News
Faced with turmoil, a defiant Trudeau hangs on - for now
From Beyoncé awards snub to Brat summer: This year's biggest cultural moments
Five unanswered questions from the Pelicot trial
US House votes to avert government shutdown
Inside the abandoned homes of Assad's ruthless enforcers
One woman's 56-year fight to free her innocent brother from death sentence
Houthi missile strike injures more than a dozen in Tel Aviv
US man sentenced to 130 years for murdering two girls in Indiana
Nurse imposter sentenced to seven years
Trump's shutdown gamble exposes limits of his power
Magdeburg Christmas market attack: What we know
The drug-trafficking Rio gangsters who see themselves as God's 'soldiers of crime'
What are royal Christmas cards trying to tell us?
Jogging memories: Why some Nigerians in London set up their own running club
'We have to be more bold': Syria's musicians await future under new Islamist leaders
Sega considering Netflix-like game subscription service
Trump campaign adviser calls incoming UK ambassador to US a 'moron'
Italy's deputy PM Salvini cleared in kidnap trial of migrants blocked at sea
Six killed in strike on Russia's Kursk after deadly missile attack on Kyiv
Eight sentenced in France for actions that led to teacher beheading
Car driven into crowd at German Christmas market, reports say
US scraps $10m bounty for arrest of Syria's new leader Sharaa
Canada's NDP leader says he will vote to topple Trudeau's Liberals
Syria rebel leader dismisses controversy over photo with woman
Business
Google suggests fixes to its search monopoly
The Indian family that built a business empire in Hawaii from scratch
Volkswagen agrees deal to avoid German plant closures
Musk flexes influence over Congress in shutdown drama
Starbucks baristas launch strike in US, union says
The mega trade deal that has French farmers in uproar
'Crazy growth': How one product created a multi-million dollar brand
The student who blew whistle on Kenya airport controversy
N Korea hackers stole $1.3bn of crypto this year - report
Government borrowing at three-year low for November
Amazon hit by 'strike' during holiday season scramble
Man convicted for repeatedly lying about inventing Bitcoin
AI is trained to spot warning signs in blood tests
Musk joins Bezos and Trump dinner at Mar-a-Lago
Stocks slide as US central bank signals slower pace of rate cuts
Minister named in Bangladesh corruption probe
Apple urged to axe AI feature after false headline
Malawi seeks billions of dollars from US firm over ruby sales
Congress in disarray and shutdown looms as Trump, Musk slam spending deal
Interest rates held as Bank says economy doing worse
World's first Bitcoin nation scales back crypto dream
Harland & Wolff saved by deal with Spanish firm
Innovation
50 years of The Oregon Trail: The hidden controversies of a video game that defined the US
US bans drones in parts of New Jersey and New York
The small exercise that's a powerful mood booster
The archaeological mystery of Stonehenge's long-lost megaliths
The secret to long-lasting connection? Shared rituals
Lymphoedema: The 'hidden' cancer side-effect no one talks about
Why later life can be a golden age for friendship
A slow explosion: The violent birth of the Geminid meteor shower
'There was almost a utopian feeling to it': How StumbleUpon pioneered the way we use the internet
Can chicken soup and other home remedies really fight off a cold?
Romance scammer duped £17k from me with deepfakes
Recycling lorry dumps waste after battery fire
US Supreme Court to hear TikTok challenge to potential ban
Nasa astronauts Butch and Suni's homecoming delayed again
The controversial machine sending CO2 to the ocean and making hydrogen
How Facebook restricted news in Palestinian territories
Culture
Will Slowthai be 'cancelled for the rest of time'?
Olympics surfer to Donald Trump: 12 of the most striking images of 2024
Wham are Christmas number one for a second time
Countdown crowns first female winner since 1998
Zoe Ball signs off from final Radio 2 breakfast show
Paul and Ringo get back together at London gig
The 20 best TV shows of 2024
Babygirl to Gladiator II and Conclave: The 20 best films of 2024
Babygirl to A Complete Unknown: 12 of the best films to watch this December
Netflix's The Perfect Couple and the reason TV was so poor in 2024 – but we watched anyway
Mufasa: The Lion King review: 'Pointless' and a 'contrived cash-in'
Queer to Baby Reindeer: How LGBTQ stories got real in 2024
'Being a starlet was difficult': How Shirley Temple saved a Hollywood studio from bankruptcy
Nickel Boys: The blistering drama showing the US's racist past from a new, first-person perspective
How Shaboozey's A Bar Song (Tipsy) became the unexpected smash hit of 2024
'You have to just draw something that you hope is funny': How Charles M Schulz created Charlie Brown and Snoopy
'As darkness fell, blazing hangars lit up the sky': How the fall of Pyongyang brought the world to the brink of crisis
'I'm not afraid of dying': The pioneering tennis champion who told the world he had Aids
'I have been deceiving you… I'm sorry about that': The British politician who was caught faking his own death
'That was the greatest day of all our lives': The migrants who passed through Ellis Island
'It's rather different from selling an ordinary book': How Lady Chatterley's Lover was banned – and became a bestseller
Transport museum vehicles up for adoption
'Barry Island is on the up but it'll never be posh'
The man who chronicled the changing face of a city
Reduced hours for libraries and museums considered
'Absolute unit' meme on show in museum first
Marianne Jean-Baptiste on Oscars buzz for playing 'difficult' woman
Russell T Davies: I get TV ideas brushing my teeth
Superman returns with a superdog to save superhero movies
Museum reopening 'a success' when gharial returns
Arts
'It was a shock to many': Matthew Bourne on his Swan Lake with male swans, the show that shook up the dance world
Colourful life of 100-year-old artist who's never used a paint brush
Artists imagine a new utopia for Kenya's capital
Ewan McGregor takes on first UK theatre role in 17 years
The hidden meanings in a 16th-Century female nude
Why the iconic English painting The Hay Wain by John Constable is not what it seems
Why urban sketching retreats are taking off
The rare blue the Maya invented
The colour that means both life and death
The shady past of the colour pink
The toxic colour that comes from volcanoes
The mysterious painting that changed how we see colour
The insect that painted Europe red
'An unmistakable stab at the USSR': Could Amadeus be the most misunderstood Oscar winner ever?
Paul McCartney's missing bass and other mysterious musical instrument disappearances
How opera is aiming for net zero amid worsening climate change
Antonio Pappano: How opera can be 'open to everyone'
Bryn Terfel: The nation that is the 'land of song'
Gen Z and young millennials' surprising obsession
'Panto hasn't been my social life for 70 years? Oh yes it has'
Troupes take to the streets for 195-year-old play
Handmade puppets damaged by 'cruel' vandals
Alternative new year's shindig to celebrate nannas
Guest book reveals theatre's opening stars
My kids saw my pain on set, says Angelina Jolie
Final curtain goes down on National Theatre Wales
Travel
An extreme skiing champion's guide to the best slopes in New England
A festive sweet treat with surprising Swedish origins
The towns that inspired One Hundred Years of Solitude
How a tiny village grew into a huge luxury destination
Airport users unhappy at plans for premium lounge
Christmas getaway: Tips to avoid disruption
Traffic jam warning for 'busiest Christmas getaway'
Business groups warn against Highland tourist tax
China's otherworldly mountains that inspired Avatar
Ride the real Polar Express with Santa in London
A fashion expert's insider guide to shopping in New York City
Welcome to smog season: How will air pollution change where and when we travel?
Grímsey: The Arctic island with 20 people and one million birds
The UK's network of free hiking 'hotels'
Eight of the world's most extraordinary tiny hotel rooms
A guide to Whistler, Canada, from the godfather of freeskiing
A downhill ski champion's guide to Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy
A world class champion freestyle skier's guide to La Plagne, France
A Turkish film and TV star's guide to Antalya, Turkey
A dancehall superstar's guide to Jamaica
Five of Montreal's best poutine spots - according to a local chef
A two-Michelin-star chef's guide to the best dining spots in Istanbul
A dancer's guide to Seville's best flamenco experiences
A 'crazy town looking to go fossil free': Sweden's wooden city that was green before Greta
Nordhavn: The Danish 'city' that's been designed for an easy life
Booking your next holiday? Consider these six trailblazing travel firms making the world a better place
The world's adventure capital's massive gamble
'Like a warm hug from home': The addictive love cake only baked at Christmas
Coquito: Puerto Rico's favourite holiday drink
The ultimate holiday drink menu requires a perfect martini
Irish chef Richard Corrigan's classic Christmas menu
Europe's first borderless Capital of Culture
The innovative, green future of skiing
The big changes coming to UK and European travel in 2025
Could the airship be the answer to sustainable air travel – or is it all a load of hot air?
The last Inca bridge master
Testaccio: The foodie neighbourhood where Romans go to eat
Four of Europe's most fascinating pre-Christian winter festivals
What it's like to live in the world's most innovative countries
A 200km kayak along one of Europe's last wild rivers
Earth
Swimming mouse among 27 new species discovered in Peru
Weather warnings in place for NI over weekend
Ferry sailings cancelled due to strong winds
Conservation bid to save 'rare' black poplar
Rescued young puffin 'fitting in well' at new home
Council rejects 33-hectare electric battery site
Seven quiet breakthroughs for climate and nature in 2024 you might have missed
The people growing their own toilet paper
'Unprecedented': How bird flu became an animal pandemic
'I drove as fast as I could': What happened to Malibu's horses when the fire hit
Trouble in Arctic town as polar bears and people face warming world
Major report joins dots between world's nature challenges
One in four properties at flood risk by 2050 - report
The 3,000m-high border that's melting away
What's the lowest carbon alcohol?
Saving bluefin tuna: The sushi delicacy threatened by climate change
It was one of the worst weeks of his political career, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau was ringing in the season.
At the Liberal Party's annual holiday gathering, Trudeau put on his party face, despite being blindsided the day before by the snap resignation of one of his most trusted allies, Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland, just hours before she was due to deliver an economic statement in Parliament.
But even as some members of his own party were calling on him to leave, the prime minister struck a resolute, defiant tone as he addressed the party faithful in his dark blue suit and tie.
He alluded to his "difficult" week, comparing it to a family fight.
He discussed being "audacious" and "ambitious" in the face of adversity, and made pointed digs at his political rival, Pierre Poilievre, the leader of the opposition Conservative Party of Canada.
Pundits remarked afterwards that it sounded a lot like a campaign speech, and that despite the latest political turmoil, Trudeau appears to be digging in.
That stance did not change on Friday, even after the leader of the country's progressive New Democrat Party (NDP) Jagmeet Singh said he would introduce a motion to topple Trudeau's government in the new year. It was the support of the NDP that had kept the Liberals in power. An election now appears imminent.
Yet Trudeau has so far given no indication that he will resign soon, though he reportedly told fellow party members that he would take time over the winter holiday to think about what to do.
Political observers say Trudeau has often shown a streak of defiance when he is under pressure, something that has helped him weather a number of controversies in his nine years in power.
And he has often been underestimated, such as when he won a majority government in 2015 at the age of 44, despite being portrayed by his political opponents as something of a dilettante.
But as pressure mounts on him to resign, some of those same experts say he may need a new strategy.
Proving his doubters wrong
When Trudeau first ran for prime minister, three words followed him around: Just not ready.
That phrase was the tagline of an attack ad played repeatedly throughout the country as he tried to unseat the incumbent Prime Minister Stephen Harper, a Conservative who had been in power since 2004.
It conveyed common criticisms he faced at the time about his young age, his relative lack of experience and his winding path to politics.
Trudeau "sort of meandered around" in his early life before becoming a drama teacher in Vancouver, said Canadian historian Raymond Blake, seemingly insulated as the well-known and wealthy son of former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau.
But not long after entering politics, Trudeau adopted a fighting stance.
It is a trait that some say he learned from his father, who was known for his charismatic yet combative leadership style, and who is famous for his catchphrase of "just watch me," which he glibly told a reporter at the height of a political crisis.
"His father had an image of really being a resilient, very tough politician," said Lawrence Martin, a long-time Canadian political columnist based in Washington DC.
The younger Trudeau went on to defy the odds himself by pulling off a historic win for his Liberal party, taking them from third-place in parliament to a majority mandate in his first federal election.
"This kind of makes him feel that he can overcome big obstacles," said Mr Martin, adding that, politically, Trudeau operates with "a hyper amount of self-confidence".
Trudeau's path to power turned bumpy once he had assumed office, after he became involved in a number of political scandals.
In his first term, Justice Minister Jody Wilson-Raybould - the first indigenous woman to hold the job - quit over what she described as attempts at interference and "veiled threats" from top government officials seeking a legal favour for a firm facing a corruption trial.
As he vied for a second term in 2019, Trudeau's re-election campaign was rocked by images that were released showing him as a younger man donning brown face on at least three occasions.
And a year later, in 2020, Trudeau faced yet another ethics scandal involving a potentially large government contract for a youth charity that had worked with Trudeau family members.
But in the face of every setback, Trudeau held on to power. He won re-election twice, making him the longest-serving leader of his G7 peers.
"Trudeau has survived so much," Prof Blake said, noting that his political successes and leadership have won the loyalty of many in his party despite the scandals.
Is Freeland's exit a turning point?
While Trudeau has weathered many storms, there are signs that his time may be up.
For one, history is not on his side. Only one Canadian prime minister, Sir John A MacDonald - the country's first - served four consecutive terms.
Trudeau is also working against a sinking popularity. A September poll from Ipsos suggested around two-thirds of Canadians disapprove of him. Just 26% of respondents said Trudeau was their top pick for prime minister, putting him 19 points behind Conservative leader Poilievre.
