Nestled in the heart of a green valley, surrounded by lush rolling hills, this small Yorkshire village has been dubbed the perfect place to escape to – and it even has a river flowing through it
The quaint village is a traveller’s paradise(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
A charming village in North Yorkshire, home to a mere 400 residents, is rapidly becoming a ‘must-see’ destination for travellers.
Nestled at the base of a steep ravine known as Crunkly Ghyll, this idyllic village is celebrated for its quintessential English allure, stunning landscapes, and a gently flowing river adorned with quaint stepping stones for visitors to traverse. Situated within the civil parish of Glaisdale, this picture-perfect hamlet in the North York Moors is characterised by its enchanting stone cottages, lush green surroundings, and the tranquil River Esk meandering through it. Renowned for its natural splendour and timeless charm, the village perfectly embodies the spirit of rural England. Visitors can indulge in leisurely riverside walks, exhilarating cycling paths, challenging hikes across the moors, and unwind in highly recommended pubs and local shops.
The village’s name, Lealholm, translates to ‘the settlement by the willow trees’, a fitting moniker given its scenic beauty. It’s a visual treat and an outdoor enthusiast’s dream, serving as the perfect crossing point for the River Esk, reports Yorkshire Live. Over the years, Lealholm has become a magnet for tourists, particularly during the summer months. Thanks to the Lealholm railway station on the Esk Valley railway line, it’s an easily accessible getaway.
The Lealholm Stepping Stones are a renowned feature of the village, providing both locals and tourists with an enjoyable way to explore the surrounding areas and have a bit of fun in the river. A significant portion of the local community is engaged in farming, thanks to the fertile Eskdale slopes.
Adding to the allure of the village is a popular tea-room and bakery, a traditional 16th-century pub known as The Board Inn, and charming cottage stays, making it a top choice for those wanting to discover the UK’s natural beauty. Its location within the North York Moors National Park only enhances its stunning appeal. Lealholm also boasts the 17th-century Lealholm Bridge that stretches over the River Esk, making it a favourite spot for fishing – with salmon and sea trout aplenty – and picnicking.
Other historical attractions include the 12th-century St James’ Church and the medieval stone cross standing tall in the village square, known as the Lealholm Cross. The vibrant local community of Lealholm hosts various events throughout the year, such as the Lealholm Village Show and a Sports Day.
Getting there
Situated roughly 10 miles from the famous coastal town of Whitby – made famous by Bram Stoker’s Dracula – visitors can reach Lealholm by car or public transport, with regular bus and train services operating to and from the village. Holidaymakers also have the option to continue on to Whitby or venture into the nearby North York Moors National Park.
Deir el-Balah and Nuseirat, Gaza Strip – In her tent made of fabric sheets with a roof covered in white plastic tarp, Sanaa Issa tries to steal a quiet moment with her daughters.
Sanaa spoke to Al Jazeera as the new year approached, and with a ceasefire officially in place in Gaza. But, lying on a wet blanket in a tent with rain pouring down, Sanaa doesn’t have a huge amount to be positive about.
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“We didn’t know whether to blame the war, the cold, or the hunger. We’re moving from one crisis to another,” Sanaa told Al Jazeera, describing a harsh year she, and other displaced Palestinians like her, have faced in the Gaza Strip.
Amid worsening humanitarian conditions, the once-ambitious hopes of Palestinians in Gaza, dreams of a better future, prosperity, and reconstruction, are gone. In their place are basic human needs: securing flour, food and water, obtaining tents to shield them from the cold, accessing medical care, and simply surviving bombardments.
For Palestinians like Sanaa, hope for the new year has been reduced to a daily struggle for survival.
Sanaa is a 41-year-old mother of seven, who has been solely responsible for raising her children after her husband was killed in an Israeli strike in November 2024, at the end of the first year of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza.
“Responsibility for the children, displacement, securing food and drink, making tough decisions here and there. Everything was required of me at once,” Sanaa, who fled with her family from al-Bureij to Deir el-Balah, both in central Gaza, said.
Sanaa’s biggest challenge in 2025 was securing “a loaf of bread” and getting her hands on even a kilogram of flour every day for her family.
“During the famine, I slept and woke up with one wish: to get enough bread for the day. I felt I was dying while my children were starving before me, and I could do nothing,” she said bitterly.
The search for flour eventually saw Sanaa decide to go to the US-backed GHF aid distribution points that opened at the end of May across Gaza.
“At first, I was scared and hesitant, but the hunger we live through can force you to do things you never imagined,” Sanaa said, describing her weekly visits to the aid points.
Visiting the sites, which the US and Israel supported as alternatives to long-established aid organisations, was inherently dangerous. More than 2,000 Palestinians were killed in and around GHF sites, according to the United Nations, before the GHF officially ended its mission in late November.
But going to the sites wasn’t just a risk to Sanaa’s life, it was a path that “took away her dignity”, leaving lasting scars.
On one occasion, Sanaa was hit by shrapnel in her arm while waiting for aid at the Netzarim distribution point in central Gaza, and her 17-year-old daughter was injured in the chest at the Morag point east of Rafah.
But her injuries didn’t stop her from trying again, although she began to go alone, leaving her children behind in relative safety.
During the famine in Gaza, Sana’a’s greatest wish was to provide a loaf of bread for her seven children, amid a six-month-long Israeli blockade that prevented food and goods from entering [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Desperation
The war in Gaza led to severe interruptions in food and humanitarian aid, the last of which began in late March 2025, eventually leading to the declaration of a famine. It continued until October 2025, gradually easing after the ceasefire announcement.
During this period, the United Nations officially declared a state of famine, confirming that parts of Gaza had entered catastrophic hunger stages, with acute shortages in food, water, and medicine, and high rates of malnutrition among children and pregnant women.
Thousands of residents had to search for food using dangerous methods, including by waiting for long hours at the GHF sites.
“Hunger lasted a long time; it wasn’t a day or two, so I had to find a solution,” Sanaa said. “Each time, people crowded in their hundreds of thousands. Some would spend the night there, hundreds of thousands of displaced people – men, women, children, old and young.”
“The scenes were utterly humiliating. Bombing and heavy gunfire on everyone, not to mention the pushing and fighting among people over aid.”
The crowds meant that Sanaa often returned to her tent empty-handed, but the rare times she brought back a few kilos of flour felt like “a festival”, she recalled.
“One time, I got five kilos [11 pounds] of flour. I cried with joy returning to my children, who hadn’t tasted bread for days,” she added.
Sanaa sits with her children inside their tent, holding on to the hope that living conditions will improve in the coming year [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Sanaa divided the five kilos over two weeks, sometimes mixing it with ground lentils or pasta dough. “We wanted to recite a spell over the flour so it would multiply,” she said with dark humour.
A heavy silence followed as Sanaa adjusted the plastic tarp over her tent against the strong wind, then said:
“We witnessed humiliation beyond measure? All this for what? For a loaf of bread!” she added with tearful eyes. “If we were animals, perhaps they would have felt more pity for us.”
Despite the hardships she has endured and continues to face, Sanaa has not lost hope or her prayers for Gaza’s future.
“Two years are enough. Each year has been harder than the previous one, and we are still in this spiral,” she added. “We want proper tents to shelter us in winter, a gas cylinder to cook instead of burning wood, we want life and reconstruction.”
“Our basic rights have become distant wishes at year’s end.”
Batoul Abu Shawish, 20, lost her entire family in an Israeli strike that targeted their home in Nuseirat during the ceasefire in November 2025 [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
The only survivor
Sanaa’s husband was one of the more than 71,250 Palestinians killed by Israel during the war.
Twenty-year-old Batoul Abu Shawish can count her father, mother, two brothers and two sisters – her whole immediate family – among that number.
Batoul comes into the new year wishing for only one thing: to be with her family.
Her heartbreaking loss came just a month before the end of the year, on November 22.
Despite the ceasefire, an Israeli bomb struck the home her family had fled to in central Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp.
“I was sitting with my two sisters. My brothers were in their room, my father had just returned from outside, and my mother was preparing food in the kitchen,” she recalled, eyes vacant, describing the day.
“In an instant, everything turned to darkness and thick dust. I didn’t realise what was happening around me, not even that it was bombing, due to the shock,” Batoul added, as she stood next to the ruins of her destroyed home.
She was trapped under the debris of the destroyed home for about an hour, unable to move, calling for help from anyone nearby.
“I couldn’t believe what was happening. I wished I were dead, unaware, trying to escape the thought of what had happened to my family,” Batoul said.
“I called for them one by one, and there was no sound. My mother, father, siblings, no one.”
After being rescued, she was found to have severe injuries to her hand and was immediately transferred to hospital.
“I was placed on a stretcher above extracted bodies, covered in sheets. I panicked and asked my uncle who was with me: ‘Who are these people?’ He said they were from the house next to ours,” she recalled.
As soon as Batoul arrived at the hospital, she was rushed into emergency surgery on her hand before she could learn about what had happened to her family.
