west

Ras al-Ahmar, occupied West Bank – The drive to Thaer Bisharat’s home should take less than 10 minutes from the main road. Instead, it took three hours.

Every gate leading into Ras al-Ahmar, in the northern Jordan Valley, is shut these days. Such road closures have become the norm rather than the exception, patrolled in shifts by Israeli soldiers and settlers whose roles on the ground have become increasingly difficult to tell apart. The sole access point that remained was a single, winding dirt road, passable only by four-wheel drive vehicles and requiring drivers to evade the roving Israeli patrols.

During the drive to Thaer’s house, Israeli forces had the area under an even greater lockdown than normal as they were nearby in the al-Buqaia plain, destroying three wells belonging to local Palestinians – including one owned by a relative of Thaer’s.

This is some of the most fertile land in the occupied West Bank, where farmers normally tend rows of banana trees alongside crops such as grapes, olives and potatoes. But along the dirt road leading to Thaer’s isolated home, the farms stand half-abandoned, with plastic greenhouse doors open and flapping in the breeze, as crops go thirsty after water was cut off in the area weeks ago by Israeli authorities.

“I can’t even run an errand,” said Thaer. “From Tamun, the village, it used to take me ten minutes. Now, with the current [dirt] road… it takes an hour, at best.”

He was spending the afternoon alone – his brother and sister-in-law had gone into town that morning for basic necessities. Left by himself, it was easy to feel like a sitting duck.

“Just this morning, there was a car – two people in it, dressed in military gear, army-backed,” he said. “They went to the people living near the banana houses. They took down ID photos, names, phone numbers. And they tell them, ‘You’ve got 24 hours to leave. Otherwise we’re coming to confiscate everything you’ve got’.”

In recent weeks, that pressure has escalated from long-standing “closed military zone” orders issued by the military into outright seizures of private land, alongside the destruction of irrigation pipes, water wells and greenhouses in the barrier’s path – the sharpest expression yet of an advancing takeover in which settler-outpost expansion and land seizure now work in tandem to squeeze out the Palestinians who remain.

“They cage us in and suffocate us,” Thaer said.

A trench, an outpost and a series of seizure orders

That tightening isolation is the result of one of Israel’s newest infrastructure projects in the occupied West Bank: the ‘Crimson Thread’ barrier. Announced in 2025, the first part of the project combines a trench and military road running roughly 22km between the Ein Shibli and Tayasir checkpoints – severing the northern Jordan Valley from Tubas to the north and Nablus to the south. Israel says it is intended to prevent weapons smuggling from Jordan, but the route runs several kilometres inside the occupied West Bank rather than along the already-fenced Jordanian border.

The plan is for the barrier to eventually run for 500km, splitting Palestinians from thousands of hectares of land and creating a barrier that – in its consequences – mirrors the separation wall on the other side of the West Bank.

On March 8, Israeli military commander Gilad Shriki visited several Palestinian communities, and, in their words, warned residents they should leave in preparation for a complete Israeli takeover of the area.

Then, last month, an Israeli Supreme Court ruling cleared the way for construction of the ‘Crimson Thread’ barrier to proceed. Since then, the Israeli Civil Administration has moved aggressively. Roughly three kilometres of trenches have already been dug, destroying Palestinian infrastructure in its path – including irrigation pipes, farmland and greenhouses, all while severing farmers from land on the other side.

The route of the ‘Crimson Thread’ project was stitched together with nine land seizure orders – a “clear escalation” of a decades-long effort by Israeli authorities to remove Palestinians in the area, according to Dror Etkes, who tracks Israeli land policy for Israeli NGO Kerem Navot. What started as checkpoints, settlement building and the designation of Palestinian lands as military firing zones “have in recent years become much more aggressive – through settler attacks, military raids, confiscation of property and denial of access to firing zones”.

Now, such military land seizure orders allow Israeli authorities to “seize whatever land it deems necessary” for security purposes, says Etkes.

According to the Colonisation and Wall Resistance Commission, Israeli authorities issued 49 military land-seizure orders in the first half of this year – already exceeding the 47 issued in all of 2025.

Thaer scoffs at the official rationale. “It’s not a military road,” he said. “You don’t dig a trench two and a half, three metres deep for that.”

‘Effectively in a prison’

Etkes said the barrier accomplishes two things at once: “blocking Palestinians’ ability to enter everything east of the barrier” – where most of their farmland is – while linking existing illegal settlements to a new outpost being built along the route, on Jabal Tamun, that he expects to further impact 8-9,000 dunams (8 to 9sq km) of Palestinian agricultural land, most of it in Area B.

“The majority of communities aren’t there anymore – they’ve been forced to leave, which convinced [Israeli authorities] that the time was right for the next move,” said Etkes, listing emptied communities such as Khirbet Samra and Khirbet Yarza.

A Kerem Navot map shows the ‘Crimson Thread’ barrier route curling around Khirbet Yarza – but by the time construction reached it, Khirbet Yarza was already gone, with its residents displaced by settlers months earlier.

Mahdi Daraghmeh, who heads the al-Maleh village council, has watched the same pattern unfold throughout the hamlets he oversees. “Settler terror and fear have pushed many families to leave,” he said. “In the communities here, 130 families have been displaced – they’ve abandoned their structures, their homes, their land. And now they’ve lost their livelihoods – they have nothing left to live on.”

Since the June Supreme Court ruling, Israeli authorities have carried out near-daily operations in the area, cutting water supplies, destroying tanks and confiscating tractors and other farming equipment.

“They confiscated the tractors and water tanks from us here,” said Thaer. “So they claim these tractors and tanks are a threat to their security. A threat to your security, how?”

At the same time, settlers brought caravans into the area east of Ras al-Ahmar, positioning themselves inside territory expected to be cut off from Palestinian communities.

On June 16, bulldozers demolished livestock infrastructure at the home of Bilal Bani Oudeh, a friend of Thaer’s, and warned him to leave within 24 hours. He refused, so that night, settlers returned and brutally assaulted him.

“He nearly died,” Thaer said. “After they attacked him, they talked about tying him to a rope behind a vehicle. They took everything he owned.”

With authorities working assiduously to keep observers from documenting or photographing the ‘Crimson Thread’ operation, excavation has uprooted hundreds of olive and grape trees while repeatedly severing irrigation pipelines serving tens of thousands of dunams. On the morning of July 14 alone, Israeli authorities destroyed three wells in al-Buqaia – including one belonging to Bisharat’s relative – and confiscated pumps and equipment.