And then there's the slowly dwindling support within Trudeau's own party. So far, at least 18 Liberal MPs have called for their leader to step down.
"He's delusional if he thinks we can continue like this," New Brunswick MP Wayne Long told reporters this week.
"It's unfair to us MPs, it's unfair to the ministers and most importantly it's unfair to the country. We need to move on with a new direction and we need to reboot."
According to Long, who has driven the push to remove Trudeau, as many as 50 of the 153 Liberal MPs want him to quit immediately. Roughly the same number are Trudeau loyalists, he said, and the rest are on the fence.
"There's still some party loyalists who like him and, you know, want to still support him," said Mr Martin, the DC-based columnist. "But if you had a secret vote of Liberal caucus about whether he should stay on or not, he would be defeated handily."
The prime minister is also seemingly driven to stay by his disdain for his political opponent Poilievre, Mr Martin observed.
"He does not want to back down, and he does want to take on Pierre Poilievre, whom he detests," he said.
Trudeau's stubborn perseverance in the face of a dismal political forecast has drawn comparisons to outgoing US President Joe Biden, who abandoned his candidacy months before the November election only after mounting internal pressure.
Prof Blake said that Trudeau's legacy, like Biden's, will hinge on how he exits. Fighting a losing battle, he said, could give Trudeau "a lasting scar". But the prime minister has a remarkable ability to survive, he noted.
"He's been a survivor, and he hasn't done what's normal. Will normal - whatever it is - fall into place this time? Perhaps, but I'm not convinced."
Trudeau's dilemma is also similar to one faced by his father, who won three elections in a row, and went on to win a fourth after leaving power for less than a year.
But by 1984, more than 15 years after first becoming prime minister, the elder Trudeau - like his son now - faced dire polls. It seemed clear he would not win the next election if he stayed on. He decided to step down, telling the public that he made the decision after taking a walk in an Ottawa snowstorm.
Since then, the term "walk in the snow" has become synonymous with political resignation in Canada. This Christmas, it remains to be seen whether Trudeau will take his own walk.
It was the year Beyoncé donned her stetson for Cowboy Carter, Taylor Swift conquered the world on her Eras tour and King Charles appeared in a vivid bright red in his royal portrait.
It was also 12 months when the British Museum showcased a handful of its recovered stolen gems and Charli XCX rebranded the summer in slime green, with her album Brat.
These are some of the highlights from an eclectic year in culture.
JANUARY
Unfortunate mix-up
Poor Tom Hollander.
One minute he was watching his friend perform on stage (for a £300 salary), while the Rev actor sat "smugly in the audience", having just received about £30,000 for a BBC show.
But after doing a swift check of his emails during the interval, he found a payslip labelled "Box office bonus for The Avengers". He had wrongly received a paycheque intended for Spider-Man actor and near-namesake Tom Holland, as they had briefly shared the same agent.
"It was an astonishing amount of money," he told Late Night host Seth Meyers. "It was not his salary. It was his first box office bonus. Not the whole box office bonus, the first one. And it was more money than I'd ever [seen]. It was a seven-figure sum."
"My feeling of smugness disappeared," he added.
Madonna sued
Two Madonna fans tried to sue the singer for showing up late to one of her concerts in New York. Michael Fellows and Jason Alvarez were incensed that the star took to the stage at 22:30 - two hours later than expected - and didn't wrap up the show until after 01:00.
In a lawsuit filed in New York, they claimed her tardiness impacted their sleep and their ability to "get up early to go to work" the next day.
In response, Madonna's lawyers argued "no reasonable concertgoer - and certainly no Madonna fan" - would expect her to take to the stage at the advertised time.
The case was later dismissed without a settlement.
Drama highlights Post Office scandal
The power of TV drama was on display when ITV aired Mr Bates vs The Post Office.
A dramatisation of the long-running legal controversy with hundreds of sub-postmasters and mistresses wrongly accused of stealing from the Post Office.
It helped push the story of the scandal to the top of the news agenda.
FEBRUARY
Stolen gems displayed
Gems stolen from the British Museum were seen for the first time, when they were put on display.
In August, last year, the museum announced up to 2,000 objects from its storerooms were missing, stolen or damaged.
Ten of the gems retrieved by the museum were showcased in an exhibition there this month.
So far, the museum says 626 items have been recovered and they have new leads for a further 100 objects.
Serial killer chef
Word of mouth hit and cult Japanese bestseller, Asako Yuzuki's Butter, took the literary world by storm.
This compelling novel about a gourmet chef and serial killer who gets her comeuppance was inspired by a true story and examines society's relationship with food, misogyny and violence.
Author Pandora Skyes wrote: "Butter will churn your brain and your stomach with panache."
London Fashion week turns 40
The 40th anniversary of London Fashion week saw more than 60 designers hit the capital to showcase their autumn/winter collections.
It wasn't just the designers descending upon London though, as the likes of Barry Keoghan, Central Cee and Skepta were among the famous faces packing out the front rows.
Original supermodel Naomi Campbell capped off the whirlwind few days as she walked the runway at Burberry's closing show.
Love was very much in the air as romantic floral-themed collections dominated – Susan Fang's collaboration with Victoria's Secret had a Valentine's Day theme while Richard Quinn embraced high society elegance as he paid homage to the Victorian era.
MARCH
Banksy's first name uncovered?
The elusive street artist Banksy appeared to reveal what his first name is, in a lost BBC interview.
Banksy's real identity has never been revealed, but the interview gave his fans, who include many A-list celebrities, a rare chance to hear his voice.
In the 2003 recording, now on BBC Sounds in The Banksy Story, reporter Nigel Wrench asks him if he is called "Robert Banks", and the artist replies: "It's Robbie."
In August, the world-famous artist completed nine days of pop-up animal artworks dotted around London, ending with a piece on the shutters of London Zoo.
Huckleberry Finn retelling
Percival Everett's James was shortlisted for this year's Booker Prize and it was a popular choice. but was pipped by fellow favourite Orbital by Elizabeth Harvey (her dazzling space tale was published in 2023).
Everett's action-packed reimagining of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was both harrowing and ferociously funny, as it re-told Mark Twain's classic tale from the enslaved Jim's point of view.
James had been joint-favourite to win the Booker Prize, but was beaten by Orbital, by Elizabeth Harvey (her space tale - the biggest-selling book on the shortlist in the UK - was published in 2023).
Raye sweeps the Brits
Schadenfreude has never been so sweet. Standing in a room full of record label executives who'd refused to release her debut album, Raye picked up award after award after award for the very same record, which she'd released independently in 2023.
She earned six Brits in total, including artist and album of the year.
Viewers compared it to the moment, when Julia Roberts, in the film Pretty Woman, returns to the shop that had refused her custom, brandishing the bags of clothes she bought elsewhere.
"This has been the best night of my life," Raye told the BBC. "And luckily they got it all on camera so I can watch it back."
Beyoncé goes country
We should have realised Beyoncé was a little bit country. Not only does she hail from Texas, but she ended her Renaissance tour by riding around football stadiums on a giant glitterball horse. The signs were there all along.
She made it official in March with the release of Cowboy Carter, an album inspired by righteous anger (she was treated like a pariah at the 2016 Country Music Awards), and a desire to explore country music's forgotten black roots.
Over 27 sprawling tracks, Beyoncé tipped her hat to rodeo culture, the chitlin' circuit, Honky Tonk, bluegrass, folk and gospel - connecting the dots between genres, and daring the country music establishment to look itself in the eye.
It flinched, of course. Acclaimed as it was, Cowboy Carter failed to pick up a single nomination at the 2024 Country Music Awards.
APRIL
Baby Reindeer gets a lot of attention
The seven-part Netflix series became one of the most talked about TV shows of the year.
Scottish writer and comedian Richard Gadd recounted what Netflix said was the true story of him being stalked and harassed by a woman called Martha.
It was compelling viewing and triggered an ongoing court case with the woman said to have inspired the character of Martha suing Netflix in the US, over what she called the "brutal lies" of the dark comedy drama.
Netflix has said: "We intend to defend this matter vigorously and to stand by Gadd's right to tell his story."
Iron men's stately home takeover
One hundred life-size cast iron figures appeared in the grounds of an 18th Century house in Norfolk, in the latest major artwork by Sir Antony Gormley.
The artist used his own body to mould the sculptures, which have been placed around Houghton Hall, in an installation called Time Horizon.
They are similar to his famous iron men on Crosby beach in Merseyside.
Drake vs Kendrick
They started as friends, but Drake and Kendrick Lamar's relationship turned in a protracted, public spat.
Their anger escalated over a series of 10 diss tracks, incorporating everything from playground insults (Drake mocked Lamar's height), to serious criminal allegations (Drake accused Lamar of domestic abuse, to which the rapper branded his rival a "certified paedophile").
The beef produced an all-time classic in the shape of Not Like Us - earning Lamar four Grammy nominations and a spot at next year's Super Bowl half-time show.
But many hip-hop heads were disappointed at how low the rappers had stooped.
Rushdie trauma
Spring also saw the highly anticipated publication of Salman Rushdie's Knife: Meditations After an Attempted Murder. The renowned author recounted the horrific attack he had suffered, which caused both physical and emotional trauma, including leaving him blind in one eye.
Rushdie told the BBC that he had used the book as a way of fighting back against what happened.
If you were looking for something lighter, David Nicholls made a triumphant return with You Are Here, a warming romcom featuring an unlikely pair (reminiscent of One Day's Emma and Dexter).
Zendaya nailed the art of method dressing
It all started with the Barbie press tour in 2023 when Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling sported pink-laden outfits that were as iconic as the Mattel doll's on the red carpet.
This year, it was Zendaya that embraced method dressing with her red carpet looks playfully toying with the tennis theme of her new film, Challengers.
From a dress that looked like a tennis lawn to Loewe tennis ball shoes, the Hollywood star served some ace looks that we won't forget any time soon.
MAY
Royal red King Charles portrait
The first official painted portrait of King Charles III since his coronation was unveiled at Buckingham Palace.
The vast oil on canvas shows a larger-than-life King Charles in the uniform of the Welsh Guards.
The vivid red work, measuring about 8ft 6in (2.6m) by 6ft 6in (2m), is by Jonathan Yeo, who has also painted Sir Tony Blair, Sir David Attenborough and Malala Yousafzai.
Queen Camilla is said to have looked at the painting and told Yeo: "Yes, you've got him."
Eurovision in disarray
Eurovision's official slogan is "united by music", but this year's contest was derailed by politics, backstage tension and in-fighting.
The run-up to the contest was overshadowed by protests over Israel's participation, amid the country's war in Gaza. Contestants from several nations came under pressure to boycott the show, Israel's entrant Eden Golan reportedly faced death threats, and there were multiple reports of backstage harassment.
Dutch contestant Joost Klein was disqualified at the last minute after a Swedish crew member complained about "threatening" behaviour outside his dressing room. Police later said an investigation had produced no evidence of a threat.
And the Swiss star Nemo, who won the contest, accidentally broke their trophy.
Co-op Live Arena drama
Manchester's Co-op Live arena opened… eventually, after several highly publicised and highly embarrassing delays.
The setbacks included part of a ventilation duct falling from the ceiling shortly before an audience was let in, which its boss said was "almost catastrophic".
However, the £365m venue, the UK's biggest indoor arena, did get up and running and has staged some major gigs this year including Liam Gallagher, Eagles, Sir Paul McCartney and the MTV European Music Awards.
Tóibín sequel finally lands
Colm Tóibín's breakout novel Brooklyn (2009) followed the life of Irish woman Eilis Lacey, who moved Stateside before secretly marrying and settling.
In his sequel, Long Island, eager readers returned to find the enigmatic Eilis living in the suburbs with her Italian-American husband, Tony, and teenage children, Rosella and Larry. She is soon drawn back to her small home town in County Wexford (from where Tóibín hails) for a family celebration, and finds old flame Jim still lurking in the shadows.
Echoing the journey of his protagonist, the author also lives in the US but told the Guardian that he tries to write part of each novel in Enniscorthy. "Once I can do something on that stretch, it becomes sort of magical," he said. "I mean a subdued sort of magical."
JUNE
Sir Ian McKellen's stage fall
Sir Ian McKellen was in "good spirits" after falling off stage during a performance of Player Kings at the Noël Coward theatre in London.
The actor, 85, cried out in pain, calling for help, and a staff member rushed to assist.
Sir Ian had been performing in a fight scene when he seemed to lose his footing. He was taken to hospital and the play was cancelled.
He later pulled out of the theatre's run to recover from breaking his wrist and chipping one of his vertebrae, and said in September he was taking the rest of the year off.
Michael J Fox plays the Pyramid Stage
As they headlined Glastonbury for a record fifth time, Coldplay brought out an array of guest stars, from Little Simz to Palestinian singer Elyanna.
But they saved the best 'til last, in the shape of Back To The Future actor Michael J Fox. The star, who has been battling Parkinson's Disease since 1991, received a rush of affection from the 100,000+ audience, as he played two songs - Humankind and Fix You - from his wheelchair.
Martin later said the moment had been a dream come true - because watching Fox play Johnny B Goode in Back To The Future had inspired him to play music.
"It's so trippy to me that we get to play with him because it just feels like being seven and being in heaven," he told US chat show host Jimmy Fallon.
Brat summer kicks off
The official colour of summer 2024 was slime green, and the official soundtrack was hedonistic house bangers - all thanks to Charli XCX and her sixth album, Brat.
