Tami Manis is officially all business at the front and party in the back after her mullet, measuring 5 feet 8 inches (nearly 173 centimeters), was confirmed as the longest female one in the world.

The 58-year-old last cut the back of her hair on February 9 1990, according to Guinness World Records.

“A lot of people just notice it when I turn around, so most of the time it’s like they don’t realize how long my hair is until they look at the backside,” Manis said in a video posted by Guinness World Records on Thursday.

“It was the eighties and everybody had a rat tail,” she said, adding that she was first inspired to grow a mullet after watching Til Tuesday’s music video “Voices Carry.”

“The girl had a rat tail and I really wanted one of those,” said Manis.

After initially cutting off her mullet in November 1989, the Tennessee resident immediately regretted it, deciding to grow it out again the following year. Since then, she’s never looked back.

Normally, Manis keeps her mullet braided and when riding her motorbike, she just “tucks the tail” into her pocket.

A friend braids Manis’ hair for her once a week, and the mullet remains like that until she washes it again and dries it with paper towels “because otherwise it would stay wet most of the time,” she said.

Mullets, though normally associated with the 1980s, have a history dating back centuries – even the Greek poet Homer, writing in the “The Iliad” in the 8th century BC, references spearmen with “forelocks cropped, hair grown long at the backs.”

For Manis, it has allowed people to recognize her even from more than 20 years ago, and provided a topic of conversation among her friends and family.

Last year, she placed second in the “Femullet” division of the 2022 US Mullet Championships and won the accompanying $300 prize, an experience that encouraged her to apply for the Guinness World Record.

After a long process, including filming her hair to show its length, Manis received a package on her front porch informing her of the official record.

“When I opened it, I thought, ‘this is amazing,’” she said.

Abad remembers rockets and barrel bombs tumbling over his hometown of Aleppo, a sprawling city in northwestern Syria that became the epicenter of a long-running civil war.

“We came to Sudan, we never dreamed we’d be here. It’s the only country that took us in, in the end,” he said.

Abad is one of more than 14 million Syrians who fled their homes after a brutal crackdown by Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on pro-democracy protesters led to a civil war.

The conflict set off a humanitarian crisis, with Syrian refugees seeking asylum in more than 130 countries, many of them – approximately 5.5 million – living in neighboring nations, according to the UN’s refugee agency (UNHCR).

Over 93,000 Syrians settled in Sudan, the third largest group of refugees in the country after South Sudanese and Eritrean, according to the UNHCR. Syrians did not require entry permits until December 2020, when the Sudanese interior ministry imposed visa requirements on them as part of a crackdown on refugees.

After a conflict broke out between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April, many Syrians found themselves displaced again.

“We were living in safety, and woke up to the sound of weapons and bombs. It brought back memories of Syria,” Abad reflected.

“Sudan will be divided in the same way that Syria is divided today. The Sudanese people will suffer in the same way that the Syrian people did.”

‘An Arab disaster’

From grilling meat at outdoor picnics to listening to music late into the evening, Abad describes Aleppo before the war as a colorful hub rich with nightlife.

“I was a happy man living a happy life in Aleppo. What a beautiful place it was … people were full of life.”

But he says his life changed when Syrian rebels took up arms against government forces, seeking to topple the brutal Assad regime.

“It wasn’t an Arab Spring. I don’t call it an Arab Spring. I call it Arab darkness, Arab Autumn. Because it didn’t bring anything good with it. If it were a spring we would’ve seen the fruits of a revolution. This is an Arab disaster,” Abad said.

“Syria was burned down to the ground. We left after our homes were destroyed, after our relatives (were) killed, after our lives (were) completely destroyed.”

The UN human rights office, in a report published last year, estimated that 306,887 civilians were killed between March 2011 and March 2021 in Syria. The figure represents at least 83 civilian deaths, including nine women and 18 children, every day for 10 years. As many as 6.8 million people have been internally displaced by the war, two thirds of whom are women and children, the UNHCR said.

Abad escaped Syria in 2011 and found refuge in Sudan, where he was later joined by his eldest daughter and his second wife. The family rebuilt their life together in the bustling capital of Khartoum, where Abad said he continued to find employment as a construction worker, earning enough money to buy a house.

“I was leading a very happy life. We Syrians bring with us our culture. And I saw that in Sudan. We brought with us our manufacturing skills, our cuisine, our heritage. I’m really proud of that,” Abad said.

“All that I worked for in the past 13 years in Sudan, though, is now gone because of what’s happening in the country. We left with only what we had in our pockets.”

‘Adrenaline rush’

Uzair said his dream of practicing medicine faded in April, when he was uprooted from his apartment in the Sudanese capital after the violence broke out.

At the end of April, Uzair says he and about 10 of his university friends left Khartoum to make the perilous 500-mile journey to Port Sudan – a coastal city where thousands of refugees coalesced in the hopes of boarding a ship to a safe neighboring country.

They gathered enough money to subsidize a steep increase in bus fares, Uzair said, adding that operators raised their fees more than tenfold, from about $20 to $250 per ticket.

During their 13-hour journey, he said he saw abandoned cars on the streets, and encountered militias interrogating Sudanese passengers, rifling through their luggage and searching their clothes.

