IT’S time to get into the Christmas spirit, and where better to do that than at one of the best festive markets?
Found in Bath, it’s considered the biggest Christmas shopping event in the South West with over 200 wooden chalet stalls across the city.
Bath Christmas market opens in late November with hundreds of stallsSource: SuppliedThe city opens up with food and drink to souvenir and gift chaletsSource: Getty Images – Getty
The Bath Christmas Market will reopen on November 26 and any fan of the festive season will want to visit.
There’s everything on offer from food like hot dogs and burgers to sweet treats like donuts and even crumble topped with melted chocolate.
Don’t forget the classic Christmas drinks too like mulled wine, cider and hot chocolate.
Other stalls will be selling gifts like baubles, festive socks and tree decorations.
The 250 stallholders and caterers are independently made up of local businesses with most hailing from the South West of England.
For anyone who lives in Bath and North East Somerset – there are discounts available with the Residents’ Discovery Card.
One of the offers is £1 off toasted marshmallows at one of the stalls, 10 per cent off all goods at Soul Fries and Flame and Dough.
Those with a Residents’ Discovery Card can get further discountsSource: Alamy
Or enjoy the free lucky dip with every purchase at Let’s Get Scented which sells bath bombs and candles.
There are other offers at chocolate stalls and handmade jewellery counters.
For those who want to visit, this year Bath Christmas Market is being held between November 26 and December 13.
From Monday to Wednesday it’s open between 10am and 7pm.
Between Thursday and Saturday it’s open from 10am to 8pm.
On Sundays, it will be open between 10am and 6pm.
During the day, make sure to pop into the the enormous Bath AbbeySource: GettyThe market will be even bigger this year as it’s extending into New Bond StreetSource: Getty
The market stalls are set in amongst Bath Abbey which has stood in the heart of the city for over a thousand years.
For those who want to learn more, there are free highlight tours of the abbey available at no extra cost.
Entry to Bath Abbey is £9 for adults, £7.50 for students and £5 for children (5-15).
Any fan of Jane Austen should head to the Jane Austen Centre which gives visitors a snapshot into her life – it even has a dress-up station so visitors can immerse themselves into the Regency era.
There’s also the famous curved street called Royal Crescent.
It’s also a a must-visit for Bridgerton fans because the city is used as a filming location.
The Abbey Deli is used as the Modiste dress shop in the show.
The Best Christmas Markets in the UK 2026…
Bath Christmas Market, Bath, England
Edinburgh Christmas Market, Edinburgh, Scotland
Manchester Christmas Markets, Manchester, England
Chester Christmas Market, Chester, England
Birmingham Christmas Market, Birmingham, England
York Christmas Festival, York, England
Winchester Cathedral’s Christmas Market, Winchester England
SpaceX has caught the upper stage of its giant Starship rocket in midair for the first time, using mechanical arms nicknamed ‘chopsticks’. The spacecraft made a triumphant return to Earth, landing at the same launch pad it left 22 hours earlier in a milestone moment for the company.
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Transportation was working Saturday to determine whether Friday’s air traffic control system meltdown resulted from human error or equipment failure as travelers across the nation continued to grapple with a cascade of flight delays and cancellations.
Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said the crisis began when a contractor was performing routine maintenance at a remote FAA location to switch telecommunication lines from 1980s-era copper wire to a fiber line.
The new equipment began flooding other routers in the air traffic control system — sending more than 1,000 connection attempts every four to five seconds — causing radar and communications disruptions, he said. As a safety measure, the FAA decided to ground all planes for more than four hours.
It is currently unclear whether the contractor, L3 Harris, or the piece of new equipment itself was at fault.
“This was an FAA system that didn’t meet the moment,” said Duffy. “A contractor didn’t meet the moment or the equipment didn’t meet the moment — and it caused the outages.” L3 Harris could not be immediately reached for comment.
On Saturday morning, thousands of planes were back in American airspace, but airlines warned it would take several days to recover and urged passengers to change their flights to later dates where possible. On Friday, there were more than 7,400 flight delays within, into, or out of the United States and more than 9,000 cancellations, according to flight-tracking website FlightAware.
The incident sparked barbed political discourse over who is to blame for failing to fix the aging infrastructure and frustrations over the initial lack of clear communication from White House officials.
“The Transportation and Homeland Security leaders were slow to provide updates, and when they did speak, they didn’t have good explanations about what was happening, nor whether it would happen again,” Rep. George Whitesides (D-Santa Clarita) said in a statement on X.
Whitesides, who was himself stuck in an airport for seven hours Friday, criticized the president for installing a Transportation Secretary with “basically no professional transportation experience in one of the most crucial jobs we have as a country.” Duffy is a former sports television personality, prosecutor, congressmember and CNN political contributor.
Trump, who rarely shies away from the spotlight, has not publicly commented on the unprecedented telecommunications outage. He had posted on social media about other issues, including criticism of Gavin Newsom, but nothing yet on the airspace issue.
When asked about the president’s silence at a Friday evening news conference, Duffy said that Trump was “fully engaged” behind the scenes.
Duffy praised Trump for pushing to modernize the FAA’s infrastructure and securing $12.5 billion through his 2025 “Big Beautiful Bill” — a sprawling collection of tax breaks, spending cuts and other Republican priorities — to upgrade the nation’s air traffic control and airspace systems. Duffy called on Congress to approve up to an additional $50 billion in funding to fully modernize the nation’s aviation infrastructure.
Friday’s stoppage marks the second full ground stop since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the World Trade Center in New York. The most recent full ground stop, which lasted about 90 minutes, was in 2023 when a pilot notification system went down.
Times staff writer Ana Ceballos contributed to this report.
The prime minister has told members of his party that Welsh Labour may have lost sight of some of the principles of devolution before it was thrown out of power in a historic election defeat.
On Saturday morning Andy Burnham addressed the first Welsh Labour conference since May’s Senedd election.
He suggested the previous Labour government did not do enough to pass powers down to communities, and said it was “hard” to accept the party was no longer in power after 27 years of running the Welsh government.
In a subdued speech, the UK Labour leader said he wanted to see “one Labour team” where “everyone” was “signed up and on the same page.”
Burnham spoke ahead of the publication of a review of what went wrong at the election.
Since he became prime minister he has been lobbying the Welsh government to devolve more powers to local councils.
“Somewhere along the way perhaps we lost sight of some of the principles that drove devolution in the first place.
“We probably stopped listening as much as we should have, and actually stopped driving power down into every Welsh postcode which is what the vision to me really should always have been about – about people and places.”
He said the party would accept its defeat and “come back stronger” with a “vision for a stronger Wales in a fairer United Kingdom.”
Burnham said he wanted to achieve the sense of a “one Labour team for Wales” where the party is “pulling in the same direction”.
“Where I’m pulling with you and not creating problems for you or going against what Ken or colleagues want to achieve.
“We will put forward a vision for communities up and down Wales, as well as giving Wales a stronger national voice.”
Addressing the event at Venue Cymru in Llandudno, Burnham said he loved “everything about Wales”.
He said his last visit to Wales – to Aberfan – left the “biggest mark”.