The Atuf village council – one of those affected by the new barrier – put that single day’s damage at more than four million shekels ($1.3m).

Already, this destruction has decimated the local economy in weeks, wiping out the summer harvest. “There’s no agricultural season to speak of,” Daraghmeh said. “Most of the land hasn’t been cultivated and what has been cultivated is for the settlers’ benefit.”

When the trench is finished, cutting communities off from each other and their farmland, residents fear it will mark the end of a Palestinian presence here. “Our communities will have no services, no infrastructure whatsoever,” said Daraghmeh. “No hospital, no emergency centre, no schools; for all of that, people have to go to the neighbouring town and that will be impossible.”

“Once this trench cuts people off,” he said, “the people here will effectively be in a prison.”

‘Give us the rights of the animals’

With Israeli authorities having shut off water into the area for weeks, one tank now costs Thaer more than 300 shekels ($100), more than triple the previous price. But even transporting water is a perilous pursuit; his brother was recently beaten and held at gunpoint by marauding settlers, who he said stole his phone and robbed him of his money.

Thaer estimates that agricultural production in the area has collapsed by as much as 90 percent, while many families have already lost half their livestock because they can no longer reach grazing land.

But among neighbouring communities now erased, Thaer has seen this playbook before: once Palestinians are removed, he says, the settlers take over their lands. “Then suddenly there’s no more ‘firing zone,’” Thaer said. “A road appears, water arrives, sheep arrive. Life comes back to the place, thank God!

“So why do I get told it’s all a military zone?”

Thaer looked out at the Israeli settlement farms, lush and green in the distance. Around his own property, the ground was parched, littered with half-abandoned equipment. “Under their ‘law’, we are treated like animals,” he remarked.

Thaer paused. “Israel always talks about ‘rights’, ‘rights’, ‘rights’,” he said. “When someone hits a dog, suddenly, there’s animal rights advocates everywhere.”

“So actually, we don’t even want human rights,” he said. “Just give us the animal rights they talk so much about. At this point, we’d settle for living under that.”

Pressure is growing on the EU to sanction Israel for its expansion of illegal settlements and violence against Palestinians in the Occupied West Bank.

The European Union has renewed its call on Israel to halt the expansion of settlements in the occupied West Bank, warning that continued construction and other unilateral measures threaten the viability of a future Palestinian state.

An EU spokesperson on Friday urged Israel to stop the legalisation of settlement outposts, land appropriation, demolitions, forced evictions of Palestinians, and other actions that “undermine the viability of the two-state solution”.

The statement came days after Israel’s security cabinet approved the allocation of 1.3 billion shekels ($427.8m) to establish 34 new settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The funding package marks one of Israel’s largest recent investments in settlement expansion and has drawn criticism from Palestinian officials and international partners.

The United Nations, the International Court of Justice and most countries consider Israeli settlements in territory occupied by Israel since 1967 to be illegal under international law. Israel rejects that interpretation.

The EU has long maintained that it does not recognise Israel’s sovereignty over the territories it occupied in 1967. However, the 27-member bloc remains divided over whether to take stronger measures against Israel’s settlement policy.

EU foreign ministers this week failed to reach a consensus on proposals that could restrict trade with settlements in the occupied West Bank, despite growing calls from several member states for tougher action.

The renewed diplomatic pressure comes amid continuing violence in the occupied West Bank, where Palestinians, including children, have been injured in separate incidents involving Israeli settlers and Israeli forces.

On Friday, two Palestinian children were taken to hospital after suffering head and facial injuries when Israeli settlers allegedly hurled stones at their family’s vehicle in the Wadi al-Sha’er area, according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa.

In another incident, a 16-year-old Palestinian boy was shot by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank. He remains in hospital.

“Everybody agrees that the situation in the West Bank is really intolerable,” the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, said ahead of talks among EU foreign ministers in Brussels on Monday.

“What is happening in the West Bank is actually making it more and more impossible that the two-state solution ever can come into effect,” she added.

Garfield St Aubrun Sobers was born in Bridgetown on 28 July 1936, but was only five when his merchant seaman father was killed in World War Two, leaving his mother Thelma to raise half-a-dozen children. Young Garry was born with an extra finger on each hand, which were removed during childhood.

Having excelled at several sports as a schoolboy, he was recruited to local club cricket in his early teens and made his first-class debut at the age of 16 against the Indian tourists at his home town’s Kensington Oval – the ground whose pavilion would one day bear his name.

Sobers was selected to bat at number nine and bowl spin for a star-studded Barbados line-up – he was one of eight current or future Test players, of which no fewer than four would be knighted. He took four wickets in the first innings and three in the second.

And with only one other first-class appearance under his belt, his Test debut came 14 months later as a 17-year-old chosen to take on England in the final Test in Jamaica in early 1954 after the Windies’ regular left-arm spinner Alf Valentine fell ill. Again, he captured four wickets on debut.

Although the famous ‘Three W’s’ – Clyde Walcott, Everton Weekes and Frank Worrell – were the established middle order, Sobers was elevated to number six on his next Test appearance when Australia toured in 1955, and soon showed signs of his all-round quality.

Having made 47 in the second Test, he found himself as an emergency opener in the fourth, where he hit the first three balls he received – from legendary Aussie all-rounder Keith Miller – for four.

Sobers toured England for the first time in 1957, and despite only recording one half-century in five Tests, he lit up Trent Bridge – a ground where he would later shine – with an unbeaten 219 against his future county side Nottinghamshire.

John L Esposito, a prominent scholar of religion and international affairs at Georgetown University, passed away on July 15, 2026, due to complications from heart surgery.

He was a towering intellectual who published more than 55 books, mainly with Oxford University Press, which have been translated into dozens of languages. He uniquely shaped the modern study of Islam and Muslim societies during the late 20th and early 21st century, particularly in the area of Islam-West relations during key moments of friction following the 1979 Iranian revolution and 9/11.

John was born into a working-class Italian-American family in Brooklyn, New York, in 1940. His worldview was shaped by his devout Catholic mother and his father’s commitment to social justice. He aspired to become a Catholic priest and, at a young age, joined the strict Capuchin Franciscan Order. John left the seminary before ordination and opted for graduate school instead. He earned a doctorate in religious studies at Temple University under the supervision of Ismail al-Faruqi, the late Palestinian-American scholar of religion.

