What to know about UK snow bomb bringing ‘one inch per hour’ in just days – The Mirror

Need to know

New snow maps for the UK show a huge band of snow stretching 700 miles set to blanket the UK in January as temperatures are set to turn bitterly cold after a mild start to December

The map shows massive snowfall inbound for the UK and rest of Europe

What you need to know about the UK snow bomb set to bring ‘one inch per hour’ to Brits in days

1. New weather maps have shown a huge snow bomb spanning the country set to batter Brits in the coming days. Up to an inch of snow per hour could fall in the wintry blast.
2. Temperatures have turned icy in recent days, with weather maps forecasting that the cold spell will strengthen its grip in the new year. Temperatures will drop to just 0C in some places with maximum temperatures of 5C as snow falls across much of the UK.
3. Maps from Ventusky, a weather charting service that uses public datasets from major organisations like the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and DWD (German Weather Service) show the UK and rest of Europe being hit hard on January 8 next year. The snow is set to stretch across more than 700 miles of the country in the first significant snowfall of 2026.
4. Snowfall looks set to arrive in the early afternoon, from around 1.30pm, where between 1cm and 5cm of snow is set to be dumped on Brits. The snow spans from Eastbourne to Mellon Udrigle on Scotland’s northeast coast, with the most significant snow hitting the western side of the strip including London, Oxford, Manchester, and Glasgow.
5. While Ventusky forecasts significant snowfall for the UK, the Met Office makes no mention of wintry spells beyond “colder and drier” conditions. The Met Office says in its long range forecast that an “area of low pressure” could bring a ” period of wetter and windier weather, especially to the north.”

READ THE FULL STORY: UK snow bomb horror as new weather maps show ‘one inch per hour’ to fall in days

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Gaza City – Dr Hussam Abu Safia, 52, remains in an Israeli prison a year after Israel detained him without charges or trial.

His family and supporters are demanding his release as his health deteriorates amid reports of the inhumane conditions under which he is being held.

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Abu Safia, known for his steadfast presence as director of Kamal Adwan Hospital in Beit Lahiya, north of Gaza City, has become central in international discussions on the protection of medical personnel in armed conflicts.

He insisted on staying at the hospital, along with several medical staff, despite continuous Israeli attacks on the facility.

Israel eventually surrounded the hospital and forced everyone to evacuate. Since then, Abu Safia has been in detention, and the hospital has been out of service.

He was transferred between Israeli prisons, from the notorious Sde Teiman holding facility to Ofer Prison, being mistreated continuously.

No charges have been brought against Abu Safia, who is held under the “unlawful combatant” law, which allows detention without a standard criminal trial and denies detainees access to the evidence against them.

A family’s suffering

Abu Safia is being held in extreme conditions and, according to lawyers, has lost more than a third of his body weight.

His family is worried about him as he also suffers from heart problems, an irregular heartbeat, high blood pressure, skin infections and a lack of specialised medical care.

His eldest son, Ilyas, 27, told Al Jazeera via Zoom from Kazakhstan, where the family fled a month ago, about their grief over Abu Safia’s detention, adding that his father’s only “crime” was being a doctor.

Ilyas, his mother Albina and four siblings stayed with his father at Kamal Adwan through the Israeli attacks, despite opportunities to leave Gaza, especially as Albina is a Kazakh citizen.

On October 26, 2024, Israel killed Ilyas’s brother, Ibrahim, 20, while it shelled the hospital.

“The entire medical staff cried in grief for [my father] and for Ibrahim,” Ilyas said.

The taking of Dr Abu Safia

At dawn on December 27, 2024, the hospital woke up to a tightened Israeli siege with tanks and quadcopter drones.

Israeli tanks had been around Kamal Adwan since mid-October 2024, gradually moving closer – destroying parts of the infrastructure like water tanks – until that day when they were so close nobody could move outside.

Dr  Walid al-Badi remained with Abu Safia in Kamal Adwan until they were forced to evacuate [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/ Al Jazeera]

Patients and staff gathered in the emergency reception corridor, according to Dr Walid al-Badi, 29, who stayed with Abu Safia until his arrest, and spoke to Al Jazeera on December 25 at the Baptist Hospital in Gaza City.

“The situation was extremely tense, loudspeakers were calling on everyone to evacuate, but Dr Abu Safia asked us to remain calm. Then the loudspeakers called Dr Abu Safia to come to the tank.”

Abu Safia was ordered to enter an armoured vehicle. According to al-Badi, the doctor returned carrying a sheet of instructions, dishevelled, his clothes dusty and a bruise under his chin.

Everyone rushed to check on him, and he told them that he had been assaulted.

“Israeli media showed a video claiming they … treated him with respect, but they didn’t show … how he was assaulted in the tank, threatened,” al-Badi said.

Abu Safia was ordered by the Israelis to prepare a list of everyone in the hospital, which he did and returned to the armoured vehicle, where he was told that only 20 staff could remain. The rest had to leave.

“Around 10am, the Israelis allowed some ambulances to take patients, wounded people, some displaced civilians, and the doctor’s family to the Indonesian Hospital [about 1km away] while the medical teams left on foot,” al-Badi recounts.

However, several patients remained, besieged along with the medics.

“The doctor told me to go, but I told him I would stay with him until the end.”

The only female medic who remained was intensive care unit head, Dr Mai Barhouma, who spoke to Al Jazeera from the Baptist Hospital.

Barhouma had been working with critical patients dependent on medical equipment and oxygen, and her conscience would not allow her to leave, despite Abu Safia asking her to.

The Israeli army repeatedly summoned Abu Safia for new instructions, once, according to Drs Barhouma and al-Badi, offering a safe exit for him alone.

He refused, insisting that he would stay with his staff. At about 10pm, the quadcopters ordered everyone to line up and evacuate.

During this time, Israel shelled and set fire to the upper floors and turned off the electricity.

“We were heartbroken as Dr Abu Safia led [us] out,” al-Badi recalled. “I hugged Dr Abu Safia, who was crying as he left the hospital he tried so hard to stay in.”

Testimonies from that day say medical staff were taken to al-Fakhoura School in Jabalia, where they were beaten and tortured by Israeli soldiers during interrogations.

Barhouma left in an ambulance with an ICU patient, but the ambulance was held for hours at the school.

Dr  Mai  Barhouma, who oversaw the ICU at Kamal Adwan Hospital, insisted on staying with Dr Abu Safia until the moment the hospital was evacuated [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/ Al Jazeera]

“The soldiers bound our hands and forced us to walk towards al-Fakhoura school, [2km away] from the hospital. Our colleagues who had left in the morning were still there, being tortured,” al-Badi recalled, adding that they arrived at about midnight.

“They ordered us to strip down to our underwear, tied our hands and began severely beating us with boots and rifle butts, insulting and verbally abusing us.”

The interrogation and beatings of the medics in the freezing cold continued for hours while Barhouma was in the ambulance with the critically ill patient.

“The oxygen ran out, so I started using a manual resuscitation pump. My hands swelled from pumping nonstop, terrified that the patient would die,” she said.

She described hearing the screams of the male medics being tortured, and then being ordered out of the ambulance by Israeli soldiers.

“The soldier asked for my ID and took an eye scan, then ordered me to get out, but I refused and told him I had a critical patient who would die if I left them.”

Eventually, the Israelis released the medics, including al-Badi and Abu Safia, ordering them to head for western Gaza, while sending the ambulance with Barhouma in it on an alternate route westwards.

But the relief didn’t last. They had only walked a few metres when an Israeli officer called out to Abu Safia.

“Our faces froze,” al-Badi said. “The doctor asked what was wrong. The officers said: ‘We want you with us in Israel.’”

Al-Badi and a nurse tried to pull the doctor away, but he rebuked them and told them to keep walking.

“I was crying like a child being separated from his father as I watched the doctor being arrested and dressed in the white nylon uniform for detainees.”

Calls for his release

Abu Safia’s family are appealing to human rights and legal bodies for his immediate release.

“My father’s lawyers visited him around seven times over the past year, [each visit allowed only] after exhausting attempts with the prison administration. Each time, my father’s condition has deteriorated significantly,” Ilyas told Al Jazeera.

Ilyas Abu Safia, Abu  Safiya’s eldest son, speaking to Al Jazeera via Zoom from Kazakhstan about the latest updates on his father’s case and detention conditions [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/ Al Jazeera]

“[He] has fractures in his thigh and shrapnel in his foot from an injury while at the hospital before his arrest. He also suffers other health problems and is subjected to severe psychological and physical abuse that does not befit his age.

“Israel is trying to criminalise my father’s work, his continued service to people and his efforts to save the wounded and the sick in an area Israel itself considered a ‘red zone’ at the time.

“My father’s presence and steadfastness inside the hospital posed a major obstacle to the Israeli army and its plan to empty the north of its residents.”

Ilyas is proud of his father.

“My father is a doctor who will be held up worldwide as an example of adherence to medical ethics and courage.

“I am proud beyond words, and I hope to embrace him soon and see him emerge from the darkness of prison safe and well.”

Dr Hussam Abu Safia [Courtesy Ilyas Abu Safia]



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The Las Vegas police department rolled out a new fleet of tactical vehicles to city streets last month: all Tesla Cybertrucks. The steel cars, wrapped in black-and-white vinyl, come decked out with warning lights and flashing sirens on the roof. They seem to be heftier, more angular versions of a traditional police car. Las Vegas is the first city in the US to grant its officers access to a battalion of the futuristic trucks, which have become synonymous with the Tesla CEO, Elon Musk, the richest person in the world.

“They represent something far bigger than just a police car,” Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a recent press conference showcasing the vehicles. “They represent innovation.”

News of the 10 electric Cybertrucks first rippled across Las Vegas in February when McMahill posted renderings of the cars on X, saying “These are badass” and announcing his force would soon be driving them. Another police department post on Instagram said the fleet “was entirely donated by an anonymous supporter”.

Rumors swirled about who the donor could be. It came at a time when Tesla’s sales had tanked and Musk was laying waste to the federal government’s payroll as the head of the so-called “department of government efficiency” (Doge). According to police department emails acquired by the Guardian through a public records request, the donation had been in the works since the month after Donald Trump’s election win.

“As we’ve discussed, the use of these vehicles would represent a groundbreaking approach to modern policing,” Mike Gennaro, the chief of staff for the Las Vegas metropolitan police department, wrote in an email to the donor on 1 December 2024.