Referencing the fight for justice in the years after the disaster, Burnham said he wanted a “country where all people and all places are treated fairly and with dignity”.
He said his vision for the country is a “reindustrialised nation with revitalised high streets”.
Burnham said Labour should be “immensely proud” of the things it achieved in Wales – including free school meals, free prescription and the creation of Transport for Wales.
The prime minister said he wanted to show how “being in the UK is good for Wales because of the partnership that we can develop together”.
Burnham said he had put the full devolution of employment support on the table with the Welsh government.
SEOUL — President Trump will get his wish for a historic meeting among the three most powerful men in the world — Xi Jinping of China, Vladimir Putin of Russia and himself — at a summit Thursday in southern China.
But Moscow, Beijing and Washington already know their leaders are arriving at the Shenzhen conference with disparate aims.
Trump hopes to focus the meeting on nuclear nonproliferation, urging the Russian and Chinese presidents to work with him to scale back the world’s largest nuclear stockpiles. Putin pressed for the meeting to discuss his ongoing war in Ukraine. And Xi wants to discuss neither, only embracing the idea of the summit to show the world China can help broker peace on the international stage, Chinese officials told The Times.
“That’ll be interesting,” Trump said earlier this week, teasing the trilateral summit before the White House formally confirmed the meeting Friday.
“We’re talking a lot of things, including denuclearization,” he added, “but we’ll be talking a lot of things.”
U.S. officials have acknowledged they do not expect the meeting to result in a breakthrough on arms control. China is openly racing to build up its nuclear capacity — a nonnegotiable policy in Beijing, which sees its arsenal dwarfed by an American stockpile nearly 10 times the size.
“We do not expect to get to any kind of agreement. I would characterize this as the entry point,” one senior Trump administration official said. “This is the beginning of hopefully a conversation that can be productive going forward.”
The Chinese, too, threw cold water on the chances of a breakthrough, with one Chinese official telling The Times the central government saw no benefit to a pause.
“It is a matter of survival,” the official said.
The United States and Russia still command the world’s two dominant nuclear arsenals, with over 5,000 warheads each. China has an estimated 620 — but in catching up, it is developing new warheads with more sophisticated delivery systems.
Though expectations are low for a nuclear breakthrough, Trump doesn’t want to discuss Putin’s priorities, either, the U.S. official added.
“He does not intend to talk about Ukraine in that meeting,” the official said. “China is not really part of that track, so it doesn’t really seem appropriate.”
Ukraine has grown increasingly concerned by Trump’s pressure campaign to force it into concessions to Moscow as he pushes to end the war.
The Trump administration has brought Russian and Ukrainian officials together at a working level to explore the viability of peace talks. But a long-standing U.S. policy on the war — not to negotiate about Ukraine without Ukraine — could be further compromised at a trilateral with Putin and Xi.
The only American business leader confirmed to join Trump in Asia is Elon Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX chief who was seen as instrumental in the decision last month to restrict Ukraine’s access on the battlefield to Starlink, the satellite internet service owned by Musk.
Beijing has struck a careful balance on Ukraine, publicly issuing its respect for sovereign borders — a position popular among Chinese voices who support Kyiv — while giving Moscow diplomatic cover, an economic lifeline and technological support throughout the war.
Their competing agendas could make the summit little more than a spectacle, yet still produce images that hark back to the famous Yalta Conference — held in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula currently occupied by Russia, in 1945 — where Josef Stalin, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Winston Churchill carved up a postwar order.
World War II allies Winston Churchill, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Josef Stalin meet on Feb. 4, 1945, at the Yalta Conference.
(Associated Press)
The summit on Chinese soil offers Xi a powerful image to broadcast worldwide, demonstrating an emergent superpower can bring together the leaders of two historic rivals in the name of peace.
Putin gets to present himself as a global player, despite the devastation wrought on Russia’s economy and military standing after four bruising years of war.
And it allows Trump to reassert his global relevance after this month’s midterms delivered the worst electoral rebuke to a president in half a century, rivaling the backlash against President Nixon during Watergate.
It’s been nearly 150 years since a Black man has represented Deep South and deep red Mississippi in the U.S. Senate.
That changed Wednesday evening as Democrat Scott Colom was declared the winner over Republican incumbent Cindy Hyde-Smith, who had been endorsed by President Donald Trump. For many in the state and for Black Americans across the nation, Colom’s victory reflects the ambitions that were thwarted by generations of systemic oppression and violence.
Janice Johnson, who lives in Greenville in the Mississippi Delta, says having a Black senator has been a long time coming. “In the last few years we have seen great strides,” she said.
Out of all the southern states, Mississippi has a special place in the struggle over Black Americans’ exclusion from the nation’s promises of freedom and justice. There’s Ida B. Wells-Barnett, the Mississippi-born journalist who investigated 19th century lynching across the South, and Emmett Till, the 14-year-old whose 1955 kidnapping and murder by white men in Mississippi reinvigorated the Civil Rights Movement.
There’s Medgar Evers, the NAACP’s first Mississippi field secretary who fought at Normandy in World War II and organized Black voter registration until his 1963 assassination. And Fannie Lou Hamer, the civil rights leader who challenged Mississippi’s all-white delegation at the 1964 Democratic National Convention.
Rep. Bennie Thompson, who represents Mississippi’s 2nd District, was a student organizer for Hamer while studying at Tougaloo College, where Colom’s victory celebration was held Wednesday night. And now, Thompson is watching his mentee, Sen.-elect Colom, fill a more than 145-year gap of Black leadership in statewide office.
“From my perspective, I now have a partner in Washington,” Thompson said before introducing Colom.
“I can’t help but think about Medgar Evers on Veterans Day,” Colom said during a victory speech. “A moment like this, where he served his country and came home to Mississippi, when they wouldn’t let him vote. But he had the faith that Mississippi could make progress. … He had faith that a day like this was possible.”
He added, “All I did was have the courage to imagine a night like this.”
Johnson, who watched part of Colom’s victory speech from home, says she understands that Black voters, alone, aren’t responsible for Colom’s win. White voters, too, had to be fed up with the state’s economy, school systems and crumbling health care infrastructure for the poor — Black and white — under Republican rule.
“The most important part is we’ve got to have faith that Mississippi is ready to do the right thing,” an elated Johnson told The Associated Press on Thursday. “We as a people — and Mississippi as whole — are ready to show the nation. We have to work together, and that was his message. He wants to help pull us together.”
Jerome Dunn, a barber in Jackson, echoed Johnson’s sentiment.
“It takes everybody to vote, not one single race,” said Dunn, 59, who is Black and also voted for Colom. “I think people are looking for him to work for everybody. People are tired of Republicans and what they believe.”
Two came before Colom
Blanche K. Bruce, a Republican, was the second Black man in the Senate from Mississippi after that state’s legislature elected him to a six-year term. He served from 1875 to 1881. Hiram Revels, another Republican, was the first after the Senate voted to seat him in 1870 to fill a vacancy left empty since the start of the Civil War. Revels’ term expired about a year later.
Bruce and Revels were among 16 Black men from southern states who served in Congress during the period of Reconstruction, which aimed to address the inequities experienced by Black people during enslavement, while preparing reentry for the 11 Southern states that seceded from the union at the start of the U.S. Civil War.