John’s family and friends questioned his career choice because they feared for his employability. When he entered the job market in 1974, there was only one advertised position in Islamic studies. The study of religion, particularly Islam, was absent in many institutions of higher learning, and international relations programmes at universities ignored the role of religion in global affairs.

Telling stories was one of Professor Esposito’s many passions. Reflecting on his career, he frequently joked that he owed his livelihood to two famous “radical” Muslims, one Shia and the other Sunni: Ayatollah Khomeini and Osama bin Laden.

After the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, interest in the relationship between Islam and politics skyrocketed in the West. The same happened after 9/11. John’s expertise was suddenly in high demand. He responded by publishing several groundbreaking books on the relationship between Islam and politics, Islam’s normative ideals, Islam-West relations, and the diverse political and social structures of Muslim societies. He was frequently quoted in the media, and governments now sought his counsel.

This story about John’s career, however, has a steep downside.

The Western interest in Islam and Muslims emerged due to threats to United States national security. This meant the ability to understand this topic in a free, unbiased and independent way was absent for most Westerners. The enveloping context that shaped the policy and public debate on Islam and Muslims was themes of political revolution, mass violence and perceived threats to global order.

John’s educational efforts were always an uphill battle. Establishment academics dominated the intellectual, policy and media debates. Bernard Lewis wrote about the alleged “Roots of Muslim Rage” at modernity that purportedly explained turmoil in the Middle East. Around the same time, Samuel Huntington advanced a popular thesis on the “Clash of Civilizations”. These views had a wide following, in part because they reinforced pre-existing Western biases about Islam and Muslims. They were further enhanced by US and Israeli national security narratives about an alleged Islamic threat in the aftermath of the Cold War.

John was an early and courageous scholar who challenged Orientalist misrepresentations of Islam and Muslims in an era of deep polarisation. His scholarship created room for understanding in lieu of prejudice, and his intellectual insights allowed a younger generation of scholars to build on and expand upon his pioneering research.

Professor Esposito advanced a new understanding of religion by criticising the dominant social science theories about political development. He astutely drew attention to a “secular bias” that informed mainstream intellectual debates in the West on the relationship between religion and politics. These modernisation theories purported to be universally applicable based on the assumption that religion was a relic of the past that no longer mattered in the modern world. In truth, these claims were ideologically biased, based on a set of specifically Western experiences.

By contrast, John interpreted the politics of the Muslim world not from a Western normative framework but rather from the Muslim world’s own experience. In other words, not from the outside in, but rather from the bottom up, from the perspective of the masses, many of whom held onto a religious identity.  In doing so, he advanced a historically grounded and sociologically compelling analysis of religious politics in the Islamic world. Critiques of the legacy of colonialism, authoritarianism and US foreign policy were central to his intellectual work.

Professor Esposito’s work on political Islam was pioneering. He wrote about the social conditions and collective aspirations that rendered political Islam appealing to diverse constituencies across the Middle East and the broader Muslim world. While most mainstream Western scholars and liberal intellectuals focused on the Islamist desire to implement “Sharia”, Esposito focused on the core aspirations that animated political Islam: dignity, justice, self-determination, and opposition to external domination. These same aspirations made political Islam a resilient and enduring force.

In reflecting on John Esposito’s legacy, I’m reminded of an observation by Edmund Burke III. Commenting on the work of the late Marshall GS Hodgson, author of The Venture of Islam: Conscience and History of a World Civilization, Burke noted that Hodgson, like Esposito, refused to view Islam as the “other”. Instead, he understood the Islamic tradition as “a venture alongside others that marked human efforts to bring about a just and moral world”.

We are unlikely to see a scholar in our lifetime again who can match John Esposito’s moral and intellectual caliber. His impact on our collective education and understanding of Islam-West relations is unique and immeasurable. Those who care about universal values rooted in international law, human rights, democracy, and cross-cultural understanding are deeply in his debt.

John Esposito is survived by his wife of 61 years, Jean Esposito, his partner and primary supporter in all his endeavours, and the enduring love of John’s life.

The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial policy.

NORTH West has flashed a massive new face tattoo and lip rings ahead of her tour across the US.

Kim Kardashian and Kanye West’s eldest daughter, who recently showcased two fresh body piercings, debuted her dramatic look on Instagram.

She pulled up her striking blue hair into an up-do so her face art could be showcased to full effect.

After applying pink eyeshadow and black false lashes, North finished off her look with the writing on her right cheek which read: “Are you ready for the Kimokawaii tour?”

The tour – which spans 14 dates across the US – sees the budding songstress team up with Molly Santana for the shows.

The gigs come after North penned a huge deal with Mariah Carey’s record label and was confirmed to be “recording music”.

While her face tatt – which is likely to be fake or temporary – took centre stage, North made sure her lip and ear bling was on point for the sassy snap.

In her caption, she put two question marks, but fans were quick to reply to the question posed by her body art.

One wrote: “Ohhh yesssss”.

Another confirmed: “Yess can’t wait”.

A third then put: “So pretty omg”.

North is no stranger to vamping up her look.

In another Instagram snap she showcased two piercings on her pointer and middle fingers, which she debuted in November.

Over the last few months, North has flaunted numerous body and face piercings, tattoos, heavy makeup, and drastic hair transformations.

Her followers expect to see even more shocking makeovers now that she’s branched out from posting on a joint-TikTok account with her mother to her own Instagram page.

North shared her first post on the platform on December 19th, sending social media into a frenzy.

Many fans have criticized her mom Kim for allowing her daughter to “grow up fast” and not act her age.

Kanye, 48, has shared the same thoughts, publicly calling out his ex-wife numerous times in the past for letting North be on social media and to dress in a mature way.

The former couple is also parents to a daughter, Chicago, 7, and sons, Saint, 10, and Psalm, 6.

All of their children are primarily in Kim’s care, despite their 2022 divorce settlement granting them joint legal and physical custody.

PHILADELPHIA — If the Dodgers picked up Tarik Skubal, would that be overkill?

Logan Webb, the longtime ace of the San Francisco Giants, laughed.

“I don’t think they need him,” Webb said, “but you never count those guys out on getting anybody in the league.”