“I kept asking everyone, ‘Where is my mom? Where is my dad?’ They told me they were fine, just injured in other departments.”
“I didn’t believe them,” Batoul added, “but I was also afraid to call them liars.”
The following day, her uncles broke the news to Batoul that she had lost her mother and siblings. Her father, they told her, was still in critical condition in the intensive care unit.
“They gathered around me, and they were all crying. I understood on my own,” she said.
“I broke down, crying in disbelief, then said goodbye to them one by one before the funeral.”
Batoul’s father later succumbed to his injuries three days after the incident, leaving her alone to face her grief.
“I used to go to the ICU every day and whisper in my father’s ear, asking him to wake up again, for me and for himself, but he was completely unconscious,” Batoul said as she scrolled through photos of her father on her mobile phone.
“When he died, it felt as if the world had gone completely dark before my eyes.”
Batoul al-Shawish holds a photo on her phone showing her with her family, including her father, mother, and siblings Muhammad, Youssef, Tayma, and Habiba [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
‘Where is the ceasefire?’
Israel said that it conducted the strikes in Nuseirat in response to an alleged gunman crossing into Israel-held territory in Gaza, although it is unclear why civilian homes in Nuseirat were therefore targeted.
According to Gaza’s Government Media Office and the Ministry of Health, around 2,613 Palestinian families were completely wiped out during the war on the Gaza Strip up until the announcement of the ceasefire in October 2025.
Those families had all of their members killed, and their names erased from the civil registry.
The same figures indicate that approximately 5,943 families were left with only a single surviving member after the rest were killed, an agonising reflection of the scale of social and human loss caused by the war.
These figures may change as documentation continues and bodies are recovered from beneath the rubble.
For Batoul, her family was anything but ordinary; they were known for their deep bond and love for one another.
“My father was deeply attached to my mother and never hid his love for her in front of anyone, and that reflected on all of us.”
“My mother was my closest friend, and my siblings loved each other beyond words. Our home was full of pleasant surprises and warmth,” she added.
“Even during the war, we used to sit together, hold family gatherings, and help one another endure so much of what we were going through.”
The understandable grief that has overtaken Batoul leaves no room for wishes for a new year or talk of a near future, at least for now.
One question, however, weighs heavily on her: why was her peaceful family targeted, especially during a ceasefire?
“Where is the ceasefire they talk about? It’s just a lie,” she said.
“My family and I survived bombardment, two years of war. An apartment next to our home in eastern Nuseirat was hit, and we fled together to here. We lived through hunger, food shortages, and fear together. Then we thought we had survived, that the war was over.”
“But sadly, they’re gone, and they left me alone.”
Batoul holds onto one wish from the depths of her heart: to join her family as soon as possible.
At the same time, she carries an inner resignation that perhaps it is her fate to live this way, like so many others in Gaza who have lost their families.
“If life is written for me, I will try to fulfil my mother’s dream that I be outstanding in my field and generous to others,” said Batoul, a second-year university student studying multimedia, who is currently living with her uncle and his family.
“Life without family,” she said, “is living with an amputated heart, in darkness for the rest of your life, and there are so many like that now in Gaza.”
Batoul al-Shawish stands in front of the rubble of her destroyed home, where she was trapped for about an hour before being rescued [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
With the show now wrapped up, many audience members still have many questions about how Stranger Things finally finished, including who died, who made it to the end and whether the Hawkins gang defeated the Mindflayer and Vecna (played by Jamie Campbell Bower) for good while closing the wormhole between the two dimensions. Here’s the lowdown on the Stranger Things grand finale.
The body count was surprisingly low in the Stranger Things finale, given that the show is known for killing off beloved characters without hesitation. Vecna and the Mindflayer were killed, with Joyce Byers (Winona Ryder) finishing off the evil villain in true style. The gang closed the wormhole between the two dimensions in the process.
Sadly, Kali (Linnea Berthelsen) also died after she was shot by Akers (Alex Breaux) as the soldier threatened Hopper (David Harbour). Tragically, Eleven was unable to save her sister who died in her arms.
Hopper took out several members of the Wolf Pack Unit led by Akers as they launched their assault on them, while Murray Bauman (Brett Gelman). Most crucially though, it also appeared that Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) had perished as she seemed to sacrifice herself and end the vicious cycle whereby her powers were exploited.
Watch Stranger Things on Netflix for free with Sky
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Sky is giving away a free Netflix subscription with its new Sky Stream TV bundles, including the £15 Essential TV plan.
This lets members watch live and on-demand TV content without a satellite dish or aerial and includes hit shows like Stranger Things.
Is Eleven dead in Stranger Things?
Eleven’s fate at the end of Stranger Things was left ambiguous. It was thought she’d met her maker, along with the Upside Down, when she chose to stay behind after the bomb was detonated to close the rift. El vanished as the rift closed and everyone, including the army, thought she’d died.
However, Mike Wheeler (Finn Wolfhard) had a different theory after hearing distortion on the speakers at his graduation ceremony. Mike told his friends his theory that shortly before Kali’s death, the two sisters had devised a plan. Kali would use her powers to make it look like El had died, but this was just an illusion.
This was Kali’s last gift to her sister before she died and meant that Eleven would never be hunted down again by the military for her powers. Instead, Mike believed El had escaped from everyone by faking her death and was now living somewhere else and exploring the rest of the world alone.
There was a scene of El finding the three waterfalls that Mike had promised to take her to if they both survived. It was unclear whether this was real or just how Mike imagined El’s new life. Although it was a theory, it offered solace to Mike and his friends.
There was also the feeling that Mike wanted to find her one day as he clung on to hope. According to the Stranger Things creators, the Duffer Brothers, it’s up to audiences to decide if El survived or not. Ross Duffer told Netflix ’s Tudum: “[S]he lives on in their hearts, whether that’s real or not.”
The final scene of Stranger Things saw Holly Wheeler (Nell Fisher) and her friends playing Dungeons and Dragons in the basement, signalling the passing of the baton to a new generation. This moment saw the whole of Stranger Things coming full-circle with the show also beginning with the original group playing D&D in the Wheelers’ basement.
Stranger Things season 5 is streaming on Netflix now
NEW YORK — By nearly any measure, 2025 has been a rough year for anyone concerned about freedom of the press.
It’s likely to be the deadliest year on record for journalists and media workers. The number of assaults on reporters in the U.S. nearly equals the last three years combined. The president of the United States berates many who ask him questions, calling one woman “piggy.” And the ranks of those doing the job continues to thin.
It’s hard to think of a darker time for journalists. So say many, including Timothy Richardson, a former Washington Post reporter and now program director for journalism and disinformation at PEN America. “It’s safe to say this assault on the press over the past year has probably been the most aggressive that we’ve seen in modern times.”
Tracking killings and assaults against journalists
Worldwide, the 126 media industry people killed in 2025 by early December matched the number of deaths in all of 2024, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, and last year was a record-setter. Israel’s bombing of Gaza accounted for 85 of those deaths, 82 of them Palestinians.
“It’s extremely concerning,” said Jodie Ginsberg, chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “Unfortunately, it’s not just, of course, about the sheer numbers of journalists and media workers killed, it’s also about the failure to obtain justice or get accountability for those killings.
“What we know from decades of doing this work is that impunity breeds impunity,” she said. “So a failure to tackle journalists’ killings creates an environment where those killings continue.”
The committee estimates there are at least 323 journalists imprisoned worldwide.
None of those killed this year were from the United States. But the work on American soil has still been dangerous. There have been 170 reports of assaults on journalists in the United States this year, 160 of them at the hands of law enforcement, according to the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker. Many of those reports came from coverage of immigration enforcement efforts.
It’s impossible to look past the influence of Trump, who frequently seethes with anger at the press while simultaneously interacting with journalists more than any president in memory — frequently answering their cell phone calls.
“Trump has always attacked the press,” Richardson said. “But during the second term, he’s turned that into government action to restrict and punish and intimidate journalists.”
Journalists learn quickly they have a fight on their hands
The Associated Press learned that quickly, when Trump limited the outlet’s access to cover him after it refused to follow his lead to rename the Gulf of Mexico. It launched a court fight that has remained unresolved. Trump has also extracted settlements from ABC and CBS News in lawsuits over stories that displeased him, and is suing the New York Times and Wall Street Journal.
Long angry about a perceived bias against conservatives on PBS and NPR newscasts, Trump and his allies in Congress successfully cut funding for public broadcasting as a whole. The president has also moved to shut down government-run organizations that beam news to all parts of the world.
“The U.S. is a major investor in media development, in independent media outlets in countries that have little or no independent media, or as a source of information for people in countries where there is no free media,” Ginsberg said. “The evisceration of Radio Free Europe, Radio Free Asia and the Voice of America is another blow to press freedom globally.”
Others in his administration take Trump’s lead, like when his press office chose the day after Thanksgiving to launch a web portal to complain about outlets or journalists being unfair.
