WORLD NEWS
Trump-backed candidate Nasry Asfura wins Honduras presidential election
Nasry Asfura has been declared the winner of Honduras’s presidential election, after weeks of delays following technical problems and allegations of fraud.
The conservative National Party candidate – backed by US President Donald Trump – won with 40.3% of the vote, according to the National Electoral Council (CNE), edging out Salvador Nasralla of the centre-right Liberal Party, who got 39.5%.
In a post on X, Asfura said, “Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down.”
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged all parties to respect the result “so that Honduran authorities may ensure a peaceful transition of authority”.
But the president of the country’s Congress, Luis Redondo, posted saying the result was “completely illegal”.
The vote was held on 30 November but the count was delayed twice by technical outages, which electoral officials called “inexcusable”.
The president of the CNE, Ana Paola Hall, blamed the private company tasked with tabulating the results for the delay.
She said the firm had carried out maintenance without warning or checking with the CNE.
The stoppage came a day after the portal displaying real-time results had crashed.
Results of the election were tight and, due to the tumultuous nature of the processing system, around 15% of the tally sheets had to be counted by hand for the winner to be decided.
There have been tensions in Honduras as a result of the delays with protests held across the country last week.
Thousands of supporters of the governing Libre party demonstrated in the capital Tegucigalpa over what they considered fraud in the vote.
The outgoing President, Xiomara Castro, had alleged that an “electoral coup” was taking place and earlier this month said the election was being marred by “interference” from Trump.
When he endorsed Asfura for president, Trump said there would be “hell to pay” if his very narrow lead was overturned in the count.
He also threatened to withdraw financial support from the US if Asfura didn’t win.
In a surprise move, the US president also pardoned Juan Orlando Hernandez, a member of Asfura’s National Party, who was serving 45 year jail sentence in the US on drug and weapons charges.
Xiomara Castro was barred by the constitution from standing for a second term.
Nine days after the vote, Nasralla accused “corrupt people” of manipulating the vote count in the Central American nation. He also said Trump’s comments had damaged his chances of winning.
In his statement following the announcement of the result, Rubio said the US would “look forward to working with his incoming administration to advance our bilateral and regional security co-operation”, adding the two countries would “end illegal immigration to the United States”, while strengthening economic ties.
WORLD NEWS
Tense bodycam footage shows cop shove state trooper driving Tennessee House speaker during traffic stop
A Tennessee cop got into a heated confrontation with a highway patrol trooper after he attempted to pull him over while he was driving a local politician.
The trooper was escorting state House Speaker Cameron Sexton in a black SUV when an officer with the Metro Nashville Police Department issued a traffic stop, alleging the trooper was driving 30mph over the speed limit.
The police car drove up to the SUV in the left lane while instructing it to pull over, and the trooper finally complied.
Another officer was heard over the radio saying the SUV refused to stop for them earlier.
When the police officer got out of his vehicle, he yelled at the highway patrol officer to ‘get over here!’
‘I’m highway patrol!’ the trooper replied.
The altercation then turned physical as the officer pushed the trooper and fired back: ‘I don’t care who you are!’
‘Get your freakin’ hands off me,’ the trooper responded.
The cop attempted to pull the vehicle over after recording it moving 30mph over the speed limit
The THP officer was escorting state House Speaker Cameron Sexton during the altercation
The Metro officer threatened the trooper to adhere to the speeding limits before the altercation became physical
The Metro officer then threatened to lock him up, at which point the highway patrol trooper showed his badge and revealed that he was driving the house speaker.
‘If you’re going to run 85mph in a 55mph zone, you’re going to have to yield to police. I don’t care who you are,’ the officer said.
The comment elicited a fiery response from the highway patrol trooper, who replied: ‘I am the police!’
The trooper said he put his blue lights on and gave the officer his badge number. ‘I got business to take care of. We got places to go,’ the trooper added.
‘We’re going to see about that, my friend,’ the officer said before retreating to his police vehicle.
The incident occurred in October, and since then, Sexton’s chief of staff, Kevin Johnson, filed a Citizen Complaint Report against the officer.
Sexton’s office called the Metro police officer ‘overzealous’ in a statement to local CBS affiliate, WKRN.
The speaker’s office defended the highway patrol officer and maintained that no traffic laws were violated before the tense altercation.
Dramatic bodycam and dash camera footage highlights the dramatic clash between the police officer and the highway patrol
Sexton’s office defended the THP trooper in a statement and called the officer ‘overly aggressive’ and ‘overzealous’
The statement claimed that the police officer was ‘overly aggressive’ and placed his hand on the trooper, provoking a reaction.
‘The THP trooper showed restraint and refrained from escalating the situation further,’ Sexton’s office added.
‘In the end cooler heads prevailed. We commend THP for their professionalism and dedication to protect and serve.’
An internal investigation conducted by Metro police concluded that the officer acted reasonably and didn’t violate the department’s rules.
‘The Tennessee Highway Patrol maintains a collaborative working relationship with the Metropolitan Nashville Police Department built on mutual respect and shared professionalism, and we’re proud of the work our agencies accomplish together to keep Tennesseans safe,’ THP said in a statement.
Tennessee Fraternal Order of Police President Scottie Delashmit told WKRN that police vehicles performing dignitary detail are still required to adhere to the posted speed limit unless they use emergency lights and sirens.
The Daily Mail has reached out to THP, MNPD, and Sexton’s office for additional comment.
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Tense bodycam footage shows cop shove state trooper driving Tennessee House speaker during traffic stop
Ben Ransome, 29, was at the top of a criminal network which sold drugs in bulk across southeast England and was finally jailed after being extradited from Thailand
A drug baron from Essex who masterminded the distribution of millions of pounds worth of cocaine and ketamine has been jailed.
Ben Ransome, 29, headed a criminal enterprise that flogged drugs in large quantities throughout southeast England. He was arrested on the Thai island of Phuket, where he’d attempted to reinvent himself as a boxer going by the name ‘Billy Roberts’. Ransome was brought back to the UK in July and pleaded guilty to multiple drug-related offences.
The criminal is the last piece of a major crime syndicate to be prosecuted. Ransome will spend 14 years in prison, joining numerous other gang members and clients who have also been jailed.
(Image: Essex Police)
“He watched as we took down each of his associates, one by one,” Detective Inspector Yoni Adler said. “At an early stage, when he realised the net was closing and he likely faced arrest, he simply ran away, seeking to disappear and start a new life abroad. He’s remained on a ticking clock ever since – it was only a matter of time before he faced the music.”
Ransome fled during one of the biggest series of linked investigations ever carried out by Essex Police. He was in charge of orchestrating the supply of enormous amounts of Class A and B drugs throughout the southeast of England, reports Essex Live.
The police were able to trace back to February 2022, when Ransome left his residence in Ethelred Gardens in Wickford and handed a bag to an associate. The courier, Charlie Lancaster, 42, was trailed and intercepted by the police who discovered nine kilograms of cocaine, valued at approximately £900,000, in his vehicle.
He was subsequently sentenced to six years in prison.
Ransome absconded from the UK in March 2022, flying to Malaga in Spain but continued to orchestrate drug supply. By September 2024, he had relocated to Thailand, where he attempted to reinvent himself as a boxer on the island of Phuket under the ring name ‘Billy Roberts’.
While he was abroad, the police continued their crackdown on the crime group. Among those apprehended were a mother and son duo and Kieran Grant, 44, who is believed to have been involved in the distribution or collection of around £20m worth of drugs within a month.
