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Lebawit Lily Girma | (TNS) Bloomberg News When winter rolls around, travelers predictably turn their attention to beaches. And this year, it’s the destination that comedian Tony Hinchcliffe called “a floating island of garbage in the middle of the ocean” that’s experiencing outsize demand from Americans planning a warm island vacation. Talk about trashing stereotypes. Related Articles Travel | Would you pay $700 a night to sleep under the stars at this Colorado resort? Travel | Thailand’s starring role in ‘The White Lotus’ is about to pay off Travel | 5 under-the-radar travel destinations the UN says you should visit Travel | Gift ideas for people planning their next trip Travel | Lights and decor, réveillon meals make Christmastime special in New Orleans Puerto Rico has recovered overseas visitors (excluding those from Canada and Mexico) faster than any U.S. state or territory — a staggering 85% increase over its 2019 overseas inbound visitor levels as of 2023, according to an October study from the U.S. National Travel and Tourism Office. There are now more daily flights from the U.S. West Coast, and hotel bookings are 6% higher so far in this last quarter of 2024 year-over-year. It’s a trifecta of tourism growth: more visitors, but also longer stays and a higher spend that reached a record $9.8 billion in 2023, boosting small businesses as well as major brands. “We don’t have a slow season in Puerto Rico anymore,” says Brad Dean, chief executive officer at Discover Puerto Rico. Even if they’re not booking, people are dreaming about “La Isla.” By tracking flight searches for trips between November 2024 and February 2025, a measure of “inspirational” demand, tourism intelligence company Mabrian Technologies reports Puerto Rico is up 9% compared with the same period last year and leads Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica and the Bahamas in the Caribbean proper. Only Costa Rica ranked higher in the wider region. Dean attributes Puerto Rico’s ongoing tourism growth to a strategic effort to reposition the island’s brand as more than a sun-and-sea destination, starting back in 2018. That led to the Live Boricua campaign, which began in 2022 and leaned heavily on culture, history and cuisine and was, Dean says, “a pretty bold departure” in the way Puerto Rico was showcased to travelers. He adds that at least $2 billion in tourism spend is linked to this campaign. “We (also) haven’t shied away from actively embracing the LGBTQ+ community, and that has opened up Puerto Rico to audiences that may not have considered the Caribbean before,” Dean says. Hotels are preparing to meet this growing demand: A number of established boutique properties are undergoing upgrades valued between $4 million and more than $50 million, including Hotel El Convento; La Concha, which will join the Marriott Autograph Collection; Condado Vanderbilt Hotel; and the Wyndham Grand Rio Mar. That’s in addition to ultra-chic options that are coming online in 2025, including the adults-only Alma San Juan, with rooms overlooking Plaza Colón in the heart of Old San Juan, and the five-star Veranó boutique hotel in San Juan’s trendy Santurce neighborhood. The beachfront Ritz-Carlton San Juan in Isla Verde will also be reopening seven years after Hurricane Maria decimated the island. The travel industry’s success is helping boost employment on the island, to the tune of 101,000 leisure and hospitality jobs as of September 2024, a 26% increase over pre-pandemic levels, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Efforts to promote Puerto Rico’s provinces beyond the San Juan metro area — such as surfing hub Rincón on the west coast, historical Ponce on the south coast and Orocovis for nature and coffee haciendas in the central mountains —have spread the demand to small businesses previously ignored by the travel industry. Take Sheila Osorio, who leads workshops on Afro-Puerto Rican bomba music and dance at Taller Nzambi, in the town of Loíza, 15 miles east of San Juan; or Wanda Otero, founder of cheese-producing company Vaca Negra in Hatillo, an hour’s drive west of Old San Juan, where you can join a cheese-making workshop and indulge in artisanal cheese tastings. “The list of businesses involved in tourism has gone from 650 in 2018 to 6,100, many of which are artists and artisans,” Dean says. While New Yorkers and Miami residents have always been the largest visitor demographic, Dean says more mainland Americans now realize that going to Puerto Rico means passport-free travel to enjoy beaches, as well as opportunities to dine in Michelin-rated restaurants, hike the only rainforest in the U.S. and kayak in a bioluminescent bay. Visitors from Chicago and Dallas, for example, have increased by approximately 40% from July 1, 2023, to June 30, 2024, compared with the same period in 2022-2023, and more travelers are expected from Denver now that United Airlines Holdings Inc. has kicked off its first nonstop service to San Juan, beginning on Oct. 29. Previously, beach destinations that were easy to reach on direct flights from Denver included Mexico, Belize and California, but now Puerto Rico joins that list with a 5.5-hour nonstop route that cuts more than two hours from the next-best option. Given United Airlines’ hub in San Francisco, it could mean more travelers from the Golden State in the near future, too. In December, U.S. airlines will have 3,000 more seats per day to the territory compared with the same period last year, for a total of 84,731 — surpassing even Mexico and the Dominican Republic in air capacity, according to data from aviation analytics firm Cirium. Luis Muñoz Marín International Airport, the island’s primary gateway, is projecting a record volume of 13 million passengers by year’s end — far surpassing the 9.4 million it saw in 2019. As for Hinchcliffe’s “floating island of garbage” line, Dean says it was “a terribly insensitive attempt at humor” that transformed outrage into a marketing silver lining, with an outpouring of positive public sentiment and content on Puerto Rico all over social media. Success, as that old chestnut goes, may be the best revenge. “It was probably the most efficient influencer campaign we’ve ever had,” Dean says, “a groundswell of visitors who posted their photos and videos and said, ‘This is the Puerto Rico that I know.’” ©2024 Bloomberg L.P. Visit bloomberg.