WITH the launch of series four pulling in a massive 7.5million Brits, it’s fair to say Traitors-mania is in full swing across the UK.
Sweeping success breeds superfans – and they can now live the show out for themselves in a new experience in a UK seaside town.
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James and Lindsey Gordon have set up their own Traitors getaway on the coastCredit: House of DeceitIt comes after they fell in love with The Traitors when watching the celebrity seriesCredit: BBCAnd so they have created an experience in a haunted house in WhitstableCredit: BBC
James and Lindsey Gordon, from Whitstable, are also Traitors fans who have taken their obsession to the next level – by converting their family home into a traitorous lair.
Called House of Deceit, it’s a fully immersive nod to the nation’s newfound love of game shows that play on psychological competition and high-stakes deception.
The experience? A two-night, fully hosted stay where guests take over the large coastal house for secrets, strategy and suspicion.
Lindsey told The Sun: “When we moved to Whitstable, we thought we wanted a semi-detached suburban newbuild to accommodate our growing family.
“But the estate agent kept driving us past an imposing 1930s house that happened to be up for sale.
“I couldn’t take my eyes off it; it was so grand.”
The former care home had been closed for years – but it was too tempting for the couple who ended up buying the house.
She continued: “Since we began restoring it, we’ve uncovered original fireplaces, beautiful tiles and wooden floors.
“With nine en-suite bedrooms and lots of social space, it feels as though the house has been waiting to welcome new guests all this time.”
She said she even learned more about the house along the way, adding: “It was first built for the local doctor and his surgery before it became a care home, so by all accounts was full of mischievous, eccentric characters.
“It still has a sense of mischief – there are bumps in the night and we’ve heard giggles and laughter come from empty rooms.
“We can’t explain it, but the house is so big and eerie, it’s hard not to wonder if some of the residents ever truly left.”
Buying a big house and doing it up is one thing, but adapting your family home into a real-life murder and deception game is quite another.
For James and Lindsey, it transpires this pretty unusual path unfolded for them naturally, through a series of events that led to a bit of an epiphany.
The House of Deceit allows up to 15 players to immersive themselves in the world of The TraitorsCredit: House of Deceit
“Last year, I was looking after my mum who had some health issues,” James explained.
“We became addicted to Celebrity Traitors and made sure we watched every episode together.
“We really bonded over the treachery and backstabbing, which became our special time together.”
It was this combination of connection with his mum through sneakiness and scheming, then finding out that their sprawling coastal home was potentially haunted that caused the penny to drop for James.
“We all love to watch villains on TV,” he said.
Also included in the sale are meals, use of the hot tub and wineCredit: House of Deceit
“You can trace this way back to Nasty Nick in the first Big Brother. And who didn’t get a kick out of watching Alan Carr embrace his evil side in Celebrity Traitors?
“One day it just clicked – just like the TV shows, we could give people permission to be wicked for a weekend, but in real life; our spooky house has the kind of atmosphere you can’t fake and you don’t need cameras when the guests are the show.”
Riding the wave of the country’s love of deception games, House of Deceit taps into this same appetite, but with an exciting format that will naturally chop and change with each different set of guests.
A fully designed world, led by the suitably sinister ‘Lady of the House’, bedrooms, gardens and communal spaces all play a role.,
And with challenges, twists and revelations all woven into the stay, it promises to be as tense and theatrical as it is surprising and funny.
“Being stuck together in a creepy, creaking house is the basis for all great murder mysteries,” said James.
“Once you’re in the game, you can’t simply leave, which makes this a very real experience – it’s actually immersive, rather than just claiming to be.
“Our guests will arrive good-natured and polite towards each other, but we’ll put them to the test and those masks will slip.
It costs from just £83.17 per person per nightCredit: House of Deceit
“When you discover that your kind aunty Rita has been bumping off her family members while lying to their faces all weekend, will you ever be able to look at her the same way again?”
House of Deceit has been designed for birthdays, celebrations, team-building, and private get-togethers, with preview dates currently available at a reduced rate before the full launch in March.
The experience is suitable for up to 15 guests, who can all stay in the house.
For the two nights it costs a total of £2,495, making it around £166.34 per person for two nights (so £83.17 per person, per night).
And included in this price is your stay, the hosted game, use of the hot tub, three meals a day prepared by local chefs and a decent amount of wine.
The man who killed Japan’s former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during a campaign event in 2022 has been sentenced to life in prison. Al Jazeera’s Patrick Fok explains why the court ruling has divided public opinion.
The period between 2025 and 2026 witnessed a significant increase in the level and scope of intelligence, military, and security cooperation between the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate and the Chinese Ministry of State Security “MSS” (which acts as China’s intelligence agency). This development raised considerable concern within Israeli security and intelligence circles (Mossad). This concern stemmed particularly from the shift in the level and scope of Egyptian-Chinese cooperation from an economic framework to an intelligence and technological partnership aimed at bolstering Egyptian sovereignty and diminishing Israel’s qualitative edge in the fields of espionage and aerial surveillance. This cooperation encompassed areas such as electronic warfare and surveillance systems, including the provision of advanced Chinese radars to Egypt, granting it a high capacity for detecting aerial threats independently of systems technically linked to the United States or Israel.
On the other hand, the Chinese Ministry of State Security (Chinese intelligence) closely monitored Egyptian moves and the pressure exerted by the head of Egyptian intelligence, Major General/ Hassan Rashad, on the Israeli Mossad during the Gaza peace negotiations in October 2015. Chinese intelligence devised a strategy of “pressure against the Mossad” aimed at curbing the Mossad’s ambitions in the region and ensuring the stability of Egypt’s borders amidst regional tensions. This strategy also aimed to safeguard China’s interests and its Belt and Road Initiative. The Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate collaborated with its Chinese counterpart, the Ministry of State Security, to protect vital waterways and straits, including the (Suez Canal, the Gulf of Aden, the Bab El-Mandeb Strait, and the Strait of Hormuz), thereby limiting Israeli and American actions that could harm China’s interests in Egypt and the region.
In September 2025, Chinese intelligence, military, and security reports indicated that the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate had successfully uncovered and thwarted a Mossad “secret plan” to carry out an airstrike to assassinate Hamas leaders in the Qatari capital, Doha. Egypt (with the knowledge of the Chinese Ministry of State Security) informed the Qatari side of the operation just 25 minutes before its execution, thus disrupting it and triggering extensive internal investigations within the Israeli Mossad to understand how the Israeli intelligence plan was leaked to Cairo and the Egyptian General Intelligence Directorate with the assistance of Chinese intelligence agencies. This success demonstrated Cairo and its General Intelligence Directorate’s superiority over the Israeli Mossad, thanks to China’s provision of a massive fleet of advanced Chinese satellites to monitor all Israeli movements around the clock and limit Israel’s influence.
Here, cooperation between Egyptian General Intelligence and the Chinese side in confronting Israel takes on a largely undeclared strategic character, but it has recently emerged through several security and technical channels that have raised concerns in Israeli circles. This cooperation takes the form of technical and intelligence cooperation (aerial surveillance). The Egyptian Ministry of Defense has signed several memoranda of understanding with Chinese state-owned companies, such as (Norinco), to enhance Egyptian-Chinese cooperation in sensitive defense industries. Egypt has also acquired Chinese air defense systems, raising Israeli questions about how advanced Chinese technology is being transferred to Cairo to undermine Israel’s qualitative military edge, which is currently dominated by advanced American technology. This highlights the growing Egyptian-Chinese military rapprochement, aimed at “diversifying Egypt’s arms sources” and maintaining the independence of Egyptian security decision-making. Israel and Washington are monitoring this development cautiously, as it could diminish Western influence in the region. In May 2025, several Israeli media reports accused Egypt of coordinating with China to use advanced Chinese early warning aircraft, known as the (KJ-500) aircraft, to penetrate Israeli air defenses.
Which has proven effective in testing or penetrating Israeli air defenses. Israeli reports also claimed that Egypt exploited the “Civilization Eagle” joint air exercises with China in April-May 2025 to secretly monitor the deployment of Israeli forces using advanced Chinese surveillance technology. Israeli researchers and military personnel from the (Israeli Institute for National Security Studies) alleged that Egypt used the joint air exercises with China to secretly monitor the deployment of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). They considered this an unprecedented “intelligence provocation” by Cairo with the support of Beijing.
Here, Chinese intelligence agencies, specifically the Ministry of State Security (MSS), play a significant role in intelligence cooperation with Egypt regarding the Palestinian issue. This is achieved through Chinese assessments of all Israeli and American actions in this regard. Intelligence reports indicate that the MSS is evaluating the “high-risk maneuvers” conducted by Egyptian intelligence with Mossad, reflecting a deep Chinese interest in Egypt’s approach to managing the conflict with Israel.
Furthermore, Chinese state agencies and their intelligence apparatus are working to support the Egyptian position in the face of Mossad’s stalling tactics. This support is manifested through Chinese intelligence and diplomatic coordination with Egypt to promote a two-state solution and reject the forced displacement of Palestinians, which Israel views as an attempt to undermine its influence and politically isolate it. The Chinese Ministry of State Security (MSS) has also shown increasing interest in the outcomes of the ceasefire negotiations in Gaza, which involved the heads of intelligence agencies from Egypt, Qatar, and the United States.
The Chinese Ministry of State Security is also supporting Egypt through numerous military deals and security communications, including arms sales to Cairo and the arrival of several Chinese fighter jets, known as the (J-10C) to Egypt in 2025. Several Israeli analysts and military officials considered this Chinese military deal with Egypt a “silent crossing” and a challenge to the US-backed Israeli air superiority in the region.
The Israeli Mossad and its leadership in Tel Aviv described the Egyptian-Chinese air force exercises in Sinai from April to May 2025, known as “Eagles of Civilization,” given their proximity to the Israeli border, as clear strategic messages to Israel and deterrents regarding the diversification of Egypt’s power sources and its aerial and military surveillance capabilities against Israeli military deployments, with Chinese assistance. The joint Egyptian-Chinese “Eagles of Civilization” military exercises included realistic simulations of combat operations and the planning of air missions. Israeli analysts considered this a strategic shift that could affect the regional balance of deterrence in Egypt’s favor in its military confrontation with Israel.