The gang’s primary drug supplier, David Glover, 36, was supplied by Ransome. Glover received a 23-year prison sentence for his role in the conspiracy.
Since the police investigation began, the key figures in Ransome’s criminal network have been handed a combined 50 years behind bars. (Image: Essex Police)
The law finally caught up with Ransome in September 2024, and he was eventually apprehended and extradited back to the UK in July this year. Here, he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to supply cocaine and ketamine, possession of criminal property, and supplying a Class A controlled drug (cocaine).
This followed a complex investigation involving the National Crime Agency and Thai law enforcement.
Since the police investigation began, the key figures in Ransome’s criminal network have been handed a combined 50 years behind bars. Officers have recovered more than £1m in cash, seized almost 49kg of cocaine, and removed 20 firearms from the streets.
DI Adler said: “Ransome tried to turn a substantial profit by running a criminal enterprise that spanned across the southeast of England. This vast supply of illegal substances doubtless fuelled extensive violence, threats and the use of weapons associated with his drug-dealing customer base.
“Distanced from this untold harm as a wholesale supplier, Ransome worked at arm’s length, trying to make a comfortable living out of sight of the misery of the drugs trade.”
He added: “Criminals like Ransome fail to appreciate the extent of the reach and cooperative working of law enforcement both in Essex and the UK, and across the world. Huge credit for Ransome’s ultimate arrest should go to our exemplary partners in the National Crime Agency, the Crown Prosecution Service and the Royal Thai Police Central Investigation Bureau.
“Closer to home, the public in Essex should feel reassured that we have teams working across the force to tackle the trade in drugs that fuels further violent crime in their county. Through cases like this, we are making a difference.”
At Christmas, the world can seem a little more humane than usual – even in wartime.
One such glimpse of peace appears each year in what is widely considered the world’s longest-running communist insurgency.
Fought in the Philippines, the guerrilla conflict between the Maoist New People’s Army (NPA) and the government is set to enter its 57th year in 2026 and has claimed some 60,000 lives.
But once a year, the fighting tends to pause as both sides down their arms for Christmas.
Filipino insurgents of the New People’s Army showing captured weapons. Pic: Reuters
The tradition has been observed in many years since at least 1986, a rare moment of restraint in a world that is now more violent than at any point since the Second World War.
According to the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO), the number of conflicts involving states reached its highest level since 1946 at the end of last year. In all, 61 conflicts were active in 2024 – nearly twice as many as 20 years ago.
Last year was also the fourth-most violent since the end of the Cold War, surpassed only by the three preceding years in terms of battle deaths.
The spread of Islamic State franchises since 2014, along with the heavy toll of wars in Ukraine and Gaza, were among the main drivers of these spikes, said Siri Aas Rustad, a researcher at PRIO.
Conflicts now tended to last longer than in the past, she added, while peacekeeping operations and peace processes had declined.
The peace order is fraying
Experts see a discouraging broader trend behind this shift: the moribund state of the Western-grounded liberal order and multilateral institutions like the UN.
That order, grounded in ideas of universal human rights and democracy, encouraged dispute resolution through non-violent means, said Oliver Richmond, a leading peace researcher at the University of Manchester.
But the US-led western allies failed to establish a genuinely fair global system and often prioritised their own interests, inviting challenges, he said.
Read more:
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Emerging powers such as China, Turkey, Russia and Gulf states had styled themselves as peacemakers but were pursuing their own systems of domination, Mr Richmond argued.
Conflicts from Ukraine to Sudan now grind on as outside actors tolerate – or enable – violence in pursuit of a “victor’s peace”, he added.
What could be next for Ukraine?
Small pauses can have larger meanings
Against this bleak backdrop, Christmas ceasefires in the Philippines offer a glimpse of an alternative approach.
The tradition of halting hostilities over the holidays – reflecting the biblical message of peace on earth – goes way back. The most famous example came in 1914, when British and German troops crossed trenches during the First World War to celebrate Christmas together.
Reenactment of the Christmas Truce at the 100th anniversary in Belgium. Pic: PA
Such brief ceasefires rarely ended conflicts, but they aided the “long-term trust building needed to establish long-term… peace agreements”, said Ms Rustad.
In the Philippines, it has become custom that both sides independently declare unilateral Christmas ceasefires without signing an agreement.
Even former president Rodrigo Duterte – notorious for his brutal “war on drugs” and now facing the International Criminal Court – occasionally called Christmas truces, promising “quietude and serenity” for Filipinos during the holidays.
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The motives were not purely altruistic as “Christmas ceasefires were good propaganda on both sides”, said Patricio Abinales, a political historian at the University of Hawai’i at Manoa.
“With the guns temporarily silenced, rural communities could celebrate Christmas peacefully – as could government troops in their camps and the NPA in their guerrilla zones,” he said.
Peace from the ground up
Mr Richmond, the peace researcher, argued that peacemaking was more successful in any case when informed by such grassroots practices and local communities, rather than driven by meddling geopolitical powers and institutions.
“The victims are directly affected by the conflict and tend to have a clearer understanding of what a peaceful settlement may require,” he said.
In 2023, a Russian-proposed truce for Orthodox Christmas was rejected by Ukraine, which suspected Moscow was seeking time to regroup.
“There was clearly not enough trust to agree on this,” said Ms Rustad. Russia declared a brief unilateral ceasefire in May this year but Ukraine branded it a farce, saying attacks continued.
Ukrainian soldiers celebrate Orthodox Christmas in 2023. Pic: Reuters
Ultimately, ending protracted conflicts comes down to political will, according to Mr Richmond.
The tools for peace are well-known: major powers could oppose violence and invest in “truly multilateral institutions like the UN, peacekeeping, peacebuilding, mediation and international human rights law”, he added.
“But they are unwilling to do that even as societies clamour for peace,” Mr Richmond said.
A fading tradition?
Away from that geopolitical tug-of-war, the Christmas tradition of peace in the Philippines still survives – just.
This year, as in 2023, the NPA declared a four-day ceasefire covering Christmas and New Year, even if it wasn’t reciprocated by government forces.
Members of the Filipino New People’s Army show their weapons. Pic: Reuters
Prof Abinales said the insurgency had been badly weakened and was becoming increasingly irrelevant – which may eventually bring the decades-long conflict to an end.
“If the current trend continues, Christmas ceasefires will become a thing of the past,” he said.
WORLD NEWS
North Korea’s Kim slams US-Seoul nuclear submarine deal as ‘offensive act’ | Kim Jong Un News
Kim Jong Un made the comments while inspecting a North Korean nuclear submarine facility on Wednesday.
Published On 25 Dec 2025
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has hit out at a new nuclear submarine deal between the United States and South Korea, describing it as a threat to the stability of the Korean Peninsula as he toured his country’s submarine production facility, according to North Korean state media.
Kim said the deal between Seoul and Washington was an “offensive act severely violating [Pyongyang’s] security and maritime sovereignty and a threat to security that must be countered”, according to state news outlet KCNA.
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It was now urgent to “further accelerate the radical development of the modernisation and nuclear weaponisation of the naval force” of North Korea, Kim said, according to the report.
Kim made the remarks as he toured a facility on Wednesday where Pyongyang is working on an “8,700-tonnage nuclear-powered strategic guided missile submarine”.
The North Korean leader on Wednesday also oversaw the test firing of a new high-altitude long-range anti-air missile into the Sea of Japan, according to KCNA, which the news outlet referred to as the “East Sea of Korea”.