The record represented a specific, bad-ass spirit. Charli characterised it as "a Bic lighter and a strappy white top with no bra".
There was certainly a bulletproof bravado to tracks like 360 and Von Dutch ("it's ok to admit that you're jealous of me"); but they were balanced by moments of naked vulnerability, as Charli explored female rivalry and her changing attitude to motherhood.
Formerly a cult favourite among pop fans, Brat made Charli into a mainstream phenomenon.
JULY
Deadpool and Wolverine team up
While many have been talking about superhero fatigue, no one seems to have told Marvel's foul-mouthed anti-hero Deadpool.
In this hugely successful third instalment Ryan Reynolds' Deadpool teamed up with with Hugh Jackman's Wolverine to try and save his universe.
Aniston on 'childless cat ladies'
Jennifer Aniston criticised Donald Trump’s then vice-presidential candidate, JD Vance, for resurfaced comments calling Democrats a "bunch of childless cat ladies with miserable lives".
The Friends actress, 55, posted a 2021 interview with Mr Vance, and she wrote on Instagram: "I truly can’t believe that this is coming from a potential VP of the United States.
"All I can say is… Mr Vance, I pray that your daughter is fortunate enough to bear children of her own one day."
He later defended his position, saying: "Obviously it was a sarcastic comment... The substance of what I said... I'm sorry, it's true."
'Joyful' museum wins award
The Young V&A, which describes itself as the most joyful museum in the world, won the 2024 Museum of the Year award, with a £120,000 prize.
The east London venue, a branch of the Victoria and Albert Museum, reopened in July 2023 after being closed for a three-year £13m redevelopment. It was formerly called the V&A Museum of Childhood.
AUGUST
Terror threat at Taylor Swift tour
The biggest tour of all time came to a grinding halt when evidence was uncovered of a "planned terrorist attack" as Taylor Swift played in Austria.
Security officials said a 19-year-old was planning to kill "a large crowd of people" in a suicide attack. Three people were arrested in connection with the plot.
About 195,000 fans had been expected to attend the shows, and many took to the streets of Vienna in a show of solidarity and defiance after the cancellations.
Swift said the incident "filled me with a new sense of fear", but thanked authorities "because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives".
The tour resumed with a record-breaking run at London's Wembley Stadium. When it wrapped up in December, Swift had made a record $2bn (£1.6bn) at the box office.
Oasis reunite
What started as a rumour quickly became front page news, as Liam and Noel Gallagher set aside more than a decade of resentment and announced they were reforming Oasis.
"The guns have fallen silent. The stars have aligned. The great wait is over," they said in a statement.
In some respects, we'll miss the feud. Liam repeatedly called Noel a "potato". Noel memorably described his brother as "a man with a fork in a world of soup".
But comedy's loss is music's gain. Despite a farcical ticket sale, in which prices magically doubled in front of fans' eyes, anticipation for their 2025 stdaium tour is sky-high.
SEPTEMBER
Strictly scandal
The BBC apologised to actor Amanda Abbington after she complained about her treatment by her professional dance partner Giovanni Pernice when she took part in the 2023 series Strictly Come Dancing.
It was widely reported that while complaints of verbal bullying and harassment were upheld, claims of physical aggression by Pernice were were not.
Earlier this year, the BBC confirmed Pernice would not return to the Strictly professional line-up for the new series.
"This apology means a great deal to me," Abbington said. "So too does the fact that the BBC have acknowledged the steps that were put in place to support and protect me and past contestants were "not enough".
Pernice said: "The majority of the false allegations have been thrown out by the review. It has been an extremely difficult year, reading story after story and not being able to say anything in return."
Van Gogh show delights critics
Critics dished out rave reviews for a new Vincent Van Gogh exhibition at London's National Gallery, which runs until 19 January next year.s
The Guardian, Telegraph, Time Out and the Times each awarded it five stars.
The show features more than 60 pieces painted by the Dutch artist, who died in 1890 aged 37.
The Times called it a "once-in-a-century" show, while the Guardian said it was a "riveting rollercoaster ride from Arles to the stars".
Diddy charged with sex crimes
In a case filed in New York, hip-hop mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs was accused of kidnapping, drugging and coercing women into sexual activities.
Prosecutors described the star as the head of a criminal enterprise that used threats of violence to force women into participating in drug-fuelled orgies with male prostitutes, known as "freak-offs".
Combs, who is also facing more than two dozen civil legal cases, denied the charges, and vowed to fight them in court.
However, he was denied bail three times, after judges heard he posed "a serious risk of witness tampering".
His trial is set to begin on 5 May, 2025.
Rooney returns
Literary darling Sally Rooney returned with her fourth novel, Intermezzo, which received rave reviews from critics.
The book follows two brothers, who seemingly have little in common, but have to navigate their way through grief together following the death of a close family member.
Like Rooney's other novels, chapters alternate from the point of views of different characters. Both brothers are in relationships with age gaps.
"I feel like the older I get the more freedom I have to write about a greater range of life experiences," Rooney, 33, told the Guardian.
OCTOBER
Liam Payne dies
A shockwave vibrated around the world as news emerged from Argentina that One Direction star Liam Payne had died, at the age of just 31.
The singer, who had been in the country to watch a show by his bandmate Niall Horan, fell from the third-floor balcony of his hotel room and sustained fatal injuries. Three people have been charged in connection with his death.
Friends, family and fans all paid tribute. "His greatest joy was making other people happy, and it was an honour to be alongside him as he did it," said Harry Styles.
"I can't explain to you what I'd give to just give you a hug one last time," added Zayn Malik.
NOVEMBER
Painstaking Rembrandt restoration
The largest restoration of Rembrandt's masterpiece, The Night Watch, began at the Rijksmuseum, in Amsterdam.
Following five years of research using techniques such as digital imaging and artificial intelligence, eight restorers will begin "Operation Night Watch" by removing the varnish from the painting - in full view of the public, within the glass-enclosed space in The Night Watch Room.
The varnish, applied during a 1975-76 restoration, will be removed using microfibre cloths and cotton swabs.
Grammys celebrate disruptive female pop
It's been a golden year for the outspoken women of pop.
Whether it was Chappell Roan dripping with sapphic disdain on Good Luck, Babe; or Sabrina Carpenter winking theatrically through the innuendo-laden Espresso, the charts were full of whip-smart lyrics from women who weren't afraid to speak their minds.
Even the Grammys, never knowingly in touch with the zeitgeist, couldn't help but pay attention.
Carpenter and Roan got six nominations each; Charli XCX picked up seven; and Beyoncé grabbed 11 - making her the most-nominated artist of all time, with a running total of 99.
The winners will be announced in Los Angeles next February.
Gregg Wallace steps aside as MasterChef host
He's one of the most recognisable faces on British television.
But in November, Gregg Wallace stepped aside from presenting MasterChef after a BBC News investigation revealed allegations of inappropriate sexual comments and inappropriate behaviour against him.
In an Instagram video, he blamed a "handful of middle-class women of a certain age" for the claims - which he later apologised for.
Masterchef's production company Banijay UK has launched a probe and said Wallace is co-operating, while his lawyers have denied he engages in behaviour of a sexually harassing nature.
Everyone thought they had a celeb lookalike
It all started with the Timothée Chalamet lookalike competition in New York which attracted the real actor himself.
Shortly after, similar contests popped up across the US and UK with men vaguely resembling the likes of Harry Styles, Dev Patel and Paul Mescal entering into the competitions.
While you might have needed to squint to see the resemblance, the events were a way to "get people together to have a wholesome time and make new friends" according to the Dev Patel lookalike winner.
Wicked Part I vs Gladiator II
A year after Barbenheimer electrified cinema audiences, two more very different movies went up against each other at the box office.
Both Gladiator II and Wicked Part I were huge hits, taking in hundreds of millions of dollars worldwide.
When it comes to awards though, Wicked seems to have the edge with Cynthia Erivo who plays Elphaba being touted as a potential Best Actress winner at the Oscars.
DECEMBER
Chris McCausland wins Strictly
Comedian Chris McCausland was both Strictly Come Dancing's first blind contestant, along with being its first blind winner of the glitterball trophy.
The former salesman, who got into comedy in the early 2000s, was the bookmakers' favourite to win.
McCausland, 47, was registered blind after losing his sight to retinitis pigmentosa in his 20s.
He said his win was for Buswell, "and for everyone out there who's got told they couldn't do something or thought they couldn't do it".
Adele ends her Las Vegas residency (finally)
After quite a few setbacks, British powerhouse Adele finally ended her Las Vegas residency in December 2024 after more than two years.
Performing 100 shows at the 4,000-capacity Caesar's Palace, there were plenty of viral moments for the singer, mostly involving the Brit crying over something emotional or getting wrapped up in storytelling.
Earlier this year she said she would be taking a "big break" from music after a mammoth run in the US city.
"I'm so sad this residency is over but I am so glad that it happened, I really, really am," she told fans at her final show. "I will miss it terribly, I will miss you terribly. I don't know when I next want to perform again," she added.
Written by Mark Savage, Lizo Mzimba, Emma Saunders, Helen Bushby, Ian Youngs, Annabel Rackham, Yasmin Rufo and Noor Nanji.
French rape survivor Gisèle Pelicot walked out of a court in southern France for the last time on Thursday after her ex-husband was jailed for 20 years for drugging and raping her, and inviting dozens of strangers to also abuse her over nearly a decade.
Dominique Pelicot, 72, was found guilty of all charges by a judge in Avignon. He was on trial with 50 other men, all of whom were found guilty of at least one charge, although their jail terms were less than what prosecutors had demanded.
Although the trial is over, there are still questions lingering over the Pelicot case and what happens next.
1. What will Gisèle Pelicot do now?
When she climbed the steps of the Avignon courthouse for the first time in September, no one knew Gisèle Pelicot's name. Over the course of the next 15 weeks, her fame as a rape victim who refused to be ashamed of what had been done to her grew vertiginously.
By the time she left the tribunal on Thursday, crowds of hundreds were chanting her name and her picture was on the front pages of newspapers worldwide.
She is now perhaps one of the best-known women in France. This means that although she has changed her name, it will be impossible for her to return to the anonymity that served her so well as she tried to rebuild a life following the revelation of her husband's crimes.
Gisèle is not the first person whose unimaginable suffering has turned her into an icon. At great personal cost, she has become the symbol of a fight she never chose. It seems unlikely, then, that she will want to become an outspoken activist against gender violence, or a prominent feminist figure. Rather, she may go back to what she has said has always given her solace: music, long walks and chocolate – as well as her seven grandchildren.
"At the start of the trial she said: 'If I last two weeks, that will be a lot.' In the end, she made it to three and a half months," her lawyer Stephane Babonneau said. "Now, she is at peace, and relieved it's all over."
2. What really happened to Caroline?
Days after Dominique Pelicot's crimes came to light, his daughter Caroline Darian was summoned to the police station and shown photos of an apparently unconscious woman dressed in unfamiliar lingerie. Later, she said her life had "stopped" when she realised she was looking at photos of herself.
Her father has always denied touching her, but Caroline – whose anguish and devastation were apparent in many court sessions – has said she would never believe him and accused him of looking at her "with incestuous eyes".
But the lack of proof of the abuse Caroline is convinced was inflicted on her has led her to say she is "the forgotten victim" of the trial. That notion has visibly seeped into her relationship with her mother. In her memoir – published after her father's arrest – she accused Gisèle of not showing her enough support, implicitly choosing to side with her rapist ex-husband over her daughter.
Although Gisèle and her children have always sat next to one another in court, often whispering huddled together, there have been signs of the toll the trial has taken on their relationship.
On Friday, Caroline's brother David highlighted – as he has done before – that the trial had not just been about Gisèle but about their whole "annihilated family".
"Us children felt forgotten," he said. "Very honestly I feel that while our lawyers did a remarkable job on the defence of our mother, we were a little bit less taken into account."
In her memoir, Caroline lamented Gisèle's "denial as a coping mechanism".
"Because of my father," she wrote, "I am now losing my mother."
3. How many defendants will appeal?
Apart from Dominique, all of the jail terms handed down to the defendants were less than what prosecutors had demanded.
Several defence lawyers were visibly satisfied, meaning it is unlikely they will encourage their clients to appeal against their sentences. A man called Jean-Pierre Maréchal got 12 years – five less than prosecutors had asked – and his lawyer Patrick Gontard told the BBC it was "out of the question" he would appeal.
The months or years the men spent in pre-trial detention will count towards their total sentences, meaning that some may be freed soon if they have served their minimum term.
One man who was facing 17 years ended up being sentenced to eight years' imprisonment, and his lawyer Roland Marmillot told the BBC that because he had already spent several years in jail it was likely he would be released relatively soon.
Still, by the morning after the trial closed, two men each jailed for eight years had already appealed. More are expected to follow over the next ten days – the period of time appeals can be lodged for.
4. What else could Dominique Pelicot be guilty of?
Dominique Pelicot has admitted to assaulting and attempting to rape a 23-year-old estate agent, known by the pseudonym Marion, in the suburbs of Paris in 1999. A cloth imbued with ether was put over her mouth but she managed to fight the attacker off and he fled. It was only in 2021, after he was arrested for the crimes he inflicted on his wife Gisèle, that Pelicot's DNA was cross-checked with a speck of blood found on Marion's shoe, and he admitted to his guilt.
He has, however, denied any responsibility in another cold case – the 1991 rape and murder of another young estate agent, Sophie Narme, for which there is no DNA. Investigators have argued that the two cases present too many similarities to be coincidental.
Other cold cases where similar modi operandi were used are also being looked at again.
