Mike Goldberg spent his early career working in financial services, putting in long hours for 12 years, he said, before he decided it was time to call it quits.

“I was just chasing money,” he said. “But I realized that is not me. … It just wasn’t true to my core.”

In 1996, Goldberg left his job and his home in Los Angeles to follow his passion for underwater diving, spending time in Hawaii, the British Virgin Islands, and the Cayman Islands.

“When I got out of the water after my very first dive, I decided that this is what I really wanted to do … to take my life and somehow intertwine diving and making a living,” he said.

In 2004, Goldberg and his family settled in Islamorada, in the Florida Keys, and opened a dive shop, Key Dives.

Today, he’s on a mission to help bring the area’s coral reefs back to life through his nonprofit, I.CARE.

As an avid diver, Goldberg developed a strong appreciation for the coral reefs and their essential role in the marine ecosystem. They not only support all kinds of species, but they protect coastal areas, and millions of people depend on them for food and jobs.

Over the last two decades, he saw coral reefs in the Florida Keys go from colorful and full of life to functionally extinct today. What he used to see were “brain coral the size of a VW Beetle, and fields of staghorn and elkhorn coral that went on forever,” he said.

Now, he says many of the reefs in the area cannot recover naturally on their own and require human intervention to survive. Goldberg knew he needed to do something to help and wanted to find a way to get other people involved.

“I know more about the history of and what’s happening now to the reef than most people,” he said. “I’m not a scientist, but that puts me in a unique position to communicate in layman’s terms about what’s going on.”

He realized that recreational divers could be a great workforce to help turn around the damage and restore the reefs. He also envisioned that other local dive shops, residents, and tourists could play a role.

Around the same time, he met Dr. Kylie Smith, who was completing her PhD to become a behavioral ecologist and a coral reef ecologist. They spent hours at Goldberg’s dive shop discussing the health of the reef.

In 2019, they teamed up to co-found I.CARE, which stands for Islamorada Conservation and Restoration Education, with the goal of empowering divers to help restore the area’s reefs, ensuring their survival for future generations.

I.CARE organizes and offers special coral restoration dives for local and out-of-town participants. They spend the day learning about the importance of coral reefs and how to help rebuild them, then they go on dives to transplant coral grown in a local nursery run by Mote Marine Laboratory and Aquarium.

So far, Goldberg says the organization has transplanted more than 10,000 corals and educated more than 2,000 people. The I.CARE team monitors and maintains all of the transplanted coral, making sure it’s thriving.

“There’s so much work to do. We’re just getting started,” Goldberg said.

Mike Goldberg: The Keys in general – the ocean, the coral reef, the marine life – used to be the best anywhere. When I moved here 20 years ago, (there were) massive elkhorn corals that I used to swim around that were 12 feet across in both directions. Fields of them and stalks like trees that you could swim underneath on your back and marvel looking up at. Back then, we could swim a quarter mile in one direction and see nothing more than a quarter inch between the live coral. The live coral would compete for that underwater territory. Today, I could swim 20 feet in one direction and not see any. We’ve lost so much coral. It’s hard to express it. It truly is a pretty devastating number.

The coral reefs are threatened by ocean acidification, temperature, runoff. And then in 2014, there was something we called stony coral tissue loss disease. (It) was the sledgehammer that changed everything. It is incredibly virulent, and it started up near Miami and worked its way down. In 2016, it presented itself here, and we lost more coral in that one year than we did in all my prior years combined in diving. It was so dramatic watching this coral head die all in front of us. And we didn’t know what to do, how to stop it. It was very hard to watch, and feel helpless, wishing you could do something to stop it.