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un visits the construction site of an 8,700-tonne nuclear-powered submarine capable of launching surface-to-air missiles on Wednesday [KCNA via Reuters]
KCNA reported that the test was successful, and the missile successfully hit a mock target at an altitude of 200 kilometres (124 miles).
The developments came as Seoul said it was pursuing a “standalone deal” with the US to acquire nuclear-powered submarine technology, according to South Korea’s Yonhap news agency.
US law bans the transfer of nuclear material for military use, but South Korea could receive an exemption from US President Donald Trump, the East Asian country’s national security adviser, Wi Sung-lac, told the media following a meeting with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Energy Chris Wright.
Australia pursued a similar deal with the US to build its own nuclear-powered submarines, Wi said, and talks with Washington are expected to begin early next year.
A long-range surface-to-air missile is test-fired near the Sea of Japan, December 24, 2025 [KCNA via Reuters]
Separately on Wednesday, Russian leader Vladimir Putin also sent Kim a New Year’s greeting, thanking him for his ongoing military support for the war in Ukraine. North Korea has deployed thousands of soldiers since 2024 to fight alongside Russian troops in Ukraine, and in parts of Russia that Ukrainian soldiers briefly grabbed in counteroffensive operations.
“The heroic entry of soldiers of the Korean People’s Army into the battles for liberating the Kursk region from occupiers and the subsequent activities of Korean engineers in the land of Russia clearly proved the invincible friendship and militant fraternity” between Russia and North Korea, Putin said, according to a report by KCNA.
Putin also hailed the success of a “comprehensive strategic partnership” treaty signed between Moscow and Pyongyang in 2024, KCNA said, stating that in the future, he hoped to “strengthen the relations of friendship and alliance in every way and conduct constructive cooperation on regional and international issues”.
Conservative candidate Nasry Asfura won Honduras’ November 30 presidential election, the country’s national electoral council (CNE) said on Wednesday.
The announcement comes after a multi-week vote count in which Asfura and his main rival, Salvador Nasralla, were neck-and-neck.
What were the results in Honduras’ presidential election?
Asfura, who belongs to the conservative National Party, received 40.27% of the vote, according to the count.
Asfura supporters celebrated after a nail-biting multi-week vote countImage: Fernando Destephen/AP Photo/picture alliance
His challenger, Salvador Nasralla of the conservative Liberal Party, won 39.53%.
Rixi Moncada, who belongs to outgoing President Xiomara Castro’s leftist LIBRE party, took third place with just 19.19% of the vote.
The incumbent president was elected in 2021 on a promise to tackle corruption and violence in the country.
Asfura previously served as the mayor of Honduras’ capital, Tegucigalpa, from 2014 to 2022. This was the second time he ran for the presidency of the Central American country.
“Honduras: I am prepared to govern,” Asfura said in a post on the platform X after the result was announced. “I will not let you down.”
Asfura wins after Trump endorsement
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Asfura on his victory in a post on X.
“The people of Honduras have spoken … [US President Donald Trump’s administration] looks forward to working with [Asfura’s] administration to advance prosperity and security in our hemisphere.”
Trump endorsed Asfura just days before the vote, saying he was the only candidate Washington would want to work with. In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump accused Nasralla of being a “borderline Communist” who was working to split the anti-LIBRE vote.
Both Nasralla and Moncada have denounced the post as external electoral interference.
On Tuesday night, Nasralla addressed the US President, saying: “Mr. President, your endorsed candidate in Honduras is complicit in silencing the votes of our citizens. If he is truly worthy of your backing, if his hands are clean, if he has nothing to fear, then why doesn’t he allow for every vote to be counted?”
Trump’s administration has aimed to exert its influence in Latin America, and in a November 2025 strategy document affirmed its commitment to the “Monroe Doctrine” that asserts Washington as the hegemonic power in the Western Hemisphere.
The Wednesday result reflects a broader right-wing swing in Latin America, with far-right politician Jose Antonio Kast being elected Chile’s next president last week, defeating leftist incumbent Gabriel Boric.
Edited by: Farah Bahgat
60 years after its release, A Charlie Brown Christmas is now an iconic part of many families’ Christmas celebrations — but producer Lee Mendelson and director Bill Melendez originally worried that they “killed Peanuts” with the idiosyncratic special they made.
Jason Mendelson, Lee’s son, tells PEOPLE exclusively that his father, who died on Christmas Day 2019 at age 86, agreed to make A Charlie Brown Christmas for CBS before he, Melendez or Peanuts creator Charles Schulz had any idea what it would be. The men had all previously worked together on the never-aired documentary A Boy Named Charlie Brown.
Lee called Schulz, who all his friends called Sparky, and told him he’d sold A Charlie Brown Christmas. “And Sparky said, ‘What’s that?’ ” Jason, 47, says. “And my father said, ‘Something you and Bill and I have to write this weekend.’ ”
‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’.
Alamy
They relied on all the same things that had made A Boy Named Charlie Brown, including the music of jazz musician Vince Guaraldi and using children’s voices for the characters.
“It was absolutely imperative for both Sparky Schulz and for my father that these be children, that it be authentic, that it be real,” Jason says about their attitude toward all the Charlie Brown specials. “In A Charlie Brown Christmas, which was the first special, the story is about children going through emotional, confusing, deep times.” Charlie Brown begins the show saying that, despite the joy he’s “supposed” to feel, he always ends up “depressed” at the holiday
Some might have judged it too much for a kids show “That’s why this show is so enduring,” Jason says. “It’s what we all feel. We all don’t feel the way we think we’re supposed to feel, and what do we do with those feelings?” If the special had shied away from those things, it would have lost “that innocence and that truth that I think that Sparky required. He demanded it,” Jason says. The special’s relatively simple story sees Charlie Brown struggle with his feelings as he tries to direct his friends in a Christmas pageant.
“And the thing, is all of those decisions, the decision to use the child’s voices, to use the jazz music, to not have a laugh track, to have the show be very serious and very thoughtful? Lee and Bill thought they may have killed Peanuts,” Jason says.
When they were done with the special, they sent it to the network and didn’t get “great” feedback. “And they were concerned, ‘Maybe we hurt our good new friend Sparky Schulz, and we’ve ruined this,’ ” Jason says.
But when they told Schulz their worries, he brushed them off and told them, “It’s great. Don’t worry. I know what this is. This is what I want it to be. It’s great.”
Charlie Brown and Linus in ‘A Charlie Brown Christmas’.
Allstar Picture Library Ltd / Alamy
Jason says his father often told him that the network would dejectedly tell him after watching a special, “It’s too late to do anything about this. We’ve got to put this thing on the air. We don’t really understand what this is going to be.”
But “the opposite” was, of course, true, because A Charlie Brown Christmas was a success at the time and continued to do well every year since.
As for why the special has resonated over the decades, Jason admits he’s “incredibly biased” but he thinks the special managed to be “one of the perfect amalgamations of philosophy of Charles Schulz, of a simple animation everybody can relate to from Bill Melendez, of a production value that my father put together on a shoestring in a few months, and then the music of Vince Guaraldi, which is now ubiquitous with the holiday.”
Jason grew up taking part in his dad’s Peanuts work; he voiced multiple characters, including Rerun Van Pelt and Peppermint Patty. Still, he didn’t realize what a big deal his father’s legacy — including the yearly viewings of A Charlie Brown Christmas — was until he was older. As an adult, he’s served as a producer on different Peanuts projects. This year, he’s helped release new collectible vinyls of Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas soundtrack.
