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Too Many Tourists? Crowds Offer an Opportunity for Italy's South

]Tourists stand in Pretoria square, in Palermo, Italy, May 14, 2025. REUTERS/
]Tourists stand in Pretoria square, in Palermo, Italy, May 14, 2025. REUTERS/
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Too Many Tourists? Crowds Offer an Opportunity for Italy's South

]Tourists stand in Pretoria square, in Palermo, Italy, May 14, 2025. REUTERS/
]Tourists stand in Pretoria square, in Palermo, Italy, May 14, 2025. REUTERS/

In a rundown neighbourhood of Sicily's capital Palermo, a whitewashed old farmhouse that accommodates pilgrims now offers two rooms to tourists for bed and breakfast after a renovation.

As foreign visitors flock to Sicily, last year Brother Mauro Billetta, head of the parish in the Danisinni neighbourhood, decided that revenue from B&B guests could help lift the area out of decades of neglect. Two months ago he also opened a cafe at the farmhouse, overlooking the vegetable garden.

"That was our main goal from the start: to open up this part of the city, and also to tourists," said Mauro, sitting in his brown robes in his office at the parish church.

While residents in Rome, Florence and Venice have staged protests, complaining of overcrowded streets and housing shortages due to rising holiday rentals, it's a different story in poorer southern Italy. In Sicily and other parts the tourism boom is helping make some neighbourhoods safer and bringing much needed cash to deprived areas, although residents see risks ahead if it is not controlled.

Danisinni is walking distance from Palermo Cathedral and the Norman Palace, two of the UNESCO World Heritage sites in the Sicilian capital, which welcomed over 800,000 visitors in 2023, up 16% from 2022.

"Our houses became more valuable and some of the businesses that opened in recent years, like the restaurants, are good for the residents as well," said Aurelio Cagnina, while walking his dog near his home by Palermo's ancient port of La Cala.

However, some city residents are starting to complain that local authorities are failing to regulate the tourist boom. Short-term rentals are on the rise - more than 180,000 of Palermo's visitors in 2023 stayed in non-hotel accommodation, up 44% from 2019, official data shows - and residents say the growing night life has brought an increase in drug dealing.

"The lack of intervention is setting the stage for irreversible transformations. The so-called 'showcase' historic centre is what is happening," Palermo resident Massimo Castiglia said. He reflects fears voiced by residents in Florence and Venice that their city centres will become amusement parks as locals are priced out by visitors.

PRESERVATION STRATEGY

A rebound in air travel after the pandemic and more low-cost direct flights have led to a surge in visitor numbers to Europe's tourism hot spots, causing friction in parts of Spain and elsewhere, not just Italy - where tourism accounts for more than 10% of gross domestic product.

Spending by foreign visitors in Italy rose 19% in 2023 to a record 51.4 billion euros ($57.56 billion), according to The World Travel & Tourism Council's latest data.

Sicily drew 5.5 million tourists in 2023, up 14.5% on 2022, according to local government data, and more than the island's resident population of 4.8 million.

"There is no risk of overtourism. The idea that the historical areas will become a desert, sold out to short-term rentals does not exist in Palermo at present," said Alessandro Anello, councillor responsible for tourism in Palermo.

Yet he acknowledged a strategy was needed to preserve the city's character. The municipality was considering building student quarters in the city center, he said, and last month it passed rules to prevent the opening of more mini food markets for the next 18 months.

"Otherwise, there would be a risk that it becomes an open-air street food market," Anello said.

REVAMPED IMAGE

Tourism has helped Palermo to revamp its image after difficult decades that long overshadowed its beauty.

Memorial plaques in honour of the victims of the Cosa Nostra Mafia wars of the 1980s and 1990s are scattered across the city, sometimes hidden among shiny shop windows or restaurants serving typical Sicilian food.

A car bomb exploded in 1983 in a residential street near the elegant Viale della Liberta boulevard, killing anti-mafia magistrate Rocco Chinnici, two police officers escorting him and the doorman of the building where he lived.