“It’s part of this overall strategy that we’re seeing from certain governments, notably the United States, to paint all journalists who don’t simply [repeat] the narrative put out by the government as fake news, as dubious, as dodgy, as criminal,” Ginsberg said.
Trump’s defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, has portrayed journalists as dark figures skulking around Pentagon halls to uncover classified secrets as his rationale for enacting restrictive rules for coverage.
That’s led to the most notable example of journalists fighting back: most mainstream news outlets gave up their credentials to work in the Pentagon rather than agree to these rules, and are still breaking stories while working off-site. The New York Times has sued to overturn the rules. The newspaper also publicly defends itself when attacked by the president, such as when he complained about its coverage of his health.
Despite the more organized effort against the press, the public has taken little notice. The Pew Research Center said that 36% of Americans reported earlier this year hearing a lot about the Trump administration’s relationship with the press, compared to 72% who said that at the same point in his first term.
Pew’s polling shows that trust in news organizations has declined over the last decade, and journalists are likely to elicit little sympathy when their work becomes harder.
“Really, the harm falls on the public with so much of this because the public depends on this independent reporting to understand and scrutinize the decisions that are being made by the most powerful office in the world,” Richardson said.
Some reasons for optimism
The news industry as a whole is more than two decades in to a retrenchment caused largely by a collapse in the advertising market, and every year brings more reports of journalists laid off as a result. One of the year’s most sobering statistics came in a report by the organizations Muck Rack and Rebuild Local News: in 2002, there were 40 journalists for every 100,000 people in the United States; by this year, it was down to a little more than eight.
Asked if they could find reasons for optimism, both Ginsberg and Richardson pointed to the rise of some independent local news organizations, shoots of growth in a barren landscape, such as the Baltimore Banner, Charlottesville Tomorrow in Virginia and Outlier Media in Michigan.
As much as they are derided in Trump’s America, reporters at mainstream media outlets are still working hard and able to set the nation’s agenda with their reporting, noted influential Axios CEO Jim VandeHei in a recent column.
As he told the AP: “Over time, people will hopefully come to their senses and say, ‘Hey, the media like anything else is imperfect but, man, it’s a nice thing to have a free press.’”
Kicker Harrison Mevis aims to get back on track when the Rams play the Atlanta Falcons on Monday night at Mercedes-Benz Stadium in Atlanta.
Mevis, signed by the Rams in November, made all eight of his field-goal attempts before missing from 48 yards late in the fourth quarter of the Rams’ 38-37 overtime defeat by the Seattle Seahawks on Dec. 18 in Seattle.
“Just continuing to keep firing away,” Mevis said. “I’m not going to be perfect in my career — nobody is. And it’s all about how you respond and bounce back and make the next kick.”
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Gary Klein breaks down everything you need to know heading into Monday night’s matchup between the Rams and the Atlanta Falcons.
Three of the Rams’ four losses have resulted from major kicking-game miscues, and Blackburn’s firing was just the latest change made to solve the issues.
When the Rams signed Mevis to replace Joshua Karty — who last week was signed by the Arizona Cardinals off the Rams practice squad — they also brought in veteran snapper Jake McQuaide to replace Alex Ward.
The game against the Falcons will serve as Ben Kotwica’s debut as interim special teams coordinator.
Kotwica has worked in the NFL for most of the last 18 years, and he coached with McVay on Washington’s staff. Kotwica was the Denver Broncos special teams coordinator in 2023 and 2024 before joining the Rams staff as a special teams assistant.
“We’ve had a couple of plays that have cost us during the course of the year, but I love the way that our guys are going about the business,” Kotwica said. “They understand the urgency. We’re part of a championship football team and we’re just ready to contribute to holding up that Lombardi [Trophy] early next year.”
Key injuries
Rams: OL Kevin Dotson (ankle, out); DB Josh Wallace (ankle, out); WR Davante Adams (hamstring, doubtful); OL Alaric Jackson (knee, questionable); DL Braden Fiske (ankle, questionable but expected to play); CB Roger McCreary (hip, expected to be activated to roster from injured reserve).
Falcons: CB Mike Hughes (ankle, out); CB Clark Phillips III (triceps/illness, out); DL Sam Roberts (knee/ankle, out); WR Drake London (knee, questionable).
How to watch and listen to Rams vs. Falcons
The Rams (11-4) and the Atlanta Falcons (6-9) will play at 5:15 p.m. PST Monday. The game will be shown on ABC in the Los Angeles area and nationally on ESPN and ESPN Deportes. In Southern California, fans can listen to the game on 710 AM, 93.1 FM and 1330 AM (Español).
Betting odds and lines for Rams vs. Falcons
Who will win Rams vs. Falcons?
Gary Klein’s pick: A few weeks ago, this looked like a potential easy victory for the Rams. Now it could be more difficult. Still, Rams quarterback Matthew Stafford will outduel Kirk Cousins. Rams 30, Falcons 24
Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as New York City’s mayor just after midnight in a historic ceremony at a decommissioned Manhattan subway station.
Making history as the first Muslim to lead the United States’ largest city, Mamdani took his oath with his hand placed on a Quran.
“This is truly the honour and the privilege of a lifetime,” Mamdani said in a brief speech.
The private ceremony, conducted by New York Attorney General Letitia James at the architecturally stunning old City Hall station – one of the city’s original subway stops known for its arched ceilings – marked the official transition of power.
In his inaugural remarks, Mamdani highlighted the venue as a “testament to the importance of public transit to the vitality, the health and the legacy of our city” while announcing Mike Flynn as his new Department of Transportation commissioner.
The mayor concluded his brief address saying, “Thank you all so much, now I will see you later,” before ascending the stairs with a smile.
A more elaborate public inauguration will take place at 1pm (18:00 GMT) at City Hall. A public celebration will follow on Broadway’s “Canyon of Heroes”, famous for hosting ticker-tape parades.
As he steps into one of the US’s most demanding political positions, Mamdani breaks multiple barriers. At 34, he becomes the city’s youngest mayor in generations and the first of Muslim faith, South Asian descent, and African birth.
Now Christmas is over for another year, many people are making plans for the new year – including travel plans to destinations with great weather and activities to do
Jess Flaherty Senior News Reporter
07:04, 01 Jan 2026Updated 07:16, 01 Jan 2026
The best budget-friendly destinations for 2026 have been revealed (stock image)(Image: Getty Images)
After the expense of Christmas, and the ongoing cost of living crisis, finding reasonably priced options for holidays or a spot of travelling can be quite tricky. Social media is rife with ideas, recommendations and tips from experienced and novice jet-setters alike.
One person turned to Reddit looking for a viable option for a trip with their girlfriend this month. The couple want to spend 30-35 days abroad, with a budget of around £2,600 to £3,000, excluding the cost of their flights.
That sum would purely be their spending money for “accommodation, food, transport, activities, etc”. They live in the Baltics, so would be flying out from either Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia and were “open to any destination – Asia, South America, Africa, Europe, islands, you name it”.
Their main requests were for “good weather (ideally warm/sunny in Jan); a mix of nature, culture, and relaxation; a destination that’s good value for money over a full month of travel;” as well as the option for “adventure”, including “hiking, wildlife, or just exploring new places”.
They asked guidance from people who’d done a similar trip or had “any suggestions on where to go”. And fellow Reddit users were keen to share their thoughts and recommendations.
One person said: “Two weeks in Northern Thailand (Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai). Five days in Bangkok. Two weeks on Islands in Southern Thailand (Koh Lipe, Koh Phanang)”.
Another agreed: “Can 100% recommend Koh Lipe. It is a small island so you’ll probably max out of things to do after about four days unless you’re happy just lazing by the beach all day.”
A third said: “It’ll be summer in the southern hemisphere if you’re looking for warm weather. New Zealand comes to mind as it sounds like you’re looking for nature – haven’t been there myself but the pics look incredible”.
But someone else replied: “That budget won’t get you far in NZ for that long sadly”.
Another suggested: “Tanzania and Zanzibar might suit you”.
To which, someone else shared: “I am leaving Zanzibar tomorrow after a week here. It has been great. The people are friendly and the beaches are great.
“Even the vendors on the beach are easygoing and fun to chat with. There is a good range of accommodation options too, and the food has been awesome. Asante sana.”
Another recommendation came for south east Asia: “Malaysia would be an excellent option. Accommodation, transport and food is very cheap and there’s lots to see.
“I’d visit Penang, Langkawi, Perhentian islands, Borneo, KL and Cameron Highlands. You’ll get to see lots of wildlife, hikes, history, beaches etc.”
And another said: “El Nido, in the Philippines would work, as would Da Nang in Vietnam or one of the kohs in Thailand. If you haven’t ever ‘done’ the ‘Banana Pancake Trail’, that’s really the first place that I would start. Start watching flights to BKK [Bangkok].”
Offering a different perspective, one person said: “Northern Turkey is fabulous with all its ancient sites from Roman and Greek eras especially on western side.
