BARCELONA – Pink flamingos are the star attraction in one of Europe’s most important wetlands, located on the outskirts of Barcelona, but their tranquility is often punctuated by the roar of jet engines from the nearby airport.
Once, passengers were able to walk from the wetland straight onto the few planes that took off from Barcelona’s airport, but if current plans for a €3.2bn (£2.74bn) expansion go ahead, the airport will become a huge hub catering for up to 70 million passengers a year.
Local authorities hope the expansion will be completed by 2033.
Are Channel crossing numbers down?
The French authorities have become more “effective” at stopping migrants crossing in dangerous small boats across the Channel, the UK Government has said.
The numbers
The figures compared with last year
5%
The increase in the number of small boats intercepted in the last three months compared with last year
The Home Office said, citing French figures, that since April, 61 per cent of small boats have been intercepted
This includes £161m in performance-based targets
Channel crisis
In the past few weeks, three boats were stopped – two of which were at sea.
Numbers falling
Some 15,897 migrants have crossed the Channel, 43 per cent down on the same period last year.
Last month, a record 165 migrants reached the UK in a single boat.
The deal ‘is already having an impact’
“People smugglers should be in no doubt, we’re taking down their operations, seizing their equipment and breaking their business model for good,” said Home Secretary, Shabana Mahmood.
3 min read
British rapper Yung Filly to face retrial on rape charges in Australia
The rapper and YouTuber who appeared on Celebrity Bake Off will face a retrial after a jury could not reach a verdict during trial.
Yung Filly denied all charges
The Colombian-born rapper, whose real name is Andrés Felipe Valencia Barrientos, was charged with raping and assaulting a 20-year-old fan after his show in Perth 2024. He denied all 10 charges and a jury last month found him not guilty of three charges of rape.
5 min read
3 min read
He was accused of raping a fan
Barrientos was accused of having consensual sex with her until he turned violent and didn’t stop when asked. His lawyer said the evidence was full of “inconsistencies, embellishments and outright lies”.
4 min read
Jurors unable to reach verdict
- Last month, a jury found him not guilty on three counts of rape.
- He was cleared of one assault charge and another of strangulation.
- But he was found guilty of two counts of assault. Jurors were unable to make a decision on three counts of sexual penetration without consent.
Could El Niño make next year even hotter?
The naturally occurring phenomenon known as El Niño, which can drive up global temperatures and is brewing in the Pacific, could be the strongest in living memory, the Met Office has warned.
What is El Niño?
It is a climate phenomenon which occurs in the Pacific Ocean every two to seven years.
Normally, trade winds blow east to west across the equator – during and El Niño period, these weaken or reverse.
This pushes up global temperatures as warmth is taken from the ocean into the atmosphere.
El Niño’s impact has already been seen
It has already started to affect weather systems in other parts of the world, with below-average monsoons in India and suppressed hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean. In the UK, El Niño is usually felt later in winter.
A particularly strong El Niño coupled with global warming has left scientists worried that 2027 could be even warmer.
El Niño is strongest in living memory
We should be clear that this is an unprecedented event. I have never seen an El Niño signal this intense in our forecasts.
Professor Adam Scaife, head of
long-range forecasting, the Met Office
Risk of most intense El Niño in 1,000 years
- El Niño is declared when the sea temperature in the tropical eastern Pacific rises 0.5 °C above the long-term average.
- But currently it’s over 2°C and could reach 3°C later this year.
- Some have suggested it could go above 4°C – meaning it would be the strongest El Nino in the last 500-1,000 years.
Next year could be hottest ever
The precise effect El Niño has on global weather can be unpredictable. But Met Office climate scientist Dr Nick Dunstone told the BBC average global temperatures could rise next year. This would make 2027 the hottest year on record, after 2024.
4 min read
Why children’s eyesight is getting worse – and what parents can do about it
More and more children are becoming
short-sighted, but scientists have discovered it can be reversed through behaviour change.
Rates of short-sightedness are rising across the world – and we now know why
- In the UK, short-sightedness is rising at a rate of 0.7 per cent per year.
- This means that by 2050 about four in 10 British children will be short-sighted and need glasses.
- But contrary to old myths, we are not (exactly) becoming more short-sighted because of too much screentime.
Short-sightedness is linked to the outdoors
Large research studies have found a lack of time outside causes short-sightedness. This could be because children are simply not using their long-distance vision as their eyeballs develop.
The other theory scientists are considering is that our eyes need the brighter light that we are exposed to outdoors to develop properly.