Once Reconstruction ended and federal troops were withdrawn, freed slaves in the South lost many of the freedoms gained following the war as Southern states enforced racial segregation through Jim Crow-era laws.
White conservatives have dominated Mississippi’s Statehouse and congressional delegation ever since. Nearly all were white Democrats as laws restricted where Black people could live, work and go to school. That weight carried on through the Civil Rights era, but during the late 1960s white elected leaders in Mississippi switched political parties and became Republicans.
Colom’s win represents “a pretty significant change in Mississippi politics,” said Brian Shoup, head of political science and public administration at Mississippi State University.
“We haven’t seen a Democrat win the Senate since the 1980s and even then that was a traditional kind of more southern conservative Democrat,” the professor said. “We haven’t had an African American senator since the era of Reconstruction, so this is obviously a very significant and important election in Mississippi history.”
Mississippi has been burdened by its racial legacy
Black voters in Mississippi and across the South were faced with the reality of redistricting efforts designed to reduce Black representation in elected positions, set off in late April by a Supreme Court decision that gutted the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. The ruling helped fuel increased voter turnout.
But it’s difficult for many to ignore Mississippi’s troubling past involving race relations, from the lynching of Black people by the Ku Klux Klan and other mobs to the killings of Evers and Till.
In his 1963 “I Have a Dream” speech, civil rights icon the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. referred to Mississippi as a state “sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression.”
Colom’s election is historic and means things are changing in parts of the South, said Elnora Fisher, 68, of Greenville, who was born and raised in Mississippi where she remembers that simply living often didn’t seem fair to Black people.
“As I understood, my grandparents always tried to save up to vote,” Fisher said. “They had to pay a tax to vote.”
As a child during the 1960s, Fisher said her mother took her to an NAACP meeting. “While we were there the white police stopped the meeting and made us leave,” she said.
Black people in Mississippi should be ecstatic with Colom as a U.S. senator, Fisher added.
“Here in Mississippi, so much has been taken from the poor people and given to the rich people,” she said. “I hope Colom will give back to the people who helped get him where he is.”
Good may come of it all with so many eyes on the results of the contest between Colom and Hyde-Smith, said Shoup, the professor. Mississippians, along with the rest of the nation, may be ready to begin healing from the past.
“This race, the fact that it has been so close, and it has activated so much turnout, might portend the prospects of maybe being able to talk about these things in a more civil and open fashion,” he said.
Williams writes for the Associated Press. Sophie Bates in Jackson, Miss., and Aaron Morrison in New York contributed to this report.
Aluminum buyers face the tightest supply conditions in decades on the London Metal Exchange as inventories fall to their lowest level since 1990 and two traders control much of the available metal.
Spot aluminum prices surged to a $151-per-ton premium over
Pope Leo XIV’s visit marks the first papal trip to Argentina in nearly four decades, amid tensions with the Milei government.
Published On 8 Nov 20268 Nov 2026
Argentinian President Javier Milei has welcomed the head of the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV, upon his arrival at Jorge Newbery airport near Buenos Aires.
Milei and his sister, presidential secretary Karina Milei, greeted the pope on Sunday amid tensions between the government and Argentina’s Catholic Church over austerity measures.
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Prior to his arrival, the pope spent three days in Uruguay, the first stop on his tour of Latin America.
He is the first pontiff to visit Argentina in nearly four decades, since John Paul II’s trip in 1987.
“Without a doubt, it gives us great joy that this pope is visiting us,” said Jorge Silanes, religious director at the Pequeno Cottolengo Don Orione, a home for people with disabilities in the Buenos Aires province.
In Argentina, Pope Leo’s schedule includes attending a welcome ceremony at Plaza San Martin and a meeting with Milei at the Casa Rosada, the official presidential palace.
But the pontiff’s visit comes amid shrinking membership in the Catholic Church in Latin America, as well as a sometimes fractious relationship with politicians like Milei.
Catholics comprise the largest religious group in Latin America, with as many as 425 million people identifying with the church.
But their numbers have shrunk over the last decade. A Pew Research Center survey found that, in Argentina, the percentage of self-identifying Catholics slipped from 71 percent in the 2013-2014 year to 58 percent a decade later.
Milei himself has suggested he considered converting to Judaism, though he was raised in the Catholic faith.
The Catholic Church has also criticised Milei’s austerity measures, which included slashing social spending and safety-net programmes for the poor.
Milei has defended the budget cuts as necessary to bring inflation under control.
Some members of the Catholic clergy, however, have taken a visible role in the protests against Milei’s measures.
Leo, 71, the first US-born pope, will remain in Argentina until Wednesday and meet with officials, diplomats and civil society representatives.
He will also visit a prison and celebrate mass in Buenos Aires, Lujan, and the province of Cordoba, before travelling to Peru, where he spent years serving as a bishop.
Pope Leo XIV blesses a faithful upon his arrival in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on November 8, 2026 [Rodrigo Abd/AP Photo]
The previous pope, Francis, was born in Buenos Aires in 1936 and was the first pope from the Americas, but he never visited his home country as head of the Catholic Church. Francis died in 2025.
He and Milei had a notably contentious relationship, with the Argentinian president calling the late pontiff a “communist” and an “imbecile who defends social justice”.
“Leo is going to make the visit that Francis never did,” said Reverend Lorenzo “Toto” de Vedia, who works with poor communities in a neighbourhood of Buenos Aires.
At the top of Constitution Hill, there are more attractions to explore including The Camera Obscura.
#8 Harbour Bar, Scarborough (North Yorkshire)
Harbour Bar is a family-run ice cream barSource: Alamy
The Harbour Bar in Scarborough, North Yorkshire is a family owned ice cream and milk bar which has stood on the seafront since 1945.
Inside the bar has a white-and-yellow 1950s/60s decor with neon lighting and even vintage counter service.
All ice cream is made on site using traditional recipes.
The joint has won awards for its sundaes such as Knickerbocker Glory.
#7 Shell Grotto, Margate (Kent)
Shell Grotto in Kent is home to more than 4.6million shellsSource: Alamy
In Margate, explore Shell Grotto which is an underground chamber full of, well, shells.
The chamber was discovered completely randomly in the 19th century and boasts 21 metres of winding passages covered in 4.6million shells.
Having recently visited, Deputy Travel Editor, Kara Godfrey said: “Discovered in 1835, the mystery of the Shell Grotto is what gives it its charm – even now, we don’t know who created it, when, or why.
“But the bizarre underground chambers are well-worth exploring and it certainly makes for an interesting visit (if you don’t mind leaving with more questions than answers…).”
#6 Volks Electric Railway, Brighton (East Sussex)
In Brighton, there’s Volk’s Electric Railway is the oldest operating electric railway in the worldSource: Alamy
Volk’s Electric Railway in Brighton, East Sussex, is the oldest operating electric railway in the world.
Having opened in 1883, the railway stretches just over a mile along Brighton seafront.
The railway operates seasonally with a round trip taking around half an hour.
You don’t need to pre-book – you can just turn up, buy tickets at the station and then head for a ride.
