Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Hotels in Cannes, the glamorous city on the French Riviera, hire hawks to ward off seagulls during the city's famous film festival.

Cannes hotels hire hawks to scare off seagulls

Seagulls prey on celebrity tourists visiting for Cannes' festival season, a problem the city's hotels have (mostly) solved with an unlikely solution: more birds. Falconers strategically deploy hawks to scare off the seagulls and, in the process, protect the unsuspecting diners' meals.

A guide to Cannes, the luxurious city on the French Riviera

Explore everything Cannes has to offer with this travel guide aimed at tourists interested in bucking the typical traps. Includes recommendations for traveling to Sainte-Marguerite, taking in the city's murals, and booking a beach club reservation.

The Cannes Film Festival was created as a response to fascism

Initially called the International Film Festival, Cannes was created as an alternative to the Venice Film Festival, which French diplomat Philippe Erlanger believed had been politicized by the influence of Hitler and Mussolini.

The subtle red carpet war

The dress code for the Cannes Film Festival’s red carpet is conservative by today’s standards, leading to conflict with stylists embracing more contemporary looks. While some rules are Cannes’, others are out of their hands because they’re French law.

In 2013, a lone bandit stole $136M in jewels from a luxury hotel in just 30 seconds

The robbery took place in broad daylight. Without any armed security guards present, the thief quickly stuffed a duffel bag with 72 precious items. They remain at large. The heist drew particular attention for its location—the Carlton Intercontinental Hotel in Cannes, which was prominently featured as a setting in Hitchcock's 1955 film "To Catch a Thief" about a reformed cat burglar.

Cannes Lions features over 30 different awards

While the classic track is limited to audio and radio, film, outdoor, and print and publishing, Cannes Lions’ many other awards embrace the broad spectrum of the creative fields.

Why so many movies are filmed in Vancouver

Vancouver, a major city in British Columbia, is a hugely popular filming location. The Canadian metropolis hosts film sets for movies based in New York City, Seattle, Kansas, and even India. Filmmakers seek out Vancouver for a number of reasons, mainly boiling down to tax breaks and the area’s diverse array of landscapes and city settings. Watch this Vox video for an in-depth breakdown of the rising interest in using Canada as a film backdrop.

Some tourist hotspots are shunning tourists

Locals in Barcelona sprayed tourists with water guns while protestors in Mexico City demanded politicians work against gentrification. Despite the economic boost tourism provides, protestors believe tourism has contributed to housing shortages and rising costs.

On an island off Cannes, monks make their own wine

Saint-Honorat Island is home to the Lérins Abbey, where an order of monks makes wine, liqueurs, and olive oil—when they’re not praying.

Davos becomes extremely heavily secured during the WEF

During the annual World Economic Forum in Davos, the city effectively turns into a fortress, guarded by thousands of Swiss army, police, and civil security personnel, with restricted airspace, drone surveillance, snipers, checkpoints, and round-the-clock patrols protecting global leaders.

Vegas’ high-rated convention logistics earned it a CES contract through 2039

The strip has more than 100,000 hotel rooms and the sprawling Las Vegas Convention Center where some of the convention takes place. Sin City’s alluring attractions combined with these logistics perks make it a common destination for big-time gatherings like CES.

How much do people make in Hollywood?

A huge network of people makes up Hollywood—a place associated with glamour and fortune. Read this article in The Hollywood Reporter to learn more about the actual roles within the industry and what these workers are paid. From studio executives to makeup artists, learn what the different Hollywood salaries are.

Indian Creek Village: the exclusive billionaire island

Off the coast of Miami lies an island called Indian Creek Village. Spanning around 300 acres, the island is home to a few dozen homes owned by celebrities, sports stars, and tech founders. Only residents and verified visitors can enter this private space, protected by its own police force. Listen to this podcast episode for more information about the private island and why the wealthy love it.

Michelin judges act as anonymous restaurant inspectors

Go behind the scenes with Gwendal Poullennec, international director of The Michelin Guide and the man who oversees all those anonymous inspectors. This short video dives into who the inspectors are, the training process, and what they look for in a meal.

The marine animals that rely on coral reefs for habitats, camouflage, and food

Parrotfish and surgeonfish feed on algae that grow on coral reefs to prevent overgrowth while serving as prey for larger fish across the food chain. Reefs also serve as structures for organisms like sea anemones, which provide shelter for clownfish, and homes for invertebrates such as crabs, lobsters, and shrimp, which help recycle nutrients.

Ancient Romans took trips to the coast to beat the heat

When the weather grew too hot in Rome, the city’s elite traveled to coastal spots like the Gulf of Naples, where they’d eat oysters, drink wine, and bathe in thermal pools.

Are hotels cheaper than Airbnbs?

When Airbnb first became popular, it was seen as a cheaper alternative to staying at a hotel. But these days, depending on factors such as how many people you're traveling with and how long your trip is, Airbnb isn't always the less expensive option. To figure out which form of lodging might be cheaper for your next vacation, read this article.

The floating homes of Holland

Floating communities like Schoonschip in Amsterdam are offering a novel approach to combat climate change-induced flooding. With sea levels rising and storms becoming more intense, these floating neighborhoods are providing a sustainable flood defense solution. Learn how they work here.

