An ancient skull dating back 300,000 years is unlike any other premodern human fossil ever found, potentially pointing to a new branch in the human family tree, according to new research.

An international team of researchers from China, Spain and the United Kingdom unearthed the skull — specifically the mandible, or lower jaw — in the Hualongdong region of eastern China in 2015, along with 15 other specimens, all thought to originate from the late Middle Pleistocene period.

Scientists believe the late Middle Pleistocene, which started around 300,000 years ago, was a pivotal period for the evolution of hominins — species that are regarded as human or closely related — including modern humans.

Published in the Journal of Human Evolution on July 31, a study by the research team found that the mandible, known as HLD 6, is “unexpected” and does not fit into any existing taxonomic groups.

Many Pleistocene hominin fossils discovered in China have been similarly difficult to classify, and were previously perceived to be anomalies, according to the study. However, this discovery, along with other recent research, is slowly changing what people know of the evolutionary pattern in the late Middle Pleistocene.

HLD 6 and a mosaic of features

By comparing the HLD 6 mandible to those of Pleistocene hominins and modern humans, the researchers found it has features of both.

It is similarly shaped to the mandible of Homo sapiens, our modern human species that evolved from Homo erectus. But it also shares a characteristic of a different branch that evolved from Homo erectus, the Denisovans. Like the Denisovans, HLD 6 does not appear to have a chin.

“HLD6 does not present a true chin but has some weakly expressed traits that seem to anticipate this typically H. sapiens feature,” said study author María Martinón-Torres, director of the National Research Center on Human Evolution (CENIEH) in Spain.

“Hualongdong are thus the earliest fossil population known in Asia to present this mosaic of primitive and H. sapiens-like features,” she added.

The researchers theorize that HLD 6 must belong to a classification that hasn’t yet been given a name, and that modern human characteristics could have been present as early as 300,000 years ago — before the emergence of modern humans in east Asia.

The researchers also considered the age of the individual that the jawbone belonged to, as skull shapes can differ between children and adults.

HLD 6 is thought to have belonged to a 12- to 13-year-old. While the researchers didn’t have an adult skull of the same species to compare with, they looked at Middle and Late Pleistocene hominin skulls of similar and adult age and found their shape patterns remained consistent regardless of age, further supporting the scientists’ theory.

According to Martinón-Torres, more work is needed to properly place HLD 6.

“More fossils and studies are necessary to understand their precise position in the human family tree,” she said.

A cosmic object in the shape of a glowing question mark has photobombed one of the latest images captured by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope — and scientists think they know what it might be.

The original near-infrared image, released July 26, depicted a pair of young stars named Herbig-Haro 46/47. Found 1,470 light-years away in the Vela constellation within the Milky Way galaxy, the stars are still actively forming and closely orbiting each other.

The two have been observed and studied by space and ground-based telescopes since the 1950s, but the highly sensitive Webb telescope allowed for the highest-resolution and most detailed image yet. It has the capacity to observe the universe with longer wavelengths of light than other space telescopes.

The Webb telescope illuminates information about the origins of our universe, but the appearance of this mysterious object in the background of this image leaves more questions than answers. The cosmic question mark hasn’t been closely observed or studied, so scientists aren’t exactly sure about the object’s origins and makeup.

But they do have a few ideas based on its shape and location.

“The very first thing you can rule out is that it’s a star in the Milky Way,” said Matt Caplan, assistant professor of physics at Illinois State University. “Stars always have these really big spikes, and that’s because stars are point-like. It’s called diffraction from basically the edges of the mirrors and the struts that support the sort of camera in the middle.”

The Webb telescope usually allows you to see six or eight stellar “prongs” if you look closely, Caplan added. “It tells you immediately that it’s not a star,” he said of the question-mark-shaped phenomenon.

It could be a merger of two galaxies that, at probably billions of light-years away, are much farther away than Herbig-Haro 46/47, said Christopher Britt, education and outreach scientist in the office of public outreach at the Space Telescope Science Institute, which manages the Webb telescope’s science operations.

There are “many, many galaxies outside of our own Milky Way,” Britt said. “This looks like the kind of thing that you get fairly frequently — as galaxies grow and evolve over cosmic time — which is that they sometimes collide with their near neighbors.

“And when that happens, they can get distorted into all kinds of different shapes — including a question mark, apparently.”

Cosmic questions

It is likely the first time this specific object has been seen, experts said, but the merging of galaxies into a question mark-like shape has happened before — including a backward version formed by the Antennae Galaxies in the Corvus constellation. Additionally, most galaxies have had multiple interactions such as this over the course of their history, Britt said, but they don’t last very long.