Humanitarian groups have warned that the lack of safe evacuation corridors means civilians are likely to get caught in the crossfire of the conflict. More than 4,000 people have been killed in Sudan since April, including 28 aid workers and 435 children, according to tentative figures from the UN’s human rights agency published in August. It said the actual numbers are likely to be much higher because many of those who have died have not been collected, identified or buried.

The sights and sounds of war reminded Uzair of his final days in Syria, he said. In 2012, he, his parents and three siblings fled after they heard stories of neighbors being killed and relatives’ houses getting destroyed, amid heavy clashes in his hometown.

“People were afraid of getting killed and getting bombed,” he reflected. “Anyone could just put a bullet in your head, and it’d be done.

“We were nothing [to] them.”

At the time, he said his family took an indirect route to the capital of Damascus in an attempt to avoid the fighting and flew to the United Arab Emirates. Uzair said he was able to finish his high school education in the UAE and migrated to Sudan in 2016 to start a medical degree.

More than a decade since he left Syria as a teenager, Uzair said he is still traumatized by the sound of military airplanes and helicopters circling the skies.

“After I moved from Syria, all of these things have gotten more and more and more severe … this feeling inside my body, this adrenaline rush, just scared me,” he added.

“It was a terrible experience down there, either in Khartoum or Syria.”

Life in Port Sudan

Sitting on the edge of the Red Sea, Port Sudan, once a thriving commercial hub, has been transformed into a makeshift refugee camp for people desperately trying to flee.

When Uzair reached the city at the end of April, he said he was immediately plunged into the chaotic and harsh living conditions of the quayside, where his friends slept on the ground and used blankets to shade themselves from the sun.

In May, he decided to put his medical knowledge into practice and volunteer with the Sudanese Red Crescent, the International Committee of the Red Cross’ primary partner on the ground in Sudan, to help other refugees who needed treatment after escaping Khartoum.

Some patients had sustained bullet injuries, Uzair said. But the most common medical issues were infections or allergic reactions influenced by the hot and humid weather conditions, a lack of access to safe drinking water, no ventilation and confined living spaces.

He said drug shortages meant about four of his patients died, because they could not access medication to combat pre-existing health conditions that had been worsened by rashes. “It was very sad, really very sad.”

By the end of June, Uzair said he had treated up to 1,300 patients.

At least 25 million people require “life-saving” assistance in Sudan, according to the UN, as an overwhelmed healthcare system grapples with a lack of safe aid routes, power shortages, and hospitals damaged in the fighting.

Abad, the retired contractor, also fled to Port Sudan, where he said many are “living in disastrous conditions.”

“It’s really bad, I cannot stress enough how terrible it is,” he added.

“I look at all these young men around me, and I feel so sorry that they have to go through this when they’re at the beginning of their lives. It makes me so sad.”

‘No way out’

Men aged over 18 are condemned to military conscription, while dissidents face abuse in the country’s notorious torture prisons.

Shadi, a trained carpenter from the western city of Homs, was aged 15 when the violence boiled over in Syria. He said he remained in the country “for nearly four or five years of war.”

He eventually finished his carpentry studies and was faced with mandatory military conscription, which at the time had no set service period due to the ongoing war.

After his father died from a heart attack, he was the only surviving relative supporting his mother and two older siblings. Military pay was low, and so he escaped in 2017 to search for work in Sudan.

He has not been back to his birth country since. After settling in Khartoum, Shadi fled to Port Sudan in April when the conflict started – almost exactly six years after he first stepped foot in Sudan in search of stability.

“If I go back to Syria, I can stay for three months. But if I stay longer, I have to go to the military, and I don’t want to do that. There is no way out of it. There’s no way around service,” he said.

There is little recourse for Syrians in Sudan, many of whom say they have been neglected by the government in Damascus.

Saudi Arabia led evacuation efforts in the early days of the war. In April, Saudi authorities flew hundreds of Syrians from Port Sudan to countries in the region including Jordan and Algeria, according to Syrian state news agency SANA.

But the majority of those who have fled Sudan are left unaccounted for, instead paying smugglers thousands of dollars and risking perilous routes in the hope of reaching a safe neighboring country to avoid going back to Syria.

“We have received unconfirmed reports of many Syrian refugees from the initial days of fighting who did move to safe areas, like other residents of Khartoum. We have not received any confirmed report of casualties among Syrian refugees due to the conflict,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

The agency has received reports of many Syrian refugees who self-relocated to safe areas, including over 2,000 in Port Sudan, the spokesperson added.

“Home is not the territory. Home is a sense of belonging. I no longer have a sense of belonging to Syria. I won’t go back there.”

“When I am working, I am occupied. But when I sit still, I start getting thoughts about (the war) in Khartoum and Syria,” Shadi, who works as a barista in Port Sudan, said.

“I was in Syria, in a war. I left thinking I would go somewhere better. Then I came here and had more trouble. I don’t know where to go.

“Even if I had support, I don’t want to go back to Syria. Anywhere but Syria, somewhere where there is work, life, no fear and no war.”

Russia and North Korea are “actively advancing” their negotiations over a potential arms deal that would provide significant ammunition for different types of weapons systems, including artillery, in the latest indication that the Kremlin is desperate to obtain further materiel for its faltering invasion of Ukraine, according to newly released US intelligence.

