By Maureen O’Hare, CNN

(CNN) — In our roundup of travel stories this week: the Wyoming monument made famous by “alien encounters,” the rise of solo dining, and the lowdown on the “Schengen Shuffle.”

Rock of ages

The Sicilian village of Gibellina was destroyed by an earthquake in 1968, but its ruins were to be reborn as a spectacular piece of land art.

Artist Alberto Burri poured concrete over 926,000 square feet of hillside, freezing the streets and pathways for eternity, transforming this disaster site into a modern Pompeii.

This year, Gibellina is Italy’s first ever Capital of Contemporary Art and locals hope 2026 will strengthen the legacy of this “magical place.”

Much older stone masterpieces are to be found at the Mount Nemrut UNESCO World Heritage site in southeastern Turkey, where colossal limestone heads guard a 2,000-year-old mystery.

The giant sculptures were commissioned by Antiochus I, king of the region in the first century BCE, and the ruler wished that his tomb would sit among the deities for eternity.

In Uganda, the Kasubi Tombs UNESCO World Heritage site has finally reopened to the public following reconstruction after a devastating fire in 2010.

The giant basket-like thatch structure is the spiritual heart of the Buganda kingdom and, for believers, marks a portal to an ancient, invisible realm.

Movie monoliths

Wyoming’s Devils Tower, a startling 867-foot-tall geological formation, is a spiritual site for Native Americans and in 1906 became the United States’ first national monument.

What really gave it status on the tourist map, however, was its starring role in Steven Spielberg’s 1977 movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”

The tower was created by cooling magma, rather than industrious aliens, but its mystique is no less majestic for that. CNN went to visit.

Over in Northern Ireland, the 50-million-year-old mountainous “Kingdom of Mourne” has appeared in movies and TV as everywhere from Westeros in “Game of Thrones” to Transylvania in “Dracula Untold.”

Perhaps the mountains’ grandest claim to fame, though, is that they’re the real-life inspiration for the Narnia books by Belfast-born writer C.S. Lewis.

Fine dining but coarse behavior

When chef René Redzepi stepped down earlier this year from the world-famous Noma restaurant amid abuse allegations, the news made headlines around the world.

But in an era of superstar chefs celebrated for high passion and exacting standards, accusations of toxic behavior will, for many, simply reinforce preconceptions of life in a Michelin-starred kitchen.

Some chefs and industry figures believe the Redzepi moment was a potential turning point — and a long-overdue reckoning is underway.

Another trend to come under scrutiny recently is restaurants discriminating against solo diners.

One noodle eatery in Seoul recently went so far as to tell single diners to bring a friend or order for two, posting a sign saying, “We don’t serve loneliness.”

The fear of dining alone is so real that there is a name for it: solomangarephobia. Yet with solo living on the rise around the world, and likewise solo dining, it’s time to call last orders on the stigma.

Lo

Por Sean Lyngaas, CNN

El USS Gerald R. Ford, el portaaviones más grande y nuevo de Estados Unidos, tiene previsto regresar a puerto en Virginia este sábado después de casi un año en el mar, durante el cual participó en la captura del derrocado presidente de Venezuela Nicolás Maduro, la guerra con Irán, un incendio a bordo y repetidos problemas de fontanería.

Pasará a la historia como el despliegue operativo más largo de un portaaviones desde el final de la Guerra de Vietnam, un viaje en el que el buque ha servido como punto central para una serie de objetivos militares del presidente Donald Trump en el extranjero.

Para las familias de los marineros, supone el tan esperado final de un año lleno de nervios, en el que sus familiares participaron regularmente en operaciones militares que dominaron las noticias.

“Ahora por fin puedo relajarme, respirar y volver a tener un sueño normal”, declaró a CNN Amini Osias, cuya hija es electricista de aviación y sirvió en el portaaviones Ford.

Añadió que planeaba salir a comer con su hija, escuchar su relato del despliegue y simplemente disfrutar de su compañía como padre.

