More people are using generative artificial intelligence to make travel plans for their summer vacation and letting their children use the technology when doing their homework during summer holidays. Six out of 10 people who responded to a survey on this year's summer holidays said they are using generative artificial intelligence to make travel plans. The survey, conducted by Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance on 1,120 people in their 20s to 50s in June, showed that 61.2% of those planning to travel in Japan or abroad refer to generative AI to make travel itineraries, as well as obtain information on local food and transportation. "The main tool people use for planning trips and doing research when they get there is shifting from travel guidebooks to generative AI," the firm said. Asked how they plan to spend their summer holidays, 58.4% said they are going out, down by 6.3 percentage points from last year. The rate of those traveling in Japan was 57.6%, up by 1 percentage point, while the ratio of those traveling overseas halved from 13.5% last year to 6.4%.

Leaked footage shows astonishing first look INSIDE Taylor Swift and Travis Kelce's wedding: See the bride's aisle, altar and couple's personal touches as A-listers vanish through MSG castle's'magic doors' Taylor Swift's '40-page prenup': How $2BILLION in assets divide up... and the one major concession Travis is predicted to have written in as special clause America's most expensive home gets jaw-dropping $63MILLION price cut... but it will still cost you $125m Huge crowds gather in Tehran for funeral of slain Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei as millions call for'revenge' against the US Sorry, but Taylor Swift's wedding was a tacky, childish, narcissistic spectacle of utter trash... now we all know what comes next: MAUREEN CALLAHAN Ryan Reynolds shuns Taylor Swift wedding controversy as he shares support for Canada - amid wife Blake Lively's FURY over snub from former pal's nuptials to Travis Kelce Lena Dunham leaves Taylor Swift wedding guests GASPING with shockingly rude dinner ...

'Animals are traumatised too': Pet rescuers under fire in Ukraine On a morning in February, animal shelter staff were getting changed for their shift when a Russian drone slammed into the centre of their compound in the frontline Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia. The steel door at the entrance probably saved their lives. More than a dozen animals sheltering at Give a Paw, Friend were not so lucky. It was terrifying, to put it mildly, says the group's head Iryna Didur. Residents rushed to help clean up the rubble and catch the animals that had escaped in terror.

The world's most family-friendly landmarks revealed - with six UK spots making the top 50 The UK's best staycations revealed by Daily Mail Travel - from a Gara Rock beach proposal to an £80-a-night mansion retreat This sun-drenched European coast offers great value - and it's just a two-hour flight away Don't get caught out by Ryanair's small bag restrictions - I've tested the carry-on suitcases and underseat bags that beat the strict requirements Why heading to Salcombe, one of Britain's most expensive seaside towns, in the shoulder season is an off-peak treat - and what to do there Tired of fun! Middle class families who turn their noses up at Butlin's are missing out Luxury hotel owner in Cornwall offers to foot British tourists' petrol bills to ease financial pain of staycation With flights disrupted amid Iran war, these are Europe's easiest countries to navigate by train - and how it compares to flying for price and time How to retire to the seaside for as little as £90,000 - and Britain's best hidden beach home spots New business class seats with IMAX-style wrap-around screens revealed - making passengers feel like they're in the cinema How the cost of your staycation REALLY compares with a'cheap' holiday abroad - when you factor in everything from food to fuel Why the Lake District shouldn't introduce tourism tax, says Cumbria tourism boss How Marseille became Europe's Capital of Cool - with 20 degree sunshine, sea views and amazing seafood The world's best food markets revealed - and a UK spot comes in second place READ MORE: The best hotels in the UK for 2026 revealed - does YOUR favourite make the list? Ready to hit the mute button on reality? Deep in the Pembrokeshire countryside lies a cosmic retreat that feels almost light years away from Earth. The awe-inspiring Spodnic UFO is one of three standout stays at Melin Mabes, a four-acre glamping site owned and ran by Martin Johnson and his wife, CarolAnne. 'It looks like it's just landed from outer space and aliens could come out,' Martin notes as he showcases his brainchild during the first episode of Channel's World's Most Secret Hotels.