The news of the potential deal comes despite North Korea’s public claims to the contrary.

The Biden administration said Wednesday that they remain concerned that the two pariah states are in the middle of arms negotiations and that, following Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s trip to North Korea last month, a second delegation of Russian officials have visited Pyongyang for further discussions on a potential deal.

In addition to the second delegation, Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un have exchanged letters “pledging to increase their bilateral cooperation,” according to National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby.

“We remain concerned that the DPRK continues to consider providing military support to Russia’s military forces in Ukraine and we have new information which we are able to share today that arms negotiations between Russia and the DPRK are actively advancing,” Kirby said. “Following these negotiations, high level discussion may continue in coming months.”

The public disclosure of the new intelligence is the latest example of how the Biden administration plans to continue to publicize Russia’s efforts to avoid Western sanctions and source weapons for its war, as well as put North Korea on notice that the US is closely monitoring these efforts. It is also the most detailed evidence provided in recent months of Russia’s outreach to North Korea to help fuel its invasion of Ukraine.

“Under these potential deals Russia would receive significant quantities and multiple types of munitions from the DPRK, which the Russian military plans to use in Ukraine. These potential deals could also include the provision of raw materials that would assist Russia’s defense industrial base,” Kirby said, pledging that the US would take direct action to sanction any entities involved in a potential deal and urged Pyongyang to cease the negotiations.

Earlier this month, the US Treasury sanctioned a sanctions evasion network aimed at supporting arms deals between Russia and North Korea.

Kirby also said Russia’s attempts to source weapons from places like Iran and North Korea was a clear signal of Moscow’s distress.

“There is no other way to look at that than desperation and weakness, quite frankly,” Kirby said.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, US ambassador to the United Nations, also accused Russia and North Korea of negotiating an arms deal during a Security Council Stakeout on Wednesday.

Greenfield called it “shameful” and a violation of Security Council resolutions approved by Russia.

At the end of last year Pyongyang delivered infantry rockets and missiles to Russian mercenary group Wagner for their troops in Ukraine and Western officials have said that Iran has supplied Russia with weapons for use in Ukraine. Iran and North Korea have both denied these claims.

Caroline Wozniacki’s return to tennis and the US Open has lived up to the hype.

On the first official day of the tournament, the former world-ranked No. 1 player defeated Russian qualifier Tatiana Prozorova, 6-3, 6-2. She bested Czech player Petra Kvitová, American Jennifer Brady and today she faces Coco Gauff, ranked No. 6, in the round of 16.

After retiring from tennis in 2020 and having two children, the Danish star — currently ranked No. 623 — is steadily working to reclaim the top spot.

Coming out of retirement this summer, she is entering a new chapter of her athletic career as sports leagues, trainers and exercise scientists are still developing best practices for pro-athlete moms.

Last year, Wozniacki made her way back onto the hardcourt — and surprised herself.

“When my dad visited me in Florida, I realized I needed advice,” she recently wrote in Vogue Magazine. “I hit for 20, 30 minutes — I’m not sure how long, but at one point I looked at him and said, ‘I feel like I’m hitting it better than I ever have. Am I making that up?’ “

She wasn’t.

In fact, she played so well, she accepted wild card entries into several tournaments including the final grand slam of the tennis season, the US Open, where nine other moms are also competing in the women’s singles division.

If she’s successful, Wozniacki, 33, would join a short list of mothers who have reached the finals of a grand slam, or won.

Serena Williams played in four grand slam finals after her daughter Olympia was born in 2018, two of which were at the US Open. Belgian star Kim Clijsters won the US Open in 2009, defeating Caroline Wozniacki, 7-5, 6-3. She claimed the US Open title again the following year, bringing her daughter, Jada, onto the court both times.

Australia’s Margaret Court was the first mom to win the Queens-based tournament in 1973. She also won the French and Australian Opens that same year, making her and Kim Clijsters the only mothers to win three grand slam titles in the Open Era. Four-time grand slam winner Naomi Osaka just had her first child in June and is expected to compete in the 2024 Australian Open.

Exceptional talent and drive are only part of the reason why these players were able to succeed as postpartum athletes. In 1984, the governing body for women’s tennis, the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), implemented the “Terry Holladay Rule.” Named after a player who petitioned to compete after the birth of her daughter, the rule allows players to compete in the main draw of six tournaments — as long as they returned within one year of having a child.

Nearly three decades later, the WTA implemented a rule change that impacts how female players can earn money after maternity leave. It allows players to freeze their ranking in the event of injury, illness or pregnancy for up to three years. This ranking can be used to enter several tournaments, including grand slams, which tend to have the heftiest prize purses.

But the rule limits how many grand slams players can enter, something that tennis pro Taylor Townsend of Chicago would like to see changed.

“I wish we could have more opportunities to play (more) grand slams because for me personally, those were the biggest paychecks,” she said. Townsend, who is also competing in the US Open this year, has a two-year-old son.

No matter what level of income a player earns, the training required to compete and win at the elite level in tennis is intense. Adding motherhood to the mix, according to ESPN commentator and former player Rennae Stubbs, can add new challenges and perspective to the process.

