Skip next section Peace deal draft includes ‘strong’ security guarantees — Zelenskyy

12/29/2025December 29, 2025

Peace deal draft includes ‘strong’ security guarantees — Zelenskyy

Ukraininan President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the current framework offered to end Russia’s war in the country includes “strong” security guarantees for Ukraine for 15 years. 

However, Zelenskyy also said Kyiv would look for a longer period, possibly for up to 50 years.

“I told (US President Donald Trump) that we already have a war going on and it has been going on for almost 15 years,” Zelenskyy told reporters in a Whatsapp chat, adding that he asked Trump to “consider the possibility of 30, 40, 50 years” of security guarantees, with the US leader saying he would think about it.

According to the Ukrainian leader, a meeting between national security advisors from Ukraine, the US and Europe could take place in the coming days. 

https://p.dw.com/p/5644l

Skip next section Welcome to our coverage12/29/2025December 29, 2025

Welcome to our coverage

After meeting US President Donald Trump in Florida, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy is giving an update on how the talks went and what to expect in the next days regarding the diplomatic efforts to end the war.  

From the Russian side, the country’s deputy chairman of the upper house of parliament thinks the chances of peace depend on the talks between Russia and the US.

Russia also announced the re-opening of a well-known theater in the occupied Ukrainian city of Mariupol. 

Follow this blog as we bring you all the updates from Russia’s war in Ukraine.

https://p.dw.com/p/5644H

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U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is facing criticism after he welcomed home a recently released Egyptian prisoner who allegedly posted violent and antisemitic language on his social media in the past.

Successive British governments have pushed for the release of Alaa Abd el-Fattah, a dual British-Egyptian national who had been behind bars in Egypt for most of the last 14 years.

He was released from prison in September following a pardon by the Egyptian president but remained in the country under a travel ban that was only recently lifted, allowing him to return to the U.K. on Friday.

Starmer celebrated Abd el-Fattah’s return by saying he was “delighted” that the activist had been reunited with his family in Britain.

TRUMP SECURES RELEASE OF AMERICAN TRAPPED IN SAUDI ARABIA FOR YEARS OVER ONLINE POSTS

Pro-democracy activist Alaa Abd el-Fattah after he received a presidential pardon. (AP)

Meanwhile, a senior member of the opposition Conservative Party criticized Starmer for giving a “personal, public endorsement” to Abd el-Fattah.

Robert Jenrick, the Shadow Secretary of State for Justice and Shadow Lord Chancellor, wanted to know whether Starmer was aware of past social media posts in which Abd el-Fattah allegedly endorsed killing Zionists and police. Jenrick also demanded that Starmer condemn Abd el-Fattah’s remarks and withdraw his “unalloyed endorsement” of the activist.

“Nobody should be imprisoned arbitrarily nor for peaceful dissent,” Jenrick wrote. “But neither should the prime minister place the authority of his office behind someone whose own words cross into the language of racism and bloodshed.”

Jenrick, Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage have called for Abd el-Fattah’s British citizenship to be revoked and for him to be deported.

UK COMEDY WRITER GRAHAM LINEHAN ARRESTED OVER SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS CRITICIZING TRANS ACTIVISTS

Prime Minister Keir Starmer celebrated Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s return by saying he was “delighted” that the activist had been reunited with his family in Britain. ((Photo by Leon Neal/Getty Images))

The U.K. government later clarified that the prime minister did not know about the “abhorrent” social media posts when he issued the welcoming statement.

The Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said in a statement that it had been “a long-standing priority” of governments under both major parties to push for Abd el-Fattah’s release, but it said that does not imply an endorsement of his social media posts.

“The government condemns Mr. El-Fattah’s historic tweets and considers them to be abhorrent,” the statement said.

Abd el-Fattah issued an “unequivocal apology” on Sunday, describing his past comments as the “expressions of a young man’s anger” during regional crises and police brutality in Egypt.

The U.K. government said it considers Alaa Abd el-Fattah’s social media posts to be “abhorrent.” (Andrew Aitchison / In pictures via Getty Images)

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Abd el-Fattah’s family in the U.K. had argued that he spent most of the past 14 years behind bars because of his opposition to Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi’s government.

His mother, Laila Soueif, 69, was on a 10-month hunger strike to pressure British authorities to do more to secure her son’s freedom.

Shortly after Abd el-Fattah arrived at London’s Heathrow Airport, critics began circulating his past social media posts. Abd el-Fattah has previously said the comments were taken out of context and were part of a “private conversation” that happened during an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip, according to The Times of London.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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NEED TO KNOW

• Jess Elena and Jake Gomez rejected a conventional life and chose to move into a fully sustainable 40-foot school school bus
• After two buses broke down on them, the couple found a barely used school bus and spent a year rebuilding it from scratch while documenting the journey online
• Their off-grid bus — complete with solar power, water storage, and custom interiors — has gone viral, inspiring millions to rethink what life on the road can look like

As college graduation loomed, Jess Elena and Jake Gomez found themselves at a crossroads.

Since meeting while working at an ice cream parlor in South Florida, the couple had been steadily saving money, motivated by a shared love of travel and a desire to avoid the traditional 9-to-5 path. What they lacked wasn’t ambition — it was a clear plan for how to turn their savings into something lasting.

They explored every possibility: a year abroad, a cross-country road trip, even international travel. But none of the options felt permanent enough. A van initially seemed like the obvious answer — simple, efficient and popular at the time — until they factored in life with two cats and realized space would quickly become an issue.

That’s when the idea of a school bus entered the conversation. “We thought, ‘We could make 40 feet of space actually sustainable,’” Elena, 25, tells PEOPLE exclusively over Zoom.

Jake Gomez and Jess Elena standing outside their bus.

Courtesy of Jake Gomez and Jess Elena

Energized by the possibility, the couple dove in headfirst, and quickly discovered just how steep the learning curve would be. With no prior experience, they leaned on advice from mechanics and a tight-knit community of bus lifers, learning through trial, error and persistence.

From the beginning, they documented every step of the process — from demolition to rebuilding — across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Their videos quickly gained traction, drawing millions of viewers who followed along as the couple worked to transform a worn-down bus into what they hoped would become a future home.

Jess Elena and Jake Gomez painting their second bus.

Courtesy of Jake Gomez and Jess Elena

But the journey was far from smooth.

Their first two buses turned into costly setbacks. The engine on the first blew just 20 miles from the auction site. “I was 19, and somehow I convinced them to take it back,” Elena recalls with a laugh.

The second bus lasted nearly a year before failing as well, leaving them facing a $20,000 repair estimate for a used engine with no warranty.

The repeated disappointments were crushing. “We got really depressed,” Gomez, also 25, admits. “We started questioning if this lifestyle was even possible.”

Just as the dream began to feel out of reach, an unexpected opportunity surfaced. A private mechanic they knew had a spare bus from a private school that had barely been used. With just 35,000 miles on it — far below the typical half-million-mile lifespan of diesel buses — it felt like one last shot. Within 48 hours, they finalized the deal.