5. Will the trial be a turning point?
"There will be a 'before' and there will be an 'after' the Pelicot trial," one Parisian man told the BBC in the early days of the trial.
For many, this sentiment has only grown over the last few months during which the intense media coverage of the Pelicot trial generated countless conversations around rape, consent and gender violence.
"What we need to do is have much, much harsher sentences," Nicolas and Mehdi, two Mazan residents, told the BBC. They said they were "disgusted" when they found out one of the defendants was a man they had played football with.
"With longer sentences they'll at least they'll think twice before doing stuff like this," they said, adding that it was "crazy unfair" that some of the men could come out of jail in the next few months.
It is worth noting, however, that the risk of incurring a 20-year prison sentence for aggravated rape did not deter Dominique Pelicot from offering his unconscious wife to be raped by strangers he met online.
There have been calls to reform French legislation on rape to include consent, but that has stalled in the past and would take considerable work in the current divided French parliament.
Some have argued that schools have a responsibility to better teach new generations about sex, love and consent. Béatrice Zavarro, Dominique Pelicot's lawyer, has said she believes "change will not come from the Ministry of Justice but from the Ministry of Education."
Françoise, a resident of the area where Gisèle and Dominique Pelicot used to live, told the BBC she thinks a way must be found to bridge the gap between what children are taught in schools and the type of material they have access to online.
"Young people are so exposed to sex on the internet and at the same time schools are very prudish," she said. "They should be much more open and frank to match and explain what kids see."
What these exchanges show is that, while it will take time before any changes become tangible, a conversation has now started. It will continue until there are no more unanswered questions.
The Republican-controlled House of Representatives has voted to pass a budget deal to avert what would be the first US federal government shut down since 2019.
The deal, which passed by a vote of 366 -34 only six hours before a midnight deadline, must still be approved by the Democratic-controlled Senate before it can be signed into law by President Joe Biden.
Lawmakers earlier this week had successfully negotiated a deal to fund government agencies - but it fell apart after President-elect Donald Trump and tech billionaire Elon Musk called on Republicans to reject it.
This vote was the third attempt this week to get a deal through the House after a second funding measure - that one backed by Trump - failed on Thursday.
Jamil Hassan, one of the most feared men in Bashar al-Assad's Syrian regime, wanted for the torture and killing of civilians, was shaking as he walked down the stairs of his apartment block.
Outside, the 72-year-old climbed into a car in a small convoy with his family and a handful of security guards, just a few suitcases between them.
His neighbour and her teenage son watched.
"I knew the moment I saw them flee that Assad had fallen," she says.
When we entered Hassan's apartment a few days later, signs of the family's hasty departure were everywhere.
In the fridge was a half-eaten carrot cake with a knife still on the plate. The beds were strewn with clothes and empty shoeboxes. Flowers wilted in a vase in the dining room, and cups and plates had been left to dry by the sink.
A framed photo of a smiling Hassan and Assad hung on the wall of the study, with text reading: "Our skies are for us and forbidden to others".
Hassan, referred to as "the butcher" by many civilians on his street, was one of Assad's most menacing enforcers. He led the Air Force Intelligence and oversaw a network of detention facilities including the notorious Mezzeh Prison, where detainees were routinely tortured.
He is one of many senior regime figures wanted or sanctioned around the world who have abandoned their homes in affluent areas of Damascus and vanished.
Finding these men who ruled Syria with an iron fist will be difficult. Some fear they will strike political deals abroad and evade justice.
Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), which led the campaign to topple the regime, has vowed to search for them inside Syria. Rebels aligned with the group now occupy Hassan's apartment and a handwritten note on the front door warns people not to enter.
When we asked them where Hassan might have gone, one grinned and replied: "I don't know - to Hell."
'His guards threatened to kill my dog'
Many apartment shutters on Hassan's quiet street in central Damascus are now closed. Knocks on doors go unanswered.
Those who will speak tell us about their fear at living on a street with a wanted war criminal. "We were so afraid to talk," says the woman who watched him flee. "It was terrifying to live next to them."
Hassan is wanted in the US for "engaging in conspiracy to commit cruel and inhuman treatment of civilian detainees, including US citizens". He was convicted in absentia earlier this year in France for his role in imprisoning, disappearing and torturing two Syrian-French nationals. Germany wants him too. An Interpol Red Notice shows a photograph of Hassan alongside a note that he is wanted for "conspiracy to commit war crimes".
He was placed under travel bans and had his assets frozen over the repression of civilian protesters. In April 2011 the US says Air Force Intelligence personnel fired tear gas and live ammunition at protesting crowds in Damascus and other cities, killing at least 43.
People on the street describe a formidable figure who was unapproachable and always surrounded by guards.
A makeshift security post outside Hassan's apartment building was constantly staffed by military personnel. The night before the regime collapsed, the men simply took off their uniforms and discarded their weapons, according to another neighbour.
"It was the first time I'd seen this post with no lights, no sounds, no noise," says 27-year-old Amr al-Bakri, a filmmaker who lives with his family in the building next door.
He said locals "knew what he did to the Syrians - outside of Damascus and in Damascus - so we know it but we can't say anything, just 'good morning sir'. He'd say nothing back."
Amr says his family had to give away their pet dog after Hassan's guards threatened to kill it if it didn't stop barking. When Amr's family asked for the guard post to be moved from outside their home, they were told they should move house instead, he says.
The guards would run regular inspections on the street and check the bags of visitors.
"Sometimes if I had a plumber or handyman to come and fix something one of the guards would come and check if there was really something that needed to be fixed," says the woman living in Hassan's building.
Neighbours also say Hassan had a "golden line" for electricity that meant his family's lights were always on, while other homes in the neighbourhood were in darkness.
The electrician called to fix any problems at the apartment says he knew Hassan over many years "but only from a distance". "[Hassan] was very strict - a military personality," the man says. "He was a butcher… He had no mercy."
The man told BBC News he had been in prison - not at Mezzeh but elsewhere - and was tortured there.
A local shopkeeper, Mohammed Naoura, says he didn't like Hassan but that you had to appear to support him.
"We are happy now," he adds. "Nobody believed this would ever happen."
Guns on sofas and underground swimming pools
Hussam Luka, head of the General Security Directorate (GSD), was less well-known among residents but had an apartment underneath Hassan.
His "ruthless, smooth-talking nature" reportedly earned him the nickname "the spider" - and he's under sanctions in the EU, US and UK.
A UK sanctions list says he was "responsible for the torture of opponents in custody", while the US Treasury Department says he "reportedly committed a number of massacres" while working in Homs.
The White House has said he is one of a small group of officials who might have information about missing American journalist Austin Tice.
At his home on Monday, rebels were dismantling furniture to be put into storage. They said they arrived after looters had already taken many of the most expensive items.
A photo of Luka and Assad remained, printed in different sizes and styles, alongside documents from security and intelligence events, and ceremonial medals and certificates from the foreign spy service in Russia - where the deposed Syrian leader Assad has fled.
"This award is to the coordinator of the mukhabarat [intelligence service] organ in the southern provinces of the Syrian Arab Republic," one certificate naming Luka says. "You showed the utmost professionalism and put in huge effort to fulfil the duties entrusted to you for the good of the Syrian people."
As rebels clear the apartment, a neighbour wanders in to see what's happening.
When asked what she knows about the regime official, she replies: "We keep to ourselves, they keep to themselves. No one in this building interacts with each other." She walks away.
In other affluent areas more homes have been abandoned. Fridges are fully stocked, wardrobes full and in some cases travel documents left behind.
The rebels who have taken over the homes are using them as bases, and say they are also preventing further looting.
At one lavish apartment, men say they are sleeping on blankets on marble floors beneath giant chandeliers and cooking on a camp stove in its modern kitchen. Guns are propped against plush sofas and arm chairs.
"We don't need any of this," a rebel says, gesticulating around the room.
At another, a child peaks through the curtain of a sprawling ground-floor apartment with an outdoor swimming pool. A large family say they are occupying the space.
Perhaps the grandest home in the area is the modern labyrinthine underground dwelling of one of the country's best-known businessmen - Khodr Taher Bin Ali, better known as Abu Ali Khodr.
Bin Ali has been sanctioned by the US, UK and EU for his role in supporting and benefiting from the Syrian regime.
His home has an elevator, a full-size gym, an indoor swimming pool, jacuzzi and sauna, and an industrial kitchen.
In the master bedroom, there are two golden safes, with space for dozens of watches - in a drawer there is a forgotten warranty card for luxury brand Audemars Piguet. A gun case and jewellery boxes in the wardrobe are empty.
The children's ensuite bedrooms still have toys and a Louis Vuitton handbag on the floor and homework and school reports are in the cupboards. A Quran rests on a countertop with the words "A gift from the president Bashar al-Assad" inscribed on the side.
Around the corner from Bin Ali is the home of Ali Mamlouk, one of Assad's closest associates and among the most senior and notorious members of the regime. He was reportedly given the nickname "black box" because of his control over sensitive information.
He was sentenced alongside Hassan by French judges this year for war crimes, and is also wanted in Lebanon for two explosions in 2012 in the city of Tripoli that killed and wounded dozens.
Like Luka, the White House believes Mamlouk is one of few men who could have information about Tice.
His home is padlocked shut, and rebels are more reluctant to grant entry there.
In a guard booth outside, there are notes on visitors to the property before Assad's fall - people delivering chocolates, water and vegetables, and coming to fix the electricity.
"No one could see, no one could walk, no one could pass by this area. It's actually the first time I'm seeing this place from up close," says 17-year-old Mo Rasmi Taftaf, whose family own a house nearby.
"Whenever he came in or out, guards would cut the roads off," one neighbour says.
Shouting down from a second-floor balcony, another gestures towards Mamlouk's large home when asked about the wanted regime figure.
"It felt like there was a strange atmosphere" on the street the night before news broke that Assad had fled, he says, without elaborating.
"His security was here at the time but I saw them leave on Sunday morning - a lot of cars. Ali Mamlouk wasn't here," he adds, before returning inside.
Another man, who declines to give his name, says he doesn't want to talk about the regime men.
"I just want to live in peace. I don't want to open this book or explore all of these crimes - there would be a lot of blood."
Hunting the Assad men
Many, though, do want justice.
The leader of HTS has vowed to pursue the senior regime figures in Syria and asked other countries to hand over those who fled. Those wanted elsewhere have limited places to run.
Finding the men will be a challenge.
"While there is no confirmed information on the current whereabouts of senior regime figures like Jamil Hassan, Ali Mamlouk, and others, there are concerns that such individuals could benefit from political deals that enable them to evade justice," the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (SCM) tells the BBC.
"Some are likely to have sought refuge in allied countries, complicating future extradition efforts, while others may still be in Syria, living discreetly."
On Hassan's street, neighbours speculate about where the vanished war criminal has gone.
His family left few clues in the apartment. But in the office is a certificate for Hassan's daughter signed by Hassan Nasrallah, the late leader of Lebanon-based Shia militant group Hezbollah, thanking her for her "help and support for this honourable resistance".
Several neighbours suggest he may be hiding in Lebanon or has transited through there, while the local shopkeeper says he thinks Hassan headed for the coast, perhaps to Latakia in the north - the heartland of the minority Alawite sect to which Assad and many of his closest allies belong.
Meanwhile, Lebanese newspaper Nida al-Watan reports that Mamlouk was smuggled across the border and into the Lebanese capital Beirut by Hezbollah - a long-time ally of Syria's Ba'ath government.
Hezbollah has not confirmed offering assistance to any regime figures, and the Lebanese government has said no Syrian officials targeted by international warrants were authorised to enter through legal crossings. Lebanese security services say Mamlouk is not in the country.
Syrian-British barrister Ibrahim Olabi says regime officials may have acquired new identities and passports, as they were powerful people backed by state institutions.
When it comes to getting justice, he adds, a lack of evidence is not the problem. It is more about finding them and getting them to a place where they can be held accountable.
The SCM says doing this will "require considerable resources, sustained political will, and international collaboration".
Failing to do so will send a "dangerous message that crimes, including war crimes and crimes against humanity, can go unpunished", it adds.
Ibrahim Olabi says he is hopeful that justice will be served.
"It will absolutely be a hunt," he says, but "the world now is a small place through social media, private investigators, political leverages".
Hassan's neighbours who were willing to talk say they hope he will one day be returned to Syria, far away from their street, to be punished.
When a court declared Iwao Hakamata innocent in September, the world's longest-serving death row inmate seemed unable to comprehend, much less savour the moment.
"I told him he was acquitted, and he was silent," Hideko Hakamata, his 91-year-old sister, tells the BBC at her home in Hamamatsu, Japan.
"I couldn't tell whether he understood or not."
Hideko had been fighting for her brother's retrial ever since he was convicted of quadruple murder in 1968.
In September 2024, at the age of 88, he was finally acquitted - ending Japan's longest running legal saga.
Mr Hakamata's case is remarkable. But it also shines a light on the systemic brutality underpinning Japan's justice system, where death row inmates are only notified of their hanging a few hours in advance, and spend years unsure whether each day will be their last.
Human rights experts have long condemned such treatment as cruel and inhuman, saying it exacerbates prisoners' risk of developing a serious mental illness.
And more than half a lifetime spent in solitary confinement, waiting to be executed for a crime he didn't commit, took a heavy toll on Mr Hakamata.
Since being granted a retrial and released from prison in 2014, he has lived under Hideko's close care.
When we arrive at the apartment he is on his daily outing with a volunteer group that supports the two elderly siblings. He is anxious around strangers, Hideko explains, and has been in "his own world" for years.