Now, Jason and his brother Sean are grateful to carry on their dad’s work. “When I go and do record signings, or we go and do events at Comic Con, and you realize how much this moved people, how important it is to their lives? Only many years into my life did I realize how important that was to other people and made me feel even more important to steward and protect whatever is there from that legacy,” he says.
The Amandaland Christmas special will air tonight
Joanna Lumley spoke about mortality earlier this year(Image: Jeff Spicer, Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
Joanna Lumley is one of the nation’s favourite actresses, with a TV career spanning over six decades. The 79-year-old will return to our screens this evening for the Christmas special of Amandaland.
The award-winning star recently shared her thoughts on growing older, disclosing that being conscious of time passing actually energises her more. The celebrated 79-year-old actress and entertainer also confessed she frequently reflects on her own death. “As you near the top of the hill you suddenly think, ‘Gosh, there’s not all that amount of time left’,” she said in a conversation with My Weekly earlier this year.
“All kinds of my beloved friends are beginning to leave. My time must be coming quite soon and I don’t want to have wasted a minute of being on this beautiful planet.” Joanna’s zest for life is apparent as she continues to pack her work schedule with exciting projects.
In 2025, Joanna shone in the comedy series Amandaland(Image: Jeff Spicer, Jeff Spicer/Getty Images)
This year, she shone in the comedy series Amandaland, a spin-off of the award-winning sitcom Motherland, produced for the BBC. Its Christmas special is set to air on BBC One from 9.15pm tonight (December 25), while season two will arrive in 2026.
Joanna has also recently appeared in the Netflix drama Fool Me Once, and a three-part ITV travel documentary in which she explores Europe’s Danube River. Yet, things haven’t always been easy for the actress.
The star previously revealed to Vernon Kay on BBC 2 that she’s battled with prosopagnosia for years, which makes recognising faces extremely difficult.
“I’ve got this weird thing with faces, I’ve got a face blindness,” she said a few years ago on the Tracks of My Years podcast, the Express reports. “It’s called prosopagnosia.
“I have to know who people are, I have to know in advance. I always say, ‘Please tell me who’s going to be there’, then I can match the name to the thing. I mean, lots of people say, ‘Oh, but you meet so many people’, it’s not to do with that, it’s completely different from that.
“It’s followed me and I never knew what it was. And I’d try a test. I’d look at somebody and then I would shut my eyes and see if I could see their face in my head. And I couldn’t.”
The 79-year-old previously shared that she struggles with prosopagnosia (Image: Pool, Getty Images)
The NHS explains that prosopagnosia often extends beyond recognising faces, causing challenges in identifying gender, age, and distinguishing between objects such as vehicles or animals. Sadly, no cure exists for this condition, though noting unique features may help make it more manageable.
Official online NHS guidance explains: “You’ll still see the parts of a face normally, but all faces may look the same to you. It affects people differently. Some people may not be able to tell the difference between strangers or people they do not know well. Others may not recognise the faces of friends and family, or even their own face.”
Despite these struggles, Joanna hasn’t let prosopagnosia to limit her success. The 79-year-old’s distinguished acting career spans numerous memorable performances across television and cinema, including The New Avengers and Sapphire & Steel, as well as Absolutely Fabulous, Finding Alice, and Motherland.
In the ’60s, she was notably one of Ken Barlow’s first girlfriends in Coronation Street. And, on the big screen, she even worked alongside Leonardo DiCaprio in The Wolf of Wall Street.
Joanna is married to Stephen Barlow, a conductor. She also enjoys a rich family life as the proud mother of Jamie, and is a grandmother to two, Alice and Emily.
WORLD NEWS
For Palestinian Christians, return of Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem mark opportunity to revive hope | World News
The thousands-year-old Christmas procession from Jerusalem to Bethlehem is finally being celebrated with festive fanfare after a two-year pause to mourn the devastating war in Gaza.
The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa, was flanked by adoring crowds as he marched down the ancient, narrow cobblestoned roads to Manger Square in front of the Church of the Nativity and blessed the babies of Bethlehem along the way.
Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa kisses babies in the crowd
After arriving, the cardinal stepped up on stage and told the full square of tourists and Palestinians from across the occupied West Bank: “You are the light, we are the light. The light of Bethlehem is the light of the world.”
At the base of the Christmas tree towering over Manger Square for the first time since 2022, a nativity display with baby Jesus sitting above a decorated billboard emblazoned with the text: “From here, the light of peace began.”
The nativity scene in Bethlehem
Before the procession set off for Bethlehem, at the Mar Elias Monastery in East Jerusalem, the cardinal told me: “This is a sign that we want to turn the page to look forward.
“The problems on the ground remain there but we need to react and respond to this situation and to look forward in order to find perspective and solutions for the terrible situation there.”
Crowds gather to celebrate Christmas in Manger Square
He has just returned from celebrating Christmas in the Holy Family Parish in Gaza, where 400 people are still being sheltered.
The Gaza Health Ministry reports that at least 400 people have been killed and over 1,000 injured since the start of the ceasefire on 10 October.
“It was sad to see the disaster in which the population are living in,” said the cardinal. “I was very struck by the resilience and their desire of life. They are very strong and determined to rebuild everything.”
Children gather in Bethlehem
Here in the West Bank, violence is increasing as illegal Israeli settlements expand.
On Sunday, Israel‘s far-right finance minister Bezalel Smotrich announced the approval of 19 more settlements – a move condemned by a group of 12 countries including Britain, Canada and Germany on Wednesday.
As we drive, we see Israeli flags mark a new settlement on the hilltop shepherd fields of Bethlehem’s Ush al Ghrab, where Jesus’s birth was announced in the Bible.
According to the United Nations Office for Co-ordination in Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA), 238 Palestinians, including 56 children were killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank in 2025.
In Bethlehem’s Tuqu’ village, a mother grieves her 16-year-old son Ammar as Christmas is celebrated in the heart of the governate.
A new settler outpost in Shepherds’ Fields
He was shot by the IDF in a raid on 15 December. At his funeral, 24 hours later, his friend Muheeb Ahmed was reportedly shot and killed by a settler.
The IDF told Sky News: “During IDF activity in the area of Tekoa, a confrontation occurred in which rocks were hurled toward the soldiers. The soldiers used riot dispersal means and later on fired toward a main inciter, and a hit was identified.
“The incident is under review.”
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Ammar’s mother tells us while cradling his photo: “Why would you kill a child?
“He hasn’t harmed you or is armed. What is a rock compared to gunpowder? It is nothing but they are cowards.”
“When I see the [Christmas] celebrations, I get upset and cry.
“I have to be honest, it hurts to see people celebrating because Palestine is still bleeding and people are dying from the rain and hunger. We are one nation. Why would they put up the tree? Why would they celebrate?”
Monica Awad called the celebrations a ‘moment to pray for peace’
For Palestinian Christians gathering to celebrate, festivities still feel sombre but an opportunity to revive hope.
“It is a moment to pray and pray for peace, solidarity and hope,” Monica Awad tells us in Manger Square as Christmas approaches.
“It hurts us so much to see our friends, family are still suffering in Gaza, even at this moment. But there is always hope. We believe in hope for a better future.”
The war in Gaza started following the 7 October attack in 2023, when more than 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed by Hamas militants and more than 250 were taken hostage.
Health officials in Gaza say nearly 71,000 Palestinians have been killed since – a figure that does not differentiate between civilians and Hamas militants.
