journey

Inside its sci-fi trappings — space travel, crazy technology, oodles of extraterrestrials — Pixar’s “Elio” is the story of an outsider kid who finds a new family. That’s true of the protagonist, a lonely boy who longs to leave Earth, and of the film itself.

“Elio’s” original mission was launched by Adrian Molina, co-writer of “Coco,” who worked on writing and directing the project for a couple of years before departing, officially to devote himself to “Coco 2.” Molina was replaced in “Elio’s” director’s chair(s) by Domee Shi, who helmed “Turning Red” and won an Oscar for her short “Bao,” and Madeline Sharafian, a story artist on “Coco” and story lead on “Turning Red.”

“The basic premise from Adrian’s beginning, five years ago, has stayed the same,” says Sharafian: “A lonely, weird little boy gets abducted by aliens and is mistaken for the leader of Earth. The biggest change we made, and everything rippled from there, was that Elio always wanted to be abducted by aliens, to find a place where he belongs.”

Shi says, “Both of us were weirdo kids in our respective hometowns who dreamed of not being the only one. I was one of the only kids in my school that liked anime. When I finally got into animation school, I was like, ‘I found my people, and I didn’t realize how much I wanted this.’ ”

One tectonic shift under Shi and Sharafian came from screenwriter Julia Cho, who co-wrote “Turning Red” with Shi: Instead of Olga (voiced by Zoe Saldaña) being Elio’s mom, she would be his aunt. Elio (voiced by Yonas Kibreab) would lose both parents before the film. That reconfigured his alienation, so to speak. A harsh confrontation between mother and child usually rests on the foundation that they already know and love each other. For an orphaned boy and his guardian aunt, that closeness must be earned.

“That love isn’t a given,” says Sharafian. “There was no assumption it would be there. So when it is, it’s all the more moving.”

“Elio” directors Domee Shi and Madeline Sharafian’s shared “visual language” reshaped the film after they took on the project from its initial director, Adrian Molina.

(Pixar Animation Studios)

Amid the changes, Shi and Sharafian say the working relationship they established on “Turning Red” was invaluable.

Shi says, “Though we have different backgrounds, we grew up watching a lot of the same movies. Both of us love Miyazaki films, we love ‘Sailor Moon,’ we love Disney, Pixar.”

Sharafian adds, “We speak the same visual language. There would be many moments when it was time to come up with a new shot and we both drew the same thing.”

In its 28 previous features, Pixar had dabbled in sci-fi, but “Elio” is immersed in it, with just a soupçon of … horror?

“We’re huge fans of sci-fi horror,” says Shi, “and we wanted to use those moments with Elio’s clone and Olga to have fun, to playfully scare some kids — and some adults too.”

That “clone” is a dead ringer for the protagonist, but it emerged from space goo and formed into an eerily cheerful version of the boy, like something from “Invasion of the Body Snatchers” or “The Stepford Wives,” but nice.

“The movies that impacted me the most as a kid, a lot of them did scare me, but they rewarded me as well,” says Shi. “Our film has this Spielberg-y, comfortable, nostalgic, family sci-fi vibe. So when the audience is at their most comfortable, that’s the perfect opportunity to give ’em a little spook.” Both directors cackle.

Sharafian adds, “ ‘Close Encounters’ is so scary, but in an amazing, tense way, and the musical [phrase] the aliens sent, I was so haunted by that. When we had the universe reach out to Elio, we were like, ‘How do we capture that same feeling — we want to know more, but we’re unsure of their intentions?’ ”

Beyond Steven Spielberg’s “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” and “E.T.,” the shared influences of the sci-fi horror of “The Thing” and “Alien” influenced their choice of a virtual anamorphic lens for their cinematography and aping the visual noise and atmospheric mist in those films.

Among the changes Shi and Sharafian made to “Elio” is its “epic” widescreen aspect ratio.

(Pixar Animation Studios)

Shi adds that they also changed the aspect ratio from 1.85 (standard widescreen) to 2.39:1 (anamorphic widescreen, an ultrawide look): “It helped shots of Elio on Earth feel more lonely, but also made space feel more epic.”