Goldberg: Without them, nothing is here simply put. They are what brings the ecosystem together. The majority of what we see out there at one point in their life is spending time on a coral reef. There’s small fish, not bigger than a grain of rice, all the way up to your large predatory fish, tiger sharks. The entire ecosystem’s right there out on the reef at any given point. Whether it’s a neon goby, whether it’s a cleaner shrimp, whether it’s a juvenile Spanish hogfish. Without that live coral as their home, that disappears. And when they’re gone, we have fewer snappers, grouper. It’s just a cascade effect because that goes all the way up the food chain. So, it’s imperative that we have a healthy coral reef for us to have a full ecosystem. Without a coral reef, there’s so many problems that will ensue.

Goldberg: I knew the only way that I could make it work is through the power of the recreational dive community. What I believed would work, and is, (is they’re) coming down and helping us rebuild the reef. There are a lot of them. And I truly believe at their core the vast majority want to be a part of this. And my experience so far has been just that. They want to keep doing it. They love being part of it.

What I can do is tell the world of divers that are out there, “Let’s band together. This is a plight not only for the Keys, but the Caribbean, for the Pacific, for the Red Sea. It’s all around the world. And if we, as a community of divers, don’t attempt to bring back or at least get it to a self-sustaining level, the dive community will disappear.”

This avenue gives those individuals another reason to come diving. They can be talking to their friends, to their families, getting them excited and spreading out those tendrils so we get more and more people down here helping us rebuild the reef.

I truly believe we’re going to be successful with this restoration work. I see things every time I go in the water that give me hope that we will have a sustaining coral reef.

Want to get involved? Check out the I.CARE website and see how to help.

To donate to I.CARE via GoFundMe, click here

The Philadelphia 76ers took a 3-0 series lead against the Brooklyn Nets with a scrappy 102-97 victory at the Barclays Center, but the game was overshadowed by controversial calls by the officials.

Sixers guard James Harden was ejected from the game in the third quarter after officials adjudged that the 10-time All-Star hit Royce O’Neale in the groin while driving towards the basket.

Prior to this, Joel Embiid had avoided an ejection from the game for kicking out at Nets center Nic Claxton.

The decisions on ejections have bewildered NBA players and coaches alike with everyone now left unsure as to what constitutes a flagrant 2 foul.

Speaking to reporters after the game, Harden questioned the decision to remove him from Game 3 of the first-round playoff series, exclaiming: “I didn’t hit him in the private area.

“Somebody draped on you like that defensively, it’s just a natural basketball reaction. I didn’t hit him hard enough for him to fall down like that. For a flagrant 2, it’s unacceptable. This is a playoff game.”

Harden continued: “I don’t think that was a foul. That’s unacceptable. That can’t happen.”

Tony Brothers, the referee crew chief for the night, explained the ejection after the game: “Based on the point of contact directly to the groin, it rose to the level of excessive and ejection.”

But the confusion surrounding the officiating also extended to the respective coaches of the 76ers and the Nets.

“No, I have no idea what an ejection 2 is,” Doc Rivers, head coach of the Philadelphia 76ers admitted.

Nets head coach Jacque Vaughn shared his counterpart’s uncertainty; just days after Draymond Green was ejected for a similar play, Vaughn was not happy that Embiid stayed in the game after his clash with Claxton.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen that in my career before. For a guy to intentionally kick someone in an area that none of us want to be kicked at or towards, and for him to continue to play, I’ve never seen that before in a game,” Vaughn said.

Claxton was also ejected in the fourth quarter after picking up his second technical foul for taunting after a dunk on Embiid.

The Sixers took advantage of the situation and, without Harden, Tyrese Maxey took over. The 22-year-old has been brilliant all season for Philly and his impressive fourth quarter performance and team-high 25 points led the Sixers to a 3-0 series lead.

Around the NBA Playoffs

Elsewhere in the league, Devin Booker scored 45 points to lead the Phoenix Suns to a 129-124 win and a 2-1 series lead against the Kawhi Leonard-less Los Angeles Clippers at the Crypto.com Arena.

Alongside Kevin Durant’s strong all-around performance of 28 points, six rebounds and five assists, Booker torched LA throughout the game and the Clippers defense had no answers for the pair.