#5 Weymouth Deckchairs (Dorset)
Weymouth Deckchairs overlook the beach and secured the fifth spot on the listSource: Getty
Weymouth’s Deckchairs are loved for their charming, traditional feel and came in as the fifth best seaside spot in the country.
The chairs are available each day from April through the end of September, weather permitting, and make for the ideal photo op.
Hiring a deckchair costs around £3.70 per day.
Though, if you are over 60 and live in the area you can get a free pass.
#4 Tinside Lido, Plymouth (Devon)
Tinside Lido in Plymouth is regularly named one of the top outdoor pools in EuropeSource: Alamy
Fancy a dip? In fourth place is the only lido on the list – Grade II-listed Art Deco Tinside Lido in Plymouth.
After opening in 1935, the pool quickly became a popular spot and today is often ranked among the top outdoor pools in Europe.
The semi-circular pool screams of classic seaside memories and is unheated.
The pool costs £10.50 for both adults and children.
#3 Wemyss Bay Railway Station (Inverclyde)
Wemyss Bay Railway Station is a Category A-listed Edwardian railway stationSource: Alamy
Wemyss Bay Railway Station is a Category A-listed Edwardian railway found in the village of Wemyss Bay in Inverclyde, Scotland.
It is often dubbed one of the most beautiful train stations in the UK.
It also marks the final stop on the Inverclyde Line which connects the region to Glasgow Central.
One visitor said: “A fascinating and beautifully preserved reminder of the heyday of mass travel to the seaside – now an integral part of its local community.”
#2 North & South Marine Parks, South Shields (Tyne & Wear)
North and South Marine Parks in South Shields secured second placeSource: Alamy
North Marine Park and South Marine Park are interconnected Victorian parks located on South Shields seafront in Tyne & Wear.
The parks sit alongside Ocean Beach Pleasure Park and boast a mixture of attractions including green spaces and even a miniature railway.
One person said: “It has everything! Miniature train, lake with boats, play area, cafe, beautiful gardens.
“The beach is over the road as well as a traditional fairground. Lots of events, music, fun and family friendly.”
#1 Herne Bay Pier (Kent)
And coming out on top was Herne Bay Pier in KentSource: Alamy
And securing the top spot for the best seaside destination is Herne Bay Pier in Kent.
The traditional seaside attraction has loads to do from family entertainment including arcades to beach hut shops.
One person said: “I love the pier as there are so many places to eat and drink. If you have children with you there are plenty of things for them to do. Always see people crabbing off the side.
“They have dog shows too and music shows through the summer weekends. It’s so versatile and just a really enjoyable place to be.
“Fantastic variety of activities for all ages. The Pier Volunteers are a credit to the community.”
Los Angeles residents, including political streamer Hasan Piker, shared their reactions to the historic election of Democratic Socialist Nithya Raman as the city’s first South Asian mayor.
DEARBORN, Mich. — Campaigning relentlessly across Michigan, Abdul El-Sayed didn’t highlight the possibility that he could become the first Muslim elected to the U.S. Senate. But with victory in hand, he savored his triumph over the vitriol aimed at him and his fellow Muslim Americans.
“They tried to demonize people because of how they pray,” he told the Associated Press on Wednesday. “And Michigan — the whole Michigan — clapped back. People don’t want that. They’re sick of it.”
He showed his pride in his victory speech, declaring: “My name is Abdulrahman Mohamed El-Sayed.”
Twenty-five years after the Sept. 11 attacks and their aftermath yanked anti-Muslim sentiment into the forefront of American life, those emotions are shared by many Muslim Americans in Michigan and across the country.
They saw a surge of anti-Muslim rhetoric after Zohran Mamdani’s election as New York City mayor a year ago, and they saw the attacks intensify as El-Sayed became the new prime target. President Trump called him a “jihadist” who was “on the side of the terrorists.” Dozens of Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress formed a Sharia-Free America Caucus, depicting Islam’s religious code as a threat to the U.S. Constitution.
But now, after El-Sayed’s defeat of GOP rival Mike Rogers was confirmed early Wednesday, there is a pervasive sense that a broader victory is at hand.
The outcome “represents a historic turning point for American Muslim political engagement and a historic defeat for the politics of hate,” said Nihad Awad, national executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
“Anti-Muslim extremists, Israel lobby groups and even the president of the United States used every smear in the book to paint Dr. El-Sayed as a Muslim bogeyman,” he said. “None of it was true, and none of it worked. Anti-Muslim hate was on the ballot, and it failed.”
In Dearborn, talk of ‘a beautifully American story’
Excitement over El-Sayed’s victory was palpable in Dearborn, a city near Detroit with a sizable Arab American population. The mayor, Abdullah Hammoud, said residents showed up at the ballot box in huge numbers.
“What a beautifully American story,” Hammoud said. “One of our brightest and best earned the support of the majority of Michiganders who participated in yesterday’s election. And regardless of the direction in which he prays, they’re sending him to the U.S. Senate.”
Hammoud, who has known El-Sayed for more than a decade, said although his win was important for many Arab Americans, people voted for him because of his platform, not his identity. He cited support in Dearborn for independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders’ 2016 presidential campaign. Sanders, who is Jewish and caucuses with Democrats, ran on a progressive platform.
In El-Sayed, residents of Dearborn “finally saw themselves and a candidate who appealed to them, but it had to do with far more than just his ethnicity or his religion,” Hammoud said. “It was honestly because of the policies and building a coalition with this community in an honest way.”
When Zaynah Jadallah, 26, canvassed for El-Sayed in Dearborn, she said most people told her they already planned on voting for him before inviting her in for water or food. She credited the name recognition to El-Sayed’s grassroots campaigning and his pride in his Egyptian heritage.
“He’s always been proud of his identity. He never shied away from it or from saying his name,” Jadallah said.
Yasmin El-Sayed, no relation to the senator-elect, took her two daughters to the Detroit watch party from New York. She teared up after the victory speech.
“Having grown up in a post-9/11 world, being Muslim, being Arab myself, never in a million years did I think we would see what we saw today,” she said.
In a time of suspicion of government, a message of representation
El-Sayed depicted his election as a victory for all those “who don’t see themselves reflected in our government or who’ve been told that they don’t belong for some reason or another — not just how they pray but who they love, how they identify, the color of their skin, where they grew up.″
“I didn’t run to be the first Muslim senator. I ran to be the next senator of the state of Michigan who happens to be Muslim,” he said. ″But I also know that democracy is constantly about the conversation about who we are, who we want to be.”
“Michigan proved just how big we are. Rejected a hateful, spiteful campaign that had nothing to say about the issues and only wanted to point to my name and my face,” he added. ″I want all of those folks out there who have been told that America’s not big enough for them to reflect on that. America really is big enough for all of us.”
Mohamed Gula, CEO of the Muslim American advocacy group Emgage Action, said he was elated by El-Sayed’s triumph after a year of “extremely Islamophobic and disgusting rhetoric being used as a campaign strategy.”
“For Abdul to come out last night and use his full name meant the world to someone who grew up in post-9/11 America, where the Muslim American community was seen through a national security lens,” Gula said.