“There’s no way to nail anything down (in) space,” Caplan said. “The sun is moving as it orbits the galaxy, and the galaxy, being made of stars, is moving whichever direction gravity pulls it.”

This integration is also the eventual destiny of our own galaxy, which will merge with the Andromeda galaxy in about 4 billion years, Britt said — but the shape they’ll take is unknown.

The question mark shape could also be “indicative of a merger where these two galaxies are interacting gravitationally,” Britt said. “That hook of the question mark on the top looks a lot, to me, like what we call a tidal tail, where the stream of stars and gas has been kind of ripped off and has flown out into space.”

Gathering more spectroscopic data about the object would reveal more details such as its distance and chemical compositions, Britt and Caplan said.

“Nobody’s going to do this, though, because this is very much ‘a local man finds a chicken tender that looks like George Washington,’” Caplan said. “But there (are) observations you could make if you were motivated enough.”

An Italian cheesemaker died on Sunday after being crushed by thousands of rounds of Grana Padano cheese in the aging room of his factory in Bergamo, northern Italy, local authorities said.

Giacomo Chiapparini, 74, had entered the aging room to check the automatic robot used to clean the cheese rounds during the aging process in his company’s warehouse, according to the Bergamo Carabinieri.

At the time of his death, there were about 10 corridors of floor-to-ceiling shelves with approximately 1,600 rounds per corridor.

It is unclear how the initial collapse that led to what authorities describe as a “domino effect” occurred, leading to the cheesemaker’s demise.

Carabinieri officials, along with the fire brigade and two ambulance services and other local authorities, say they were called to the scene around 9 p.m. local time on Sunday (3 p.m. ET).

It took more than 11 hours to find Chiapparini’s body under the cheese rounds.

He was identified by his family, who live and work in the cheese factory, the Carabinieri spokesperson said. His funeral will be held on Thursday.

Chiapparini’s factory was founded in the late 1970s and produces around 15,000 wheels of Grana Padano cheese each year using milk from the cows raised at the factory, according to the company website. The cheese is aged between 12 and 70 months.

The Miss Universe Organization said Saturday it was cutting ties with its Indonesian franchisee and canceling this year’s Malaysia pageant after contestants accused local organizers of sexual harassment.

The US-based organization said in an emailed statement late on Saturday it had decided to sever its contract with PT Capella Swastika Karya and its national director Poppy Capella, who also holds the license for Miss Universe Malaysia.

Six Miss Universe Indonesia contestants filed complaints with police accusing organizers of sexual harassment, saying they were subjected to topless “body checks,” their lawyer said on Tuesday.

“It has become clear that this franchise has not lived up to our brand standards, ethics, or expectations as outlined in our franchise handbook and code of conduct,” the Miss Universe Organization said, adding that providing a safe place for women was its utmost priority.

Jakarta police did not respond to a request for comment on Sunday. Spokesperson Trunoyudo Wisnu Andiko said on Tuesday the report would be investigated.

Capella said in a statement on Instagram she does not condone any form of sexual harassment.

“I emphasize that I, as the national director and license owner for Miss Universe Indonesia, was not involved at all and have never known, ordered, requested or allowed anyone who plays a role and participated in the process of organizing Miss Universe Indonesia 2023 to commit sexual harassment through body checking as reported,” she said.

The Jakarta contest was held to select Indonesia’s entry for the annual Miss Universe competition, to be held in El Salvador late this year.

The Miss Universe Organization said it was evaluating its policies and procedures to avoid similar occurrence in the future, adding that there are no measurement or body dimensions requirement to join their pageant worldwide.

An attack on Chinese engineers in Pakistan’s southwestern province of Balochistan was thwarted by Pakistan’s military, leaving two militants dead and the Chinese workers unharmed, police say.

Pakistan’s armed forces said at least two militants were killed and three others were injured in an exchange of fire with security forces.

The military said that security forces have cordoned off the entire area and launched a search operation.

The Chinese Embassy in Pakistan said it strongly condemned the attack and urged the Pakistani authorities to punish the perpetrators and do all it could to prevent further attacks.

“China will continue to work with the Pakistani side, to jointly counter the threats of terrorism and earnestly protect the safety of Chinese personnel, institutions and projects in Pakistan,” the statement said.

Bordering Afghanistan and Iran, Balochistan is Pakistan’s largest but least populated province. It is fundamental to the country’s massive multibillion-dollar infrastructure deal with Beijing, the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).