“Serena … I think she wanted to win the grand slam as a mom more than anything,” she said. “You actually have an adjustment of your thought process whereas tennis is not the most important thing, your child is.”

Christine Stromberg, senior manager of Professional Tennis Operations and US Open Player Services said she’s seen more players with families at the tournament since she started in 2019. She’s been working to increase childcare services at the tournament, including hiring caretakers who speak a variety of languages.

There have also been major changes in the way the medical profession evaluates professional athletes during their pregnancies.

“In the old days, people were told not to exercise much during pregnancy, to not get their heart rate higher than a certain level,” said Dr. Kate Ackerman, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard University Medical School who heads up the Wu Tsai Female Athlete Program at Boston Children’s Hospital.

Serena Williams famously won her seventh Australian Open title in 2017 while eight weeks pregnant.

“That (advice) has sort of been thrown out the window as we see people carefully being monitored and pushing, pushing the level of exercise through their pregnancy,” Ackerman said. “We’re learning a lot from elite level athletes because they are the most impressive guinea pigs.

“The biggest thing that we try to let all our athletes know is not to beat themselves up, that we are trying to figure this out and each person’s situation is unique,” Ackerman added. “We have to meet them where they are.”

The thrill of making history isn’t supposed to sour. It is the moment, the magnificent, once-in-a-lifetime feat, that should be the cause of time standing still; cameras panning in slow motion to the overachievers lifting the prize won, ticker tape falling like magic from the sky, extraordinary talent overshadowing everything else. But that is not the world in which we live.

Spain won the Women’s World Cup for the first time last month yet, just two weeks on, no one is talking about the success.

The team, talented but young, wasn’t supposed to challenge the sport’s heavyweights, mainly because many of the country’s best players had stayed at home having a year earlier refused to play for their country until standards improved within the national team.

Even immediately after victory, thoughts strayed to those players who missed out. But this was time for unbridled celebrations for an in-spite-of-it-all triumph. Yet, it was all too short lived.

In that intoxicating, finite pocket of time, Spain’s players had the freedom to lose themselves in the victory of their lives. Until the medal ceremony, at least. Then came the kiss, the moment which has eclipsed and become the moment, casting a shadow on soccer and Spanish society, capturing the attention of the world and putting a spotlight on consent, power and entitlement.

Yet, in searching for some light in the darkness, Spain’s women now have the world’s attention. Because of what happened, and where it happened, their voices are louder now than last September when 15 players wrote to the Spanish soccer federation demanding wholesale changes throughout the coaching staff.

They are being heard; written about, spoken about, thanked by the country’s Prime Minister. “The Spain that is coming is feminist. Whether you like it or not,” he posted on social media on Saturday. “Make this a turning point,” said a social media post from the United Nation’s Human Rights office earlier in the week.

Female players past and present are being listened to. The decades-long battle for equality in women’s soccer, and society, has a way to go but nothing changes in silence. When there is debate, when there is outrage, there is chance of progress. The fight has more allies, it may have become a little easier.

But before a global audience, a powerful man behaved inappropriately and yet remains in post. For all the discussions, for all the ever-changing developments, the eye of this storm will not pass because one thing has remained a constant: Spain soccer chief Luis Rubiales’ refusal to yield.

A lot has happened in the two weeks since Spain beat England under the lights in Sydney. When will it end? Where to begin? To start at the beginning, to when Rubiales placed both his hands on star player Jenni Hermoso’s head and kissed her on the lips after she had collected her winners’ medal? Or, to fast-forward to the fact that the world champions are set to play later this month but have no players of note willing to wear the national team’s colors?

Pictures and footage of Rubiales kissing Hermoso have now been seen by millions, broadcast on news bulletins around the world; creating headlines, sparking protests.

There was an admission from Rubiales a day after the final that he had erred, and again on Friday he said he had made “some obvious mistakes” to bookend last week’s defiant 30-minute speech where, despite expectations, he repeatedly refused to resign and was applauded by some in the audience.

The kiss, he says, was consensual, a claim Hermoso firmly rejects, with the player calling it an “impulse-driven, sexist, out of place act without any consent on my part.”

It is a story which has had daily, sometimes hourly, developments. Since Rubiales’ speech last week FIFA, soccer’s global governing body, has suspended the 46-year-old from participating in football-related activities for 90 days, a decision announced less than 24 hours after the Royal Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) threatened legal action against Hermoso and others, escalating the crisis and turning it into a PR disaster for the federation.

Over the course of a weekend, Spain’s Women’s World Cup-winning team refused to play for the national team until Rubiales is removed, and 11 members of the Spanish national women’s soccer program jointly announced their resignations.

There have also been elements of the surreal – this week Rubiales’ mother went on hunger strike to support her son and was briefly hospitalized. But beyond the headlines, this is a story which symbolizes the problems within women’s soccer and society, of women not being respected or listened to.

“We all want the same thing, right? That there is respect towards our profession, the same that there’s been during years, and still is, for the men’s side,” Spain’s two-time Ballon d’Or Winner Alexia Putellas said in a television interview with TUDN.

The Spanish government is attempting to remove Rubiales, all 19 of the Spanish federation’s regional presidents have called for him to resign, yet he has not done so.