Despite Norm Powell’s and Russell Westbrook’s best efforts on offense, the Clippers didn’t have enough without Leonard and Paul George and now face an uphill task to make it to the second-round.

The Golden State Warriors also clawed their way back into their series to avoid an 0-3 hole against the Sacramento Kings with a 114-97 win.

Steph Curry was as irrepressible as ever and scored 36 points, including an impressive six shots from deep in the victory. Kevon Looney was also once again putting in the hard yards for Dub Nation and tallied 20 rebounds, with nine of them on the offensive glass.

The Kings will look to quickly forget about their disappointing performance with De’Aaron Fox particularly out of sorts throughout the loss.

The NFL announced Friday that three players – Quintez Cephus and C.J. Moore of the Detroit Lions and Shaka Toney of the Washington Commanders – have been suspended indefinitely for gambling on NFL games in the 2022 season, while two others have received a six-game ban.

The league said the three players would be suspended until at least the end of the 2023 season and can petition for reinstatement after the season ends. Shortly after the NFL’s announcement, the Lions announced that Cephus and Moore had been released.

Additionally, Stanley Berryhill and Jameson Williams of the Lions are suspended for the team’s first six regular season games of the 2023 season for violating the gambling policy, the NFL announced.

“A league review uncovered no evidence indicating any inside information was used or that any game was compromised in any way,” a league statement said.

The Lions said Berryhill and Williams’ suspensions are “for other gambling policy violations, including betting from an NFL facility on non-NFL games.”

“As a result of an NFL investigation, it came to our attention that a few of our players had violated the league’s gambling policy,” Lions executive vice president and general manager Brad Holmes said in a statement.

“These players exhibited decision making that is not consistent with our organizational values and violates league rules. We have made the decision to part ways with Quintez and C.J. immediately.

“We are disappointed by the decision making demonstrated by Stanley and Jameson and will work with both players to ensure they understand the severity of these violations and have clarity on the league rules moving forward.”

Berryhill and Williams are eligible to participate in all off season and preseason activities, including preseason games. The suspensions will take effect at the final roster cut down.

The NFL’s gambling policy prohibits anyone in the NFL from engaging in any form of betting in any club or league facility or venue, including the practice facility.

England captain Leah Williamson is to miss this year’s Women’s World Cup after rupturing her anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) while playing for her club Arsenal, the defender announced Friday via Instagram.

Williamson suffered the injury during the first half of the team’s game against Manchester United on Wednesday, according to the club’s statement.

“Until I have the words to express my feelings properly I will struggle to verbalise them. The noise around the situation is loud and I need some quiet to let it all sink in,” Williamson wrote.

“Unfortunately the World Cup and Champions League dream is over for me and everyone will think that’s the main focus, but it’s the day-to-day of what I’m about to go through that is the most draining of my thoughts.”

Arsenal is due to play the first leg of its Women’s Champions League semifinal against German team Wolfsburg on Sunday.

Williamson’s post continued, “I haven’t had a day since last October when I’ve walked on to the pitch without a physical or mental question mark over me, and that’s professional sports.

“So now I have to listen to my body, give it what it needs and if everything happens for a reason, then we’ll see what road this turn takes me down.”

Arsenal’s announcement said the club “will be supporting Leah closely throughout the journey ahead and we would ask that her privacy is respected at this time.”

Williamson’s Arsenal teammates Beth Mead and Vivianne Miedema have also suffered from ACL injuries this season and Mead believes more needs to be done to analyze why these injuries are so common in women’s soccer.

Speaking to FIFPRO, the 27-year-old said: “I think it’s important that we as a collective try and get more done for ACLs and research into it.

“I think it’s way too common in the women’s game. I think if that had happened in the men’s game, a lot more would have been done sooner. It’s important for us to drive the different factors and aspects around why it’s happening so often.”

England’s official account also showed their support for Williamson and tweeted, “We’re with you every step of the way.”