The mysterious donor turned out to be Ben Horowitz, co-founder of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, and his wife Felicia Horowitz. They came forward just days after McMahill posted the renderings on social media. Horowitz’s firm, one of the best-known in Silicon Valley, invests in a variety of tech companies and spent $400m to help Musk take over Twitter in 2022.

In reaction to the news, Musk replied to a post about it on X with an emoji wearing sunglasses.

Athar Haseebullah, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada, said that police use of these Cybertrucks seemed like an endorsement of Musk.

A member of the Las Vegas police department inspects a Tesla Cybertruck, part of the department’s fleet of vehicles, in Las Vegas on 28 October 2025. Photograph: Ty ONeil/AP

“I recognize that LVMPD sees value in having cool-looking vehicles around, and it projects an air of modernity and sophistication. But the reality is that for communities, that’s not what they’re asking for,” Haseebullah said. “They’re asking to feel safer. I don’t know that a Tesla Cybertruck makes anybody feel any safer.”

Other cities around the US have also faced blowback at the prospect of adding Teslas to government-owned fleets. Baltimore had pledged to spend $5m on Tesla sedans for municipal employees in June 2024, but by March had backed off those plans. In King county, Washington, officials faced backlash from residents for buying 120 Tesla vehicles for its municipal carpooling program. And in a handful of small towns in California, where officers have been testing Tesla sedans for law enforcement work, department chiefs say the vehicles aren’t fit for modern policing.

The Las Vegas police department, however, is optimistic. McMahill said zero taxpayer dollars were spent on the Cybertrucks because they were a donation.

The mysterious donors

The Horowitzes live in Las Vegas and have been longtime supporters of the city’s police department. According to the emails acquired by the Guardian, their Cybertruck donation included 10 vehicles for patrolling and one “sting protector” for special weapons and tactics (Swat). The donation, which is estimated at about $2.7m and was finalized in late January 2025, was funnelled through a law enforcement charity called Behind the Blue.

“The morale of the cops will be through the roof when these show up at their substations,” Gennaro wrote to Horowitz, as they hammered out the donation logistics. “And we will use them as a tool to keep morale high and cops productive.”

The police department waited for the Cybertrucks for about 10 months as they underwent upgrades by a company called UpFit, based in Hawthorne, California, which specializes in retrofitting Teslas for police work. The patrol vehicles come with barrier shields, ladders, radios and other tactical gear, according to the police department. The upgrade specifics and pricing were redacted in public records.

According to internal emails, the Swat vehicle will be used in situations that include “barricaded suspects and hostage incidents”.

Las Vegas police asked UpFit to remove Tesla’s “beast” mode on all 11 vehicles. Beast mode is a setting that Tesla says makes a Cybertruck accelerate from zero to 60mph in 2.6 seconds and can reach a top speed of 130mph.

Horowitz has made several tech-centric donations to the Las Vegas police department over the past couple of years, totalling roughly $8m. Those include license plate readers from the company Flock, drones from Skydio and an artificial intelligence tool that helps with 911 calls from the company Prepared911. These three products were created by businesses within Andreessen Horowitz’s investment portfolio, according to a report by TechCrunch. The firm is not an investor in Tesla.

In response to TechCrunch’s reporting, Horowitz wrote a blogpost emphasizing the need for public safety and quoted the rapper Nas, saying: “You can hate me now, but I won’t stop now.”

Horowitz and Tesla did not respond to the Guardian’s requests for comment.

The Cybertruck’s woes

Musk has touted the Cybertruck’s stainless steel body as being “apocalypse-proof” with the ability to withstand bullets and arrows. During his unveiling of the vehicle in 2019, he had one of his staffers throw a metal ball at the car’s window to show off what he said was “a truck that’s really tough, not fake tough”. The window shattered.

Cybertrucks have been on public roads for two years now. They have dedicated fans, but have seen dwindling sales and are banned from the European market over pedestrian safety issues. In the third quarter of this year, Tesla sold just 5,385 Cybertrucks – down 63% from the same time last year. For comparison, the Ford F-150, a similar oversized electric truck, saw sales rise by nearly 40% in the third quarter.

Some of the lackluster sales come from opposition to Musk during his time at Doge. “Tesla Takedown” protests last winter were aimed at getting people to sell their cars and a fair amount of vitriol and violence was directed specifically toward Cybertrucks. Vandals around the country spray-painted swastikas on the pickup trucks, and, in Seattle, someone set four of the vehicles on fire, engulfing them in flames.

Tesla Cybertrucks owned by the Las Vegas metro police department on display in Las Vegas on 28 October 2025. Photograph: Ty ONeil/AP

Cybertrucks have also had a staggering number of recalls over the last two years. Among the 10 recalls, issues included side panelling that’s prone to flying off while driving, too bright front lights and a gas pedal that accelerates uncontrollably. The most recent recall, issued on 30 October, was due to the truck’s light bar being susceptible to falling off and causing a road hazard to other vehicles.

“Why didn’t they pick any other type of vehicle?” Haseebullah from the ACLU of Nevada asked. “Why would a Tesla be more efficient for police to utilize than a Ford?”

The Las Vegas police department said it dealt with those recalls before deploying its Cybertrucks on patrol last month. For Sheriff McMahill, using these trucks is about having “the most technologically advanced police department on the planet”.

“These trucks are high performance and they’re built tough,” McMahill said, echoing Ford’s “Built tough” tagline. “Cops are going to look kinda cool in them too.”

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Tiffany Wertheimer

The sound of gunfire and blasts can be heard overnight and into the morning in Kyiv

A third of residents in Ukraine’s capital Kyiv are without power after a “massive bombing” of residential areas and critical infrastructure by Russia overnight, Ukraine’s foreign minister has said.

Andrii Sybiha said residents had been left without heating in freezing winter temperatures.

At least one person was killed and 30 others were injured in the strikes, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko said.

The attacks happened hours before Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky departed for Florida, where he will meet Donald Trump on Sunday for peace talks.

Russia’s ministry of defence said it had launched a “massive retaliatory strike” on Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities.

It said it used long-range, land-, air-, and sea-based precision weapons to target the facilities, which it claimed were being used “in the interests of the Ukrainian Armed Forces and enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex”.

Following the strikes, Zelensky repeated his claim that Russia does “not want to end the war and is trying to use every opportunity to inflict more pain on Ukraine”.

Writing on Telegram, Zelensky said Russia directed almost 500 drones and 40 missiles towards Kyiv, targeting energy and civilian infrastructure.

Pictures show apartment buildings with gaping holes and homes on fire following the strikes.

The apartment block of BBC journalist Anastasiya Gribanova was struck, leaving some homes on the higher levels of the high-rise building in flames. Gribanova, who was in the building’s elevator at the time, was unharmed.

Reuters

A house in Kyiv was also hit, Ukraine’s emergency services said

Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said that 68 people were evacuated from a retirement home in the eastern Darnytskyi district.

“Russian representatives are having long conversations, but in reality the Daggers [missiles] and Shaheds [drones] are speaking for them,” Zelensky wrote on Telegram, saying that Vladimir Putin does not want to end the war.

“This sick activity can only be responded to with really strong steps. America has this opportunity, Europe has this opportunity, many of our partners have this opportunity,” he wrote, urging allies to show strength against Russian aggression.

The strikes saw Poland, which shares a 530km-long (320-miles) border with western Ukraine, ready its fighter jets, ground-based air defence systems and radar reconnaissance.

The move was “aimed at securing and protecting the airspace, especially in areas adjacent to the threatened regions,” Poland’s Armed Forces said.

Later on Saturday morning, it concluded that there had been no violation of the country’s airspace.

Meanwhile, Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences destroyed seven Ukrainian drones overnight.

Reuters

The aftermath of the damage in Kyiv

On Saturday, Zelensky, EU leaders and European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen are expected to hold a phone call to discuss the road to peace.

Zelensky’s new 20-point draft is a revised version of an earlier 28-point plan which was drafted by US special envoy Steve Witkoff, but widely seen as being too favourable to Russia.

The Ukrainian president has voiced optimism around the new draft, describing it as “a foundational document on ending the war”, but Trump warned that Zelensky “doesn’t have anything until I approve it” in an interview with Politico.

The draft reportedly includes security guarantees from the US, Nato and European allies for a co-ordinated military response if Russia were to invade Ukraine again.

Control of Ukraine’s eastern Donbas has been a sticking point in talks so far, but now Zelensky has said a “free economic zone” could be an option.

Trump told Politico that he was expecting to see the new draft on Sunday.

“I think it’s going to go good with him. I think it’s going to go good with [Vladimir] Putin,” Trump said in the interview, adding that he expects to speak with Russia’s president “soon”.

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When you move house in Germany, you need to register your new address with the authorities. In Germany, that often means calling city hall, waiting weeks for an appointment, and showing up in person with paper forms.

Yes, in 2025! And if you forget your health insurance card at the doctors? Some apps can help — by sending a fax.

“Around three quarters, 77%, of German companies still use fax machines,” says Felix Lesner from Bitkom, Germany’s IT industry association. “And 25% use it often or very often.”

Why? “Most of the companies state that it’s essential for communication with the public authorities. So maybe this is where the problem lies,” he told DW.

Falling behind

The European Union regularly publishes rankings of digital development among member states, with Germany performing somewhere in the middle of the 27 nation bloc — at best. When it comes to e-government, meaning digital public services, the country lags especially behind.

A study by CapGemini, a consultancy, ranks Germany 24th within the EU.

German engineers invented the programmable computer, the SIM card, and mp3 technology. Yet registering a car or getting a marriage license still means standing in line.

German computer pioneer Konrad Zuse may have invented the world’s first programmable computer, but his descendants have fallen behind digitallyImage: Oliver Berg/dpa/picture alliance

Frank Reinartz, head of the Digital Agency company in Dusseldorf, says Germany doesn’t have an issue with strategy or targets, “we have an issue with getting things done.”

Dusseldorf, a city of around 650.000 people, offers 120 administrative services online out of 580 — just over 20%. And yet, Dusseldorf is considered digitally advanced and ranks 6th place in the Smart City Index compiled by Bitkom and measuring digital services in German cities. Berlin, the country’s capital, had difficulties makeing it into the Top 40. 

‘Institutional inflation’

Germany’s federal government structure with 16 regional states often leaves local communities to figure out their own solutions.

“We don’t have much software and processes coming from the federal [state] level,”  Reinartz told DW. “Each city has to find their own solution for a process which is nationwide, for example, car registration.”

Add to this a lack of coordination, and what researcher Stefanie Köhl calls “institutional inflation.” 