The athletes – the world champions – meanwhile have had their achievements overshadowed, washed over by a current of controversy which has not been of their making.

“We just won the World Cup but nobody is talking about that much because things have happened I wished hadn’t,” Aitana Bonmatí said after being named UEFA Women’s Player of the Year.

It was on August 20 that Spain beat England 1-0 to bring a World Cup which had set new records for global viewing figures to a conclusion, showcasing the best of a sport which has succeeded despite entrenched obstacles rooted in sexism, inequality and a lack of opportunities in this male-dominated game.

Competing in the final were two countries which had once banned women from playing soccer. In Sydney that Sunday night, first-time finalists England and Spain symbolized not only a shifting of the world order within women’s soccer, but also that the world had changed for the better.

But those seconds on the presentation podium were a reminder, if it were needed, that there is much which hasn’t changed. Problems exist, even when they cannot be seen, even if they are not mentioned in national newspapers or make international news.

There are plenty of battles ongoing around the world within the women’s game. After failing to agree with Spain’s women’s league, Liga F, on better conditions and pay, unions representing players called for a strike on Friday during the first two fixtures of the season.

Rubiales’ removal or resignation would not solve all the problems female players face, yet there is a positive at least from the solidarity which has been on show these last few weeks.

“Football must respond and rise to this critical moment, not only in Spain, but around the world,” was the message posted by global players’ union FIFPRO on its social media accounts on Saturday.

Last weekend several soccer teams showed their support for Hermoso, some by wearing wristbands or unfurling banners. Even Jorge Vilda, Spain’s head coach whose own position is reportedly under threat, condemned Rubiales’ behavior. As each day passes, Rubiales looks an increasingly isolated figure.

England women’s head coach Sarina Wiegman dedicated her UEFA Women’s Coach of the Year award to the Spanish national team. “We all know the issues around the Spanish team and it really hurts me as a coach, as a mother of two daughters, as a wife and as a human being,” Wiegman said.

“It’s over,” said World Cup winner Putellas in response to Rubiales’ speech last week. It may also be a new beginning.

Max Verstappen further cemented his status as the dominant driver of his generation with a historic victory at the Italian Grand Prix, his 10th consecutive race win.

No Formula One driver has ever won as many races in a row in a season. The Red Bull driver had matched the previous all-time record of nine, set by Sebastian Vettel 10 years ago, at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix.

Victory at Monza was Verstappen’s 12th of the year and increases the likelihood of Red Bull becoming the first F1 team to win every race in a season.

McLaren came close to doing so in 1988, winning all but one of the 16 races on the calendar, but such is Red Bull’s supremacy no team looks close to being able to topple them over the course of the 23-race season.

“I never would’ve believed that that was possible,” the Dutchman said after the race on the ESPN broadcast when asked about the record. “We had to work for it today and that made it definitely a lot more fun.”

Verstappen started the race in second place having narrowly lost out to Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz Jr. in a dramatic qualifying session on Saturday, but overtook the Spaniard on Lap 15.

As has been the case so many times this year, Verstappen’s dominance was obvious as soon as he took the lead. He gradually extended his advantage over the chasing pack to finish six seconds ahead of Sergio Perez in second.

The podium was rounded out by Sainz Jr. ahead of his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc in fourth.

Verstappen leads the drivers’ championship by 145 points. His teammate Perez, who has won the season’s other races, is second.

The 25-year-old star, who has now won 47 races in all, which puts him fifth on the all-time list, has the chance to extend his record at the Singapore Grand Prix on September 17.

Sure, an escape to the beach or cooler mountain air or the arctic air-conditioning of a museum comes not a moment too soon when summer really starts to heat up.

But if you can wait until the season winds down, the rewards can be significant – both in terms of savings and experience. And after the summer the world has had – with record heat, uncomfortably warm ocean water, devastating wildfires, epic crowds and high prices – the relative calm of traveling in September and October will be right on time for many travelers.

Is fall a better time to travel than summer?

“Yes, absolutely,” says Hayley Berg, lead economist for travel app Hopper.

If you can shift any kind of travel – whether domestic or international, once-in-a-lifetime trips or weekend getaways – into September and October, you’re going to pay less than peak summer trips, she said. And if you have something extravagant in mind, all the better to wait until fall.

“I always say if you want to go on what we call ‘bucket-list trips’ – so a honeymoon, a big family vacation, any travel where you’re interested or willing to make a really big investment – now is the time to book and take that trip because you’ll get so much more for your budget,” Berg said.

And getting more for your money is not the only benefit. It’s still warm in many sought-after destinations – but not scorching hot. It’s less crowded, too, which is positive in more ways than one.

“Overcrowding is a real issue during peak seasons,” says travel adviser Jim Bendt, who owns Pique Travel Design in the Minneapolis-St.Paul area. “By traveling during a low or shoulder season, you not only benefit from fewer crowds, but you can feel good about helping local communities benefit from a sustained economic impact and less strain on the places you visit.”

Labor Day weekend marks the unofficial end of the summer and the beginning of a great time to do some next-level traveling – if you have the flexibility.

Here’s the latest from Hopper about where airfare pricing stands for early fall travel as well as travel experts’ suggestions of places that are better in fall than summer – whether because of price, weather, lack of crowds, seasonal offerings or some combination of those factors.