“Our children, years from now, will be able to run for office,” he said, “to be seen as who they are.”
A debate over the place of sharia law — and its very definition
Among the most frequent targets of anti-Muslim rhetoric was sharia, the religious code that provides Muslims with guidance on how to lead righteous lives. At the Republicans’ midterm convention in Dallas, some of the loudest cheers came after GOP Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas declared: “Sharia law has no place in America.”
Muslim American civic leaders and scholars — in Texas and other states — responded forcefully to the anti-sharia rhetoric that dates back more than 15 years.
They passionately defended sharia — the way it’s practiced in the United States — as positive guidance that shares elements with the codes of other faiths, such as the Ten Commandments and the collective body of Jewish law derived from the Torah. They rebutted the claims of GOP critics that sharia is a coercive code that threatens the Constitution and the judicial system.
Gula noted that Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Atty. Gen. Ken Paxton were among the leaders of the anti-sharia campaign. Abbott lost his bid for reelection in Tuesday’s voting, and Paxton was trounced by Democrat James Talarico in the race for a U.S. Senate seat.
“I saw this as not just Muslims standing against Islamophobia as never before,” Gula said. “I saw Americans saying hate will not be used as a campaign issue … we are not going to accept hate.”
Asma Uddin, a professor at Michigan State University’s College of Law, has argued that many American politicians are depicting ordinary Muslim religious practices — such as prayer, choice of apparel, family counseling and mosque attendance — as evidence of political danger.
“What I find especially exciting is that El-Sayed won in a political climate where being visibly Muslim can still be a liability,” she said. His victory “gives us real reason for optimism. It suggests that anti-Muslim attacks don’t necessarily carry the political weight that those deploying them assume they do.”
GaNun, Cappelletti and Crary write for the Associated Press. Cappelletti reported from Washington and Crary from New York.
Just after 11 on election night, Nithya Raman took the stage in a plum-colored dress outshined only by her smile.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had a narrow lead in early returns. But to Raman and her supporters who packed the plaza in front of the Greek Theatre, they had already won.
A blue deluge had swept across the U.S. to clear out the MAGA status quo that has gaslit Americans for too long. The clueless Republican ruling class’ only defense was that the liberal alternative was worse than the crap President Trump fed Americans while calling it apple pie.
Los Angeles is as blue as the Pacific, yet the same anti-establishment wave, fueled by voters frustrated with the high cost of living and a mayor who face-planted during crisis after crisis, had crashed hard here. Raman, a City Council member, was standing on its crest.
A campaign that started on the last possible day, dismissed by rivals as amateurish and given little chance to succeed against an incumbent with decades of experience and the support of nearly the entire L.A. Democratic establishment, was poised to win. Raman, 45, was expected to pull ahead as more ballots from younger, left-leaning Angelenos were counted.
Standing before Raman was the coalition that made her unlikely rise happen — one that, despite the obvious differences between L.A. and heartland politics, paralleled the one that made the Democratic Party’s takeover of the House and Senate possible.
There were the democratic socialists, who embarrassed mainline Democrats in L.A. once again with a blockbuster night for candidates endorsed by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter. In addition to Raman’s strong initial showing, Marissa Roy was ahead in the city attorney’s race, and Angela Gonzales-Torres had a substantial lead in her Eastside congressional matchup against incumbent Jimmy Gomez, a scion of the fabled Eastside Latino machine.
There were young people like Arthur Johnson, a 23-year-old Cal State Northridge student who waited in a long line on campus earlier that day to vote in person, “because I wanted that old-school feeling.” Johnson told me that many of his friends were voting for the first time “because they hate Trump, they hate Karen, and they wanted change, however it came.”
There were Latinos like Eloisa Galindo, 45, of East Los Angeles, who showed me a cellphone video of her hanging a handmade pro-Raman manta — a bedsheet sign — on a freeway bridge over the weekend. In Texas and California, Latino voters turned out in huge numbers, helping to make history in each state by electing one of their own as governor for the first time. Galindo and her fellow members of Eastside Padres Contra la Privatización, a group created to help residents affected by the Lineage warehouse fire, felt that Raman represented a new, better way.
“She paid attention to us, and the mayor didn’t,” Galindo said in Spanish. “We felt discriminated against, we felt forgotten — but Nithya did none of that.”
Galindo and her crew were far in the back but cheered so loud that it practically echoed across Griffith Park. The Four Tops’ ”Reach Out (I’ll Be There)” faded out, and Raman beamed.
L.A. mayoral candidate Nithya Raman dances with her campaign chair, Kathleen Murray, at her election night party on the patio in front of the Greek Theater.
(Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)
“Do you love Los Angeles?” she exclaimed. “Are you ready for an L.A. that loves you back? Look at the space around you. Look at what we built together.”
Her rousing speech surveyed the course of L.A. history, from its striving immigrants to Cecil B. DeMille to LGBTQ+ history to the creation of San Pedro’s harbor. She tied her campaign to an election year in which voters across America “demanded change” because they were “angry about a broken status quo, and the politicians who failed them over and over again.”
Angelenos, she said, have become convinced “that this is the best that we can do. Our City Hall became a place where we became so used to saying, ‘No,’ we forgot how to say ‘Yes.’”
She decried the “cynicism that started to take over this city, that started to make us believe that L.A.’s problems weren’t just bad, but they were permanent. That L.A.’s best days were behind us.”
Raman praised her supporters for believing in “hope” — for a better city, a better future, but also hope that even the most entrenched longtimer could be brought down by people who were just tired of being told their concerns didn’t matter.
She spoke for about half an hour and apologized for going on so long in the chilly weather — but no forgiveness was needed on a night like this. Supporters cried tears of joy and hugged one another, sharing political news of the city and also the country, as the energy in the crowd further amped up seemingly every half-hour. James Talarico won in Texas! Dr. Abdul El-Sayed took it in Michigan? Mississippi was in play?!
Was the blue wave real? Could it hold against an angry, vengeful Trump? On this night, at least, it would.
“We have shown Los Angeles” that it’s “a city that is worth fighting for every single day of our lives,” Raman said.
She ended her speech by inviting her Indian American family to the stage — parents, brother, husband and twin 10-year-old children. Faces of a new, more progressive America, now likely the First Family of L.A. They descended the stairs together, and then a crush of Raman supporters stopped her for photos and congratulations.
Another Motown classic — “Dancing in the Streets” — blared, a song of freedom and boogie and promise from a previous generation.
Early in Raman’s speech, she asked the crowd for a favor: “Will you all get on the dance floor with me?” Many obliged, joining their leader to shimmy to Selena and other SoCal favorites.
Tomorrow would come the hard part: What to do next. But on this night, Raman and blue America would dance.
A few hours later, with more votes counted, she was ahead of Bass.
WASHINGTON — Democrats heralded a new era in American politics Wednesday after voters broke Republicans’ control of government and delivered a pivotal rebuke of President Trump.
Victories that handed Democrats control of the House and Senate on Tuesday night came in historic form, with margins outstripping expectations, posting double-digit shifts to the left by nearly every voting bloc. In some of the reddest states in the union, even Republican redistricting efforts designed to shield districts from competition were not enough to prevent Democratic inroads.
