These tourist hot spots are introducing entry fees and price hikes for 2024
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In travel news this week: Vacation love stories that began and ended in Paris or London, aviation misadventures in Thailand and China, plus a look at why prices are rising as tourist numbers increase.

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More and more tourist hot spots are introducing visitor caps and entry fees to prevent overcrowding - and, whaddya know, it gives their coffers a little boost, too.

There’s a new $13 charge for climbing Japan’s famous (and congested) Mount Fuji, which follows Japan’s 70% price hike for tourist rail passes. The weak yen, however, still makes this a good time for international visitors to make that bucket-list trip.

If you want to see the ornate – and exceedingly popular – Plaza de Espana square in Seville, Spain, expect to soon pony up an entry free. The Louvre art museum in Paris, home to the Mona Lisa, has raised ticket prices by almost a third, ahead of the Paris Olympics this summer.

It’s not just Europe and Asia, either. Walt Disney World Resort in Florida has already introduced higher park ticket prices for next year. Some of the lowest single-day, single-park ticket prices have gone up by $10 for 2025.

Love and loss in London and Paris
Way back in 1984, an Italian teenager arranged a date with a guy she met on a plane to London – but he was a no-show when she waited in Trafalgar Square the next day. Her eyes then fell on an American boy sitting between the bronze lions while reading “Romeo and Juliet.” The stars aligned - he was her future husband.

It was a different story for a Londoner in 2011 who made her first trip to Paris with her boyfriend. Her heart was broken under the Eiffel Tower, but then a decade later, she moved on from that – it was time to write her own ending.

Inter Milan player Francesco Acerbi leaves Italy squad after allegations he used racist language
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Inter Milan defender Francesco Acerbi has left the Italian national squad ahead of its two upcoming friendlies after he was accused of using racially charged language towards Napoli player Juan Jesus during a game on Sunday.

The alleged incident occurred during the second half of Inter Milan’s 1-1 draw with Napoli in Serie A, Italy’s top-flight league. Video footage shows Brazilian Jesus complaining to the referee and pointing at someone, before the official calls Acerbi over.

In an Instagram post Monday, Jesus accused his opponent of calling him “Black” in a derogatory fashion, but Acerbi has since denied using any racist language. The Inter Milan defender was not punished during the game.

Acerbi, who has played 34 times for Italy, had initially arrived at the national team’s training camp in Rome on Monday before the squad flew to the US on Tuesday, where it’s set to face Venezuela and Ecuador.

A statement from the Italian Football Federation (FIGC) said that Acerbi had spoken to national team manager Luciano Spalletti and his teammates to explain his version of events, and while the defender argued there was no “defamatory, denigrating or racist intent on his part,” it was agreed he should be left out of the squad “in order to let things settle for the national team and the player himself.”

The defender was replaced by Gianluca Mancini in Italy’s squad.

The essentials list: Tennis champ Coco Gauff shares her 7 everyday essentials
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After Coco Gauff won her first U.S. Open in September, plenty of sports commentators understandably credited her smashing forehand, big serve and amazing stamina. It turns out the 19-year-old also had a secret weapon in her arsenal.

“Before I walk on court for a match, I’m always listening to music,” Gauff says. “Usually something that pumps me up!” Her favorite song? Jaden Smith’s “Icon.”

As for the headphones playing her music? Ahead of the 2023 French Open in May, Gauff announced that she had partnered with audio equipment company Bose. “It was such an easy decision for me,” she says. “I listen to music every day, but especially in competition. I always have my headphones on because it puts me in the zone and allows me to focus.”
When she’s not in must-win playing mode, Gauff chills like most other 19-year-olds. She says she spends her off days going to the movies and watching Netflix. She also likes to explore the cities she travels to for tournaments and enjoys “trying the local cuisine.” And during her time back home in Delray Beach, Florida, she plays super-fan. “I love going to my brothers’ sporting events,” she says. “My youngest brother plays football, and my middle brother plays baseball.”

But overall, Gauff adds, “I give my best every day.”

The essentials list: Tennis champ Coco Gauff shares her 7 everyday essentials
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After Coco Gauff won her first U.S. Open in September, plenty of sports commentators understandably credited her smashing forehand, big serve and amazing stamina. It turns out the 19-year-old also had a secret weapon in her arsenal.