China adopts a strategic vision for the conflict and tensions between Egypt and the Mossad (or the Israeli side in general). This vision focuses on strengthening Egypt’s defense capabilities against Israeli pressure. A key feature of this vision is Chinese support for a strategic balance between Egypt and Israel in the face of Washington. Through deepening its military cooperation with Egypt, China aims to create a kind of “strategic deterrence” that reduces Israeli hegemony in the region. Israeli security circles have expressed growing concern over China’s provision of advanced military technologies to Egypt, such as air defense systems, electronic warfare equipment, and early warning aircraft, known as the (KJ-50).
The Chinese Ministry of State Security (which acts as China’s intelligence agency) is also closely monitoring the outcomes of negotiations and the pressure exerted by US intelligence agencies, including Mossad, on Egypt regarding sensitive and complex issues for China, such as the management of the conflict in the Gaza Strip. China views Egypt as a pillar of stability and rejects the “law of the jungle” and the policies that Israel and the United States are attempting to impose on Cairo concerning the forced displacement of Palestinians. Furthermore, Chinese intelligence agencies, represented by the Ministry of State Security, have played a significant role in indirect cooperation to thwart Western and Israeli intelligence attempts aimed at destabilizing the Egyptian army or using terrorist political groups, such as the Muslim Brotherhood, to dismantle it.
Here, China is working to thwart Israeli espionage attempts through Mossad and the “CIA” by countering all technological infiltrations of Cairo. This is being done through China’s promotion of replacing Israeli and American software and technologies with more secure Chinese alternatives in the region.
To this end, the Chinese Ministry of State Security and all its relevant agencies are working in political alignment with Egypt against the escalation in the besieged Gaza Strip. China agrees with Egypt on the necessity of an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and rejects the forced displacement of Palestinians. China supports the Egyptian mediation role, believing that regional stability begins with a just solution to the Palestinian issue, one that is independent of imposed Israeli security solutions.
Consequently, Israeli concerns have grown regarding Chinese influence in Egypt and the wider region, which they believe is detrimental to Israeli interests. Israeli security research centers and military leaders believe that China is using its close ties with regional states, including Egypt, to gather intelligence on Israeli technology and military capabilities, and then using this information to spy on Israel and on American interests, which are China’s rivals in the region. The intelligence crisis between Beijing and Tel Aviv reached its peak in September 2025 when Israeli Prime Minister “Benjamin Netanyahu” accused China of leading propaganda campaigns aimed at politically isolating Israel and weakening its international support.
The remains of the original Griffith Park Zoo are imbued with memories of the past. Forgotten animal pens, decaying cages and stony backdrops now sit in various states of abandonment.
It is, in other words, a prime location for a haunted narrative.
“Ghost in the Machine: The Old Zoo” is just that, a site-specific interactive experience in which specters come to life via our mobile phones. In the story, our devices become a gateway to another world — or, rather, a halfway point between our universe and the afterlife. We’ll see visions of a medium, hear fragmented remembrances and explore a trail while discovering a tale that feels like an intimate glimpse into a grief-stricken past. And we’ll learn a little bit of Griffith Park history along the way.
The augmented reality project is the vision of Koryn Wicks, a trained dancer and choreographer who has created her own immersive entertainment pieces while working in the broader theme park space. The project is being remounted this Friday and Sunday afternoons at Griffith Park to coincide with “Ghosts in the Machine” being named a finalist for an award with IndieCade, a once in-person independent game festival that now exists primarily online.
Koryn Wicks, designer of “Ghosts in the Machine: The Old Zoo.” Wicks is an independent immersive creator who works in the theme park space.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
John Houser, 43, from the San Gabriel Valley playing the augmented reality game “Ghosts in the Machine: The Old Zoo.”
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
“Ghosts in the Machine” exists as an app in a testing phase, hence the reason for the event-like approach to letting guests experience it. Wicks will be stationed outside the old zoo’s location for about two each hours each day, facilitating downloads and answering questions about the self-guided experience.
Once those who opt to play are set up with the game and near the old zoo, which opened in 1912 with a collection of only 15 animals and closed in 1966 to make way for the current animal park, they’ll receive a call. A medium, but “not like a celebrity medium,” has been trying to reach someone, anyone, and is at risk of losing her memory as she’s trapped between worlds. We’re asked to turn on our camera, and via augmented reality we see an alternate version of the landscape in front of us, one obscured by blue and green hues, and filled with static. The images feel fragile.
This medium, Phoebe, needs our help, and if we agree, the game begins. We’ll be directed to follow a map toward abnormalities around the old zoo. Things may get a little frightening. An apparition will appear before us. Yet Phoebe is telling us ghosts are not meant to be feared. A spirit, she says, is usually lost and confused.
“I wanted to do sort of a haunted location,” says Wicks, 36. “I’m a big nerd for horror stuff. I really like it. I really like the idea of ghosts. I read this book called ‘Ghostland’ and it looked at ghost stories throughout American history and the way they’re practiced and who gets cast as a ghost versus who gets haunted. So the first scripts I was writing were more meta, they were about ghosts in general. Then I gradually narrowed into an actual story with characters. That’s the dancer in me. I tend to think a little more abstractly.”
As the story was honed, it became one that focused more on familial bonds. Without spoiling the experience, which should be able to be completed in a little less than an hour, “Ghosts in the Machine” gradually transitions from a haunt to a tale that focuses on forgotten promises, lost loved ones and the lonely pings that can come from unresolved grief. “Ghosts in the Machine” begins with tension. It resolves as something more meloncholic, a game-like story built for contemplation.
John Houser, 43, left, and Parker Cela, 26, right hold up their phones to scan the staircase while playing the augmented reality game “Ghosts in the Machine” at Griffith Park.
(Kayla Bartkowski / Los Angeles Times)
And it’s staged in a location perfect for rumination. “Ghosts in the Machine” will take us up stairs, around pathways and into now-deserted zoo enclosures as we try to free a spirit from purgatory. There are some game-like mechanics as we’ll gather fragments of memories hidden throughout Griffith Park.
The park, the character of Phoebe tells us, is a “beacon for spiritual phenomenon.” Throughout, she’ll allude to stories of mistreated animals and the Griffith Park fire of 1933, heightening the sense that we are in the presence of unnatural occurrences. The space is dear to Wicks: it’s where her husband proposed, but “Ghosts in the Machine” pulls from more painful memories in her life.
“It had a lot to do with grief and memory,” Wicks says. “It can be so painful to engage with memory when we’re going through grief, and it can also be really complicated. Because there are good memories and there are also complicated memories. How do you hold space for both? That was something I was thinking of a lot at the time.”
The project was born during the worst days of the COVID-19 pandemic. Wicks, who had in the past staged numerous dance performances for small groups, initially envisioned a show in which audiences would use their smartphones to follow a dancer through an outdoor space. It gradually morphed into something more ghostly.
‘Ghosts in the Machine: The Old Zoo’
With a tiny team, a day job and the occasional teaching gig, Wicks has found that maintaining the app to the degree in which it can be properly released has not been feasible. For instance, for this weekend’s pop-ups, the map function had to be completely rebuilt. That’s another reason Wicks will be on site, aiming to help those who may be new to AR, or to troubleshoot on the various devices audience members may bring.
“I think we like to talk about technology as having a permanence to it, but there is no permanence to it,” Wicks says. “Very few people still have their cassettes. Records are still around, but technology phases out.”
Wicks is open to the idea of continuing to develop “Ghosts in the Machine,” and has looked into institutional or commercial support. But she confesses she hasn’t hit on a solution yet.
In the meantime Wicks, who hopes to stage a show later this year that intermixes dance with tarot themes, has created an experience that uses modern augmented reality technology and yet feels ephemeral. And that’s fitting, of course, for a ghost story.
Gold soared to another record high on Wednesday, surpassing $4,800 per ounce, as leaders in Davos await the arrival of US President Donald Trump at the Swiss summit.
While the EU and US continue to clash over Trump’s plans to acquire Greenland, the precious metal has risen over 2% — with investors looking for a safe place to park their money amid renewed tariff threats. Silver prices, meanwhile, notched up 0.44% to $95.055.
“You’ll have to find out,” Trump said on Tuesday when asked how far he was willing to go to acquire Greenland. The US has failed to rule out military intervention, and is proposing extra tariffs on eight European countries if they fail to comply with his demands over the island.
After a record-breaking 2025, analysts remain optimistic about gold’s trajectory for 2026 as US interest rates fall, the dollar weakens, and central banks continue to add to their gold reserves.
When the greenback falls in value, this makes gold comparatively cheaper for foreign buyers and therefore drives up demand and prices.
Low US interest rates also increase gold’s appeal compared to interest-bearing assets, as investors aren’t significantly losing out if they choose the metal over assets like bonds.
Dollar dominance
Investors are betting that the next Federal Reserve chair, who will replace Jerome Powell when his term ends in May, will be more dovish than his predecessor — meaning they will be more focused on lowering interest rates than taming inflation risks.
The candidate will be nominated by President Trump, who has heavily criticised Powell for his cautious approach to policy easing over the last year.
Although central banks have been reducing their dependency on the dollar in favour of gold, experts stress that the greenback will not be usurped as the world’s reserve currency anytime soon, with the currency still making up roughly 57% of total central bank reserves. Even so, the greenback could see a gradual erosion of its status if US policy decisions continue to undermine its stability.
“We are taking the view that the dollar has some room to recover today,” said ING analysts in a note on Wednesday. They emphasised that a decline in the dollar a day earlier was linked to instability in the Japanese bond market, as well as fears that Europeans might start selling their US Treasury holdings.
“Japanese bonds have rebounded… and with Trump headed to Davos, we see some scope for de-escalation on the Greenland risk and fears of European dumping of US assets,” said ING analysts.
The Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against six other currencies, traded less than 0.1% higher on Wednesday after falling on Tuesday.
Turning to stocks, Europe’s major indexes again found themselves in the red on Wednesday after two days of losses.
France’s CAC 40 had dropped 0.18% by around 11:30 CET, Germany’s DAX was down 0.68%, and Spain’s IBEX 35 lost 0.53%. Italy’s FTSE MIB was down 0.68%, the UK’s FTSE 100 slid less than 0.1%, while the broader STOXX Europe 500 tumbled 0.35%.
Ahead of the opening bell in the US, S&P 500 futures rose 0.34%, Dow Jones futures jumped 0.13%, and Nasdaq futures increased 0.19%.