The sweeping wins were driven by a rare coalition of voters across nearly all walks of American life, in cities and countryside, from the rural Midwest and Deep South to a traditionally conservative mid-Atlantic. Not since voters were repulsed by President Nixon after the Watergate scandal half a century ago has the popular vote swung so decisively in a single election cycle.
The wave was so comprehensive that it handed Democrats wins that for decades have been unthinkable — flipping Senate seats in Kansas, South Carolina and Texas — and gained a majority of governor’s seats for the first time in a generation. How large their House majority would be remained to be seen as states continued counting votes.
Statehouses in Arizona, Georgia, Minnesota, Michigan, North Carolina and Pennsylvania flipped for Democrats — and, as ballots were counted, Texas hung in the balance — while the party wrested at least five gubernatorial seats from Republican control.
“The only thing unusual here is scale,” said Andrew Sinclair, an assistant professor of government at Claremont McKenna College. “It is not at all unusual in American political history to see a poorly led party lose badly in the next election.”
“To build anything enduring out of this election,” he added, “Democrats are going to have to do the hard work of having honest conversations with each other about how such a diverse group of people can cooperate and deliver results.”
The seismic routing appeared to validate the populist messages Democrats — in many cases, both progressives and moderates — ran on, from lowering costs to addressing healthcare and housing issues to confronting the power of corporations in American society.
Party leaders vowed the morning after to respond to voters’ mandate on affordability and to check executive power, as members of both parties predicted the results would reshape politics for years into the future.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called it “a generational remake of the Senate map that is going to change America not only now but on into the future.”
He pledged Democratic senators would be intent on working for their constituents and delivering on promises to relieve Americans’ economic “anguish” and clean up government corruption. He also nodded to the responsibility the party now shoulders.
“With this majority, Americans have given we Democrats the opportunity to prove ourselves worthy of their trust, and that’s our most important job,” Schumer said.
In every demographic, whether cut by gender, race, age, education or region, voters shifted to the left compared to 2024, in most cases by double digits, according to New York Times data. Men 18 to 44 moved to the left by 31 points, Latinos by 28 points, voters under 30 by 32 points.
The nation also elected several historic “firsts,” including the first Muslim senator, the first openly gay male senator and the first Black female governor, in spite of Republican campaign attacks around identity. And Democrats defied Republican redistricting efforts in at least 11 districts, including four in Florida,four in Texas,one each in Ohio, Alabama and North Carolina.
The results showed the success of economic populist messages, said Alex Jacquez, a Democratic consultant and former policy adviser to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).
“The throughline for all the Democrats [who won] is the corporate-friendliness era of moderation is over and we are much more squarely in the prairie populism of the 80s and 90s,” Jacquez said. “You saw a real resurgence of that.”
The unambiguous nature of the victory helped repel the notion that Republicans might attempt to challenge election results, as Trump had telegraphed as a possibility before the election.
Republicans swiftly began trading blame as they parsed the results.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a likely 2028 presidential contender, predicted the results could “reverberate for the next decade or most,” saying the routing was worse than anticipated.
It was “close to an extinction-level event for Republicans across the country,” DeSantis told reporters Wednesday.
Republicans will now face questions about the party’s future direction, and how they prevent a repeat of Tuesday’s wave in 2028. President Trump signaled his willingness to accept the election results and work with Democrats, while evading blame for himself.
“For Republicans, it is clear that President Trump has led the party to disaster — again,” Sinclair said. “Looking to the future, Republicans should reconsider following his style of governance and his policy agenda.”
Democrats will now have to deliver on the affordability and accountability agenda. With full control of Congress, they will be able to send legislation to Trump’s desk, and could force him to sign bills or make unpopular vetoes. Schumer told reporters Wednesday that the party would work to lower costs “with the president or without him, period.”
“It is critically important now that Democrats, now that we’ve been given the keys to the car here, we’re able to drive it,” Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who won reelection Tuesday, said on MS NOW’s “Morning Joe.”
Shapiro, a likely presidential contender, projected confidence in the new majorities and said Democrats would need to show that they “can legislate, bring down costs, end these wars.”
The mood among Democrats was quickly turning to “resolute” amid the jubilation, said consultant Andrew DeStefano. Party operatives want to build lasting power, he said, not become just another swing in the electoral pendulum.
“Folks don’t want this to be the latest ping-pong volley,” DeStefano said. “Laser focused on how we can deliver on some achievable concrete policy.”
Mike Madrid was prepping to interview Xavier Becerra on Olvera Street last month when the immensity of the moment hit him.
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That morning, Becerra held a rally for his gubernatorial campaign in the birthplace of Los Angeles alongside California Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas and the leader of the state Senate, Monique Limón, that doubled as a referendum on where Latinos stood politically.
Never before have Latinos occupied the top spots in both chambers of the Legislature and the governor’s mansion simultaneously, Rivas told the cheering crowd. Becerra reminded the audience that the moment was fraught for Latinos, though. Federal agents were still detaining undocumented immigrants across the state, and Latino residents — the state’s largest ethnic group at 41% — were suffering under the crushing cost of food, gas and housing.
“[Latinos] are here, we are present and we will fight,” Becerra said. “But right now, our fight is to get the vote out, to make sure everyone understands that our power lies in our vote.”
Gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra purchases an agua fresca from Taqueria Vista Hermosa in Mercado La Paloma on June 9.
(Ronaldo Bolaños / Los Angeles Times)
Madrid, a longtime political commentator and strategist, had set up his recording equipment at the Pico House, formerly a historic hotel named after the last Mexican governor of California. He recalled how Pio Pico, who helped found the California Republican Party but ended up dying destitute, opened the structure in 1870 as a testament to what Latinos had contributed to their state. But they would eventually be seen as a relic of the bygone days when Mexicans ruled — days that gringos imagined would never return.
The symbolism of a Becerra victory would be “kind of a big deal,” Madrid said, representing a back to the future opportunity for an ethnic group that ruled California until the United States won the Mexican-American War, then was relegated to political irrelevance for over a century before finally being at the doorstep of the governor’s mansion again. Becerra would become California’s first Latino governor in modern times and the second since Romualdo Pacheco served for 10 months in 1875.
Now that the race has been called, Becerra’s victory signifies how much Latinos have advanced since Pico’s days. But it’s also anticlimactic.
As California’s Latino population grew and their political power eventually did too, the days when such a victory would have been an inspiring surprise are long gone. Becerra is now just one of many Latino political captains who steer the Golden State.
Xavier Becerra, right, fist bumps with Roy Kuroyawagi, owner of Japangeles, during a tour of businesses in Little Tokyo on Aug. 18.
(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero became the first Latina to occupy that role when Gov. Gavin Newsom appointed her in 2023. The state’s senior U.S. senator, Alex Padilla, is the son of Mexican immigrants who settled in the San Fernando Valley. Rep. Pete Aguilar, a fourth-generation Mexican American from Redlands, is the third most powerful Democrat in Congress as the head of the party’s House caucus. Lorena Gonzalez, daughter of a Mexican immigrant father and white mother, leads the California Labor Federation, a longtime kingmaker in state politics.