“To lay that on top of” Molina’s existing work, says Sharafian, “completely changed what the movie looked like.”

The directors agree that most of the film seamlessly blends their input, though Shi specialized in the horror and action sequences, while Sharafian leaned into the emotional scenes.

“A lot of Act 1 was you, Maddie,” says Shi, “where he’s feeling soulful and lonely. I love that. Yearning, watching the stars. I feel like that’s probably from your own childhood.”

Sharafian chuckles and says, “Yes, I was very lonely! My sister and I say we had ‘rich inner lives’ because we didn’t have a lot going on outside.”

It’s not “Up”-level gut-wrenching, but the scenes establishing the heartbroken boy’s lingering trauma hit pretty hard.

“I feel like it’s good to be sad,” says Sharafian. “At Pixar, we’re lucky; we get to stay in a childlike headspace for a really long time. I think we forget how deep children’s emotions are and how, when you’re young, you’re already thinking about very sad things and dark things. So I don’t think it’s too much.”

One train journey takes a staggering 167 hours to complete, with the railway spanning eight time zones to make it the longest in the world

The longest direct train journey in the world stretches a staggering 5,771 miles and takes almost a week to complete. Passengers on board the train undertake a mammoth journey through eight time zones.

The Trans-Siberian Railroad claims the title of the longest single rail system in the world. It connects east and west Russia, running from Moscow to Vladivostok.

To travel the length of the railway, it takes approximately 167 hours and requires no passenger changes. Heading east from Moscow, the train crosses the country to the Pacific Ocean.

There are even non-stop train options, so all passengers remain on board throughout the seven days. If you prefer to get off and explore the local surroundings, passengers can opt for the stopping service.

However, this takes between 14 and 20 days to complete. The Trans-Siberian railway runs through cities such as Moscow, Yaroslavl, Chelyabinsk, Omsk, Novosibirsk, Krasnoyarsk, Irkutsk, Ulan-Ude, Chita, Khabarovsk, and Vladivostok.

There’s also the Trans-Manchurian line, which runs through northern China to Beijing, and the Trans-Mongolian, which heads to Beijing but passes through Ulan Bator.

A famous train on the Trans-Siberian railway is Rossiya (the Russia), which has second-class sleepers, third-class open-plan sleeper bunks, and a restaurant car.

Passengers can pay for four tickets to ensure sole occupancy of a four-berth compartment, even if they’re the only ones travelling. The bunks convert to seats during the day, with toilets and washrooms at the ends of the corridors.

Many tourists who travelled the route chose not to start or end their journey in Russia. Tourists once began in London and made their way to Moscow before boarding the Trans-Siberian Railroad.

Once in Vladivostok, tourists could then head to Korea, Japan, or China without taking a plane. National Geographic also ran tours along the route, offering tourists the chance to travel on “one of the world’s most legendary railways.”

They described the journey: “Set out on an epic train journey across one-third of the world, travelling from Vladivostok, Russia to the heart of Moscow along the legendary Trans-Siberian Railway.

“From the Mongolian steppe to Lake Baikal’s remote shores to the snow-capped Ural Mountains, trace the history of tsars, exiles, and Mongols in the comfort of our luxury train, the Golden Eagle Trans-Siberian Express. Encounter remote cultures and the unique architecture of Siberia’s wooden cottages and Moscow’s onion domes.”

Tours like these have been halted, yet the train is reportedly still being used by Russians. The UK Government warn against all travel to Russia.

Official advice from the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office says: “FCDO advises against all travel to Russia due to the risks and threats from its continuing invasion of Ukraine, including security incidents, such as drone attacks, and Russian air defence activity, lack of flights to return to the UK and limited ability for the UK government to provide support.”

One question has bothered Martin Ludlow in his decades as a concert and event promoter in Los Angeles. In a city packed with excellent jazz musicians, and a century of history with the genre, why is there no local equivalent of the massive festivals that cities like Montreal, New Orleans or Montreux, Switzerland, have built? One where the music transforms clubs, restaurants and parks across the city for nights on end?