On Tuesday morning, all eyes on Wall Street seemed glued to the nearest screens in expectation that the Supreme Court would finally disgorge its opinion on the legality of President Trump’s tariffs.
It had been a long wait: The Court heard oral arguments on the issue Nov. 5, when questions from the justices suggested that a majority was prepared to strike the tariffs down.
But the wait isn’t over. No tariff decision came down Tuesday. With the Court about to start a four-week recess, that means that a ruling on the tariffs won’t come before late February, leaving Trump’s most impactful economic policy in limbo for at least another month.
Tariffs do not transfer wealth from foreigners to Americans. They transfer wealth from American consumers to the US Treasury.
— Kiel Institute for the World Economy
But verdicts on the tariffs are flowing in from elsewhere, and from the standpoint of American consumers, they’re ugly in the extreme.
One finding comes from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, a respected German economic think tank. Contrary to Trump’s insistence that the tariffs are paid by foreign countries — more precisely by their exporters — Kiel’s study finds that the tariffs are almost entirely paid by American importers and their domestic customers.
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In 2025, Kiel wrote, the $200 billion that the U.S. treasury collected from Trump’s tariffs was tantamount to a $200-billion consumption tax on Americans.
“The tariffs are, in the most literal sense, an own goal,” Kiel’s researchers wrote. “Americans are footing the bill.”
“Inflation rising above 4 percent by the end of 2026 is not only plausible,” they write, “but arguably the most likely scenario.” That would be a big jump from the most recent government estimate of a 2.7% annual rate in December.
The gist of the forecast by Orszag and Posen is that Americans were living in a dream world throughout 2025, when a muted inflation increase led even many experts to conclude that the Federal Reserve Board had “largely won its inflation battle,” notwithstanding higher tariffs.
U.S. importers had absorbed most of the cost of tariffs through 2025, Orszag and Posen concluded. “That will change in the first half of 2026,” they write. “Historical evidence shows that tariff pass‑through tends to be gradual, with consumer prices rising only as firms revise pricing with a lag.”
American importers were able to absorb tariff costs in part because they had stockpiled inventories in anticipation of the higher duties. Wary of imposing one-time price increases, businesses chose to raise prices in smaller steps and over a longer period, Orszag and Posen observe. But that relief is likely to be exhausted by the middle of this year.
None of these findings has had any effect on the White House position on tariffs.
“The average tariff imposed by America has increased by almost tenfold under President Trump, and inflation has continued to cool from Biden-era highs,” White House spokesman Kush Desai told me by email. “The Administration has consistently maintained that foreign exporters who depend on access to the American economy, the world’s biggest and best consumer market, will ultimately pay the cost of tariffs, and that’s exactly what’s playing out.”
Yet red lights are flashing as Trump intensifies his use of tariffs as an instrument of a personal foreign policy, almost entirely divorced from their traditional economic role in trade relations.
Over the last week, Trump has threatened European countries with higher tariffs because of their efforts to thwart his determination to take over Greenland. On Monday, he threatened to impose 200% tariffs on French wines because French President Emmanuel Macron balked at joining Trump’s “Board of Peace,” a body he proposes to address global conflicts.
Let’s take a closer look at the latest tariff analyses.
The Kiel study was based on shipment records covering more than 25 million transactions valued at nearly $4 trillion, as well as on case studies of how Indian and Brazilian exporters responded to sharp tariff increases Trump imposed on those countries last year.
The broader statistics, Kiel reported, indicated that 96% of all tariffs were passed through to Americans. As Kiel observed, by claiming that foreign countries pay tariffs, Trump was able to frame them as “a tool to extract concessions from trading partners while generating revenue for the US government — at no cost to American households.”
The truth is that American consumers and importers bore 96% of all the costs, Kiel calculated. That’s not a novel phenomenon. As the Kiel study noted, during the 2018-19 US-China trade war — also instigated by Trump — “US import prices rose nearly one-for-one with the tariffs, while Chinese export prices remained largely unchanged.”
With the latest round of tariff increases, Kiel found, exporters have not cut prices to maintain sales,” which would be tantamount to their paying the tariff costs. Instead, foreign exporters “are accepting reduced market share in the United States while maintaining their profit margins.”
That was notably the case with India, where the value and quantity of exports to the U.S. fell by as much as 24% relative to other export destinations after Trump hit India with a 25% tariff Aug. 7 and raised it to 50% later in the month. “Indian exporters responded to US tariffs by shipping less, not by cutting prices.”
The Kiel researchers conjectured that exporters didn’t absorb the tariff costs for three main reasons. First, they had recourse to alternative markets such as Europe and Asia: “The United States is a large market, but it is not the only market.”
Second, the tariffs were so large that cutting prices to absorb them would make many exports unprofitable. “Given the choice between maintaining margins on reduced sales or slashing margins to maintain volume,” the Kiel researchers wrote, “most exporters apparently prefer the former.”
Finally, many U.S. importers did not have a choice in sourcing goods. That gave existing exporters the upper hand: Exporters know that U.S. importers can’t easily find alternative suppliers, “so they face less competitive pressure to cut prices.”
Tariff costs percolate through to American consumers in numerous ways — through higher prices on imported goods, higher prices on domestic goods produced with imported parts and a narrowed variety of goods on the shelves. Meanwhile, importers have to shoulder the cost adjusting to tariffs by seeking out untariffed suppliers.
“These ‘deadweight’ losses are pure economic waste,” the Kiel researchers concluded — “costs borne by Americans with no offsetting benefits.”
In sum, “tariffs do not transfer wealth from foreigners to Americans. They transfer wealth from American consumers to the US Treasury.” Think about that when Trump or Cabinet members such as Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick or Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent crow about how much money is flowing into the Treasury due to higher tariffs.
Tariffs won’t be the only drivers of inflation through this year, Orszag and Posen acknowledge. But the other drivers are also Trump policies.
These include mass deportations of foreign-born workers. “When deportation effects fully materialize,” they write, “labor shortages in migrant-dependent sectors will intensify, forcing wage increases that feed into services inflation — home health care costs are already rising at a 10 percent annual rate, near decade highs.”
Orszag and Posen also warn that the price shocks sustained by American consumers through 2025 and into this year could have lasting effects on consumer behavior, and therefore on the broader economy, even if statistics show inflation declining.
“Lived experience with inflation has lasting effects on expectations,” they observe. “Households remember salient price increases — eggs, meat, child care, home repairs — far more vividly than aggregate statistics. These memory effects persist for years or even generations.”
As Trump marks the first anniversary of his second term, the U.S. economy is showing its strain. As long as tariffs remain in Supreme Court limbo, there aren’t any signals that things will get better.
Kevin Fiala had a goal and an assist and Anton Forsberg made 28 saves after taking over for the injured Darcy Kuemper in the Kings’ 4-3 victory over the slumping New York Rangers on Tuesday night.
Adrian Kempe, Taylor Ward and Andrei Kuzmenko also scored for the Kings, who ended a four-game skid with only their second regulation victory in January.
Kuemper gave up two goals on eight shots before abruptly leaving with 38 seconds left in the first period following a collision in the crease with a charging Jonny Brodzinski.
Forsberg played superbly after taking over for Kuemper, a member of Canada’s Olympic roster. Kuemper also missed 2 1/2 weeks last month after taking a hit to the head during a loss at Dallas.
J.T. Miller scored two goals for the Rangers, who are last in the Eastern Conference after losing seven of eight.
Jonathan Quick made 23 saves in his third start and fourth appearance against the Kings, who drafted him in 2005. Quick, who turns 40 years old Wednesday, won 370 games — 199 more than any other Kings goalie — while backstopping the club to two Stanley Cup championships during his 16 seasons in L.A.
Kempe scored 18 seconds after the opening faceoff.
Only 42 seconds after Will Cuylle’s goal for New York, Fiala scored his 18th goal by intercepting an unwise pass by former Kings teammate Vladislav Gavrikov.
Miller evened it again late in the first off Mika Zibanejad’s pass.
Ward put the Kings back ahead early in the second, banking in a skittering shot off the far post for his first goal of the season. After the Kings killed a five-on-three disadvantage for 96 seconds, Kuzmenko backhanded home a rebound of Fiala’s shot.
Miller scored his 13th goal in the final seconds with Quick pulled for an extra attacker.
People are urged to brush up on the rules and regulations for the country they’re going to before heading to the airport
11:16, 21 Jan 2026Updated 12:23, 21 Jan 2026
Travel expert warns of ID law catching Brits out in Portugal(Image: Getty)
Anyone planning a stay at a European hotspot this year has been reminded of an important rule that experts say has been catching Brits out. Travel specialist Simon Hood has warned of a ‘little-known’ law that could leave holidaymakers in a spot of bother when heading to a popular Mediterranean destination.
Located on the western reaches of the European Union, Portugal has become a favourite with British holidaymakers since the late 1950s. The rise of the budget airline, resorts along the Algarve, and affordable cost-of-living has made it a mainstay among Brits, transforming the nation into a European favourite.
According to Portugal’s National Institute of Statistics (INE), approximately two to three million British nationals visit the country’s cities and resorts each year. Ranking the UK behind Spain, but ahead of the United States, as Portugal’s largest tourism markets.
However, one ID law many may not be aware of could end people’s stay on the coast, according to travel expert Simon Hood, executive director of relocation firm John Mason International Movers. Simon warns that failure to comply with a single piece of local legislation could result in detention by police, a fine, or even the seizure of property.
Simon explains: “Over the years, I’ve heard countless stories from friends and relatives running into a spot of local trouble in Portugal by failing to follow one simple rule. Portuguese law clearly states you need to carry your national ID card, or passport, at all times.
“While the UK doesn’t have a national ID card, at least not yet, a UK driver’s licence alone is not sufficient, meaning you’ll be expected to always carry your passport. Many British holidaymakers believe a UK driver’s licence is enough, but it isn’t.
“The UK Foreign Office and US State Department both advise that a scanned copy of your passport should be enough if asked to produce ID by police. But they could still ask you for the hard copy.”
Simon says the consequences of failing to produce ID when asked by police could be serious, including the potential to derail your Portuguese holiday. He said: “The consequences include an unspecified fine assumed to be somewhere in the region of a few hundred euros, possible detention, and being escorted to your hotel or Airbnb to produce ID.