These are the key developments from day 1,400 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 25 Dec 2025
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Here is where things stand on Thursday, December 25:
Fighting
- An explosion in Moscow killed three people, including two police officers, just days after a car bomb killed a high-ranking Russian general in the same area of the capital.
- An official from Ukraine’s military intelligence, known as GUR, told The Associated Press news agency that the attack had been carried out as part of a Ukrainian operation and the two police officers were targeted for taking part in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
- Russian air defence units downed 16 Ukrainian drones en route to Moscow throughout Wednesday, the capital’s Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said.
- Sobyanin said the drones were repelled over a period of about 17 hours, and emergency crews were examining fragments where the drones hit the ground, but no damage was reported.
- Two of four major airports servicing Moscow were forced to limit operations for a time due to the drone attacks, Russia’s civil aviation authority said on Telegram.
- Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its aerial defence units destroyed 172 Ukrainian drones overnight, nearly half of them over regions bordering Ukraine.
- Ukraine said its drones had struck the Yefremov synthetic rubber plant in Russia’s Tula region, south of Moscow, and a storage facility for marine drones in Russian-occupied Crimea.
- Tula regional governor, Dmitry Milyaev, said debris from a downed Ukrainian drone ignited a fire at an industrial site, and Russian air defence units destroyed 12 Ukrainian drones over the region.
- A sunflower oil spill, caused by Russian aerial bombardments, has contaminated the shoreline around the southern Ukrainian city of Odesa, killing wildlife and triggering warnings from conservationists, the AFP news agency reports.
- “The cause was damage to sunflower oil tanks as a result of massive enemy attacks on port infrastructure, causing some of the oil to spill,” Odesa Governor Oleh Kiper said in a statement. The Pivdenny port in the region was temporarily closed on Wednesday to help with the cleanup.
- A Russian-backed court in occupied Ukraine sentenced a Colombian man to 19 years in prison for fighting for Kyiv’s army.
- Russia’s Prosecutor General said the Supreme Court in the Russian-controlled area of Ukraine’s Donetsk region sentenced Oscar Mauricio Blanco Lopez, 42, to 19 years in jail. The Colombian arrived in Ukraine in May 2024 to sign up with the Ukrainian army and had been “taken prisoner by Russian servicemen” in December 2025.
Ceasefire talks
- Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy revealed for the first time details of an agreement between the United States and Ukrainian negotiators on ending the war with Russia. The 20-point plan, agreed on by US and Ukrainian negotiators after marathon talks, is now being reviewed by Moscow.
- As part of the plan, President Zelenskyy said Ukraine would be willing to withdraw troops from the country’s eastern industrial heartland if Moscow also pulled back and the area becomes a demilitarised zone monitored by international forces.
- A similar arrangement could be possible for the area around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, which is currently under Russian control, Zelenskyy said. The Ukrainian leader said that any peace plan would need to be put to a referendum in Ukraine.
- Asked about the latest development in ceasefire talks, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would decide its position based on information received by Russian presidential envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who met with US envoys in Florida over the weekend.
- Russia has given no indication that it will agree to any kind of withdrawal from land it has seized in Ukraine. Moscow has also insisted that Ukraine relinquish the remaining territory it still holds in the Donbas. Russia has captured most of Luhansk and about 70 percent of Donetsk – the two areas that make up the Donbas.
Politics and diplomacy
- A majority of Russians expect the war in Ukraine to end in 2026, Russia’s state pollster VTsIOM said, in a sign that the Kremlin could be testing public reaction to a possible peace settlement as diplomatic efforts to end the conflict intensify.
- During the pollster’s year-end presentation, VTsIOM Deputy Head Mikhail Mamonov said 70 percent of the 1,600 respondents saw 2026 as a more “successful” year for Russia than 2025, while for 55 percent that hope was linked to a possible end to Russia’s war in Ukraine.
- A Russian court has scheduled the first public hearing in a criminal case against German sculptor Jacques Tilly, who is accused of discrediting the Russian military through his satirical Carnival floats depicting Russia’s President Vladimir Putin.
- The court in Moscow said the trial will begin on December 30 and proceedings will be held in absentia, as Tilly – who faces up to 10 years in jail or a fine – is not in Russia.
- Zelenskyy said in his Christmas address on Wednesday that despite marking the holiday at a “difficult” time, the nation’s unity remains intact. “Ukrainians are together tonight,” Zelenskyy said, adding the country had “without a doubt” been changed by the war. “It hardly matters what dishes are on the table – what matters is who is at the table,” he said.
Artillerymen of the 44th Separate Artillery Brigade fire a M777 Howitzer towards Russian troops, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in Dnipropetrovsk region, Ukraine, on December 24, 2025 [Reuters]
Regional security
- France’s President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke with NATO chief Mark Rutte to discuss the situation in Ukraine and the work undertaken by the “coalition of the willing”. “Starting in January in Paris, we will continue the work begun within this framework to provide Ukraine with solid security guarantees, a prerequisite for a robust and lasting peace,” Macron said on social media.
- Democratic senators in the US have urged President Donald Trump to reverse a recall of nearly 30 career ambassadors, warning the move leaves a dangerous leadership vacuum that allows adversaries like Russia and China to expand their influence. The Trump administration in recent days has ordered career diplomats serving across Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America back to Washington to ensure US missions abroad reflect its “America First” priorities.
Economics
- Kazakhstan’s exports of its flagship CPC Blend of oil will be their lowest in 14 months in December, as bad weather delays efforts to repair Russian loading infrastructure after Ukrainian drone strikes last month, two sources told the Reuters news agency.
- On November 29, Ukrainian drones hit the Caspian Pipeline Consortium terminal located near Russia’s Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, leaving just one out of three jetties operational and prolonging export delays. Poor weather has added to the difficulty of carrying out maintenance work necessary to allow exports to recover.
- Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance said it completed the settlement of a deal to restructure $2.6bn of growth-linked debt.
WORLD NEWS
Sydney to Hobart yacht race forecast to be cold, wet and bumpy as Australia’s west faces cyclone and bushfire threat | Australia weather
The Sydney to Hobart yacht race is forecast to be cold, wet and bumpy but without a repeat of last year’s fatal conditions, as the rest of the country experiences the full range of weather events over the Christmas period, including cyclone and bushfire danger in the west.
A race briefing from the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM) on Wednesday predicted the 129 starters in this year’s Sydney to Hobart will face strong southerly winds of up to 25 knots after leaving the Sydney Heads on Boxing Day.
“It’s going to be cold, wet and bumpy, people will get seasick,’’ said the chairman of the race committee, Lee Goddard.
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BoM senior meteorologist Miriam Bradbury said on Thursday that winds would slacken across the New South Wales and Tasmanian coasts on Saturday and Sunday. “It will still be fresh at times but gradually we’ll see them easing back along the east coast,” she said.
The upwind conditions mean a tight finish but that the race record is unlikely to be broken this year. They are a far cry from the challenging downwind conditions that saw two lives lost in the first night of racing in storms in 2024.
Wednesday’s briefing began with a minute’s silence for the sailors who died aboard separate yachts last year, Nick Smith and Roy Quaden.
Race organisers the Cruising Yacht Club of Australia also announced a group of 15 yachts will scatter rose petals off the coast of Bondi beach in memory of the 15 lives lost during the Bondi terror attack, when they pass the site.
Line honours favourite Master Lock Comanche is co-captained by two eastern suburbs residents who were shocked when they heard news of the attack on Sydney’s Jewish community two Sundays ago.
“Everyone was very worried,” said co-captain Matt Allen. “We went down with a large group of Jewish and non-Jewish Olympians last Friday and had a service there, and then a brunch to really show our support for the victims, the entire community.”