This summer’s inaugural LA Jazz Festival in August will be the biggest push in a generation to build that here. Ludlow’s event — which melds his passion for jazz with the logistics muscle of his former life as a city councilman and labor leader — hopes to draw 250,000 fans across the city for a month of concerts culminating in a stadium-sized show on Dockweiler Beach. It will be one of the largest such events in the world, and the biggest Black-owned fest of its kind.

“This festival is intended to lift up our ancestors that came to this country in bondage, terrorized, brutalized,” Ludlow said outside City Hall on Wednesday. “It’s also about celebrating the end to those last bastions of Jim Crow racism, the days we were denied access to public drinking fountains, public swimming pools and public beaches. From the beginning of this journey, we’ve been very intentional about telling the narrative of that human rights struggle called Jazz.”

Flanked by Mayor Karen Bass, City Council members Heather Hutt, Traci Park and Tim McOsker, and jazz figures including Ray Charles Jr. and Pete Escovedo, Ludlow promised a galvanizing occasion for L.A.’s local jazz scene and the city’s wobbly tourism economy. That jazz scene has welcomed new investments like Blue Note L.A., and lamented beloved clubs like ETA closing.

This festival, however, hopes to be more on a scale with forthcoming mega-events such as the World Cup and the Olympics. The 25-day event in August will sprawl all over the region, with free park concerts in all 15 council districts, and 150 late-night shows at clubs and restaurants across the city. A Caribbean street fair highlighting the African and Latin roots of jazz will hit El Segundo, along with guided tours of historic Black coastal sites like Bruce’s Beach and Inkwell beach.

The fest culminates in a two-day concert on Dockweiler Beach that hopes to draw 40,000 fans a night. While a lineup is still in progress, the scope of Ludlow’s ambition is formidable — the fest will ban fossil fuels from its footprint, and earned a strong vouch from the California Coastal Commission. For decades, the Playboy Jazz Festival (now the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival) was the defining event for the music in Los Angeles; this could eclipse it several times over.

“Martin, I’ve been on this 15-year journey with you. Through all of the ups and downs, I’m so excited this is the year,” Mayor Bass said at Wednesday’s event at City Hall debuting the festival. “This is the Los Angeles that will welcome the world. One of the best things we have to offer is all of our culture.”

Ludlow is a colorful figure in Los Angeles politics, a former council member and L.A. County Federation of Labor executive who pleaded guilty to misappropriating funds in 2006. He’s since delved deep into community activism and embarked on a successful third act as a concert and event promoter, throwing socially-conscious events with his firm Bridge Street, which has produced shows for Stevie Wonder, The Revolution, Sheila E and Snoop Dogg along with civic events like the ceremony renaming Obama Boulevard in Los Angeles.

“During this journey, you can only imagine there’s a lot of highs and a lot of lows,” Ludlow said. “When you have those lows, you want a friend that really can lift you up.” He had plenty of them onstage with him Wednesday announcing what could be a new flagship event for jazz in Los Angeles.

Palestinian women tell of harrowing experience at hands of Israeli military at reopened Rafah border crossing in Gaza.

Palestinian women have described a “journey of horror” as they passed through the Rafah border crossing on their way home to Gaza from Egypt, with the few allowed to enter the war-torn territory being separated from their children, handcuffed, blindfolded, and interrogated “under threat” for hours.

For the 12 Palestinian women and children allowed to enter Gaza through the Rafah crossing on Monday, the journey back home was “long and exhausting, marked by waiting, fear and uncertainty”, Al Jazeera’s Ibrahim Al Khalili said, reporting from Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

The small group of returnees was subjected to harsh security procedures by Israeli forces who hold the power at the Rafah crossing to determine “when and if” people will be allowed to return to their homes in the Palestinian territory, Al Khalili said.

“They took everything from us. Food, drinks, everything. Allowing us to keep only one bag,” said one of the returnees, speaking to Al Jazeera about her ordeal at the hands of the Israeli military on Monday.

“The Israeli army called my mother first and took her. Then they called me, and took me,” the woman said.