Williamson captained the Lionesses to their first ever major tournament victory in July, as the Sarina Wiegman-managed team defeated Germany at Wembley Stadium, London, in the final of Euro 2022.

England won another trophy on April 6, defeating Brazil in the inaugural women’s Finalissima, a one-off contest between the European and South American champions, again at Wembley Stadium.

The 2023 Women’s World Cup runs from July 20 through to August 20 and will be held in Australia and New Zealand.

At barely 10 square miles, it’s less than half the size of Manhattan – but with world-class culture, pristine nature and plenty of vacation-friendly activities, Saadiyat Island delivers big.

Floating in the Persian Gulf just north of central Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat combines nature, culture, cuisine and calm – though if you’re up for adrenaline and partying, it has you covered, too. No wonder its Arabic name translates as “Island of Happiness.”

Dolphins beyond the dunes

While Abu Dhabi itself is home to bombastic contemporary architecture, Saadiyat – an easy 20-minute drive from downtown and Abu Dhabi International Airport – is a natural wonderland, edged by small sand dunes.

Bottlenose and Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins are regular visitors to the island’s clear waters. They’re often joined by endangered hawksbill turtles, which nest on the dunes along Saadiyat’s 5.5 mile beach from March through June. Each nest can hold around 100 eggs – though only one in 1,000 hawksbills make it to adulthood. Elevated boardwalks protect them from beachgoers – part of a conservation project led by Jumeirah at Saadiyat Island Resort and its inhouse marine biologist.

Gazelles on the golf course

The wildlife’s not only in the water. Red Arabian foxes and peacocks are among the island wilder residents, while players at Saadiyat Beach Golf Club often have to time their shots in between the movements of Arabian gazelles.

More than 300 species of birds are counted across Abu Dhabi every year. Saadiyat Beach Golf Club has even been designated as a Certified Audubon Cooperative Sanctuary – meaning that it enhances natural areas and wildlife habitats, while minimizing the potentially harmful impact of a golf course. Thanks in part to the club’s environmental management practices, more than 150 different bird species can be seen on and around the course.

Looking ahead, the Natural History Museum Abu Dhabi is set to open by 2025 in Saadiyat’s Cultural District – the designated area dedicated to the arts, heritage and culture, with seven world-class museums and performing arts centers.

A vast, nearly 400-square-foot facility with teaching and research institutions attached, the new addition will exhibit some of the rarest and most precious specimens found on earth, from meteorites to a T-Rex skeleton.

A Blue Flag beach

Another participant in the turtle conservation project is Saadiyat Beach Club, an oceanfront retreat with a Blue Flag-certified beach – claimed to be one of the best in the Middle East – and entertainment for the party crowd.

Instagram-friendly outdoor pools are surrounded by cabanas and daybeds, while DJs play alongside live jazz and R&B musicians throughout the day. A gym, spa and sauna helps members keep in shape.

There’s a Mediterranean restaurant, Safina, while Cabana 9 serves Arabic dishes, and has a shisha lounge, too.

Open year-round, Saadiyat Beach Golf Club is home to a Gary Player signature 18-hole golf course. Player himself – the legendary South African golfer – has also hosted charity invitational tournaments there in past years.

When playing off optional black tees, the course becomes the longest in the UAE at 7,784 yards – while it’s even more daunting thanks to multiple sand traps.

Vastly experienced coaches and generous pin placements ensure that everyone enjoys themselves, regardless of their standard, however. Stay and play packages are also available at hotels including the adjacent St. Regis Saadiyat Island Resort.

Around the world in 50 meals

Overlooking a long white sand beach and the clear waters of the Gulf, coastal neighborhood Mamsha Al Saadiyat has a spectacular waterfront promenade. Dining out is of course one of the UAE’s favorite pastimes, and there are plenty of options here. Coffee and healthy dishes like smoked salmon in tataki sauce and figs and burrata on zaatar flatbread are the order of the day at spots including Ten 11 Beach and Cafe Artea. Beirut Sur Mer serves classic Lebanese dishes to a soundtrack of popular music from the country.