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.(AP) — A ninth U.S. telecoms firm has been confirmed to have been hacked as part of a sprawling Chinese espionage campaign that gave officials in Beijing access to private texts and phone conversations of an unknown number of Americans, a top White House official said Friday. Biden administration officials said this month that at least eight telecommunications companies, as well as dozens of nations, had been affected by the Chinese hacking blitz known as Salt Typhoon. But Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technologies, told reporters Friday that a ninth victim had been identified after the administration released guidance to companies about how to hunt for Chinese culprits in their networks. The update from Neuberger is the latest development in a massive hacking operation that has alarmed national security officials, exposed cybersecurity vulnerabilities in the private sector and laid bare China’s hacking sophistication. The hackers compromised the networks of telecommunications companies to obtain customer call records and gain access to the private communications of “a limited number of individuals.” Though the FBI has not publicly identified any of the victims, officials believe senior U.S. government officials and prominent political figures are among those whose whose communications were accessed. Neuberger said officials did not yet have a precise sense how many Americans overall were affected by Salt Typhoon, in part because the Chinese were careful about their techniques, but a “large number” were in the Washington-Virginia area. Officials believe the goal of the hackers was to identify who owned the phones and, if they were “government targets of interest,” spy on their texts and phone calls, she said. The FBI said most of the people targeted by the hackers are “primarily involved in government or political activity.” Neuberger said the episode highlighted the need for required cybersecurity practices in the telecommunications industry, something the Federal Communications Commission is to take up at a meeting next month. “We know that voluntary cyber security practices are inadequate to protect against China, Russia and Iran hacking of our critical infrastructure,” she said. The Chinese government has denied responsibility for the hacking. (AP) — A ninth U.S. telecoms firm has been confirmed Remember this moment because it probably won't last: A U.S. Sales rose this year during the holiday shopping season even Stock indexes drifted to a mixed finish on Wall Street

For travelers, Puerto Rico is a floating island of desirability

Texans foiled by mistake after mistake in 32-27 loss to Titans

The Prime Minister said his younger brother, who had learning difficulties because of complications at birth, had met “all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour”. He died peacefully on Boxing Day, according to the Prime Minister’s spokesman. The Prime Minister had been due to go on holiday with his family on Friday, but it is understood that he will now remain at home, and hopes to join them later. Sir Keir said in a statement: “My brother Nick was a wonderful man. “He met all the challenges life threw at him with courage and good humour. We will miss him very much. “I would like to thank all those who treated and took care of Nick. Their skill and compassion is very much appreciated.” Sir Keir spoke candidly about his brother in a recent biography written by journalist and former Labour Party adviser Tom Baldwin. While growing up in Surrey, the brothers shared a bunk bed in a room with an airing cupboard, and “just enough space for a couple of small desks where we’d do our homework”. The biography recorded how each child of the Starmer family was given a dog for their 10th birthday, and Nick and his twin sister Katy received Jack Russell terriers called Greg and Ben. The book also described how their mother, Jo, had taught Nick to read, but Sir Keir remembered how the school described his brother as “remedial”. Sir Keir, the middle child of four siblings, said: “They had no expectation of him or anything and I’m not sure he even sat exams, so he had nothing to show for coming out of education. “We were a family of six, so it didn’t feel lonely and I shared a room with him, but Nick didn’t have many friends and got called ‘thick’ or ‘stupid’ by other kids.” He added: “Even now I try to avoid using words like that to describe anyone.” Nick worked on scrap cars and scaffolding, earning enough money to rent a home near where he had grown up, according to the book. It said Sir Keir was best man at Nick’s wedding, and the now Prime Minister recalled borrowing a car so his brother was not “driving his bride from the church in his beaten-up minivan, which had all his