“The lodging and food is very inexpensive. The wine is excellent. Istanbul area is also great. Also greatly enjoyed Athens Greece with all its history. Food and drink was fabulous. Ate at one restaurant which gave us unlimited after dinner wine.”
Even complete beginners will soon be scaling sheltered Peak District crags on this two-day course with Pure Outdoor. Participants will master tying in, belaying and several climbing techniques, as well as abseiling down. With a maximum of six learners to one instructor, there is a lot individual attention and personalised targets. The course is suitable for anyone aged 13 and over, from first-time climbers to those with some indoor experience. It is non-residential, but Pure Outdoor has a list of recommended, affordable accommodation nearby, including campsites, hostels, B&Bs and pubs with rooms. The training centre is 10 minutes’ walk from Bamford railway station, which is on the Hope Valley line from Manchester to Sheffield. £199 for two days, weekends from 7 March-8 November, plus weekday courses most months, pureoutdoor.co.uk
Abstract painting in Spain
In the heights … turn sketches into abstracts in Andalucía Photograph: Andrew Watson
Moclín, a historic hillside village in Andalucía, about 45 minutes’ drive from Granada, is the inspiring setting for this painting holiday. Painters of all abilities – including beginners – will learn how to plan and create abstract artworks. Some time will be spent outside, working on guided exercises en plein air. These charcoal drawings and watercolour studies will then be developed in the studio, with participants producing several abstract landscapes in acrylics to be exhibited in the village. The group has sole use of the hotel, which is set around an open courtyard and has a roof terrace with views over the hills. The price includes five days’ painting tuition; all meals, including a tapas dinner in Granada; and an excursion to the castle and other local sights. From €1,950 for seven nights, 19-26 May, granadaculturalholidays.com
Ottolenghi-inspired vegetarian cooking in Portugal
Veg out … Ottolenghi-style meals in Portugal. Photograph: Figs on the Funcho
This Mediterranean cooking retreat, set on a riverside villa in the inland Algarve, is inspired by the vegetarian dishes of Yotam Ottolenghi and Ixta Belfrage. Guests will learn to produce meze spreads, attend a falafel-making workshop, perfect brunch dishes such as shakshuka, and make hearty mains including spicy mushroom ragu and moussaka. There are visits to the village market and a local vineyard to taste Portuguese wines, plus free time for walks by the Funcho River, to relax on the deck or swim in the infinity pool. The villa, a former farmhouse, has five bedrooms, plus safari tents in the grounds. From €900 for five days from 20 March, 8 May, 11 September and 13 November, responsibletravel.com
Street dance in Buckinghamshire
Keep it locked … street dance classes in High Wycombe. Photograph: Gradyreese/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Hip Hop Don’t Stop is an uplifting, inclusive three-day adults’ street dance camp in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire. The format each day is a party-style group warmup, followed by three 90-minute workshops covering different street dance styles, then an hour-long jam to show off those solos. Dancers are divided into groups according to ability and experience, so it is suitable for those who are brand new to popping and locking, right up to advanced dancers or teachers. The camp doesn’t include accommodation but there are several hostels and hotels within walking distance, and it is 23-35 minutes by train into central London. £245 for three days; next course 7-9 April, urbanstrides.com
Sea shanty weekend in Cornwall
On the fiddle … learn to write sea shanties in St Ives. Photograph: Desha Cam/Stock Adobe
St Ives is the perfect setting for a sea shanty weekend. Guests will learn traditional shanties from a folk singer and vocal coach, and have a go at writing their own. There will be vocal warmups, breathing exercises, performance tips and a final evening concert. The holiday is held in a country house overlooking St Ives Bay. All meals are provided, including a Cornish cream tea on arrival, cooked or continental breakfasts, packed lunches and three-course dinners. Grog, alas, is not included. All together now: “What will we do with the drunken sailor …?” From £429, 31 January-3 February and 31 October-3 November, hfholidays.co.uk
Creative writing in Crete
Write on … village-style hotel in the White mountains, Crete.
Author, playwright and lecturer Greg Mosse leads the daily workshops on this writing retreat. He covers everything from plot, characters, locations and suspense, to submitting work to publishers. Greg’s wife, the bestselling author Kate Mosse, will co-host events at the beginning and end of the week. The holiday is based at a village-style hotel in Vamos at the foot of the White mountains – 10 one- and two-bedroom cottages surround a garden and pool (non-writing partners or friends are welcome to share a cottage). On the last night, budding authors celebrate with a concert in the garden and a farewell dinner. From £893pp for seven nights (based on two sharing), 11-18 August, simpsontravel.com
Introduction to beekeeping in Mid Wales
Hive mind … be shown beekeeping skills in mid Wales. Photograph: Gary Yeowell/Getty Images
The Centre for Alternative Technology near Machynlleths runs a host of courses covering sustainability: from wildlife gardening to making pallet furniture. This two-day course will help participants get to grips with the basics of beekeeping, explore the biology of honeybees and learn about their environmental benefits. It is designed to produce “bee-friendly beekeepers”. The weekend is also a chance to de-stress in CAT’s sustainably managed woodlands, which are home to polecats, otters, dormice, lesser horseshoe bats and rare birds. Bed and breakfast the night before the course is £80, and full-board accommodation during the course is £97. £248, 30-31 May, 5-6 September;cat.org.uk
Sailing for beginners in Essex
Essex appeal … learn sailing on the Blackwater estuary. Photograph: Brit Pics/Alamy
These new summer sailing weekends are spent on Wayfarers (dinghies) and Dufours (keelboats) on the Blackwater estuary in Essex. They are aimed at adult beginners learning the ropes or more experienced mariners who want a refresher. Sailors can hone their helming, strengthen their seamanship and work towards the Royal Yachting Association’s levels one to three in a fun, welcoming environment. There are day-only and residential options, staying in simple dorms in the waterside Bradwell training centre. The day option includes packed lunches, while the residential package includes two nights’ accommodation and all meals, from full English breakfasts to evening barbecues. From £299,18-20 July and 4-6 September, essexoutdoors.com
Introduction to open-water swimming in Cyprus
Top dips … open-water swimming in Cyprus. Photograph: Andy Tester
The setting for this swim camp is a beach resort in Peyia, just north of Paphos, on the white sand of the Coral Bay. It is aimed at those who can comfortably swim 500 metres in a pool, and want to make the transition to open water. All swims start from the shallow waters of the bay, rather than a boat, and the average distance covered is up to 2km a day). There are also daily technical coaching sessions with video analysis in an Olympic-sized swimming pool, two minutes’ walk from the hotel. The price includes coaching, accommodation, breakfast and dinner. From £1,350 for five nights from 5, 11 and 17 June, swimtrek.com
Mosaic-making in Turkey
Pieces of you … a mosaic break in Turkey. Photograph: Mosaic and You
Ingi, a mosaicist who learned the art in Turkey nearly 20 years ago, now runs artistic retreats at her villa in Fethiye on the Turquoise Coast. Guests – a maximum of three people – spend the week making a mosaic to take home, in a studio on the terrace. But the holiday is about more than mosaics: Ingi introduces guests to the local culture, taking them to the market, into Fethiye for lunch, and on optional visits to the Blue Lagoon and a hammam. There is also time to relax by the pool, in the landscaped gardens or on uncrowded Calis beach. All meals are included. From £1,099 for six nights, up to three courses a month from 18 April-17 October, responsibletravel.com
Zohran Mamdani has been sworn in as mayor of New York City, becoming the first Muslim and the youngest person in generations to take the oath of office in the United States’ biggest city.
Mamdani, a Democrat, was sworn in at a historic, decommissioned subway station in Manhattan just after midnight on Thursday, placing his hand on a Quran as he took his oath.
“This is truly the honour and the privilege of a lifetime,” Mamdani said.
The ceremony, administered by New York Attorney General Letitia James, a political ally, took place at the old City Hall station, one of the city’s original subway stops that is known for its stunning arched ceilings.
He will be sworn in again, in grander style, in a public ceremony at City Hall at 1pm (18:00GMT) by US Senator Bernie Sanders, one of the mayor’s political heroes. That will be followed by what the new administration is billing as a public block party on a stretch of Broadway known as the “Canyon of Heroes,” famous for its ticker-tape parades.
Mamdani now begins one of the most unrelenting jobs in US politics as one of the country’s most-watched politicians.
In addition to being the city’s first Muslim mayor, Mamdani is also its first of South Asian descent and the first to be born in Africa. At 34, Mamdani is also the city’s youngest mayor in generations.
Mamdani, right, hands nine dollars to city clerk Michael McSweeney before signing a registry [Yuki Iwamura/AP]
In a campaign that helped make “affordability” a buzzword across the political spectrum, the democratic socialist promised to bring transformative change with policies intended to lower the cost of living in one of the world’s most expensive cities.
His platform included free child care, free buses, a rent freeze for about 1 million households, and a pilot of city-run grocery stores.