Roman-style pizza made from a 50-year-old sourdough starter is the draw at Italian trattoria Antonia, while Black Tap Craft Burgers & Shakes promise real-deal eats from New York. And then there’s contemporary Japanese restaurant NIRI, which has sushi, plus wagyu beef and lobster coming off the robata grill.

Culture worthy of the Louvre

Inaugurated in 2017, The Louvre Abu Dhabi is France’s largest cultural project abroad. Its remarkable exhibits are housed in an architectural show-stopper by Jean Nouvel, the Pritzker Architecture Prize winner.

The museum takes visitors on a chronological journey through global civilization, from prehistory to the present day. The permanent collection of 700 treasures includes ancient Greek amphorae, Roman gold jewelry, Chinese porcelain and paintings by the likes of Bellini and Manet. It’s supplemented by another 300 pieces loaned annually by other museums around the world, including 100 from the Louvre in Paris.

There are also regular temporary exhibitions, and you can even take a moonlit kayak tour around the museum to take in the architecture from a whole new angle. Tickets can be purchased from the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s website.

Louvre Abu Dhabi isn’t the only highbrow place on Saadiyat – behind the dunes there are two world-class educational institutions, too.

Boston’s renowned Berklee College of Music has its first Middle East outpost in the Cultural District – a 42,000-square-foot arts education center celebrating contemporary music and the performing arts, with studios, performance spaces, multimedia tech labs and more.

NYU Abu Dhabi is a degree-granting campus from another storied institution. It has welcomed students from 120 countries working across 25 majors since opening in 2010. Its public-facing programs include performances, art exhibitions and talks, all open to visitors.

The same weather system that spawned tornadoes, deadly storms and water rescues in the central US continues to lash Texas with heavy rain as it crawls east early Friday, putting more than 15 million people at risk of severe thunderstorms from the South and Midwest to the Northeast.

Get the latest on your forecast here

Strong thunderstorms with large hail, gusty winds and isolated tornadoes could whip parts of the upper Texas coastal plain into the lower Mississippi Valley, along with the upper Ohio Valley into the lower Great Lakes region, the Storm Prediction Center said.

A small section of South Texas, including Brownsville, faces a Level 2 of 5 “slight risk” of severe weather, while places including Baton Rouge, Louisiana; Cleveland; and Buffalo, New York, are under a Level 1 of 5 “marginal risk.” A flash flooding threat runs from the mid-Mississippi Valley to the Gulf Coast.

Floods triggered by Thursday’s storm system forced some in Austin, Texas, to yell for help as storms overnight Thursday prompted water rescues across the capital. One person ended up in the hospital after a group got trapped between a fence and creek, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services said.

Six more were rescued after cars piled up in a creek, the agency said.

Crews also used ropes to get to two people who couldn’t move amid high water. And the Austin Fire Department plucked a driver from the deluge after a report a motorist was sitting atop a car, it said.

At least one tornado report was recorded in Tyler, Texas, on Thursday night, a day after more than a dozen tornadoes were reported across Oklahoma, Iowa and Kansas.

Alerts for large hail, damaging winds and the possibility of tornadoes also led to temporary ground stops Thursday night at San Antonio and Austin–Bergstrom international airports as the areas faced a “life-threatening” flash flood warning, the National Weather Service said.

Oklahoma endures significant tornado damage

Among the places hardest-hit after Wednesday’s tornado reports is the town of Cole, Oklahoma, where two people were reported dead in the community of 600, officials said. A third weather-related death was also reported in central Oklahoma.

Survey crew in McClain County (near Cole) just uploaded this picture back to the office. Four people were in this house when the tornado hit. All survived by sheltering under a mattress in their mud room. #okwx pic.twitter.com/STnh8nJGdo

— NWS Norman (@NWSNorman) April 20, 2023

The deaths came after a tornado with an estimated peak wind speed between 150 and 155 mph struck the town about 30 miles south of Oklahoma City, according to the National Weather Service office in Norman, Oklahoma..

