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By Silvia Marchetti, CNN Palmarola, Italy (CNN) — Palmarola has no town and no roads. There is no electricity, no mobile phone coverage and no ferry terminal. On most days, the only way to reach the island is by small boat from Ponza, five miles away across the Tyrrhenian Sea. It lies west of Rome, close enough that it can be reached in a day trip but far enough removed so that the Italian capital’s traffic, crowds and constant motion feel like a neighboring planet. While Rome’s forums, fountains and piazzas pull in millions of visitors, Palmarola remains largely absent from itineraries. Many tourists never hear of it. Many Romans never go. What draws the people who do make the crossing is not infrastructure or convenience, but the absence of both. Palmarola rises sharply from the water in volcanic cliffs, broken by sea caves and narrow inlets. There is a single beach, a network of footpaths leading inland, and little sign of modern development. Reaching the island from Rome involves a train to the port of Anzio, a ferry to Ponza and then negotiating with a fisherman or private boat owner for a ride in both directions. With no permanent residents, Palmarola is a destination shaped more by weather, geology and seasons than by tourism. There is one restaurant, O’Francese, that serves fresh fish and rents out a limited number of basic rooms carved into old fishermen’s grottoes along the cliffs. Guests book months in advance and stay on a full-board basis, with nightly rooms starting at 150 euros, or $175. Maria Andreini, a 44-year-old remote IT worker from Treviso in northern Italy, visits Palmarola each summer with her husband, Mario, a bank manager, and their 15-year-old son, Patrizio. “There’s so much, and so little, to do,” she says. “We spend our days snorkeling and suntanning on the restaurant’s front beach, made of pink coral pebbles. At night we lie on the beach and stargaze, we walk around with torches. At dawn the owners wake us up to take us on a hiking trip to the isle’s highest peak to admire the sunrise. It’s stunning.” Ancient ruins Footpaths lead inland from the beach, climbing toward the ruins of a medieval monastery and the remains of a prehistoric settlement. “For dinner, we eat fresh fish from the net. For an entire week, we feel as if we’re living a primeval, castaway experience, a bit like being the Flintstones family on holiday,” says Andreini, who advises visitors to bring hiking boots along with beachwear. She says she has traveled widely, including to the Maldives, but finds Palmarola unmatched. Its scenery is “spell-binding,” she adds, “and it’s in my backyard — Italy. Hard to believe we boast such a fantastic place.” Beyond the main beach, the island’s coastline is best explored by dinghy. The cliffs form sea stacks, tunnels, and grottoes, and the surrounding waters attract snorkelers, canoeists, and scuba divers. The only animals visitors are likely to encounter on land are wild goats, which shelter among the low palms that give the island its name. “It’s a trip back to prehistoric times when cave men flocked here in search of the precious jet-black obsidian stone, still visible in the cliff’s black streaks, used to make weapons and utensils,” local historian Silverio Capone tells CNN. “Very little has changed since then in the landscape.” Capone lives on Ponza, the nearest island, and the jumping off point for Palmarola, which he visits regularly, sometimes dropping off his teenage son for a wild camping weekend with his friends. He says the island has long remained unsettled. “Palmarola has always been a desert isle, that’s what makes it special,” he says. “The Ancient Romans used it as a maritime strategic look-out post in the Tyrrhenian Sea for their imperial fleet, but they never colonized it.” A sacred ritual The island’s ownership dates to the 18th century, when Neapolitan families sent to colonize Ponza were allowed to divide Palmarola among themselves. Today, it is privately owned, split…