Claudia Lombardo, who rents apartments to tourists with her daughter a few metres from the site, believes much has changed since then.

"There is a different air, a more open mentality, and I believe the opportunity to interact with tourists has helped a lot," she said.

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Varieties

Satellite Observations Offer Insight into a Tsunami’s Early Stages

A person shows a cell phone displaying a message to evacuate to a tsunami safety zone during an evacuation of the coast following a tsunami warning issued by local authorities after an earthquake struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia, triggering warnings and evacuations across the South Pacific, in Dichato, near Concepcion, Chile, July 30, 2025. (Reuters)
A person shows a cell phone displaying a message to evacuate to a tsunami safety zone during an evacuation of the coast following a tsunami warning issued by local authorities after an earthquake struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia, triggering warnings and evacuations across the South Pacific, in Dichato, near Concepcion, Chile, July 30, 2025. (Reuters)
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Satellite Observations Offer Insight into a Tsunami’s Early Stages

A person shows a cell phone displaying a message to evacuate to a tsunami safety zone during an evacuation of the coast following a tsunami warning issued by local authorities after an earthquake struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia, triggering warnings and evacuations across the South Pacific, in Dichato, near Concepcion, Chile, July 30, 2025. (Reuters)
A person shows a cell phone displaying a message to evacuate to a tsunami safety zone during an evacuation of the coast following a tsunami warning issued by local authorities after an earthquake struck the Kamchatka Peninsula in the far east of Russia, triggering warnings and evacuations across the South Pacific, in Dichato, near Concepcion, Chile, July 30, 2025. (Reuters)

Observations made by a satellite operated by the US and French space agencies shortly after a strong earthquake struck off Russia's Kamchatka Peninsula last year are giving scientists a better understanding of how tsunamis originate and propagate.

The researchers said the findings may help improve understanding of future tsunamis and earthquakes at subduction zones, particularly near the ocean trench where two tectonic plates meet and one slides beneath the other. The strongest tsunamis often are generated by such quakes.

The magnitude 8.8 quake struck on July 29, 2025, triggering a tsunami that spread across the Pacific Ocean. A tsunami - a series of extremely long and powerful ocean waves - is caused by large movements of the seafloor that push water up or down, often during earthquakes or landslides that occur under water.

The NASA-CNES Surface Water and Ocean Topography, or SWOT, satellite ‌made its observations ‌within 70 minutes of the start of the earthquake. It observed not ‌only ⁠the leading wave ⁠of the tsunami, but also a distinct pattern of smaller waves trailing behind it.

Such wave patterns had long been predicted in computer models and theoretical studies, but had been difficult to confirm with real-world observations, the researchers said.

"I believe SWOT represents a new lens for observing and studying tsunamis and their generation," said Ignacio Sepúlveda, a professor of coastal engineering at San Diego State University and lead author of the study published this week in the journal Science.

"It is also likely to improve our understanding of the physical mechanisms that generate tsunamis, including earthquakes," ⁠Sepúlveda added.

Traditional deep-ocean pressure sensors and other satellites have limitations in coverage ‌and measurement, making it difficult to capture the full structure of ‌the waves, especially near the trench, the researchers said.

SWOT scans a wide swath of the ocean, producing two-dimensional maps ‌of sea surface height. This allows scientists to see the shape, direction and spacing of tsunami waves ‌in much greater detail.

Tsunamis are among the strongest and most destructive natural forces, with powerful waves radiating from a point of origin outward in all directions. These waves can cause damaging and deadly coastal flooding.

The tsunami in this study did not cause significant loss of life, but others have caused huge death tolls such as the 2004 Indian Ocean ‌tsunami that killed some 230,000 people.

The July 2025 tsunami originated within about 10 kilometers (six miles) of the trench, the place in the seafloor ⁠where two tectonic plates intersect, ⁠the researchers found. This location could not previously be determined using traditional land-based instruments or sparse sensors on the seafloor alone.