The Dodgers could make a mockery of the National League West by trading for Skubal, who won the last two American League Cy Young awards for the Detroit Tigers.

Then again, you could argue the Dodgers already are making a mockery of the NL West. They lead the division by 11½ games, more than double the lead in any other division.

So, on the day before the All-Star Game, I posed the overkill question to the stars from the other teams in the NL West.

“Would I consider it overkill? It’s a crazy game,” said outfielder Corbin Carroll of the Arizona Diamondbacks, the team that swept the Dodgers over the weekend at Dodger Stadium.

“I don’t think, going into the weekend, that too many people would have expected that. The nature of this game is about you can never be good enough, and you always have to look to keep improving. I think I would just view it in that same light.”

The Dodgers are not about winning the NL West this season. From owner Mark Walter to president of baseball operations Andrew Friedman, from manager Dave Roberts to franchise icon Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers last fall loudly and proudly declared their intent to three-peat, to become the first NL team ever to win three consecutive World Series championships.

Their postseason rotation could be so overloaded that All-Star Justin Wrobleski, whose 2.69 ERA compares favorably to NL All-Star starter Cristopher Sanchez (2.62), could find himself in the bullpen behind starters Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Ohtani, Blake Snell and Tyler Glasnow.

On the other hand, Ohtani missed his last start for treatment of a troublesome left knee, and neither Snell nor Glasnow has pitched since May. The Dodgers might not be entirely sure of projecting their October health and effectiveness by the Aug. 3 trade deadline, and the chance to three-peat might never come again.

The Dodgers have the prospects and the money to acquire Skubal, should the Tigers trade him. The Dodgers might or might not have the need, but they have the motivation.

“I wouldn’t blame them,” Colorado Rockies catcher Hunter Goodman said. “They’re trying to win another World Series.”

Said San Diego Padres closer Mason Miller: “He’d help any team he went to. They’ve got a strong rotation, a lot of guys that are going to get healthy and help them out, but I don’t necessarily consider it overkill. Anybody, on any given night.”

If the Dodgers acquired Skubal, the fans of those rival NL West teams would explode in frustration, perhaps even in rage, at the back-to-back champions. Ohtani for $700 million, Kyle Tucker for $60 million per year, and now the rich kids would get Skubal, too?

The owners are trying to channel that level of fan frustration and anger in their push for a salary cap. They say they’re trying to help teams like, say, the Rockies and Pittsburgh Pirates compete more effectively against the Dodgers.

The Pirates have not posted a winning record in eight years and have not appeared in the playoffs 11 years. Surely, a salary cap would help them, right?

“I don’t think there’s any need for a salary cap,” Pirates ace Paul Skenes said. “I don’t know if there’s a perfect answer, but I do know the salary cap would not be a fix-all for parity.”

Parity is in the eye of the beholder, or more accurately in the definition of the beholder. The owners like to note that no small-market team has won the World Series since the Kansas City Royals in 2015.

However, in a league that owners insist demands immediate reform, 23 of the 30 teams are within four games of a playoff spot.

As one of eight players on the executive committee of the players’ union, Skenes is involved in the current collective bargaining negotiations. Salary cap or none, would it be overkill if the Dodgers picked up Skubal?

“They’re trying to win, aren’t they?” Skenes said. “You can’t ever blame a team for going out and doing everything possible to win.”

July 12 (UPI) — A major heat dome expanded from the interior West into the Upper Midwest on Sunday on its way to smothering the East later this week, forecasters said.

The heat in the East is expected to be shorter and less intense than the early July heat wave, but parts of the West are coming within a few degrees of all-time record highs.

Dangerous heat is also gripping even the Desert Southwest, where communities are used to extreme temperatures. The pattern will raise the risk of heat exhaustion, heatstroke and heat-related deaths.

Motorists are urged to carry plenty of water with them in the event of a breakdown.

Temperatures climbed well above 100 degrees Fahrenheit across much of the Great Basin, the Cascades and Sierras east to the western Rockies, eastern Washington, eastern Oregon, Nevada, Idaho, Utah, western Colorado and northern Arizona this weekend.

The building heat dome has already pushed season-high temperatures into the 110s in Phoenix, Las Vegas and Palm Springs, Calif.

The heat expanded north this weekend, bringing highs of 106 in Salt Lake City, 107 in Bismarck, N.D., and 110 in Billings, Mont. Those temperatures are 10-25 degrees above historical averages during what is typically the hottest part of the year.

As the heat shifts east into the north-central United States early this week, some daily record highs will be challenged. As the hot air spreads east of the Rockies into more humid air, AccuWeather RealFeel Temperatures will run as much as 10-15 degrees higher than the actual air temperature.

While the North American monsoon will begin to temper the heat across parts of the West with increasing clouds and thunderstorms, multiple days of 90-degree heat are forecast across the Midwest, including Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland.

Minneapolis and Chicago can expect at least four consecutive days with highs at or above 90.

“Temperatures will peak in the mid- to upper 90s in the Interstate 95 cities of the mid-Atlantic and New England during the heat surge this week,” AccuWeather Vice President of Forecast Operations Dan DePodwin said. “While high temperatures will still create dangerous conditions, the heat will be somewhat less intense and shorter-lived than the early July heat wave.”

Humidity levels with the heat in the Midwest and Northeast this week will be significantly lower when compared to the week of Independence Day.

The US and Israel have signed a deal allocating land for a permanent US embassy in West Jerusalem, years after a temporary one was established during Trump’s first term in office. The move is yet another blow to the hopes of a future Palestinian capital.

All Creatures Great and Small is returning to Channel 5 for a new season and Christmas special

All Creatures Great and Small fans are in for a treat as Samuel West shares an exciting update.

The much-loved period drama premiered its sixth season in September 2025, before returning with an emotional episode on Christmas Eve.

The Channel 5 show has been confirmed to return for series seven and eight, each comprising six one-hour episodes, plus Christmas specials.

The newest season of All Creatures Great and Small, based on James Herriot’s books chronicling his life as a vet in rural Yorkshire, is expected to pick up from the 2025 festive special.

On Thursday (June 25), Siegfried Farnon star Samuel West confirmed that filming for the newest Christmas instalment had finished on what was the hottest day of the year.

Taking to X, formerly known as Twitter, Samuel shared two photos of the cast and crew, including Nicholas Ralph and Rachel Shenton, who play James and Helen Herriot.