In the west, Tropical Cyclone Grant was passing close to the Cocos Islands, 2,750km north-west of Perth, on Thursday. The category 1 cyclone was expected to bring heavy rain, storms and strong winds as it moved westwards.
Perth was forecast to reach 40C on Thursday with an extreme fire danger warning in place for much of south-west Western Australia for Christmas. A watch and act warning was in place near Boddington in the Peel region south-west of Perth on Thursday morning.
Bradbury said the heat would begin to ease on Friday. “Today is the last day of the intense heat for now for the west coast,” she said.
A flood watch was in place for much of northern Australia on Thursday. Brisbane was facing a hot, dry start, with showers and possible storms and a high of 33C. Darwin had forecast rainfall of up to 50mm with thunderstorms and showers likely.
Melbourne was forecast to have its coldest Christmas Day since 2006, with a high of 17C and showers possible in the morning and afternoon, while Hobart was also cool, with a high of 15C, and the chance of hail.
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Nasry Asfura has won the 2025 Honduras presidential election, delivering victory for the right-of-center National Party of Honduras (PNH) and shifting the political landscape of Central America.
The 40.3% to 39.5% result in favor of Asfura over Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla arrived after the vote-counting process had been delayed for days by technical glitches and claims by other candidates of vote-rigging. Rixi Moncada, the candidate of the ruling LIBRE party, came in a distant third.
The results of the race were so tight and the ballot processing system was so chaotic, that about 15% of the tally sheets, which accounted for hundreds of thousands of ballots, had to be counted by hand to determine the winner.
Two electoral council members and one deputy approved the results despite disputes over the razor-thin difference in the vote. A third council member, Marlon Ocha, was not in a video declaring the winner.
TRUMP PLANS ‘FULL AND COMPLETE PARDON’ FOR FORMER HONDURAN PRESIDENT CONVICTED OF DRUG TRAFFICKING
Tito Asfura defeats Salvador Nasralla and Rixi Moncada after President Trump’s repeated endorsements (AP)
“Honduras: I am ready to govern. I will not let you down,” Asfura said on X after the results were confirmed.
The head of the Honduran Congress, though, rejected the results and described them as an “electoral coup.”
“This is completely outside the law,” Congress President Luis Redondo of the LIBRE party said on X. “It has no value.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio congratulated Asfura on X, saying the U.S. “looks forward to working with his administration to advance prosperity and security in our hemisphere.”
Initially, preliminary results on Monday showed Asfura, 67, had won 41% of the ballot, inching him ahead of Nasralla, 72, who had around 39%.
THE RESULTS ARE IN: 2025’S BIGGEST WINNER AND LOSERS FROM THE OFF-YEAR ELECTIONS
President Donald Trump gestures to supporters during an election night watch party at the State Fairgrounds Feb. 24, 2024. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
On Tuesday, the website set up to share vote tallies with the public experienced technical problems and crashed, according to The Associated Press.
With the candidates only having 515 votes between them, a virtual tie and site crash saw President Trump share a post on Truth Social.
“Looks like Honduras is trying to change the results of their Presidential Election,” he wrote. “If they do, there will be hell to pay!”
By Thursday, Asfura had 40.05%, about 8,000 votes ahead of Nasralla, who had 39.75%, according to Reuters, with the latter then calling for an investigation.
“I publicly denounce that today, at 3:24 a.m., the screen went dark and an algorithm, similar to the one used in 2013, changed the data,” Nasralla wrote on social media, adding 1,081,000 votes for his party were transferred to Asfura, while 1,073,000 votes for Asfura’s National Party were attributed to him.
FORMER MISS VENEZUELA BLAMES ‘SOCIALISM AND OPEN BORDERS’ FOR HER COUNTRY’S DEVASTATING COLLAPSE
Rixi Moncada, LIBRE’s candidate, is a prominent lawyer, financier and former minister of national defense. (Associated Press )
Asfura, nicknamed “Tito,” is a former mayor of Tegucigalpa and had entered the race with a reputation for leadership and focus on infrastructure, public order and efficiency.
His win ended a polarized campaign season, with one of the defining moments of the contest being Asfura’s endorsement by Trump.
“If he [Asfura] doesn’t win, the United States will not be throwing good money after bad,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform Nov. 28.
Before the start of voting Nov. 29, Trump also said he would pardon former President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who once led the same party as Asfura. Hernandez is serving a 45-year sentence for helping drug traffickers.
VENEZUELAN NOBEL PEACE PRIZE WINNER MARÍA CORINA MACHADO DEDICATES AWARD TO TRUMP FOR ‘DECISIVE SUPPORT’
Nasralla is a high-profile television personality turned politician. (Associated Press )
In the end, the election saw the defeat of centrist former vice president of Honduras, Nasralla and left-wing Moncada, 60, who served under President Xiomara Castro.
Moncada, a prominent lawyer, financier and former minister of national defense, focused on institutional reform and social equity.
Nasralla, a high-profile television personality turned politician, mobilized a base but fell short of converting his popularity into a winning coalition.
He was focusing on cleaning up Honduran corruption. The Honduran presidential race was also impacted by accusations of fraud.
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In addition to electing a new president, Hondurans voted for a new Congress and hundreds of local positions.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Emma Bussey is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital. Before joining Fox, she worked at The Telegraph with the U.S. overnight team, across desks including foreign, politics, news, sport and culture.
WORLD NEWS
Julianne Hough Poses in Front of a Christmas Tree in a Teeny Bikini for Festive Holiday Photos
NEED TO KNOW
- Julianne Hough gives a glimpse into how her holidays are going
- The Dancing with the Stars cohost posed in front of a Christmas tree in a bikini
- She also shared photos from a trip to Santa Teresa, Costa Rica
Julianne Hough is showing you how she does Christmas.
On Tuesday, Dec. 23, the 37-year-old Dancing with the Stars co-host posted several Instagram photos to social media of her “Christmas at home.”
Adding a red heart emoji to her caption, the professional dancer began her Instagram carousel with a solo photo of herself posing in a teeny bikini in front of a decorated Christmas tree inside a living room.
For the festive photo, Hough arched her back as she modeled in front of the holiday tree, surrounded by wrapped gifts.
A puppy and a pool area could be seen in her backyard, thanks to floor-to-ceiling glass windows.
The same dog was featured once again in the second slide, this time as a fully clothed Hough smiled while holding a drink in her hand beside the beloved canine.
Other shots in the roundup included the entertainer lounging by the pool, and even inside of a large bag near the Christmas tree, suggesting that she is a gift herself.
Hough’s mother, Marriann Hough, was also seen in a couple of photos. Once as her daughter rested her head in her lap, and another with her “high school sweetheart Doug” in front of a Christmas tree, as explained by Julianne on her Instagram Stories.
“I just love LOVE,” she wrote in the slide that followed.
The Safe Haven actress also shared her recent travels on her Instagram Stories on Wednesday, Dec. 23, documenting herself spending time with loved ones in Santa Teresa, Costa Rica, for the holidays.
After a group workout session, Julianne shared both a photo and a video of herself walking along a fallen tree branch in a wooded area on a sunny day while wearing a bikini and a straw hat.
In the video, she carefully balanced herself to make sure she didn’t fall into the ditch underneath while running along.
Julianne Hough, Christmas 2025.
Julianne Hough/Instagram
The person filming was heard laughing as Julianne successfully made it over the large branch.
After spending time outdoors, next up was a clay-making class with a view.