Fue un viaje difícil en algunos momentos. En marzo, se desató un incendio en la lavandería del Ford que la tripulación tardó aproximadamente 30 horas en extinguir, limpiar y evitar que se reavivara.

Unos 600 marineros perdieron el acceso a sus literas debido a los daños, pero ninguno resultó gravemente herido.

Los daños impidieron que el barco pudiera lavar la ropa durante un tiempo, lo que aumentó las dificultades para la tripulación.

El incendio se produjo meses después de que los buques hubieran entrado en servicio, tras haber experimentado ya repetidos problemas con su sistema de inodoros, que provocaron interrupciones parciales intermitentes, un inconveniente para la tripulación que requirió una visita a puerto para realizar reparaciones.

Aunque el Ford es tecnológicamente avanzado y el portaaviones más nuevo de la flota, Osias afirmó que las familias de los marineros “aún tenían dudas de que algo pudiera suceder”. Citó el incendio como motivo de preocupación.

Funcionarios militares, tanto en activo como retirados, afirman que el buque, valorado en US$ 13.000 millones, ha sido indispensable en las operaciones militares estadounidenses en Irán y Venezuela.

En la operación contra Venezuela, el buque lanzó aeronaves que participaron en la misión de captura, y en Irán sirvió como plataforma para desplegar oleada tras oleada de aviones de combate.

El sistema de catapulta electrónica del buque le permite lanzar desde pequeños drones hasta grandes aeronaves, lo que proporciona a los comandantes una amplia gama de opciones de potencia de fuego, declaró anteriormente a CNN Brent Sadler, veterano de la Armada con 26 años de servicio y exoficial de submarinos.

Los otros diez portaaviones estadounidenses no cuentan con esa capacidad, según Sadler.

Tras zarpar de Virginia el pasado junio, el Ford cruzó el Atlántico, dirigiéndose inicialmente al Mediterráneo y luego a Noruega como parte de su viaje programado, antes de ser remolcado al Caribe para la operación de captura de Maduro en enero.

Posteriormente, se le ordenó al buque que se dirigiera rápidamente para brindar apoyo en una posible guerra en Medio Oriente, donde contribuyó a las operaciones bélicas contra Irán, hasta que emprendió el regreso a casa y entró en el Atlántico desde el mar Mediterráneo a principios de este mes.

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By René Marsh, Audrey Ash, CNN

(CNN) — A long-abandoned proposal at the Department of Homeland Security – one so ambitious the agency had never gone through with it before – was revived under the leadership of then-Secretary Kristi Noem.

Officials spent tens of millions of taxpayer dollars to buy the department its own fleet of aircraft and started laying the groundwork for shifting away from relying on charter airline companies for deportation flights, as it had for decades. Ultimately, they planned to start their own mini airline to help execute President Donald Trump’s aim to deport 1 million undocumented immigrants a year.

Now DHS tells CNN exclusively it plans to start using the planes for deportation flights soon – using contractors to operate the planes – after new Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin reevaluated the plan. Mullin, who replaced Noem in March, had undertaken an agency-wide review of contracts signed during her tenure.

“We anticipate we will be able to integrate these planes into our deportation efforts in the coming weeks,” a DHS spokesperson said in a statement.

Under Noem, DHS officials argued the move would save taxpayers $280 million, in part by allowing the department to fly more efficient routes, though they didn’t give a timeframe for those savings.

But some current and former DHS officials, as well as aviation industry sources, question whether the unprecedented endeavor will be viable over the long-term and deliver the promised savings. Some critics point to industry data that suggests the department may have paid more than market value for at least some of the planes.

“It’s hard to see this as anything but a waste of public money,” an aviation industry executive told CNN.

DHS purchased 10 planes between January and March of this year, records show. The fleet has largely sat idle since then – in some cases, for months – at a maintenance facility in Louisiana, according to a source with knowledge of the matter and publicly available flight tracking data.

While some of the aircraft were used for evacuation flights in the early days of the Iran war, none have been used for deportations.