“All we cared about was that the engine worked,” Gomez says.

Jess Elena and Jake Gomez spray painting their bus.

Courtesy of Jake Gomez and Jess Elena

Before construction on their third bus could truly begin, Elena and Gomez had to let go of the remnants of their earlier attempts. After years of breakdowns and false starts, they salvaged what they could from the old build and sent the rest to the scrapyard.

True to how they had approached the journey from the start, the couple continued to share everything online, including the hardest moments. One video, showing a crane lifting and crushing the old bus, quickly went viral.

“This huge crane picked up the bus like it was a toy,” Elena remembers. “The windows shattered, the tires popped off — it was crazy.” What could have been devastating instead felt freeing. “We were just leaving it all behind.”

With a clean slate — and one last chance — the couple committed fully. To make the build possible, Elena and Gomez relocated to Georgia, where they rented a tiny home and parked their new bus inside a fully equipped warehouse.

For an entire year, they worked on the project full time, pouring everything they had into turning the shell into a livable, long-term home while continuing to document each milestone for their rapidly growing audience.

“We did nothing else,” they say, laughing. “It was a crazy year, but totally worth it.”

Jake Gomez and Jess Elena inside their school bus.

Courtesy of Jake Gomez and Jess Elena

All that effort paid off: earlier this year, after four and a half years of planning, breakdowns and persistence, the foundation of their 40-foot sustainable bus was finally complete — minus a few interior design elements — a milestone that once felt impossible.

Inside, the bus reflects the care and intention shaped by years of trial and error. For Elena and Gomez, the goal was never just mobility, but true sustainability. The bus now holds 100 gallons of water, 1,800 amp-hours of lithium-ion batteries and 3,300 watts of solar power — enough to run air conditioning, appliances and electronics without ever plugging in.

Jake Gomez and Jess Elena inside their school bus.

Courtesy of Jake Gomez and Jess Elena

Gomez says the bathroom is his favorite space.

“It’s the only room so far that is 100% complete, and it’s lush,” he says, laughing. “After a long time of not being able to use a bathroom comfortably, I wanted this to be the best one I’ve ever had. Everything is fully customizable to what both of us want, and the vibes really blend with our personalities.”

Elena, meanwhile, is most impressed by the storage — something she once thought impossible in a bus.

“It’s rare to have a closet in a bus,” she says. “We have full-sized closets with drawers and hanging space — I can hold 12 pairs of shoes. I love that we don’t have to compromise our lifestyle, even living minimally.”

Jake Gomez and Jess Elena organizing their closets.

Courtesy of Jake Gomez and Jess Elena

Even with a few elements still unfinished — including built-in furniture and a completed shower — the space already felt like home. So, this fall, the couple finally decided to put their work to the test.

Starting in Florida, they drove to Washington State, then slowly made their way down the West Coast before looping back through the southern U.S., sharing every step of the journey with their growing audience.

“Those first nights were kind of brutal,” Elena admits. “We’d be parked near highways, and every time a semi went by, the whole bus would shake. We’d just look at each other like, ‘Is this really what we signed up for?’”

Overnight parking varied widely. Sometimes it meant squeezing into big-box store lots — Walmart, Home Depot, or Cracker Barrel — where overnight stays are tolerated but rarely comfortable.

“A lot of those stops were just survival mode,” Gomez says. “You’re tired, you need to sleep, and you know you’re gone first thing in the morning.”

Jess Elena and Jake Gomez traveling in their bus.

Courtesy of Jake Gomez and Jess Elena

During longer stretches — including a five-day push from Colorado to Washington — they relied on quick overnight stops to rest before continuing. Once they reached Washington, though, their pace shifted.

Instead of constantly moving, they began using nomadic camping apps to find dispersed campsites on public land managed by the Bureau of Land Management. The apps didn’t just show where camping was allowed — they helped determine whether a 40-foot bus could realistically access the site.

“People don’t realize how stressful that part can be,” Elena explains. “It’s not just, ‘Is this spot pretty?’ It’s, ‘Can we actually get in and out without getting stuck?’”

They became meticulous about reviews, especially warnings about narrow roads, steep inclines, or tight turns.

“If even one person said, ‘We barely made it in our truck,’ we were like, ‘Okay, hard no,’” Gomez says, laughing. “We learned to trust the comments.”

When the logistics worked, the payoff was undeniable. One of their most memorable stays was a two-week stretch along a river near Washington’s Hoh Rainforest on the Olympic Peninsula.

“That was the moment where everything clicked,” Elena says. “We were completely off-grid, no hookups, no neighbors — just us, the bus and nature. And everything worked.”

Jess Elena and Jake Gomez making breakfast inside their bus.

Courtesy of Jake Gomez and Jess Elena

Unlike many van-lifers who move every few days, Elena and Gomez intentionally slowed down, often staying in one location for a week or more.

“With a bus this size, moving is a whole production,” Gomez explains. “You’re securing everything, leveling the bus, checking systems. Doing that every day would’ve been exhausting.”

Staying put helped the bus feel less like a vehicle and more like home.

“When you’re in one place for a while, you start cooking real meals, unpacking, settling into routines,” Elena says. “That’s when it stopped feeling like a project and started feeling like our life.”

“There were so many moments where we thought, ‘This is never going to happen,’” Gomez admits. “So being out there, fully self-sufficient, was like proof that we didn’t waste all those years.”

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Nigel Farage is bidding to seize control of six London councils next year as he looks to end the capital’s reputation as a no-go zone for Reform.

The Reform leader has made London a key target in his plans to trigger another political ‘earthquake’ at the local elections in May.

In an interview with the Mail, he said Reform would target Sadiq Khan’s ‘terrible’ record on law and order. Mr Farage said success in the capital next year could be the springboard for a serious push to topple Mr Khan in the next mayoral election in 2028.

Reform and its predecessor parties have struggled in the past to gain a foothold in London, which was a stronghold of the Remain campaign.

But Mr Farage said ‘everything has changed’ since the last election.

The party is pouring resources into the contest in the capital and Mr Farage said it has a ‘very real chance’ of winning in ‘half a dozen’ of the 32 London boroughs.

Key targets include the outer London boroughs of. Bromley, Bexley, Havering and Barking and Dagenham.

But Mr Farage, who will launch his party’s London campaign at a major event at the Excel centre next month, is also looking for signs of Labour’s vote splintering in currently rock-solid parts of inner London where it is under intense pressure from the Greens and other Left-wing parties.

Capital offensive: Nigel Farage is targeting Reform’s first electoral success in London

‘Labour are going to find their vote horrendously split,’ he said. ‘With the Greens and Corbyn and the Gaza independents. All these different people. There is a chance that Labour vote really gets hit.’