He captioned the post: “We wrapped today on the Christmas episode, on the hottest June day in this country’s history, and as far away from December 25 as it is possible to be.

“Here’s Chanel with the final slate, and the Herriot/Alderson family with all of them.”

Fans have wasted no time in sharing their excitement for new episodes, with one person writing: “I’m so looking forward to series 7. I also can’t wait for series 2 of Sam and Ade go birding.”

A second added, “We are very, very grateful for the hard work in these extreme temperatures to bring us a wonderful series and another Christmas special!”

A third chimed in: “Thank you all, absolutely love ACGAS!!! We do appreciate you all working in hot conditions.”

When will Season 7 be released?

With a fresh series of the drama arriving every year since 2020, with Season 5 debuting in September and Season 1 in October, new episodes could well arrive in autumn.

While Channel 5 is currently keeping the plot details of All Creatures Great and Small Season 7 firmly under wraps, Greg Barnett, Commissioning Editor at 5, has teased that there are “many new stories still to tell and more unforgettable adventures ahead”.

Barnett said: “All Creatures Great and Small is a jewel in 5’s drama crown and continues to delight viewers year after year. Its warmth, humour and heart, set against the beauty of Yorkshire, have made it a firm audience favourite.

“We’re thrilled to extend its future with two more series, with many new stories still to tell and more unforgettable adventures ahead for our Skeldale family.”

All Creatures Great and Small is available to stream on Channel 5.

Videos show Israeli settlers, protected by Israeli soldiers, trying to seize a house under construction on the outskirts of the town of Qabalan, just south of Nablus, in the occupied West Bank.

Bethlehem, occupied West Bank – In the narrow alleyways of the Dheisheh refugee camp, three children debate which of their encounters with the Israeli military is worth telling, and who gets to tell it.

Yanal, 14, wins the opening round on language skills alone. He speaks three languages: Arabic, English and Spanish, and insists on telling his story in English.

“Life in the camp is complex,” he says, because, as he explains, there is nowhere to run away to when the army comes.

Yanal keeps returning to one memory: a football match, soldiers entering the field, and there being no way out.

Mustafa Abu Aliyah, 13, counters with a raid that he ran into as he was on his way to his grandfather’s house. The Israeli army fired live rounds and tear gas, he says. “We were in the middle of the fire.”

He can’t remember his first encounter with soldiers, “but I definitely saw them when I was little, because they are always coming here”.

His sister Diyar, 12, was mid-piano lesson the last time the army came through.

“Whenever the army comes, there will be tear gas,” she says. “People will be beaten. There’s usually someone injured or killed.”

She compares it to life elsewhere. “I see children in other countries, in other worlds, living in safety, but we can’t even leave our front door without suffering.”

The raids happen so often that the children often can’t remember the dates of specific incidents. But what they do remember is the fear they experienced and the aggression displayed by the Israeli soldiers.

In the first nine months of 2025 alone, Israeli forces carried out nearly 7,500 raids across the occupied West Bank, or about 27 a day, and a 37 percent increase compared with the same period in 2024.

‘Essence of childhood destroyed’

The children in the Dheisheh refugee camp reflect a wider pattern of childhood experiences under Israeli occupation, set out in a report the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory released on Tuesday.

It examines Israel’s treatment of Palestinian children in Gaza and the occupied West Bank since October 2023.

Titled, “The essence of childhood has been destroyed”, it found that Israeli forces have killed at least 20,179 Palestinian children and wounded more than 44,000 across the occupied territory, most of them in Gaza – where it said that the deliberate targeting of children constituted part of the genocide in the Palestinian territory.

The report also documents a pattern of killings, mass arrests, torture, sexual violence and attacks on schools and hospitals.

In the West Bank, it records a sharp rise in settler violence against children and killings by Israeli forces, among them a two-year-old girl shot dead in January 2025. Children, the report notes, are held in Israeli detention, with no lawyer and no word sent to their parents, a separation it says can amount to enforced disappearance. Schools, too, are targets: 85 across the West Bank are under demolition or stop-work orders, and others have been closed or attacked by soldiers and settlers.

Beyond the casualty count

The UN commission argues that Israel has created conditions in which Palestinians live in a constant state of “diffused, ambient terror, that does not require constant bombing to remain effective”.

“We are talking about repeated shocks, about continuous events that never end,” says Lemis Farraj, a psychologist and the project coordinator at Shorouq in Dheisheh, emphasising that a child’s physical and mental health cannot be separated from each other.

The report calls this continuous traumatic stress, distinct from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), because there is no single event to recover from. The danger does not just come from experiencing one raid, but from the fear that comes with waiting for the expected raids that will likely come in the future.

Diyar explains that when the army enters her neighbourhood, she has to stay home and wait, no matter what her plans were. “Our life stops,” she says.

Her brother, Mustafa, says that the repetition has worn the fear flat.

“When I see the army, I [am] used to it and I stop being afraid.”

Farraj sees the same in the young children she treats: a startle at an ordinary sound, certainty that a raid has begun, and regression – skills already learned suddenly lost again.

Five-year-old Khour Hammad, who lives a few alleys away from the older children, has experienced the same raids.

She explains that both of her parents are in prison. Israeli forces arrested her father in July 2023 and her mother last March, according to the family.

Khour remembers the night the army came for her mother. Half-asleep, she heard a man’s voice and thought her father had finally come home. She climbed out of bed expecting him. Instead, she found soldiers inside the house.

The soldiers tried to question Khour. She says that she “felt like I was going to throw up”.

Handed an old family photo, she brightens at once, pointing out her mother, Islam Amarna, and her father, Osama Hammad, and rattling off memories in bursts.

Generational trauma

While Palestinian children in Gaza and the West Bank face different lived experiences, the UN finds the same cause behind the harm: a military occupation described as a “long-term mechanism of domination, subjugation and oppression”.

Farraj adds that children are affected not only by their own experiences of trauma, but also by what is passed down from parents and grandparents.

“The first generation of the Nakba lived in shock and passed it on to their children,” she says, referring to the ethnic cleansing of at least 750,000 Palestinians following the formation of the state of Israel in 1948.

The report similarly notes that Palestinian refugees, now in their fifth generation, have internalised a sense of “dispossession from the Nakba” alongside present-day experiences of occupation.