The tornado – rated an EF-3 due to its wind speed – traveled for about 11 miles inside McClain County in about 35 minutes, the survey determined.

Another tornado packing estimated peak winds of between 130 and 135 mph swept across the city of Shawnee in Pottawatomie County, data from the preliminary survey shows. That tornado was rated an EF-2.

Meanwhile, an EF-2 tornado also struck the town of Etowah, home to some 160 people in Cleveland County, and traveled for about 10.5 miles, the preliminary survey found.

Many areas in Oklahoma experienced some form of severe weather Wednesday, but the Cole and Shawnee areas sustained the most significant storm damages, the state’s Department of Emergency Management and Homeland Security said in an update Thursday.

Between 50 and 100 homes were damaged in Cole, and another 100 were damaged in Shawnee, according to the update, though assessments are still ongoing.

“Our county was hit hard and it will take a while for every area to be checked,” the Pottawatomie County emergency management agency said after the tornado struck.

Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt declared a state of emergency for McClain, Pottawatomie, Cleveland, Lincoln and Oklahoma counties due to the severe storms and tornadoes.

If you’ve ever fancied escaping the grind of daily life and heading to a remote island with no other inhabitants, now could be your chance.

Situated just off the southern coast of Scotland, Barlocco Island is up for sale, priced at offers over £150,000 ($190,000).

“There’s still a very romantic sentiment attached to owning your very own Scotƫish private island, where you can escape the hustle and bustle of everyday life and enjoy some peace and tranquillity in the most beautiful scenery around,” Aaron Edgar of Galbraith Group, the agent handling the sale, said in a statement.

The buyer is unlikely to be a commuter. The nearest town is about six miles away, and the closest train station is Dumfries, an hour’s bus ride from the town. London and Edinburgh are more than 350 and 100 miles away, respectively.

With lush green grass and rocky outcrops stretching to the sea, the island covers an area of about 25 acres, but there are no buildings on it, only a flood pond providing water for livestock and wildlife in the winter months.

No one has ever applied for permission to build on the island, according to the listing, so it would be down to the buyer to investigate the development possibilities with the local authority.

At low tide, the island can be reached on foot, by tractor or quadbike. As for the rest of the time, there is a pebble beach where boats can be anchored—”the perfect base to explore the island, partake in some cold water swimming…and enjoy a waterside picnic,” Edgar added.

It is situated in a Site of Special Scientific Interest—an area in the UK defined as of particular interest due to the rare species of fauna or flora it contains—and is a haven for all types of wildlife, including great black-backed gulls, and rare plants such as rock sea lavender and fragrant orchid.

The agent is expecting a lot of interest in this miniature kingdom. “We have witnessed strong demand from domestic and international parties for entire private islands having handled the sale of several in Scotland,” Edgar said.

Finding your own stretch of sand in Mexico is not too daunting. This country has around 5,800 miles of coastline (9,330 kilometers), and only a fraction of that is developed for visitors.

Since most international vacationers head to the same few resort areas, that leaves a lot of beaches untouched, particularly for visitors willing to get a bit lost now and then.

Many of these are completely off the grid, however. They’re not served by paved roads and are accessible only with a sturdy vehicle or a boat charter.

Overnight visits to nature reserve beaches require signing up with an adventure tour operator with permission to set up camping facilities. These would include Espíritu Santo Island near La Paz or the barrier islands of Magdalena Bay on the other side of Baja, a top spot to see baby gray whales swimming with their mothers.

These lesser-known beaches seldom see big crowds and traffic, but for added relaxation, you can order a Pacifico and ceviche with your toes in the sand or find a place to stay overnight.