He added: ‘Starmer’s problems as we face May are immense, These elections in May are the British equivalent of the US midterms.

‘We’re going for gold.’

Mr Farage criticised the record of both Mr Khan and the Conservatives on crime in the capital.

‘London is in big, big, big, big trouble,’ he said.

‘Absolutely at the heart of our campaign in London is law and order. Crime is everywhere and Sadiq’s record is one of almost not caring about it. It is remarkable. And the Tories’ record I’m afraid… 87 per cent of police stations in London closed under the Conservatives. People feel there is no local police station, there is no community policing. They see the dramatic decline in police numbers since 2010 and yet large numbers of Londoners get knocks on the door for what they say on Facebook.

He added: ‘I don’t know anybody in London who has not had a member of their family who’s been a victim of crime in the last year. I don’t know anyone. It’s literally everywhere. People who commute in from the suburbs every day are deeply conscious of it.

‘If your mobile phone is stolen… I had a relation whose phone was stolen, mugged outside Victoria Station and phone taken. We had a tracker on it, we phoned the police we told them exactly where it was and the postcode in High Wycombe and you can bet your life it wasn’t just his mobile phone – there would have been 100 of them – and the police did nothing. They’re just not interested.’

Mr Farage plans to adopt the ‘broken windows’ strategy pioneered by Rudy Giuliani in New York, which saw crime rates slashed in the 1990s by taking a zero tolerance to even minor offences.

He said Reform would introduce ‘radical change’ to the policing of offences like shoplifting and phone theft.

‘Basically now, you can shoplift with impunity,’ he said. ‘We believe every single shoplifting case should be prosecuted – every single one.

Join the debate

Do YOU feel safe in London?

Reform believe success in the capital in May could provide a springboard for a serious bid to oust Sadiq Khan as London mayor

‘We are basically beginning to apply the broken windows theory from Rudy Giuliani. He’s somebody I admire and know very well. During my time working for American companies I saw the most dangerous city in America become the safest city in America. We want to model ourselves on that.’

Reform is targeting big gains in the May elections, which include around 5,000f council seats in England and Scottish and Welsh assembly elections.

Labour is expected to lose control in Wales for the first time ever, with Reform fighting it out with Plaid Cymru to emerge as the largest party.

In Scotland, recent polls have suggested that Reform is now in second place behind the SNP.

There is a genuine collapse in the Labour vote across the country,’ Mr Farage said. ‘It’s amazing.’

Reform topped the poll in this year’s local elections, delivering a seismic shock to both Labour and the Conservatives last May.

Recent council-by elections suggest that the trend is continuing.

A tally of this year’s contests shows that Reform has quietly gained 59 seats at by-elections this year, including 25 from Labour and 19 from the Conservatives. The Lib Dems, who hope to do well in the home counties in May, have picked up 20 seats, half of them from the Conservatives. Meanwhile, the Tories have lost 25 seats and Labour is down by 44.

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Ahmed Al-Ahmed sustained injuries after he rushed a gunman amid the chaos of the deadly shooting at Australia’s Bondi Beach that resulted in the deaths of 15 people

08:33, 29 Dec 2025Updated 08:38, 29 Dec 2025

Ahmed Al-Ahmed disarmed one of the suspected terrorists (Image: MDMOTIVATOR/TIKTOK)

Bondi Beach hero Ahmed Al-Ahmed revealed what went through his head as he disarmed suspected terrorist Sajid Akram during the bloody rampage.

Mr Al-Ahmed spoke for the first time following the deadly terror attack where 15 people were brutally murdered as gunmen shot at Jewish people celebrating Hanukkah at Sydney’s famous Bondi Beach earlier this month. Tobacconist owner Al-Ahmed said he leaped into action with the sole aim of protecting as many people as possible.

Syrian-born Mr Al-Ahmed became an Australian hero after he was filmed rushing Akram as the suspected terrorist shot at defenceless people. Using nothing but his own strength and determination, Mr Al-Ahmed disarmed Akram who used his final moments to cower away back toward his son, alleged second gunman Naveed Akram.

READ MORE: Bondi shooting hero recounts terrifying encounter with gunman for first timeREAD MORE: New Year’s Eve terror threats force several major cities to cancel eventsGovernor-General of Australia Sam Mostyn visited Al-Ahmed in hospital(Image: Anadolu via Getty Images)

“I jumped on his back, hit him,” Al-Ahmed told CBS. ” I held him with my right hand and start saying a word, you know, like to warn him, ‘drop your gun, stop doing what you’re doing.

“I don’t want to see people killed in front of me, I don’t want to hear his gun, I don’t want to see people screaming and begging, asking for help, and that’s my soul asking me to do that. Everything in my heart, in my brain, everything, it’s worked just to manage to save the peoples’ life.”

Mr Al-Ahmed said his aim was to take the firearm away from the gunman to stop him from killing. He added: “I know I saved lots of peoples lives, innocent kids and women and men, and I know I save lots [of people]. But I feel sorry still for the lost.”

Al-Ahmed was visited by New South Wales Premier Chris Minns(Image: NSW Premier’s Department/AFP via)

The Bondi Beach hero is now preparing to welcome family who are coming to Australia to see him. Mr Al-Ahmed continues to recover from two gunshot wounds that he sustained during the terror attack.

Australia’s Department of Home Affairs has since fast-tracked and granted visa applications for members of his family, which also include temporary visas for his siblings. Families of the victims continue to grieve after gunmen opened fire on about 1,000 people celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach’s Archer Park on December 14.

Sajid Akram was shot dead by police during the rampage and Naveed is facing 59 charges. The attack is the second-deadliest mass shooting in modern Australian history.

In the days following the shooting, the Australian government revealed plans to establish an honour for people who stood up against “the worst of evil” during the attack. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said: “This Christmas is a different one because of the anti-terror and the terrorist attack motivated by Isis and antisemitism.”

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Russia shells the eastern Ukrainian city of Sloviansk, killing at least one and injuring five others.

Published On 29 Dec 202529 Dec 2025

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The world’s largest accounting body is to stop students being allowed to take exams remotely to crack down on a rise in cheating on tests that underpin professional qualifications.

The Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA), which has almost 260,000 members, has said that from March it will stop allowing students to take online exams in all but exceptional circumstances.

“We’re seeing the sophistication of [cheating] systems outpacing what can be put in, [in] terms of safeguards,” Helen Brand, the chief executive of the ACCA, said in an interview with the Financial Times.

Remote testing was introduced during the Covid pandemic to allow students to continue to be able to qualify at a time when lockdowns prevented in-person exam assessment.

In 2022, the Financial Reporting Council (FRC), the UK’s accounting and auditing industry regulator, said that cheating in professional exams was a “live” issue at Britain’s biggest companies.

A number of multimillion-dollar fines have been issued to large auditing and accounting companies around the world over cheating scandals in tests.