“Before I walk on court for a match, I’m always listening to music,” Gauff says. “Usually something that pumps me up!” Her favorite song? Jaden Smith’s “Icon.”

As for the headphones playing her music? Ahead of the 2023 French Open in May, Gauff announced that she had partnered with audio equipment company Bose. “It was such an easy decision for me,” she says. “I listen to music every day, but especially in competition. I always have my headphones on because it puts me in the zone and allows me to focus.”
When she’s not in must-win playing mode, Gauff chills like most other 19-year-olds. She says she spends her off days going to the movies and watching Netflix. She also likes to explore the cities she travels to for tournaments and enjoys “trying the local cuisine.” And during her time back home in Delray Beach, Florida, she plays super-fan. “I love going to my brothers’ sporting events,” she says. “My youngest brother plays football, and my middle brother plays baseball.”

But overall, Gauff adds, “I give my best every day.”

On betting’s biggest day, a new scandal puts the sports world on edge
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As millions of Americans raced to fill out brackets and place wagers on teenage basketball players Thursday, another scandal amplified calls for the country’s booming sports-betting industry to be restrained - and reformed.

The Los Angeles Dodgers fired Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter Wednesday night, after the translator told ESPN that Ohtani paid off the interpreter’s offshore gambling debts and as Ohtani’s lawyer told another story, accusing the translator of stealing roughly $4.5 million.

Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.

While fans sorted through the ramifications and Ohtani played on in the Dodgers’ season-opening series in Seoul, experts and amateurs alike joined office pools and placed wagers on the first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the country’s closest thing to an official sports betting holiday.

Players, leagues and fans have been reckoning with the still-unfolding effects of sports gambling since a Supreme Court ruling handed the question of legalization to states in 2018. Each constituency may be arriving at the realization those impacts have mushroomed beyond anyone’s control.

“The amount of money is so enormous that it is almost impossible to attack the problem,” former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent said in a phone interview Thursday. “Theoretically, there’s nothing wrong with an adult who has control of his brain and control of his financial situation betting on sports. The problem is, the sport itself gets so caught up in the amount of money that I don’t know how a professional sport or the NCAA or anybody - how do you draw up a code of conduct for an individual? What’s the line? When do we start admitting this is a really big problem?”

Former Brazilian soccer player Robinho arrested after failed appeal
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Former Brazilian footballer Robson de Souza – also known as Robinho – was arrested by Federal Police on Thursday in Santos, in the Brazilian state of Sao Paulo, his lawyer told CNN affiliate CNN Brasil, as police cars were seen leaving his residence in Santos.

The 40-year-old former AC Milan and Brazil striker faces nine years in prison after being convicted in Italy for gang raping a woman with five other men in 2013 after plying her with alcohol in a Milan nightclub.

Robinho’s arrest comes as Brazil’s Supreme Court (STF) denied his appeal on Thursday to remain out of custody while all judicial appeals against his conviction are exhausted and ordered for the “immediate” start of his prison sentence, according to a statement from the STF.
The footballer’s defense team had appealed to Brazilian authorities to allow Robinho to serve his jail time in Italy, rather than Brazil and to remain free while all appeal proceedings are ongoing, according to the STF decision.

Robinho has always denied the charges.

Following Thursday’s arrest Robinho is expected to face a custody hearing on Friday before being sent to a detention facility to being his prison sentence according to CNN Brasil.

Emily Ratajkowski’s latest flex? Divorce rings
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Diamonds are forever – especially for Emily Ratajkowski, who has chosen to turn her engagement ring into something entirely new following her split from her film producer husband, Sebastian Bear-McClard.

With the help of Alison Chemla, creative director of jewelry brand Alison Lou, Ratajkowski worked to remake her old engagement ring, which featured a pear-shaped and a princess-cut diamond, into two separate rings.
“The rings represent my own personal evolution,” the model told Vogue. “I don’t think a woman should be stripped of her diamonds just because she’s losing a man.”

Now, the pear-shaped diamond sits on Ratajkowski’s pinkie finger, while the princess cut has been flanked by more trapezoid stones and turned into a new sparkler.

Ratajkowski went on to explain that she got the idea after reading Stephanie Danler’s story “The Unravelers” in The Paris Review.