By Alexandra Banner, CNN The nation will pause today to honor and remember the legacy of civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. It’s a federal holiday, which means most post offices, banks and government agencies will be closed. Here’s what else you need to know to get up to speed and on with your day. 1⃣ Greenland tensions The US and Europe are at odds over President Donald Trump’s demand to take over Greenland. Over the weekend, Trump threatened to impose a 10% tariff on “any and all goods” from several key European allies that oppose the move. Trump’s threat sparked a flurry of activity across the continent: Protests erupted across multiple countries, and European Union ambassadors held an emergency meeting on Sunday to coordinate a response to the tariffs, set to take effect on February 1. Trump said the 10% tariff would rise to 25% on June 1 unless an agreement is reached to purchase Greenland, which he claims the US needs for national security reasons. 2⃣ Minneapolis protests The Pentagon has ordered about 1,500 active-duty soldiers to prepare for a possible deployment to Minnesota as anti-ICE protesters and law enforcement clash in Minneapolis. The demonstrations persisted through the weekend in response to thousands of federal officers who have been conducting immigration raids throughout the city. Military officials tell CNN they have options ready should President Trump decide to send troops into the city. News of the soldiers on standby sparked backlash from local officials, including Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey, who said the plan is “designed to intimidate” residents and is “completely unconstitutional.” 3⃣ Spain train derailment At least 39 people were killed and dozens more injured in a high-speed train collision in Spain on Sunday. Officials said a train traveling from Malaga to Madrid with 371 people onboard derailed near Adamuz, with its rear three carriages crashing into two carriages of another high-speed train traveling in the opposite direction. The impact caused both trains to overturn, sending several carriages plunging down an embankment. The disaster sparked nationwide grief, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calling it a “night of deep pain” for the country. Investigators are examining the cause of the crash — one of the country’s deadliest rail accidents in more than a decade. 4⃣ Gaza reconstruction Members of President Trump’s “Board of Peace” for rebuilding Gaza will receive permanent membership if they pay $1 billion, according to a US official. All funds raised will go toward rebuilding Gaza, the official said, which was ravaged by two years of war between Israel and Hamas. Trump said he will serve as chair, calling it “the greatest and most prestigious board ever assembled.” Russian President Vladimir Putin has been invited to join the board and is reviewing the invitation, his spokesman said today. Other members include former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. 5⃣ Moon mission NASA’s 10-day Artemis II mission will lift off as soon as February 6, taking astronauts Reid Wiseman, Victor Glover, Christina Koch and the Canadian Space Agency’s Jeremy Hansen to the vicinity of the moon for the first time since Apollo 17 in 1972. The spacecraft carrying the four people will not land on the lunar surface because it lacks the capability to do so, a NASA spokesperson explained. However, the crew will aim to reach beyond the far side of the moon, potentially setting a new record for the farthest distance humans have ever traveled from Earth, currently held by Apollo 13. It will also make history as the first trip beyond low-Earth orbit for a person of color, a woman and a Canadian astronaut. Breakfast browse NFL’s final four is set Sunday’s playoff games delivered excitement and upsets, and now the NFL’s final four is locked in. See which teams will battle for a trip to the Super Bowl. Here’s how AI data centers affect the…

By John King, CNN Kellerton, Iowa (CNN) — Shanen Ebersole is smiling, keeping an eye on her cows as they graze. Calving season is soon, so election season will have to wait. “We’ll walk them the mile and a half home in a month or so,” Ebersole tells a visitor. “Then they will calve in a pasture just like this. So, these are all our old mama girls.” As we walk, the cows give an occasional gaze but mostly go about their business — calmly, with occasional bursts of playfulness. “I wish Washington could get along like cows,” Ebersole said. “They need to find a way to get along for us, because that’s what we the taxpayers pay them to do.” Ebersole was a Nikki Haley supporter when we first met early in the 2024 election cycle. She voted for Donald Trump in the end, believing his policies were better for her family farm. Now, though, there are signs of Trump exhaustion as she begins to think about 2026 races. “We have choices,” Ebersole said. “We can say calm down. We can say talk nice.” Trump has been back in the White House for a year now, and his standing — more than anything else — will define the mood and the direction of the midterm campaign. Ebersole scores his performance at a 3 out of 5. The economy feels a little better to her, and illegal border crossings are down. But she recoiled at Trump’s plan