The FRC’s investigation found that instances of cheating also included some tier-one auditors, a category comprising the “big four” accountants – KPMG, PwC, Deloitte and EY – along with Mazars, Grant Thornton and BDO.

In 2022, EY agreed to pay a record $100m (£74m) to US regulators over claims that dozens of its employees cheated on an ethics exam and that the company then misled investigators.

The ACCA said it has now concluded that online tests have become too difficult to police, given the rise in artificial intelligence (AI) tools available to students.

Brand said the ACCA, which has more than half a million students, had worked “intensively” to combat cheating but “people who want to do bad things are probably working at a quicker pace”.

She added that the rapid rise of technology, led by AI tools, had pushed the issue of cheating to a “tipping point”.

Last year, the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales (ICAEW), which also trains accountants around the world, said reports of cheating were still increasing.

However, the ICAEW still permits some exams to be sat online.

“There are very few high-stakes examinations now that are allowing [remote invigilation],” Brand said.

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Whether it’s virtual assistants on our phones or chatbots on government websites, the large language models (LLMs) that power AI tools such as ChatGPT are almost everywhere online.

But growing evidence suggests these LLMs are judging dialect speakers harshly.

In 2024 researchers from the University of California, Berkely, tested ChatGPT’s responses to several varieties of English dialects from places like India, Ireland, and Nigeria.

Compared to American or British English, responses to dialects showed increases in stereotyping (18% worse), demeaning content (25% worse) and condescending responses (15% worse).

Some models also simply cannot comprehend dialects at all. In July 2025, an AI assistant used by the Derby City Council struggled to understand a radio presenter’s Derbyshire dialect when she used words like mardy (complaining) and duck (dear/love) during a call she’d made on air to test the AI assistant.

Other dialect speakers have experienced much worse effects. As businesses and governments use more AI in their services, researchers are getting worried. AI developers, however, see an opportunity to provide tailored LLMs for dialect speakers.

LLMs on German dialect speakers: uneducated, angry farm-workers

In a new German study presented at the 2025 Conference on Empirical Methods in Natural Language Processing in Suzhou, China, researchers first gathered ten LLMs including OpenAI’s ChatGPT-5 mini and Meta’s Llama 3.1. They then presented the models with texts in either standard German or one of seven German dialects, such as Bavarian, North Frisian and Kölsch.

The models were asked to describe the speakers of these texts with personal attributes, and to then assign individuals in different scenarios. For example, the models were asked who should be hired for low-education work or where they think the speakers lived.

In nearly all tests the models attached stereotypes to dialect speakers. The LLMs described them as uneducated, farm workers and needing anger management. This bias grew when the LLMs were told the text was a dialect.

“We actually see, I think, really shocking adjectives being attached to the dialect speakers,” Minh Duc Bui of Johannes Gutenberg-University Mainz, one of the study’s co-lead authors, told DW.

How AI companies exploit data workers in Kenya

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Bias is ‘alarming’

This type of consistent dialect bias is “impactful and alarming,” said Emma Harvey, a PhD student in information science at Cornell University in the US.

In July she and colleagues published research that showed that Amazon’s AI shopping assistant, Rufus, responded with vague or even incorrect answers to people writing in an African American English dialect. And if those inputs have typos, the replies can get even worse.

“As LLMs become more widely used, this means that they may not only perpetuate but also amplify existing biases and harms,” Harvey told DW.

ChatGPT changes caste of Indian job applicant

In India, one job applicant turned to ChatGPT to proofread his English on a job application. One of the corrections included changing the applicant’s surname to one that signaled a higher position in India’s caste structure, the MIT Technology Review reported in October 2025.

So one-size-fits-all LLMs don’t seem to work. Instead, it might be time for AI to embrace dialects.

One paper published in Current Opinion in Psychology in August 2024 suggests that personalized AI “speaking” dialects could lead to users viewing them as warmer, more competent and authentic.

LLMs first gather a lot of text and then generate the likely result to a given prompt. The problem lies in who writes the text. This means LLMs learning from web data could also pick up what someone writes about a dialect-speaker, said Carolin Holtermann from the University of Hamburg and the co-lead author of the German paper.

Holtermann says that one benefit of LLMs is that, unlike many human speakers, biases can also be tuned out of the system.

“We can actually steer against this kind of expression,” she told DW.

Can new, custom LLMs work for local dialects?

AI companies make sure their LLMs reply in a way that users want them to, and don’t discriminate against gender or age. But so far it doesn’t seem like this alignment training includes nuanced data like dialects.

The answer might lie with more customized LLMs. One of the AIs in the German study, Aya Expanse, said that the model tested in the paper was a research-only model and that they work with business clients to customize their LLM for factors including dialects.

Other AI companies are making this customization a selling point. An LLM called Arcee-Meraj for example focuses on multiple Arabic dialects such as Egyptian, Levantine, Maghrebi and Gulf. 

As new and more customized LLMs appear, Holtmann says that AI should not be considered as an enemy of dialects but rather as a flawed tool that, like humans, can improve.

Edited by: Carla Bleiker

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Tim Walz addressed the ongoing fraud scandal in Minnesota after a viral video showed an empty daycare center with a misspelled sign that received millions in federal funding.

The Minnesota governor claimed he was taking strong action against the alleged fraud, just hours after FBI boss Kash Patel revealed the crisis runs far deeper than initially thought.

‘The governor has worked for years to crack down on fraud and ask the state legislature for more authority to take aggressive action,’ a spokesperson for Walz told Fox News. 

‘He has strengthened oversight – including launching investigations into these specific facilities, one of which was already closed.’ 

Walz also ‘hired an outside firm to audit payments to high-risk programs, shut down the Housing Stabilization Services program entirely, announced a new statewide program integrity director, and supported criminal prosecutions.’ 

The governor has been inundated with criticism from concerned Americans questioning how he intends to respond to allegations of widespread fraud within the state. 

Initial reports emerged earlier this month of a massive Covid-era scheme involving the federally funded nonprofit group Feeding Our Future.

At least 78 people, 72 of whom are Somali, have been charged in connection with the illicit plot. 

Walz shared a series of favorable statistics about life in Minnesota in a statement on X after a daycare was accused of stealing $4 million in taxpayer money

On Friday the crisis worsened when independent journalist Nick Shirley shared footage of an apparently empty Minnesota daycare, which reportedly received millions in taxpayer funds

Walz, who ran as Vice President on the Democratic ticket alongside Kamala Harris in 2024, defended his state on Sunday on X and shared four photographs of him interacting with members of the Somali community. 

He wrote about Minnesota: ‘#8 state for safety. #5 state to live in. #3 state for jobs. #2 state to raise a family, and #2 state to retire. 

‘We’ve made progress, but there’s more to do to deliver security, opportunity, and freedom to every Minnesotan. I won’t quit fighting until we’re #1.’

His post came after outrage over the alleged fraud grew on Friday when independent journalist Nick Shirley shared footage of an apparently empty Minnesota daycare, which reportedly received millions in taxpayer funds. 

