Haris Doukas warns that with 700,000 residents and 8 million tourists, people are being pushed out of their neighbourhoods

In the heart of ancient Athens, on narrow streets and around archaeological sites, visitor groups appear to be everywhere, snaking their way behind tour guides.

At other times, officials would have welcomed such scenes. But for Haris Doukas, the socialist mayor who is determined to reclaim the capital’s congested city centre for its citizens, the start of the tourist season leaves much of its historic heart at risk of “over-saturation.” Entire neighbourhoods, he believes, are in danger of losing their authenticity because of uncontrolled tourist development.

They say that sinners who pray are even. Everything points to this being the plan for many in Madrid on the weekend of June 6 and 7. On the one hand, they’ll unleash their party side at one of the 10 concerts Bad Bunny will be performing in the capital; on the other, they’ll find time for prayer and contrition, taking advantage of Pope Leo XIV’s visit, scheduled for the same dates. The coincidences are striking: the pontiff’s first major public event, near Real Madrid’s Santiago Bernabéu stadium, will happen on the same day and in the same city as one of the Puerto Rican artist’s concerts, which will be held at the Metropolitano stadium, home to Atlético Madrid. And hotels are already starting to rake in the cash, even though there are still two and a half months to go before the events.

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Valérie Belin, 62, maintains that, “throughout history, beauty has functioned as a Holy Grail.” That is, as an ideal that’s eternally pursued. It fascinates because it’s an enigma that no one has been able to fully decipher.

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The year 1807, when the British Parliament outlawed the slave trade within the Empire, was not the end of the transatlantic slave trade or the exploitation of some 12.5 million Africans. Rather, it marked the beginning of another little-known chapter in the hell of forced labor and the legal maneuvers endured by the more than 200,000 people rescued — according to the most conservative estimates — by the Royal Navy or other naval patrols between 1807 and 1880 before finally gaining their freedom.

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