“It could even lead to the seizure of property. So, if you’re bringing back a bottle of bubbly to the hotel and then suddenly stop without ID, your evening plans could be a tad delayed.”
The legislation mandates that citizens and residents aged 16 or older must carry identification in public, such as an identity card, passport, or residence permit. Accepted documents include:
Portuguese Citizens: Citizen Card (Cartão de Cidadão) or passport.
EU/EEA/Swiss Nationals: Residence permit, valid national identity card, or passport.
Third-Country Nationals (Non-EU): Residence permit or valid passport.
Enabled to modernise Portugal’s bureaucracy upon joining the European Union in the mid-1980s, the move was in part designed to align the country with policing standards across the bloc and has since become an ingrained daily habit across Portugal. People must produce these documents upon the request of authorised law enforcement or immigration officers.
By law, all paid accommodation providers (hotels, rentals) must collect and record these identification details for all foreign guests. For more information, you can view official guidance on the Portuguese Government Portal.
Simon explains why Brits in particular fall afoul of these rules. “Carrying ID and having national ID cards is commonplace across the EU, it’s something people don’t think twice about out of habit, but not so much in the UK. It’s not cultural here to carry ID, in fact, the opposite, most Brits when asked would opt not to,” he said.
“The recent uproar over the government’s ‘BritCard’ plans is a testament to this weird quirk in our national identity. Even going back to the early 2000s, we didn’t want them. I suppose it’s a difference between us and the continent.
“However, when in Portugal, carry your passport; a scan alone might not be sufficient, and you’d really hate to be escorted by the police back to your hotel room on holiday. On balance, I’d take my passport with me; it’s not worth the risk.”
President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a New Year’s press conference in Seoul on Wednesday. Photo by Yonhap
SEOUL, Jan. 21 (UPI) — South Korean President Lee Jae Myung said Wednesday that North Korea is producing enough nuclear fissile material to build between 10 and 20 nuclear weapons each year, warning that Pyongyang presents a growing danger to the world beyond the Korean Peninsula.
Lee made the remarks during a New Year press conference in Seoul, where he outlined his administration’s foreign and security priorities amid heightened regional tensions and an accelerating North Korean weapons program.
“North Korea is assessed to be producing material sufficient for roughly 10 to 20 nuclear warheads annually,” Lee said.
The North also continues to develop intercontinental ballistic missile technology aimed at striking the U.S. mainland, he added.
“One day, North Korea will believe it has enough nuclear weapons to sustain its regime, as well as ICBM technology capable of threatening the entire world, including the United States,” Lee said. “Once they have a surplus, the danger will overflow beyond their borders, posing a global risk.”
Lee said the estimate highlights the need for pragmatic efforts to reduce tensions and prevent miscalculation.
He reiterated a call for a previously proposed three-stage plan for addressing North Korea’s nuclear program, beginning with a halt to Pyongyang’s nuclear weapons development, followed by a reduction of its arsenal and ultimately full dismantlement.
“A halt to nuclear material production and further development of ICBM technology, as well as preventing overseas exports, would be beneficial,” Lee said.
Lee also pledged renewed efforts for Seoul to act as a “pacemaker” in facilitating dialogue between Washington and Pyongyang, calling U.S. President Donald Trump a “unique figure.”
“A Trump-style approach seems helpful in dialogue with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un,” Lee said.
Trump met Kim three times during his first term — in Singapore in 2018, in Hanoi in 2019 and briefly at the Demilitarized Zone later that year — but the talks collapsed amid disagreements over sanctions relief and steps toward denuclearization.
During a visit to South Korea in October, Trump said he wanted to meet Kim Jong Un, though the two sides were unable to coordinate timing.
Kim has also signaled a willingness to resume diplomacy with the United States but warned that any discussion of giving up his regime’s nuclear arsenal would be off the table.
In a June report, the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated that North Korea currently possesses about 50 nuclear warheads and has enough fissile material for 40 more.
US allies reacted to President Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland on Tuesday, with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney telling delegates at Davos that it was time to imagine a future without US leadership.
Since the beginning, guests at Children’s Fairyland have been welcomed by a sculpture inspired by the nursery rhyme “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe,” now a pink, oversized ankle boot with a crooked roof and eye-popping, candy-like buttons. Today, the shoe is raised on a concrete, plant-adorned platform, but it originally sat flat on the ground, forcing grown-ups to duck to enter the park.
The entrance to Children’s Fairyland is a nod to “There Was an Old Woman Who Lived in a Shoe.”
(Michaela Vatcheva / For The Times)
That was more than just a quirk of design. It was a mission statement.
The 10-acre garden wonderland, nestled around Oakland’s urban sanctuary of Lake Merritt, has maintained one core rule since it opened its gates on Sept. 2, 1950: “No child without an adult, and no adult without a child.” For Fairyland aims to show the world through the eyes of a young’un — a place filled with curiosity, but also perhaps a bit off-kilter, where one can walk into a whale and find a fishbowl, slide down a dragon and get lost in an “Alice in Wonderland” maze of cards.
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And yet, for more than 75 years now, Fairyland has had a grown-up sized influence. Fairyland is considered the first “storybook”-style park in the country, launching a national fad. Legend has it that Walt Disney visited Fairyland while Disneyland was in the planning stages and was so taken with it that he poached some staff. Fairyland’s “magic keys,” which unlock audio tales throughout the park, were an innovation felt across numerous industries. And the park has been instrumental in the puppet space, home to what’s said to be the oldest ongoing puppet-focused theater in the country. Those at L.A.’s own long-running Bob Baker Marionette Theater today cite Fairyland as an inspiration.
It is Fairyland’s thesis that continues to feel revolutionary. And that’s a belief that the way to understand, learn and grow is via the stories we tell one another, and those narratives need no fancy tech or digital accouterments.
Kymberly Miller, CEO of Children’s Fairyland, says she’s working on a plan for the park’s next 75 years.
(Michaela Vatcheva / For The Times)
“Families want simplicity,” says Kymberly Miller, Fairyland’s CEO. “They want to come in and be like, ‘I feel really safe here.’ It’s a contained space. It’s big but it’s small. Kids can run around and make up things to do with the canvas of Fairyland.”
To enter Fairyland, and it’s estimated that about 150,000 people do each year, is to not just set foot into a handcrafted fantasyland but to also step back in time. It persists at a time theme parks have increasingly targeted a young market with a host of upscale tricks. Legoland, for instance, will this March open a new land in Lego Galaxy with a family roller coaster as its signature attraction. Also this year, the Universal Kids Resort is slated to open in Frisco, Texas. It’s a smaller Universal Studios geared toward a younger audience but featuring cinematic brands such as “Shrek” and “Jurassic World.”
Children’s Fairyland from above. The park is situated around Oakland’s Lake Merritt.
(Michaela Vatcheva / For The Times)
The nonprofit Fairyland is downright quaint in comparison — tickets are under $20, with steeper discounts for Oakland residents. Surviving societal, technological and bureaucratic shifts, it’s become the little park that could, its durability a statement of defiance in our fast-paced, divisive world.
And its story begins once upon a time.
“Children’s Fairyland” was inspired by a kid-focused zoo in Detroit and has long featured animals for little ones to meet.
(Children’s Fairyland)
Children’s Fairyland was the vision of Arthur Navlet, a retired owner of Oakland’s largest nursery. On a visit to the Belle Isle Aquarium in Detroit, Navlet and his wife were smitten by the park’s children zoo, which, as detailed in the book “Creating a Fairyland” by Randal J. Metz, a former Fairyland art director who currently leads the park’s puppet program, exhibited the animals amid fairy tale-like enclosures. Navlet had an idea for a fanciful park in Oakland, and took the concept to the Lake Merritt Breakfast Club, a long-standing civic-focused group dedicated to preserving and sustaining Lakeside Park.
With the organization, and soon the city, behind him, Navlet tapped painter and sculptor William Russell Everitt to create the Fairyland look. It wasn’t always a smooth partnership. Everitt, for instance, created a model of an English cottage that Navlet thought was a bit too realistic. Everitt, writes Metz, took a baseball bat to the tiny sculpture and stormed out of the room. But he didn’t quit the project, and future designs were full of oblong shapes, zig-zagging roofs and slanted walls, designs that were playful but also a nonsensical view of reality.
And thus the Fairyland-style was established. Copy-cats soon followed around the country. In California alone, Fairyland helped inspire the likes of Fairytale Town in Sacramento and Fresno’s Storyland. Fairyland, meanwhile, kept innovating.
An audience watches “King Midas and the Golden Touch” at the Storybook Puppet Theater at Children’s Fairyland in Oakland. Children’s Fairyland has had a grand influence on the puppet arts.
(Michaela Vatcheva / For The Times)
Kids take in a puppet show at Children’s Fairyland. The park runs multiple shows per day.
(Michaela Vatcheva/For The Times)
“They started adding puppetry and magic and all these things kids absolutely loved,” says Metz. “That started here at Fairyland. There was no other place that was doing that at the moment. After Fairyland opened in 1950, Life magazine did a big full-color spread, and then all over the United States people wanted to build Fairylands.”
While Fairyland started a national trend, perhaps the most famous person to visit the park was Disney, who, says Metz, arrived at Fairyland on Easter Sunday in 1954, a year before Disneyland opened in July 1955. While the Walt Disney Family Museum and other Disney historians say there is no official record of Disney visiting the park, local newspapers of the era documented his appearance and many, including Metz, take it as fact that Disney spent an afternoon at Fairyland.
Willie the Whale at Children’s Fairyland, one of the park’s most famous installations.
(Michaela Vatcheva / For The Times)
Metz writes in his book that Disney was particularly taken with Fairyland’s mini post office, which allowed children to send letters straight from the park. Disneyland to this day has mailboxes in the park. Many draw a comparison to Fairyland’s Willie the Whale and Disneyland’s Monstro at the start of the Storybook Land Canal Boats, as both aim to swallow guests. The parks also share a love of garden-strewn pathways and an emphasis on breaking up environments with trees, mixing fantasy and nature to create a calming, safe-feeling environment. And Disney, of course, hired Fairyland’s director Dorothy Manes to work on Disneyland.
“She was one of the few women in administrative leadership,” says Cindy Mediavilla, a retired lecturer from UCLA’s department of information studies and author of the book, “The Women Who Made Early Disneyland.”