"Maybe it can't be helped," she says. "This is what happens when you are locked up and crammed in a small prison cell for more than 40 years.
"They made him live like an animal."
Life on death row
A former professional boxer, Iwao Hakamata was working at a miso processing plant when the bodies of his boss, the man's wife and their two teenage children were found. All four had been stabbed to death.
Authorities accused Mr Hakamata of murdering the family, setting their house in Shizuoka alight and stealing 200,000 yen (£199; $556) in cash.
"We had no idea what was going on," Hideko says of the day in 1966 when police came to arrest her brother.
The family home was searched, as well as the homes of their two elder sisters, and Mr Hakamata was taken away.
He initially denied all charges, but later gave what he came to describe as a coerced confession following beatings and interrogations that lasted up to 12 hours a day.
Two years after his arrest, Mr Hakamata was convicted of murder and arson and sentenced to death. It was when he was moved to a cell on death row that Hideko noticed a shift in his demeanour.
One prison visit in particular stands out.
"He told me, 'there was an execution yesterday - it was a person in the next cell'," she recalls. "He told me to take care - and from then on, he completely changed mentally and became very quiet."
Mr Hakamata is not the only one to be damaged by life on Japan's death row, where inmates wake each morning not knowing if it will be their last.
"Between 08:00 and 08:30 in the morning was the most critical time, because that was generally when prisoners were notified of their execution," Menda Sakae, who spent 34 years on death row before being exonerated, wrote in a book about his experience.
"You begin to feel the most terrible anxiety, because you don't know if they are going to stop in front of your cell. It is impossible to express how awful a feeling this was."
James Welsh, lead author of a 2009 Amnesty International report into conditions on death row, noted that "the daily threat of imminent death is cruel, inhuman and degrading". The report concluded that inmates were at risk of "significant mental health issues".
Hideko could only watch as her own brother's mental health deteriorated as the years went by.
"Once he asked me 'Do you know who I am?' I said, 'Yes, I do. You are Iwao Hakamata'. 'No,' he said, 'you must be here to see a different person'. And he just went back [to his cell]."
Hideko stepped up as his primary spokesperson and advocate. It wasn't until 2014, however, that there was a breakthrough in his case.
A key piece of evidence against Mr Hakamata were red-stained clothes found in a miso tank at his workplace.
They were recovered a year and two months after the murders and the prosecution said they belonged to him. But for years Mr Hakamata's defence team argued that the DNA recovered from the clothes did not match his - and alleged that the evidence was planted.
In 2014 they were able to persuade a judge to release him from prison and grant him a retrial.
Prolonged legal proceedings meant it took until last October for the retrial to begin. When it finally did, it was Hideko who appeared in court, pleading for her brother's life.
Mr Hakamata's fate hinged on the stains, and specifically how they had aged.
The prosecution had claimed the stains were reddish when the clothes were recovered - but the defence argued that blood would have turned blackish after being immersed in miso for so long.
That was enough to convince presiding judge Koshi Kunii, who declared that "the investigating authority had added blood stains and hid the items in the miso tank well after the incident took place".
Judge Kunii further found that other evidence had been fabricated, including an investigation record, and declared Mr Hakamata innocent.
Hideko's first reaction was to cry.
"When the judge said that the defendant is not guilty, I was elated; I was in tears," she says. "I am not a tearful person, but my tears just flowed without stopping for about an hour."
Hostage justice
The court's conclusion that evidence against Mr Hakamata was fabricated raises troubling questions.
Japan has a 99% conviction rate, and a system of so-called "hostage justice" which, according to Kanae Doi, Japan director at Human Rights Watch, "denies people arrested their rights to a presumption of innocence, a prompt and fair bail hearing, and access to counsel during questioning".
"These abusive practices have resulted in lives and families being torn apart, as well as wrongful convictions," Mr Doi noted in 2023.
David T Johnson, a professor of sociology at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, whose research focuses on criminal justice in Japan, has followed the Hakamata case for the last 30 years.
He said one reason it dragged on is that "critical evidence for the defence was not disclosed to them until around 2010".
The failure was "egregious and inexcusable", Mr Johnson told the BBC. "Judges kept kicking the case down the road, as they frequently do in response to retrial petitions (because) they are busy, and the law allows them to do so."
Hideko says the core of the injustice was the forced confession and the coercion her brother suffered.
But Mr Johnson says false accusations don't happen because of a single mistake. Instead, they are compounded by failings at all levels - from the police right through to the prosecutors, courts and parliament.
"Judges have the last word," he added. "When a wrongful conviction occurs, it is, in the end, because they said so. All too often, the responsibility of judges for producing and maintaining wrongful convictions gets neglected, elided, and ignored."
Against that backdrop, Mr Hakamata's acquittal was a watershed - a rare moment of retrospective justice.
After declaring Mr Hakamata innocent, the judge presiding over his retrial apologised to Hideko for how long it took to achieve justice.
A short while later, Takayoshi Tsuda, chief of Shizuoka police, visited her home and bowed in front of both brother and sister.
"For the past 58 years… we caused you indescribable anxiety and burden," Mr Tsuda said. "We are truly sorry."
Hideko gave an unexpected reply to the police chief.
"We believe that everything that happened was our destiny," she said. "We will not complain about anything now."
The pink door
After nearly 60 years of anxiety and heartache, Hideko has styled her home with the express intention of letting some light in. The rooms are bright and inviting, filled with pictures of her and Iwao alongside family friends and supporters.
Hideko laughs as she shares memories of her "cute" little brother as a baby, leafing through black-and-white family photos.
The youngest of six siblings, he seems to always be standing next to her.
"We were always together when we were children," she explains. "I always knew I had to take care of my little brother. And so, it continues."
She walks into Mr Hakamata's room and introduces their ginger cat, which occupies the chair he normally sits in. Then she points to pictures of him as a young professional boxer.
"He wanted to become a champion," she says. "Then the incident happened."
After Mr Hakamata was released in 2014, Hideko wanted to make the apartment as bright as possible, she explains. So she painted the front door pink.
"I believed that if he was in a bright room and had a cheerful life, he would naturally get well."
It's the first thing one notices when visiting Hideko's apartment, this bright pink statement of hope and resilience.
It's unclear whether it has worked – Mr Hakamata still paces back and forth for hours, just as he did for years in a jail cell the size of three single tatami mats.
But Hideko refuses to linger on the question of what their lives might have looked like if not for such an egregious miscarriage of justice.
When asked who she blames for her brother's suffering, she replies: "no-one".
"Complaining about what happened will get us nowhere."
Her priority now is to keep her brother comfortable. She shaves his face, massages his head, slices apples and apricots for his breakfast each morning.
Hideko, who has spent the majority of her 91 years fighting for her brother's freedom, says this was their fate.
"I don't want to think about the past. I don't know how long I'm going to live," she says. "I just want Iwao to live a peaceful and quiet life."
Additional reporting by Chika Nakayama
A Houthi missile strike has injured more than a dozen people in Tel Aviv, Israel.
The Israeli military said attempts to shoot down a projectile launched from Yemen had been unsuccessful and it landed in a public park early on Saturday.
A Houthi military spokesman said the group hit a military target using a hypersonic ballistic missile.
The Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel group that controls north-western Yemen, began attacking Israel and international shipping shortly after the start of the Gaza war in October 2023, saying they were acting in solidarity with Palestinians.
Israel's military says about 400 missiles and drones have been launched at the country from Yemen since then, most of which have been shot down.
After the missile strike early on Saturday, Magen David Adom (MDA), Israel's emergency medical service, said it treated 16 people who were "mildly injured" by glass shards from shattered windows in nearby buildings.
Another 14 people suffered minor injuries on their way to protected areas were also treated, it said.
Earlier this week, Israel conducted a series of strikes against what it said were Houthi military targets, hitting ports as well as energy infrastructure in the Yemeni capital Sanaa. Houthi-run Al Masirah TV reported that nine people were killed in the port of Salif and the Ras Issa oil terminal.
The Houthis have vowed to continue their attacks until the war in Gaza ends.
Richard Allen, a US man convicted last month of killing two teenagers in the state of Indiana, has been sentenced to 130 years behind bars for their deaths.
The bodies of teenagers Liberty German, who was 14, and Abigail Williams, 13, were found near their hometown of Delphi in 2017. The case that went cold for years and became a focal point for true-crime enthusiasts.
It gained national attention as one of the victims recorded possible evidence on her phone, including audio and a Snapchat video of a possible suspect.
Allen, 52, was given 65 years for each victim, according to media reports.
Libby's grandfather, Mike Patty, thanked the jurors on Friday, saying he would forever be grateful for their work, as well as prosecutors and investigators.
He also expressed gratitude for the community he said had embraced the families of the young victims "from day one and continues to lift us up".
"It's been almost eight years coming," he said a press conference after the sentencing hearing.
"If I live to make it 80, almost 10% of my life has been spent working on this."
The two girls were found with cuts to their throat in February 2017, near an abandoned railway bridge and close to the location where they had been dropped off for a hike.
Libby's phone had recorded audio of a man telling the two girls to go "down the hill" and had taken a photo of a man walking near the trail.
Their deaths affected the local community, said Carroll County Sheriff Tony Liggett, adding that he hoped the conviction and sentencing would reassure residents about security.
"A form of justice was served, but it does not bring Abby or Libby back," he said.
"These families will live every day without two of the most important people in their lives."
He also apologised to the families "that it took eight years for us to get to this point".
Allen, a local pharmacist, was interviewed as a possible witness soon after the crime. He was questioned again five years later when police linked his gun to an unspent bullet found at the scene.
But despite receiving thousands of leads, police only focused on Allen in 2022 after reviewing former suspects. He was arrested that same year.
During his trial, prosecutors said he had confessed multiple times to the murders while in prison and played a recording for the jury of him apparently telling his wife he had committed the crimes.
Defence attorneys contended Allen was mentally unwell when he told people he was guilty.
A Canadian woman who posed as a nurse and delivered care to hundreds of patients in British Columbia has been sentenced to seven years in prison.
Brigitte Cleroux pleaded guilty in July to assaulting patients by IV injection while pretending to be a nurse.
It is not the first time Cleroux worked as a nurse without medical qualifications.
Tuesday's sentencing marks the end of decades for her in the court system - often as a serial imposter - where she has been convicted of fraud and other related crimes across Canada and in the US.
The sentencing hearing, which began on Monday, heard from former patients, some of whom described how learning of the fraud undermined their faith in the health system.
Cleroux, now in her early 50s, went by multiple aliases including Brigitte Marier, Brigitte Fournier, Melanie Cleroux, Melanie Gauthier, Melanie Thompson and Melanie Smith, according to the College of Nurses of Ontario.
In June 2020, she got a job using a false name and fake resume and references as a nurse at the BC Women's Hospital. She worked there until June 2021, when she was placed on leave following complaints.
She was involved in caring - directly and indirectly - for hundreds of patients who attended the centre for gynaecological surgical procedures, according to court documents.
The Provincial Health Services Authority is facing a class-action lawsuit from some of those patients. The PHSA is not commenting on the matter as it is before the courts.
Cleroux also briefly worked at the View Royal Surgical Centre in Victoria, BC.
Her record of posing as a nurse goes back at least to 2011, in Alberta, according to court documents.
She also presented herself as legitimate in Ottawa in 2017 and in 2021 used fake nursing credentials, a forged resume and a false name to get jobs at two medical clinics there, where she administered needles and injected medication.
One was a fertility clinic where she treated eight patients - a job she quit abruptly when a nurse confronted her about the way she was administering care.
Police began investigating Cleroux when the colleague tried to file a complaint with the nurse's college, which flagged Cleroux's false identity.
She found another job at a dental office but was arrested shortly after.
Cleroux has already been convicted and sentenced for her dangerous ruse, with an Ontario court in 2022 giving her seven years behind bars after she pled guilty to offences including personation, fraud, assault and assault with a weapon.
The sentence she received on Friday will essentially add four years to her time for the Ontario charges.
Altogether, Cleroux has an extensive record of 67 convictions as an adult, including in Florida, mainly for fraud, theft and impersonation.
It is not clear why Cleroux chose to pose as a nurse for at least a decade across North America.
Cleroux is also wanted in the US state of Colorado, for forgery and impersonation, according to an arrest affidavit, in a case dating back to 2001. It's alleged she presented false credentials to work in Colorado Springs as a registered nurse.
She had some training as a nurse, though never completed a degree.
Trump's demand was also a tacit admission that his legislative agenda, heavy on tax cuts and new military spending, was unlikely to deliver the kind of reduction to America's enormous federal deficit that many on the right have been hoping for.
On Thursday night, this slimmed-down bill, along with a two-year suspension of the debt limit, came up for a vote in the House. Thirty-eight Republicans joined nearly every Democrat in voting it down. This amounted to a stunning rebuke of the president-elect, who had enthusiastically endorsed the legislation and threatened to unseat any Republicans who opposed it.
After that defeat, Republican leaders huddled behind closed doors on Friday in an effort to come up with a new plan.
First, they appeared to back a series of votes on individual components of Thursday night's legislative package – government funding, disaster relief, health-care fixes and a debt-limit increase. It became increasingly clear, however, that any debt-limit increase would be dead on arrival.
After Republicans and Democrats reopened communications, a new plan was hatched. Bring Thursday night's package back for another vote without the debt-limit provision. While 34 Republican budget hawks still rejected that, all Democrats who voted - wary of a government shutdown less than a week before Christmas – jumped on board.