Köhl and her colleagues at SHI Institute in Berlin examined why in the last 25 years, digital public services didn’t really take off in Germany.

“Everybody does something, but only in his or her silo. There’s no connection between solutions, sometimes also no compatibility between technologies,” she told DW.

German foreign medical worker program mired in bureaucracy

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Frank Reinartz’s Digital Agency was set up to avoid this. His vision for Dusseldorf’s digital future centers on a website where residents can access every public service online.

“You log in and see your building tax, if you are the owner, the kindergarten for your kids, and the parking permit for your car,” he said.

Denmark: Digital wonderland

While Germany debates, Denmark delivers. Germany’s northern neighbor has turned Reinartz’s vision into reality long ago.

“The website Borger.dk is a one-stop-shop where all citizens have access to more than 2,000 public services on a digital platform,” explains Jakob Frier of Digital Hub Denmark in Copenhagen.

Denmark’s online portal Borger.dk gives citizens digital access to more than 2000 public servicesImage: Andreas Becker / Nicolas Martin

Almost everything — from taxes to health care — is online. The key is a mandatory digital ID or eID, says Adam Lebech, deputy director-general of Denmark’s Agency for Digital Government.

“About 97% of the adult population have eID. And 83% use it at least once a week,” he told DW.

The digital foundation of Denmarks system is a single-identification number called Central Person Register (CPR) which the country already introduced in 1968.

“Since we use the same identifier for all systems, it makes data sharing easy,” said Lebeck. “That means we can create seamless services across several authorities. You have to trust the government, of course.”

While regular surveys show the majority of Danes trust their government, Germans are far more skeptical about state-run centralized data gathering due to its Nazi and Communist past.

Both, Hitler’s Third Reich and East Germany’s communist rulers used personal data to spy on people and control their lives.

How India leapfrogs developments

India has shown how it’s possible to make big strides in developing digital services establishing its own electronic ID system called Aadhaar within just 15 years. Some 99.9% the Indian population use Aadhaar, official government data says.

Meanwhile, Aadhaar is linked to a digital payment platform called UPI (Unified Payment Interface) that even street vendors selling coconuts in roadside stalls accept as payment method. Customers simply transfer the money via a QR-code and a mobile-phone app.

Tej Paul Bhatla of India’s largest IT company TCS told DW that both Aadhaar and UPI were “foundational systems” which were were developed with support from the state but also funding from the private sector.

Right from the beginning, Aadhaar and UPI were planned as an open-source systems for private and public usage, he said, similar to public infrastructure.

“When you build railroads or highways or ports, you make them available for everybody,” said Bhatla, adding that this has allowed private-sector intitiatives to use these systems to “build larger services for citizens and businesses, and take advantage of these.”

TCS’s Bhatla says the advantage of India’s digital infrastructure is that it gives access to both public and private servicesImage: Andreas Becker/Nicolas Martin

Bhatla noted that the digital infrastructure was India’s chance to speed up progress, so that today “almost 80% of the adult population has bank accounts.” Without Aadhaar and UPI, “it would have taken us 48 years to reach the bank account penetration that we have today.”

Bhatla argues better digital infrastructure and an ecosystem of digital services, could also spark economic growth in countries like Germany.

“If you don’t grow, you will definitely see threats coming in from other economies, and life is going to become harder,” he warned.

Edited by: Uwe Hessler

Want the full story? Listen to DW’s new podcast series: Delayland: Germany and the Missing Magic 

Also on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Youtube or wherever else you get your podcasts.

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Donald Trump entered 2025 pledging to end wars and reorient U.S. foreign policy around what he repeatedly described as “peace through strength.”

Throughout the year, Trump has cast his diplomacy as peace-focused, telling reporters, “We think we have a way of getting peace,” and publicly arguing that his record merited a Nobel Peace Prize. The U.S. State Department echoed that framing in its year-end summary of diplomatic efforts, highlighting initiatives it said aimed to “secure peace around the world.”

By the close of 2025, several conflicts saw impressive diplomatic progress, while others were still experiencing issues after years of hatred and violence.

‘IT TOOK 3,000 YEARS’: TRUMP HERALDS ‘GOLDEN AGE OF THE MIDDLE EAST’ IN SPEECHES TO ARAB LEADERS, ISRAEL

U.S. President Donald Trump holds the signed agreement of the first phase of the Gaza ceasefire between Israel and Hamas, in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt, Oct. 13, 2025.  (Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters)

Gaza (Israel–Hamas)

The most consequential diplomatic development of the year came in early October, when the Trump administration helped broker a ceasefire framework between Israel and Hamas. The agreement halted large-scale fighting after months of intense combat and enabled the release of all remaining hostages from Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, except for the body of Ron Gvili that remains held captive by Hamas terrorists. 

The administration later cited the ceasefire as a central element of its 2025 diplomatic record. While the truce largely held through the end of the year, core issues including Gaza’s long-term governance, demilitarization and enforcement mechanisms remained unresolved, as well as rebuilding the enclave after the massive destruction and displacement. U.S. officials continued working with regional partners on next steps as fighting paused, as Israel’s Netanyahu is expected to meet with President Trump next week for talks on Gaza and other issues. 

US President Donald Trump (C), Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev (L) and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan display the agreement they signed in the State Dining Room of the White House in Washington, DC on Aug. 8, 2025. US President Donald Trump said Friday that Armenia and Azerbaijan were committed to a permanent peace as he hosted a White House summit with the leaders of the two South Caucasus nations, which have fought for decades. (Photo by Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images)

Armenia–Azerbaijan

In August, Trump hosted the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan at the White House for a U.S.-brokered peace declaration aimed at addressing decades of conflict tied to Nagorno-Karabakh. The agreement focused on transit routes, economic cooperation and regional connectivity and was promoted by the administration as a historic step.

While the historic declaration was signed, implementation and deeper reconciliation is still ongoing.

President Donald Trump (R) greets Russian President Vladimir Putin (L) as he arrives at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson on Aug. 15, 2025 in Anchorage, Alaska.  (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Ukraine–Russia war

Ukraine remained the most ambitious and elusive peace target of Trump’s 2025 agenda. The year opened with Trump insisting the war could be ended through direct U.S. engagement and leverage over both Kyiv and Moscow. Diplomacy intensified in August, when Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska, a summit framed by the White House as a test of whether personal diplomacy could unlock a settlement.

In parallel, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was received at the White House, where Trump reiterated U.S. support for Ukraine while signaling that any peace would require difficult compromises. U.S. officials explored security guarantees and economic incentives, while avoiding public commitments on borders or NATO membership.

MOMENTUM BUILDS IN UKRAINE PEACE PUSH, BUT EXPERTS FEAR PUTIN WON’T BUDGE 

Ukrainian servicemen of the 44th artillery brigade fire a 2s22 Bohdana self-propelled howitzer towards Russian positions at the frontline in the Zaporizhzhia region, Ukraine, Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2025. (Danylo Antoniuk/AP Photo)

By December, talks accelerated. Ukraine entered new rounds of U.S.-led negotiations, and Trump told reporters the sides were “getting close to something.” On Christmas Zelenskyy said talks with U.S. officials had produced a 20-point plan and accompanying documents that include security guarantees involving Ukraine, the United States and European partners. He acknowledged the framework was not flawless but described it as a tangible step forward. Zelenskyy is reportedly readying a visit to meet with President Trump, possibly as soon as Sunday.

Bloomberg reported that Russia views the 20-point plan agreed to between Ukraine and the U.S. as only a starting point. According to a person close to the Kremlin, Moscow intends to seek key changes, including additional restrictions on Ukraine’s military, arguing that the proposal lacks provisions important to Russia and leaves many questions unanswered.

VENEZUELAN DISSIDENT MACHADO CREDITS TRUMP FOR ADVANCING FREEDOM MOVEMENT, DEDICATES NOBEL TO HIM

President Donald Trump arrives for a signing ceremony with Rwanda’s President Paul Kagame and Democratic Republic of Congo President Felix-Antoine Tshisekedi at the Donald J. Trump Institute of Peace, Thursday, Dec. 4, 2025, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Democratic Republic of Congo–Rwanda

In early December, Trump hosted the signing of the Washington Accords for Peace and Prosperity between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda. The agreement reaffirmed commitments to end decades of conflict and expand economic cooperation through a regional integration framework.

By the end of the year, Reuters and the Associated Press reported that armed groups remained active in eastern Congo, underscoring the fragility of the accord, though both sides seemed to be invested in a long-term peace.

Indian army officers stands guard near Pahalgam in south Kashmir after assailants indiscriminately opened fired at tourists visiting Pahalgam, Indian controlled Kashmir, Tuesday, April 22, 2025. (Dar Yasin/AP Photo)

India–Pakistan

After a terrorist attack in Kashmir and retaliatory strikes raised fears of escalation, U.S. officials engaged in emergency diplomacy. Trump announced a ceasefire between the two nuclear-armed rivals, with a potentially catastrophic escalation between the two nuclear powers avoided.

Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet shake hands following the signing of a Cambodia-Thailand peace deal as U.S. President Donald Trump reacts at Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on October 26, 2025 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. (Andrew Harnik/Getty Images)

Cambodia–Thailand border dispute

On the sidelines of an ASEAN summit, Trump helped mediate a ceasefire between Cambodia and Thailand following months of border clashes. 

Diplomatic efforts led by ASEAN and supported by external parties are ongoing, but fresh clashes and mutual recriminations between Thailand and Cambodia continue to challenge peace prospects and have led to large-scale displacement and civilian harm. Following the recent flare-ups, and with offers for mediation from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a new ceasefire was agreed upon on Saturday to end weeks of fighting on the border.

B-2s  carried out strike on Iranian nuclear sites in June.  (U.S. Air Force photo by Bobbie Garcia/Maxar Technologies via AP)

Iran–Israel confrontation

Following U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities, the Trump administration focused on containing escalation and reinforcing deterrence. No diplomatic agreement followed, but the confrontation did not expand into a broader regional war by year’s end.

ISRAELI HOSTAGES FREED, IRAN HIT, CEASEFIRE HELD — 2025 SHATTERED IDEA THAT US WAS EXITING THE MIDDLE EAST

Recently Israel warned that Iran might use its ballistic missile drills as a cover for a surprise attack. 

Armed men salute the governor of Sudan’s Red Sea State Mustafa Mahmud in Port Sudan in the war-torn country on July 24, 2024. Sudan has been gripped by war since April 2023, when fighting erupted between forces loyal to army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. The conflict in the country of 48 million has killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. (AFP via Getty Images)

Sudan

Sudan remained one of the world’s deadliest conflicts. U.S. diplomacy has focused primarily on efforts to halt fighting and expand humanitarian access rather than brokering a comprehensive peace.