And now, with Becerra at the helm, they will have to govern at a precarious moment, inheriting a state with existential problems affecting everyone, everywhere.
Droughts, El Niño, an eroding coast and the year-round threat of wildfires, much of it accelerated by climate change. Stagnant population growth that threatens to shrink the number of congressional seats. A presidential administration that keeps fighting California in federal court and has attempted to block the votes of 20,000 Californians it alleges are noncitizens. A restive population that Madrid predicts won’t let Becerra bask in his historic win.
“This is what you’ve always wanted. Here’s the keys to the car,” he cracked. “You’re responsible for it now. Who you’re going to blame if things don’t get better — Trump?”
Jody Agius Vallejo, associate director of USC’s Equity Research Institute, said she hopes that California’s new caretakers remember the struggles of getting to the summit — that they represent the dreams and battles of generations of politicians, voters and activists — as they embark on whatever’s next.
“You use these narratives [of Latino personal and collective struggle] to get elected,” she said. “Use them to understand what people need, and govern for them.”
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1.Patricia Guerrero, left, is sworn-in to the California Supreme Court in 2022 by Gov. Gavin Newsom. (Nathaniel Levine / The Sacramento Bee via Associated Press)2.Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., questions Attorney General Pam Bondi as she testifies before a Senate Judiciary Committee in 2025.(Jose Luis Magana / Associated Press)3.Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif., speaks at a Democratic Steering and Policy Committee hearing in 2026.(Allison Robbert / Associated Press)4.Lorena Gonzalez at podium with California Attorney General Rob Bonta during a news conference in Los Angeles in 2024. (Damian Dovarganes / Associated Press)
Many voters were already shrugging about the significance of Becerra’s likely victory — especially Latinos. Only 45% of Latino voters in California felt “proud” about the prospect of a Latino governor, according to a Berkeley IGS poll released last week.
Those results aren’t surprising to Lena Gonzalez, a Long Beach-area state senator who chairs California’s Latino Legislative Caucus. She praised Becerra’s victory as the culmination of decades of political organizing. But voters care more about results than identity, she said — something the Latino political class has been slow to realize.
“People will say, ‘OK, that’s great [he’s Latino], but how are you fighting back?’” she said. “I just think we need to lead now and not advertise we’re Latinos.”
Los Angeles mayoral candidate Xavier Becerra waves goodbye after a visit to Hoover St. Elementary School in March 2001.
(Kim D. Johnson / Associated Press)
Becerra has long been a poster child for Latino political firsts, representing L.A.’s Eastside in the state Assembly and Congress for 27 years before Gov. Jerry Brown appointed him to be California’s first Latino attorney general in 2017. Three years later, Becerra became the country’s first Latino Health and Human Services secretary under President Biden.
Becerra has rarely highlighted his latinidad while never shying away from his background as the child of Mexican immigrants. He told Madrid at the end of their interview at the Pico House that Californians should be prouder of his working class roots than his ethnicity.
Some have complained that Becerra is an unworthy, boring torchbearer for Latinos — not dynamic enough to meet a moment where many hoped for a firebrand. But in many ways, his style is a callback to the past.
When Latino politicians first began winning local and state legislative elections in the decades after World War II, they “were constantly about, ‘How do I mobilize the Latino vote without alienating the white vote, and how do I get support from the establishment which is white?’” said Fernando Guerra, director of the Center for the Study of Los Angeles at Loyola Marymount University and a longtime chronicler of California politics.
Latinos were the majority of the population in some areas during that era, but politicians couldn’t rely solely on them to win, because they still didn’t represent a majority of voters. That changed by the late 1980s, as immigration brought millions of Latinos to California.
Mayoral candidate Antonio Villaraigosa, center, and Assemblywoman Karen Bass, left, dance to gospel music sung by the McCoy Memorial Baptist choir during an endorsement celebration in 2005.
(Stefano Paltera / For The Times)
That set the stage for politicians who “didn’t need the external validation anymore” of white voters or power brokers, Guerra said. “They could now say, ‘I am a Latino candidate with a Latino agenda, because I represent a Latino district.’”
By 1996, two years after the anti-immigrant Proposition 187 galvanized Latino activism, a record number of newly registered Latino voters in Orange County helped Loretta Sanchez upset longtime Republican Rep. Bob Dornan, the first welt of purple in a famously red county. That same year, Cruz Bustamante became the first Latino Assembly speaker, then lieutenant governor — the first Latino elected to statewide office in California since Pacheco ascended to the same position in the 1870s. In 2005, Antonio Villaraigosa was elected mayor of Los Angeles, sparking national headlines as the first Latino to occupy that position in modern times.
The Latino political firsts kept coming over the next 20 years, now reaching a pinnacle with Becerra’s win. Guerra said that “incremental” approach made Latinos mainstream to the point where the novelty of another milestone quickly wore off.
“Do you want a transformative moment? Absolutely,” he said. “But those come few and far in between. Incremental comes every two years.”
Democratic gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra takes a selfie with supporters after a campaign stop on May 21 at the Wende Museum in Culver City.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Becerra started his campaign for governor far behind in the polls, surging after Rep. Eric Swalwell dropped out due to sexual assault allegations. Becerra’s campaign leaned into his milquetoast persona and crowned him Tío Xavier — Uncle Xavier — to market him as a non-threatening moderate who happened to be Latino.
Madrid, a lifelong Republican, voted for Becerra because of GOP candidate Steve Hilton’s refusal to denounce MAGA. He also thinks Becerra can “resurrect a healthy economy for the working class” — something he accuses Democrats of “abandon[ing] for a generation.” The “burden” is on California’s Latino leaders to show they can serve not just their own community but everyone, he said.
On Monday, Becerra mingled with eaters at Homegirl Cafe in Chinatown, looking anodyne in a white shirt, wire-framed glasses and tan khakis as supporters asked for selfies or a hug.
Half-hearted shouts of “¡Sí se puede!” gave way to authentically boisterous chants of “Be-ce-rra!”
The heavy favorite for governor took questions in the packed dining room and didn’t flinch when I asked him to reflect on the fact that Latinos will head every branch of California government if he wins.
“We’re all fortunate when a state like California gives all of us opportunities to be in position of authority,” Becerra replied.
He nodded at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who stood by his side.
“But we gotta do it right,” he said. “And it’s on me to be a good governor — not to be a good Latino governor, but to be a good governor.”
WHILE Guy Fawkes prepared to blow up King James I and his government with a deadly haul of explosives under the Houses of Parliament, a sprawling country estate 100 miles away was poised to become a crucial yet little-known part of the Gunpowder Plot.
James’ nine-year-old daughter Elizabeth lived at magnificent Coombe Abbey near Coventry and Fawkes’s co-conspirators had planned to kidnap her and install her on the throne as a puppet queen.
Coombe Abbey, near Coventry, is now a magnificent hotel worthy of its regal connectionsCredit: suppliedThe Princess Elizabeth, decked out in deep mulberries and glimmering golds and with an oak four-poster bed set upon a plinthCredit: supplied
An anonymous letter rumbled the London end of the plan while, in Warwickshire, the plotters – led by Robert Catesby – abandoned the kidnapping on hearing about the failure.