How to combat
short-sightedness
- Randomised trials suggest more outdoor time reduced the development of new short-sightedness.
- For children who were already
short-sighted, using eyedrops with atropine every night until age 16 helped reduce the degree of
short-sightedness. Specialised glasses can also help.
Snake believed to be first in the world to benefit from human cancer treatment
A 40kg python at Chester Zoo is believed to have become the first snake in the world to benefit from a cancer treatment normally used on humans.
What you need to know
The 15ft reticulated python, which is named after Jodie Foster, underwent surgery in 2024 to remove a malignant tumour.
However, last year, the growth returned, and vets put her under the knife, removing the tumour and part of her jawbone before administering electrochemotherapy to target any remaining cancerous cells.
2 min read
4 min read
A successful surgery
- Vets conducted a final check this week and found no signs of the cancer returning.
- The tumour had stopped Jodie from eating properly but now her appetite has returned to normal.
Ian Ashpole, veterinary officer at Chester Zoo, said: “A few months ago, we genuinely didn’t know whether she’d survive. Now she’s behaving exactly as we’d hope.”
How beavers kept fields green despite summer of drought
A new scheme to restore a river to its natural state and reintroduce beavers to create wetlands has shown how landscapes can become more resilient to drought, the National Trust has said.
How beavers helped
Twenty five wild beavers now live across the river catchment and have created wetlands and ponds that hold water in the landscape to protect against flooding.
A beaver and wetland project officer, a ranger and local volunteers monitor the beavers and provide information to those who have concerns about their impact.
6 min read
2 min read
Local farmers have benefited from resilient wetland grazing habitats, with foliage, shade and water helping livestock to cope in the heat.
Wildlife such as water voles, trout and grass snakes are thriving and new species including green sandpiper, common crane and white stork have appeared.
The UK’s longest river could soon run dry. Why this could have been avoided
The River Severn and the reservoir feeding it are running low after this summer’s hot weather, posing a risk to wildlife.
World’s oldest person celebrates 117th birthday
Ethel Caterham, is celebrating her 117th birthday, after a year of “many firsts” in which she held hands with the King and stroked a llama.
A meeting with the King
Caterham became the oldest living person in the world after the death of Brazilian nun Sister Inah Canabarro Lucas in April 2025.
- She was visited by King Charles in September last year and during the meeting, she recollected his 1969 investiture as the Prince of Wales, saying: “All the girls were in love with you and wanted to marry you.”
A wonderful life
Caterham was born on 21 August, 1909 in Shipton Bellinger, Hampshire and is the last surviving subject of Edward VII, who died in May 1910.
In 1927, she travelled to India, working as an au pair to a military family for around three years.
She met her husband Norman, a lieutenant colonel in the British army, in 1931 and later raised two daughters, both of whom have since died.
5 min read
6 min read
How to be more grateful for daily life in five easy steps
The world feels like a difficult place at the moment, and it can feel very hard sometimes to find things to be thankful for; when we are overwhelmed, we have less capacity to notice and reflect on the good things. Yet, ironically, proactively cultivating gratitude is one of the things that can actually help us feel less stressed.
NHS GP dR RADHA
The science
Research has shown that feeling or expressing thanks can actually alter our brain.
- The balance of neurotransmitters change; more serotonin and dopamine (feel good chemicals) are produced.
- This can be long lasting if we make gratitude a regular habit.
- We also get a decrease in our cortisol (stress hormone) levels which helps lower anxiety.
- Being grateful can strengthen the nerve pathways which triggers positive emotion.
How can we build gratitude?
Change your words
Instead of seeing something as a problem, try to see the opportunities within it.
Our brains are very receptive and what we read or write can alter our emotional system.
Express it
This will not only make you feel good, but you will also get a positive response from others.
How can we build gratitude?
Notice more
Throughout your day, try to notice all the things that are going well; has someone opened a door for you, or smiled?
The basics
By being thankful for the small things every day, we are far more likely to be and stay healthy so that we can enjoy them.
What to do
Gratitude can lead to feelings of optimism, lower our blood pressure, and improve sleep quality.
- Write down what potential good aspects there are to the things you don’t feel like doing, or even what could be worse about it.
- Spend a few minutes writing down three things that you are looking forward to that day, or the good things that have happened to you that day.
- Say thank you to yourself for the things you have achieved, or managed to get through and changed that day.