Resort beaches of Costalegre, Jalisco

For visitors willing to pay for exclusivity, several resorts on the Costalegre coast between Puerto Vallarta and Manzanillo have beaches on their property that outsiders would only be able to reach by boat. The newest is Four Seasons Tamarindo, which opened at the end of 2022.

At the 2,000-acre (809-hectare) Las Alamandas, which has its own airstrip, staffers can arrange for your group to have a whole beach to itself for one day. The resort has three from which to choose in addition to the main one in front of the rooms and restaurant.

Intrepid travelers on a budget can find plenty of “secret beaches” along this Jalisco coast, too, starting just south of Puerto Vallarta and Mismaloya. Most are down the end of a dirt road or next to a two-store town full of fishing families, but hotel rooms are available at Mayto Beach, which goes on for miles.

Puerto Escondido region, Oaxaca

Few foreign visitors make it to the Oaxacan coast on the Pacific, though for surfers, the words “Puerto Escondido” are legendary. The high waves here are some of the most challenging in the Americas. So the main two-mile-long (3.2 kilometers) Playa Zicatela is better for strolling than swimming.

Walking distance from the center of town is much calmer Playa Carrizalillo, where beachgoers can rent a chair for the day, order some drinks and fish tacos, and watch less skilled surfers taking lessons. Past that heading northwest is pocket beach Playa Coral and then very long and mostly empty Playa Bacocho.

The crowds thin out even more about an hour east at Mazunte and Zipolite, beaches popular with backpackers and long-stay guests. (Be forewarned: Zipolite is a nude beach.)

The Flamingo Coast, Yucatán

Find bargain-priced rentals and thin crowds – outside of local holiday periods anyway – at the Gulf Coast beaches stretching from Telchac Puerto to Celestún. These beach towns north of Yucatán state’s capital, Mérida, are just dots on the map in both directions from port city Progreso.

There are no high-rise hotels and few resorts along this coast, with Reef Yucatán being the only all-inclusive option on the water. It’s more common for visitors to rent a beach house of some kind, ranging from small cottages at bargain rates to 10-bedroom villas with an infinity pool.

Mahahual, Quintana Roo

The Riviera Maya of Quintano Roo is built up with hundreds of resorts between Holbox Island down through Cancún to Tulum, so every decade it gets harder to find a mellow Caribbean beach on this coast.

Almost all the way to Belize, however, the small settlement of Mahahual still feels sleepy and undiscovered. Most of the visitors are quick-stop cruise ship passengers calling at the purpose-built Costa Maya port on the northern edge of town, but after they’ve pulled out, the beach goes back to being empty.

Only a few hotels here are more than $100 per night. Some are in the $35 to $70 range, so it’s easy to stick around for a while for snorkeling off the shore, a scuba diving excursion to Banco Chinchorro or kayaking the nearby lagoons.

Punta Mita Peninsula, Nayarit

Technically, all beaches in Mexico are open to everyone, but the private beach clubs of the Punta Mita development north of Puerto Vallarta are really accessible only to homeowners and renters inside the massive gated community.

The two luxury resorts in the complex – Four Seasons and St. Regis – have their own long stretches of beach that are occupied by hotel guests. The price of renting a villa or hotel suite within the gates of Punta Mita comes with the assurance of lounging on an uncrowded, pristine Pacific beach.

For a nearby option that doesn’t require any credentials, Playa Litibu is a walk down the sand from Punta Mita’s Kupuri Beach Club.

Puerto Arista, Chiapas

Chiapas is known as an adventure state with jungles, Mayan ruins and the mountain city of San Cristóbal de las Casas.

It does have a few nice beaches – and ones that only see a crowd if it’s a Mexican holiday period, when residents of the capital Tuxtla Gutiérrez head to the shore. The Puerto Arista beach is 20 miles long (32 kilometers) so there’s bound to be a quiet spot on the sand on the Pacific.

The upscale resort Hotel Tachinaste can top $250 a night for double occupancy in high season, but most hotels in the area go for less than $100 a night.