That ensured the bill had the necessary two-thirds majority to pass. It will now go to the Democrat-controlled Senate where it almost certain to be approved and sent to President Joe Biden to sign.
Republicans, in a closed-door meeting earlier on Friday, reportedly agreed to raise the debt limit without Democratic help sometime next year, before the US Treasury hits the current cap. In doing so, however, they also agreed to accompany that move with trillions in spending cuts – from a pot of "mandatory" spending that includes government-run health insurance, veterans benefits, government pensions and food aid to the poor.
Such cuts would be vehemently opposed by Democrats and could be controversial among the larger public.
That's a fight for another day, however. For now, it appears the US government will continue to function – at least until the new budget deadline is reached in March. At that point, the Republicans will have to juggle funding the federal government while also trying to enact Trump's legislative agenda on immigration, taxes and trade, all with an even narrower House majority.
In the end, this latest drama underscores just how tenuous the Republican majority in the House is – and the limits to Donald Trump's power.
Republicans abhor compromise with the Democrats, but they will be hard-pressed to muster a majority without them. And when Trump says jump, not every Republican will spring into action.
Trump and Elon Musk can kill legislation, but they are often hard-pressed to rally the support to get their proposals over the finish line.
On Friday evening, a man ploughed a car into a crowd of shoppers at a Christmas market in the German city of Magdeburg.
The attack has left five people dead and more than 200 injured, with many in a critical condition.
One man has been arrested over the attack, and police believe he was solely responsible.
How did the attack unfold?
Unverified footage on social media showed a black BMW travelling at high speed through the pedestrian walkway between Christmas stalls.
Eyewitnesses described jumping out of the car's path, fleeing or hiding. One told Reuters news agency that police were already at the venue and chased after the car.
Later footage showed armed police confronting and arresting a man who can be seen lying on the ground next to a stationary vehicle - a black BMW with significant damage to its front bumper and windscreen.
BBC correspondent Damien McGuinness in Magdeburg said the market was surrounded by concrete blocks. However, there was a gap for pedestrians to go through, but also wide enough for a car.
Who are the victims?
Five people have been confirmed to have died in the attack, one of whom is a child.
More than 200 people have been injured and at least 41 are in a critical condition.
The toll had earlier been reported as two dead and 68 injured, but was revised to the much higher totals on Saturday morning.
None of the victims have been identified yet.
Who is the suspect?
German media has identified the suspect as Taleb A, a psychiatrist who lives in Bernburg, around 40km (25 miles) south of Magdeburg.
The motive behind the attack remains unclear, but authorities have reported that they believe he carried out the attack alone.
Originally from Saudi Arabia, he arrived in Germany in 2006 and in 2016 was recognised as a refugee.
Germany's Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters that it was "clear to see" that the suspect holds "Islamophobic" views.
The suspect is an outspoken critic of Islam on social media, and has promoted conspiracy theories regarding an alleged plot by German authorities to islamicise Europe.
A report from Der Spiegel said a complaint was filed against Taleb A with the authorities a year ago over statements which officials concluded did not constitute a concrete threat.
What have officials said about the attack?
"The reports from Magdeburg raise the worst fears," the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, said on social media platform X.
Magdeburg's city councillor for public order, Ronni Krug, said the Christmas market will stay closed and that "Christmas in Magdeburg is over", according to German public broadcaster MDR.
That sentiment was echoed on the market's website, which in the wake of the attack featured only a black screen with words of mourning, announcing that the market was over.
The Saudi government expressed "solidarity with the German people and the families of the victims", in a statement on X, and "affirmed its rejection of violence".
UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was "horrified by the atrocious attack in Magdeburg", adding that his thoughts were with "the victims, their families and all those affected" in a post on X on Friday night.
When police in Rio de Janeiro seize blocks of cocaine and bundles of marijuana they may well find them branded with a religious symbol – the Star of David. This is not a reference to the Jewish faith, but to the belief of some Pentecostal Christians that the return of Jews to Israel will lead to the Second Coming of Christ.
The gang selling these branded drugs is the Pure Third Command, one of Rio's most powerful criminal groups, with a reputation both for making its opponents disappear, and for fanatical evangelical Christianity.
They took control of a group of five favelas in the north of the city – now known as the Israel Complex – after one of their leaders had what he believed was a revelation from God, says theologian Vivian Costa, author of the book, Evangelical Drug Dealers.
She says the gangsters see themselves as "soldiers of crime", with Jesus as "the owner" of the territory they dominate.
Controversially, some have dubbed them "Narco-Pentecostals".
A rifle and the Bible
One man who has experience of crime and religion – though in his case, not at the same time – is Pastor Diego Nascimento, who became a Christian after hearing the gospel from a gangster holding a gun.
Looking at him, it's hard to believe that this boyish looking 42-year-old Wesleyan Methodist minister with a ready smile and dimples, was once a member of Rio's notorious Red Command crime gang and managed its activities in the city's Vila Kennedy favela.
Four years in prison for drug dealing weren't enough to make him give up crime. But when he became addicted to crack cocaine his standing in the gang plummeted.
"I lost my family. I practically lived on the street for almost a year. I went so far as to sell things from my house to buy crack," he says.
It was at that point, when he was at rock bottom, that a well-known drug dealer in the favela summoned him.
"He started preaching to me, saying there was a way out, that there was a solution for me, which was to accept Jesus," he recalls.
The young addict took this advice and began his journey to the pulpit.
Pastor Nascimento still spends time with criminals, but now it is through his work in prisons, where he helps people turn their lives around, as he did himself.
Despite having been converted by a gangster, he regards the idea of religious criminals as a contradiction in terms.
"I don't see them as evangelical believers," he says.
"I see them as people who are going down the wrong path and have a fear of God because they know that God is the one who guards their lives.
"There is no such thing as combining the two, being an evangelical and a thug. If a person accepts Jesus and follows the Biblical commandments, that person cannot be a drug dealer."
'Living under siege'
Evangelical Christianity will, by some predictions, overtake Catholicism as Brazil's biggest religion by the end of the decade.
As it has grown, the charismatic Pentecostal movement has particularly resonated with people living in the gang-ridden favelas, and now some of those gangs are drawing on elements of the faith they grew up with to wield power.
One accusation made against them is that they are using violence to suppress Afro-Brazilian faiths.
Christina Vital, a sociology professor at Rio's Fluminense Federal University, says Rio's poor communities have long been living "under siege" from criminal gangs, and this is now affecting their freedom of religion.
"In the Israel Complex, people with other religious beliefs cannot be seen to practise them publicly. It's not an exaggeration to speak of religious intolerance in that territory."
Vital says Afro-Brazilian Umbanda and Candomblé religious houses have been shut down in surrounding neighbourhoods too, with gangsters sometimes drawing messages on the walls such as "Jesus is the Lord of this place."
Followers of Afro-Brazilian faiths have long faced prejudice, and drug dealers are not the only people who have targeted them.
But Dr Rita Salim, who heads the Rio police Department for Racial and Intolerance Crimes, says threats and attacks by narco-gangs have a particularly powerful impact.
"These cases are more serious because they are imposed by a criminal organisation, by a group and its leader, who imposes fear on the whole territory it dominates."
She notes that an arrest warrant has been issued for the man thought to be the number one crime boss in the Israel Complex, for allegedly ordering armed men to attack an Afro-Brazilian temple in another favela.
'Neo-crusade'
While allegations of religious extremism in Rio's favelas first gained attention in the early 2000s, the problem has "increased dramatically" in recent years, according to Marcio de Jagun, co-ordinator of Religious Diversity at Rio's City Hall.
Jagun, who is a babalorixá (high priest) of the Candomblé religion, says the issue is now a national one, with similar attacks seen in other Brazilian cities.
"This is a form of neo-Crusade," he says. "The prejudice behind these attacks is both religious and ethnic, with outlaws demonising religions from Africa and claiming to banish evil in the name of God."
But religion and crime have long been intertwined in Brazil, says theologian Vivian Costa. In the past, gangsters would ask for protection from Afro-Brazilian deities and Catholic saints.
"If we look at the birth of the Red Command, or the birth of the Third Command, Afro religions [and Catholicism] have been there since their beginning. We see the presence of Saint George, the presence of [the Afro-Brazilian god] Ògún, the tattoos, the crucifixes, the candles, the offerings.
"That is why to call it Narco-Pentecostalism is to reduce that relationship that is so historic and traditional between crime and religion. I prefer to call it 'Narco-Religiosity'."
Whatever one calls this mix of faith and criminality, one thing seems clear: it jeopardises a right that is enshrined in Brazil's constitution – that of religious freedom.
And it is yet one more way in which violent drug traffickers cause harm to the communities forced to live under their rule.
It's become a seasonal tradition to seek the hidden message or symbolic meaning in the Christmas cards the royals send out, as they keep changing and reinventing the format.
This year's card from King Charles and Queen Camilla shows them looking relaxed and maybe relieved - and there is a very personal significance behind this picture.
It was the first photoshoot after the King was given the green light that he was well enough to return to public duties, after beginning his cancer treatment. It was said to be a watershed moment for the couple, caught on camera.
The same pictures, with images full of spring rebirth, were then used for the official announcement that the King had made sufficient progress with his treatment to go back to public events.
There's also a pattern that even though these are Christmas cards, forget the snowy steeples and robins, because royal cards rarely seem to have any signs of winter.
And the message, printed in red, always look like a party invitation from the 1950s.
Prince Harry and Meghan have given their own twist to royal cards. They've added some glitz, so that it has the feel of film credits as much as a season's greeting.
It's an upbeat Californian message, sent out as an e-card, with six pictures rather than a single image, showing the couple hugging and laughing. It also drew comments on the rare appearance of their son and daughter.
If cards could have an accent, this would undoubtedly sound American. It's a "Happy Holiday Season", with no mention of "Christmas". But then, they've spent most of their married life in the US.
Prince William and Catherine's cards have used more informal pictures in recent years. It's jeans and no ties, a modern family, without any royal imagery.
This year's card kept the same relaxed style, but it had a very poignant significance. It was from the video that announced that Catherine had completed her chemotherapy.
It shows William and Catherine and their three children in Norfolk in August, from a video that was full of end-of-summer colours and very emotional messages about a tough year since her cancer diagnosis.
It was a strikingly different style of royal communication, unashamedly about love and togetherness - and they've used it again for the Christmas card.
Last year's card from the Prince and Princess of Wales had also been a talking point. It featured the same jackets-off, casual image, but there was also a designer chic, with an arty black-and-white picture that wouldn't have looked out of place in an upmarket jeans advert.
The prince is very keen on sustainability, so maybe next year's will be made out of recyclable seaweed.
Christmas cards can also be like time capsules, holding a moment.
In 1995 Prince William appeared alongside his mother Diana, Princess of Wales, and his brother Prince Harry in this rather haunting image. It really evokes another era.
There's often a sense of family closeness projected by the cards.
The late Queen Elizabeth II was always pictured with Prince Philip. And King Charles and Queen Camilla have continued to use images of themselves as a couple.
That's had to be mixed up with some props over the years.
For the 2019 card the then Prince Charles and Camilla were pictured in a vintage sports car, in a photo taken on a trip to Cuba. It was more or less made for a Prince of Wheels headline.
There was also a picture of the Royal Family standing around a speed boat in 1969, looking like winners on a game show.
Christmas cards might be slipping out of fashion - sales of boxes of cards are down 23% in a year, according to retailers John Lewis.
But the royals show no sign of losing interest - and that includes European royal families... although their use of a family group in a posh room isn't always that original.
The Belgian royal card has a multi-lingual message, which is inclusive and reflects a multi-lingual country, but risks looking like a Eurostar menu. It's also unusually forward-looking, with the date of 2025.
Spanish royals this year used their card to send a more serious message. There was a standard family group photo on the front, but inside was a poem that was a tribute to the victims of the Valencia flood.
Last month, Spain's king and queen had been pelted with mud when they visited areas hit by the floods.
You couldn't say that the Christmas card pictures are always predictable or easy to interpret.
What was the thinking behind the 2016 card which used a photo of Prince Charles and Camilla on a trip to Croatia? An unexpected Eurovision entry?
They might begin as greetings cards, but they soon become history. Like this poignant wartime Christmas card from the then Princess Elizabeth, sent in 1942. There's the tilt of the cap, the young face, looking into an unknown future.
There's often a hint of melancholy in Christmas films and songs, hinting at the passing of time, and that's here, too.
Happy Christmas! It's in the post.
At London's famous Hyde Park at around 11:00 on a crisp Saturday morning, runners gather at some benches - some tall and lean, others broad and sturdy, a few logging into the Strava app, but one common thread unites them - most of them are Nigerians of Igbo extraction.
This is the Ozo running club, formed by Igbo people to celebrate the culture of one of the largest of Nigeria's more than 300 ethnic groups.
"We wanted to create a space where young Igbo people could connect and re-connect to their culture," said Chibueze Odoemene, who co-founded the club with Emeka Atumonyogo, and Chigo Ogbonna.
In less than three months, the Ozo running club already has more than 300 members.
This rapid growth speaks not only to the deep desire for community, but to the significant boom of social running clubs in recent years.
Strava, the popular running app, said there had been a 59% increase in running club participation globally this year.
But for the Ozo running club, the weekly Saturday meets aren't simply about running, pace or fitness - it's a place where strangers become family.
Even as the runners wait to join their respective speed groups - fast, medium, slow, and walking pace - a buzz and energy cuts through the calm of the park as Afrobeats music pulses from a nearby speaker.