Big airfare price drops

Flying domestically in the United States in the next couple of months will be a lot more affordable than it was this summer.

Average domestic airfare for fall is down 29% from the average price in peak summer (June, July and August), according to Hopper data. Fall fares this year are down 9% from last fall and 10% from pre-pandemic fall 2019 prices.

Average fall fares to Los Angeles this year are down 40% from summer, Hopper data shows, with fares to Orlando plunging by 32%. That translates to $179 for Los Angeles and $137 for Orlando.

International fares are dropping, too, from summer’s sky-high levels. Average fares to Europe are down 31% from summer, according to Hopper. That translates to nearly $330 off each ticket, making the case for Berg’s suggestion to take big price-tag trips in autumn.

“If you multiply that across two people or a family of four, plus accommodations and so on, it’s thousands in savings. And at a time when families are definitely tightening their belts, a little bit concerned about inflation, wages, layoffs, you name it, I think that’s pretty invaluable. So if you can take one of those big, big trips in September and October, I say book it now.”

While international fares are coming down from their summer highs, tickets from the United States to some regions (particularly on long-haul routes) are still considerably more expensive than they were before the pandemic. Berg said Europe fares are still about 18% higher right now than pre-pandemic, and Asia is about 57% higher.

Asia remains “extremely expensive,” but price drops for fall have been steeper than usual, Berg said. Case in point: Fall 2023 tickets to Shanghai are about $1,523, which is $902, or 37%, cheaper than summer.

The benefits beyond price

Many popular destinations that were scorching hot in July – the planet’s hottest month on record – will finally be cooling off. Parts of Italy, Spain and Greece had temperatures blowing past the 100 degree Fahrenheit (about 38 C) mark this summer. Early September temperatures in Catania, Sicily, are the in the 80s (upper 20s C).

In addition to lower temperatures, “you can also find that rates are significantly lower as well,” said travel adviser Ashley Les, founder of Postcards from …, who’s based in Lisbon, Portugal. The cost of stays in many popular summer resort areas starts to dip as the crowds from Europe and abroad return to work and school.

“Typically the cheapest months of the year to take a trip are January, September and October because they happen to be the three months that most people are not traveling,” said Berg.

There’s also the benefit to locals of spending money in destinations outside of peak times.

Alex Bentley, head of product for Audley Travel, a tour operator with headquarters in the UK, mentioned that places such as Nepal, South Africa and Indonesia are worth considering for fall vacations.

“There are not as many visitors, which can help make a client’s budget go further. Visitors can still enjoy decent weather, there are numerous incredible sights and locations to explore, and a visit helps extend the season generating much valued tourist dollars outside of the peak travel times,” Bentley said.

Destination ideas from the experts

Here are eight ideas for the lucky travelers who can get away this autumn:

Italy’s Piedmont Region

“This summer, the number of travelers visiting Italy broke all records. But if you really want to feel like a local, visit the Piedmont region in October and November to enjoy the wine harvest,” Bendt suggested.

It’s also white truffle season, which Stanley Tucci checked out in “Searching for Italy.” The mountainous Piedmont region of northern Italy lives up to its gourmet reputation.

Yellowstone National Park in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming

Bendt says September is the best month to visit Yellowstone National Park, which welcomed more than 3 million visitors last year. Among the most visited US national parks, the summer frenzy dies down here in the fall.

“Gone are the long lines of cars, and the wildlife viewing can be spectacular as you hear the echoes of elks bugling during the rut,” Bendt said.

Northern California

San Francisco, the Carmel Valley and Big Sur are at their best in September and October, Bendt said.

“The ‘June Gloom’ and foggy summer months have cleared out, and it’s the best weather of the year to enjoy the city and nature of the northern coast,” he said.

“June Gloom” joins terms such as “No-Sky July” and “Fogust” to describe dreary weather typical during the summer months.

Fall is also harvest time in Napa, which has its pros and cons, says Les. “You can be an active part of the Napa Valley harvest that you can’t get any other time of year. Hotel rates are significantly higher, but the weather is more pleasant,” she said.

North Fork, New York

New York offers a US wine country experience that’s less well-known than Napa or Sonoma.

“There are several other areas in the United States that have some great wineries, and one of them is North Fork, a 30-mile-long peninsula on the East End of Long Island in New York,” said Marilyn Clark, owner of Lighthouse Travel in Huntington Beach, California.

You can get the harvest, fall colors and water views all in the same spot. For crops beyond grapes, Clark recommends a stop at Harbes Family Farm for apples and pumpkins, plus hayrides.

Lisbon, Portugal

Les is based in Lisbon, where she says water temperatures are best in early fall, and visitors will miss the worst summer crowds and heat.

The hilly, sun-splashed city is a short ride away from a number of charming beach towns, including the seaside resorts of Estoril and Cascais.

Outer Banks, North Carolina

Warm water, minus the crowds, is also a draw on the Outer Banks, a chain of barrier islands stretching 175 miles along North Carolina’s coast.

“If visitors are there at the right time, they can participate in the Outer Banks Marathon [November 12] or enjoy events such as the Outer Banks Seafood Festival [October 21] and the Bluegrass Island Music Festival [October 19-21],” Clark said.