The plans fly in the face of Barcelona’s stated plans to reduce visitor numbers amid growing anger from residents, who are planning a mass demonstration on 20 September involving thousands descending on the Passeig de Gràcia train station in the most exclusive shopping street in the city.
Residents have staged a series of major protests against mass tourism in recent years, involving water pistols, confrontations with British tourists and placards with messages like “Tourists Go Home” and “Enough! Let’s put the limits on tourism!”
Their protests have been echoed across various cities in Spain, notably Malaga, Madrid and Mallorca, where locals say they are being pushed out by overtourism.
This summer saw protests in Mallorca where eight demonstrators were injured after police charged and fired rubber bullets, despite a peaceful protest by an estimated 25,000 people. Another large demonstration took place in Malaga, where around 4,500 demonstrated against rising house prices caused by overtourism.
“About 80 per cent of the people who come to Barcelona are tourists, so if they end up expanding the airport, it will bring another 10 or 11 million tourists,” says Joan Manel of Zeroport, a group which opposes the expansion of the airport as well as a new cruise terminal in the city. “This will overwhelm even more a city which is already at its limit.”
Daniel Pardo, who took part in demonstrations last year in which protesters in Barcelona drenched tourists with water pistols and taped holidaymakers inside a hotel, said: “The demonstration against this expansion is another part of this fight.”
“The fight against the expansion of the airport is a fight over the long term,” he added.
Barcelona received 16 million visitors in 2025, a 2.9 per cent increase compared to 2024. José Antonio Donaire, Barcelona City Council’s new commissioner for sustainable tourism, recently said the city’s strategy was “not one tourist more”.
“We don’t want to grow more,” he told last month. “We want the tourists that the city already has. There were 15.7 million tourists in the city in 2025 – that’s the threshold. Sixteen is the maximum.”
Donaire said Barcelona was aiming to attract a better quality of residential life in areas which have been hit by tourism, where house prices have risen sharply.
The city has taken some measures against overtourism. Mayor Jaume Collboni has pledged to ban all tourist flats from the city by 2028, despite opposition from business lobbies. He also wants to speed up plans to increase a tourist tax for transit cruise passengers, doubling the charge from €4 to €8 per night.
However, the airport plans have raised major concerns from residents, who already fear being priced out of their city.
Last year, a record 57.5 million people travelled through Barcelona Airport. If the expansion goes ahead, the city would become one of the busiest airport hubs in the world, behind only the likes of Dubai, Heathrow and Singapore airports.
The Bank of Spain estimates the country is short about 700,000 homes, and the use of properties as tourist apartments has depleted the existing stock.
Average property prices in Barcelona have risen by 62 per cent over the past decade, according to the city council, driven by high foreign demand and a lack of new housing. Meanwhile, in areas popular with tourists, buses and underground trains are often overcrowded with tourists during summer months.
For campaigners, the expansion of the airport seems to contradict the objective of containing overtourism.
A British citizen who has lived near the airport for 17 years, and flies regularly for business, questioned the reasons for the expansion. “Barcelona has policies to manage tourism,” the man, who asked not to be named, said. “It is restricting tourist accommodation, reducing the number of tourist apartments and taking other measures to change the balance between tourism and the needs of residents.
“Against that background, a major expansion of the airport raises questions over what Barcelona and Catalonia actually want the airport to deliver.”
Salvador Illa, the Catalan regional president, said the plans were critical for Barcelona to become a major hub for intercontinental connections, offering more flights from Asia and the Americas to attract talent and investment.
“I honestly believe that the project is technically the best and most balanced and I am satisfied with the ambition of the measures and the environmental trade-offs associated” with it, Illa said, when the plans were unveiled last year.
The project, which will be paid for by Spanish state-run airport operator Aena, will also be a test case for the EU, which must decide if it chooses to priorities an environmentally protected area.
The plans extend one of the airport’s runways, affecting 27 hectares of the wetland which is protected by the EU’s Natura 2000 programme. In return, about 250 hectares of the surrounding area would be turned into green areas.
The Catalan government said it was confident the expansion would be given the green light by Brussels. Authorities hope to start construction by 2030.
But Manel said plans to expand the airport would damage the protected wetlands and strain the city’s ability to cope with more tourists. He added that the timing of their protests was important, as politicians may be more fearful of popular anger ahead of general and municipal elections next year.
“We are staging this demonstration before an election year, when maybe we can get people to take part and stop this plan,” he said. “We hope the politicians will see how people from all backgrounds are against this and change the plans.”
If not, the city could follow the fate of places like Venice, where local residents have been all but driven out of the centre.