“They blindfolded me and covered my eyes. They interrogated me in the first tent, asking why I wanted to enter Gaza. I told them I wanted to see my children and return to my country. They tried to pressure me psychologically, wanted to separate me from my children and force me into exile,” she said.

“After questioning me there, they took me to a second tent and asked political questions, which had nothing to do with [the journey]… They told me I could be detained if I didn’t answer. After three hours of interrogation under threat, we finally went on the bus. The UN received us; then we headed to Nasser Hospital. Thank God we were reunited with our loved ones,” she added.

Another member of the group, Huda Abu Abed, 56, told the Reuters news agency that passing through the Rafah border “was a journey of horror, humiliation and oppression”.

Accounts of being blindfolded, handcuffed and interrogated for hours by Israeli forces were given to reporters by three women, Reuters said.

Some 50 Palestinians had been expected to enter the enclave on Monday, but by nightfall, only 12 – three women and nine children – had been allowed through the reopened crossing by Israeli authorities, Reuters said, citing Palestinian and Egyptian sources.

Worse still, of the 50 people waiting to leave Gaza on Monday, mostly for critical medical treatment, only five patients with seven relatives escorting them managed to clear the Israeli inspections and cross into Egypt.

On Tuesday, just 16 more Palestinian patients were allowed to cross into Egypt via Rafah, Al Jazeera’s Hind Khoudary said, reporting from Khan Younis.

The numbers being allowed to cross at Rafah are far below the 50 Palestinians who Israeli officials said would be allowed to travel in each direction via the crossing every day, Khoudary said.

“There is no explanation as to why crossings are being delayed at Rafah,” Khoudary said. “The process is taking an extremely long time.”

“There are about 20,000 people waiting [in Gaza] for urgent medical attention abroad,” she added.

Is there a better sensation for a traveller than when a train speeds out of a tunnel? The sudden flood of light, that howling rush of air. Clearly, it’s not just me who thinks trains are the new (old) planes, with 2025 having seen a 7% rise in UK train travel, and more Europeans than ever looking to hit the rails.

It’s late December, and I’m heading out on a slow-train journey across the historic railways of the Swiss Alps and the Italian lakes. It’s a trip of roughly 1,800 miles (2,900km), crossing five countries, almost entirely by scenic daytime trains.

What is clear from the off is how easy, and slightly disorientating, this type of train travel can be: drifting through stations, across platforms and over borders, it’s hard to believe we’ve hit three countries in less than a day – the UK, France and Switzerland – such is the ease of each passport stop. Gone are the sweaty finger scans of airport border control, replaced by the most polite immigration police I’ve ever encountered. “You’ve travelled a lot,” one says, with a wry smile and a German shepherd, to which I reply “legally”, just to cover my back.

Outside, the French countryside soon blurs into Swiss hills, all behind a thin veil of white, wintry light. The fields, with their clumps of bare trees, seem suspended in mid-freeze, as though bracing for the full blast to come. As we roll into Zurich, we catch our first glimpse of the milky Alpine peaks.

This is the thrill of train trips: the steadily shifting scenes, the rise and fall of the landscape, leavened like fresh bread. Next morning, we’re greeted with crisp blue skies for our mountain ascent via one of Europe’s most historic train routes, the Matterhorn Gotthard railway. The original line opened in 1882 and was the railroad that changed Europe, slicing a path through inhospitable mountains and isolated villages.

We catch one of the historic trains (the IR46) – keen to avoid anything routed through the Gotthard base tunnel, which bypasses the beauty. In summer, a tourist train – with bigger windows and a bigger price tag – takes the exact same route, famously depicted by JMW Turner and described in awed terms by Goethe. “Here,” he wrote, “it is necessary to submit to nature.” Though it’s the cafe car selling Swiss coffee at eye-watering prices that forces me to revise Goethe: here, it is necessary to submit to inflation.

Phones duly on charge (as is slow-train travel etiquette), we sit back and gawp out of the window for three hours, eating Swiss truffles as the tracks snake the mythic Alps via the famous Gotthard “spirals” – corkscrew tracks built inside the mountains for a steady ascent. It’s the stuff of oil paintings all right – vertiginous gorges, frothing rivers and snow-capped peaks.