China is a close partner of Pakistan and its biggest source of military and economic support. But in recent years terrorist attacks targeting Chinese nationals and their interests in Pakistan have alarmed Beijing.

In April 2022, three teachers from China and a driver were killed in a suspected suicide bombing near the University of Karachi’s Confucius Institute. The Baloch Liberation Army also claimed responsibility for that attack, saying that it targeted the Confucius Institute because it is a “symbol of Chinese economic, cultural and political expansionism.”

Meanwhile, the last major attack on Chinese engineers was in July 2021 in the north of Pakistan. More than a dozen people were killed after a bus carrying Chinese engineers fell into a ditch following a “fiery explosion,” according to local police.

A Russian warship fired warning shots and boarded a cargo ship it claims was headed to Ukraine in the Black Sea on Sunday, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.

Russia pulled out of a UN and Turkish-brokered deal in July that allowed Ukraine to move its grain via the Black Sea and warned that any ships headed to Ukraine would be treated as potentially carrying weapons. Ukraine made a similar threat to ships traveling to Russian ports.

Russia said the warship fired warning shots when the captain of the Palau-flagged dry cargo ship failed to respond to a request to stop for an inspection.

“The Russian warship opened warning fire from automatic small arms fire to forcefully stop the vessel,” the statement said.

The ministry claimed the ship – named Sukra Okan – was headed to the Ukrainian port of Izmail. Marine traffic websites currently shows the cargo vessel’s destination as the Romanian port of Sulina which is close to Izmail. Kyiv did not immediately comment on whether or not the ship was headed to a Ukrainian port.

“In order to inspect the bulk cargo ship, a Ka-29 helicopter with a group of Russian servicemen was hoisted from the patrol ship Vasily Bykov,” the ministry said. “Following radio conversations, the ship stopped its course and the boarding team landed on the bulk cargo ship,” the statement said.

This week Ukraine announced that it would open up a temporary humanitarian corridor for ships to sail to and from its ports and has opened up registration for merchant vessels to use the sea route.

Both Russia and Ukraine are major grain producers and their deal – a rare point of agreement in the middle of a war – did much to stabilize prices.

Kyiv argues that Russia’s withdrawal amounts to a blockade of Ukrainian products. Russia long complained that it had been unable to export its own foodstuffs.

A Ukrainian Navy spokesperson, Dmytro Pletenchuk, said the temporary routes aim to overcome the global food security crisis and added that they would allow shipowners and companies to “finally take back their merchant vessels that are in humanitarian captivity due to the constant threats of Russians at sea.”

Pletenchuk said ship owners and captains have been warned of the existing danger and said Ukrainian Armed Forces will help to ensure the security of the merchant ships sailing through the corridors, with the Navy “doing everything we can to ensure security.”

It remains unclear when ships might use the route given the potential dangers there.

England’s Harry Kane has made his official Bayern Munich debut, coming on as a substitute in the club’s crushing 3-0 defeat to German Cup winners RB Leipzig in the Super Cup final in Munich on Saturday.

The 30-year-old came on in the second half to a rousing ovation from the crowd at the Allianz Arena. However, it wasn’t enough as the club dropped its season opener.

RB Leipzig’s Dani Olmo scored a hat trick as the German side won its first Super Cup.

It comes hours after Kane announced on social media that he was leaving Tottenham Hotspur, the club he has spent the past 19 years playing for, having signed a reported a $126 million transfer deal with Bayern Munich.

He was Tottenham’s all time record goalscorer – 280 goals in 435 appearances in all competitions. But despite all his goals for Tottenham, he did not win a trophy with the club.

Addressing his decision to leave the club a day before Tottenham’s first game of the season, Kane said: “I felt like this was the time to leave. I didn’t want to go into the season with a lot of unresolved future talk.”

In a separate video shared on his official social media accounts, Kane thanked his teammates, coaches, managers and Tottenham fans. “I’ve given everything that I possibly could to make you proud,” he said.

Tottenham chairman Daniel Levy said that Kane would “always be welcomed back” to the club. “It goes without saying… He’s a much loved and valued member of the Spurs family, forever in our history.”

“Harry was clear, however, that he wanted a fresh challenge and would not be signing a new contract this summer. We have reluctantly, therefore, agreed to his transfer,” Levy said.

Women’s World Cup 2023: Live scores, fixtures, results, tables and top scorers

Australia reached the Women’s World Cup semifinals for the first time, sending a sell-out crowd in Brisbane into ecstasy, with an incredible penalty shootout victory over France.

The co-host had played in the quarterfinals on three previous occasions but had never made it beyond the last eight. On home soil, the Matildas’ fortunes changed and history was made in a thrilling conclusion to the match.