Footage of the facility, featuring a misspelled sign as ‘Quality Learing Center’, sparked outrage among lawmakers and allegations state authorities allowed the ‘largest fraud in US history’ to go unchecked. 

In response, FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI has long been aware of fraud allegations in the state and threatened action against perpetrators.

‘The FBI believes this is just the tip of a very large iceberg,’ Patel wrote. 

‘We will continue to follow the money and protect children, and this investigation very much remains ongoing.’ 

Initial reports emerged earlier this month of a massive Covid-era scheme involving the federally funded nonprofit group Feeding Our Future

In a lengthy X post on Sunday, FBI Director Kash Patel said the FBI has long been aware of fraud allegations in the state and threatened action against perpetrators

‘Furthermore, many are also being referred to immigration officials for possible further denaturalization and deportation proceedings where eligible.’

Addressing the allegations made in Shirley’s video, Patel said the ‘FBI is aware of recent social media reports in Minnesota.’

He claimed that the bureau has moving to ‘dismantle large-scale fraud schemes exploiting federal programs.’

‘Fraud that steals from taxpayers and robs vulnerable children will remain a top FBI priority in Minnesota and nationwide.

According to Shirley, the childcare center pocketed $1.9 million from Minnesota’s Child Care Assistance Program (CCAP) in 2025, bringing the total to $4 million. 

Shirley, in his investigation, arrived at the doorsteps of several daycare centers, claiming to be a father looking to enroll his child, but said he never saw any children at the facilities.

He said it was ‘potentially the largest fraud scandal in US history.’ 

Walz ran as Vice President on the Democrat ticket alongside Kamala Harris in 2024

Footage of the facility, featuring a misspelled sign as ‘Quality Learing Center’, sparked outrage among lawmakers and allegations state authorities allowed the ‘largest fraud in US history’ to go unchecked

Trump has been critical of Rep Ilhan Omar amid the ongoing Somali fraud crisis

In his announcement, Patel emphasized that the FBI has been aggressively targeting a massive fraud network that stole COVID-era food scheme.

‘The FBI has toppled a $250 million fraud network that targeted vulnerable children and exposed a ‘large-scale money laundering’ operation,’ Patel said.

‘The investigation exposed sham vendors, shell companies and large-scale money laundering tied to the Feeding Our Future network,’ he wrote. 

‘The case led to 78 indictments and 57 convictions.’

Prosecutors alleged that most of the meals intended for low-income children during the pandemic never existed. Instead, the taxpayer’s money went to luxury homes, cars, jewelry, and real estate abroad. 

Walz shared four photographs of him interacting with members of the community in the post

‘These criminals didn’t just engage in historic fraud, but tried to subvert justice as well,’ Patel wrote.

President Donald Trump criticized Governor Tim Walz for allowing Minnesota to become ‘a hub of fraudulent money laundering activity.’

He said the perpetrators should be ‘sent back to where they came from.’

Later, he said he would be revoking the temporary protected status of the roughly 700 Somali nationals who have it, which prevents them from being deported. 

On Thanksgiving, Trump called Walz ‘seriously retarded’ and also attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar and Minnesota’s immigration policy. 

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Major UK retail and hospitality brands closed nearly 800 stores in 2025 as businesses restructured amid rising costs and pressure on consumer spending

Poundland is among the chains to have suffered over the year from pressure on shoppers despite its value proposition(Image: Mike Egerton/PA Wire)

A host of major UK retail and hospitality brands have closed stores across the UK this year, with other high street staples shutting their doors permanently. This occurred against a backdrop of strain on consumer finances, rising inflation for most of the year and increased costs for businesses.

Consequently, numerous businesses initiated restructuring efforts or entered administration. Here are some of the major brands that closed sites throughout this year as nearly 800 locations were shut down.

Major chains that closed stores in 2025

Poundland

Poundland is among the chains that have struggled over the year due to pressure on shoppers despite its value proposition. As a result, the group was sold for £1 and embarked on a significant restructuring plan.

This involved the initial closure of 57 stores, putting more than 1,000 jobs at risk. The company, which was purchased by investment firm Gordon Brothers, has since announced additional rounds of closures and is expected to have closed more than 100 sites by the beginning of 2026, as part of efforts to reduce its estate from around 800 sites to between 650 and 700 shops.

WH Smith

WH Smith, a mainstay of UK high streets since its first shop opened in 1792, selling everything from crime novels to sweets, has vanished from the high street. This follows the group’s decision to sell all its UK high street retail shops to private equity firm Modella Capital, choosing instead to concentrate on its travel locations, where it will continue to operate under the same brand.

As a consequence, Modella unveiled plans to rebrand the chain as TGJones. In its bid to offload the high street arm, the group proceeded with the closure of 20 stores.

WH Smith had been a stalwart of UK high streets since its first store opened in 1792, selling everything from crime fiction to confectionery. However, the brand disappeared from the high street after the group sold off all its UK high street retail shops to private equity company Modella Capital(Image: Mike Egerton/PA Wire)

Claire’s

The UK branch of fashion accessories company Claire’s fell into administration this year after its American parent company filed for bankruptcy. Once again, Modella Capital stepped in, striking a deal to rescue 156 stores.

However, 145 shops – employing around 1,000 workers – were not included in the deal and subsequently closed.

Pizza Hut

In October, Pizza Hut confirmed that 68 of the brand’s UK restaurants would close after the company running its franchise in the country went into administration. It also closed 11 delivery sites as part of a restructuring plan, putting 1,210 employees at risk of redundancy.

DC London Pie, the company operating Pizza Hut’s UK dine-in restaurants, appointed administrators following a downturn in the sector. American hospitality giant Yum! Brands, which owns the global Pizza Hut business, purchased the remaining UK restaurant operation in a rescue deal, saving 64 sites.

In October, Pizza Hut confirmed that 68 of the brand’s UK restaurants would shut after the business running its franchise in the country entered administration(Image: Danny Lawson/PA Wire)

Bodycare

Bodycare was one of the brands to vanish from UK high streets for good after it closed all its approximately 150 stores. The retailer, which was established in 1970 in Lancashire, sold beauty products, fragrances and other bathroom items.

At the start of this year, it employed up to 1,000 people but faced challenges due to increasing costs and a lack of funding, which also impacted supplier relationships and led to stock shortages.

Quiz Clothing

The fashion chain Quiz closed 23 of its stores after going into administration in February, affecting around 200 employees. Despite being purchased in a pre-pack administration deal by a subsidiary of the founding Ramzan family, it still closed the shops.

Quiz began the year seeking emergency funding but fell into insolvency after failing to secure a deal.

Leon

Leon is shutting approximately 20 of its restaurants following a significant restructuring in December. The company announced it will close the doors of the worst-performing of its 71 stores.

This followed the group’s acquisition by co-founder John Vincent from supermarket group Asda.