In December, Saudi Arabia and the United States presented Sudanese army chief Abdel Fattah al-Burhan with a three-point proposal aimed at ending the war, facilitating aid delivery and transferring power to civilians, according to Sudan Tribune.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro holds a ceremonial sword said to have belonged to independence hero Simon Bolivar during a government-organized civic-military march in Caracas, Venezuela, Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2025.  (Ariana Cubillos/AP Photo)

Venezuela

As the year closed, Venezuela emerged as the United States’ clearest point of direct confrontation. The administration framed its posture as an extension of its broader “peace through strength” doctrine, even as the risk of escalation lingered.

While the White House pursued de-escalation and negotiated arrangements elsewhere, its approach toward Nicolás Maduro relied almost entirely on pressure, not talks. Trump continued to cast Maduro as a criminal threat tied to drug trafficking, accusing him of rejecting the results of Venezuela’s last election and stealing the presidency.

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With no diplomatic channel open, the U.S. maintained sweeping sanctions and stepped up efforts against cartel networks linked to the regime. There was no peace process in sight — but some opposition figures and U.S. allies argued that sustained pressure could still force political change in 2026, and ultimately hasten the end of Maduro’s rule.

Efrat Lachter is an investigative reporter and war correspondent. Her work has taken her to 40 countries, including Ukraine, Russia, Iraq, Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan. She is a recipient of the 2024 Knight-Wallace Fellowship for Journalism. Lachter can be followed on X @efratlachter.

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Emma Fogarty’s body is at least 80 percent covered in wounds at all times – but the 41-year-old gives no indication of the relentless pain, likened to the searing agony of third-degree burns, as she laughs in the car with her mother and friend on their way home from a Christmastime lunch.

She was looking forward to Christmas Day, when she stays home every year with her parents and sister to watch Home Alone and enjoy a Bailey’s latte; it’s the one day of the year she takes off from agonizing bandage changes and the near head-to-toe wrapping regularly protecting her. That’s Emma’s reality of living with the most severe form of Epidermolysis Bullosa, a rare condition in which skin tears away like paper – or a butterfly’s wing.

EB is so uncommon that only one out of every 50,000 people will be affected worldwide. Young sufferers are called “butterfly children” – and Emma joined their ranks when she was born in 1984, when doctors told her parents that she wouldn’t survive a week.

Now, more than four decades later, Emma is one of the oldest living people in the world with EB. She’s confined to a wheelchair, almost entirely covered in bandages, her fingers fused together and her left leg amputated. She has fought bravely for her own quality of life despite “trapped in a body that has been punishing to inhabit,” according to the author of the foreword of her new memoir, Being Emma.

The foreword author, a man she nonchalantly texts and banters with on a regular basis, is none other than actor Colin Farrell. He sat down next to Emma at a charity event in 2010, greeted her with his trademark Dublin “Howyah” and followed that with: “I’m starving, are you?’

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Emma Forgarty and Colin Farrell bonded over her rare genetic condition. Their friendship blossomed and included running a Dublin race together. Now, she is discussing her condition, their friendship and her new book. (PA)

Then he stared down a waiter to help Emma secure plain mashed potatoes for her meal; she’d been served a portion with raw onions, and EB scarring constricts her throat so much that she can barely force down anything–let alone raw vegetables. For years, she underwent regular throat surgeries to stretch the scar tissue and help her swallow.

Colin’s glance at the server that night “hit home,” Emma writes in her memoir, published in the U.S. this month. “I think the waiter would have picked the onions out by hand after he saw it.”

The evening planted the seed of a friendship that would grow incredibly close between two people just eight years apart.

“We sat down beside each other, and we just felt like we’d known each other 100 years,” Emma, who lives in Co. Laois, Ireland, tells The Independent. “And then it just progressed on and on.”

As Emma overcame battle after battle – from cancer diagnoses to sepsis and pneumonia – Colin supported her from 3,000 miles away … and joined her for tea at home with her family on his visits back to Ireland.

“From the start, I always just wrote to him like I would any friend, filling him in on my life and asking questions about his,” Emma writes in the new memoir. “He began to respond to me in the same way. We still write to one another a lot, and talk, like friends do, about deep and personal things …He can trust me – that’s the truth – and I can trust him. That is sacred to me.”

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Farrell has served as a ‘down-to-earth’ support for her as she battles the condition that leaves her in constant pain (Courtesy of Emma Fogarty)

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Fogarty was diagnosed with Epidermolysis Bullosa, a rare condition in which skin tears away like paper – or a butterfly’s wing (Courtesy of Emma Fogarty)

The bond led to Colin’s suggestion that he run the Dublin Marathon to raise awareness and funds for Debra Ireland, the EB charity where he’s a patron and Emma’s a spokeswoman. That, in turn, evolved into the movie star pushing Emma down the bumpy last 4km-stretch of the 2024 race, one kilometer to celebrate each of the four decades she’s survived with EB.

Pictures of the touching sight — Emma bandaged in a wheelchair, Farrell’s face set with determination as he pushed her against a backdrop of marathon runners – went global. A book deal quickly followed.

Emma, encouraged by her loved ones and Farrell, jumped at the chance to tell her story and educate the world about a rare condition that is devastating. EB leaves sufferers open to infection and sepsis, also affecting a huge swathe with osteoporosis. A fault in the genes means that proteins needed to hold the skin together – and tiny everyday activity like rubbing against sheets or simply wearing shoes can cause torturous wounds.

Emma’s EB has been worsening progressively since birth. She defied odds, finishing college, living independently and working at a bank in Dublin – until normal activity broke a bone in her foot, leading to a decline that left her wheelchair bound. A cancer diagnosis would ultimately require the amputation of the leg in 2019; EB sufferers are particularly susceptible to cancer; as Emma explains in the book, “our skin is wounded so often and heals so poorly, it becomes fertile ground for mutations.”

It was Farrell who pulled her out of the dark depression the amputation left her in, Emma tells The Independent.

“He just wasn’t afraid to ask the hard questions,” Emma says. “He wasn’t afraid to say, ‘How’s your head, how’s your mental health, how are you feeling?’ … I think that’s when I knew, yeah, I have a friend for life here.”

She talks about the actor as “just a normal, down-to-earth guy that you could live next door to and go, ‘Well, what’s the story?’ And he’d go, ‘Grand, do you want a cup of tea?’”

Emma also alludes to the fact that the actor’s son, born in 2003, suffers from a rare genetic disorder, too: Angelman’s syndrome, causing developmental delays and seizures.

“I think him having a son with a disability, he kind of gravitated to my family, as well, and we all just really get on now. We’re all really close, and he comes down [to our home] and he has the sandwiches with Mam.”

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‘I suffer with it 90 if not 99 percent of the day, and the only time I don’t suffer with it is probably when I’m asleep,’ Fogarty said (Courtesy of Emma Fogarty)

Emma built upon the publicity from the marathon – where the jostling left her back, thighs and backside raw; the denim jeans she was wearing scuffed against her knees as well as her thighs.

“I did, sadly, get injured, not on Colin’s part in any way, but … due to EB,” she tells The Independent.

But she bore the pain, still savoring the experience – as she and Farrell raised nearly €1million euro through the marathon participation.

And then she agreed to write the book – tracing a lifetime of pain and triumph as part of what she hopes will be her legacy.

“It’s just something I want to leave behind that’s a bit hopeful,” she says.

She writes not just of the everyday pain and challenges but of how close-knit sufferers can be – and how their deaths hit the others devastatingly hard. She writes about surviving cruel school bullies who targeted her for the condition already causing daily agony. She writes about how tights could become stuck to her skin as a child, “sealed on and stuck into the raw wounds.”

“My biggest problem is pain,” she states. “I suffer with it 90 if not 99 percent of the day, and the only time I don’t suffer with it is probably when I’m asleep.”

She’s pushing for better funding, better research, better awareness and better support from health systems for EB patients. She already lost her best friend to the condition, a man three years her senior she’d known all her life who succumbed to EB-related cancer at 28. Another child sufferer she knew well, Liam, was also taken far too young from this world.

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Fogarty is using her new book to share her life story and condition (Courtesy of Emma Fogarty)

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Fogarty greatest defiance, Farrell notes, ‘is her insistence on living a full and meaningful life. A life of adventure and joy. A life that is, of course, limited in many ways by Epidermolysis Bullosa, but a life that has shared so much laughter, so much friendship, had so many challenges chosen and imposed, and has triumphed over them all.’ (PA)

In her lifetime, she tells The Independent, she’s seen improvements in awareness about EB and some evolution of treatments – but there is no cure and supports are still sorely lacking.

“We still need to keep going,” she tells The Independent. “We still need to keep fighting.”

To that end, she has Farrell plugging her book; he released a new video urging fans to buy copies for their loved ones as Christmas gifts. The pair of them “have something big happening in February,” too, she tells The Independent – though she coyly won’t share details.

She believes her mission to educate the world about EB, along with her family and Farrell’s friendship, has helped her reach milestone ages that so many other patients have not. And she wants fellow sufferers, along with readers dealing with any type of obstacles in their lives, to learn her story and have hope.

“My parents were told that I wouldn’t last a week and I’d be better off if I didn’t … I’m 41 now,” she says. “I shouldn’t be alive at all, in any way.

“For EB families or others, I want [them] to take away that if they’re determined enough, if you’ve enough strength in your bones and your body, if you have enough fire in your belly … you can do anything in the world,” she says. “I mean it. It doesn’t have to be the biggest thing in the world, but just do something that you want to do.”

Emma’s greatest defiance, writes Farrell for the book, “is her insistence on living a full and meaningful life. A life of adventure and joy. A life that is, of course, limited in many ways by Epidermolysis Bullosa, but a life that has shared so much laughter, so much friendship, had so many challenges chosen and imposed, and has triumphed over them all.”

He concludes: “She’s one of the greatest teachers we have, and if the reader can feel even an ounce of the wonder, the sorrow, the strength and hope that I have felt in knowing her, then they will walk away with a life enriched for the time spent in the company of this amazing woman.”

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NEED TO KNOW

• Hallmark fans can visit real-life filming locations in charming towns from Canada to Tennessee during the holiday season
• 2023’s A Biltmore Christmas was filmed in the real-life Biltmore House
• Cincinnati played host to Mariah Carey’s directorial debut for the 2015 Hallmark movie A Christmas Melody

It’s time to hit the road to live out your Hallmark Christmas fantasy.