Hawaii

Clark, who is a Hawaii specialist, says she usually visits the state in the fall after the summer crowds have gone, when there’s more availability at hotels, restaurants and attractions and prices are lower. Which island to visit depends on your interests, and she generally advises clients to stay on an island’s leeward side.

“Even though I usually recommend staying on a side of the island where it is less likely to rain [leeward], one of the big draws in the fall is visiting the lush, verdant side of the island [windward] and seeing all the waterfalls when they are really flowing. Since Hawai’i is known as the ‘Rainbow Capital of the World,’ fall is a great time to see them as well,” she said.

Clark noted that most of Maui, which just suffered devastating fires, is open.

West Maui is closed to visitors, according to an August 31 update posted on the Hawaiʻi Tourism Authority’s website. The organization encourages travelers to visit other parts of Maui and the rest of the Hawaiian islands and to be “especially mindful and respectful in our island home.”

South Africa

In South Africa, October – springtime in the Southern Hemisphere – is one of the best months to combine regions, according to Audley Travel’s Alex Bentley.

It’s ahead of the peak season, November to February, and visitors can enjoy whale watching and wildlife viewing in opposite corners of the country.

“Temperatures begin to heat up across the country, but the rains have yet to fall in the north, meaning that safari areas like the Kruger are still dry. This makes wildlife easier to spot as animals gather around vital water sources,” Bentley said. “Along the coast, humpback and southern right whales have yet to migrate south, so clients can have the chance to see them breaching offshore.”

The US suffered a surprise 110-104 loss to Lithuania at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in the Philippines on Sunday.

Lithuania led by 17 points at halftime and despite a late US resurgence held on to secure the country’s third ever victory over the Americans and inflicting a first group stage defeat on the US since 2002.

Both countries, however, progress to Tuesday’s quarterfinals with Lithuania, as Group J top seeds, next facing Serbia and the US taking on Italy.

Jonas Valančiūnas finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and two blocks, while Anthony Edwards scored a game-high 35 points for the US, tying Carmelo Anthony for the second-most points scored in a US Basketball FIBA game. Kevin Durant holds the record with 38 points during the 2010 tournament.

Lithuania head coach Kazys Maksvytis said his team needed to “save our emotions” for the next game.

“Congratulations to my players, but we need to have short memory to prepare for the second game,” he said, per FIBA.

USA head coach Steve Kerr was critical of his team’s play, saying Lithuania “just punched us in the mouth.”

“We’re fortunate that the loss doesn’t hurt us in terms of our goal, which is to win the gold medal,” Kerr added while speaking to reporters after the game.

“It’s a great game for us to experience because this is FIBA … I hate losing. I probably won’t sleep much tonight. But for us to get better we needed to feel this. We needed to respond the way we did and next game we have to start the way we did in the second half. We can’t ease into the game at all. I’m hoping this is a lesson and we get better from this.”

Ukrainian officials have criticized Pope Francis’ recent address to Russian youth, calling his remarks “imperialist propaganda.”

The pontiff made a video address to the 10th All-Russian Catholic Youth Assembly in St. Petersburg on Friday, during which he urged them to view themselves as descendants of the Russian empire.

“Never forget your heritage. You are the descendants of great Russia: the great Russia of saints, rulers, the great Russia of Peter I, Catherine II, that empire – educated, great culture and great humanity. Never give up on this heritage,” the pope said.

“You are descendants of the great Mother Russia, step forward with it. And thank you – thank you for your way of being, for your way of being Russian.”

On Monday, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Oleh Nikolenko lambasted the pope’s speech.

“This is the kind of imperialist propaganda, ‘spiritual bonds’ and the ‘need’ to save ‘Great Mother Russia’ which the Kremlin uses to justify the murder of thousands of Ukrainians and the destruction of hundreds of Ukrainian towns and villages,” Nikolenko said in a Facebook post.

The pope’s mission should be “precisely to open the eyes of Russian youth to the devastating course of the current Russian leadership” and instead he is promoting “Russian great-power ideas, that are, in fact, the reason for Russia’s chronic aggression,” Nikolenko said.

Last year, Russian President Vladimir Putin compared himself to Peter the Great during an exhibition dedicated to the first Russian emperor, using the comparison to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“Peter the Great waged the Great Northern War for 21 years,” Putin said at the time. “On the face of it, he was at war with Sweden taking something away from it … He was not taking away anything, he was returning. This is how it was.” He added that it didn’t matter that European countries didn’t recognize Peter the Great’s seizure of territory by force.

Those remarks were swiftly condemned by Ukrainians, who saw them as a naked admission of Putin’s imperial ambitions – and were highlighted again this week after the pope’s address.

Sviatoslav Shevchuk, the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, said in a statement that Peter the Great and Catherine the Great are the “worst examples of imperialism and extreme Russian nationalism,” warning that the pope’s words “could be perceived as support for the nationalism and imperialism that has caused the war in Ukraine today.”

“As a Church, we want to state that in the context of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, such statements inspire the neocolonial ambitions of the aggressor country,” Shevchuk said.

On Tuesday, the Vatican rejected the interpretation of the pope’s words as praise of imperialism.