Select Fashion

Select Fashion was another chain to stop trading in 2025, after the womenswear business struggled with mounting losses. The business shut all its roughly 80 stores earlier this year and went into liquidation after failing to find a buyer.

Homebase

Home improvement retailer Homebase closed 65 outlets between January and March following its tumble into administration towards the end of 2024. Retail conglomerate CDS, headed by The Range’s owner Chris Dawson, acquired the brand but couldn’t rescue all locations.

Homebase executives described recent years as “incredibly challenging” for DIY retailers, citing “a decline in consumer confidence and spending” in the wake of the pandemic.

New Look

Meanwhile in the retail sector, high street fashion retailer New Look shuttered 15 of its UK outlets throughout the year. The company also announced its departure from the Republic of Ireland, closing all 26 stores across the nation and affecting 347 employees, amid tightened consumer expenditure.

New Look closed 15 stores(Image: Matthew Troke via Getty Images)

Starbucks

In September, Starbucks initiated a restructuring programme that led to the closure of several UK coffee outlets. Whilst the corporation didn’t specify the exact number of sites earmarked for closure, it shut 10 branches in October as part of the initiative.

Fired Earth

Premium tile specialist Fired Earth collapsed into administration in October, leading to the closure of its 20 UK showrooms and 133 redundancies. Competitor Topps Tiles purchased the Fired Earth brand, intellectual property, website and approximately £2.5 million of inventory, but was unable to preserve any of the chain’s retail premises.

Brewdog bars

Scottish craft brewery and hospitality enterprise Brewdog closed 10 of its venues in July, including its original site in Aberdeen. The closure strategy, forming part of a restructure of Brewdog’s hospitality division, threatened nearly 100 positions.

Monki At the beginning of the year, European fashion behemoth H&M revealed plans to shut its seven outlets under its Monki brand. The company stated that a “limited number” of these would be converted into its sister brand Weekday, but still permanently closed several shops.

Brewdog made changes in 2025(Image: Nigel Harris via Getty Images)

River Island

The retail chain River Island shuttered 33 outlets as part of a restructuring effort to bolster its future prospects. The fashion group implemented a formal restructuring plan amid concerns that the company could tumble into administration without intervention.

It also negotiated rent reductions on 71 other outlets as part of the scheme.

Hobbycraft

In April, the arts and craft retailer unveiled plans to close nine of its outlets, in a move it said would affect up to 126 workers. This follows Modella Capital’s acquisition of the retail business last year.

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Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on his way to meet US President Donald Trump in Florida.

Three of Israel’s war fronts are on the agenda: Gaza, Iran and Lebanon.

The White House is expected to want to iron out the next phase of Trump‘s peace plan in Gaza, which involves a Palestinian technocratic government and the demilitarisation of the territory through an international stabilisation force composed of foreign troops.

Israel has said three countries, including Indonesia, are ready to deploy in Gaza, but Netanyahu is still expected to stall on demilitarisation and reject any plans to disarm Hamas that does not include the Israel Defence Forces (IDF).

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‘We are still in 7 October’ – last hostage’s family

In the lead-up to the meeting, his defence minister Israel Katz said about Gaza’s future: “We are deep inside Gaza and we will never leave Gaza, there will be no such thing. We’re there to defend, to prevent what happened in the past.”

Israeli strikes have continued through the ceasefire period.

Image:
Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu at Israel’s Ben Gurion Airport in October. Pic: Reuters

The Gaza health ministry said more than 400 people have been killed and at least 1,000 others injured since the ceasefire started on 10 October.

More on Benjamin Netanyahu

In the meeting, Netanyahu is also expected to push for more strikes on Iran and argue that its nuclear programme still needs to be addressed.

This could be in opposition to Trump’s foreign policy priorities, especially after his strong stance on ending Israel’s 12-day war with Iran in June.

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Read more from Sky News:
Harsh reality of life in Gaza under US-backed ceasefire
Myanmar holds election – but critics call it a ‘sham’ vote

Lebanon is also on the table for discussion.

Israel has not upheld its end of the ceasefire agreement and has continued to bomb southern Lebanon and even strike the capital, Beirut.

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Is Hezbollah regrouping?

Israel’s Channel 13 has reported that Netanyahu will present Trump with intelligence to expand growing operations against Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

The future of the Middle East currently hinges on how Trump reacts to Netanyahu’s desire to continue Israel’s war effort in the region.

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I always thought of Gaza as a place where time folded in on itself. A closed world – dense, familiar, overwhelming – where you grow too fast or not at all.

I was the child my aunts, my older cousins, and even my friends’ mothers would pull into conversations about family issues, relationships, and everyday problems.

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My teacher called me “the sharpened tongue”, not because I was rude, but because I refused to be shaped into someone softer, quieter, more acceptable.

Sometimes, I slipped into the moments that reminded me I was a child – like sewing tiny clothes for my Barbies with my cousins.

But usually, I hovered somewhere between the world of children who didn’t quite understand me and the world of adults whose conversations I somehow understood.

The world calling

On Fridays, my family used to drive from our neighbourhood in as-Sudaniya down the coastal al-Rashid Street to Rafah – about an hour’s drive.

One of those days, Gaza felt less like a cage, more like a home.

I was 12, and my siblings and I joked about old memories – the way my brother used to mispronounce words, the tiny disasters that became inside jokes only we understood.

We didn’t wander far from my parents, talking and laughing, then walking to the shore as the smell of spiced fish and the cool sea breeze wrapped the day in something warm and familiar.

They aren’t grand memories, just mine.

I always knew I would leave. I remember a family gathering when every girl my age was asked where she planned to study – in Gaza, they meant, naming local universities as if the question had no other geography.

When it was my turn, I blurted: “Study in Gaza? I’m going abroad. I’ll be a journalist like my father.”

Some people encouraged me. Others laughed. But I already felt the world outside calling.

When I left Gaza in 2019 at 17 to study international relations, it was the first time I flew on my own, and because I was under 18, I carried a court document permitting me to travel alone.

At the Rafah crossing, I stood between my father and older brother, Omar, memorising their faces.

Once I crossed into Egypt, long hours of waiting rooms and security checks began, the quiet panic of not knowing whether my name would be called to go through or be sent back.

Cairo Airport, then Istanbul, and finally Cyprus – each stop a threshold I had to pass.

At every airport, I was pulled aside for extra searches because of my black passport. Officers asked why I was travelling alone, where I was going, what I planned to study – ordinary questions to them that felt like tests I had to pass to earn a life outside the only world I knew.

Asil Ziara on the beach in Gaza in 2010 [Courtesy of Asil Ziara]

‘You’re not in Gaza anymore’

My first night in Cyprus, I slept more deeply than I ever had in my life.

When I woke to a loud sound, my body panicked, as if it were an explosion. I ran into the corridor only to find suitcase wheels dragging across the floor.