To Mediavilla, she is an overlooked Disneyland personality, working to set up tour school groups, help define children’s activities and be an advocate for Disneyland’s overly congenial hospitality. “She was credited with coming up with response to people who come up and say, ‘We love Disneyland. Thank you so much,’” says Mediavilla. “She was credited with coming up with the phrase, ‘It’s been my pleasure.’”
She also helped maintain Disney’s direct line to Fairyland, as Disney in 1957 would once again poach from Fairyland, this time puppeteer Bob Mills to run Disneyland’s budding marionette program. Fairyland’s importance in the area of the puppet arts would be hard to overstate. Celebrities in the space, such as Frank Oz, apprenticed at Fairyland, and Metz continues to run multiple shows per day, both revivals and original creations.
Burt, with master puppeteers Lewis Mahlmann and Frank Oz at Children’s Fairyland.
(Children’s Fairyland)
Metz’s workshop is directly behind Fairyland’s puppet stage, and it’s a mini marionette museum, filled with books, pictures and, of course, puppets. Behind his desk hangs a Pinocchio puppet he made for the Walt Disney Co., and retired puppets from Highland Park’s Bob Baker Marionette Theater can also be found in Metz’s nook. It’s a treasure trove, as intermixed with Fairyland’s puppets will be those from Walt Disney World’s Epcot, such as a fiery red Pantalone from the theme park’s Italy pavilion.
“Children’s Fairyland, for a lot of puppet theaters, including Bob Baker Marionette Theater, is really the one that we look to,” says Winona Bechtle, Bob Baker’s director of partnerships.
“How do you build out a space and experience around a puppet show?” Bechtle continues. “Of course, they’re different than us, as they have the infrastructure of the amusement park around them, but it’s a full-scale immersive experience that takes you beyond a small stage in a church or a community theater. When you’re at Fairyland, there’s a pomp and circumstance to entering the park, approaching the theater and taking a seat. Us, as puppeteers at Bob Baker Marionette Theater, continue to remain inspired by it.”
Randal J. Metz, director of the puppet program at Children’s Fairyland. It’s “kiddie tech,” says Metz, when asked about the power of Children’s Fairyland.
Not all of Fairyland’s innovations stuck. In its early days, the park hoped to establish a “pet lending library,” and briefly advertised that guests could borrow rats, guinea pigs, lizards, snakes, foxes and more for a two-week period. It’s safe to say it didn’t get off the ground, although Fairyland today does house donkeys, goats, chickens and bearded dragons, among other animals, for children to meet.
And yet Fairyland’s magic keys, introduced in 1958, would inspire not just other parks but museums and zoos around the country. The conceit sounds simple today: Kids are given a small plastic key, for which they insert in a box near an installation and then are regaled with music and a short nursery rhyme or folktale. It was the brainchild of Bay Area television host Bruce Sedley, who also fashioned himself as an amateur inventor.
“That’s the icon of Fairyland,” says artist Jeff Hull, an Oakland native who once acted at Fairyland as a child performer and has created numerous immersive art projects, including “The Cortège” last fall in L.A.
“You put the magic key in these boxes that look like storybooks and now you’re hearing an audio track that corresponds to an installation? That in itself is immersive art,” says Hull. “That’s storytelling. That’s an installation as performance. That’s the recipe for what so many people have continued to do and expand on.”
To now walk among Fairyland is to feel as if an arm is being extended, an invitation to play, to be silly and to wonder. Children’s Fairyland is full of hand-painted delights. Stroll a path and look down and spy some smiling sunflowers hidden in the bushes. There are fun house mirrors, a whimsical train, a mechanical Geppetto waving in a workshop and a cat ready to set sail atop the mast of a ship.
There’s even a mini chapel — yes, a chapel — complete with stained glass windows initially designed by children, for those who need a meditative break from running the grounds. A vintage Ferris wheel, themed to “Anansi’s Magic Web,” is an opportunity to rediscover the folktale via the attraction’s netting-like design.
A Ferris wheel inspired by “Anansi’s Magic Web” at Children’s Fairyland.
(Michaela Vatcheva / For The Times)
Maintenance is a large expense for the park, as most sets need to be repainted yearly due to a combination of environmental and hands-on wear, but the park is also vibrant and in conversation with nature. The striking red-and-bronze sculpture of the smiling Ching Lung the Happy Dragon, for instance, circles around and through a towering tree.
“We believe very strongly in ‘kiddie tech,’” says Metz. “We wanted everything to be hands-on. When children are excited about a set at Fairyland, we try to let them imagine they are in it. Henceforth Alice in Wonderland’s tunnel, and going through the cards and pretending you’re one of Alice’s people.”
Carissa Baker, a Los Angeles native who is now an assistant professor of theme park and attraction management at the University of Central Florida, says that Fairyland created its own stamp on children’s architecture and fairy-tale imagery. “Now, we look at the elaborate spaces of theme parks, and we have all these elaborate forms of fantasy environments,” Baker says. “But I kind of see the seed of these fantasy environments in a place like Children’s Fairyland.”
Miller has been overseeing Fairyland for about five years, and she talks of setting the tone for the park’s next seven decades. First, she’s been working on expanding the park’s access. Those, for instance, who receive any sort of financial assistance can visit the park for $5 per person, a program started in 2023 that now serves close to 20,000 people. Next up is building structures to house the park’s eight-person maintenance team to better manage repairs and upkeep.
Children play at Children’s Fairyland.
(Michaela Vatcheva / For The Times)
Broadening Fairyland’s story content is also a goal. Later this year, Fairyland will debut a puppet program inspired by Native American folklore as Metz and Miller seek to continue to diversify Fairyland’s offerings.
“There’s people whose stories are not being told in the park,” says Miller. “Most of the stories told here are Northern European in nature. So it’s really my job to unpack some of that with staff and figure out how to create more access.”
And long-term, Miller would love to add some fresh fairy tale installations. That would require successful fundraising endeavors, but Miller stresses any future additions would be in line with what already exists, meaning a focus on imaginative play rather than “digital expression.”
Old fashioned, yet inventive and timeless. That’s the Children’s Fairyland way.
BROOKLYN Beckham claimed his mum hijacked his first dance with his wife Nicola and performed an “uncomfortable” routine instead.
He is understood to be the only one with the footage ofVictoria dancingat his 2022 wedding after he mentioned it in a brutal social media post towards his famous family.
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Victoria Beckham allegedly performed an inappropriate dance at her son’s weddingCredit: InstagramBrooklyn sent the internet into meltdown after he brutally attacked his familyCredit: AP
The “uncomfortable” and “embarrassing” dance was referenced in a nuclear statement Brooklyn posted to social media which claimed Victoria, 51, sabotaged her son’s wedding to the American actress.
As the internet is left speculating on what the dance could be, should Brooklyn release the video and back up his claims?
WASHINGTON — Mounting questions about the White House’s rationale for invading Iraq are giving Democratic presidential candidates fresh ammunition for attacking President Bush’s credibility and challenging a foreign policy record that has been the cornerstone of Bush’s 2004 reelection campaign.
Bush administration officials have been thrown on the defensive by reports from former chief weapons inspector David Kay that Iraq had no stockpiled weapons of mass destruction at the start of the war last March, as U.S. intelligence had indicated.
But the administration has not acknowledged an intelligence failure, insisting that more time is needed to continue inspections.
Some analysts see a potential political risk if Bush refuses to accept Kay’s conclusion that prewar intelligence was faulty, because it could keep the issue alive deep into the election season.
Even some Republicans are urging the White House to respond more forthrightly to questions about how U.S. intelligence could be so flawed.
“Politically the president really needs to explain this to the American people,” said Rep. Ray LaHood (R-Ill.), a senior member of the House Intelligence Committee who supported the Iraq war. “It undermines his ability to continue to talk to the American people about the war on terrorism.”
There is probably a limit to how much political benefit Democrats can wring from the controversy. Support for the Iraq war remains broad: 65% of those surveyed this month by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press thought going to war was the right decision.
Even among Democrats who voted in the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primary, polls indicated that the weapons issue did not rank high among voters’ concerns, taking a back seat to the pocketbook issues of healthcare and the economy.
Still, some Democratic candidates have seized the controversy not to question the value of the war but to build a broader critique of Bush’s credibility as a leader.
“When the president of the United States looks at you and tells you something, there should be some trust,” said Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.), the frontrunner for the Democratic presidential nomination.
And partisan lines are hardening over the question of whether an independent investigation is needed to analyze the apparent discrepancy between the intelligence available before the war and the facts on the ground in Iraq.
Picking up on that idea are Democratic presidential candidates including Sens. John Edwards of North Carolina and Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, one of the strongest Democratic supporters of going to war.
“We ought to ask for a full-scale investigation of exactly why our intelligence community” said stockpiles of illegal weapons existed, Lieberman said.
The White House has opposed such a probe, saying the CIA is studying the question. The Senate Intelligence Committee staff also has reviewed the matter and is expected to release a draft report to its members next week.
Condoleezza Rice, Bush’s national security advisor, went on two television talk shows Thursday morning to defend the administration’s view that it was too early to conclude that there had been an intelligence failure.
And she insisted that regardless of whether former Iraqi President Saddam Hussein had weapons stockpiles, the administration remained convinced that he posed a threat to the U.S.
“The American people, I think, understand that this president saw a grave and gathering threat in Saddam Hussein, a threat that had been gathering for more than 12 years,” Rice said on NBC’s “Today” show.
A senior administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity said the White House planned to review the intelligence after receiving the final report by Kay’s staff.
The official said the purpose would be not so much to detect failure as to draw lessons on “how to deal with highly secretive regimes.”
“We all have a strong interest in knowing and comparing … what we thought before and what happened after,” the official said.
On another front, House Republican leaders have mobilized to defend Bush against the impression that he took the U.S. to war under false pretenses. They circulated an analysis arguing that, in other, less-publicized comments, Kay “makes the case for action in Iraq.”
The analysis cites Kay saying it was “unfair” to say Bush misled the American people, and noting that his understanding of Iraq’s weapons capabilities was shared by intelligence agencies in France, Britain and Germany.
Kay also said he did not believe the administration pressured intelligence analysts to hype their findings to help justify war — an assertion that makes it harder for Democrats to support their claim that Bush had essentially fabricated the case for war.
While Republicans stand publicly firm in their support of the war, the Bush administration has begun backing away from its past insistence that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction — or that postwar inspectors would eventually find them.