clothes in the back”. The marriage ended and Nick lived for some time in Yorkshire. In 2022, Sir Keir stepped away from local election campaigning to make several hospital visits to see his brother, who was seriously ill at the time. The Prime Minister also spoke about Nick in his speech at this year’s Labour Party conference in Liverpool. As he described his early encounters with art and culture, and the need to remove social barriers, Sir Keir told delegates: “My brother, who had difficulties learning, he didn’t get those opportunities. “Every time I achieved something in my life, my dad used to say, ‘Your brother has achieved just as much as you, Keir’. “And he was right. I still believe that.” Mr Baldwin, writing for The Times on Friday, recalled the moment in 2023 that he learned from Sir Keir that his brother was dying of lung cancer. He wrote: “This has been a huge part of his life over the past couple of years, during which he made regular trips to Leeds where his brother was in hospital. “Even during the election campaign and since he entered Downing Street, Starmer has continued to visit without a camera crew in sight. “He got to know the staff treating his brother so well that he could recite all their names and they would let him into the hospital through a back door so that there would be no publicity.” Conservative Party leader Kemi Badenoch was among those in the world of politics to offer their condolences. She wrote on X, formerly Twitter: “This is such awful news. Particularly devastating at Christmas time. “My sincere condolences to Keir Starmer and all his family.” Irish premier Simon Harris wrote: “My sincere sympathy to Keir Starmer and his family on such sad news. “They are in my thoughts at this difficult time.”Facebook Twitter WhatsApp SMS Email Print Copy article link Save Republican U.S. Sen.-elect Tim Sheehy this week claimed a firework-ignited grass fire set near his campaign sign west of Livingston was a politically motivated arson. The Park County Sheriff's Office, however, said it has no evidence that this was a politically motivated incident and is not investigating it as such. A Park County sheriff’s deputy on Dec. 21 notified dispatchers of a fire near Interstate 90 and West End Road. On social media, the sheriff’s office said winds that night were clocked at 50-to-60 mph and helped push the fire out to 26 acres. Image of the area west of Livingston burned by someone discharging fireworks into the grass on Dec. 21, 2024. (courtesy Park County Sheriff's Office) Authorities issued evacuations for the nearby residents and firefighters knocked the blaze down in roughly an hour and a half, according to the sheriff’s office post. The fire "definitely" started near a Sheehy campaign sign, Park County Rural Fire District Chief Dann Babcox told the Livingston Enterprise. No arrests had been made or charges filed in response to the fire as of Friday. The Park County Sheriff's Office said on Facebook on Monday it had obtained video evidence of a person shooting a firework out of a moving vehicle and igniting the dry grass before heading west on I-90. What’s open and closed on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day 2024? Is John Dutton real? Meet the powerful rancher seemingly inspiring the 'Yellowstone' legend Audit initiates 100 complaints against Montana guides, outfitters Victor student with spine disorder pursuing nursing to give back Montana State Bobcats return to FCS title game with commanding win over South Dakota Coyotes Speed limit drops to 55 mph at Bell Crossing; roundabout still in works State lottery announces the 4 winners of Montana Millionaire 1976 Montana State Bobcats: Who were these hicks? National champions and 'a people story' 'I thought he was helping me': Patient endured 9 years of chemotherapy for cancer he never had Postal Service plan's impact on Ravalli County still up for debate Bill Speltz: Could a USC backup quarterback ignite Griz football? It's surely worth a spin How to protect your communications through encryption Ukraine dairy sector still investing Live updates: No. 1 Montana State Bobcats host No. 4 South Dakota in FCS semifinals PHOTOS: Santa spotted on Main Street in Hamilton Republican U.S. Senate candidate Tim Sheehy addresses supporters early Wednesday morning at the Kimpton Armory Hotel in Bozeman. JOSEPH SCHELLER ,The Montana Standard On Tuesday Sheehy appeared near the scorched scene and issued a social media post of appreciation for the responders, which, according to the Enterprise, included neighbors to the threatened properties. He also posted a picture with two Montana Department of Transportation employees, whose facility was adjacent to the burned area, as well as a photo of a blackened building. Initial reports from the sheriff’s office did say the incident was being investigated as a criminal act but did not imply political motivations, although Sheehy appeared certain of it in a video posted to his social media. "We just visited with the Jensen family here, four beautiful young kids, it was actually their third daughter’s birthday the night that these arsonists started the fire to burn down our sign and started about a 30-acre wildfire, burned their grazing land, harmed their property and its just sad that would happen here," Sheehy said. "We can still disagree, we can still respect each other in this country. We don't have to do things like this." Sgt. Ryan Call, the fire-arson investigator for the Park County Sheriff's Office, told the Montana State News Bureau on Friday the office had not identified anyone responsible for the fire. However, given