“Igbo kwenu!” shouts Mr Odoemene, his voice booming across the park to gather everyone’s attention.
The group responds in unison with a low, rumbling “Eyy.”
“Igbo kwezo!” he calls out again, his tone both commanding and warm.
Once more, a unified “Eyy” follows, resonating among the runners and setting the tone for the morning.
This traditional Igbo call-and-response is more than a greeting - it’s a moment of pride, a reminder of shared roots and identity that runs as deep as their commitment to each other and the weekly run.
“The chant is used as a call of unity, community, and love among all Igbo peoples,” said Mr Odoemene.
Running clubs like Ozo, which are often free, have become spaces for people to make new friends, create a community, and possibly even meet future partners.
The co-founders, who met at other Igbo social events, laugh at the prospect of a love story blossoming at their club.
“If people meet the love of their lives, that's amazing, but the most important part for us is to build a fun community,” said Mr Odoemene.
These words capture - in the view of many Igbos - a history of marginalisation that continues to resonate.
For them, this history underscores a deeper purpose - the desire to make their mark and amplify Igbo representation.
Uzoma Ehziem, 34, who moved to the UK almost two decades ago, said he does not feel Igbo culture gets the attention it deserves.
He is one of the club's pacers and believes that Yoruba culture dominates what many in the UK and, globally, think of as "Nigerian".
From the legendary Afrobeat pioneer Fela Kuti to the first African Nobel laureate Wole Soyinka, and contemporary stars like Davido, Ayra Starr, and Tems, many of the most prominent figures in Nigerian pop culture are Yoruba.
The exception is literature, where Achebe, and contemporary Igbo authors like Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Akwaeke Emezi have gained international fame.
Many in the running club feel the world should know more about the Igbo people.
"If you tell someone you are Nigerian, the first thing someone will ask is: 'Are you Yoruba?'" Mr Ehziem said.
The club does not only organise running sessions. It has added monthly social outings for members of the community - from karaoke to dodgeball sessions and even an Igbo gala that will take place next year.
But for now the weekly running clubs have become a source of joy and camaraderie for members.
As the run winds down and all the group meet at the benches again, Mr Odoemene rounds up the runners with the same chant of unity.
Old friends catch up and new friends say hello.
People exchange phone numbers, and as they part ways, the promise to meet again next Saturday is a reminder this isn’t just a fleeting encounter but the beginning of lasting relationships rooted in community and cultural pride.
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In the midst of the scramble for a new Syria, the country's musicians are warily eyeing the Islamist rebel leadership and hoping to build on hard-won achievements made during the almost 14-year civil war.
The conflict gave energy and focus to a nascent heavy metal scene.
As the fighting ebbed, a flourishing industry of electronic music and dance shows then rose from the ashes, leading to a resurgence of Syrian nightlife.
Now, its members are preparing to approach a government led by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, or HTS – a group with roots in al-Qaeda and the Islamic State. HTS said it broke years ago with its extremist past.
"We have to be organised before we go to them, because they are so organised," said DJ and musician Maher Green. "We are willing to talk to them with logic. We are willing to talk to them with a real proposal."
The electronic music organisers found a way to talk to the security services working for the former president, Green said.
"They didn't understand the gathering of 50 boys and girls and dancing in such a goofy way," he said. "We developed a relationship with them through the years to make it go in a good and peaceful way."
The Assad regime was less tolerant with the heavy metal rockers who started up underground bands in the late 1990s and early 2000s.
They saw it as a subversive Western subculture connected with Satanism.
"I went to the intelligence force maybe three times, just because I sold this kind of music," said Nael al-Hadidi, who owned a music shop. "They made me sign some papers that I wouldn't do it again."
The scrutiny shifted when the brutal suppression of Syria's pro-democracy revolution triggered a bloody civil war.
"Before the war, even if you grew long hair, wore black T-shirts, metal dance T-shirts, the security would take you. They suspected that you were Satanic or something," said al-Hadidi.
"After the war started, they were too busy to dig in this way. They were more afraid about the political stuff."
This opened up space for the emergence of a vibrant heavy metal scene, the subject of a documentary by Monzer Darwish called Syrian Metal is War.
War may have energised the metal bands, but ultimately it led to a mass exodus of musicians that felt the country no longer offered a future.
"Ninety percent of my friends are now in Europe, the Netherlands and Germany," said al-Hadidi, shaking his head.
Wajd Khair is a musician who stayed, but he quit music in 2011 when the killing started.
"It seemed that any lyrics I would write, they didn't express what really happened, no words can express what was happening back then," he told me.
Just last year Khair finally started playing and recording again. Now he is wondering what the Islamist leadership means for creative freedom.
"We have to be more bold," he said when asked if he will keep a low profile until the situation becomes clearer.
"We have to be heard. We have to let all the people know that we are here. We exist. It's not just Islamic Front and Islamic State here. I don't think that keeping a low profile under these circumstances is good for anyone."
Khair was encouraged by the pragmatism demonstrated in the days following the rebel takeover. "The indicators are that we are going to better place, hopefully," he said.
But as he was speaking, we heard that HTS had closed the Opera House. "Not a good sign" if true, Khair exclaimed.
We rushed to the venue only to be told by officials outside it that this was a false alarm, that the venerable institution would open one week after the rebel victory along with other public buildings.
The HTS is certainly promising to respect rights and freedoms. It seems sensitive to the cosmopolitan culture of Damascus. State television started broadcasting Islamic chanting last week but withdrew it in less than 24 hours when social media erupted in protests.
In the square outside the Opera House, Safana Bakleh was trying to perform revolutionary songs with the choir she directs. Joined by enthusiastic youths, she handed over her drum and let them chant and sing.
"It's maybe not going to be an easy path," she said. "Maybe we will have some new obstacles, but we used to have corruption, we used to have dictatorship, we used to have secret police. We're still very hopeful for the future…because we have a very, very large group of people that are opposition and artists and actors, musicians and composers and the future of Syria."
But they do not want to exchange political authoritarianism for religious fundamentalism, said al-Hadidi.
"I hope that HTS stands by their words about freedom, because we don't want to be another Afghanistan or another country ruled by a specific party or rulers who enforce you to (follow) some rules."
Determined to stay part of Syria's future, Green said it is important for the artistic community to act quickly.
"It doesn't seem like in the first week of freeing Syria, (HTS) is willing to look for the cultural side. They have a lot of problems, they're looking for the economy, looking for making a new government," he said.
"We are trying to organise ourselves before they start looking at culture. So that we get there first, (and we must be) united in our opinions."
Like others here, Green has been experimenting, mixing traditional Arabic music with electronic beats.
The culture of the Islamist rebels "is religious songs and that's it," he said.
"This is a little bit backward for us. We were here in Syria before the war, and inside during the war, (when) we had so many experiments. We evolved so much. We have so much mixed culture."
Syria's music scene revived and even thrived during the civil war - now it faces a new and unexpected test.
Sega is considering launching its own Netflix-like subscription service for video games, a move which would accelerate gaming's transition towards streaming.
There are already a number of similar services on the market - such as Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus - which see gamers pay a monthly fee for access to a range of titles rather than owning them outright.
Sega's president Shuji Utsumi told the BBC such subscription products were "very interesting", and his firm was "evaluating some opportunities".
"We're thinking something - and discussing something - we cannot disclose right now," he said.
Some in the industry have expressed concern about the move however telling the BBC it could see gamers "shelling out more money" on multiple subscription services.
It is not just Sony and Microsoft who offer game subscriptions - there are now countless players in the space, with rivals such as Nintendo, EA and Ubisoft all offering their own membership plans.
Currently, various Sega games are available across multiple streaming services.
The amount these services individually charge vary depending on the features and games made available. For example, Xbox Game Pass prices range from £6.99 to £14.99 a month, while PlayStation Plus ranges from £6.99 to £13.49 a month.
So it would make financial sense for Sega for people who are playing its titles to pay it subscription fees rather its rivals.
It could also be attractive for people who mostly want to play Sega games - but for everyone else it could result in higher costs.
Rachel Howie streams herself playing games on Twitch, where she is known as DontRachQuit to her fans, and said she was "excited and worried" about another subscription service
"We have so many subscriptions already that we find it very difficult to justify signing up for a new one," she told the BBC.
"I think that SEGA will definitely have a core dedicated audience that will benefit from this, but will the average gamer choose this over something like Game Pass?"
And Sophie Smart, Production Director at UK developer No More Robots, agreed.
"As someone whose first console was the Sega Mega Drive, what I'd love more than anything is to see Sega thriving and this feels like a step in a modern direction," she said.
But she wondered if Sega did create a rival subscription service if this would lead to their games being removed from other services.
"If so, it could mean that consumers are shelling out more money across owning multiple subscription services," she said.
Bringing Sega back
Shuji Utsumi spoke to the BBC ahead of the premiere of the film Sonic 3 on Saturday, after a year in which he oversaw the launch of Metaphor: ReFantazio, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, and the latest Sonic the Hedgehog game.
Our conversation started in an unexpected way.
The very first thing Mr Utsumi said to me seemed to suggest that the firm, which dominated gaming in the 1990s with a rivalry between Sonic the Hedgehog and Nintendo's Super Mario, may have lost its way.
"I want to make Sega really shiny again," he said.
He said Sega had been putting too much focus on domestic success in Japan, and needed to re-establish itself on a global stage, which would mean expanding past its base.
"Sega has been somehow losing confidence," he said.
"But why? Sega has a great RPG group, Sega has amazing IPs, Sega is a really well-known brand.
"So I was like, hey, now is not the time to be defensive - but more offensive."
He said the company was too concerned about controlling costs when he took over, and he wants to "bring a rock and roll mentality" to gaming.
When I told him that sounded familiar - Sega's marketing in the 90s often tried to position Sonic the Hedgehog as the cool alternative to Mario - he agreed.
He said the firm now simply must "make a great game" in the series.
"The next one is going to be a quite challenging, quite exciting game that we are working on," he said.
But he would not divulge whether Sega was considering a follow up to the much-loved Sonic Adventure series.
"Sonic Adventure was kind of a game-changer for Sonic," he said.
"When we release it, it should be good, it should be impressive - we need to meet or even exceed people's expectations, so it takes some time."
Part of the series which fans have been clamouring to see return is the Chao Garden - a much-loved virtual pet synonymous with Sonic Adventure.
Mr Utsumi said "we've been talking about it" - but would not go into further detail, only that he could not "say too much about it".
Sega's future
Mr Utsumi unsurprisingly talked up the firm's successes this year, which have included winning multiple gaming awards with new IP Metaphor: ReFantazio, made by the team behind the Persona series.
But it hasn't all been positive for the firm, with job cuts in March, and Football Manager 2025 being delayed to next year.
"It was a hard decision," he said of the cuts which saw 240 people lose their jobs.
"But when you reset the initiative, you have to make that hard decision."
And he said Football Manager had been delayed over "a quality issue".
"I mean, financially, maybe providing the game at an early stage can be the better choice.
"But we decided to keep having the quality level - to keep that discipline."
And he also spoke of how Sega's year has gone outside of gaming, with several film and television adaptations being capped off with the third Sonic the Hedgehog movie releasing on Saturday.
"I just saw the movie - it's so much fun. It'd be nice if that kind of excitement goes on."
A campaign adviser to US President-elect Donald Trump has called the incoming UK ambassador to the US, Lord Peter Mandelson, "an absolute moron".
In a post on social media, Chris LaCivita said Lord Mandelson "should stay home".
Mr LaCivita, who was a co-campaign manager for Trump's presidential election bid, criticised the British government's decision saying it was replacing a "professional universally respected ambo [ambassador] with an absolute moron".
Lord Mandelson is one of the best-known figures in British politics, having served in multiple ministerial roles under Tony Blair and Gordon Brown before taking up a life peerage in the Lords.
He called his appointment as the UK's next ambassador to the US as "a great honour".
As first reported in The Times, Lord Mandelson will replace Dame Karen Pierce, whose term in Washington DC is due to end as Trump enters the White House in early 2025.
Dubbed the "Prince of Darkness" during his years as New Labour's spin doctor, the 71-year-old will now be the key link between the prime minister and Trump's incoming administration during a crucial time for US-UK diplomacy.
Like other senior Labour figures, Lord Mandelson has a record of criticising Donald Trump, once describing him as "little short of a white nationalist and racist".
Those comments were the focus of Mr LaCivita's criticism of Lord Mandelson, as he said in his post on X that the incoming ambassador "described Trump as a danger to the world and 'little short of a white nationalist'".
In a statement following his appointment, Lord Mandelson said: "We face challenges in Britain, but also big opportunities and it will be a privilege to work with the government to land those opportunities."
Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said he was "delighted" to appoint Lord Mandelson.
"The United States is one of our most important allies and as we move into a new chapter in our friendship," he said in a statement.
"Peter will bring unrivalled experience to the role and take our partnership from strength to strength."
Sir Keir also thanked Dame Karen for "her invaluable service for the last four years, and in particular the wisdom and steadfast support she has given me personally since July".
UK ambassadors are normally career diplomats or civil servants, but Downing Street said choosing a leading Labour politician "shows just how importantly we see our relationship with the Trump administration".
It comes as senior Conservative MP Sir Iain Duncan Smith challenged the decision.
He called for an investigation to scrutinise Lord Mandelson's appointment, his background and "whether or not this is reliable or anyway likely to cause offense in the United States".
"He's not a diplomatic appointee, he's a political appointee and political appointees often carry baggage, particularly if they've been out of parliament and out of government for some time," Sir Iain added.