In his State of the Union address last week, Bush referred only to Iraq’s “weapons of mass destruction-related program activities.”
Kay’s successor as chief weapons inspector, Charles Duelfer, says he plans to change the focus from a hunt for illegal weapons to an investigation into how the weapons programs were dismantled.
This is not the first time that questions have been raised about the administration’s claims about Iraq’s threat. The administration last summer was battered by revelations that there was no evidence to support claims Bush made in his 2003 State of the Union address that Hussein had shopped in Africa for enriched uranium for nuclear weapons.
The key political question now is whether the controversy falls flat or ignites new doubts about the war. It has erupted just as the war has seemed to fade as a political issue on the Democratic presidential campaign trail.
While opposition to the Iraq war was central to the rise of former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean to the front of the Democratic pack in polls last year, his losses in Iowa and New Hampshire to Kerry — who voted for the invasion — suggested that the war was not the most important issue to Democratic voters.
A Times exit poll in New Hampshire on the day of the primary found that 14% of those surveyed cited Iraq as one of the top two issues on their minds as they chose how to cast their ballots. Far more cited jobs (45%) and healthcare (36%).
But some analysts say the issue could become more problematic for Bush if the euphoria of capturing Hussein wears off and events in Iraq turn sour.
“Bush is not bulletproof,” said Andy Kohut of the Pew center. “If the cost continues to rise, and one of the reasons we went to war has been taken off the table, that may increase discontent with the decision.”
To guard against that, some Republicans say, Bush should move now to acknowledge intelligence problems and make a conspicuous effort to get to the bottom of them.
“The White House has to say more than ‘we did the right thing,’ and then stand by the intelligence agencies,” said Rep. Peter T. King (R-N.Y.), a member of the House International Relations Committee.
“They need to say, ‘We did the right thing, but we will over the next several months look into what we need to do to improve the intelligence agencies.’ ”
*
Times staff writer Maura Reynolds contributed to this report.
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Views on Iraq’s banned weapons, then and now
‘We now know that Saddam has resumed his efforts to acquire nuclear weapons…. Many of us are convinced that Saddam Hussein will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon.’ Vice President Dick Cheney, in a speech to veterans in Nashville, Aug. 26, 2002
‘We have tried sanctions. We have tried the carrot of “oil for food” and the stick of coalition military strikes. But Saddam Hussein has defied all these efforts and continues to develop weapons of mass destruction. The first time we may be completely certain he has nuclear weapons is when, God forbids, he uses one.’ President Bush, in an address to the United Nations, Sept. 12, 2002
‘The British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. Our intelligence sources tell us that he has attempted to purchase high-strength aluminum tubes suitable for nuclear weapons production. Saddam Hussein has not credibly explained these activities.’ Bush, in his State of the Union address, Jan. 28, 2003.
‘The facts and Iraqis’ behavior, Iraq’s behavior, demonstrate that Saddam Hussein and his regime have made no effort, no effort, to disarm, as required by the international community. Indeed, the facts and Iraq’s behavior show that Saddam Hussein and his regime are concealing their efforts to produce more weapons of mass destruction.’ Secretary of State Colin L. Powell, in an address to the United Nations, Feb. 5, 2003
‘The coalition did not act in Iraq because we had discovered dramatic new evidence of Iraq’s pursuit of weapons of mass destruction. We acted because we saw the existing evidence in a new light — through the prism of our experience on 9/11.’ Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, before the Senate Armed Services Committee, July 9, 2003
‘The president believes that he had very good intelligence going into the war…. There was enrichment of the intelligence from 1998 over the period leading up to the war. And nothing pointed to a reversal of Saddam Hussein’s very active efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction.’ National security advisor Condoleezza Rice, in a Fox News Sunday interview, Sept. 28, 2003
‘We’ve found a couple of semitrailers at this point which we believe were in fact part of [a banned weapons] program. I would deem that conclusive evidence, if you will, that [Hussein] did in fact have programs for weapons of mass destruction.’ Cheney, in an interview on National Public Radio, Jan. 22, 2004
‘It turns out we were all wrong, in my judgment. And that is most disturbing.’ David Kay, former chief American arms inspector in Iraq, testifying about the unsuccessful search for weapons of mass destruction before Senate Armed Services Committee, Jan. 28, 2004
TUESDAY’S RESULTS BOYS CITY SECTION AHSA 43, Simon Tech 40 Animo Robinson 66, Neuwirth Leadership 22 Animo Watts 57, Animo Venice 53 CALS Early College 58, Alliance Bloomfield 41 East College Prep 73, Alliance Levine 29 Triumph Charter 91, Community Charter 12 USC Hybrid 53, Gertz-Ressler 34
SOUTHERN SECTION Adelanto 71, Barstow 52 Alta Loma 65, Los Altos 50 Anaheim 50, Savanna 45 (OT) Animo Leadership 75, Hawthorne 28 Arcadia 76, Glendale 44 Big Bear 70, Hesperia Christian 52 Bloomington 51, Kaiser 47 Buena Park 51, Garden Grove 48 CAMS 60, HMSA 49 Chino 72, Montclair 58 CIMSA 68, AAE 60 Colton 74, San Gorgonio 28 Compton Early College 43, Environmental Charter 40 Crean Lutheran 57, Cypress 41 Damien 76, Los Osos 22 Desert Christian Academy 57, Santa Rosa Academy 50 de Toledo 68, Trinity Classical Academy 58 Diamond Ranch 72, Don Lugo 71 EF Academy 62, New Covenant Academy 43 Elsinore 81, Tahquitz 56 Etiwanda 58, Upland 32 Fillmore 88, Hueneme 16 Fontana 76, Riverside Notre Dame 73 Glendale Adventist 45, Ojai Valley 39 Godinez 73, Costa mesa 43 Grace 60, Villanova Prep 40 Great Oak 72, Vista Murrieta 51 Hart 63, Valencia 53 (OT) Indian Springs 61, San Jacinto 40 La Habra 62, Santa Ana Foothill 42 La Palma Kennedy 46, Tustin 36 Los Amigos 73, Garden Grove Santiago 36 Keppel 61, Alhambra 38 Milken 60, International School of LA 46 Mira Costa 53, Wiseburn-Da Vinci 40 Muir 81, Hoover 59 Norte Vista 93, Eastvale Roosevelt 91 Oak Park 63, Simi Valley 51 Oaks Christian 69, Calabasas 65 Oakwood 71, AGBU 52 Ontario 71, Chaffey 53 Palm Desert 81, Rancho Mirage 77 Palm Springs 38, La Quinta 28 Pasadena 89, Burbank 53 Pilibos 68, Buckley 58 Pilgrim 61, Highland Hall 59 Public Safety Academy 51, Temecula River Springs 31 Rancho Alamitos 53, Estancia 50 Rancho Cucamonga 99, Chino Hills 88 Redlands East Valley 80, Beaumont 65 Redondo Union 90, Peninsula 22 Rialto 80, Grand Terrace 29 Rim of the World 43, Arroyo Valley 36 Saddleback 56, Orange 51 Samueli Academy 55, First Baptist 44 San Gabriel 68, Montebello 61 San Jacinto Valley Academy 64, Nuview Bridge 32 Santa Ana 69, Westminster 53 Santa Ana Calvary Chapel 63, Fullerton 47 Santa Paula 80, Nordhoff 46 Saugus 78, Canyon Country Canyon 59 Segerstrom 43, Katella 35 Shadow Hills 68, Xavier Prep 20 Sherman Indian 60, California Lutheran 56 Silverado 82, Granite Hills 12 Silver Valley 64, University Prep 42 South Torrance 58, West Torrance 55 Summit 75, Jurupa Hills 53 Summit Leadership Academy 72, ACE 64 Tarbut V’ Torah 76, Western Christian 62 Temecula Valley 69, Chaparral 65 Temescal Canyon 74, West Valley 47 Torrance 48, El Segundo 44 Troy 54, Garden Grove Pacifica 37 Vasquez 94, Desert Christian 37 Villa Park 61, Sonora 53 Vistamar 78, Lennox Academy 15 Webb 74, Newport Christian 62 Westlake 66, Newbury Park 56 Yucaipa 67, Redlands 44
GIRLS CITY SECTION Animo Watts 70, Animo Venice 14 Gertz-Ressler 38, USC Hybrid 22 University Prep Value 30, New Designs University Park 13
SOUTHERN SECTION Alemany 63, Notre Dame Academy 35 Aquinas 48, Western Christian 44 Arcadia 64, Glendale 46 Barstow 44, Adelanto 42 Beckman 82, Dana Hills 10 Brentwood 62, Viewpoint 22 Burbank 64, Pasadena 52 Cajon 41, Citrus Valley 40 Calvary Baptist 82, Grove School 4 Cantwell-Sacred Heart 40, Ramona Convent 28 Carter 49, Arroyo Valley 22 Chaminade 56, Louisville 47 Chino 64, Montclair 26 Colton 49, San Gorgonio 33 Crescenta Valley 74, Burbank Burroughs 51 Crossroads 56, Campbell Hall 54 Cypress 68, Garden Grove Pacifica 16 Desert Christian Academy 60, Santa Rosa Academy 15 Diamond Ranch 58, Don Lugo 36 El Modena 56, Indian Springs 31 El Toro 58, Capistrano Valley 34 Esperanza 55, El Dorado 47 Estancia 39, Rancho Alamitos 38 Etiwanda 73, Upland 11 Excelsior Charter 52, PAL Academy 12 Faith Baptist 48, Santa Clarita Christian 35 Flintridge Prep 75, Mayfield 11 Foothill Tech 72, Santa Clara 29 Fountain Valley 47, Corona del Mar 42 Glendale Adventist 58, Ojai Valley 28 Hesperia Christian 56, Big Bear 20 Holy Martyrs Armenian 62, Buckley 19 Huntington Beach 59, Newport Harbor 31 Kaiser 42, Bloomington 25 Keppel 71, Alhambra 7 Knight 55, Highland 44 La Palma Kennedy 55, Fullerton 35 La Quinta 37, Palm Springs 36 La Salle 66, St. Anthony 46 Lucerne Valley 49, Victor Valley Christian 31 Maranatha 67, Whittier Christian 54 Marina 42, Edison 39 Marlborough 60, Sherman Oaks Notre Dame 54 Marymount 66, St. Mary’s Academy 43 Milken 62, International School of LA 26 Mira Costa 61, West Torrance 56 Moorpark 58, Royal 41 NOVA Academy 54, Downey Calvary Chapel 20 Oak Park 97, Simi Valley 7 Oaks Christian 75, Calabasas 32 Oakwood 60, Santa Monica Pacifica Christian 29 Orange 40, Bolsa Grande 36 Orange County Pacifica Christian 55, Irvine University 16 Orange Lutheran 65, JSerra 58 Oxnard 67, Buena 23 Oxnard Pacifica 41, Buena 30 Palm Desert 59, Rancho Mirage 9 Palos Verdes 56, Los Alamitos 51 Paraclete 46, St. Bernard 32 Pasadena Poly 82, EF Academy 20 Public Safety Academy 17, Temecula River Springs 12 Quartz Hill 49, Palmdale 23 Rancho Cucamonga 50, Chino Hills 40 Redondo Union 85, Peninsula 15 Rosary Academy 79, Laguna Beach 38 Rubidoux 26, Bethel Christian 21 Sacred Heart of Jesus 74, San Gabriel Mission 17 Saddleback 45, Garden Grove Santiago 12 Samueli Academy 42, Liberty Christian 11 San Dimas 67, Colony 40 San Gabriel 35, Montebello 30 San Marcos 48, Rio Mesa 36 San Jacinto Leadership 48, California Military Institute 26 San Jacinto Valley Academy 51, Nuview Bridge 9 Santa Ana Foothill 40, La Habra 36 Santa Ana Valley 44, Century 35 Saugus 62, Canyon Country Canyon 54 Savanna 56, Anaheim 47 Schurr 49, Bell Gardens 9 Shadow Hills 69, Xavier Prep 37 Sherman Indian 66, California Lutheran 27 Sierra Canyon 75, Harvard-Westlake 25 Silverado 76, Granite Hills 28 Silver Valley 60, University Prep 21 Southlands Christian 40, Legacy College Prep 7 St. Bonaventure 54, Bishop Diego 34 St. Paul 53, Mary Star of the Sea 29 Summit 53, Fontana 34 Sunny Hills 46, Brea Olinda 30 Tahquitz 38, Elsinore 35 Temecula Valley 40, Chaparral 37 Temescal Canyon 57, West Valley 0 Thousand Oaks 83, Agoura 31 Torrance 48, El Segundo 29 Troy 66, Sonora 42 Valencia 63, Hart 24 Villa Park 61, Crean Lutheran 36 Vistamar 34, Lennox Academy 15 Vista Murrieta 64, Great Oak 30 Westlake 40, Newbury Park 37 West Ranch 52, Castaic 25 Whitney 60, Mayfair 39 Wiseburn-Da Vinci 54, South Torrance 44 Yucaipa 65, Redlands 9