But he will also have to face other responsibilities: handling trash and snow and rats, while getting blamed for subway delays and potholes.
Tensions with Trump
Mamdani will also have to deal with Republican President Donald Trump.
During the mayoral race, Trump threatened to withhold federal funding from the city if Mamdani won and mused about sending National Guard troops to the city and suggested that he should be deported.
He also called Mamdani a “100% Communist Lunatic” in a social media post.
But Trump surprised supporters and foes alike by inviting the Democrat to the White House for what ended up being a cordial meeting in November.
“I want him to do a great job and will help him do a great job,” Trump said in the meeting, and the US president even came to Mamdani’s rescue as the two addressed reporters.
When a journalist asked Mamdani if he continued to view Trump as a fascist, the president stepped in.
“That’s OK. You can just say it. That’s easier,” Trump told Mamdani. “It’s easier than explaining it. I don’t mind.”
Still, tensions between the two leaders remain.
Following the meeting, Mamdani said he still believed Trump is a fascist.
“That’s something that I’ve said in the past; I say it today,” Mamdani told NBC News.
US President Donald Trump (R) shakes hands with New York Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani as they meet in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, DC, on November 21, 2025 [File: AFP]
Mamdani was born in Kampala, Uganda, the son of filmmaker Mira Nair and Mahmood Mamdani, an academic and author. His family moved to New York City when he was 7, with Mamdani growing up in a post-9/11 city where Muslims didn’t always feel welcome. He became an American citizen in 2018.
He worked on political campaigns for Democratic candidates in the city before he sought public office himself, winning a state Assembly seat in 2020 to represent a section of Queens.
Still, Mamdani had minimal name recognition when he launched his mayoral campaign late last year.
However, in the lead-up to the Democratic primary, he quickly rose in the polls with a message focused on lowering the cost of living.
Mamdani ultimately defeated former Governor Andrew Cuomo twice: once to clinch the Democratic nomination in June, and a second time in the November election.
Tom Hiddleston is set to make his anticipated return to The Night Manager after almost 10 years
Almost a decade after its explosive finale captivated over 10 million viewers, hit BBC spy thriller The Night Manager is officially back with a bang.
Based on the characters created by John le Carré, the series followed Jonathan Pine (Tom Hiddleston), a night manager of a luxury hotel in Cairo and a former British soldier, who was recruited by the manager of a Foreign Office task force to infiltrate the inner circle of a dangerous arms dealer.
The award-winning drama returns to BBC One tonight (January 1) at 9pm as Pine takes on an explosive new case. The official synopsis teases: “Jonathan Pine thought he’d buried his past. Now living as Alex Goodwin – a low-level MI6 officer running a quiet surveillance unit in London – his life is comfortingly uneventful.
“Then one night, a chance sighting of an old Roper mercenary prompts a call to action and leads Pine to a violent encounter with a new player: Colombian businessman Teddy Dos Santos.”
Pine later meets a businesswoman who reluctantly helps him infiltrate Teddy’s Colombian arms operation. Once in Colombia, Pine is plunged deep into a deadly plot involving the training of a guerrilla army.
The logline concludes: “As allegiances splinter, Pine races to expose a conspiracy designed to destabilise a nation. And with betrayal at every turn, he must decide whose trust he needs to earn and how far he’s willing to go before it’s too late.”
Alongside Tom Hiddleston, the new season also stars Diego Calva as Teddy, as well as Camila Morrone as Roxana, Indira Varma as Mayra, Paul Chahidi as Basil, and Hayley Squires as Sally.
Olivia Colman reprises her role as Angela Burr, alongside returning cast members Alistair Petrie as Sandy Langbourne, Douglas Hodge as Rex Mayhew, Michael Nardone as Frisky, and Noah Jupe as Daniel Roper.
Where was The Night Manager filmed?
The Night Manager filmed across several diverse locations for season two, including the UK, Spain, Colombia and France.
Colombia serves as a major backdrop for the new storyline, with filming taking place at a villa in Girardot – four hours from the capital of Bogotá.
On the preparations that took place before production began in South America, screenwriter David Farr explained at the season two premiere: “Colombia is a very, very complex country, massively misunderstood. Everyone thinks it’s just completely dangerous and it’s totally not true. But for me, I think it was really important to sort of engage in that seriously. So we did.
“We went there properly, we met people, fantastic people. That’s the great luxury of being writers.”
Director Georgi Banks-Davies added: “We went on a massive global adventure because I’m a realist… I think we shot 96, 97 days across six months because of the travel.
“That meant going to the depths of every place, and that’s brutal. It’s really, really hard. You just can’t fake it, and my god, it was hot!”
Executive producer Stephen Garrett concluded: “We ended up slightly mad, Georgi and I and a couple of others. There were a few of us who ended up in daily shirt wars, just because they would be destroyed on a daily basis, because we got, sorry to say, so sweaty.
“Weirdly, one of the challenges we had in post [production] was communicating the heat that we were actually experiencing.”
The Night Manager season 2 premieres on BBC One and BBC iPlayer from 9pm on Thursday, January 1
For the latest showbiz, TV, movie and streaming news, go to the new Everything Gossip website
Full list of new tourist taxes for 2026 including huge £23 charge – The Mirror
Need to know
Tourist taxes can be a way for governments to raise funds to pay for infrastructure and mitigate the impact of tourism. However, they’re often a controversial measure, with some claiming they deter tourists from visiting. Here are some destinations introducing or increasing their tourist taxes in 2026.
Tourist taxes can be tied to accommodation costs or be a flat nightly fee(Image: Getty Images)
Bucharest, often nicknamed ‘Little Paris’ due to the Romanian capital’s striking resemblance to the French city, will be bringing in a new tourist tax of 10 Romanian Leu a night, around £1.70, for stays in 2026 and beyond. Funds raised will be used to further promote this increasingly popular city as a tourist destination.
England will gain the same powers as the rest of the UK, with mayors allowed to decide whether to implement tourist taxes in their region. The North East is already considering a tourist tax of £2 a night, which could give the region a boost of £20m a year. London continues to debate the introduction of a tourist tax, which could be in the form of a flat fee or percentage of accommodation cost.
Edinburgh is rolling out its tourist tax on bookings in the city from July 24. This visitors’ levy will be a total of 5% added to your bill, either at check-in or check-out, and is based on the cost of accommodation alone and not any extras. The cost is only applied to the first five nights of your stay.
Thailand has been planning a tourist tax for several years now, and it’s rumoured it’ll begin from mid-2026. The fee will be 300 Baht, just over £7 for passengers arriving by air, and for those that arrive by sea it’ll be 150 Baht.
Los Angeles has recently hiked its tourist tax to 15.5% of visitors’ accommodation cost, making it the most expensive in the world. Visit from 2026 and stay in a hotel room for $280 a night (around £208), and you’d be charged an extra $32, or $225 extra for the week, which works out at approximately £167. This is quite a large extra cost for visitors to the city.
Norway will be giving the power to local municipalities to decide whether they want to implement a 3% tourist tax in their region. So far, Lofoten and Tromsø, both popular destinations for Northern Light watching, have said they’ll be introducing the tax, and it’s likely more will follow.
Kyoto already has a tourist tax, which will increase in 2026, which the local authorities claim will help this pretty Japanese city balance visitor numbers and preserve its heritage. The tax is paid in tiers, depending on accommodation cost, so those spending under 6,000 yen a night (about £28) will pay just 200 yen in taxes (about £0.95). However, the biggest hike is for luxury accommodation costing over 100,000 yen (£about £474) a night as, the tax will be increasing tenfold to a hefty 10,000 yen per night (approximately £48).
WASHINGTON — President Trump is not the first president to want more room at the White House for entertaining, says the longest-serving top aide in the executive residence, offering some backup for the reason Trump has cited for his ballroom construction project.
Gary Walters spent more than two decades as White House chief usher to presidents Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush — a role that is akin to being the general manager of the residence.
“All the presidents that I had an opportunity to serve always talked about some possibility of an enlarged area” for entertaining, Walters said in an interview with the Associated Press about his recently published memoir.
Trump has been talking about building a White House ballroom for years, even before he entered the political arena. In July, the White House announced a 90,000-square-foot space would be built on the east side of the complex to accommodate 650 seated guests at a then-estimated cost of $200 million. Trump has said it will be paid for with private donations, including from him.
The Republican president later upped the proposed ballroom’s capacity to 999 people and, by October, had demolished the two-story East Wing of the White House to build it there. In December, he updated the price tag to $400 million — double the original estimate.
Images of the East Wing being demolished shocked historians, preservationists and others, but Walters said there is a long history of projects on the campus, ranging from conservatories, greenhouses and stables being torn down to build the West Wing in 1902, to the expansion of the residence with a third floor, to the addition of the East Wing itself during World War II to provide workspace for the first lady, her staff and other White House offices.
“So there’s always been construction going on around the White House,” Walters said.