Then my mind caught up with my body: You’re not in Gaza anymore.

That morning, I wandered the dorms looking for a mini market. Someone told me it was in the basement, but I got lost in the corridors, trying to buy an adapter and some toast.

Everything felt unfamiliar – especially the silence.

Nothing hummed, nothing hovered, nothing threatened. The stillness almost frightened me.

My first real conversations were at the English prep course at the university. It was a small classroom that felt like a tiny world: Classmates from Cyprus, Turkiye, Lebanon, Morocco, Libya.

We traded words and accents, and my teacher loved how quickly I learned new vocabulary.

When I told people I am from Palestine, some heard “Pakistan”, or pointed vaguely at their maps; I showed them pictures, then places.

In classes, some asked whether we “actually had a life” there. One person asked, sincerely, if Gaza existed. The confusion wasn’t malicious; it was a vacuum in the world’s imagination where my home is.

Once, in a market, I helped an elderly man find a carton of milk. After thanking me, he introduced himself, mentioning he was Israeli. My chest tightened. I told him my name anyway.

Carrying Gaza in exile

Within my first year, Gaza began to feel far away, like a vivid dream I had woken from too quickly.

Every street I learned, every bus route, every ordinary morning added a layer of distance. That lasted for years – until October 7, 2023, when the dream ended, and the distance collapsed.

During the war, I worked remotely with my father, a journalist in Gaza – translating, monitoring, waiting for his messages to know he was still alive.

Fear found me; I shut myself in a room for months, terrified to sleep.

When I finally slept after weeks, I woke to the news that my cousin Ahmed had been killed.

Ahmed was in his 30s, and everyone used to call him Saddam because he was born on the day Saddam Hussein fired Scud missiles on Israel.

He used to call me “ya koshieh”, a teasing nickname that meant “dark-skinned one” – a silly, small joke that somehow felt like protection.

The guilt over his death was immediate and irrational, as if my wakefulness could have kept him alive.

We lost more family: my uncle Iyad and his only daughter, and my uncle Nael and his wife, Salwa. Israel erased an entire branch of our family in a night.

I began to understand how much of Gaza I had carried into exile.

Asil Ziara on her graduation day, July 12, 2023, in Cyprus [Courtesy of Asil Ziara]

I started therapy in Cyprus: talk sessions, then trauma-focused work once I got a diagnosis – post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD.

I’m steadier now, but I don’t think trauma ever fully ends – not for people from Gaza. It shifts, softens, resurfaces. The work is not to “get over it”, but to learn how to live while it continues.

I often say I was born in Palestine, but shaped in Cyprus. Gaza gave me awareness; exile gave me the language to understand it.

Egypt, and later Oman, added new layers to the same unanswered question: How do you carry a home that keeps breaking?

Maybe this is why, over the past two years, I’ve worked and planned to rebuild my life, to pursue a master’s degree in diplomacy.

I want to try to understand the world whose decisions shaped my childhood, the power structures that determined so much of my story.

When people hear “Gaza,” they often think “destruction”.

The people of Gaza are like anyone else – except their struggle is multiplied by forces beyond their control.

My story is one of millions. But I hope it makes someone somewhere feel that Gaza is more than a headline.

Gaza is people.

And people deserve to live.

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A third of Reform UK’s council leaders across the country have expressed vaccine-sceptic views, openly questioning public health measures that keep millions safe.

The leaders of four of the 12 councils where Reform is in charge or the largest party – Kent, Worcestershire, Warwickshire and Durham – are among those in the party who have publicly criticised vaccinations.

The health minister Zubir Ahmed, an NHS transplant and vascular surgeon, described their remarks as “dangerous and utterly irresponsible”, saying that politicians who cast doubt on vaccines risked exposing children and vulnerable people to harm.

It comes after a controversial doctor, the cardiologist Aseem Malhotra, used his main-stage speech at Reform’s conference in September to air a claim that the Covid vaccine had caused cancer in the royal family, which drew immediate condemnation.

Malhotra, a senior adviser to the vaccine-sceptic US health secretary, Robert F Kennedy, has long been publicly hesitant about Covid vaccines, claiming they pose a greater threat than the virus itself – a view debunked repeatedly by factcheckers.

Reform’s chair, David Bull, described Malhotra as the man who “worked with me to write Reform UK’s health policy”. Vaccine hesitancy, however, appears to run throughout the party. Nigel Farage, his deputy, Richard Tice, and the Conservative defector Danny Kruger have all raised doubts.

The first Reform council leader, Linden Kemkaran, who runs Kent county council, suggested in September that the party should hold an inquiry into whether Covid vaccines were linked to cancer, even though there is no medical evidence to back up the notion.

She told Times Radio that Reform was “not afraid to debate topics that other people have decided must be silenced” and that a link was “something we should talk about. Definitely”.

The party’s leader in Worcestershire, Jo Monk, told a council meeting in November that she acknowledged the role vaccinations had played in disease prevention, but “remains undecided on certain immunisations”, prompting concern among opposition councillors.

“My perspective is shaped by personal experiences, reactions to vaccines myself, as well as conversations with several medical practitioners, who themselves hold a range of views on this topic,” she said.

The Warwickshire county council leader, George Finch, shared doubts about the latest chickenpox vaccine on LBC radio in August, saying “chickenpox parties get it out of the way” and that the virus was “part of life”.

Government ministers hope that adding the chickenpox jab to the childhood vaccination programme will protect some youngsters from severe complications from the virus. It could also reduce the amount of time parents take off work to look after their infected children.

Reform’s leader of Durham county council, Andrew Husband, said in a since-deleted post on X in October 2023 that vaccines were “horrific, like all crimes against humanity”.

Ahmed, who also works in the NHS in Glasgow, condemned the remarks. “These are dangerous and utterly irresponsible comments from senior Reform UK politicians,” he said.

“Vaccinations save lives and politicians who cast doubt on them risk exposing children and vulnerable people to harm. At a time when our NHS is under huge pressure, sowing mistrust in proven public health measures is reckless.

“The British public deserves better than conspiracy theories, snake oil and misinformation from those in positions of power.”

Against a backdrop of mounting vaccine scepticism, public health chiefs have launched national campaigns to drive up childhood vaccinations in particular as concerns grow over falling uptake and serious diseases such as measles re-emerge in England.

A Reform UK spokesman said: “Reform UK strongly supports proven vaccination programmes that protect public health. But as our councillors have highlighted, forcing blind obedience to every vaccine without question or evidence erodes trust, sabotages successful rollouts, and allows misinformation to spread.”

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Orla GuerinSenior International Correspondent in Gaziantep, Turkey

BBC

Aya Mustafa wants to return home but not yet

The pull of home can be strong – even when it is a place you can’t remember.

That is how it is for Ahmed, 18. He emerges from a mosque in the heart of Gaziantep in south-east Turkey – not far from the Syrian border – wearing a black T-shirt with “Syria” written on the front.