Cortnee Vine, the 20th penalty taker in the shootout, sealed victory, securing a 7-6 win on penalties and a tie against either England or Colombia.

France had a goal rightly disallowed in extra-time, and with neither side able to break the deadlock over 120 minutes this entertaining quarterfinal had to be decided on penalties.

Both teams missed from the spot in the shootout – but it was France’s four misses which proved the most costly, giving Vine the chance to end a tense shootout and spark wild celebrations among the Australian players in front of nearly 50,000 equally jubilant fans.

As the Matildas did a lap of honor around the pitch, fans danced, waved flags and cheered a team which has captured the imagination in the sport-loving country.

Australia head coach Tony Gustavsson told reporters that he is “so freaking proud” of his team and thanked supporters. “You are part of this win,” he said, paying tribute to the crowd. “You belong to this team tonight, every single person in this country.”

It was a cruel way for France to lose, especially as Les Bleues had had plenty of opportunities to score during a match in which momentum switched from one team to the other throughout.

Ultimately, Vicki Bècho’s miss – the 19-year-old hit the post to present Vine with the opportunity to send her country into a frenzy – was the costliest of all.

But Mackenzie Arnold’s role must not be forgotten either. Having missed a chance herself to seal Australia’s progress during the shootout, the Australia goalkeeper bounced back to save Kenza Dali’s spot-kick. With the initial penalty having had to be retaken as the goalkeeper was deemed to have come off her goalline early, Arnold held her nerve to save Dali’s second effort.

France head coach Hervé Renard told reporters that “fate chose” a winner. “Tonight, we have to be proud of these girls who played an exceptional match,” he said. “It went from right to left, from left to right – to say who deserved it more is difficult.

“Congratulations to Australia, and congratulations to all the staff who have done a wonderful job.”

An entertaining match

For a match with so much on the line, it was a surprisingly open encounter.

France started the brighter and was particularly dangerous during set pieces. Maelle Lakrar twice went close – incredibly shooting over the crossbar from four yards on one occasion – while France’s record goalscorer Eugénie Le Sommer forced a save from Arnold with France’s only shot on target in the first half.

As the half progressed, Australia gained in confidence and the decibels rose inside the partisan stadium.

Five minutes from half-time, the home team had the best opportunity of the match when Pauline Peyraud-Magnin came off her line with her defense scrambling. The ball fell for 20-year-old Mary Fowler whose eyes would’ve widened in the face of an open goal.

But as she shot at the target, France’s Élisa de Almeida raced across the goalline to block Fowler’s goalbound effort. It was incredible defending that stopped her team from falling behind.

France’s defense was worked harder after the break, especially when the 55th-minute introduction of superstar striker Sam Kerr added further impetus to the home team’s attack.

Kerr had not featured in any of the group stage matches because of a calf injury and had made a brief appearance as a substitute in the last-16 win over Denmark, but despite a lack of game time in this tournament her impact was immediate in Brisbane.

It was Kerr’s driving run towards the box created space for Hayley Raso, whose shot from the edge of the box drew a diving save from Peyraud-Magnin.

Afterwards, Kerr told reporters: “I’m so happy, I can’t put it into words. It’s just a whirlwind, but really proud of the girls, it’s been a team effort, from the staff to the players and to the fans. I can’t believe it.

“We have so much belief. We are riding the wave of excitement and we are playing some of our best football. The girls are smashing it and it’s a team effort.

“It’s changing football in this nation for ever. The country is going nuts. And we’re loving It …”

For all of Australia and France’s endeavor, defenses held firm and the match went to extra-time. In the 99th minute, Wendie Renard headed the ball into the net but the goal was immediately disallowed as Australia’s Alanna Kennedy was fouled in the box as she attempted to defend the corner.

Substitute Vine then went close for Australia minutes later, the Matildas player stretching every sinew only for her outstretched leg to direct the ball inches wide, but her moment would come later.

With penalties looming, Renard substituted his goalkeepers, bringing on Solene Durand for Peyraud-Magnin, but the strategy failed to deliver as the tournament’s most thrilling match so far went Australia’s way.

In travel news this week, devastation from the fires on the Hawaiian island of Maui continues to grow, with most of the tourist town of Lahaina destroyed. As wildfires become more common, this is what to do if you’re caught in an affected area and here’s how to help the victims of the disaster in Hawaii.

Here’s what else is happening in the world of travel.

Famous hiking route set for full comeback in 2024

Love is in the air – or at least, it’s really high up a cliff.