Other presidents bemoaned the lack of space for entertaining
When Walters was on the job, the capacity of the largest public rooms in the White House was among the first topics he discussed with the incoming president, first lady and their social secretary, he said. The presidents he served all talked about the limited number of people the White House could handle.
When set up for a state dinner, the State Dining Room can hold about 130 people: 13 round tables each with seating for 10, Walters said. The East Room can accommodate about 300 chairs — fewer if space is needed for television cameras.
Trump complains often that both rooms are too small. He also has complained about the use of large tents on the south grounds, the main workaround for big events such as ritzy state dinners for foreign leaders. Walters said the tents had issues.
“When it rained, the water flows downhill and the grass became soggy, no matter what we tried to do,” Walters said. “We dug culverts around the outside of the tent to try and get the water.” Tents damaged the grass, requiring more work to reseed it, he said.
Walters admitted it was a bit jarring to see the East Wing torn down, and said he had fond personal memories of the space. “I met my wife at the White House and she worked in the East Wing, so that was a joy for me,” said Walters, 79.
His wife, Barbara, was a receptionist in the visitors office during the administrations of Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford. The couple recently celebrated 48 years of marriage.
Broken bones alter usher’s career trajectory
Walters owes his place in history as the longest-serving White House chief usher to the misfortune of a broken ankle.
He was 23 in early 1970, honorably discharged from the Army and looking for a job that would allow him to finish college at night. The Executive Protective Service, a precursor to the U.S. Secret Service, was hiring and accepted him.
But shortly before the graduation ceremony, Walters broke an ankle playing football. He could not patrol out of uniform, wearing a cast and hobbling around on crutches, so he was given a temporary assignment in the White House Police Control and Appointments Center. He stayed for five years.
“This injury also changed the course of my career,” Walters wrote in his memoir, “White House Memories: 1970-2007: Recollections of the Longest-Serving Chief Usher.” He gained an ”in-depth knowledge of the ways and security systems of the White House that would ultimately greatly benefit me in my future role in the Usher’s Office.”
A few months after being promoted to sergeant in 1975, he learned of an opening in the Usher’s Office. He applied and joined as an assistant in early 1976.
A decade later, he was elevated to chief usher by Reagan, who gave Walters the top job in the residence overseeing maintenance, construction and renovation projects, and food service, along with administrative, financial and personnel functions. He managed a staff of about 90 butlers, housekeepers, cooks, florists, electricians, engineers, plumbers and others.
Walters retired in 2007 after 37 years at the White House, including a record 21 years as chief usher. He served under seven presidents, from Nixon to George W. Bush.
In that time, Walters saw a broad swath of presidential history: the only president who ever resigned, an appointed vice president become the only unelected president, a president be impeached and stay in office, a father and son become president and the Supreme Court decide the most closely contested presidential election in U.S. history.
He’s often asked what he liked most about his work and “without hesitation I say it is getting to know and interact directly with the president, first lady, and other members of their family. It was an honor to get to know them with my own eyes and ears,” Walters wrote.
The incoming mayor will take his oath of office with two family editions of the Quran and a 19th century edition, symbolising New York City history, in the public ceremony on Friday.
Zohran Mamdani on Thursday became the first New York City mayor to be sworn in using a Quran.
The first Muslim and South Asian mayor of the United States’ biggest metropolis, Mamdani used his grandfather’s Quran and a 200-year-old copy on loan from the New York Public Library (NYPL) for the private swearing-in event held at a disused subway station under Times Square.
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He then plans to use two copies of the Quran that belonged to his grandfather and grandmother for a daytime ceremony at New York City Hall on Friday.
The historic Quran, borrowed from the library, once belonged to Arturo Schomburg, a Black historian and writer who sold his collection of 4,000 books to the NYPL in 1926. His collection became the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
Schomburg was born in Puerto Rico in the 1870s to parents of German and Afro-Caribbean descent. He later immigrated to New York and was a key player in the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s – a period of intense cultural and intellectual flourishing within New York’s Black community.
The library praised Mamdani’s decision to use Schomburg’s Quran because of its connection to one of New York’s “most groundbreaking scholars and for its simple, functional qualities”.
This photo provided by the New York Public Library shows the Schomburg Quran on December 16, 2025, in New York [Jonathan Blanc/The New York Public Library via AP Photo]
The small size of the Quran and its black and red ink suggest it was designed for everyday use, the library said. The edition is neither signed nor dated, but its “minute naskh script and its binding, featuring a gilt-stamped medallion filled with a floral composition, suggest it was produced in Ottoman Syria in the 19th century”, the library added.
“The significance of this Quran extends far beyond the beauty of its pages,” said Hiba Abid, curator of Middle Eastern and Islamic studies. “It is a Quran close to the people, not only because of its simple craftsmanship, but also because it is part of the collections of the nation’s largest public library system.”
Anthony W Marx, the library’s president and CEO, said the choice of Quran and its association with Schomburg “symbolises a greater story of inclusion, representation, and civic-mindedness”.
Mamdani is one of only a handful of US politicians to be sworn in with the Quran. New York does not require mayors to take the oath of office with their hand on a religious text, but many past mayors have used a copy of the Bible.
Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg used a 100-year-old family Bible during one ceremony, while Mayor Bill de Blasio used a Bible that once belonged to US President Franklin D Roosevelt. Mamdani’s predecessor, Mayor Eric Adams, also used a family Bible for his oath.
This photo provided by the New York Public Library shows the Schomburg Quran on December 16, 2025, in New York [Jonathan Blanc/The New York Public Library via AP Photo]
Mamdani’s faith and his background as a Ugandan-born American of South Asian descent were front and centre during his campaign, which focused on celebrating the diversity of New York.
In viral social media videos, Mamdani also spoke candidly about the effect of the September 11 terrorist attacks on New York and the subsequent rise in Islamophobia in the US. Other videos featured the experiences of everyday New Yorkers, including many of its Muslim and immigrant communities.
Mamdani has also been a firm critic of Israel’s policies towards Palestinians and its genocidal war on Gaza.
Critics like New York Representative Elise Stefanik homed in on Mamdani’s background and left-wing politics as a Democratic Socialist, calling the incoming mayor a “jihadist Communist” and “terrorist” sympathiser.
Mamdani, however, pledged to never hide from his background during a campaign speech. “I will not change who I am, how I eat, or the faith that I’m proud to call my own,” he said during his campaign. “I will no longer look for myself in the shadows. I will find myself in the light.”
If the new season of The Traitors has got you planning a Scotland escape, this stunning hotel in Glasgow city centre is a real treat, says Laura Mulley
06:00, 01 Jan 2026Updated 15:57, 01 Jan 2026
A stylish stay in the centre of Glasgow(Image: Damian Russell)
A 10-minute walk from Glasgow’s Central Station in quiet, townhouse-lined Blythswood Square, you’ll find the Kimpton hotel. Here a cheery doorman welcomes you into a grand foyer complete with ornate pillars, plush seating and a glittering chandelier stretching up several floors, giving glam but elegant first impressions.
Our spacious Premier King room featured an original fireplace and bath that could be opened to look out into the bedroom, should you so wish. Complimentary soft drinks in the minibar were a nice touch, as were the little bottles of Glaswegian gin and tonic waiting on ice.
A few other unique services make the Kimpton Blythswood Square feel more like a home away from home: they’ll provide essentials such as toothbrushes and phone chargers if you’ve forgotten yours, and you can rent a handbag from Scottish luxury leather brand Strathberry for free. One new feature is the hotel’s Stay Well offering, allowing guests to borrow state-of-the-art wellness tools such as LED masks and Therabody muscle pummellers.
Where to eat in Glasgow
Kimpton Blythswood Square’s restaurant is called iasg (from the Gaelic word for ‘fish’), and as its name suggests, the fish and seafood on the menu is a real highlight. The BBQ monkfish came highly recommended and did not disappoint, while the fish and chips were the chunkiest we’d ever seen, and cooked to perfection.
Breakfast is served here too and offers an excellent continental buffet plus hearty hot dishes, including full Scottish breakfast favourites.
Outside of the hotel, we received a few recommendations from locals that are well worth checking out: Ardnamurchan for elevated Scottish classics (we loved the veggie haggis, neeps and tatties), popular pasta joint Sugo (worth the queue), and little authentic Italian cafe Sarti for delicious coffee and friendly service.
Kimpton Blythswood Square
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A stylish five-star hotel in Glasgow’s city centre with an impressive spa, top restaurant and luxury items fashion and wellness items available to borrow.
What to do in Glasgow
If you’re new to Glasgow it’s worth just spending some time wandering around its streets, admiring the striking architecture and colourful mural trail before heading up the hill to the imposing Gothic-style Necropolis. It’s no surprise that Glasgow is regularly used as a Hollywood filming location; apparently we’d just missed Tom Holland here filming scenes for the new Spider-Man movie.