Things to Do in L.A. Canadian snowbirds are still unhappy with Trump. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Palm Springs relies heavily on Canadian tourists, who are declining to travel to the U.S. or shortening their stays because of Trump. The number of Canadian visitors to California plummeted more than 18% in 2025 compared with the year prior.

China builds regulatory framework for low-altitude economy as AutoFlight unveils Matrix flying car with passenger flights planned by 2026. Officials expect baseline rules by 2027.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) conferences are essential for advancing research, sharing knowledge, and fostering academic community. However, their rapid expansion has rendered the centralized conference model increasingly unsustainable. This paper offers a data-driven diagnosis of a structural crisis that threatens the foundational goals of scientific dissemination, equity, and community well-being. We identify four key areas of strain: (1) scientifically, with per-author publication rates more than doubling over the past decade to over 4.5 papers annually; (2) environmentally, with the carbon footprint of a single conference exceeding the daily emissions of its host city; (3) psychologically, with 71% of online community discourse reflecting negative sentiment and 35% referencing mental health concerns; and (4) logistically, with attendance at top conferences such as NeurIPS 2024 beginning to outpace venue capacity. These pressures point to a system that is misaligned with its core mission. In response, we propose the Community-Federated Conference (CFC) model, which separates peer review, presentation, and networking into globally coordinated but locally organized components, offering a more sustainable, inclusive, and resilient path forward for AI research.

Environment Animals Wildlife Fish Self-piloting submarine set to begin historic mission to circle Earth's oceans Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. An autonomous submersible named Redwing is heading out on a truly historic voyage. If successful, it will achieve the first around-the-world ocean trip made by an unpiloted underwater vehicle . Marine engineering company Teledyne Marine and researchers at Rutgers University in New Jersey are planning to launch the nearly nine-foot-long, specially outfitted Slocum Sentinel Glider on October 11 from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution off the coast of Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts. A livestream of the launch will be broadcast here, beginning at about 8:15 a.m. EDT on Saturday October 11.

Robots manipulating in changing environments must act on percepts that are late, noisy, or stale. We present U-LAG, a mid-execution goal-retargeting layer that leaves the low-level controller unchanged while re-aiming task goals (pre-contact, contact, post) as new observations arrive. Unlike motion retargeting or generic visual servoing, U-LAG treats in-flight goal re-aiming as a first-class, pluggable module between perception and control. Our main technical contribution is UAR-PF, an uncertainty-aware retargeter that maintains a distribution over object pose under sensing lag and selects goals that maximize expected progress. We instantiate a reproducible Shift x Lag stress test in PyBullet/PandaGym for pick, push, stacking, and peg insertion, where the object undergoes abrupt in-plane shifts while synthetic perception lag is injected during approach. Across 0-10 cm shifts and 0-400 ms lags, UAR-PF and ICP degrade gracefully relative to a no-retarget baseline, achieving higher success with modest end-effector travel and fewer aborts; simple operational safeguards further improve stability. Contributions: (1) UAR-PF for lag-adaptive, uncertainty-aware goal retargeting; (2) a pluggable retargeting interface; and (3) a reproducible Shift x Lag benchmark with evaluation on pick, push, stacking, and peg insertion.

We consider the problem of delivering multiple packages from a single pickup depot to distinct goal locations using a homogeneous fleet of robots with limited carrying capacity. We propose VCST-RCP, a Voronoi-Constrained Steiner Tree Relay Coordination Planning framework that constructs sparse relay trunks using Steiner tree optimization and then synthesizes robot-level pickup, relay, and delivery schedules. This framework reframes relays from incidental byproducts into central elements of coordination, offering a contrast with traditional delivery methods that rely on direct source-to-destination transport. Extensive experiments show consistent improvements of up to 34% compared to conventional baselines, underscoring the benefits of incorporating relays into the delivery process. These improvements translate directly to enhanced energy efficiency in multi-robot delivery under capacity constraints, providing a scalable framework for real-world logistics.