to increase low-tariff beef imports from Argentina, finding it to be anything but “America First.” Now, the president’s talk of somehow taking control of Greenland feels like another detour from his campaign agenda. “I don’t agree with that in any way, shape or form,” Ebersole said. “We need to take care of the 50 states that we have.” The Ebersole Cattle Farm is in Kellerton, a rural Iowa town close to the Missouri border. Ringgold County is ruby-red when you look at election results here the past few decades; it’s a place Republicans count on especially in big years like this. Iowa will pick a new governor in 2026, plus a new US senator. And Kellerton sits in Iowa’s 3rd Congressional District, a Democratic target as the party tries to capture the House majority in this year’s midterm elections. Ebersole has a dim view of Washington. She favors term limits and says that in her view, members of Congress are obsessed with fundraising and power and forget family farmers like her; forget trying to find compromise on issues such as health care. She includes her own representative, two-term GOP Rep. Zach Nunn, in that critique. “We want change,” she said. “We need more freshness.” Ebersole, of course, is just one voter. But her sentiment is potentially instructive. Democrats would have to flip just a few seats to take the House majority, but they would need gains in red states such as Iowa to build a bit of a cushion. To get there would likely require winning over a fair amount of reluctant Trump 2024 voters who see divided government as a way to check the Trump traits they don’t like. “I think you have to vote for the person who best meets your goals,” Ebersole said. “Every time we are met with a new election cycle, I am open-minded.” Recent history here favors the GOP. Trump carried Iowa in all three of his White House runs, with a bigger margin each time. The last Democratic governor finished his term in January 2011. The last Democratic US senator left office in January 2015. All four House seats are now held by Republicans, but at least two are potentially competitive. The 2024 GOP margin in the 3rd Congressional Districts was just shy of 16,000 votes; in the 1st Congressional District, the Republican incumbent won by just 799 votes. A Trump convert says, ‘I got what I voted for’ Betsy Sarcone lives 70 miles north of the Ebersole farm, in the fast-growing Des Moines suburbs. This is our sixth visit, dating to August 2023 when we began our “All Over the Map” project to track campaigns and big policy debates through the eyes and experiences of everyday voters. “I’m happy” is Sarcone’s take on Trump’s first year back in power. “I…

Por Reuters La primera ministra de Japón, Sanae Takaichi, dijo que convocará a elecciones nacionales para el 8 de febrero para buscar el respaldo de los votantes para un mayor gasto, recortes de impuestos y una nueva estrategia de seguridad que se espera acelere el desarrollo de la defensa de Japón. “Me juego mi futuro político como primera ministra en estas elecciones. Quiero que el público juzgue directamente si me confiará la gestión del país”, declaró Takaichi en rueda de prensa. Prometió suspender durante dos años un impuesto del 8 % al consumo de alimentos y dijo que sus planes de gasto crearían empleos, impulsarían el gasto de los hogares y aumentarían otros ingresos fiscales. La perspectiva de un recorte del impuesto al consumo, que reduciría los ingresos del Gobierno en 5 billones de yenes (US$ 32.000 millones) al año, según estimaciones del Gobierno, envió el rendimiento de los bonos gubernamentales de Japón a 10 años a un máximo de 27 años este lunes. La votación anticipada decidirá los 465 escaños de la cámara baja del parlamento y marcará la primera prueba electoral de Takaichi desde que se convirtió en la primera mujer primera ministra de Japón en octubre. Convocar elecciones anticipadas le permitiría aprovechar el fuerte apoyo público para reforzar su control sobre el gobernante Partido Liberal Democrático y apuntalar la frágil mayoría de su coalición. Las elecciones pondrán a prueba el apetito de los votantes por un mayor gasto en un momento en que el aumento del coste de la vida es la principal preocupación del público. Una encuesta publicada por la emisora ​​pública NHK la semana pasada reveló que el 45 % de los encuestados citó los precios como su principal preocupación, seguidos de la diplomacia y la seguridad nacional con un 16 %. The-CNN-Wire™ & © 2026 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved. The post La primera ministra de Japón, Sanae Takaichi, disolverá el parlamento el viernes y convocará elecciones nacionales appeared first on KRDO.