Back at the hotel, Kimpton’s spa features various different hot rooms and pools, including a few even us seasoned spa-goers had never seen before: a snow room (Scotland’s first), and a cave-like dark pool, lit only by tiny LED lights in the ceiling.
Five months pregnant at the time, my therapist expertly worked into my tight muscles using oil from Scottish spa brand Ishga while still keeping me comfortable – even my bump got a gentle massage.
How much does it cost to stay at Kimpton Blythswood Square?
Dhaka, Bangladesh – On Tuesday, the premises of Evercare Hospital in Bangladesh’s capital turned into a sombre focal point for a nation’s grief as news filtered out of the medical facility: Khaleda Zia, three-time prime minister and longtime leader of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was dead.
Khaleda had been receiving treatment at the hospital since the night of November 23.
Supporters, party leaders and common citizens stood silently in front of the hospital gates, wiping away tears and offering prayers. “The news made it impossible for us to stay at home,” said BNP activist Riyadul Islam. “Since there is no opportunity to see her, everyone is waiting outside. There are tears in everyone’s eyes.”
Her funeral at Dhaka’s Manik Mia Avenue on Wednesday drew tens of thousands of BNP supporters from across the country, alongside leaders of other political parties, interim government head Muhammad Yunus and foreign diplomats – underscoring the imprint of Khaleda’s legacy, and how it extended well beyond Bangladesh’s borders.
But beyond the grief, Khaleda Zia’s death marks a decisive political rupture for the BNP at a critical moment, say political analysts.
With national elections scheduled for February 12, the party is entering the campaign without the leader who remained its ultimate symbol of unity, even during years of illness and political inactivity.
Her passing pushes BNP into a fully post-Khaleda phase, concentrating authority and accountability on her son and acting chairperson, Tarique Rahman, as the party seeks to consolidate its base and compete in a reshaped political landscape following the July 2024 upheaval and the subsequent banning of the Awami League’s political activities.
Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman addresses mourners before the funeral prayers for his mother and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia at the Parliament building area of Manik Mia Avenue, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, December 31, 2025 [Stringer/Reuters]
Legacy as anchor, absence as test
For decades, Khaleda Zia’s relevance extended beyond formal leadership.
Even when absent from front-line politics, she functioned as the party’s moral centre and final authority, helping to contain factionalism and defer leadership questions.
Mahdi Amin, adviser to Tarique Rahman, told Al Jazeera that Bangladesh had lost “a true guardian”, describing Khaleda Zia as a unifying symbol of sovereignty, independence and democracy.
He said the BNP would carry forward her legacy through its policies and governance priorities if elected.
“The hallmark of her politics was a strong parliamentary democracy – rule of law, human rights and freedom of expression,” Amin said, adding that the BNP aims to restore institutions and rights that, he claimed, were eroded during the Awami League’s 15-year rule, between 2009 and 2024, under then Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Khaleda’s longtime rival.
Amin insisted that Tarique has already emerged as a unifying figure, citing his role in coordinating the movement against Hasina and formulating a 31-point reform agenda aimed at restoring voting rights and institutional accountability.
Despite these assertions, however, analysts say Khaleda’s absence removes a critical layer of symbolic authority that long helped stabilise the BNP’s internal politics.
Writer and political analyst Mohiuddin Ahmed said Khaleda’s personal charisma played a key role in keeping the party energised and cohesive.
“That rhythm will be disrupted,” he said. “Tarique Rahman now has to prove his leadership through a process. His leadership remains untested.”
Ahmed noted that Khaleda herself was once an untested political figure, rising to national prominence during the mass pro-democracy movement of the 1980s that ultimately led to the fall of military ruler General Hussain Muhammad Ershad. Her husband, the then-President Ziaur Rahman, was assassinated in 1981 during a failed military coup.
Ahmed argued that the February election could play a similar defining role for Tarique Rahman: Success would validate his leadership, while failure would intensify scrutiny.
Leaders of the National Citizen Party chat during an interview with an aspiring candidate ahead of the country’s upcoming national election, in Dhaka, Bangladesh, November 24, 2025. The NCP, founded by students who led the July 2024 movement against Sheikh Hasina, has now tied up with the Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s biggest Islamist force, in a coalition for the election [Sam Jahan/Reuters]
A tougher electoral terrain
BNP’s challenge is compounded by a transformed opposition landscape.
For more than three decades, Bangladesh’s electoral politics were shaped by a near-binary rivalry between the Awami League and the BNP, a pattern that emerged after the fall of military rule in 1990 and hardened through successive elections in the 1990s and 2000s.
With the Awami League now absent – its political activities banned by the Yunus administration – that two-party dominance has fractured, forcing BNP to compete in a more crowded field that includes a strong alliance led by the Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh’s biggest Islamist force. The Jamaat coalition includes the National Citizen Party, launched by many of the youth leaders who drove the July 2024 mass movement that forced Hasina out of power and into exile in India.
“This will not be easy for BNP,” Ahmed said. “Post-July [2024] politics has changed the equation. New polarisation is emerging, and the dominance of two parties no longer holds,” he added.
Analysts also point to key uncertainties that linger: whether the election will be held on time, whether it will be peaceful, and whether major parties can ensure public confidence in the process.
Dilara Choudhury, a political scientist who observed both Khaleda and her husband closely, said Khaleda Zia functioned as a “guardian figure” for not just her party, but also the country, and that her death represents the loss of a senior stabilising presence in Bangladesh politics.
Tarique, Khaleda’s son, was in exile in the United Kingdom from 2008 until December 25, 2025, when he returned after a series of cases against him that were initiated by a military-backed government in power between 2006 and 2009, or by the subsequent Hasina government, were closed.
She argued that Tarique’s return to the country has reduced fears of internal division within the party and that his recent speeches – reaffirming Bangladeshi nationalism, rejecting authoritarianism and honouring victims of the 2024 July uprising violence – have reassured party supporters about ideological continuity.
“BNP and Awami League have both been personality-centred parties,” she said. “After Khaleda Zia, it is natural that Tarique Rahman occupies that space within the BNP.”
Thousands of people gather to attend funeral prayers for former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia outside the national Parliament building in Dhaka, Bangladesh, Wednesday, December 31, 2025 [Mahmud Hossain Opu/AP Photo]
From legacy to verdict
Yet BNP leaders acknowledge that legacy alone will not determine the party’s future.
Allegations of extortion involving some party activists continue to surface – an issue that adviser Mahdi Amin described as mostly exaggerated, though he said the party plans to address it through stricter internal controls.
At the grassroots level, some party members say Tarique’s leadership transition will not be without challenges.
“It would be unrealistic to say there will be no difficulties,” said Kamal Uddin, senior joint secretary of the Chakaria upazila unit of Jubo Dal, the BNP’s youth wing, in Cox’s Bazar district. “In the past, there were disagreements with senior leaders who worked closely with Khaleda Zia – and even with Ziaur Rahman. That could be a challenge in decision-making. But I believe he will be able to manage.”
Kamal Uddin travelled with three other BNP activists from Cox’s Bazar, a coastal city on the Bay of Bengal about 350km (217 miles) south of Dhaka, to attend Khaleda Zia’s funeral on Wednesday.
Senior BNP leaders, however, dismiss doubts over Tarique’s authority.
Standing committee member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, who served as commerce minister in Khaleda Zia’s cabinet from 2001 to 2004, said Tarique’s leadership credentials were already established.
“His leadership has been proven,” Chowdhury told Al Jazeera earlier this month. “He is capable of leading the party effectively.”
As BNP prepares for the polls, analysts say the party’s ability to ensure discipline, project reform and contribute to a peaceful election will itself be a test of Tarique’s leadership.
A separate discussion has emerged on social media and among political rivals.
On November 29, ahead of his eventual return, Tarique wrote on his verified Facebook page that the decision to come home was not “entirely within his control” and not “under his sole control”. Critics interpreted this as raising questions about possible external influence – particularly India – on whether and when he would return.
BNP leaders rejected these claims, insisting his return was a political and legal matter tied to domestic realities rather than foreign negotiation, and that national interest would guide the party’s policy if it comes to power.
For many supporters, however, politics remains deeply personal.
Fifty-seven-year-old Dulal Mia, who travelled from the northeastern district of Kishoreganj to attend Tarique’s reception rally in Dhaka on December 25, still recalls the moment that made him a lifelong BNP supporter.
When he was a sixth-grader in 1979, he said, then-President Ziaur Rahman visited the paddy field where he was working and shook his hand. Ziaur Rahman is remembered for addressing drought by digging canals across the country and visiting remote areas barefoot, often without formal protocol.
“Tarique Rahman will have to carry the legacy of his parents,” Mia said. “If he doesn’t, people will turn away. The BNP’s politics is people’s politics – it began with Ziaur Rahman and was carried by Khaleda Zia for so long. I believe Tarique Rahman will do the same. Otherwise, it is the people who will reject him.”