In the West Bank, roughly one in four Palestinians are refugees; in Gaza, it is about 70 percent.

Israeli violence and forcible displacement have been carried through generations of Palestinians, compounding as the cycle repeats. Farraj says trauma recovery depends on stability: family support, schooling, safe spaces and a predictable routine, all of which remain precarious under Israel’s occupation.

For Khour, that stability begins with her parents.

“I want the whole world to listen and see my picture,” Khour says, “and get my mom and dad out of prison.”

Israel is pushing humanitarian groups and rights defenders to scale down operations in Palestinian territories.

Children are “increasingly unprotected” as humanitarian groups and rights defenders are forced to scale back their operations in the Palestinian territories, the United Nations has warned.

Many civil society and aid organisations in Gaza and the West Bank have been labelled “terrorists” by pro-Israel groups or politicians, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child warned in a statement issued on Monday, noting that their absence leaves children vulnerable.

“For more than three decades, these organisations have played a vital role in defending Palestinian children, including in the Israeli military courts, and in documenting grave violations against Palestinian children at the hands of Israeli forces,” the committee said.

“Without them, Palestinian children will be even less protected, and violations of their rights risk continuing with impunity,” it added.

Issued by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the statement noted that tactics used to delegitimise these human rights groups also include “military raids, travel bans, personal financial sanctions, threats of arrest, destruction of records, and even threats of secondary sanctions against partners who support their work”.

The committee said this made it “increasingly impossible for these organisations to operate safely or protect the children and families who turn to them for help”.

The committee urged the international community to hold Israeli authorities accountable for the attacks committed against Palestinian human rights defenders.

It urged the Israeli authorities to lift the restrictions faced by humanitarian individuals and groups.

“Despite grave risks and limited resources, child rights defenders have continued to stand with Palestinian children and families in extraordinarily dangerous conditions. They must be protected, not punished,” the committee said.

Israel has cracked down significantly on humanitarian operations in Gaza since the “ceasefire” that began on October 10, banning Doctors Without Borders, known by its French acronym MSF, after it failed to provide a list of its Palestinian staff, further depriving Palestinians in the besieged enclave of life-saving assistance.

In February this year, 17 international aid groups petitioned Israel’s Supreme Court to be allowed to keep working in the Gaza Strip and other areas in the occupied Palestinian territory. The Israeli government has planned to halt their life-saving work.

The occupied West Bank has seen sustained and rising violence amid ongoing conflict between Israelis and Palestinians. Israeli forces conduct frequent raids in Palestinian areas, saying they are targeting militants and preventing attacks, while Palestinians and rights groups accuse the military of using excessive force and say settlement expansion is a major driver of instability. Israeli settlements in the territory are widely considered illegal under international law by the United Nations and most countries, though Israel disputes this and views the West Bank as disputed land with historical and security significance. In recent months, tensions have further escalated with increased restrictions on Palestinian movement near settlements, alongside a rise in attacks by both Palestinians against Israelis and by settlers against Palestinians, contributing to a cycle of violence that continues to claim lives on both sides.

Fatal Shooting Near Beit Ummar

The incident took place near the town of Beit Ummar in the southern West Bank.

Palestinian news agency WAFA identified the victims as teenagers aged 15 and 19. A relative confirmed their ages to Reuters.

Israeli Military’s Account

The Israeli military said its forces confronted three individuals who were throwing fire bombs and burning tyres near the settlement of Karmei Tzur.

According to the military, soldiers opened fire, killing two of the individuals and wounding a third.

Reuters could not independently verify the military’s account.

Third Teenager Hospitalized

WAFA reported that the third person involved in the incident was hospitalized in stable condition.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society said the wounded individual is 15 years old.

Tensions Remain High in the West Bank

Israeli forces regularly conduct raids across the occupied West Bank and have tightened movement restrictions around Palestinian communities located near Israeli settlements in recent months.

The territory has experienced heightened tensions amid ongoing violence involving Israeli security forces, settlers and Palestinians.

Dispute Over Settlements

The international community, including the United Nations and most countries, considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law and a major obstacle to the creation of a Palestinian state.

Israel rejects that position, describing the territory as disputed and citing historical Jewish ties to the area.

Rising Violence

According to United Nations data, at least 57 Palestinians have been killed this year in incidents involving Israeli settlers and security forces.

At the same time, Palestinians have carried out attacks against Israeli soldiers and settlers in the West Bank, including at least one fatal attack in 2026, according to Israel’s Shin Bet domestic security service.

What’s Next

The Israeli military is expected to continue reviewing the circumstances of the shooting, including whether the individuals posed an immediate threat and how the confrontation unfolded near the settlement.

Palestinian officials are likely to pursue diplomatic and legal avenues, as similar incidents in the West Bank are often raised with international bodies, including the United Nations, amid ongoing disputes over the use of force by Israeli troops.

On the ground, the incident is likely to add to already high tensions in the West Bank, where Israeli raids, settlement activity, and Palestinian attacks have contributed to a cycle of violence in recent months.

Further clashes cannot be ruled out, particularly in areas close to settlements where movement restrictions and security operations have intensified.

International attention on West Bank violence is also likely to continue, especially as reported fatalities involving Palestinians and Israelis have remained elevated this year, keeping pressure on both sides amid an already fragile security situation.

With information from Reuters.

WHILE theme parks across the UK are opening back up for the summer, a popular attraction in Japan remains shut after two decades.

The once popular Wild West land closed its gates for the last time in 2007, remaining frozen in time ever since.

Located in Nikko, around two hours drive from Tokyo, Western Village was once home to a bustling arcade and entertainment park, designed to resemble the American Frontier.

However, the once-buzzing family establishment is now only visited by urban explorers.

The park first opened its doors in 1973 as a small attraction called Kinugawa Family Ranch, offering guests a range of outdoor activities including fishing and horse riding.

Just two years later, the site was rebranded as Western Village, attracting tourists from all over the world with its impressive recreating of a 19th Century frontier town.

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The attraction included an old-timey bank, barber shop, sheriff’s office and general store, as well as arcades and animatronic displays.

Live stunt shows also took place at the park, with actors reenacting gunfights between cowboys and outlaws.

There was also a train that took visitors around the park which was often subject to a staged robbery by the park’s resident outlaws.

In 1995, the park added a £20million replica of Mount Rushmore, which measured one-third of the real thing and was even carved into the landscape.