Hidden beaches of Todos Santos, Baja California Sur

Todos Santos, about an hour north of Cabo San Lucas, has a main beach that doesn’t get all that crowded, with just a few hotels along its roughly 10 miles (16 kilometers) of sandy shores. Since the town itself is on the other side of a lagoon, it’s easy to find an isolated stretch of beach to enjoy.

Lace up some hiking shoes, however, and you can trek across the tops of dramatic cliffs to reach Playa Las Palmas, a gorgeous crescent of sand that can otherwise only be reached by four-wheel-drive. This one is good for swimming, while other beaches, such as Playa La Pastora, are better for surfing and boogie boarding.

The acting head of the Federal Aviation Administration told staffers he will step down this summer, further expanding the leadership vacuum at the agency.

Acting Administrator Billy Nolen wrote in a memo that it is “time for a new captain to guide the FAA.”

“I told Sec. Buttigieg and notified the White House that I will depart as a new nominee is named this summer,” Nolen wrote. “I have given everything to this agency, and now it’s time to do the same for my family, who have sacrificed so much and supported me during my time at the FAA.”

The Biden administration’s first nominee, Phil Washington, failed to muster sufficient support in the Senate. That left Nolen, previously the agency’s safety chief, running the FAA since the Trump-appointed head stepped down in March 2022 halfway through his five-year term.

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a statement that Nolen “has kept safety as the FAA’s north star through one of the most complex periods in modern aviation.” That period has included a series of close calls at airport runways that prompted Nolen to call a rare public safety summit earlier this year and a meltdown of the agency’s NOTAM system that caused a nationwide ground stop.

Nolen wrote in his memo that FAA officials “have not been afraid to act to preserve the safest era in aviation history but to also say that our current record is not good enough.”

“We should build a system so safe it doesn’t require heroic intervention,” he wrote.

The Biden administration has not yet signaled its next nominee to lead the agency.

An Indian court on Thursday acquitted 69 Hindus, including a former minister from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), of the murder of 11 Muslims during communal riots in the western state of Gujarat in 2002.

The killings occurred in Ahmedabad on February 28, 2002, a day after a suspected Muslim mob set fire to a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, setting off one of independent India’s worst outbreaks of religious bloodshed.

A total of 86 Hindus were accused of the killings in the Naroda Gam district of Ahmedabad, 17 of whom died during trial. All the accused were free on bail.

“We have been saying from the first day that they were framed,” defense lawyer Chetan Shah, who represented 82 of the accused, said. “Some of the accused were not present at the scene on the day of the incident.”

Shamshad Pathan, who represented the victims, said they would challenge the court’s decision in a higher court.

“Justice has eluded the victims once again. We will study the grounds on which the court has acquitted the accused persons,” Pathan said.

Those acquitted include Maya Kodnani, a former minister of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP, who was a lawmaker at the time of the riots, former Bajrang Dal leader Babu Bajrangi, and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Jaydeep Patel.

Bajrang Dal and VHP are Hindu nationalist groups and have close links to the BJP.

Kodnani was also an accused in a case in which 97 people were killed in the 2002 riots. She was convicted but later acquitted by a higher court.

At least 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, were killed across Gujarat in the 2002 riots. Activists put the toll at over twice that number.

Critics accused Modi, who was chief minister at the time, of failing to protect Muslims. Modi denied the allegations and a Supreme Court-ordered investigation found no evidence to prosecute him.

The acquittal comes eight months after 11 men jailed for life for the gang-rape of a pregnant Muslim woman during the riots were freed on remission, according to Reuters, drawing condemnation from the victim’s widower, lawyers and politicians.

The men were convicted in early 2008 and released from jail in Panchmahals in the western state of Gujarat on August 15, when India celebrated 75 years since the end of British rule.

Panchmahals’ top bureaucrat told Reuters that the district jail advisory committee had recommended the release after considering the time the 11 had spent in jail and their good behavior.