Putin and his fierce criticism of Moscow over the Russia-Ukraine war. The announcement was made by Russia’s Ministry of Justice, which accused Mr Kozyrev of spreading fake news about the country.

Andrei Kozyrev had served as foreign minister under Boris Yeltsen – Russia’s first primer minister after the collapse of the Soviet Union (USSR) in 1991. At the time Russia was under severe economic stress, and in order to liberalize the economy, had to maintain close and friendly ties with the West – US and its allies in Europe).

Years later, when Vladimir Putin became President, Mr Kozyrev, who by then had demitted office, opposed much of Putin’s policies. For more than a decade, the disgruntled former diplomat stayed in Moscow, but in 2010, decided to move permanently to the United States, who welcomed him.

Since his departure from Moscow, Mr Kozyrev turned into an outspoken and staunch critic of Vladimir Putin, often voicing his unwavering disapproval of his policies. From the very beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war, Mr Kozyrev slammed Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine.

In the first few weeks of the war, Mr Kozyrev contacted his former colleagues in the Russian foreign ministry to resign in protest. Over the months and years, he built a campaign against the Russian government and continued to actively criticize Moscow’s offensive.

Russia’s current foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, used to be Mr Kuzyrev’s deputy when the latter was foreign minister of Russia between 1990 and 1996. After the war in Ukraine broke out in 2022, Mr Kuzyrev had written, “There was a time when Lavrov used to have my back. Today, I would watch my back if he was behind me.”

On Friday, Russia’s Justice Ministry released a statement accusing its former foreign minister of distributing “false information” about the Russian government and its policies, as well as the Russian military. It noted Mr Kozyrev’s persistent opposition towards the Kremlin and for Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.

Labeling him a “foreign agent”, the statement accused the former top diplomat of cooperating “with foreign platforms” to build an anti-Russia narrative in the United States and beyond, but did not specify the details of this claim.

Russia’s “foreign agent” designation carries a negative Soviet-era connotation and makes it mandatory for people to identify themselves as a ‘foreign agent’ on all social media platforms as well as publications, both offline and online. It also makes it compulsory for them to declare their financial transactions and its trails within Russia.

In response to the Russian government’s move to label him “foreign agent”, Mr Kozyrev mocked the decision, saying it reflected Kremlin’s mindset, which highlights “the stupidity of the regime”.

“I am glad to join all those noble people who have likewise been designated foreign agents by Russia,” he said.
 

A Catholic church in Maidstone, Kent, has installed automatic number-plate recognition (ANPR) cameras in its private car park to prevent non-attendees from using the space, according to The Metro. The Holy Family Catholic Church implemented the system following increasing parking issues, including conflicts with worshippers, littering, and a general disregard for property upkeep. Signs warn that unauthorised parking will result in fines. Church officials cite an “environment of intimidation” as the reason for the new measures, driven by construction across the road leading to increased parking demand.

“Parishioners with unregistered vehicles, or visitors to the parish, will need to register their vehicle on the tablets being provided in the church and hall,” a newsletter to worshippers said.

Locals insist, however, that they have no choice but to use the church car park, which is next to a primary school, playground and a driving school.

Spaces along the road are few and far between during the school run and during the day due to the vans there for the construction, they add.

“It’s become a nightmare when it’s school time now or during the day,” a local walking her dog told The Metro.

“Cars are left on both sides of the road, and you can see buses are struggling to get through when it’s busy. I know people who have used the car park before, and there’s never been a problem.”

Another resident said that people have been using the church car park for some three decades without fuss.

“It’s got busier with the new homes being built further down the road, but that always happens when there’s work going on. [Not letting locals park here is] disgraceful.”

Father Desmond Mbidoaka told The Metro the car park is private property and should only be used by the congregation or visitors renting its hall.

“We sympathise with residents who previously used both the council park and our car park that was never intended for public use,” he said.