Despite the park’s initial success, it eventually began to lose out to larger, better located competitors such as Universal Studios Japan and Tokyo Disneyland.

In 2007, Western Village shut its doors for the last time, with many sections remaining untouched in the years since.

From arcade machines and eerie animatronics covered in dust to bottles still sitting on tables, the entire park has a creepy abandoned feel to it.

The park has remained a source of fascination for those visiting the area, particularly urban explorers.

According to the website Offbeat Japan, the replica Rushmore is still attracting visitors in 2026.

The outlet reported that tourists “have to come back to check it isn’t a hallucination”, adding that what remains of the park is “now being demolished little by little”.

Israeli settlers have vandalised and burned a mosque in the occupied West Bank village of Jaljulia, north of Ramallah. Racist slogans were scrawled on the walls by the settlers.

Thousands of Muslim Bangladeshis have been detained or deported under West Bengal’s new BJP government.

Al Jazeera’s Ava Warriner explains why critics fear the campaign could deepen religious tensions and test due process protections.

Both Amnesty International and Oxfam released reports this week documenting a rise in state-backed Israeli settler violence across the occupied West Bank over the past three years. What’s driving the escalation? Al Jazeera’s Marah Rayan breaks it down.

Israel continues to expand settlements in the occupied territory, which are illegal under international law.

The Israeli government has allocated a first tranche of an expected $388m in new funds for the construction of settlements in the occupied West Bank.

The anti-settlement group Peace Now reported on Thursday that the government had allocated 152 million shekels ($51m) to prepare construction plans for 69 illegal settlements and outposts in the occupied West Bank.

The cabinet later reportedly postponed a decision about a 1-billion-shekel ($338m) allocation. That proposal, if passed, would mark one of the largest expansions of illegal Israeli settlements in decades.

“The government decided to postpone the decision [on the 1-billion-shekel allocation] and refer it to the Security Cabinet which is expected to convene on Sunday,” Peace Now wrote.

Under the yet-to-be-approved plan, construction for the settlements, including infrastructure and public buildings, would begin despite necessary planning protocols not having been carried out in accord with Israeli law.

Peace Now accused the government of intending to bypass planning and construction regulations.

“October 7 proved that the right-wing approach has failed: the conflict cannot be ‘managed,’ and the Palestinians cannot be ‘defeated’,” the group said in a statement.

“Israel must reach a political solution and diplomatic agreement, but instead the government is only sinking us deeper into the mire and condemning us to many more years of bloody conflict.”

Israel has come under growing condemnation for expanding settlements in the occupied West Bank, which are illegal under international law.

On Tuesday, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France and Norway imposed sanctions on networks involved in financing, enabling and carrying out settler violence against Palestinians.

According to Peace Now, the current Israeli government has approved 103 settlements since it took office in December 2022. From that figure, 51 are entirely new settlements.

On Wednesday, Amnesty International published a report accusing the Israeli government of playing a central role in what it describes as the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the occupied West Bank. The report described the government’s actions as “integral”.

At least 117 villages in the West Bank have been subject to either complete or partial displacement due to settler attacks, according to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA).

Amnesty also condemned the upcoming “Great Israeli Real Estate Event”, which is due to take place in London on Sunday.

The event, which has also been held in the United States and Canada, promotes the sale of properties in the occupied West Bank, which campaigners say is in violation of international law.

A model suing Kanye West is speaking out about the alleged assault that lawyers for the rapper argue was his 1st Amendment right.

Jennifer An, an actor and model who competed on the 13th season of “America’s Next Top Model” in 2009, detailed the alleged assault — that she says happened in 2010 — in a new interview with the BBC’s “Fame Under Fire” podcast that was released Wednesday. In 2024, An filed a lawsuit against the “Heartless” rapper alleging he choked her and used his fingers to simulate oral sex during a music video shoot for La Roux’s “In for the Kill.”

“He had me sit in the chair in front of the camera, and I didn’t know what was going to happen. I was given no direction,” An told the BBC. “I was just told to sit in this chair, and then playback started, and then all of a sudden he just reaches a hand out and starts choking me, and I’m just not sure what’s happening, and then he pulled his other hand out and starts choking me with both hands and then starts smearing my makeup all over my face and sticking his hands inside of my mouth, which simulated oral sex.

“I remember feeling so suffocated, unsure, scared,” she said. An said she was 24 years old at the time of the alleged incident, her first foray into the industry. She told the outlet that, as it was happening, she hoped someone on the production side would call a halt to it.

“I remember him looking at me, like really intensely, and licking his lips a lot, my face was like so close to his,” she continued. “He reached a point that — I assume — he was very happy with himself, and he yelled something like, ‘This is art! I’m Picasso.’”

La Roux said she insisted the alleged assault be left on the cutting room floor, and in a 2024 Instagram exchange with An, the artist said, “I could never forget that, it was horrific,” according to court documents.

During the podcast episode, the BBC correspondent Anoushka Mutanda Dougherty asks if she can see the direct-message exchange between An and La Roux. She then reads aloud a message in which La Roux said, “I was in the room behind the monitor, begging the directors and everyone else to do something, but everyone was scared of him and did nothing.”

La Roux told An that West whispered to her, “I bet you think I just put women back about 10 years.” She said that she responded, “You just put women back about 500 years.”

Representatives for La Roux did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment.

The case has not yet gone to trial. In a motion to dismiss the civil suit — which was filed under New York City’s Gender-Motivated Violence Act and remains pending — attorneys for West didn’t deny the incident took place but, rather, argued that it was an artistic performance and therefore protected by the 1st Amendment.

Attorneys representing An in the case, Melissa Berouty and Christine Hintze, told The Times in an emailed statement: “While we respect the importance of artistic expression and the protections afforded by the First Amendment, dismissing this case on that basis would set a dangerous precedent. It would effectively grant immunity to perpetrators of unlawful abuse so long as their conduct occurred under the guise of artistic expression or within an artistic setting.”

They further said that An’s claims are supported by affidavits and written communications from multiple eyewitnesses, including La Roux.

Imagine the Swedish landscape and a stereotypical scene of idyllic red cottages with white trim, foregrounded by a lake of glimmering blue, might spring to mind. Beyond perhaps, adding depth, lies a band of birch and spruce, and a midsummer view of wooded islands.