Italy’s Via dell’Amore (“Path of Love”) bills itself as “the most romantic walk in the world.” It’s long been the most popular hiking path in the roughly 75 miles (121 kilometers) of trails that wind around the five villages that make up the Cinque Terre UNESCO World Heritage Site.

It closed after a landslide in 2012, but now – after a lengthy refurbishment – the first section has reopened for a summer preview until September 30. The full trail will reopen in July 2024.

To combat overtourism in what is one of the most visited regions in one of the world’s most visited countries, access is now only by guided tour (tickets are just over $5) to protect the landscape for future generations. Tourists are reminded to be respectful of local culture and heritage, lest the “path of love” turn into a “walk of shame.” 

Escaped bear delays flight

A lot can happen in the course of getting a plane from point A to point B.

In Dubai, a flight was delayed after a bear escaped from the hold (see this video of the cub safely back in its crate).

Elsewhere: On British Airways, there was a cock-up on the catering front recently that led to passengers being served Kentucky Fried Chicken on an international flight.

And in the United States, a woman flew from Denver to Chicago to collect her daughter’s lost lacrosse kit when her luggage tracker found it before her airline could.

There are some exciting new developments on the fancy side of aviation, however.

A private luxury terminal is coming to the world’s busiest airport this September, the second to be opened by operator PS after a similar experience opened at Los Angeles’ LAX in 2017.

Also this fall, new airline Beond will start flying all-premium cabin flights to Maldives, with lie-flat seats that share components with Ferrari cars. Dubai and Delhi are the first two cities from which it’ll offer direct flights.

Lifestyles of the rich and famous

Opportunities may be coming up to experience life as lived by humanity’s most gilded individuals, in the form of a night’s lodging.

Actor and entrepreneur Gwyneth Paltrow’s California guesthouse will open for booking on Airbnb on August 15, for an overnight stay on September 9. The Goop guru will be there herself to welcome guests to the one-bedroom, one-bath abode, and the lucky visitors will be invited to indulge in a spa day and participate in a transcendental meditation session.

And in Llwynywermod, on the edge of Brecon Beacons National Park in Wales, a home formerly belonging to King Charles might soon become available to rent. The three-bedroom royal lodging is set in the grounds of a ruined mansion, and Charles added his own touch to the place by planting jasmine and honeysuckle to climb the walls.

Riding an iconic 1940s train

“Red-carpet treatment” started with the crimson rug that greeted guests on the 20th Century Limited passenger train, known as “the most famous train in the world” in the 1940s. Now that it’s been restored, train lovers can ride this US icon once again.

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They were strangers in Bolivia. 

Six months later, they fell in love in Paris.

Whenever Andrea Camila was feeling sad, she’d cast her mind back to that summer.

That summer, to be precise, was 2014. The summer Andrea first crossed paths with Lewis Kelly. A summer of first love, unforgettable sunsets and – later – a crushing first heartbreak.

Back then, Andrea was 14, “kind of boy-crazy” and on vacation in Clearwater Beach, Florida, with a bunch of friends and family.

Andrea had lived in Florida since moving there from Puerto Rico as a young kid. But while it was familiar territory, there was something different about hanging out in the Sunshine State on a vacation, versus being there during the school year.

Andrea and her friends quickly befriended the other teenagers staying at the hotel. Then, the group whiled away days at the beach, laughing and joking together until the sun sank through the cloudless sky into the ocean.

While most of the kids at the hotel were from the US, there was one notable exception: a 16-year-old Irish boy called Lewis Kelly.

Unlike the American teenagers, Lewis kept himself to himself, spending his days hanging out with his parents and sunbathing by the pool.

But unbeknownst to Lewis, he was the talk of the resort: the fact he was from Ireland was both intriguing and swoonworthy to the American teenagers – especially Andrea.

She’d spend all day thinking about Lewis, stealing glances whenever she spotted him across the pool.

It was true that Lewis shared an accent with One Direction’s Niall Horan. But he was much quieter than any boybander. He seemed aloof, “a loner,” as Andrea thought back then. She couldn’t figure out how she’d ever get talking to him. But she kept daydreaming all the same.

“I was telling my friends about how cute I thought he was,” recalls Andrea. “I was watching him, whenever we were at the restaurants.”

On one occasion, Andrea was gazing at Lewis as they both sat on opposite sides of the hotel pool. Lewis was unaware, preoccupied with his lunch.

“Andrea saw the whole thing from across the pool, and she started laughing. I didn’t even notice that she started laughing because I was so shocked that I just got robbed by a bird.”