“The Pope intended to encourage young people to preserve and promote all that is positive in the great cultural and Russian spirituality, and certainly not to exalt imperialist logic and government personalities, cited to indicate some historical periods of reference,” the Vatican statement said.

Controversial comments

The pope has previously been criticized for some of his comments about Russia’s war in Ukraine.

In remarks published by Italian newspaper La Stampa in June last year, Francis said the war “was perhaps in some way either provoked or not prevented.” He said that before Russia invaded Ukraine he met with “a head of state” who “was very worried about how NATO was moving.”

In August last year, the pope angered Kyiv by referring to Russian political commentator Darya Dugina, the daughter of an ultra-nationalist philosopher, as being among the “innocent” victims of the war after she was killed by a car bomb on the outskirts of Moscow.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Apostolic Nuncio to Ukraine, Archbishop Visvaldas Kulbokas, to discuss Francis’ statement, saying that it “unjustly” equates “the aggressor and the victim.”

Ukrainian officials have previously said they have “no knowledge” of a Vatican peace mission to resolve the conflict with Russia, following the pope’s claim of involvement in the process.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met with the pontiff in Rome in May, when Francis assured “his constant prayer” for peace and stressed the need for “human gestures” toward victims of the war, according to the Vatican.

Russia has seen the biggest drone assault on its territory since it launched its war on Ukraine, while Moscow killed two men in a near-simultaneous bombardment on Kyiv as the aerial intensity of the conflict ratcheted up.

Six Russian regions including Moscow came under attack early Wednesday, while in the city of Pskov, near the Estonian border, several transport planes were reportedly damaged when drones targeted an airport.

Russian officials haven’t reported any casualties, and claimed to have thwarted almost all of the strikes.

They claimed Russian air defense forces also shot down a Ukrainian missile over eastern Crimea and at least one drone over the Bryansk region in western Russia on Wednesday.

Oleg Kryuchkov, advisor for the Russia-appointed head of Crimea, said fragments of the missile that fell in eastern Crimea set the grass in the field on fire, but didn’t provide any additional details about the missile.

Kyiv officials meanwhile said Russia hit the Ukrainian capital with a “massive” bombardment overnight. “Kyiv has not experienced such a powerful attack since spring,” Serhii Popko, the head of the city’s Military Administration, said on Telegram.

Popko said several groups of drones were traveling towards Kyiv “from different directions” and later missiles were launched towards the capital. More than 20 “enemy targets” were destroyed by air defense forces, he added.

Two people were killed – men aged 26 and 36 years old – and three people sustained injuries of varying severity from falling debris, according to the Kyiv City Military Administration.

Across the country, Ukraine downed 28 cruise missiles and destroyed 15 out of 16 drones launched overnight, the Commander in Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, said Wednesday.

“The wave of the blast swung me to the corridor wall. Everything fell from the kitchen cabinets,” she said. “The front door of the apartment was blown out.”

Flights shut down in Moscow

Ukraine has increasingly been emboldened to hit strategic targets inside Russia through the air in recent weeks, even as it suffers assaults on its own cities, setting up a new phase of the conflict defined by Kyiv’s apparent efforts to wear down domestic Russian support for the war.

Following the raids all four Moscow airports temporarily suspended flight operations. At least 11 passenger flights were redirected to alternate airports, causing disruption, state news agency TASS reported citing the Federal Air Transport Agency. Later updates indicated that the airports resumed normal operations.

The governor of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, said air defenses thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack on a television tower early on Wednesday. Aleksandr Bogomaz said a fire had been extinguished and emergency services were working at the site of the alleged attack.

The wave of strikes came hours after the governor of Russia’s southwestern Bryansk region said that the Ukrainian military had fired at the village of Klimovo with multiple launch rocket systems, and claimed an unspecified number of deaths.

An airport in Russia’s western city of Pskov, used for both civilian and military aircraft, also came under drone attacks late on Tuesday, according to the region’s governor.

Mikhail Vedernikov posted a video showing what appears to be a large plume of smoke coming from behind buildings in what looks like a residential area. Russian state news agency TASS reported that “as a result of drone attacks four Il-76 aircraft were damaged,” in Pskov. A fire broke out and two aircraft were engulfed in flames, TASS said, citing emergency services.

Flights over Pskov and the region were restricted, TASS added.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov attributed the increase in drone attacks on Russia to what he called the “continued terrorist activity of the Kyiv regime,” and said Russian President Vladimir Putin is receiving “timely and up-to-date information” on all developments.

Fierce fighting and sluggish movement is meanwhile continuing in the ground war. Ukraine stepped up its evacuations of children from the frontline town of Kupiansk on Tuesday, as Russian forces continued to bear down on the battered city.

Kupiansk lies in northeastern Ukraine, more then 200 miles from the southern front, where Ukrainian troops are making slow progress in their counter-offensive. The dueling theaters of fighting may indicate an attempt by each side to draw opposition troops away from their primary targets.

The Ukrainian military says that its forces have made further progress in a part of the southern front, towards the villages of Novodanylivka and Verbove. If successful in the Verbove area, the Ukrainians would widen a wedge of territory they have taken as they push south towards the strategic hub of Tokmak, which is occupied by the Russians.