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(CNN) — Ash Wednesday is fast approaching (Wednesday, February 26). So you know what that means.It’s Carnival time around the world as people, most particularly folks in areas with strong Roman Catholic traditions, get their party on before the more solemn, introspective days of Lent commence.Venice, Italy, draws huge crowds annually with its fancy balls, masked celebrants and parade boats plying the canals.But take a look at the gallery above, and you’ll learn Carnival isn’t limited to just a few places. You can travel to Switzerland, Uruguay and the Canary Islands, among others, to find colorful Carnival parades and festivals.Just as parties tend to get chaotic at times, there’s no global standard for when Carnival begins.In Cologne, Germany, they get a big jump on things with their annual season technically starting back way on November 11. But around the world, it’s the week before Ash Wednesday when the merrymaking, overindulgence of food and drink and pursuit of earthly delights reach a fever pitch.

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(CNN) — United Airlines had to swap out Boeing 777 aircraft for a Saturday flight from Newark to Hawaii, resulting in a reduction of business class seats. These aren’t the passengers an airline wants to annoy. So the airline offered miles to passengers willing to sit in a lower class of seating on the Boeing 767-300 for the 11-hour plus direct flight. Lots of miles. Nine passengers accepted $10,000 in travel voucher compensation each for a total of $90,000. “Occasionally we have to change aircraft at the last minute and when that happens, we try to do the right thing and make the impact to customers as minimal as possible,” United spokeswoman Maddie King told CNN Travel.King confirmed that nine business class passengers volunteered to sit in a “Premium Plus” cabin, which offers passengers more legroom and other benefits not found in a regular coach cabin. “I do think this is a lot of money, but it doesn’t surprise me,” said Peter Sasaki, who’s flown more than a million United miles and has invitation-only elite Global Services status with the airline. (The exact qualifications for this program aren’t published, but it’s given to some of the airline’s most profitable customers.)”It is probably better to get the pax (passengers) to their destination at any cost rather than bump them and risk the cost of food, lodging, a rebook and bad PR, given how full flights are this time of year.”Travelers involuntarily bumped from US flights can be entitled to compensation if they have confirmed reservations, check in to their flights online, arrive at the departure gate on time — if their airline can’t get them to their destination within one hour of the original flight’s arrival time, according to the US Department of Transportation. Passengers on US domestic flights experiencing a one to two hour delay in their arrival times can receive compensation equal to double the one-way price of their bumped flight — up to $675. Domestic passengers experiencing more than a two-hour delay on flights will receive payments of four times the one-way value of their flight — up to $1,350.Since the 2017 episode of United passenger David Dao Duy Anh being dragged off a plane after he refused to be bumped from his flight, airlines have worked hard to get volunteers rather than bumping people involuntarily. United won’t make many friends on board with its $5 checked-bag fee increase to $35 for your first checked bag and $45 for the second bag. The price change goes into effect March 6 for US flights and flights to Latin America and the Caribbean. There’s a discount for people who pre-pay online for checked baggage, more than 24 hours ahead of their flight, and certain United loyalty program members and credit card holders have fees waived.

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(CNN) — Just one week after Plymouth Rock was vandalized with red graffiti, another beloved memorial in Plymouth, Massachusetts, was found damaged. This time it was the town’s 9/11 tribute. A statue of a police officer was knocked over and damaged on Sunday. The firefighter statue that stood next to the police officer was unharmed. From WCVB”What (the vandals are) doing is heinous,” Arrighi told CNN. “Between the 9/11 memorial and Plymouth Rock, there is no excuse and there is no reason for this.” The memorial, revealed in 2004, was funded by Plymouth resident Dick Quintal, who even took out a second mortgage to make it a reality, according to CNN affiliate WCVB. “At first I was angry, then I was heartbroken and sad,” Quintal told WCVB about the moment police told him his memorial had been vandalized. “Just think about it if this had your family’s name on the memorial, how would you feel?” Ken Devora, chairman of the Board of Selectmen told WCVB. Plymouth Rock and a number of other nearby memorials were vandalized with red graffiti last week. Peter SullivanThe investigations of the two vandalism cases are ongoing, but Arrighi said the quick support from the community and city authorities was heartening. “Our firefighters jumped to action almost immediately,” Arrighi said. “When something bad occurs, the residents and community jump in.” The statue of the police officer is being restored pro bono by a local company, according to Arrighi. “I can’t thank everybody enough for the outpouring of concern, outrage, support and offers to help,” Arrighi said. The Plymouth Police Department did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for additional information.