While Lewis was oblivious, Andrea’s friend wasn’t. She side-eyed her as Andrea giggled.

“Alright,” said Andrea’s friend. “Enough is enough. We’re going to talk to him.”

Andrea protested, but it was too late. Her friend had already grabbed her arm and was making a beeline for Lewis.

“I was like, ‘No, please,’” recalls Andrea. “But then we went up to each other. And it was obviously perfect.”

Andrea and Lewis hit it off instantaneously, first laughing about the seagull and the cookie, then chatting about Ireland and the US.

Right away, it was obvious that Lewis was less of a loner, and more just the odd one out among a group of American teenagers, and a bit too shy to introduce himself to the other kids unprompted. Heartened by this, Andrea suggested they could all hang out later that day, at the hotel’s lounge. Lewis said he’d definitely swing by.

“I just thought she was going to be a friend,” says Lewis. “And then, obviously, that didn’t happen. We became a lot more than friends.”

Still, this didn’t happen right away. When Lewis made it to the lounge that day, the other teenagers flocked to him before Andrea could even say hi.

“Everyone was all over him, like, ‘Oh my god, your accent is so cute,’” she says. “Everyone was obsessed with him, creating a circle around him.”

Andrea sat back. She didn’t want to be one of the crowd. She wanted a meaningful, one-on-one chat with Lewis.

Later that evening she worried she’d missed her chance. But now that Lewis was part of the gang, he and Andrea had plenty of time to get to know each other over the next few days.

“We gradually hung out a little bit by a little bit,” says Lewis. “Then, after a week, we started realizing we liked each other.”

“I mean, I knew I liked him,” says Andrea, laughing. “He had to realize.”

They shared their first kiss in the rain. They went for walks on the beach. They swam in the pool together.

But their happiness was tempered by the knowledge that their summer romance would be fleeting. Lewis lived in Ireland, Andrea lived in the US. Sure, they could try and keep in contact. But they were teenagers with no means to travel across the world to visit one another. It was hard to see how it could work out.

“He told me he loved me right before he got his bus to the airport,” says Andrea. “And I hadn’t even thought about love. At that point, I was 14. I was like, ‘What? He loves me. This means he’s my first love. What is happening?’”

Andrea was so overwhelmed by the thought that she didn’t say the words back until Lewis had already started to walk away. She said them anyway, under her breath.

From first love to first heartbreak

Now on different continents, Andrea and Lewis stayed in touch via Facebook Messenger and Skype.

It was doable at first. But then Lewis traveled to the Irish countryside with a group of friends and had no internet access while he was there.

When Andrea didn’t hear from him, she assumed he’d forgotten about her.

“He didn’t let me know that he wasn’t going to have Wi-Fi,” she says. “I just thought I was being ghosted.”

Although Andrea felt she and Lewis “were supposed to be in love forever,” she figured he saw her as just a summer fling.

So, she sent him a message that was more like a “paragraph,” essentially saying: “This is actually not okay, what you’re doing. I’m not going to deal with it.’”

In the message Andrea sounded definitive, like she knew what she wanted and what she wouldn’t put up with. But in reality, she was a 14-year-old going through her first heartbreak. For months afterward, Andrea cried every day.

“For the first good year, I was literally head over heels, absolutely in love,” she recalls. “Even like a year later, I remember I had a New Year’s kiss with someone, and I felt so bad. I was like, ‘It’s not Lewis, I’m betraying Lewis.’ Even though, literally, we hadn’t been together for months. But it felt like a betrayal.”

Time went on.

“Obviously, after years go by, it becomes a little bit less intense,” says Andrea.

But even so, she still thought about Lewis often. They each remained vaguely aware of one another, privy to social media updates but not knowing much else.

For a while, Lewis went through a period of sending Andrea constant Snapchats. They left her conflicted.

“I remember, it would just bring back all the feelings,” she says. “It was really upsetting because I was like, ‘We’re not together. It’s been years.’”

Andrea sent Lewis a text, asking him to rein in the Snapchats: “You’re a blast from the past that I don’t want to remember,” she wrote.

Despite this, Andrea says she was still “totally obsessed” with Lewis. That’s why she’d often find herself thinking about summer 2014 and daydreaming. She wouldn’t dwell on the sad ending, and would just revisit the memories of the happy, sun-drenched haze.

Lewis didn’t fully let go of Andrea either.

“Throughout the years, randomly, Andrea would pop into my head,” he says.

On one such occasion, in 2017, Lewis typed a note to himself in his iPhone: “I will marry Andrea Camila.”

The action felt instinctual. The note felt like a premonition.