Fish populations in the Great Barrier Reef have increased after installing waterproof speakers on the ocean floor that played recordings of sounds from healthy coral reefs.

Paris and Boston were redesigned partly to combat cholera's spread

Georges-Eugène "Baron" Haussmann, who oversaw Paris's redesign in the 1800s, replaced many of the city's narrow streets with wide boulevards. This was done at least in part to bring more air and light into the city to help control cholera. Architect Arthur Gilman redeveloped Boston's Back Bay to similarly combat cholera, among other reasons.

The bats that live in and protect Portugal's libraries

Two 18th-century libraries in Portugal, the Joanina Library at the University of Coimbra and the Library at the National Palace of Mafra, are home to colonies of bats. These bats are welcome guests because they eat insects that could damage the manuscripts. Visitors can try to see the bats emerge at nightfall in Coimbra or visit on a rainy day and hear them. While catching a glimpse of the bats in Mafra is difficult, the library displays taxidermied remains of former residents.

The Borscht Belt was a haven for Jewish vacationers—and comedy fans

New York’s Catskills region resorts were informally named after a dish popular with Ashkenazi Jews. The area offered affordable vacationing, as well as cutting-edge stand-up from future stars like Milton Berle, Mel Brooks, and Joan Rivers.

Polar bears find refuge in an abandoned Russian village

Russia's Wrangel Island hosts one of the world’s largest seasonal gatherings of polar bears. Hundreds of females come ashore to den and raise cubs, often entering abandoned homes for protection. See videos and pictures of the endangered species mingling on the island.

Carmel, California, is looking into banning pickleball

Pickleball is the fastest-rising sport in the US, but it's not without its controversies. Chief among them is noise, which Carmel, California, a wealthy enclave on the state's central coast, seeks to remedy with a ban on the sport. It would be the first in the state.

The annual “Fiesta” parade features the largest equestrian parade in the US

Every first week of August, Santa Barbara welcomes tens of thousands of tourists for Old Spanish Fiesta Days festival, a five-day event downtown celebrating Spain’s legacy in the town. A capstone moment is the annual equestrian parade, honoring the region’s horse tradition with hundreds of the animals.

Niagara’s honeymoon tourism was influenced by Napoleon's brother

Niagara falls was once dubbed the “honeymoon capital of the world.” This tradition partially began with a visit by Napoleon's brother Jerome and his wife in 1804.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

In preparation for this weekend's Eurovision finale, which is something like the World Cup of pop music, here's a young Céline Dion performing (for Switzerland?) at the 1988 competition.

Hedge funds, the private investment firms that trade a wide swath of financial assets, make money by imposing steep fees on investors and from the fund's investment performance.

Waves off the coast of Nazaré, Portugal, can reach over 100 feet and are caused by the area's deep underwater canyon geography

This real-time tracking of the hantavirus cruise ship outbreak in May 2026 offers a unique glimpse into the global reach of the outbreak and whether the virus sickened passengers and their communities around the world.

Louisiana's 'Cancer Alley' is infamous for having some of the highest industrial pollution, toxic air emissions, and cancer risks in the US.

The animatronic shark from Steven Spielberg's 'Jaws,' the first modern blockbuster, was a complex underwater apparatus called 'Bruce.'

The first horror movie is believed to be George Méliès' 1986 short 'The Haunted Castle,' which pioneered the use of special effects

Crows are believed to have intelligence on par with a seven-year-old child and demonstrate complex behaviors, from problem-solving with tools to recognizing human faces.

See photos of Meteora, a mountainous site in central Greece, home to 14th-century monasteries perched atop soaring outcroppings.

Netflix profits when you're not watching, and its movies are designed that way—read a detail-rich critical essay exposing lesser-known Netflix takes

The use of fungi to detoxify land and water—a process known as mycoremediation—has been used to clean up natural resources affected by the 2025 California wildfires.

See how Budweiser's famous Clydesdales spend their days at Warm Springs Ranch, where roughly 70 to 80 of the beer brand's giant horses can be found at any given time.

See 33 images that became central to huge scandals, including a young Charles and Camilla, Michael Jackson's baby on a hotel balcony, and Hugh Grant's mugshot.

70 years ago today, city officials in Santa Cruz, California, banned rock 'n' roll to protect its youth from corruption after witnessing a 'provocative' concert the night before.

Power lines are dotted with large, brightly colored balls to improve the visibility of these thin wires to helicopters and small planes and help prevent potential crashes.

During the French Revolution, a botanist's letter asking about "dear Rhus" (poison ivy) was intercepted, leading authorities to suspect he was conspiring with the Russians.

Shooting stars, or meteors, are fragments of asteroids and comets that burn up as they enter Earth's atmosphere, creating streaks in the sky called meteor showers.

Astronauts have repaired genetic damage in space using CRISPR—a molecular tool that can make precise changes to DNA and is used in single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

Hurricanes, which rely on air consistently spinning in the same direction, cannot cross the equator because air curves in opposite directions north and south of it.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

Legendary architect Frank Lloyd Wright designed the SC Johnson headquarters in Wisconsin, aiming to make a cathedral-like workplace