Alton Towers has revealed the official name of its much-anticipated Bluey-themed rollercoaster which will be coming to CBeebies land in spring, and it’s based on a memorable episode from the show
10:46, 21 Jan 2026Updated 10:49, 21 Jan 2026
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Fans can already meet Bluey and CBeebies Land and now she’s getting her own ride(Image: Alton Towers)
Fans of the Heeler family will soon be able to enjoy a Bluey-themed rollercoaster at Alton Towers, and a sneak peek shows what fans of the show are in for.
The cartoon dog family, who are much loved by young fans and secretly adored by many parents, are already fixtures of CBeebies Land, with a live stage show and popular meet-and-greet. However, this rollercoaster will be the first Bluey-themed ride in the world, and puts the show alongside CBeebies favourites such as Peter Rabbit and Hey Duggee.
The rollercoaster’s name has been revealed as Bluey the Ride: Here Come the Grannies!, and a teaser image shows Bluey and Bingo dressed in their granny costumes. The grannies – Janet and Rita – ride in their car up front with several rollercoaster cars behind them.
The name of the ride is in reference to a season one episode of the show, Grannies, where Bingo and Bluey dress up as mischievous old ladies and cause chaos throughout the house, learn to floss, and manage to crash their car. Their cry of “Here come the grannies!” signals the start of the game and prepares their parents to play along.
Natasha Spence, Events Director of Live Entertainment at BBC Studios said: “We know that whenever the Grannies come out to play, it is a fan-favourite moment for those that love the show. We are excited that the energy of these much-loved characters is being brought to life in Bluey’s first-ever coaster at Alton Towers Resort – home to CBeebies Land.”
The live stage show will continue at the Big Fun Showtime area, where kids can get a photo with Bingo, Bluey, Bandit, and Chilli after the show. And Bluey superfans will be pleased to hear that the Alton Towers Resort is adding additional Bluey-themed rooms to the CBeebies Land Hotel.
The Bluey room is modelled after the Heeler family’s colourful home and includes pictures of the family on the walls. Sleeping up to five, kids have their own area with bunkbeds that looks just like Bluey and Bingo’s bedroom, so they can enjoy a fun sleepover experience. Even the bathroom has a Bluey theme for extra fun bath times for your own mucky pups.
Families of up to seven can also book a Bluey suite, which has a separate kids’ sleeping area, plus a spacious themed playroom area where the kids can pretend they are on a playdate at the Heeler house. Staying at the CBeebies Land Hotel also gives you access to a range of activities and entertainment including a kids’ disco in the evening, plus all stays include a full English breakfast buffet in the morning.
More details of the new rollercoaster and its official opening date will be released in due course. Find out more about CBeebies Land and book tickets on the official Alton Towers website.
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The UK’s longest direct train service, the CrossCountry Aberdeen to Penzance route, was cancelled last year
Isobel Pankhurst Audience Writer
10:40, 21 Jan 2026
The UK’s longest train journey was pulled from schedules last year(Image: Getty)
The UK’s longest train journey, the CrossCountry Aberdeen to Penzance service covering 775 miles, was axed in 2025. First introduced in 1921, this route departed Aberdeen at 8:20am and was due to reach Penzance over 13 hours later at 9:31pm, calling at multiple British cities including York, Leeds, and Birmingham.
The service made its final journey on 16 May, after CrossCountry announced it was withdrawing the route to provide a “more efficient service” for passengers and staff. In its place came a new shorter service, lasting 11 and a half hours and ending in Plymouth instead of continuing to Penzance.
On its last day of operation, rail enthusiasts from across the country travelled to Aberdeen to experience the complete journey.
Speaking to the BBC, one such enthusiast, John Labrow, said: “It’s probably the longest journey I’ve ever done by train, it’s the last of a great era. It’s a privilege.”
Meanwhile, train driver Martin Wallace, who was allocated to the route in 2024, told the broadcaster he was thrilled to be driving it for the final time: “It’s very exciting, isn’t it. The last voyage.”
Taking more than 13 hours, it’s thought that at least two of these were actually spent waiting for passengers to board and disembark at the 36 stops throughout the journey.
Announcing the termination of the route back in 2025, a representative for CrossCountry stated: “Amending our Aberdeen to Penzance service from May 2025 will mean a more efficient timetable for our train crews and a more convenient service for our customers, making a day trip from Bristol and the west of England to Penzance more viable.
“The new timetable will also deliver an additional service in each direction between Glasgow and the North East of England towards Birmingham.”
Following the discontinuation of this service, it’s believed that the UK’s longest direct train service is now the Caledonian Sleeper’s overnight train from London Euston to Fort William, which takes approximately 12 hours and 45 minutes.
Ferries and flights were cancelled in Malta yesterday as Storm Harry lashed the island, with gusts reaching 120km and waves washing over the streets of coastal resorts
Rachael Penn in Valletta and Milo Boyd Deputy travel editor
10:34, 21 Jan 2026
A winter-sun island has been turned into a ghost town, with locals and tourists alike sheltering indoors.
Storm Harry pummelled Malta throughout yesterday and overnight, hitting the European island with 120km winds and large waves that breached the sea defences, flooding coastal towns. Resorts such as Marsaskala were overwhelmed by the surge, which dumped debris across the streets.
Ferries between Malta and Gozo stopped operating, leading hotels on the main island to offer cut-price accommodation to those unable to get home. MaltaPost suspended deliveries and yesterday’s waste collection was stopped to avoid rubbish bags being blown onto the roads. The streets were deserted for much of Tuesday as locals heeded calls to stay home.
Do you have a holiday story to share? Email webtravel@reachplc.com
The Mirror’s Rachael Penn found herself swept up in the storm chaos, having picked the ‘jewel in the crown of the Mediterranean’ for a winter sun break.
“Weather here in January is usually perfect, cool but bright with plenty of sunshine and temperatures sitting around 16C with the evenings getting a little chillier. In all the years of visiting at this time of year I’ve only ever seen it rain a handful of times, but this year Storm Harry rolled in, bringing torrential rain and violent winds, prompting severe weather warnings and advice to stay indoors while it passed,” she wrote from the safety of her Valletta hotel as the ferocious weather raged outside.
The scenes in the capital were worlds away from how they typically are at this time of the year, when sunseekers fill the medieval streets.
“Valletta felt like a ghost town, with businesses closed, restaurants shuttered and tourist attractions, including many of the city’s museums and palaces, simply not open,” Rachael wrote.
“Still, I thought it was a good time to explore Valletta whilst it was so quiet. I headed from my hotel to Republic Street, battling the gusts to get up the hill. Aside from there being no people around, it was a strange sight not seeing the rows of outdoor seating that had taken over the pavements and had been a cause of discontent amongst the locals for many years. With the streets clear and it almost felt like a glimpse into what historic Malta would’ve looked like.
“From Republic Street, I made my way to Upper Barrakka Gardens, one of the city’s most popular viewpoints with sweeping views of the Grand Harbour and Three Cities. As I approached the edge of the city walls, I could feel my exploration was about to come to an end as the wind was so strong it nearly knocked me off my feet – and I like my wine and pastizzi a little too much to ever be someone knocked off their feet by a gust of wind.
“So as I turned back down the hill, I was pleasantly surprised to see that a couple of the landmark pubs were still open for weary travellers and locals who happened to be blown through their doors. The first one was The Pub, the infamous spot where Oliver Reed died in 1999 after drinking 8 pints of lager, 12 double rums, half a bottle of whisky, and a shot of cognac. It’s very much an old-school boozer, steeped in naval history as well as a shrine to Reed lining the walls.”