Despite this feeling of certainty, Lewis didn’t reach out to Andrea. By then, it had been years since they’d messaged directly. Lewis just felt weirdly sure he and Andrea would just reunite, eventually.

An unexpected reunion

Cut to spring 2018. Andrea was 18 and had just graduated high school. Lewis was 20 and midway through a degree at Dublin City University.

Looking back, neither is quite sure how it started. But, suddenly, out of the blue, they started messaging again.

“And on that same day that we started messaging, I was like ‘I’ll come to Florida, and then you can come to Europe, and then we can go interrailing, we can travel all around Europe,’” recalls Lewis.

“We made all these plans literally within an hour of starting to text again,” says Andrea.

“And we actually went through with them,“ adds Lewis.

Lewis booked a flight to Florida for July 2018. Over the two months, he and Andrea messaged back and forth constantly. Then they moved on to regular FaceTime calls.

“We were having an amazing time,” says Andrea. “We literally became best friends in that amount of time.”

At first, Andrea was sure they were flirting. She figured Lewis flying to Florida to visit her was for sure a grand gesture.

“This is going to be romantic,” she thought. “We’re so cute.”

Then, as the date of his arrival got ever closer, Andrea started doubting herself.

“Maybe he doesn’t see this the way I see this,” she thought. “Maybe he just wants to be friends. I don’t want this to be weird.”

Lewis had the same anxieties.

“You overthink things,” he says. “Especially when you’re in that talking phase, you overthink everything.”

Still, Lewis imagined that when Andrea saw him at the airport, she’d run into his arms. He expected it’d be a romantic reunion, reflective of all the years they’d spent apart. On the airplane over, he looked forward to the moment.

Instead, when they saw each other again at arrivals, Andrea played it cool.

“I was just like, ‘Hey, man. How are you doing?’” she recalls. “I just didn’t want to give him the impression that I was the girl obsessing over him.”

Andrea was also a bit flustered because Lewis caught her just as she was about to head into the airport bathroom. In the end, the moment wasn’t what either of them expected.

“It was definitely awkward,” says Lewis. “I think it was scary and awkward and nerve wracking.”

“When you’re talking on FaceTime, I don’t know, it’s such a different thing than being in person with someone,” says Andrea. “Since we hadn’t seen each other for four years, it was just like, ‘How do we act? Are we supposed to be as flirty and cute as we are on FaceTime? Or do we need to treat this as like a new thing, kind of, because this is a real, in-person encounter?’”

These questions continued to whirl around Andrea’s head as she drove Lewis back to her dad’s lakeside cottage, and showed him around the house.

But, by the evening, Lewis and Andrea were lying together on the dock, looking up at the night sky together, starting to feel at ease.

“We just laid there on these blankets, and were stargazing.” says Andrea. “We talked for hours. And so it became really comfortable. But it was still not romantic. Neither of us was wanting to take that step yet.”

Over the next couple of days, every evening, Lewis would leave the guest room he was staying in and go into Andrea’s room. They’d sit together, watching anime on her laptop. These moments always felt charged.

“I think he’d always be about to kiss me, but then turn away and not kiss me,” says Andrea. “Then, finally, one day he kissed me. I think it was about a week after.”

“I was building up the courage to officially ask her out,” says Lewis. “I don’t know why I got so nervous, it took me so long.”

When he actually said the words aloud, it was Friday July 13, 2018. Later, Andrea and Lewis looked over their Facebook messages and old photos from summer 2014. They did the math and realized they’d met on a Friday the 13th too.

“It’s a crazy coincidence,” says Andrea. “For other people. It’s an unlucky day. But for us, it’s literally the luckiest thing.”

Committing to the future

For a couple of days, it all felt like fate. Andrea and Lewis were giddy with happiness.

But then, as Lewis prepared to head back to Ireland, Andrea panicked. Yes, they had the European interrailing trip planned. But then what? She wasn’t sure she could take the heartbreak of a relationship with Lewis ending all over again.

“I was like, ‘It’s not going to work. It doesn’t make sense. Explain it to me, how’s it going to work? You live in Ireland, I live over here. This doesn’t make sense at all,’” Andrea recalls.

“He started crying. He was like, ‘I wasn’t thinking about all these things. I just want to be with you.’ He basically proposed to me. He basically said, ‘All I know is I want to spend the rest of my life with you.’”

At this – and the tears – Andrea was totally taken aback.

“It was so intense,” she recalls. “I thought I was the one who was head over heels for him, now he’s literally professing his entire love to me.”

Andrea felt like she needed to bring a dose of reality to the situation.