To this day, the foiled plot is commemorated with fireworks and bonfires on November 5.
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And Coombe Abbey is now a magnificent hotel worthy of its regal connections.
Built by Cistercian monks in 1150, it became the biggest abbey in Warwickshire before being seized during Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.
Later it was sold to nobleman John Harington, who agreed to act as Elizabeth’s guardian, raising and educating her at his home.
In a rather peculiar twist four centuries later, Game Of Thrones star Kit Harington, a descendant of Catesby, played his ancestor in BBC One drama Gunpowder.
Guests arriving at the hotel nowadays pass over its ancient moat then enter through the original stone cloisters, where a pulpit still stands.
You can take a pew on an ornately carved throne-like chair, admire the hanging wall tapestries and marble busts or examine the tomb of murdered monk Abbot Geoffrey, whose cloaked figure is said to still roam.
Fittingly, our room for our night’s stay was The Princess Elizabeth, decked out in deep mulberries and glimmering golds and with an oak four-poster bed set upon a plinth.
Luxurious floor-to-ceiling curtains embossed with the same heraldic design as the wallpaper enhance the royal feel, while the bathroom with roll-top bath and golden taps also adds to the drama.
The hotel lies in 500 acres of parkland, set to host a mile-long light festive trail throughout December.
Little ones will love the Hermit’s Hollow play area and families can enjoy Go Ape adventures.
Nearby Coventry is full of medieval buildings and cobbled lanes.
The ruins of its 14th-century cathedral – bombed during World War Two – are preserved alongside a modern replacement, as a symbol of peace and reconciliation.
Coventry Transport Museum is brimming with bikes and vehicles that have helped shape the world including ThrustSSC, the fastest-ever car.
Lesser known but eye-wateringly beautiful is St Mary’s Guildhall.
Built in the 1340s for traders and crafts people, it’s re-opened after a £6.2million refurbishment.
The Great Hall has hosted monarchs and its intricate stained glass windows and painted wood carvings in the roof are breathtaking.
There’s also a rare nine-metre tapestry from the early 1500s depicting Henry VI, who moved his royal court to Coventry, effectively making it England’s capital.
Uncovering another secret gem was the perfect end to a historic stay.
Iraqi Prime Minister Ali al-Zaidi has arrived in Damascus to meet with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa on the first visit of an Iraqi prime minister to Syria since the fall of Bashar al-Assad.
The visit comes as the two neighbours seek to strengthen bilateral ties and boost economic and oil cooperation.
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According to the official Iraqi News Agency (INA), the two leaders discussed the export of Iraqi oil through the Baniyas line, increasing the volume of trade exchange and joint work to develop the agricultural sector to achieve food and economic integration.
Iraq has recently begun exporting limited quantities of oil through Syria following the outbreak of the US-led war on Iran.
Last July, the two countries signed agreements to revive the Haditha Baniyas pipeline to transport Iraqi oil in addition to signing a memorandum of understanding with a consortium of three companies, most notably the American oil major Chevron to implement the project.
“The Iraqi and Syrian people are one people in two countries,” Zaidi said according to INA, noting that “work to develop partnership and joint cooperation in various fields especially economic and social affairs, enhance security co-operation, unify positions on regional and international issues, and work to achieve peace and stability in the region”.
For his part, the Syrian president expressed his “great appreciation for the visit of al-Zaidi and his accompanying delegation,” stressing “the depth of bilateral relations and Syria’s keenness to achieve the highest levels of cooperation between the two countries”.
Al-Sharaa and al-Zaidi had previously met last September in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, where they discussed ways to strengthen political and security coordination and expand economic and trade cooperation.
The new route gives Brits the chance to visit two Christmas markets this historic city which run from November to January and boast free entry, featuring classic winter scenes of chalets, Christmas trees, and an open-air ice rink
The first flight comes after Ryanair unveiled its newly expanded winter schedule last month, with 22 new routes from UK airports(Image: Peter Byrne/PA Wire)
Ryanair has announced a brand new route in time for cheap getaways this winter and this Christmas.
The budget airline has revealed its new winter 2026 route from Manchester to Warsaw Modlin in Poland. Ryanair bosses shared yesterday (October 27) how the first of the Manchester-Warsaw Modlin flights took of this week.
Ryanair says it will operate six weekly flights on this “exciting new winter 2026 route, providing UK customers with even more choice at Europe’s lowest fares”. Ryanair’s full winter 2026 schedule is available to book now via the Ryanair app and website in time for cheap winter and Christmas breaks.
The new route gives Brits the chance to enjoy Warsaw’s two Christmas markets, including the huge Jarmark Warszawski at Plac Defilad, by the Palace of Culture and Science, and the traditional, historic market in the Old Town along the city walls.
Both markets run from November to January and boast free entry, featuring classic winter scenes of chalets, Christmas trees, and an open-air ice rink.
The first flight comes after Ryanair unveiled its newly expanded winter schedule last month, with 22 new routes from UK airports with Birmingham, Edinburgh, Liverpool, and London airports benefiting the most. Ryanair also announced that it was adding nineteenth-based aircraft at Manchester Airport this winter, helping it to run one extra route from the North West hub.
Ryanair is increasing its flight frequencies on another 26 routes from Manchester, including holiday hotspots like Malaga, Palma de Mallorca and Madrid, as well as city break destinations like Barcelona, Belfast, Venice, Porto, Prague and Krakow.
Eye-catching flights among the list included the new winter sunshine route from Birmingham to Marrakech, which regularly enjoys mild winter temperatures. The bulk of the other routes are to northern and western European destinations where more festive pleasures are on the itinerary.
The new route announcement followed the boss of Ryanair warning that air fares would “no doubt” rise next year for summer holidaymakers amid the surging price of oil and the Iran war.
Earlier this month, oil prices rose above 100 dollars a barrel for the first time since July after the latest round of strikes in the conflict.
Ryanair’s Director of Communications, Jade Kirwan, said: “ It was great to see the first flight of our new winter 2026 route from Manchester to Warsaw Modlin take off this week, bringing the first of many happy Ryanair passengers on their winter 2026 getaways.
“Our Manchester to Warsaw Modlin route will operate six times per week, offering our UK customers even more choice at the lowest fares in Europe. Ryanair’s full winter 2026 schedule is available to book now on the Ryanair app/website.”
Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has won an unprecedented fourth term, thanking Brazil’s youth for helping to defeat right-wing Senator Flavio Bolsonaro with more than 51% of the vote. Bolsonaro said he would not concede defeat and would seek to annul the result.
Celebrations erupted across Belgrade as Serbia’s student-backed movement claimed a major victory over Aleksandar Vucic’s long-standing ruling party. The result follows nearly two years of protests after a railway station collapse in Novi Sad killed 16 people in 2024.
Jake Jarman becomes the first British male gymnast to win two individual medals in the World Gymnastics Championships, after winning silver in a thrilling men’s vault final in Rotterdam.
Japan has launched a five-year uncrewed mission to collect samples from Phobos, one of Mars’ two moons, and return them to Earth by 2031. If successful, it would be the first mission to bring back samples from a moon of Mars for scientists to study.