William Walters, the CEO of Daedalus Aviation, the company that sold the aircraft to DHS, told CNN they were sold at cost plus overhead, including the cost of retrofitting the passenger planes for immigration purposes.

Walters and DHS declined to provide a breakdown of the costs of the planes.

The DHS spokesperson said the planes will provide “vital support” to immigration enforcement but that “any decisions related to the purchase of these planes were made prior to the change in DHS leadership.”

The department added that while Mullin and his team worked with Immigration and Customs Enforcement to “assess the operation plan for utilizing these aircraft,” the planes have been “undergoing maintenance and safety checks as well as any necessary make-ready modifications to meet the need of the deportation mission.”

“Secretary Mullin is 100% focused on ensuring the needs of our Department are met while being the best possible steward of taxpayer dollars,” DHS said in another statement to CNN.

Building the fleet

From the beginning of this endeavor, several aviation sources said they thought the plan was “crazy” and said it would “never work.” Some of the sources requested anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly, while others offering an industry perspective wanted to avoid potential fallout from the White House.

“There’s an old saying in aviation: The fastest way to become a millionaire is to be a billionaire who tries to start an airline,” one industry veteran told CNN, citing a joke about the risks and high startup costs.

Last December, as DHS was assessing what it would take to carry out its plan, the agenc

Por Alayna Treene y Adam Cancryn, CNN

A medida que Donald Trump se sentía cada vez más frustrado con los esfuerzos diplomáticos para poner fin a la guerra con Irán, los funcionarios de la administración observaban atentamente si el viaje del presidente a China, una nación con estrechos vínculos con Teherán, produciría un avance significativo.

Pero Trump aterrizó en Estados Unidos el viernes sin que aparentemente hubiera ningún progreso que reportar.

En declaraciones a la prensa durante su viaje de regreso a Washington, Trump afirmó que el líder de China, Xi Jinping, había expresado su deseo de que se reabriera el estrecho de Ormuz y que estaba de acuerdo en que Irán no debería desarrollar un arma nuclear.

Sin embargo, esas declaraciones ya las había hecho China con anterioridad.

“Le gustaría que esto terminara. Le gustaría ayudar. Si quiere ayudar, estupendo. Pero no necesitamos ayuda”, declaró Trump a Bret Baier de Fox News sobre su homólogo chino en una entrevista que se emitió el viernes.

Varios funcionarios del Gobierno dijeron que querían ver cómo se desarrollaban las conversaciones entre Trump y Xi antes de determinar el camino a seguir con respecto a Irán.

Pero ahora el presidente tiene que decidir si lanzar más ataques contra Irán es su mejor opción para poner fin a un conflicto que se ha prolongado mucho más allá de las seis semanas que proyectó inicialmente, disparando los precios del gas y haciendo caer sus índices de aprobación en materia económica.

En una publicación de Truth Social realizada el viernes por la mañana, hora de China, Trump dijo que su campaña militar contra Irán “¡continuará!”.

Según fuentes cercanas a las conversaciones, dentro de la administración existen diferentes puntos de vista sobre cómo proceder.

Algunos, incluidos funcionarios del Pentágono, abogan por un enfoque más agresivo —que incluya ataques selectivos— con la esperanza de presionar aún más a Irán para que ceda.

Otros, sin embargo, abogan por mantener el enfoque en la diplomacia.

El propio Trump se ha inclinado por esta vía en las últimas semanas, con la esperanza de que la combinación de negociaciones directas y presión económica convenza a Irán de llegar a un acuerdo.

Pero Teherán no ha cedido mucho en sus condiciones para un acuerdo desde que Trump anunció un alto el fuego en abril.

“Bueno, lo revisé y si no me gusta la primera frase, simplemente lo descarto”, comentó Trump a los periodistas a bordo del Air Force One el viernes sobre la última propuesta iraní.

El vicepresidente J.D. Vance se mostró confiado a principios de esta semana, cuando declaró a los periodistas que había “pasado bastante tiempo hablando por teléfono con Jared Kushner y Steve Witkoff esta mañana, y con varios de nuestros amigos en el mundo árabe”, en referencia a los principales diplomáticos a quienes Trump ha encomendado la tarea de alcanzar un acuerdo con Teherán.