“Hold on a second, man,” she said. “What are you saying? You want to marry me? We’re just 18 and 20.”

“I wasn’t thinking about all of the ways it wouldn’t work,” replied Lewis. “I just want to make it work and be with you.”

At this, Andrea started crying.

“You know what, you’re right,” she said, once her sobs had subsided. “We’re going to make this work. And it’s going to happen.”

The conversation felt like a promise. Later that summer, as planned, Andrea and Lewis went interrailing together, enjoying traveling through Europe by train. Then, they committed to the long distance, transatlantic relationship.

The couple made it “bearable,” as Andrea puts it, by always planning when they were next going to see each other.

Andrea spent all her free time babysitting and working as a delivery driver to save money for flights. When Lewis wasn’t studying, he worked in a store, and scoured the internet for low cost flights.

Still, the following year, in 2019, Andrea and Lewis started to struggle with the distance.

“It just didn’t make sense to be apart,” says Andrea. “We were just aligned, we needed to be together.”

On a whim, Andrea booked a flight to Ireland. She temporarily moved in with Lewis and his family for three months. His family welcomed her, while Andrea’s parents were “supportive” of her decision.

“They really liked Lewis,” she says. “They’d met him that summer, when he came in 2018. And they had also met him in 2014 a little bit. So they knew him, and they knew he was a good guy.”

When, after three months in Ireland, Andrea’s visa ran out, they swapped and Lewis visited Andrea in Florida for three months.

This started a pattern that continued for a while – they’d alternate three months in each other’s home countries, occasionally meeting in other destinations instead.

They were both interested in filmmaking, and around this time started filming YouTube videos together. At first, these videos didn’t get many views. But Andrea and Lewis’s audience engagement was good from the beginning. Viewers seemed to be invested in their chemistry and love story.

The couple decided to dedicate as much time as they could to content creating, working part time jobs on the side to fund their endeavors. Lewis dropped out of college.

“We were like, ‘Why would we make a plan B? We don’t need to go to college to do this.’ We know we love making videos. So let’s just only do that,” says Andrea.

It was in the early days of the pandemic, says Andrea, that the gamble paid off and the couple “blew up” on social media.

“Because everyone was on their phone. Everyone was on the internet, and that’s when people started finding us,” says Andrea. “And we just started getting more followers. We went on TikTok, and it was crazy.”

From there, Andrea and Lewis started sharing updates on their lives on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, including in 2021, the moment Lewis asked Andrea to marry him.

A proposal and a wedding

On the day of the proposal, Lewis organized a jam-packed day and scavenger hunt around Florida – packing in everything from jet skiing, indoor skydiving, to, finally, a beach picnic.

Lewis pretended the picnic was a social media brand deal to throw Andrea off the scent. When the truth was revealed, Andrea welled up.

“It was definitely very emotional,” she says. “We were both bawling.”

In January 2023, Andrea and Lewis got married at Azulik Uh May, a contemporary art museum in a Mexican jungle. Naturally, it was a Friday 13 – it seemed only right. The couple say the wedding day was “a dream.”

In her vows to Lewis, Andrea voiced how, while she was excited to marry him, her overall feeling was a sense of calm and certainty.

“What I feel is just natural,” she said to him. “It’s not like, ‘Wow everything is going to change.’ It’s just natural.”

Today, reflecting on the wedding day, Andrea says she just felt “this is just what’s meant to be happening and what’s meant to be. It just felt amazing to share that with all of our friends and family.”

A ‘magnetic pull’

Today, several months into married life, Andrea and Lewis are looking towards the future – a future they expect to be defined by travel.

Come September, they’re planning to visit all 48 contiguous US states in an old American school bus they’ve been busy converting. Longterm, the couple imagine splitting their time between the US, Puerto Rico and Ireland, while also spending plenty of time on the road.

Andrea and Lewis are still young, at 23 and 25, but next year will mark the 10-year anniversary of the summer they met on vacation.

Over the years, it was just some magnetic pull towards each other.

Lewis Kelly

“We always think about what would 14 and 16 year old us think, if they saw us married,” says Lewis. “We were just on vacation, and we just fancied each other.”

“I can’t get over it,” says Andrea. “And whenever I think about it, I feel like it’s just magic or something. It just doesn’t make sense, but in the best way.”

Andrea and Lewis also find it surreal to think of their four years apart, their unexpected reunion, and their period of long distance.

They’re grateful, says Andrea, that “we found each other after.”

“I think it’s like a weird magic thing,” she says.

“Clearly, over the years, it was just some magnetic pull towards each other,” says Lewis.