His family fled his homeland when he was five years old, but he is planning to go back in a year or two at most.

“I am impatient to get there,” he tells me. “I am trying to save money first, because wages in Syria are low.” Still, he insists the future will be better there.

“Syria will be rebuilt and it will be like gold,” he says.

If he goes back, he will be following in the footsteps of more than half a million Syrians who have left Turkey since the ousting of Syria’s long-time dictator, Bashar al-Assad, in December 2024.

Many had been here since 2011, when civil war began devouring their country.

In the years that followed, Turkey became a safe haven, taking in more Syrians than any other country. The number reached 3.5 million at its peak, causing political tension and – on occasion – xenophobic attacks.

Officially, no Syrian will be forced to go, but some feel they are being pushed – by bureaucratic changes, and by a waning welcome.

Civil society organisations “are getting the message from the authorities that it’s time to go”, says a Syrian woman who did not want to be named.

“I have a lot of good Turkish friends. Even they and my neighbours have asked why I am still here. Of course we will go back, but in an organised way. If we all go back together, it will be chaos.”

Getty Images

Bashar al-Assad was overthrown in December 2024

Aya Mustafa, 32, is eager to leave – but not yet. We meet under a winter sun by the stone walls of a castle, which has towered over Gaziantep since the Byzantine era. Her hometown, Aleppo, is less than two hours’ drive away.

She says going back is a constant topic of conversation in the Syrian community.

“Every day, every hour, we speak about this point,” says Aya, whose family were lawyers and teachers back home, but had to start again in Turkey, baking and hairdressing to earn a living.

“We are talking about how we can return, and when, and what we can do. But there are many challenges, to be honest. Many families have children who were born here and can’t even speak Arabic.”

Then there is the level of destruction in new Syria – where war has done its worst – and where the interim president, Ahmed Al Sharaa, is a former senior leader of Al Qaeda who has worked to reinvent his image.

Aya saw the ruins of Aleppo for herself when she went back to visit. Her family home is still standing but now occupied by someone else.

“It’s a big decision to go back to Syria,” she says, “especially for people with elderly relatives. I have my grandmother and my disabled sister. We need the basics like electricity and water and jobs to survive there.”

For now, she says, her family can’t survive in Syria, but they will return in time.

“We believe that day will come,” she says, with a broad smile. “It will take some years [to rebuild]. But in the end, we will see everyone in Syria.”

AFP via Getty Images

Syria’s interim President, Ahmed Al Sharaa, is a former leader of Al Qaeda who has worked to reinvent his image

A short drive away, we get a very different view from a Syrian family of four – father, mother and two teenage sons. The father – who does not want to be named – runs an aid organisation helping his fellow countrymen. Over glasses of tea and helpings of baklava, I ask if he and his family would move back. His response is swift and adamant.

“No, not for me and for my family,” he says. “And the same goes for my organisation. We have projects inside Syria, and we hope to extend that activity. But my family and my organisation will stay here in Turkey.”

Asked why, he lists problems with the economy, security, education and the health system. Syria’s interim government “hasn’t any experience to deal with the situation”, he tells me. “Some ask us to give them a chance, but one year has passed and the indications are not good.”

He too has visited the new Syria, and, like Aya, was not reassured. “The security situation is very bad,” he says. “Every day there are killings. Regardless of who the victims are, they have souls.”

His voice softens when he speaks of his 80-year-old father in Damascus, who hasn’t seen his grandsons for 12 years, and may never see them again.

For now, he and his family can remain in Turkey, but he’s already making contingency plans in case government policy changes.

“Plan A is that we will stay here in Turkey,” he says. “If we cannot, I’m thinking about plan B, C and even D. I am an engineer, always planning.”

None of those plans involve a return to Syria.

If going home is hard, staying in Turkey isn’t easy either. Syrians have “temporary protection” that comes with restrictions. They are not supposed to leave the cities where they are first registered. Work permits are hard to get, and many are in low paid jobs, living on the margins.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan – who backed the uprising against Assad – has insisted that no Syrian will be driven out, but refugee advocates say there are growing pressures beneath the surface.

They point to the ending of free medical care for Syrians from January, and new government regulations which make it more expensive to hire them.

“These new elements cast a shadow over how voluntary returns are,” says Metin Corabatir, who heads an independent Turkish research centre on asylum and migration, IGAM.

And he says presidential and parliamentary elections – due by 2028 – may be another threat for Syrians here.

“Normally President Erdogan is their main protector,” Mr Corabatir tells me. “He says they can stay as long as they want. And he repeated this after the regime changed. But if there is an election, and a political gain for the AKP [ruling party] to make, there might be some policy changes.”

Getty Images

More than half a million Syrians have left Turkey since the ousting of Assad

Fresh elections could revive the xenophobic rhetoric that featured in the last polls, he warns. “Those feelings went to sleep,” he says, “but I am quite sure the infrastructure of this xenophobic attitude is still alive.”

On a cold grey morning at a border crossing an hour’s drive from Gaziantep the hills of Syria are visible, a short distance away.

Mahmud Sattouf and his wife Suad Helal are heading to their homeland – this time just for a visit. They have Turkish citizenship, so they will be able to return. For other Syrians, the journey is now one-way.

Mahmud, a teacher, is beaming with excitement.

“We are returning because we love our country,” he says. “It’s a great joy. I can’t describe it in words. As we say in English: ‘East, west, home is best’.”

He and Suad will move home in about a year, he tells us, when Syria is more settled, along with their four sons, and their families.

“I am 63,” he says, “but I don’t feel like I am an old man. I feel young. We are ready to rebuild our country.”

How will it feel to be back for good? I ask.

“I will be the most happy man in the world,” he says, and laughs.

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At least 13 people were killed and more than 90 others were injured after an intercity train derailed in the Mexican state of Oaxaca on Sunday.

The Interoceanic Train was carrying 250 people when it derailed near Nizanda, according to the Mexican Navy, which oversees the railway line.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said on X that five ‌of ⁠the injured were in critical condition. She said senior officials had been dispatched to the site to assist the families of the victims and that an investigation is underway.

Oaxaca state Governor Salomon Jara Cruz also offered his condolences to those who had lost loved ones in the accident.

At least 13 people were killed and scores more were injuredImage: Rusvel Rasgado/AFP

Mexico’s railway push

The Interoceanic Train was inaugurated in 2023 by Sheinbaum’s predecessor and political ally, Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

It was part of a push to develop southeast Mexico and create a strategic freight corridor linking the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

It involved the expansion of ports and other infrastructure with the goal of competing with the Panama Canal.

But some of the projects, including the Interoceanic Train and the nearby Maya Train, have been criticized over environmental and social issues. 

Other incidents have also occurred, such as on December 20 when a train on the Interoceanic route collided with a cargo truck attempting to cross the tracks, although there were no fatalities.

Edited by: Rana Taha

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