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Rolling pins, clay and other materials were placed on a table in an open-air deck area overlooking the water.
Julianne also shared content of the instructor showing her small group how to mold the clay before joking about being “Trad Wives” as she and her friend posed holding rolling pins while wearing aprons.
WORLD NEWS
I’d never spoken to my quiet author neighbour for two years until we had a pleasant chat about badgers. Two weeks later she set fire to my Land Rover Freelander
Graham Lee had lived near his author neighbour for two years before he spoke to her for the first time.
Two weeks later, she set fire to his beloved Land Rover Freelander.
The kindhearted wildlife volunteer couldn’t understand why an innocuous conversation about badgers being kept on his driveway had sparked the fury of 63-year-old Susan Lupton.
If anything, Graham walked away from what he described as a ‘nice and pleasant’ conversation with a feeling of optimism that someone was talking, as he thought, positively about the black and white omnivores.
But what followed next was a near year-long period of his life being made hell, compounded by what Graham believes was police incompetence to fully protect him from his nightmare neighbour.
It left Graham petrified and fearing for his life, and led him to take the drastic action of arming himself with a crossbow for protection.
The 56-year-old was born and raised on the Isle of Wight, and is a recognisable face on the island due to his work for the last 16 years with local volunteer group the Badgers Trust.
His heroics include the daring rescue of an injured badger who was stranded on a cliff on the island.
His great-grandfather was a respected Mayor of Ryde, and members of his family held senior positions in the military and on local councils.
Graham Lee, 56, from the Isle of Wight, pictured here with a rescued badger. He was a victim of an arson attack by his neighbour who set fire to his Land Rover
Susan Lupton had taken umbrage with Graham keeping badgers on his driveway and wrongly believed they had killed a cat in the area
On June 20, 2024, his tranquil life in the idyllic coastal village Freshwater Bay, where he lives with his solicitor wife, was turned into a nightmare.
It began a fortnight earlier, when Graham was walking to his garage on a 90ft by 10ft piece of land he had inherited from his late grandfather.
He was heading to his Freelander he had recently bought to tend to his seriously ill, widowed mother in hospital, when a woman he had never seen before approached him.
‘She just came out of the gate and said “oh, you’ve got badgers in your garden”. So I told her I feed them and I do wildlife work,’ Graham exclusively told the Daily Mail.
‘And that the badgers sometimes live on the driveway in a purpose-built cell that I had.
‘I mean, some people are nasty about badgers because they hate them – digging up the lawn, killing hedgehogs or whatever, but they don’t do that.
‘So to meet someone who was nice and pleasant and enjoyed seeing them… I thought she seemed quite OK with it.’
He found out her name was Susan and she had been living opposite his garage for the last two years. Another brief conversation followed, where she mentioned to Graham that he was going to feature in an article in the local press about his badger escapades.
He thought nothing of it until a few days later when a neighbour told him Susan had posted online about him on Facebook.
‘I didn’t even know who it was, so my partner looked her up and saw this Facebook post saying I’m an evil badger man, and my [Border Collie] dog is vicious. I’m keeping badgers on the driveway.’
Those messages have since been taken down. But unbeknownst to Graham, Susan had been watching him for years.
Days later, after returning from a dentist appointment on the mainland, a frantic neighbour rang his doorbell on a crisp summer’s morning to tell him his car was on fire.
Graham first put it down to the morning mist or steam coming off the Freelander due to condensation.
But he got dressed and made the short walk to his garage just to make sure. When he arrived, he was met with a huge plume of black smoke in the sky and a scene of carnage.
‘My stomach just dropped and my legs went like jelly,’ he said.
‘I thought Christ, so I got down there as quick as I could. The smoke was one hundred feet in the air. The flames were about twenty feet in the air.
‘The fence had gone all on fire. My tree was gone. Flames were licking at the neighbour’s window upstairs. Everything in the garden was on fire.
Susan set fire to his ‘pride and joy’ Freelander just two weeks after the neighbours had their first conversation
‘And Susan Lupton is in the road. I immediately said to her, “You did this. Why do you do this?” First off, she said “prove it”.
‘Then I said to her again that she had done it and she said, “Your badgers kill cats”. And then she ran off inside.’
Graham grabbed hold of a hosepipe and bravely battled the flames for 15 minutes until firefighters arrived to stop the blaze from spreading to his severely disabled neighbour’s home.
He believes his heroics saved his neighbour’s life, but it has also had lasting, damaging effects.
Graham was treated for smoke inhalation on the roadside and suffered a burn on his arm. A week later, he was still coughing up black mucus.
Today, he has to use a CPAP machine to help with his breathing.
Graham said he later submitted a claim to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Authority for compensation for his injuries.
But he said this was rejected because ‘he had put himself at risk of harm by fighting the fire’.
The inferno caused more than £20,000 worth of damage, with Graham’s 4×4 completely gutted.
A window, toolbox, guttering, cooker extractor and a Japanese Maple Tree were all beyond repair.
The immediate impact caused the most angst. Graham’s elderly 83-year-old mother at the time was fighting for her life in hospital with sepsis in the spine that had eroded two of her vertebrae.
He had bought the Land Rover as it was the right height to collect her when the time came that she was deemed well enough to go home.
Susan admitted two counts of arson and was ordered to pay costs of £1,000 and compensation of £7,835. She has also been banned from the village of Freshwater indefinitely
But it is the emotional torment he endured at the hands of Susan for nearly a year afterwards that he could not fathom, due to what he says was a catalogue of police failures.
His neighbour immediately admitted her guilt the moment she was arrested when police arrived, with discarded matches scattered over her patio, as she told officers: ‘I did it. I’m responsible.’
She had used the matches to light a tray of white spirit that she placed under his car. A method she said that a ‘fireman friend’ had allegedly told her to use.
It later transpired that Susan lives with bipolar and was experiencing an episode of mania at the time of the arson. She was sectioned after her arrest.
At the first hearing at magistrates’ court, Graham says he was told he could safely return home as Susan was being kept in hospital and was unfit to plead.
Yet when he pulled up, he chillingly saw her watching him from her window. It then began to dawn on him that she had been bailed back opposite to the scene of crime – despite Graham claiming she owned two other properties on the island.
‘She spent the rest of the day staring at me, whilst I desperately emptied the contents of my garage in case she decided to set fire to that as well,’ he said.
He set up security cameras and a padlocked fence to protect his garage.
But it did not stop his tormentor. Instead, he says Susan would watch him constantly, who had set up a ‘Google Nest camera’ on her window that he believes alerted her to his arrival.
There were days when she was caught on camera, chillingly standing at the end of his driveway watching his every move while smoking a cigarette.
Graham says she would park her car opposite his garage to make it difficult for him to access his vehicle. He claimed in October she walked out in front of his car to falsely claim to police that he was trying to run her over.
And then there were the 999 calls from Susan making claims of harassment. Between June and October 2024 she called police six times.
On one occasion, he says it led to four officers turning up at Graham’s 85-year-old father-in-law’s home in search of him.
Before the arson, she had posted videos online of her hurling bricks at Graham’s rescued badgers.
He said: ‘It made me very afraid, and very stressed. I didn’t want to go down there [to the garage], but I had to make sure it was safe. I was scared, afraid to go down there because of her being there and not knowing what she’s going to do.’
That feeling of terror led Graham to take some extraordinary measures to protect himself and his loved ones.
‘With the house, because she’d breached bail, because nothing is being done to her, because of the arson attack on my car, I had to have fire extinguishers in every room by the doors,’ he said.