Hallmark’s annual Countdown to Christmas series delivers enough swoon-worthy romances, holiday cheer and small-town quaintness to keep us going all year long. The best part? Many of these places are real and ready for you to visit!

While some of the settings are fictional towns, many were filmed in actual locations that are just as charming as they appear on TV — from expertly decorated houses all strung up in twinkle lights to downtown streets bustling with citizens dressed in their winter garbs.

If you’ve ever dreamed of starring in your own Hallmark Christmas movie, well, here’s your chance! Whether in the U.S. or north of the border, these destinations serve as the perfect backdrop to add a little holiday cheer to your travels and ring in a new year.

Below, we’ve made a list (and checked it twice!) of the towns and cities you can visit from beloved Hallmark classics.

A Biltmore Christmas (Asheville, N.C.)

Bethany Joy Lenz as Lucy Collins in 2023’s ‘A Biltmore Christmas’.

The Hallmark Channel

A Biltmore Christmas follows screenwriter Lucy Hargrove (Bethany Joy Lenz) after she’s hired to write the script for the remake of His Merry Wife!, a fictional 1947 Christmas movie. When she visits the historic Biltmore House, where the original movie was filmed, for a little extra inspiration, she discovers an hourglass that transports her back in time to the movie set. The film also features Kristoffer Polaha as Jack Hudson, one of the stars of the fictional movie His Merry Wife! within the 2023 Hallmark movie.

A Biltmore Christmas was filmed at the titular sprawling Asheville, N.C., estate. Biltmore House is open to the public and features elaborate decorations during the holiday season — including a 35-foot Fraser fir. The Christmas tree tradition first started, according to the estate, when the home opened in 1895. Though the Biltmore was decorated to fit the 1940s time period during filming, many areas of the mansion were featured in the movie, including the library, tapestry gallery, banquet hall, winter garden and more, according to the Explore Asheville website.

Mystic Christmas (Mystic, Conn.)

Chandler Massey as Sawyer Adams and Jessy Schram as Juniper Jones in 2023’s ‘Mystic Christmas’.

The Hallmark Channel

As the title suggests, the 2023 movie Mystic Christmas was filmed in Mystic, Conn. It stars Jessy Schram and Chandler Massey as exes who unexpectedly cross paths during the holidays.

The film is set in the downtown area of Mystic, and visitors will recognize several cute shops and eateries that made cameos in the movie, as well as the iconic Mystic Aquarium and Mystic Seaport.

Filming locations for Mystic Christmas are included as stops on the Connecticut Tourism Office’s Connecticut Christmas Movie Trail, a self-guided tour that allows visitors to easily find areas featured in more than 22 different holiday movies.

Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story (Kansas City, Mo.)

A scene from 2024’s ‘Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story’.

Joshua Haines/Hallmark Media

Not only is Kansas City, Mo., the setting of 2024’s Holiday Touchdown: A Chiefs Love Story, but it’s also home to the Hallmark headquarters in the downtown Crown Center complex. The film follows Hunter King as Alana Higman — a longtime fan of the NFL franchise Kansas City Chiefs — and Tyler Hynes as Derrick Taylor, a director of fan engagement for the Chiefs, who has the tough decision of picking the team’s “fan of the year” winner.

Inspired by the real-life romance of Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce and pop superstar Taylor Swift, Travis’ mother, Donna Kelce, makes a cameo in the movie as a manager of a barbecue restaurant, which she described as an “awesome” experience.

Some scenes of Holiday Touchdown were even filmed at the Chiefs’ Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City. Other filming locations that are a must-visit include Crown Center (and its Ice Terrace) and downtown Independence Square.

Meet Me at Christmas (Calgary, Alberta, Canada)

Mark Deklin as Beau and Catherine Bell as Joan in 2020’s ‘Meet Me at Christmas’.

hallmark

The 2020 film Meet Me at Christmas sees Joan (Catherine Bell) and Beau (Mark Deklin) team up to coordinate her son Liam’s (Luke Bilyk) and his niece Katie’s (Sage Kitchen) Christmas Eve nuptials after their wedding planner unexpectedly quits. While working together, Joan and Beau discover their pasts and futures are intertwined.

Set against the backdrop of Calgary, Alberta, the Canadian province offers TV audiences and visitors a view of the stunning downtown area. Bragg Creek. Its red Ferris wheel and famed horse-drawn carriages in Heritage Park that Joan and Beau ride in the movie are also worth exploring on your festive getaway.

Wedding at Graceland (Memphis, Tenn.)

Elvis Presley’s estate as seen in 2019’s ‘Wedding at Graceland’.

hallmark

Graceland, the mansion of the late Elvis Presley, is an iconic tourist attraction in Tennessee and the primary setting for the aptly titled 2019 Hallmark sequel Wedding at Graceland. After reuniting in 2018’s Christmas at Graceland, Laurel Cooper (Kellie Pickler) and Clay Shepard’s (Brown) love story continues. This time, the couple faces the pressure of planning their dream wedding at the Memphis estate in three weeks, with family drama threatening to derail the big day.

In addition to the Graceland’s Chapel in the Woods, stables and trophy building — where Elvis’ ex-wife, Priscilla Presley, makes a surprise cameo — Commercial Appeal reported that filming took place at the following locations, all of which are perfect Southern destinations to explore: Memphis’ Harbortown neighborhood, the roof of the Peabody Memphis hotel, Collierville Town Square, a riverboat on the Mississippi River and the Miramichi golf course in Millington, Tenn.

Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy (Burnaby, B.C., Canada)

From left: Antonio Cayonne as Elliot Lee, Rukiya Bernard as Hannah, Paul Greene as Ben, Maggie Lawson as Katie, Michelle Martin as Megan, Patty McCormack as Nan, Colin Lawrence as Thomas and Holly Robinson Peete as Michelle in 2019’s ‘Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy’.
David Strongman/2018 Crown Media United States LLC

Think towns that unabashedly love Christmas only exist in movies? Think again!

Like Christmas in Evergreen: Tidings of Joy’s Katie (Maggie Lawson), perhaps you’re skeptical about towns that go all out during the holiday season. However, just as picturesque Evergreen is full of cheerful traditions and residents who help Katie, a writer on assignment, lean into the most wonderful time of the year, the 2019 movie’s real-life location — Burnaby, B.C., Canada — can help you to do the same.

Burnaby is a city bordering the Canadian city of Vancouver. It’s home to Burnaby Village Museum, a quaint street featured in the film that transports you back to the 1920s with its old-fashioned storefronts (including a blacksmith shop and a general store) and annual Festive Village.

Check Inn to Christmas and Christmas Made to Order (Near Farmington, Utah)

Alexa PenaVega (left, standing) as Gretchen, Jonathan Bennett as Steven, Jacob Young as Jeff, Bailee Johnson as Paige and April Matson as Kirsten in 2018’s ‘Christmas Made to Order’.
Fred Hayes

The picture-perfect family-run inns at the center of 2019’s Check Inn to Christmas bring the New York City-based lawyer Julia Crawley (Rachel Boston) and her family’s competitor, Ryan Mason (Wes Brown), together in their cozy hometown near the Rocky Mountains.

The movie was filmed in various locations around Farmington, Utah, where you’re sure to find a scenic inn nearby with views of the surrounding mountain range.

The 2018 movie Christmas Made to Order was also filmed around Farmington, Utah, following along as Gretchen (Alexa PenaVega) pursues her side job and true passion as a decorator through her company, Holidays Made to Order, and winds up creating her own love story with architect Steven (Jonathan Bennett) in addition to decking the halls.

Christmas at Dollywood (Pigeon Forge, Tenn.)

Danica McKellar (center) as Rachel in 2019’s ‘Christmas at Dollywood’.
Curtis Hilbun/Crown Media United States LLC

This one should come as no surprise: The 2019 movie Christmas at Dollywood was filmed at the actual Dollywood in Pigeon Forge, Tenn. The famed amusement park co-owned by country music legend Dolly Parton is at the center of the movie, as N.Y.C.-based event planner Rachel Davis (Danica McKellar) is tasked with organizing Dollywood’s 30th Christmas celebration.

The annual event isn’t just part of the movie — it’s part of the park’s real-life charm as well. Plan a visit to take in the 50-foot Christmas tree, twinkling lights and holiday-themed musical productions.

After a long day at Dollywood, you can book a room and relax at the Inn at Christmas Place in Pigeon Forge. The all-inclusive themed hotel showcases festive decorations in the common areas and suites as well as a winter-friendly heated pool. Plus, a singing St. Nick typically makes an appearance during the holiday season.

A Grand Ole Opry Christmas and Our Christmas Love Song (Nashville)

Nikki DeLoach (center) as Gentry Wade and Kristoffer Polaha as Will ‘Mac’ McCall pose with musicians flanked by Riders in the Sky in 2025’s ‘A Grand Ole Opry Christmas’.

Katherine E. Bomboy/2025 Hallmark Media

In the 2025 movie A Grand Ole Opry Christmas, the titular venue is center stage for a story so heartwarming you’ll forget how cold it is outside.

The film follows Gentry Wade (Nikki DeLoach), the daughter of late country singer Jett Wade, who abandoned her songwriting dreams following her father’s tragic accident 30 years prior. When she returns to the Opry to represent her father’s legacy for the venue’s centennial Christmas celebration and sits in the wooden pews, she and her longtime friend, country music talent manager Mac (Polaha), are transported back to 1995, where she interacts with her father and finishes a song she began writing decades earlier as a teen.

Not only does the film highlight one of the most hallowed stages in country music, but it also features a slew of star-studded cameos from some of the biggest names in the genre, including Bill Anderson, Brad Paisley, Megan Moroney, Mickey Guyton, Pam Tillis, Tigirlily Gold and more.

While The Kansas City Star reported that parts of the movie were filmed in the Missouri city as a stand-in for Nashville, the actual Opry — a must-see stop during any trip to “Music City” — is, of course, prominently featured.

Hope at Christmas (Richmond, B.C., Canada)

Erica Tremblay (left) as RayAnne and Scottie Thompson as Sydney in 2018’s ‘Hope at Christmas’.

Hallmark

Newly divorced mother Sydney (Scottie Thompson) and daughter RayAnne (Erica Tremblay, Jacob Tremblay’s sister) head to the fictional town of Hopewell, N.C., where Sydney used to visit her grandparents as a child during the holidays. While there, she attempts to sell the house she inherited. However, she has a change of heart after meeting and falling for local elementary teacher Mac (Ryan Paevey).