Now, add to this image the sight of two half-naked men lunging from a tiny sauna cabin into the cold shock of a lake. One screams. The other ducks his head under, pops up, shivers, then does it again. His skin has the pinkish tinge of salmon, but he’s smiling.

Those swimmers are my friend John and me (I’m the one grinning), and we’re quickly learning that the subversive joy of cold-water swimming – and stripping off in nature – are Swedish obsessions.

We’re on the first day on the Lelångenleden, a 112-mile (180km) cycle route of newly linked trails, which takes riders from the Bohuslän coast, north of Gothenburg, through the lakes of Dalsland and deep into the coniferous forests of Värmland, where the country is wilder still. The promise is traffic-free gravel roads and a segment that runs along the embankment of the discontinued Lelången railway, as well as a journey punctuated by stops in lake towns so charming they could easily be creations of Pippi Longstocking author Astrid Lindgren.

But we’re up for a sterner challenge than the recommended four-day itinerary. Our plan, researched and booked online using West Sweden Trails’ helpful planning tool, is to split the route into three sections of about 40 miles each and cycle for up to five hours a day. Along the way, we’ll be staying in quiet hotels and a campsite where the food is as important as the lake setting.

“You won’t be alone,” says Erik Josefsson, founder of the Dalsland Experience, the tour organiser and bike shop that rents us our gravel bikes and bikepacking gear – for the next three days, we’ll be living out of frame and saddle bags. “Why not?” I ask Josefsson, a little disgruntled. “Sorry, I meant to say there’s plenty of wildlife in the forests!” comes the reply.

West Sweden’s burgeoning cycling scene is largely thanks to the ambition of the regional tourist boards. Now in development, the Västkustleden will be a new national cycle path between Gothenburg and the Norwegian-Swedish border, while the 105-mile Ljungleden opens this month and links together two of Sweden’s most popular trails (the Kattegattleden in Gothenburg and the Ätradalsleden in Falköping). More and more Swedes want to spend their summers cycling, and the Lelångenleden – affordable, family-friendly and largely flat – is tipped to become the next top-tier trail.

We start in the coastal village of Uddevalla, overlooking the beaten metal blue of the Byfjorden, setting off from the Strandpromenaden, a beautiful seaside boardwalk below granite cliffs – a few years ago, it was named Sweden’s most beautiful road. Then, before we head north, a 15-minute detour takes us to Gustafsberg, Sweden’s oldest seaside resort, with a beach, a jetty, a colony of crimson-tinted bathhouses and a historic lido converted into a hostel.

After four hours in the saddle, the fully serviced eco-campsite at Ragnerud Lake, at the foot of the Kroppefjäll plateau in Färgelanda, is a welcome stop for our first night. We check in to a cosy red cabin, then take canoes out on the lake and enjoy a restorative sauna, before watching the sun’s glorious rays cresting the treetops as the light fades. There is a very special quiet and otherworldliness to Sweden in the late summer.

Overseeing this wilderness are campsite owners Linus Bergström and Marielle Örtengren, who grew up on the lake, and the location offers access to one of southern Sweden’s largest hiking destinations. On their doorstep is 200m years of geology and 80 miles of trails.

The campsite’s sustainable restaurant Ragnerud Kök showcases the gifts of the forest – mushrooms, lingonberries, dill flowers. We share plates of kroppkaka (boiled potato dumplings) with chanterelles and brown hazelnut butter, and beef with beetroot and mushroom cream. Then it’s lingonberry-poached pears with forest marmalade. “We hike, we pick mushrooms. Then there is the pure thrill of jumping into the cold lake,” says Linus. “We love the simplicity of the forest and the slow pace of life.”

On untamed gravel roads the next day, red waymarkers guide us to the Dalsland Canal, a system of natural lakes and locks connecting 157 miles of waterways, where cold water swimmers regularly strip off, leaving John looking sheepish. Our cycle route soon morphs into the canal towpath, and we pass a lock house turned summer cafe that’s selling waffles and ice-cream, and lock keeper’s cabins of stone, wood and iron, which can now be booked for overnight stays.

At the end of the 19th century, the variety of terrain – bristling forests, silent mountains, quivering lakes, almost alpine landscapes – prompted Prince Eugen of Sweden and Norway to describe Dalsland as a microcosm of his homeland. As a prominent landscape painter, the prince captured the soul of the place better than most, and his description fits the Sweden we wheel through. With more lakes than anywhere else in the country, our map shows hundreds of spreading fingers, with depths of inky blue.

We stop for the night in the former lumber town of Bengtsfors, checking in at First Hotel Bengtsfors before heading for dinner at Storgatan 19, a cocktail bar with a menu fit for a Tour de France winner. “Seasonality is vital,” co-owner Oliver Tveter tells us, and I order a lifetime-best skagen (prawn salad, but served on a potato pancake) and fallow deer with pickled pumpkin.

The woods around the town are so vast, breathing and beckoning that they can fool you into believing you are being followed, especially in the slanting, shifting early morning light. For all that, it’s not frightening, but a landscape that enlivens the senses. Often, there are roe deer running earnestly across the road – once, I brake hard to avoid a collision.

What’s more, there is a sense that time is not linear in Dalsland. When we cycle deeper into the dense coniferous forests on our last day, it is as if the clock has been wound back. The red barns and lonely church on Lake Västra Silen look like period pieces. When we surface again from the woods to arrive in a blaze of Lycra in the little mill town of Gustavsfors, we have to push onwards for our fika (social coffee break) as it’s Sunday and all the cafes are shut. Any thought of modern-day Sweden has largely been erased.

On our last afternoon, near journey’s end in Värmland, the gravel slowly welcomes us back into the 21st century. I had worried there wouldn’t be enough to do on our trip, but in the end there are so many interruptions – lakes that quiver like jelly, photo stops for elk signs, cold swims everywhere – that we have to clock-watch until the end.

As we reach the road to Årjäng, where our trip finishes, I gaze back and strange half-certainty comes to me. That I’ll return to west Sweden as soon as I can – maybe even on a bike.

The trip was provided by West Sweden tourist board. The Dalsland Experience organises guided and self-guided itineraries and rents gravel bikes and bikepacking gear. Itinerary planning information can be found at Lelångenleden. Ragnerud camping pitches from £20; cabins from £75. Doubles at First Hotel Bengtsfors from £96 B&B. Lock keepers’ cottages from £200