Emily Ratajkowski’s latest flex? Divorce rings
fixedfloat com

Diamonds are forever – especially for Emily Ratajkowski, who has chosen to turn her engagement ring into something entirely new following her split from her film producer husband, Sebastian Bear-McClard.

With the help of Alison Chemla, creative director of jewelry brand Alison Lou, Ratajkowski worked to remake her old engagement ring, which featured a pear-shaped and a princess-cut diamond, into two separate rings.
“The rings represent my own personal evolution,” the model told Vogue. “I don’t think a woman should be stripped of her diamonds just because she’s losing a man.”

Now, the pear-shaped diamond sits on Ratajkowski’s pinkie finger, while the princess cut has been flanked by more trapezoid stones and turned into a new sparkler.

Ratajkowski went on to explain that she got the idea after reading Stephanie Danler’s story “The Unravelers” in The Paris Review.

On betting’s biggest day, a new scandal puts the sports world on edge
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As millions of Americans raced to fill out brackets and place wagers on teenage basketball players Thursday, another scandal amplified calls for the country’s booming sports-betting industry to be restrained - and reformed.

The Los Angeles Dodgers fired Shohei Ohtani’s interpreter Wednesday night, after the translator told ESPN that Ohtani paid off the interpreter’s offshore gambling debts and as Ohtani’s lawyer told another story, accusing the translator of stealing roughly $4.5 million.

Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post.

While fans sorted through the ramifications and Ohtani played on in the Dodgers’ season-opening series in Seoul, experts and amateurs alike joined office pools and placed wagers on the first round of the NCAA men’s basketball tournament, the country’s closest thing to an official sports betting holiday.

Players, leagues and fans have been reckoning with the still-unfolding effects of sports gambling since a Supreme Court ruling handed the question of legalization to states in 2018. Each constituency may be arriving at the realization those impacts have mushroomed beyond anyone’s control.

“The amount of money is so enormous that it is almost impossible to attack the problem,” former MLB commissioner Fay Vincent said in a phone interview Thursday. “Theoretically, there’s nothing wrong with an adult who has control of his brain and control of his financial situation betting on sports. The problem is, the sport itself gets so caught up in the amount of money that I don’t know how a professional sport or the NCAA or anybody - how do you draw up a code of conduct for an individual? What’s the line? When do we start admitting this is a really big problem?”

Nike inflicts huge home defeat on Adidas by nabbing German soccer team kit deal
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Things have gone from bad to worse for Adidas. After a costly break-up with US rapper Ye that helped push the German sportswear giant into a rare loss last year, it’s now suffered a bruising defeat on home turf.

The German Football Association (DFB) announced Thursday that the company’s arch rival Nike (NKE) will be the official kit supplier for national soccer teams from 2027 until 2?034. The decision brings to an abrupt end more than seven decades of the sport’s partnership with Adidas that spanned four World Cup wins for the men’s team.

In a statement, DFB President Bernd Neuendorf said German football owed “a great deal” to the partnership with Adidas and that the association was “fully committed” to achieving further joint success through the end of 2026, when their contract expires.
The DFB said Nike had made “by far the best financial offer” and impressed with its vision for developing women’s football, and amateur and grassroots sport in Germany. It did not say how much the new deal was worth.

An Adidas spokesperson said in a statement that “we were informed by the DFB yesterday that the federation will have a new supplier from 2027 onwards.”

Germany will be the host for the Euro 2024 men’s championship, taking place this June and July. Adidas will supply the kits for seven national teams, including the German, Italian and Spanish teams.

In just under three years’ time, however, fans will see Nike’s trademark ticks, not the three stripes of Adidas, on the shirts of Germany’s national teams. German economy minister Robert Habeck reportedly told local news agency DPA Friday that he could “hardly imagine” the prospect.

The partnership between Adidas and German football was a “piece of German identity,” he was reported as saying. “I would have liked a bit more local patriotism.”

Adidas was founded in 1949 in Herzogenaurach, a small town outside Nuremberg in south-east Germany, the same year it registered its now-iconic three-stripe logo.

DFB’s announcement comes at a bad time for Adidas, which last week posted a net loss of €58 million ($63 million) in its core business for 2023, citing a slowdown in sales of its Yeezy-branded clothing and sneakers, and a large tax burden.