It’s actually the old-fashioned fishing village town of Steveston in Richmond, B.C., that serves as the backdrop for Sydney and Mac’s romance. Other filming locations for the 2018 movie that you can visit include the Steveston boardwalk, Imperial Landing Park, Gulf of Georgia Cannery National Historic Site and more.

Christmas Cookies (Squamish, B.C., Canada)

A festive downtown Squamish, B.C., Canada from 2016’s ‘Christmas Cookies’.
Bettina Strauss/Copyright 2016 Crown Media United States LLC

Nestled in the mountains north of Vancouver sits Squamish, B.C., where 2016’s Christmas Cookies was filmed.

While the movie sees businesswoman Hannah (Jill Wagner) reluctantly warm up to the locals while looking to acquire Aunt Sally’s Christmas Cookie Company in the fictional town of Cookie Jar, the real-life location is home to several charming attractions, including a picturesque gondola ride that offers views over the sound and nearby waterfalls.

A Christmas Melody (Cincinnati)

A Cincinnati home featured in 2015’s ‘A Christmas Melody’.
Crown Media United States LLC

Queen of Christmas songstress Mariah Carey made her feature directorial debut with 2015’s star-studded A Christmas Melody. The film follows single mother Kristin Parson (Lacey Chabert) and her former high-school rival, Melissa McKean-Atkinson (Carey). The two face off upon Kristin’s return to their hometown in Ohio after she closes her trendy clothing boutique in Manhattan.

Though the movie is set in the fictional town of Silver Falls, it was actually filmed in Cincinnati, a city on the Ohio River famous for its 19th-century architecture and historic downtown. Scenic sights such as Hyde Park Square and the Kilgour Fountain will put you in the Yuletide spirit when visiting.

Moonlight & Mistletoe (Chester, Vt.)

Candace Cameron Bure (left) as Holly and Barbara Niven as Ginny in 2008’s ‘Moonlight & Mistletoe’.

E.J. Camp/Hallmark Media

The 2008 film Moonlight & Mistletoe follows Nick Crosby (Tom Arnold), resident head Santa and owner of Santaville in Chester, Vt., as he tries to overcome his mounting debt. Nick’s daughter, Holly (Candace Cameron Bure), comes to his aid by enlisting her father’s employee and craftsman, Peter Lowdell (Christopher Wiehl), to help save Nick’s declining business.

While Chester is the perfect location for the fictional Santaville, in real life, it’s just as magical during the holiday season. Whether indulging in a Christmas package for a stay at the Inn Victoria bed-and-breakfast, participating in the annual tree lighting ceremony or visiting the historic train depot, there’s something for everyone in this idyllic New England town.

The Christmas Card (Nevada City, Calif.)

Alice Evans as Faith Spelman and John Newton as Sgt. Cody Cullen in 2006’s ‘The Christmas Card’.
2018 Crown Media United States LLC

After receiving a touching anonymous holiday card while serving in Afghanistan, soldier Cody Cullen (John Newton) tracks down the sender in Nevada City, Calif., upon his return to the U.S. — and, in classic Hallmark fashion, promptly falls in love with her (Alice Evans).

Beyond the 2006 movie’s heartwarming plot, there’s certainly cause for love at first sight in Nevada City, a hamlet outside of Sacramento, Calif., that was first settled in 1849 as a mining camp and has retained much of its original charm. Victorian-era buildings line the town’s historic district, home to antique shops, restaurants, gift shops and a railroad museum.

Christmas Everlasting (Covington, Ga.)

Tatyana Ali as Lucy and Dondré T. Whitfield as Peter in 2018’s ‘Christmas Everlasting’.

Brian Douglas/©2018 Crown Media United States LLC

Things are looking up for Lucy (Tatyana Ali), who just made partner at her big-time New York law firm — but her life is upended when her sister with special needs, Alice (Brittany Guess), unexpectedly passes away. In the wake of the tragedy, Lucy must return home to Nilson’s Bay, Wis., to attend the funeral and fulfill the terms of Alice’s eccentric will, which requires her to live in their family home for 30 days through the holidays to inherit the property. In true Hallmark fashion, she also reunites with her high-school sweetheart, Peter (Dondré T. Whitfield).

This 2018 movie was actually filmed in Covington, Ga., a town often referred to as “The Hollywood of the South,” and utilized locations like Covington Square Park in historic downtown and Covington First United Methodist Church.

Movies like 2000’s Remember the Titans and 2014’s Selma, as well as TV shows like The Vampire Diaries, The Originals and The Dukes of Hazzard — to name a few — were filmed in Covington. There’s even a Walk of Stars and a self-guided TV/movie tour to take in while you visit.

Chateau Christmas (Whistler, B.C., Canada)

Merritt Patterson as Margot Hammond and Luke Macfarlane as Jackson Lewis in 2019’s ‘Chateau Christmas’.

Bettina Strauss/Crown Media

Margot Hammond (Merritt Patterson) is a world-renowned pianist who returns home to Chateau Neuhaus for Christmas and rediscovers her passion for music. While there, she reunites with her ex-boyfriend and former bandmate, Jackson Lewis (Luke Macfarlane), who convinces her to headline the annual holiday concert, reigniting old feelings.

The 2019 movie was filmed in Whistler, British Columbia, Canada, capturing the snow-covered landscapes. The stunning Fairmont Chateau Whistler is prominently featured in the film, so you can book a stay and live out your Hallmark alpine fantasy.

A Newport Christmas (Newport, R.I.)

Ginna Claire Mason as Ella and Wes Brown as Nick in 2025’s ‘A Newport Christmas’.

Hallmark Media/Robert Clark

Ella (Ginna Claire Mason) is a Newport socialite in 1905 whose father is set to marry her off to a man whom she has never met. Attempting to clear her head, Ella goes for a nighttime sail and, upon seeing a comet, wishes for a different life — only to find herself transported to 2025 and on a boat belonging to Nick (Wes Brown), a sailor and Newport historian. The two grow close, and Ella becomes reluctant to return to her own time, but her legacy and the course of history risk being erased the longer she stays.

While some filming for this 2025 movie took place in Buffalo, N.Y., the titular city of Newport, R.I., was also prominent. The picturesque waterfront spot, Bowen’s Wharf, along with several local mansions, brings the winter fantasy to life.

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Having Tom Cruise fly in on a helicopter and land in a quaint British market town would ordinarily send locals into a fevered frenzy. 

But people living in East Grinstead have had enough. When the Mission: Impossible star, 63, arrived in October, he wasn’t greeted with the flashing of bulbs and the clamber for an autograph. 

Instead, the Hollywood actor sparked outrage with his ‘low’ flying entry and was met by chanting protesters holding placards. 

Cruise was there, of course, as the Church of Scientology’s ‘poster child’ for the org’s red carpet Patrons Ball at its sprawling British headquarters at Saint Hill Manor.    

The annual three-day glitzy fundraising bash saw 7,000 people descend on the small West Sussex town, according to the church. 

It saw Scientologists blasting out bagpipe music in an attempt to drown out the protesters. The antic led to one local complaining to Mid Sussex District Council, which could see the church lose its booze and events permits. 

The application for the review claims the fundraising event causes ‘considerable disruption’ to the local community by causing congestion and excessively loud noise.

It asks the council to consider limiting the scale of events held on the property and proposes measures to safeguard vulnerable people.

The organisation said residents and ‘town and district councillors’ were on the guest list alongside Cruise. It was lauded as a ‘resounding success’, but not for locals who have grown fed up with East Grinstead being dubbed Britain’s ‘Twin Peaks’. 

The town’s relationship with Scientology has been a fractious one since science fiction writer and the church’s founder L Ron Hubbard bought the Grade II-listed manor home in 1959. 

Tom Cruise enraged locals in East Grinstead in October with his ‘low’ flying entry to the quaint market town as he arrived for the Church of Scientology’s annual Patrons Ball 

The Hollywood actor, 63, was among the 7,000 people who had gathered at the church’s British headquarters for the annual bash

The three-day fundraiser took place at the Church of Scientology’s sprawling country estate at Saint Hill Manor (pictured) 

Every year, protesters – made up largely of locals and a few former Scientologists – say the fundraiser brings heavy traffic and noise that disrupts people’s lives.

But the reminders of the org’s presence in East Grinstead are constant throughout the year. 

There are claims that Scientologists have been spotted carrying out ‘recruitment campaigns’ on the high street and putting pamphlets in charity shops.

The church recently batted away suggestions by one local in a report by The Guardian that it had been preaching on a bus, saying it ‘is just not something we do’.

Diane Juchau told the newspaper she often sees the church’s followers outside Sainsbury’s ‘wearing their black suits with the red tie’.

Meanwhile, the church made a request for a Public Space Protection Order in July 2024, saying protests held outside its premises caused ‘harassment, disturbance and alarm’ to its members.

Mid Sussex District Council’s cabinet was due to make a decision – recommended for refusal – on June 30 about whether to put a PSPO in place. The church withdrew the application.

Former Scientologist Alexander Barnes-Ross, 30, led the recent protest group wearing a medieval knight’s costume adorned with the St George’s flag. 

Former Scientologist Alexander Barnes-Ross, 30, led the recent protest group wearing a medieval knight’s costume adorned with the St George’s flag

Mr Barnes-Ross told the Daily Mail that locals are ‘extremely frustrated and angered’ by being ‘inundated by thousands of Scientologists travelling to attend this event’

Former mayor of East Grinstead, Frazer Visser, right, met Tom Cruise at the Mission: Impossible premiere in Leicester Square in July 2023

He told the Daily Mail that locals are ‘extremely frustrated and angered’ by being ‘inundated by thousands of Scientologists travelling to attend this event, and Tom Cruise flying in on his helicopter’. 

‘It causes a lot of noise and nuisance and he [Tom Cruise], you know, doesn’t stop for photos or anything,’ he said. 

‘He flies in, he attends this event, probably donates a large sum of money, and then flies out again, and the town gets absolutely nothing in return. A couple of charities might get a £50,000 donation, but that’s about it.’ 

The Church of Scientology says in the last 10 years it has raised more than £2million for local causes, including hospitals, and more than 6,500 residents have attended its events since October.

One resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, described the fundraiser as ‘very disruptive’.

He said: ‘For six to eight weeks they were laying down pallets in the field to make a car park, so we had the disruption and noise of that, with lorry after lorry coming.