The burnt remains of Graham’s Freelander that he bought in order to tend to his seriously ill, widowed mother in hospital
‘We’re not Doomsday preppers or anything. Never had reason to have any type of weapon in the house at all, ever. But because the police were failing us and the CPS was doing nothing, we had to buy weapons.
‘Knives, basically, hidden in every room. And a tactical crossbow that was kept by the bed.
‘The police had let us down. They would do nothing at all. Harsh words were not going to get rid of this woman if she came onto our property at night.
‘When we were cooking in the kitchen in the evening, I would have the back door open in the summer. But I felt fearful that she was going to walk through the back door while I was cooking.
‘It was constantly checking the CCTV on the house. We had to have that installed as well. I couldn’t even take my dog to the garage [as I didn’t know what she would do].’
Graham could not understand why the legal system had not come down harder on her.
He points to a series of failures throughout the investigation, the most damning of all in allowing Susan to return to live opposite where she carried out the arson attack.
Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary has apologised to Graham for the way officers handled the case, and in a letter in January, seen by the Mail, admitted the service was ‘not acceptable’.
It blamed ‘admin errors’ and a lack of communication between custody sergeants and officers for Graham’s allegations of harassment initially being ‘overlooked’.
Astonishingly, the letter states it was Susan’s ‘specific needs being met’ in the decision to bail her back to near where she had destroyed Graham’s Land Rover.
‘The custody sergeant believed that he could have made her homeless with a condition not to live at that address, having explored the options with her son on the mainland which were untenable,’ the letter reads.
‘I have to take into account that she has not expressed ownership of other address as you have indicated.’
Detectives did eventually submit evidence to the CPS in February – a day before she was originally due to appear in court to be sentenced for arson – to consider charging Susan with stalking without violence.
It was dismissed, with the CPS later telling Graham in a letter, seen by the Mail, there was not ‘a realistic prospect of conviction’ as he and Susan had both made allegations of harassment against each other which were ‘finely balanced’.
Susan had claimed in her defence that she was recording Graham as she ‘had been encouraged by the police to gather evidence to show they were the victim of harassment’.
Graham is a recognisable face on the island due to his work for the last 16 years with local volunteer group the Badgers Trust. He sometimes kept them on his driveway
A spokesperson for Hampshire and Isle of Wight Constabulary told the Mail: ‘A complaint was made to our Professional Standards department around the handling by police of the allegations in this case.
‘Organisational learning was identified, and an apology was issued to the victim.
‘The allegations of stalking and harassment were revisited, and all lines of enquiry were thoroughly investigated before police consulted with the CPS regarding a criminal charging decision.
‘Based on the evidence gathered, the CPS decision was to not take any further action.’
A Crown Prosecution Service spokesperson said: ‘We secured convictions for two counts of arson in this case and successfully applied for a restraining order to be put in place to provide further protection for Mr Lee.
‘Our prosecutors carefully reviewed further evidence in this case relating to other possible charges but ultimately were not satisfied there was a realistic prospect of conviction.
‘This decision was twice reviewed under our Victims’ Right to Review Scheme, and specialist prosecutors independently agreed with the original conclusion.
‘We have written to Mr Lee to explain our decision-making in detail.’
When sentencing, Judge James Newton-Price said that the victims in the case had suffered a ‘terrifying experience’ and that Susan had developed a ‘fixation’ with Graham and had became ‘irrationally obsessed’.
The judge told Susan: ‘You didn’t like Mr Lee attracting badgers to the area, for reasons of your own.
‘You had been harassing him online, calling him “Evil Badger Man” on Facebook.’
The judge continued: ‘You developed a fixation on Mr Lee, him feeding badgers and believing they killed a neighbour’s cat.
‘You became irrationally obsessed with that and started posting your views on social media.’
Susan was ordered to pay costs of £1,000 and compensation of £7,835. She was also handed two years’ imprisonment, suspended for two years, with a restraining order to stay away from Graham.
Susan has also been banned from the village of Freshwater indefinitely.
Today, Graham says life is slowly returning to some sense of normality.
The tactical crossbow is gone. His mother is out of hospital, and he is now happily married, with the couple last year having to postpone their wedding because of the untold amount of stress.
But he still, at times, checks over his shoulder just to make sure Susan isn’t there.
WORLD NEWS
BREAKING: Heartbroken family's Christmas Eve tribute to 'murdered' ex-soldier who was 'kind soul'
We’ll be bringing you the very latest updates, pictures and video on this breaking news story.
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WORLD NEWS
Trump-backed conservative Nasry Asfura wins Honduras election: Authorities | Elections News
Asfura says he is ready to govern after narrow vote as the US urges ‘all parties to respect the confirmed results’.
Nasry Asfura, a conservative candidate backed by United States President Donald Trump, has won the closely contested presidential elections in Honduras, the country’s election council has said.
The final results, announced on Wednesday – more than 20 days after the vote took place – are likely to lead to challenges in the Central American nation.
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According to the electoral authority, known as the CNE, Asfura won 40.3 percent of the vote, edging out centre-right Liberal Party candidate Salvador Nasralla, who received 39.5 percent.
In a brief social media post, Asfura thanked the CNE on Wednesday. “Honduras: I am prepared to govern. I will not fail you,” he wrote.
Trump had come out strongly in support of Asfura, attacking Nasralla and left-wing candidate Rixi Moncada, who ended up garnering less than 20 percent of the votes.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was quick to congratulate Asfura on Wednesday, saying that Washington looks forward to working with him.
“The people of Honduras have spoken: Nasry Asfura is Honduras’ next president,” Rubio wrote in a social media post.
In a separate statement, Rubio urged “all parties to respect the confirmed results” of the elections.
Earlier this month, Trump pardoned former Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez – a member of Asfura’s National Party – who was serving a lengthy prison sentence in the US for drug trafficking.
Asfura, the former mayor of Honduras’s capital, Tegucigalpa, is of Palestinian descent. But his National Party is staunchly pro-Israel.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said on Wednesday that he spoke to Asfura and the officials agreed to “strengthen bilateral relations” between the two countries.
“I conveyed our warm wishes to the people of Honduras, wished him success in his role, and invited him to visit Israel,” Saar said in a statement. “Honduras has a long history of friendship with the State of Israel and the Jewish people.”
Under Hernandez in 2021, Honduras became only the fourth country to move its embassy in Israel to Jerusalem in breach of international law. Asfura has also aligned himself with Trump and other right-wing leaders in the Americas, including Argentina’s Javier Milei.
The Argentinian president hailed Honduras’s election results on Wednesday, calling it a victory against “narcosocialism”, although the National Party’s Hernandez is a convicted drug trafficker.
“The Honduran people expressed themselves with courage at the ballot boxes and chose to end years of authoritarianism and decay,” Milei wrote in a social media post.
“From Argentina, we celebrate the triumph of freedom and reaffirm our commitment to democracy, the popular will, and the unrestricted respect for institutions in the region.”
Asfura’s victory marks another win for right-wing candidates in Latin America over the past year. Chile and Bolivia have also elected ultraconservative presidents in 2025, and last year, El Salvador’s right-wing leader Nayib Bukele comfortably won re-election.
The results appear to reverse the “Pink Tide” – the wave of left-wing leaders who rose to power in the region in the early 2020s.
The rise of right-wing governments in the region coincides with a US pressure campaign against Venezuela’s left-wing President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump has imposed an oil blockade on Venezuela and amassed US troops and military assets near the country.