Earth's surface is made up of immense plates that move very gradually in a geological process called plate tectonics.

The researchers found that when earthquake-caused movement extends close to the trench, it can generate shorter waves that travel more slowly and spread out over time, forming a trailing pattern behind the main tsunami front. This behavior means that different parts of the wave move at different speeds, with longer waves moving more quickly and leading, while shorter ones lag behind.

The study also showed that the strength of the trailing waves increases when earthquake movement extends closer to the trench, suggesting these waves are linked to where and how the tsunami was generated near the trench.

"This opens a new window to understand in a better way what happens with earthquakes and tsunamis near the trench," Sepúlveda said, referring to SWOT observations. "In the future, this knowledge will allow us to improve models we use to evaluate tsunami hazards in coastal communities and make them more resilient."

Varieties

Gabon Battles for Baby Sea Turtles’ Survival

An olive ridley sea turtle hatchling moves on a beach after emerging from its nest near Libreville on February 15, 2026. (AFP)
An olive ridley sea turtle hatchling moves on a beach after emerging from its nest near Libreville on February 15, 2026. (AFP)
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Gabon Battles for Baby Sea Turtles’ Survival

An olive ridley sea turtle hatchling moves on a beach after emerging from its nest near Libreville on February 15, 2026. (AFP)
An olive ridley sea turtle hatchling moves on a beach after emerging from its nest near Libreville on February 15, 2026. (AFP)

Small enough to fit in the palm of your hand, newly hatched sea turtles emerged on a Gabonese beach to embark on the treacherous 10-meter (33-foot) scramble across the sand to the ocean.

"The survival rate for turtles is one in 1,000," Francois Boussamba, a Gabonese turtle expert and head of the NGO Aventures Sans Frontieres (Adventures Without Borders), told AFP, scouring for nests.

Conservationists from NGOs and the national parks agency patrol Gabon's beaches daily during the nesting season to protect the turtles' nests.

Those under threat are moved to a hatchery, a fenced enclosure near the sea, where the eggs are kept safe until they are ready to hatch.

On Pongara National Park's white sandy beaches, about 30 minutes by boat from the capital Libreville, conditions are optimal for nesting: wild coastline, a favorable equatorial climate and an open ocean beach with gentle slopes, ideal for the females.

But dangers lurk. Nests are threatened by coastal erosion due to encroaching sea levels, or myriad predators such as crabs and birds that prevent the eggs from reaching their 60-day incubation period, Boussamba said.

"The chances of survival are tiny," he said.

- Muscle up -

In Libreville, every morning around 7:00 am, volunteers from the Project Turtles Tahiti Gabon association crisscross the beach and check the nests in the hatchery.

After one has hatched, the baby turtles have to be moved so they can reach the sea -- but they are never put straight into the water.

"They need to build up their muscles so they can swim in the ocean," volunteer Clemence said.

Four species of turtles -- green, olive ridley, hawksbill and leatherback -- come to nest along Gabon's 900 kilometers (560 miles) of coastline from October to April.

It has the highest nesting density on the African continent, according to the US-based NGO Wildlife Conservation Society.

Gabon is the world's leading nesting site for the leatherback turtle, the largest of the species and listed as threatened by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

In addition to predators, sea turtles are also threatened by human activities, from plastic pollution to industrial fishing and poachers.

By watching over the eggs, the rangers in Pongara help ensure "the survival of this species", Edouard Moussavou, Pongara park's deputy director, said.

- Unpaid wages -

Since 2013, Gabon's conservation efforts had received funding from the United States, notably through the US Fish and Wildlife Service, an agency responsible for biodiversity.

"If there are turtles, it means our ecosystem is sound and healthy," Boussamba said.

But since the suspension of grants by the administration of US President Donald Trump, "turtle monitoring activities have stopped or slowed down drastically", Moussavou said.

