Around 4,000 years ago, this pale, hard-packed spit of Iraqi desert was the center of civilisation. Today the ruins of the great city of Ur, once an administrative capital of Mesopotamia, now sit in a barren wasteland near Iraq’s most notorious prison. In the shadow of the towering prison fences, Abo Ashraf, the self-proclaimed caretaker of the archaeological site, and a handful of tourists are the only signs of life for miles. At the end of a long wooden walkway, an impressive ziggurat is nearly all that remains of the ancient Sumerian metropolis.

To get here, I’d been packed into the backseat of a taxi hurtling through the desert for hours, until I began to see the city’s famed monument looming in the distance: the Ziggurat of Ur, a 4,100-year-old massive, tiered shrine lined with giant staircases. A tall chain link fence barricading the entrance and a paved parking lot

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As you count down the days to your end-of-summer trip, you might find your pre-vacation giddiness is actually overshadowed by stress. There’s a heap of chores to manage before traveling: After you arrange your time out of officeyou’ll have to prepare your home for your absence and make sure it’s secure. Then there’s figuring out what to packnot to mention fitting it all into your suitcase.

But all those tricky logistics are so much easier to tackle once you’ve put together a comprehensive set of to-dos, along with a smart packing list.

The tips below will make your vacation a walk in the park. Or, preferably, a walk on the beach.

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Packing list essentials most people don’t think about

A few small additions to your suitcase can minimize hassle and maximize comfort when you’re traveling. Here are some essentials you probably already have in your home.

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(CNN) — The future of environmentally friendly travel might just be here — and it’s Germany that’s leading the charge, with the first ever rail line to be entirely run on hydrogen-powered trains, starting from Wednesday.

Fourteen hydrogen trains powered by fuel cell propulsion will exclusively run on the route in Bremervörde, Lower Saxony. The 93 million euro ($92.3 million) deal has been struck by state subsidiary Landesnahverkehrsgesellschaft Lower Saxony (LVNG), the owners of the railway, and Alstom, builders of the Coradia iLint trains. The Elbe-Weser Railways and Transport Company (EVB), which will operate the trains, and gas and engineering company Linde, are also part of the project.

The trains, five of which which debut Wednesday, will gradually replace the 15 diesel trains that currently run on the route, with all 14 running exclusively by the end of the year. Just 1 kilo of hydrogen fuel can do the same

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Club Med released its list of the top 10 happiest travel destinations in the world after compiling data from the 50 most visited tourist destinations.

The survey measured the cities based on nine metrics: crime, safety, pollution, cost of domestic beer, outdoor activities, day trips, spa and wellness centers, LGBTQ friendly, and the overall happiness of the individual cities on a scale of 0-100 .

Although a US city didn’t rank in the top spot, three did round out the list: Las Vegas, New Orleans, and San Francisco.

All three places made the top 10 list thanks to the fact that they offer a range of activities for visitors to take advantage of.

No. 1 happiest travel destination: Bali, Indonesia

Overall happiness score: 73.7

According to Club Med’s research, Bali was the most popular destination due to the spa and wellness centers it has to offer and all the outdoor

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(CNN) — On an average day, more than 200,000 flights take off and land across the world. That includes commercial, cargo and charter planes — which account for about half of the total — as well as business jets, private aircraft, helicopters, air ambulances, government and military aircraft, drones, hot air balloons and gliders.

Most of them are equipped with a transponder, a device that communicates the aircraft’s position and other flight data to air traffic control, and that signal can be captured with inexpensive receivers based on a technology called ADS-B, for Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast. That’s what flight-tracking websites do in a nutshell, providing users with a real-time snapshot of everything that’s in the sky (minus a few exceptions).

An ADS-B receiver manufactured by Flightradar24.

An ADS-B receiver manufactured by Flightradar24.

Courtesy Flightradar24

That’s now reaching far beyond aviation enthusiasts. When a US Air Force plane carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi landed in Taiwan in
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The US government has issued another travel warning about multiple areas in Mexico.

Americans are urged by the Department of State to avoid travel to Baja California and the nearby Mexican towns of Tijuana, Ensenada, and Rosarito. They also share that the US government will not be able to assist American citizens if they experience crime while traveling in Mexico.

The advisory states: “Violent crime — such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery — is widespread and common in Mexico. The US government has limited ability to provide emergency services to US citizens in many areas of Mexico.”

Photo Credit: John Coletti for Getty Images

Photo Credit: John Coletti for Getty Images

Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador says in a statement about the recent increase in crime, that cartel and gang members “attacked the civilian, innocent population like a sort of revenge. It wasn’t just a clash between two groups, but it got to the point

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While some workers return to the office this year, many others continue to work remotely indefinitely. This seismic shift has changed where people live and work and, increasing, how they travel.

In the first quarter of 2022, nearly 25% of job postings at the 50,000 largest companies in the US and Canada were for permanently remote positions, according to the job listing service Ladders. That’s up from a mere 4% before the pandemic.

“It has enabled us to extend trips, leave early and work different hours,” says Kirsten Reckman, a credit risk manager based in Tampa, Florida, who works remotely. “My boss is very accommodating as long as the work gets done.”

Reckmen’s experience reflects a larger trend. One in five travelers this summer plan to do work on the road, according to a report from Deloitte, an international professional services network. Of these so-called “laptop luggers,” 4 in

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DENVER (KDVR) — Denver International Airport is the third-busiest airport in the world, with the holiday season being the most active time of year. Travel experts tell FOX31, the price of gas is decreasing which impacts jet fuel, but an increase in travelers who may have postponed trips during the pandemic could drive up fares.

One passenger tells FOX31, summer travel has been busy causing long lines.

“We almost missed the flight,” he said.

AAA of Colorado spokesperson Skyler McKinley tells FOX31, now is the time to book holiday travel because airports will be even busier in the coming months.

“I wouldn’t wait longer than mid-September,” McKinley said.

The upward trend in air travel means strong job numbers. Sixty-nine million passengers traveled through DIA in 2019 just before the pandemic. That number dipped, but revenge travelers, people just happy

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(CNN) — When their sister Maria died from breast cancer in 2019, Alicia and Esther Tambe were determined to honor her in a way that would truly encapsulate the person she was.

As they began researching, the pair quickly learned that there was a history of breast cancer in their family and that Black women are disproportionately affected by the disease. In fact, Black women have a 41% higher death rate from breast cancer than White women, according to the American Cancer Society.

The more they researched, the more committed they became to finding an avenue to help support Black women living with breast cancer, as well as as breast cancer survivors, while incorporating one of their late sisters’s biggest passions — travel.

In August 2020, they co-founded Fight Through Flightsa non-profit that aims to empower and support the healing of Black women living with breast cancer and those
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VocationPlease join us in offering prayers of thanksgiving for our beneficiant benefactor who made this web site doable. May their love of God, the Church, and vocations be an instance for us all.

The Career Coaches on board are properly trained and use quite a lot of approaches in guiding career choices, options, and possibilities. A lengthy listing of them can be found on the corporate website and as I read through their resumes, I noticed that I acknowledged a number of as very effective and personable in their accomplishments in workforce improvement.

A willingness to do God’s will is built on two convictions. We must believe that God loves us more than we love ourselves and that God wants our happiness more than we want it. In different phrases, we have to consider that God knows more than we do about what will make us really happy. If God …

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