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(CNN) — In yet another blow to the troubled cruise industry, US travelers are being urged to steer clear of Asia’s waters.On Monday, the State Department advised cruise ship travelers to or within Asia to reconsider their trips, saying in a statement on its website, “This is a dynamic situation and US citizens traveling by ship may be impacted by travel restrictions affecting their itineraries or ability to disembark, or may be subject to quarantine procedures implemented by the local authorities.”Moreover, the State Department warned that repatriation flights organized by the US government “should not be relied upon as an option for US citizens under the potential risk of quarantine by local authorities.”Over 600 coronavirus cases were diagnosed on the Diamond Princess.The Asahi Shimbun/Getty ImagesWhile the State Department noted the nation’s successful evacuation of hundreds of US citizens in the past few weeks, the agency said in its statement that it cannot promise to get its citizens off impacted ships or go above any local authorities’ jurisdiction in coronavirus-infected areas.The advisory comes days after more than 600 cases of coronavirus were diagnosed on board the Diamond Princess cruise ship in Japan. The outbreak on the cruise ship, which has been the site of the largest outbreak of the virus outside of mainland China, resulted in the death of two passengers.Calling the situation a “dynamic” one, the State Department offered no information on when the Asia cruise ship travel advisory will lift. The department did not immediately respond to CNN’s request for comment. Large-scale cautionary taleThe comprehensive Asia-wide cruise ship travel advisory is seemingly not aligned with either the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) or the Cruising Lines International Association (CLIA), both of which in previous weeks have responded to the virus’ outbreak with enhanced protocols.Responding to the State Department’s latest travel advisory, the CLIA defended its position in a statement, pointing to the cruise industry’s screening procedures as “consistent with the advice to cruise passengers from the United States Government, issued on 20 February 2020.” The world’s largest cruise industry trade association, CLIA noted the cruise industry’s modified operations in and around East Asia but says those very precautions “have enabled cruise operations to continue as usual in other parts of the world, including Australia, New Zealand and the South Pacific.”Neither the United Kingdom nor Canada have issued similar blanket advisories around Asia cruise travel, though both nations have issued travel warnings for China.

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Natalia Taylor posted a series of photos on her Instagram that made it seem like she had traveled to a far-off exotic destination. There she was lounging in a fancy bathtub. In another, she posed in front of a floral print mirror.”The queen has arrived,” she wrote in the caption. Her location: Bali, Indonesia.But in a video she later posted to YouTube, she revealed the photos were staged in an Ikea.The Instagram photos were all fictitious. And that, Taylor said, was the point. “Sometimes, people want to lie about who they are,” she said in the YouTube video. “It’s not hard to do.”Taylor and photographer Ally Amodeo held a photo shoot in different sections of the nearby Ikea.The first set of photos featured a flower print mirror — it sure looked like a fancy hotel room. The baby blue wall phone only helped set the scene. The next shots showed Taylor posed on a sun lounger and in a bathtub, dressed in a white robe with a towel wrapped around her head.At the same time, she also posted videos of Bali to her Instagram story. Some were sent from friends who had visited. Others she found online.Her fans, of which there are more than 300,000, lapped it up.”She really out here living her best life,” one observed. “Our Bali Princess,” said another.There was one who noticed something awry — an Ikea price tag on a chair in the mirror’s reflection. It didn’t matter. The photos got tens of thousands of likes.Bali, Taylor explained, was “the perfect place to fake an influencer vacation and lie to all of my followers.”But she wasn’t trying to hoodwink them and cash in. She wanted to make a point. “Today it is easier than ever to become anyone you want. That’s wonderful! But with great power comes great responsibility,” she told CNN. “As we all know, not everyone is transparent online.””We could all use a fun reminder to take social media less seriously,” she added. “And don’t believe everything you see online.”So be warned — that influencer you are jealously watching travel the world might not be telling you every piece of the story. There’s a chance they never even left home at all.