At Göschenen, we opt for a lunch stop via a short, even steeper rack-and-pinion route high into the former garrison town of Andermatt, now reinvented as a chic ski retreat. Up here, the snow is thick. Between that and the dark Alpine stone, it’s as though we’ve stepped out into a monochrome photograph. A comforting lunch at the excellent Biselli, along with several glasses of Swiss Ticino red (liquid lunch being another perk of slow-train travel) takes the edge off a dense mist that has crept over the rest of the day’s rail route. Thankfully, Italy soon pushes back, with clear skies and terracotta valley towns, and – just like that – another border is crossed, bringing with it a welcome drop in the cost of a cappuccino (from €5 to €2), enjoyed while skimming the edge of the ice-blue Lake Lugano.

By dusk, we’re at Lake Como. Bags dropped, we catch the last of the light with an easy passeggiata (stroll) round the perimeter of the famous lake, mercifully lacking its high-season crowds. Ornate street lamps line the water’s edge like washed-up pearls and, in the distance, the funicular up to the hillside town of Brunate shines with a string of golden lights that dangle down the slope like lost jewellery. It’s hard to imagine Como any other way.

Next morning, having got into the swing of slow-train transience, we pack up in record time and take coffee at the station. For our final stop, we’re heading in the direction of a much-needed metropolis. Ditching Milan – Italy’s least interesting city – we roll into Turin, one of its most underappreciated.

Stepping off the rickety regional train at Torino Porta Susa, what we find is a vibrant, easygoing student city that appears contentedly trapped in some kind of temporal ragu; a place where 1920s art deco neon signs cling to 18th-century baroque buildings that house vintage shops run by students dressed as if they are in the 1990s.

Miraculously, all this gels, and the student cohort rub along just fine with their more conservative elders, united beneath the impressive porticos that run, unbroken, for more than 18km and are lined with boutiques and historic coffee bars. We round out our first night with an aperitivo at the classic art-school haunt Caffè Università, with its frayed edges and charmingly outmoded daily buffet.

Next morning, Turin’s enviable portfolio of museums and galleries beckon, most free to enter with the Torino card. Here, the time-warp vibes continue within the soaring spire of the 19th-century Mole Antonelliana, now housing the superb Museo Nazionale del Cinema – surely, the only neoclassical building that’s home to an xenomorph egg from the film Alien? Likewise, another repurposed building, the Lingotto complex, boasts an even more outlandish upcycle: the famous Fiat test track on its roof has been reimagined as La Pista 500, a panoramic garden walk, where art installations live alongside the historic skidmarks. Proof that Turin is not interested in simply preserving history, but also evolving.

With a chill in the air, we duck in for a perfect meal at the unassuming yet excellent Osteria Rabezzana, part of the Mangébin circuit that promotes Piedmontese cuisine. The brasato al barolo (beef braised in barolo wine) and local agnolotti del plin (beef- and cabbage–stuffed pasta) are excellent. This family-run restaurant and winery opened just after the second world war, and judging by the convivial atmosphere – full of local people on office festive outings – it has served the city well ever since.

Next morning, we are up and out to catch the 7.36 TGV all the way back to Paris. Drifting in and out of sleep, we take in a last glimpse of the Italian Alps. By the time we reach our Parisian pit stop, day is folding in on itself, and soon enough, we’re slumped back on the Eurostar, flanked by bags of clinking wine bottles cushioned by crushed panettone. Homebound and heady, we reluctantly plunge back into the black of the Channel tunnel, leaving all that light behind us.

Transport was provided by Interrail; passes allowing seven days of travel within one month are £255 youths, £339 adults, £305 seniors (under-12s travel free). Return Eurostar from London to Paris starts from £78. Accommodation was provided by The Home Hotel Zurich (from £165B&B), Hilton Lake Como (from €270 B&B), NH Collection Torino Piazza Carlina (from £203 B&B) and 25hours Terminus Nord in Paris (from €179 room-only ).