‘Then they made all the neighbours listen to bagpipe music on a loop all day. In the evening, they had two generators to power floodlights in the car park, and we could hear the generator no more than 60 yards from our back door.

‘One didn’t go off until 1am and the second generator stayed on all night, so all night an empty car park was lit up.

‘I’m tolerant – I don’t have religion but don’t object to others having it. Scientology say they’ve cleaned up their act, but they still have the same boss, and I don’t really believe they have changed their spots.’

Protesters gather at the Church of Scientology’s headquarters in East Grinstead during the org’s annual fundraiser 

The Church of Scientology is currently led by its controversial leader David Miscavige (pictured in Perth, Australia, in 2018)

Tom Cruise (pictured in 2004) is the Church of Scientology’s ‘poster child’ and its most famous member. The voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright, and John Travolta also have links to the church

Much of the town’s discontent is claims that local dignitaries are becoming unlikely bedfellows with their Scientologist neighbours.  

Yoga teacher and former East Grinstead mayor Julie Mockford was pictured ‘just chillin’ with her ‘pal’ Tom Cruise on a Mission: Impossible film set in 2018.

While another former mayor, Frazer Visser, was pictured with Cruise in 2023. 

‘I had the unforgettable experience of attending the premiere of Tom Cruise’s newest Mission: Impossible film in Leicester Square, along with some previous mayors,’ he said.

There is no suggestion Ms Mockford and Mr Visser did any wrong by attending.  

A Daily Mail investigation in 2024 established that the Scientologists had certainly become involved in the affairs of local politicians in East Grinstead to a considerable degree.

Local council representatives have attended a number of Scientology events; the church’s controversial leader David Miscavige has been given a guided tour of council offices; the local fire service had been using the Scientologists’ headquarters for training and was offered £50,000 by the church; and the Scientologists were involved in running East Grinstead’s Christmas lights switch-on ceremony as well as a celebration for the Coronation of King Charles.

The links have raised eyebrows in the local community, with Mr Barnes-Ross saying it is making people feel ‘helpless’.  

He said: ‘The [Patrons Ball] event is a big, chaotic thing that sort of gridlocks all the roads and so on. But I think just over the years, East Grinstead has grown to be fed up with this cult in their town, building inroads with the local politicians, and the mayor and councillors and such going to events and saying how wonderful this organisation is and when actually they aren’t. 

‘[The Church of Scientology] has lots of events throughout the year that cause different levels of disruption. And I think just the fact that they have no due regard for the local authority or the local community has really annoyed people.’  

The Daily Mail has contacted the Church of Scientology for comment.       

Cruise is not the only high-profile member of the church. The voice of Bart Simpson, Nancy Cartwright, and Grease actor John Travolta are linked to the organisation.

Lisa Marie Presley, who died aged 54 in 2023, spoke out about her time in the Church of Scientology in her memoir, which was released posthumously. 

‘Scientology actually helped,’ she wrote, before adding: ‘The church felt radical in an exciting way − it didn’t feel like an organized religion, really. It attracted cool, unusual, artistic people. It became my tribe.’

She left the church around 2014.  

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Fifteen people have been injured after a knife and chemical attack at a tyre factory in Japan.

Eight people were taken to hospital after they were stabbed by a man with a knife at a factory of the tyre maker Yokohama Rubber Co. in the city of Mishima, in the Shizuoka prefecture, west of Tokyo, according to the fire department.

Seven others were injured by bleach thrown at them during the attack, and taken to hospitals for treatment, the fire department said.

The attacker, a 38-year-old man, was arrested for alleged attempted murder at the factory, police said.

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Pic: The Yomiuri Shimbun/AP

The motive for the attack is as yet unknown.

The fire department said five of the people who were stabbed were in serious condition, but other details were not available.

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All were conscious while they were being transported to hospitals, according to media reports.

The suspect is believed to be a former employee at the factory, Kyodo news agency said, quoting investigative sources.

He was carrying a survival knife and wearing what appeared to be a gas mask, Japanese newspaper Asahi reported, citing investigators.

Japan has strict gun control laws, and violent crimes are rare, but there have been a number of high-profile knife attacks in recent years.

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Zelenskyy accuses the Russian leadership of using ‘every opportunity’ to inflict ‘greater suffering’ on Ukraine.

Russia has carried out drone and missile strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv on the eve of a key meeting between the United States and Ukrainian leaders, killing at least one person and leaving a third of the city without heat, according to local authorities.

Russian ballistic missiles and drones rocked Kyiv from the early hours of Saturday morning, where an air alert was in place for nearly 10 hours.

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The attacks killed a 47-year-old woman and wounded at least 22 others, according to Kyiv’s mayor and regional governor. Among those wounded were two children, said the head of Kyiv’s City military administration, Tymur Tkachenko.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the attack was “still ongoing” as of 10:45am (08:45 GMT), with some 500 drones and 40 missiles launched targeting “energy facilities and civilian infrastructure”. The air raid alert for the capital ended at 11:20am local time (09:20 GMT).

Municipal employees and firefighters work at the site of an apartment building hit during Russian missile and drone strikes in Kyiv, Ukraine [Valentyn Ogirenko/Reuters]

In addition to the casualties, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said there was no heat in one-third of the capital, where temperatures hovered around freezing (0 ​degrees Celsius).

Some 320,000 households also lost power in the broader Kyiv region, which surrounds the capital but does not include it, Kyiv regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk said.

Russian forces are “trying to cut off all Ukrainians from our critical resources just to freeze us”, Kyiv-based journalist Kristina Zelenyuk told Al Jazeera.

Upcoming peace talks

The Russian attack came as Zelenskyy prepares to meet with United States President Donald Trump in Florida on Sunday for further talks on how to end the nearly four-year war.

Zelenskyy said they plan to discuss security guarantees and questions over future territorial control – the main sticking points in the negotiations.

Moscow demands that Ukraine withdraw from the parts of the eastern Donetsk region that Russian troops have failed to occupy during almost four years of war, as it seeks full control of the Donbas, comprising the Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

Kyiv wants the fighting to be halted at the current lines.

The US, seeking a compromise, has proposed a free economic zone if Ukraine leaves parts of the Donetsk region. Zelenskyy told US news site Axios on Friday that he would seek a stronger position for Ukraine but could put the US-backed plan to a referendum if necessary.

Both Zelenskyy and Trump have expressed optimism about the meeting, with the Ukrainian leader saying most components of a US-Ukraine agreement had been ironed out and that he hopes to finalise a framework on Sunday.

“A lot can be decided before the New Year,” Zelenskyy posted on social media on Friday.

But Saturday’s attack appeared to alter Zelenskyy’s tone. In a post following the aerial barrage, he said Russia’s leadership “does not want to end the war”, and that their drones and missiles speak louder than any “lengthy talks” they engaged in.

Russia’s leadership aims “to use every opportunity to cause Ukraine even greater suffering and increase their pressure on others around the world”, said Zelenskyy.

Ahead of the meeting with Trump, Zelenskyy is scheduled to speak by phone on Saturday with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and other European leaders, a commission spokesperson said.

Zelenskyy, who departed Ukraine on Saturday, told reporters he would also make a stop in Canada to meet with Prime Minister Mark Carney ahead of his US trip.

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The architect of the London Eye wants to build a vast tidal power station in a 14-mile arc off the coast of Somerset that could help Britain meet surging electricity demand to power artificial intelligence – and create a new race track to let cyclists skim over the Bristol Channel.

Julia Barfield, who designed the Eye and the i360 observation tower in Brighton, is part of a team that has drawn up the £11bn proposal. It would curve from Minehead to Watchet and use 125 underwater turbines to harness the power of the second-highest tidal range in the world.

The proposal comes amid growing concern that rapidly rising use of AI in Britain will drive up carbon emissions unless more renewable energy sources are found. The AI boom is expected to add to sharp increases in demand for electricity across the UK, which the government estimated this month could more than double by 2050.

“If the decision is to go ahead with adopting more and more AI – which I am surprised is not being questioned more at a time of climate emergency – then it is going to be better with a renewable energy source,” said Barfield. “Datacentres could double energy demand and this is a predictable and reliable source.”

The barrage would not cross the full breadth of the channel but would instead curve to and from the Somerset coast with a 2.5GW maximum output – not far short of the peak energy that will be created by the Hinkley Point C nuclear power station just 12 miles east. It would be enough to power 2m homes.

A visualisation of the full arc of the proposed lagoon. Illustration: Marks Barfield Architects

The vision includes a path along the top of the semi-circular barrage for walkers and cyclists willing to brave the south-westerlies, a water-sports marina, a lido and an observation tower. Local MP Rachel Gilmour, who is backing the plan, said the pathway “will become absolutely iconic”.

The designers have tentatively suggested it also might be possible to install datacentres within the structure, allowing them to benefit from cheap seawater cooling. There are hopes for oyster and mussel beds, arrays of floating solar panels and a coastal amphitheatre to boost the economy of Minehead, once a popular holiday resort and now one of the 20% most deprived areas in Britain.

The latest UK energy policy states that tidal and wave energy could play a role “if their costs can be reduced”.

“We have got people who want to fund it but they will only do so if the government is supportive,” said Aidan Clegg, chief executive of the consortium. “They need to take this seriously. This is not hypothetical – we have a strong plan in place.”

A visualisation of the cycle track over the tidal power station. Illustration: Marks Barfield Architects

A spokesperson for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “We are open to considering well-developed proposals for harnessing the tidal range energy in the bays and estuaries around our coastlines, which demonstrate strong value for money. The AI energy council is bringing together the likes of Neso [the National Energy System Operator], EDF, Microsoft and Google in solving the energy demands of AI, exploring opportunities to attract investment and support the development of low carbon power for datacentres.”

Tidal power is more predictable than wind and solar, even though there are several hours when tides turn each day with little or no power. The backers of the West Somerset Lagoon project believe it would last 120 years and would therefore produce power more cheaply than nuclear power.

It was first conceived several years ago with the aim of reducing the UK’s carbon footprint. Since then, the AI revolution began and is now on course to dramatically increase energy demand. Britain’s national energy system operator, Neso, has predicted electricity demand for datacentres will treble by 2035. The vast racks of microprocessors needed to train and run AI models and store the ever-increasing mountains of data on which the tech-enabled 21st-century economy relies will account for the largest part of the overall increase in electricity demand in the commercial sector.