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(CNN) — The novel coronavirus may have originated in Wuhan, China, but it’s since spread to more than 30 countries across the world.During a press briefing on Monday, Angelo Borrelli, head of the country’s Civil Protection agency, confirmed that five people have died and at least 219 others have been infected with coronavirus in Italy.According to Borrelli, there are 167 cases in the northern Italian region of Lombardy.”We still cannot identify patient zero, so it’s difficult to forecast possible new cases,” Borrelli said at another news conference on Sunday.The Italian government has since taken “extraordinary measures” in a bid to control the outbreak, including a ban on public events in at least 10 municipalities and suspending the Venice Carnival.These recent developments have left travelers preparing to visit the country with many questions.So is it still safe for travelers to visit Italy?Government precautions Borrelli said at Monday’s press conference that it remains safe to travel to Italy, because the outbreak remains in a contained area and has not spread outside of it. However, the towns of Codogno, Castiglione d’Adda, Casalpusterlengo, Fombio, Maleo, Somaglia, Bertonico, Terranova dei Passerini, Castelgerundo and San Fiorano in Lombardy and Vo’ Euganeo in Veneto are under lockdown.This means around 10,000 people are banned from leaving or entering the affected areas without authorization. Meanwhile Italy’s Health Minister Roberto Speranza also announced the closure of public buildings and limited transport in these zones.”We are asking basically that everyone who has come from areas stricken by the epidemic to remain under a mandatory house stay,” Speranza said at a Saturday press conference.As a result, Italy’s top soccer league, Serie A, canceled at least three games scheduled to be played in Lombardy and Veneto regions.While areas outside of the “hotpots,” such as Florence and Milan, are deemed safe to visit, two of the Veneto region’s 25 cases occurred in the popular tourist destination of Venice. As a result, Venice Carnival has also been suspended, while museums and cinemas have been shut.Luca Zaia, the governor of the Veneto region, has also confirmed a ban on public and private meetings, along with the closure of schools, universities and museums in the region.”We ask for the cooperation of all citizens. It’s not an easy moment. But, with the data we have today, we can still hope to limit the contagion,” he said.What do the authorities say?The US State Department has urged its citizens to “follow Italian health official guidance and avoid government-designated affected areas,” while the UK Foreign Office has issued a similar warning.Any travelers who are currently in these particular areas of Lombardy and Veneto are urged to follow the instructions of local authorities.But while governments are “monitoring” the situation, travelers have not been advised against travel to Italy.The developments in Italy, along with South Korea, where cases have surged past 600 in the last few days, has increased fears of a spike outside mainland China.During a press conference last week, the organization’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has stressed that, while there’s still a chance of containing the virus outside China, “the window of opportunity is narrowing.””Although the total number of cases outside China remains relatively small, we are concerned about the number of cases with no clear epidemiological link, such as travel history to China or contact with a confirmed case,” he said.How is the virus being spread?While there’s so much that remains unclear about the outbreak, Dr. Yoko Furuya, associate professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at Columbia University Irving Medical Center, has indicated that air travel has played a part in the spread of coronavirus.”When it comes to the global spread of outbreaks, air travel is usually how things kind of spread quickly from country to country,” says Furuya.While face masks are often suggested as appropriate defenses to help avoid infections, experts say vigorous hand washing offers better protection. CNN’s James Griffiths, Marnie Hunter, Barbie Latza Nadeau, Livia Borghese and Tara John contributed to this report.

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