Before heading back to her hotel, Rachael went in search of a bite to eat.
“With most of the restaurants closed, it was a relief to see that one of my absolute favourite restaurants in Valletta was still open – Cafe Jubilee. Cafe Jubilee is like stepping inside a 1920’s Italian restaurant, with red and white checked tablecloths and vintage posters adorning the walls. Go in the afternoon as it’s a little like a gangster film with men in suits sitting around enjoying a hearty lunch, by the evening it’s a cosy bistro perfect for a bite to eat or a glass of wine,” she continued.
“After a meal, it was time to head back outside, drenched and windswept. We made it back to the hotel, where the next few hours were spent watching the most incredible lightning storm, which went on for hours.”
The worst of the storm eased overnight, with most flights scheduled to arrive today on time.
“The coast was, of course, the worst hit during the storm, with property damaged, boats pushed out of the water and onto the promenade, and flooding. But one thing is for sure: even at its worst, Malta is still a beautiful place to be. There’s something surreal about watching a storm of this magnitude unfold in a place that is usually so busy and full of life. The quietness and eerie view of empty streets is a reminder that even the sunniest of islands aren’t immune to the powerful force of nature,” Rachael concluded.
On the Beach has slashed deposits and launched free child places to help families afford their 2026 summer getaway
10:18, 21 Jan 2026Updated 10:20, 21 Jan 2026
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On the Beach has introduced kids go free breaks (Image: skynesher via Getty Images)
On the Beach has unveiled two significant modifications to holiday reservations that allow travellers to secure their getaway for the smallest deposit amount in its history whilst taking a child along at no extra cost.
Starting today, On the Beach has slashed its deposits by £11, enabling Brits to reserve their 2026 break from £19 per person.
The move makes the upfront cost for securing a holiday as budget-friendly as possible, particularly as numerous Brits face their sixth week without wages, having been paid prior to Christmas and now awaiting their next salary until the end of January.
It’s not the sole initiative the package holiday specialists have implemented. On the Beach has also introduced complimentary children’s accommodation on selected breaks. The promotion will provide hundreds of cost-free hotel stays for youngsters at family-friendly resorts across the Canaries, Turkey, Spain, Egypt, the Balearics and beyond.
Zoe Harris, chief customer officer at On the Beach, said: “This is a major step in making holidays more affordable for families. By lowering our deposits to just £19 per person and introducing free stays for kids, we’re reducing the upfront cost of booking and taking away some of the financial pressure that can come with securing a holiday.
“We know family budgets are stretched right now, especially after the Christmas period, so this is about giving people confidence to book early, spread the cost, and enjoy something to look forward to without the stress.”
It’s not just low deposits and complimentary kids’ stays that On the Beach is providing. The package holiday firm are also throwing in free perks on all holiday bookings in 2026.
Anyone taking a break with On the Beach in 2026 and reserving up to 60 days before departure is guaranteed three perks.
One of either complimentary lounge access, free gadget insurance, free weather protection or a £50 Amazon voucher plus Price Drop Protection and 1GB of free mobile data.
Kids stay free offers
Based on two adults and two children with two rooms:
A seven night all-inclusive break at Sol Katmandu Park & Resort in Lanzarote, with departures on Monday 4 May from Bristol costs just £473pp and includes one complimentary child place.
A seven night all-inclusive getaway at Titanic Beach and Spa in Hurghada, Egypt, with departures on Wednesday 3 June from London Luton costs just £443pp and includes one complimentary child place.
A seven night B&B break at Falcon Naama Star in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, with departures on Wednesday 3 June from London Gatwick costs just £325pp and includes one complimentary child place.
A seven night all-inclusive holiday at Magic Aqua Rock Gardens in Benidorm, with departures on Wednesday 6 May from London Luton costs just £495pp and includes one complimentary child place.
A seven night all-inclusive break at Ukino Palmeiras Village in Portugal with departures on Saturday 2 May from Manchester costs just £468pp and includes one complimentary child place.
Crealy Theme Park & Resort in Devon will open two new rides in 2026Credit: Crealy Theme Park & ResortPirates’ Plummet will be the new drop ride coming to Crealy in springCredit: Crealy
The first ride to open at Crealy will be Pirates’ Plummet which when it opens will be the tallest ride in the South West.
The drop tower will be familiar to some as it was previously known as ‘Magma’ in Paultons Park and has been transported to Devon.
Crealy said it’s a “dramatic free-fall experience unlike anything currently available in the county, offering a new level of excitement for older children, teenagers and adults”.
The second ride coming to Crealy is Rotor: The South West’s First Inverted Ride which is set to open in summer 2026.
Crealy said: “The high energy ride will spin and flip guests, representing a major milestone in the Resort’s evolution and further strengthening its appeal to thrill-seekers.”
Currently, Crealy Theme Park & Resort has more than 60 rides and attractions along with live entertainment and play areas.
The theme park did big at the UK Theme Park Awards last year.
Crealy won Gold for ‘Best Theme Park for Families’, Gold for ‘Best Theme Park for Toddlers’, and a Silver for ‘Best New Entertainment’ with Sooty’s Disco Dance Off.
Speaking of Sooty, Crealy Theme Park is home to the UK’s only Sooty Land based on The Sooty Showthat aired back in 1955.
Fans of the show can watch live shows on the mischievous yellow hand puppet called Sooty.
Sooty Land opened back in 2022 and features a host of rides dedicated to the on-screen bear and his furry pals.
One of the themed rides is Sooty’s Magic Bus, which moves park-goers up and down.
There’s also Sweep’s Flying Circus, Soo’s Sweet Balloon Ride and Izzy Wizzy Let’s Get Dizzy.
Rotor: The South West’s First Inverted Ride which is set to open in summer 2026Credit: CrealyThe park has 60 rides and attractions along with live entertainment and play areasCredit: Crealy Theme Park & Resort
The park has plenty of indoor attractions too which are found inside the Pier including carnival games and a mirror maze.
Day tickets to Crealy Theme Park & Resort during the winter season start from £14pp (those under 92cm can enter the park for free).
The resort also features on-site accommodation, serving as a short-break destination for families.
There are camping options, caravan holidays, themed glamping and even luxury hot tub lodges.
Glamping breaks during February half-term start from £299 – these include theme park tickets.
One Travel Reporter gives her verdict on Crealy’s Theme Park & Resort…
Travel Reporter Cyann Fielding gives her verdict on Crealy Theme Park…
Local theme parks can often be discredited as not as good as major theme parks like Thorpe Park or Alton Towers, but Crealy in Devon actually does have something for everyone.
Having spent more times than I can count there when I was growing up, it is the ideal theme park if you have kids of different ages.
And thanks to lots of indoor areas, when it is raining the attraction is still a great spot.
Train-themed rollercoaster Maximus is the perfect introductory ride for children if you are planning to take them away to larger theme parks in the future.
If your kids love animals, head to the theme park in the spring when they often have lambs that visitors can feed.
In the summer months, the Wilderness area is a must.
A lot of families skip this part but for curious children it is a feast for the eyes and imagination as it is full of treehouses, obstacles, lakeside walks and ‘Walk on the Wildside’ with farm animals.
Definitely go on the log flume last if visiting the park – it is a brilliant ride and one of the best log flumes I have been on to date, but you do really get soaked.
If you make the mistake of going on the flume before heading elsewhere in the park then there is a giant human drying machine outside the ride which costs a couple of quid.
Parents wanting to feel nostalgic should definitely explore Sooty Land – there are four Sooty-themed rides, meet and greet opportunities and the world’s first Sooty store.
Jan. 21 (UPI) — The U.S. military has seized a seventh tanker transporting oil from Venezuela, as the Trump administration seeks to control the nation’s oil exports and revenue.
The tanker, identified as motor vessel Sagitta, was captured by U.S. military forces Tuesday morning, U.S. Southern Command said in a statement, saying the operation was conducted “without incident.”
The Sagitta is a U.S. sanctioned vessel, first blacklisted by the United States in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, and again on Jan. 10, in an attempt to cut off an important revenue source from the Kremlin.
According to the statement from U.S. Southern Command, the vessel was leaving Venezuela with Venezuelan oil, in “defiance of President [Donald] Trump’s established quarantine of sanctioned vessels in the Caribbean.”
The U.S. military seized its first tanker on Dec. 10 amid growing tensions between the United States and Venezuela.
A U.S. military buildup was underway in the Caribbean. On Dec. 16, Trump ordered a blockade of sanctioned oil tankers transiting to and from the South American country.
Tensions between the two exploded earlier this month, when the U.S. military detained Venezuela’s authoritarian leader, Nicolas Maduro, in a clandestine operation.
Trump and other U.S. officials have said that the United States intends to control the sale of Venezuelan oil on U.S. and global markets, and that the proceeds from those sales will initially be deposited in international bank accounts under the Trump administration’s control.
The funds will then be used to stabilize the Venezuelan economy, with decisions about their use to be made under U.S. oversight.
Earlier this month, Trump said Venezuela’s interim government will be giving the United States between 30 million and 50 million barrels of “high quality, sanctioned oil,” and that Venezuela was to use the funds from that deal to buy only American-made goods.
Trump on Tuesday told reporters that oil companies were getting ready to make “massive investments in Venezuela,” while stating that the United States has received 50 million barrels of oil from the South American country in the last four days.
“We’ve got millions of barrels of oil left,” he said. “We’re selling it on the open market. We’re bringing down oil prices incredibly.”
Also part of the new experiences will be meet and greet with the characters.
This includes both Blue and Bingo, as well as Mum (Chili) and Dad (Bandit).
A live show experience will also be created, and be found at the Big Fun Showtime.
Finally, new Bluey-themed hotel rooms will open at the CBeebies Land Hotel, joining the already opened Bluey suite.
Alton Towers‘ Vice President: Howard Ebison, said: “We can’t wait to welcome the mischievous and limitless energy of the Grannies to the resort when we open the Bluey the Ride: Here Come the Grannies! this spring.
“Alongside even more bespoke Bluey-themed hotel rooms, we’re excited for the fans to enjoy the new attraction and immerse themselves in the mayhem of the Grannies.”
BBC Studios’ Events Director Natasha Spence said they chose the theme of the rollercoaster due to the episode bein a “fan favourite”.
It is set to open by spring 2026, although an official opening date is yet to be confirmed.
