Exclusive: YouGov polling across Europe suggests most countries are sympathetic to protests against overtourism

A third of people in Spain say their local area now has too many international visitors, according to a continent-wide survey that has found most people across Europe are sympathetic to protests against overtourism and back steps to combat it.

The YouGov survey comes after a summer of demonstrations and urgent warnings against the impact of mass tourism from Santorini to the Canary Islands, and measures aimed at reducing it announced from the Cinque Terre to Amsterdam.

The polling in Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Sweden and the UK found Spain was the country that felt most strongly about the phenomenon, with 32% of respondents saying there were now too many foreign travellers in their area.

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar thanked Lebanon’s Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah for his support in the ongoing war with Israel in a letter released Friday by Hezbollah’s media office.

In the letter, dated Monday, Sinwar thanks Nasrallah for the “blessed acts” of Iran-backed groups in their support for Hamas since Oct. 7, when Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducted another 250. Sinwar called the war “one of the most honorable battles for the Palestinian people.”

The death toll in the aftermath of a typhoon in Vietnam climbed to 233 on Friday as rescue workers recovered more bodies from areas hit by landslides and flash floods, state media reported. 

Flood waters from the swollen Red River in the capital, Hanoi, were beginning to recede, but many neighborhoods remained inundated and farther north experts were predicting it could still be days before any relief is in sight. 

Typhoon Yagi made landfall Saturday, starting a week of heavy rains that have triggered flash floods and landslides, particularly in Vietnam’s mountainous north.

Unauthorized migration to European Union countries dropped significantly overall in the first eight months of this year, even as political rhetoric and violence against migrants increased and far-right parties espousing anti-immigration policies made gains at the polls. 

There was, however, a spike in migrant arrivals to the Canary Islands, a Spanish archipelago close to the African coast that is increasingly used as an alternate stepping stone to continental Europe.

Irregular migration dominated the European parliamentary elections in June and influenced recent state elections in eastern Germany, where a far-right party won for the first time since World War II. The German government this week announced it was expanding border controls around its territory following recent extremist attacks.

Lawmakers approved the draft proposal Friday, as the world’s second-largest economy struggles with falling birth rates and an aging workforce.

China said Friday it would raise its retirement age for the first time in decades, as the world’s second-largest economy struggles with falling birth rates and an aging workforce.

The country’s top legislative body approved a draft proposal to gradually implement the changes, state media reported Friday. China's retirement ages are among the lowest in the world and had remained unchanged since they were set in the 1950s.

The statutory retirement age for both men and women will be gradually increased starting Jan. 1 of next year, according to the decision by the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress. Over a period of 15 years, it will be raised from 60 to 63 for men, 55 to 58 for women in white-collar jobs and 50 to 55 for women working in factories.

Despite Chinese protests about the use of the waterway — which it claims jurisdiction over — German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has insisted that the ships are in international waters.

A German warship and an accompanying navy vessel entered the Taiwan Strait on Friday, despite protests from China, which claims sovereignty over Taiwan and asserts influence over the body of water.

"International waters are international waters," said German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius on Friday at a press conference with his Lithuanian counterpart Laurynas Kasciunas.

"It's the shortest route and, given the weather conditions, the safest, so we're going through."

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The use of the strait angers Beijing, but it is officially an international waterway and major trade route through which around half of global container ships pass.

Mexico is poised to amend its constitution this weekend to require all judges to be elected as part of a judicial overhaul championed by the outgoing president but slammed by critics as a blow to the country’s rule of law.

The amendment passed Mexico’s Congress on Wednesday, and by Thursday it already had been ratified by the required majority of the country’s 32 state legislatures. President Andrés Manuel López Obrador said he would sign and publish the constitutional change on Sunday.

Legal experts and international observers have said the move could endanger Mexico’s democracy by stacking courts with judges loyal to the ruling Morena party, which has a strong grip on both Congress and the presidency after big electoral wins in June.

The EU fears its credibility is at stake as it seeks to weigh growing concerns about the crushing of dissent in Tunisia while preserving a controversial migration deal with the north African country, according to a leaked document.

Malaysian police have rescued 402 children and teenagers that they suspect were physically and sexually abused across 20 care homes. 

Warning: This story contains descriptions of sexual and physical violence.

The victims, aged between one to 17, were said to have endured various forms of abuse, with some allegedly forced to perform sexual acts on other children, said Police Inspector-General Razarudin Husain at a press conference.

Police have arrested 171 suspects, including religious teachers and caretakers. 

Alexander Yuk Ching Ma was convicted of passing "a large volume" of classified defense information to Chinese spies in 2001. He later worked for the FBI.

Former CIA Officer Alexander Yuk Ching Ma was sentenced to ten years in prison on Wednesday. The 71-year-old had been convicted in May of spying for China.

The sentence was the result of a plea agreement, the US Justice Department said. The defendant avoided a lengthier sentence by admitting to his role in passing classified information to the Shanghai State Security Bureau (SSSB).

Ma worked for the CIA from 1982 to 1989. He was accused of conspiring with a relative, who had also worked for the agency, to deliver "a large volume" of national defense information to Chinese spies in exchange for $50,000 in 2001.

An Islamist party affiliated with the regional Muslim Brotherhood movement has emerged as the largest block in parliament. They tapped into people's anger over Israel's war against Hamas.

A former model who was a finalist in the Miss Switzerland contest was allegedly murdered and "pureed" in a blender by her husband, officials in Switzerland are reported to have said.

Kristina Joksimovic, 38, was found dead in her home in Binningen, near Basel, Switzerland, in February this year.

According to local news outlet BZ Basel, a man named Thomas, 41, had an appeal for release from custody denied by the Federal Court in Lausanne on Wednesday after he reportedly confessed to killing his wife, with whom he had two children.