Gordon Ramsay added even more fuel to the ongoing feud with Adam Ramsay Peaty’s family after humiliating them in his wedding speech, which was reportedly caught on camera for his Netflix show
Gordon Ramsay issued a put-down at the expense of Adam Peaty’s family during his wedding speech(Image: @caroline_peaty/Instagram)
Gordon Ramsay’s six-word put-down towards Adam Ramsay Peaty’s family has reportedly been filmed for his Netflix show. The TV chef used his proud moment as the father of the bride to deliver a six-word put-down during his wedding speech.
Holly Peaty Ramsay and her now husband, Adam Peaty, tied the knot in a lavish ceremony over the Christmas holiday, surrounded by A-list friends and family at Bath Abbey. But due to a bitter clash over wedding arrangements, neither of Adam’s parents attended the wedding.
And now the feud is likely to take on a new dimension as Gordon’s caustic put-down was caught on camera, filming for his upcoming Netflix reality TV show. Gordon’s camera crew were present at the wedding reception when his comments were made.
The first comment, which was perceived as a jab at Adam’s mum, Caroline, was that Tana “will be a good mum to them both”, leading many to believe that he was hinting at Caroline not being the same. And the second jibe came when he said Adam was a “lucky man” in reference to his daughter, Holly.
He then turned to Holly and added: “Shame you don’t have the same.” According to reports, Caroline was left “outraged and hurt” in hearing about his harsh quip. A source told The Sun: “The cameras were there and part of the day was filmed. It’ll be very obvious which family members aren’t there.”
They added: “I would imagine that the family feud will come up at some point – it would be weird to just ignore it.” Meanwhile, an insider of Adam’s family told the Daily Mail: “Caroline can’t believe Gordon brought their family troubles up in his speech.”
They continued: “It is outrageous and very hurtful. By him saying Tana will be a good mum to them both makes Caroline sound like a bad mum. It was a cruel dig at her.” It was reported that Adam’s family have contacted Netflix in order to be removed from the chef’s docuseries, which is likely to follow in the footsteps of his close pals David and Victoria Beckham.
The family of the Olympic swimmer has reportedly contacted the streaming platform to claim that they had not given consent to being filmed at the engagement party last year. However, the Mirror understands that throughout the night, there were visible signs stating that the party would be filmed. A source close to the Ramsays told us that everybody in attendance had a “jolly time” and that by attending, “you were giving your consent” to appear in his docu-series.
Our source went on to add that the Peaty family were not formally interviewed, so there was no additional consent required, and they are not in the final edits of the programme. The source went on to tell us that there are “no delays to the production”.
A source said: “Caroline has written to Netflix to say the family were not asked for their consent to be filmed for Gordon’s documentary at last year’s engagement do. She was very clear that, after everything that’s happened, they do not want to be featured.”
The insider added: “She was filmed giving a speech, as were the family, during arrivals and while mingling at the party.” Adam banned his mum from the wedding ceremony following a fallout after Caroline was not invited to Holly’s glamorous hen party last month, which included fashion designer Victoria Beckham. It’s claimed that Holly also called the police after Adam’s brother James allegedly made threats over text message while on his stag do in Budapest. James was later arrested at his home in Staffordshire on suspicion of harassment but was placed on bail.
Caroline has spoken in the past about her heartbreak over being estranged from her son. And now, on New Year’s Eve, she has taken to social media once again to speak about her pain. One sketch was of a Robin and a ladybird sitting together on a twig with a comment that read: “Just a little reminder that you don’t have to make resolutions, or huge decisions, or big proclamations. You can just set some sweet intentions and take each day as it comes.”
The second quote read: “I won’t end this year pretending everything was fine. I lost a piece of myself this year that I will never get back, and I’m not forcing a smile like it didn’t change me.” She added: “So no… I won’t be saying ‘2026 is going to be my year’. I’ll be praying that I recover next year, that my heart never has to break like this again, that I never have to survive something like this again. I’ll be praying for peace… real peace, the kind that lets me breathe without fighting for it. I deserve a year that doesn’t hurt.”
The Mirror has reached out to Gordon’s representative for a comment.
WASHINGTON — The Department of Justice has expanded its review of documents related to the convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein to 5.2 million as it also increases the number of attorneys trying to comply with a law mandating release of the files, according to a person briefed on a letter sent to U.S. attorneys.
The figure is the latest estimate in the expanding review of case files on Epstein and his longtime girlfriend Ghislaine Maxwell that has run more than a week past a deadline set in law by Congress.
The Justice Department has more than 400 attorneys working on the review, but does not expect to release more documents until Jan. 20 or 21, according to the person briefed on the letter who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it.
The White House did not dispute the figures laid out in the email, and pointed to a statement from Todd Blanche, the deputy attorney general who said the administration’s review was an “all-hands-on-deck approach.”
Blanche said Wednesday that lawyers from the Justice Department in Washington, the FBI, the Southern District of Florida and the Southern District of New York are working “around the clock” to review the files. The additional documents and lawyers related to the case were first reported by the New York Times.
“We’re asking as many lawyers as possible to commit their time to review the documents that remain,” Blanche said. “Required redactions to protect victims take time but they will not stop these materials from being released.”
Still, Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi is facing pressure from Congress after the Justice Department’s rollout of information has lagged behind the Dec. 19 deadline to release the information.
“Should Attorney General Pam Bondi be impeached?” Rep. Thomas Massie, a Kentucky Republican who helped lead the effort to pass the law mandating the document release, asked on social media this week.
Democrats also are reviewing their legal options as they continue to seize on an issue that has caused cracks in the Republican Party and at times flummoxed President Trump’s administration.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said on social media that the latest figures from the Department of Justice “shows Bondi, Blanche, and others at the DOJ have been lying to the American people about the Epstein files since day one” and pointed out that the documents released so far represent a fraction of the total.
Latif Ayodele (left) and Sina Ghami (right) were close friends and team members of Anthony Joshua
British heavyweight boxer Anthony Joshua has been discharged from hospital in Nigeria days after a fatal car accident that killed two of his close friends.
The former world champion was deemed fit to recuperate at home, the Ogun and Lagos states said in a joint statement, describing him as “heavy hearted” over the loss of his friends.
The 36-year-old was a passenger in a Lexus SUV that collided with a stationary truck on a major expressway in Ogun State, near Lagos, on Monday.
The two men who died were Joshua’s close friends and team members Sina Ghami and Latif “Latz” Ayodele.
After leaving the hospital on Wednesday, the Briton visited the funeral home where the bodies of his friends were “being prepared for repatriation”, the joint statement added.
Earlier, Eddie Hearn, who has promoted Joshua since he turned professional after winning gold at the 2012 Olympics, paid tribute to Joshua’s close friends and team members.
“Rest in peace Latz and Sina,” Hearn posted on Instagram.
“Your energy and loyalty among so many other great qualities will be deeply missed. Praying for strength and guidance for all their family, friends and of course AJ during this very difficult time.”
Ghami was Joshua’s full-time sport and exercise rehabilitation coach and worked with him for more than 10 years.
Moment Anthony Joshua is taken out of car
Speaking to the BBC on Wednesday, Ogun State police spokesperson Oluseyi Babaseyi said “investigations are still ongoing” and described the process as “still discreet”.
The Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) in Ogun state, where the accident occurred, has said preliminary investigations showed the vehicle had burst a tyre before crashing into the truck.
Joshua, who was born in Watford to Nigerian parents, was on holiday in Nigeria after his win over Jake Paul in Miami on 19 December.
“I hope he (Joshua) is able to process this with time because there is no pain in life worse than grief.”
Two-time undisputed heavyweight champion Oleksandr Usyk and British former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury also posted Instagram stories to offer condolences.
Dec. 31 (UPI) — Two African countries have announced travel bans against U.S. citizens in retaliation for President Donald Trump‘s travel bans against their own people.
The governments of Mali and Burkina Faso said on Tuesday that they were acting “in accordance with the principle of reciprocity.” They said Americans wanting to travel to their countries would see the same impositions that their citizens face in the United States. Niger’s state news agency announced a travel ban on Americans last week, though no official statement was released.
On Dec. 14, Trump announced travel bans on Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, South Sudan and Syria. He also created new restrictions on people seeking entry from Laos and Sierra Leone, as well as those with travel documents issued by the Palestinian Authority. There are now 19 countries on the list.
Mali’s foreign ministry said in a statement that it “regrets that such an important decision was taken without any prior consultation and in substance deplores the security grounds put forward, which contradict the actual developments on the ground, in an attempt to justify a decision whose motivation lies elsewhere.”
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso are led by military juntas after recent coups, The New York Times said. Their leaders had all mostly cut ties with the United States and developed closer relations with Russia, China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates.
A United Nations report published on Dec. 18 said that the Sahel region — Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali — now accounts for more than half of the world’s terrorism-related deaths.
Laos and Sierra Leone were moved from partial travel restrictions to full bans. The administration put partial restrictions on 15 other countries.
The State Department ban does not affect lawful permanent residents, many existing visa holders, diplomats or athletes traveling for major sports events.
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