"There will be fewer staff, less data, and that really creates difficulties for us," he said.

Additionally, there have been delays in paying the staff of the National Agency for National Parks (ANPN), which manages the country's 13 parks, according to Sosthene Ndong Engonga, secretary-general of the National Union of Gabonese Ecoguards.

The around 580 eco-rangers regularly go unpaid.

"Even when there is money, we have to make a big fuss to get our salaries," he said, adding he battled with the treasury last month for back pay.

The eco-rangers, who are crucial for the conservation of Gabon's biodiversity, face having "to give everything up," Engonga warned. "We have expenses we can no longer cover," he said.

On Pongara beach, 40-year-old Alain Banguiya carries out night patrols, hoping to see a leatherback turtle emerge from the water to lay her eggs in the sand.

An eco-ranger since 2015, he has not been paid for two months but says that giving up is out of the question.

"We have a duty to fight to the end, to keep our spirits up," he said. "Despite the obstacles, we stay the course: conservation."

Varieties

Japan’s ispace Delays Nasa-Sponsored Moon Landing to 2030

A model of lunar lander "Resilience", operated by ispace, is displayed at a venue where ispace employees monitored the company's attempt to land on the Moon, in Tokyo, Japan, June 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A model of lunar lander "Resilience", operated by ispace, is displayed at a venue where ispace employees monitored the company's attempt to land on the Moon, in Tokyo, Japan, June 6, 2025. (Reuters)
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Japan’s ispace Delays Nasa-Sponsored Moon Landing to 2030

A model of lunar lander "Resilience", operated by ispace, is displayed at a venue where ispace employees monitored the company's attempt to land on the Moon, in Tokyo, Japan, June 6, 2025. (Reuters)
A model of lunar lander "Resilience", operated by ispace, is displayed at a venue where ispace employees monitored the company's attempt to land on the Moon, in Tokyo, Japan, June 6, 2025. (Reuters)

Japanese spacecraft startup ispace said ‌on Friday it will further delay a US government-sponsored lunar mission to 2030 and cut its global workforce, in a strategic shift after two failed lunar landings.

The announcement highlights the murky outlook for the venture, as the US revamps space missions with commercial and international partners to send astronauts to the Moon before China does.

Tokyo-based ispace said it will consolidate moon lander development across its Japanese and US units and push back a launch commissioned under NASA's commercial lunar payload services program by three years from 2027, following previous delays.

In ‌the meantime, ispace ‌said it would launch five lunar orbiters by ‌2030 ⁠that can provide ⁠telecommunication, navigation and surface observation services to contribute to development on the Moon.

The company could incur costs of several million dollars due to the changes, which could lead to further equity financing and a reduction of a few dozen staff, Chief Financial Officer Jumpei Nozaki told a media briefing.

Since its 2023 Tokyo stock listing, ispace has ⁠had two failed lunar landing attempts, has been running ‌at a loss and has seen ‌its share price slump. It had about 300 employees across Japan, the US ‌and Luxembourg as of last year.

Its third mission is ‌scheduled for 2028 as part of the Japanese government's commercial space program. It will launch its "Ultra" lunar lander which is capable of carrying a 200 kg (441 lbs) payload to the Moon.

Only two private companies, Intuitive Machines ‌and Firefly Aerospace - both from the US - have landed on the Moon.

NASA on Tuesday announced updates to ⁠its Artemis ⁠program, including plans to send up to 30 uncrewed missions to the lunar surface starting next year.

"While it's true that we are moving against NASA's push to accelerate moon missions in 2028-29 ... as the only (private company) outside the US with moon landing technology, we are seeking a greater role in their program," Nozaki said.

Changes to the American space program under President Donald Trump has led to confusion among Japanese space ventures that had hoped for deeper US-Japan cooperation to counter China.

Tokyo-based rocket startup ISC, whose chief executive sits on the ispace management board, in December cancelled a launch test in New Mexico, citing disruption in regulatory procedures.