“Miren, creo que estamos progresando. La pregunta fundamental es: ¿Estamos progresando lo suficiente como para cumplir con la línea roja del presidente?”, manifestó Vance.

“El presidente nos ha encaminado por la vía diplomática por ahora, y en eso es en lo que me estoy centrando”, añadió.

Ante la negativa de Irán a abandonar su postura intransigente, Trump se ha impacientado cada vez más.

Le irrita especialmente el cierre continuo del estrecho de Ormuz, que ha disparado los precios del petróleo y el gas, así como las supuestas divisiones en el liderazgo iraní, que han complicado aún más las negociaciones, según las fuentes.

La última respuesta de Irán a la propuesta estadounidense y su retórica de los últimos días han llevado a muchos funcionarios a cuestionar el compromiso de Teherán con un acuerdo serio.

“Ha inten

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (KEYT) - Carson Turnquist and Chris Downs combined on a three-hitter and six different players drove in runs as Cal Poly clinched its Big West baseball series against Long Beach State with a 6-2 victory Friday night before the largest crowd of the 2026 season inside Baggett Stadium.

Turnquist (7-2) struck out nine Dirtbags, six of them looking, over six innings, giving up two runs (one earned) and a pair of hits for his seventh victory of the year. Downs earned his second save with three scoreless innings of one-hit relief, notching a pair of strikeouts.

An RBI triple by Casey Murray Jr., run-scoring doubles off the bats of Dylan Kordic and Cam Hoiland, run-producing singles by Ryan Tayman and Dante Vachini and a grounder to second base by Alejandro Garza accounted for Cal Poly's six runs, all in the first three innings of the game.

In front of 2,923 fans, the ninth-largest Baggett Stadium crowd since the facility opened in 2001, Cal Poly clinched a Big West series for the ninth time in 10 tries this season. The Mustangs also won nine of 10 conference series in 2025 and have claimed 26 of 30 Big West series over the last three years.

Cal Poly also kept pace with UC Santa Barbara atop the Big West standings, both with 21-8 records. The Gauchos defeated UC Riverside 15-5 on Friday. Should the two Central Coast rivals remain tied after Saturday's games, both teams will be declared co-champions, but UC Santa Barbara will be the top seed for next week's conference tournament at UC Irvine.

UC San Diego (18-11) is the No. 3 seed while Hawai'i (16-14) has locked up the fourth seed. The fifth and final team in the field will be decided Saturday with Cal State Fullerton (14-15), UC Irvine (13-16) and UC Davis (14-16) still alive for the last berth. UC Davis owns the tiebreaker in a two-way tie with Cal State Fullerton by virtue of its sweep two weeks ago and the Aggies also own the tiebreaker if they finish in a three-way tie with the Titans and Anteaters.

Cal Poly jumped to a 2-0 lead in the first inning and never looked back. The double by Kordic and Tayman's single up the middle accounted for the two tallies.

Both teams scored a run in the second frame. After Long Beach State trimmed the deficit to 2-1 on Ty Borgogno's single to right, singles by Gavin Spiridonoff and Nate Castellon set up Garza's run-scoring grounder to second base in the bottom of the inning.

The Mustangs scored three times in the third for a 6-1 advantage. Murray's triple down the left-field line notched the first run, Hoiland doubled to the same spot for the second run and Vachini singled to right field to cap the rally.

The Dirtbags scored the game's final run in the sixth on a two-out home run to left field by Conner Stewart, his second of the series and second of the year.

Cal Poly's bats were silenced by lefty Jaxon Baker, who pitched five scoreless innings in relief of starter Luke Howe and gave up just three hits and a walk with five strikeouts.

Turnquist was putting up a lot of zeroes on the scoreboard as well, with his final six strikeouts all looking in the fourth and fifth frames. Turnquist also hit three Dirtbag batters, but none was allowed to score.

Howe (5-4) suffered the loss, giving up all six