The West Somerset Lagoon is the latest in a line of proposals to harness the tidal power of the Severn estuary. In the 1980s, other lagoons were proposed in the narrower part of the estuary, closer to Bristol, while a full barrage from near Cardiff to near Weston-super-Mare was suggested more recently, raising concerns about large-scale and irreversible change to the estuary system. The latest sponsors of the idea say the lagoon will not interrupt navigation channels to the ports of Bristol and Cardiff, and is outside protected areas such as local nature reserves and special areas of conservation.

“Minehead and that whole area of West Somerset is an area of deprivation and this project will drive positive transformation,” Barfield said. “It will create skilled full-time jobs, an area for water-sports, a lido, a visitors’ centre, an observation tower and cultural facilities. It could also become a hub for marine farming mussels, seaweed and oysters. These are the types of businesses that local young people could develop because the tidal range would be more controlled.”

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CCTV footage from Japan’s Hiratsuka City Museum captured the moment a meteor soared through the night sky over Japan’s Mount Fuji on Friday.

While most meteors appear white, some can glow green, yellow, red, or blue, depending on the elements in the material as it burns up in Earth’s atmosphere.

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What’s the story behind the sawn-open goat skulls that frequently turn up in the ground beneath Berlin? It’s often small things that reveal something about times gone by, says Eberhard Völker, archaeologist at the State Office for the Preservation of Historical Monuments. He and his colleagues suspect that goat brain was a popular snack in medieval times.

Völker is leading excavations at the Molkenmarkt in the historic center of Berlin. Digging down into the past with a shovel, trowel and brush. At a depth of four meters, researchers reach the Middle Ages: the birthplace of Berlin. The city’s ground level has risen precisely four meters in 800 years due to fire debris and rubble. “This is where Berlin began,” he says, pointing to the mounds of earth behind him.

Toilet treasures

The Molkenmarkt is one of Germany’s largest inner-city excavations — a gigantic hole covering more than 22,000 square meters. Once the asphalt and concrete have been removed, archaeologists can begin meticulously combing through the earth below.  They’ve been working here since 2019, coaxing the earth’s secrets out of the ground. Researchers have already turned up 750,000 individual items.

The archaeological site in the heart of BerlinImage: Jürgen Heinrich/IMAGO

Eberhard Völker holds a thick wooden plate in his hand, a rare find. It’s well-preserved but smells awful. That’s no surprise when you consider it’s spent centuries in a latrine, a medieval cesspit. Even after 800 years, the smell of feces still clings to it. When deprived of oxygen, organic materials such as wood, textiles and leather resist decay. That’s why archaeologists often find their greatest treasures in old toilets or dried-up wells, which also served as trash cans for medieval towns.

Völker’s favorite find is a small clay figurine of Saint Catherine, who, according to legend, was tortured and beheaded for her Christian faith. It probably adorned a house altar to protect the family from misfortune.

One object of particular value is a rare gold ring with a garnet. Perhaps it slipped off someone’s finger as they were fetching water and it fell into the well? And an inconspicuous brown scrap of silk is proof of trade with China in the early years of Berlin’s existence. Also among the finds is a bone flute from the 14th century.

In addition to Saint Catherine, archaeologists also discovered figures of other saintsImage: Jens Kalaene/dpa/picture alliance

PETRI: A home for Berlin’s treasures

The Molkenmarkt is thought to be Berlin’s oldest market. Völker and his colleagues are bringing a hidden archive of Berlin’s history to light. The archaeologist regularly conducts guided tours of the site. Interest is huge and they’re always fully booked.

Archaeologists are being allowed to comb through the soil for about another two years, before the gigantic excavation site is filled in and built upon. Everything Völker finds is subjected to thorough scientific documentation, analysis and interpretation, creating a huge data repository of Berlin’s past. 

But where to put them all? Turns out, the items won’t have to travel far. Just a few hundred meters, in fact, to the PETRI, a new museum that opened in the summer of 2025. It was built on the walls of the medieval St. Peter’s Church, heavily damaged during World War II and later demolished, and a Latin school, whose foundations are on display in the basement.

The PETRI is already popular with both school groups and foreign tourists. It’s a chance for Berlin to show it has other stories to tell apart from the usual ones about the Golden Twenties, the Nazi era and the building of the Berlin Wall. Berlin’s history is also medieval. An unknown side of the city that’s worth delving into.

Centuries old and very well preserved: a leather child’s shoeImage: Jens Kalaene/dpa/picture alliance

Like other museums, the PETRI also exhibits items in glass cases — for example, a child’s shoe from the Middle Ages. But it goes a step further. Through large windows, visitors can observe restorers as they go about their tasks in open workshops. As well as breathing life into a forgotten chapter of the city’s history, the museum also aims to spark interest in archaeology.

A new resting place for the dead

Down in the basement, the museum has a surprise up its sleeve: a fresh bouquet of flowers is placed in front of a wall, and above it are the words: “May angels guide you to paradise.” The St. Peter’s Church complex once comprised an ancient cemetery. The remains of hundreds of people were exhumed during the excavations and have now been ceremoniously reburied in an ossuary: Here, the skeletal remains of some of Berlin’s first inhabitants are stored in drawers. And they tell life stories, albeit anonymous ones. A book of the dead records their fates: tooth decay, a complicated fracture, another who died far too young.

In 2024, human remains from medieval times were ceremoniously transferred to the ossuaryImage: Annette Riedl/dpa/picture alliance

When is Berlin’s birthday?

Scientific bone analysis has shown that Berlin is much older than previously thought. The city’s 800th birthday is due to be celebrated in 2037, but it is quite obvious that this milestone birthday actually took place several decades ago.

From the PETRI roof terrace, there’s a view of roaring traffic and Berlin’s built-up city center. Just a few meters below lie the medieval roots of a city ravaged by history. With the Molkenmarkt excavations and the PETRI museum, archaeologists like Eberhard Völker are painstakingly bringing one of the city’s untold stories to light, piece by piece.

This article was originally written in German.

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Photis Gaitanos’ rough fingers adroitly untangle the venomous spikes of a lionfish from a net, throwing the exotic-looking creature into an ice-filled rubber bin along with other fish from the day’s catch.

Unlike a few years ago when he would have mostly caught local staples as sea bream, red mullet or bass, the veteran fisherman now hunts for the invasive species that made its way from the Red Sea to the warming waters of the Mediterranean.

Lionfish, with their red and orange-hued stripes and antennae-like barbs that menacingly ward off enemies, threaten to decimate indigenous fish stocks, wreaking havoc on the livelihoods of the roughly 150 professional fishermen in Cyprus.

The prickly fish has even made its way as far north as the Ionian Sea, where Italian authorities have asked the public to photograph and report sightings.

The East Mediterranean has also seen another invasive Red Sea fish in the last decade: the silver-cheeked toadfish. Known as an eating machine whose powerful jaws cut through fishing nets, decimating fishermen’s catch, it has no natural predators off Cyprus, allowing its population to explode.

That toadfish also produces a lethal toxin, making it inedible.

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Photis Gaitanos catches a toadfish (AP)

Warmer waters are the culprit

Mr Gaitanos has fished for years in an area a few kilometres off the coastal town of Larnaca, once famous for its fishing bounty. Now, he says, it’s been more than two years since he’s caught a red mullet, a consumer favorite.

“I have been practicing this profession for 40 years. Our income, especially since these two foreign species appeared, has become worse every year. It is now a major problem (affecting) the future of fishing,” he said. “How can it be dealt with?”

Europe’s General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean says with the sea warming some 20 per cent faster than the global average, the presence of invasive species “is progressively increasing in the western basin”.

Models show that warmer seas as a result of climate change could see lionfish swarm the entire Mediterranean by the century’s end. Warmer waters and an expanded Suez Canal “have opened the floodgates” to Indo-Pacific species in general, according to Cyprus’ Fisheries Department.

The European Union’s Fisheries Commissioner Costas Kadis, a Cypriot himself, said that more frequent and intense extreme weather, often linked to climate change, could make the Mediterranean more hospitable to invasive species.

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A lionfish on a fishing boat (AP)

And that’s taking a heavy toll on Europe’s fishing industry as fishermen’s catches diminish while their costs shoot up as a result of repairs to fishing gear damaged by the powerful intruders.

“The native marine biodiversity of a specific region, as in the case of Cyprus, faces heightened competition and pressure, with implications for local ecosystems and industries dependent on them,” said Mr Kadis.

A cry for help

Mr Gaitanos, who inherited his father’s boat in 1986, is not sure the fishermen’s grievances are being handled in a way that can stave off the profession’s decline.

“We want to show the European Union that there’s a big problem with the quantity of the catch as well as the kind of fish caught, affected by the arrival of these invasive species and by climate change,” he said.

Some EU-funded compensation programs have been enacted to help fishermen. The latest, enforced in 2024, pays fishermen about €4.73 (£4.13) per kilogram to catch toadfish to control their number. The toadfish are then sent to incinerators.

Another project, RELIONMED, which began in 2017, recruits some 100 scuba divers to cull lionfish around wrecks, reefs and marine protected areas. The Cyprus Fisheries Department says surveys show that frequent culls could buy time for native species to recover, but it’s not a permanent fix.

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Stefanos Mentonis, owner of Stefanos restaurant, cooks lionfish (AP)

Eating the problem

What local fishermen are hoping will catch on with the fish-loving public is a new campaign to serve lionfish as a delicacy after its poisonous spines are carefully removed.

Mr Kadis said a social media campaign that began in 2021, #TasteTheOcean, had top European chefs and influencers plugging invasive species as a tasty alternative to the more commonly consumed fish. Renowned Cypriot chef Stavris Georgiou worked up a lionfish recipe of his own.

For most Cypriots, local taverns with their rich meze menus that feature numerous plates different fish is the way to go. Although eating lionfish has been slow to catch on, many tavernas and fish restaurants have started to introduce it as part of their menu.

The bonus is that lionfish is now priced competitively compared to more popular fish like sea bass. At the Larnaca harbor fish market, lionfish cost less than half as much as more popular fish like sea bass.

“By incorporating invasive species such as lionfish into our diet, we can turn this challenge into an opportunity for the fisheries sector and at the same time help limit the environmental threat caused by these species,” Mr Kadis said.

Stephanos Mentonis, who runs a popular fish tavern in Larnaca, has included lionfish on his meze menu as a way to introduce the fish to a wider number of patrons.

Mr Mentonis, 54, says most of his customers aren’t familiar with lionfish. But its meat is fluffy and tender, and he says it can hold up against perennial tavern favorites like sea bream.

“When they try it, it’s not any less tasty than any other fish,” he said.

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