Holidaymakers Not Warned of Brexit Risks. Recommending Stephen Hawking's Other Books.

The Guardian picks up on the impact of Brexit on travel today, especially as about three quarters of all trips abroad are to the other 27 EU countries.

Which? had warned that holidaymakers were not being warned of the potential risks of Brexit to their  plans when making bookings. There is as yet no agreement in place about how flights are going to be regulated and agreed between the UK and the rest of the EU after 19th March 2019.

Several major travel companies have not yet told customers about possible cancellation procedures and refunds, as well as issues arising from items outside agreements, such as car or villa hire. Apparently,  Thomas Cook looks to avoid any embarrassing compensation or reimbursements by changed terms and conditions, which class any airspace closure in the same category as 'natural disasters'!

The Prime Minister has announced the expulsion of 23 Russian operatives (presumably spies) by the end of the week as well as financial restrictions on Russian oligarchs. So far, there have been supportive noises from robust statements from the US, at the UN security meeting and Germany. Russia itself has been fairly dismissive and the opinion generally appears to be that condemnation of Russia plays into President Putin's hands, adding to more support back home for his imminent re-election.

Across the Pond, impressed to see that school students have been demonstrating today against the US gun culture and demanding change. 17 minute silences were held, including outside the White House bounds, one minute for every student killed in the most recent shooting.

Big news today was the passing away of legendary physicist, Stephen Hawking. Yes, I too have a copy of 'A Brief History of Time' on the bookshelf, though I cannot remember if I read it completely or not. Feeling a bit jaded, I thought I would read a more recent updated version of our knowledge of physics: I downloaded the Kindle version of the children's book that Professor Hawking co-wrote with his science communicator and most frequent co-author, daughter Lucy. The book is called George's Secret Key to the Universe and so far I've enjoyed relearning about the origin of stars and been introduced to a pig called Freddy. The series extends to at least another four accessible books  and I like the way that there are hyperlinks within the book to short sections of factual information.

I phoned Ulli to chat about his planned marathon route through the UK and in return received another book recommendation. It's 'Dark Web' by Veit Etzold (in German), which will have to wait until I've finished Cordeila Fine's 'Testosterone Rex', which I am dipping into occasionally.