the information law enforcement is working with, he said it's not clear that this was a political act. "We can't say for 110% it was politically motivated," Call said. For example, its unclear from the video law enforcement obtained whether the person shooting the fireworks was aiming at another vehicle on the roadway, Call said. Additionally, Sheehy described no political threats or similar incidents to the fire near his campaign sign when talking to law enforcement about the Dec. 21 fire, Call said. "None of that has happened," he said. Call said he is not investigating the incident as a politically motivated attack and asked anyone who was in the area or may have more information to contact the Park County Sheriff at 406-222-2050. This story has been updated with additional comment from the Park County Sheriff's Office. Author twitter Author emailWe now have a convicted felon, racist, failing businessman, liar, and I could go on. He has also brought into the White House the most disreputable, misinformed, and dangerous people. He and the people he has chosen for his cabinet and various administrative positions will so damage U.S. political, social, and economic institutions that this country will never look the same. And don’t even think about his approach to foreign policy. Ukraine will be consumed; Poland may be next, and NATO will be either weakened or flat-out disappear. And then there are Asia, Africa and Central and South America. Think I am exaggerating? Or maybe I am the canary in the mine. Kip Fonsh Leverett Cross|Word Flipart Typeshift SpellTower Really Bad Chess

Dickey’s Barbecue Pit Opens First Location in Oaxaca de Juárez, Spearheading Expansion in MexicoMontreal’s police chief said he expects more arrests stemming from a Friday anti-NATO protest that turned violent, while one of the protest organizers on Sunday denounced political reaction as hijacking the underlying message of the demonstration. Uniformed police officers could be seen Sunday both inside and outside Montreal’s Palais des congres convention centre as the annual meeting continued with no signs of demonstrations, although some protesters had planned a “counter-summit” at a community centre just north of downtown. Chief Fady Dagher told reporters on Saturday that more arrests would be coming thanks to additional evidence gathered during the protests, adding that police were aware of who was behind the vandalism including smashed windows and burned cars as well as alleged assaults on police officers. Police said that during the march, smoke bombs were deployed, metal barriers were thrown into the street and windows smashed of nearby businesses and the convention centre where delegates from NATO parliamentary assembly, including members and partner states, gathered for a session set to wrap Monday. Among the issues being broached were support for Ukraine, climate change and the future of the alliance. Dagher estimated that about 800 people took part in protests from several groups, but about 20 to 40 people were allegedly responsible for the trouble. “I do not want to advertise these groups and glorify these groups, it is a big trap to do so,” Dagher said. “But I can assure to you ... it is a few groups.” Montreal police arrested three people following Friday’s demonstration — a 22-year-old woman who was arrested for allegedly obstructing police work and assaulting a police officer and two men, 22 and 28, also each facing a charge for allegedly obstructing police work. All are scheduled to appear in court at a later date. “Despite what you saw in the images, last-minute impromptu events are extremely difficult to anticipate,” Dagher added. “We have other pieces of evidence. So probably we will have other arrests.” Friday night’s protest was condemned by politicians of all stripes Saturday as acts of antisemitism, which one organizer rejected, saying the protests were against the actions of the state of Israel and not Jewish people. On Sunday, the Divest for Palestine Collective denounced what it called “dishonest attempts” of politicians to hijack the “anti-militarist, anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist messages” delivered by protesters. In an emailed statement, it refuted allegations of antisemitism. “These are false accusations aimed at delegitimizing the solidarity movement for the liberation of Palestine and undermining the fight against antisemitism,” the group wrote. The group defended setting ablaze a doll representing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu during the protest. Earlier this week, the International Court of Justice issued an arrest warrant for Netanyahu as well as his former defence minister and Hamas members. “It is a legitimate expression of collective anger against the political indifference at the heart of an ongoing colonial genocide,” the collective said. The collective also denounced what it called police violence against demonstrators, saying at least four protesters had to be taken to hospital with various injuries. Dagher said he could not make a firm link between Friday’s acts and antisemitism, but added that since the Oct. 7 attacks more than one year ago, incidents and acts of antisemitism and Islamophobia have both increased enormously in the city. The police chief however, defended his officers handling of Friday’s event, which he felt could have been much worse. He added he would spend the rest of the weekend with his officers on the ground to lend support.

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National chief urges MPs to send water bill to Senate before holiday break