In a recently unearthed interview with an Italian journalist in 2019, Lord Mandelson described Trump as a "reckless and a danger to the world".
In a 2018 interview with the Evening Standard, he also called Trump "a bully".
Since being touted as a potential candidate for the US-ambassador role, considered the most prestigious diplomatic post in the UK government, Lord Mandelson has softened his language on Trump.
In November he made a pitch on the BBC's Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg programme to create "a new relationship rather than a special one" with the US.
He also told News Agents podcast it is "absolutely essential that we establish a relationship with President Trump that enables us not only to understand and interpret what he's doing but to influence it".
He added that the Labour government should try to "reconnect" with Trump's ally and tech multi-billionaire Elon Musk.
Musk, who has been critical of Sir Keir's government, has been appointed head of new advisory team the Department of Government Efficiency (Doge), which is not an official government department.
Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has been acquitted in a long-running case over his refusal to let a migrant rescue boat dock in Italy in 2019.
Judges in the Sicilian city of Palermo cleared him of two counts of kidnap and dereliction of duty, after prosecutors had sought a jail term of six years.
Salvini, who's leader of the right-wing Lega party and a government ally of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, has always argued he was guilty only of wanting to "protect Italy".
"I have kept my promises, combating mass immigration and reducing departures, landings and deaths at sea," he told reporters outside court on Friday.
On hearing the verdict, Salvini clenched his fists in a sign of victory and hugged his girlfriend, film producer Francesca Verdini, Ansa news agency reported.
The trial began in September 2021, focusing on a case when Salvini, as interior minister, had sought to stop irregular migrants crossing the Mediterranean by blocking Italy's ports.
He had ordered an NGO ship called Open Arms to be prevented from docking on the island of Lampedusa after it had picked up 147 migrants off the Libyan coast.
The Open Arms remained at sea for almost three weeks, and the health situation of the migrants on board seriously deteriorated.
Eventually, the prosecutor in the Sicilian city of Agrigento, Luigi Patronaggio, ordered the vessel to be preventatively seized after inspecting it and noting the "difficult situation on board".
The captain of Open Arms and some of those rescued from sea were civil parties in the case, which began in September 2021.
The three female prosecutors in the case have been under police protection after being harassed online and receiving threats.
One of them, Geri Ferrara, told the court in September that human rights had to prevail over the "protection of state sovereignty".
"A person stranded at sea must be saved and it is irrelevant whether they are classified as a migrant, a crewmember or a passenger", she said.
Salvini maintained that the then-government of Giuseppe Conte had backed him fully in his mission to "close the ports" of Italy to NGO rescue ships.
In recent months, the deputy prime minister had frequently referenced the trial and the forthcoming verdict in social media posts and during public speeches and interviews.
PM Giorgia Meloni has stood by her deputy prime minister, saying he had her and her government's "solidarity".
"Turning the duty to protect Italy's borders from illegal immigration into a crime is a very serious precedent," she posted on X earlier this year.
After the verdict, the governor of the Veneto region and Lega party colleague Luca Zaia said justice had been done.
"Salvini acted in the legitimate interest of our country and in full respect for his institutional responsibilities," he posted on Facebook.
Salvini had been criticised after he said the Italian judiciary was "politicised" and that some magistrates were "clearly following left-wing politics".
Elly Schlein, leader of the centre-left opposition Democratic Party, accused him of "spreading propaganda and fuelling a serious institutional clash".
Members of Salvini's Lega party rallied around him. On Wednesday, Lega MEPs turned up at a European Parliament session in Strasbourg wearing t-shirts that read "Guilty of defending Italy" - a slogan Salvini has used in the past.
Current Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi said on Friday that whatever the sentence it would not affect the government.
However, Lega deputy secretary Andrea Crippa had warned that a guilty verdict would be "like convicting the entire Italian people, the Italian parliament and the elected government".
Others outside Italy have waded into the debate too.
"That mad prosecutor should be the one who goes to prison for six years," Elon Musk tweeted, while Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, a close ally of Salvini, called the trial "shameful".
Russian authorities say six people have been killed including a child, in a Ukrainian strike in Russia's Kursk region.
The region's acting governor added that 10 people were taken to hospital following the attack on the town of Rylsk.
A cultural centre, fitness complex, school and homes were damaged, the governor added.
This comes after Ukrainian officials said Moscow had launched a fresh missile attack on Kyiv, which reportedly damaged a building in the city centre hosting six embassies.
The foreign ministry said that the diplomatic missions of Albania, Argentina, North Macedonia, Palestine, Portugal and Montenegro were affected. It is unclear whether the building was directly targeted.
According to Ukraine's military, at least one person died and nine others were injured in the strike which damaged a number of buildings in the city.
European Union (EU) chief Ursula von der Leyen condemned the Friday's strike on the Ukrainian capital, calling it "another heinous Russian attack against Kyiv".
Russia has not yet commented.
Ukraine's military said Russia launched 65 drones and missiles across the country overnight, with most shot down.
The country's air force said it shot down all five of the Iskander-M/KN-23 ballistic missiles Russia launched on Kyiv on Friday morning, and the debris caused damage in five areas of the city.
It is not thought that any of the embassy diplomats were injured.
Portuguese foreign minister Paulo Rangel told local media: "It is absolutely unacceptable for attacks to damage or target diplomatic facilities."
A French court has sentenced seven men and a woman to prison for their roles in a hate campaign that led to the October 2020 murder of schoolteacher Samuel Paty in a Paris suburb.
The sentences handed down range from three to 16 years.
The attack took place following social media posts that falsely claiming Paty had shown his students obscene pictures of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on free speech.
Chechen-born radicalised Muslim Abdoullakh Anzorov murdered Samuel Paty, a history and geography teacher, at a secondary school in the Parisian suburb of Conflans-Saint-Honorine.
Anzorov was shot dead at the scene by police minutes after killing the 47-year-old.
He was fired up by claims circulating on the internet that a few days earlier Paty had ordered Muslims to leave a class of 13-year-olds, before displaying the images of the prophet Muhammad.
In fact, Paty had been conducting a lesson on freedom of speech, and before showing one of the controversial images first published by the Charlie Hebdo magazine, he advised pupils to avert their eyes if they feared being offended.
In the absence of the killer, this trial was of people who provided him with support, moral or material.
Over seven weeks, the court heard how a 13-year-old schoolgirl's lie span out of control thanks to social media.
Among those sentenced on Friday were Brahim Chnina, the schoolgirl's father.
Chnina started an online campaign against the teacher and enlisted the help of a radical Islamic activist Abdelhakim Sefrioui, who has also now been convicted.
Two friends of the killer who were with him when he bought weapons were also found guilty, as were four people with whom he shared messages on a radical chatline.
The defence had argued that none of the eight had any idea of Anzorov's intentions, and that their words and actions only became criminal when he carried out his act.
But the judge decided that the absence of foreknowledge was no defence, because what they did had the effect of incitement.
A car has crashed into a crowd at a Christmas market in east Germany, local media report.
A least one person has been killed and several injured in the incident in Magdeburg, according to German public broadcaster MDR.
The suspected driver of the car has also been arrested, MDR said, citing a government spokesman.
Video on social media shows a number of people laying on the ground and emergency services in attendance.
An "extensive police operation" is underway and the market was closed, according to local authorities.
The US has scrapped a $10m (£7.9m) reward for the arrest of Syria's de facto leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, following meetings between senior diplomats and representatives from Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS).
Assistant Secretary of State Barbara Leaf said the discussion with Sharaa was "very productive", and he came across as "pragmatic".
The US delegation arrived in the capital, Damascus, after HTS overthrew the Bashar al-Assad regime less than a fortnight ago. Washington still designates it as a terrorist group.
A State Department spokesperson confirmed that the diplomats discussed "transition principles" supported by the US, regional events and the need to fight against IS.
The spokesperson also said the officials were seeking further information on American citizens who disappeared under Assad's regime, including journalist Austin Tice, who was abducted in Damascus in 2012, and psychotherapist Majd Kamalmaz, who disappeared in 2017.
A US embassy spokesperson earlier said a news conference involving Ms Leaf had been cancelled due to "security concerns".
However during a later briefing, Leaf denied that, insisting "street celebrations" were the cause of the delay.
The visit is the first formal American diplomatic appearance in Damascus in more than a decade.
It is a further sign of the dramatic shifts under way in Syria since the ousting of Assad, and the speed of efforts by the US and Europe, also leaning on Arab countries, to try to influence its emerging governance.
The visit follows those of delegations in recent days from the UN and other countries including the UK, France and Germany.
The delegation of senior officials includes Barbara Leaf, Roger Carstens, who is US President Joe Biden's hostage envoy, and Daniel Rubinstein, a senior adviser in the Bureau of Near East Affairs.
The spokesperson also said the delegation engaged with civil society groups and members of different communities in Syria "about their vision for the future of their country and how the United States can help support them".
The meeting was a show of readiness to deal with HTS, which the US still designates as a terrorist organisation but is building pressure for it to transition to inclusive, non-sectarian government.
Washington is effectively laying down a set of conditions before it would consider delisting the group - a critical step which could help ease the path towards sanctions relief that Damascus desperately needs.
Meanwhile, US Central Command (CENTCOM) confirmed that IS leader Abu Yusif and two of his operatives had been killed in an air strike in the Deir al-Zour province of north-eastern Syria.
It said in a statement on Friday that the airstrike was launched on Thursday and carried out in an area that was formerly controlled by the Assad regime and Russian forces supporting his government.
CENTCOM commander Gen Michael Erik Kurilla said the US would not allow IS "to take advantage of the current situation in Syria and reconstitute", adding the group intended to free more than 8,000 detained IS militants being held in Syria.
North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of US politics in his twice weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
Jagmeet Singh, leader of Canada's New Democratic Party (NDP), says he will introduce a motion to topple Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's government in the new year.
In a letter posted on X on Friday, he said his party "will vote to bring this government down".
It marks a turn for the NDP leader, whose centre-left party helped prop up Trudeau's minority government in the face of several no-confidence votes this year, in exchange for support on their shared political priorities.
It comes at the end of a difficult week for the Canadian prime minister, who is facing growing calls to resign from his own Liberal Party following the exit of his most senior cabinet minister on Monday.
In his letter, Singh said, "the Liberals don't deserve another chance," and vowed to "put forward a clear motion of non-confidence in the next sitting of the House of Commons."
Canada's next election must be held on or before October. With the Liberals holding power with a minority government, a non-confidence motion could trigger an earlier election if most members of Canada's parliament vote in favour of it.
The House of Commons is currently on its holiday break but is scheduled to resume in late January.
All three main opposition parties have now said they want Trudeau's government to fall, meaning the prime minister is unlikely to survive the next non-confidence vote.
Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre has repeatedly called for an election as soon as possible, while Bloc Québécois Leader Yves-François Blanchet said a confidence vote must happen as soon as possible to trigger an early 2025 election.
Singh's announcement is the latest in a series of political setbacks suffered by Trudeau this week after the resignation of Chrystia Freeland, his deputy prime minister and finance minister.
Freeland quit in a public letter hours before she was set to deliver an economic statement on Monday, citing political disagreements between her and Trudeau on the "best path forward for Canada" in light of tariff threats posed by US President-elect Donald Trump.
Trump has promised to impose a levy of 25% on imported Canadian goods unless progress was made on securing the countries' shared border. Economists have warned the tariffs would significantly hurt Canada's economy.
Freeland said the tariffs are a "grave challenge" for Canada, and accused Prime Minister Trudeau of championing "costly political gimmicks" that the country cannot afford instead of working to keep its "fiscal powder dry".
Trudeau has since faced growing calls to resign, including from members of his own Liberal Party.
To date, at least 19 out of 153 have publicly called on him to quit, according to a tally by the Globe and Mail.
The latest of them is Robert Oliphant, a Liberal member of parliament for Toronto riding Don Valley West.
Oliphant wrote in a public letter on Friday that his constituents "feel the meaningful difference" the Liberal government has made in its nine-year tenure, but that Trudeau's leadership has become "a key obstacle" to the party's success in the next election.
Trudeau has not responded publicly to these calls, and has reportedly told members of the party that he will take the holidays to reflect and decide what to do.
After appointing a replacement immediately for Freeland, Trudeau scheduled a cabinet shuffle on Friday to address other vacancies in his government, as several ministers announced that they would not run for re-election next year.
Syria's rebel leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, has dismissed the online controversy over videos showing him gesturing to a young woman to cover her hair before he posed for a photo with her last week.
The incident sparked criticism from both liberal and conservative commentators amid intense speculation about the county's future direction after rebels swept to power.
Liberals saw the request from the head of the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) as a sign that he might seek to enforce an Islamic system in Syria after leading the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad, while hardline conservatives criticised him for consenting to be photographed with the woman in the first place.
"I did not force her. But it's my personal freedom. I want photos taken for me the way that suits me," Sharaa said in an interview with the BBC's Jeremy Bowen.
The woman, Lea Kheirallah, has also said that she was not bothered by the request.
She said he had asked in "gentle and fatherly way", and that she thought "the leader has the right to be presented in the way he sees fit".
However, the incident demonstrated some of the difficulties any future leader of Syria might have in appealing to and uniting such a religiously diverse country.
Sunni Muslims make up the majority of the population, with the remainder split between Christians, Alawites, Druze and Ismailis.
There is also a wide range of views among the various political and armed groups who were opposed to Assad, with some wanting a secular democracy and others wanting governance according to Islamic law.
HTS, a former al-Qaeda affiliate, initially imposed strict behaviour and dress codes rules when it seized control of the former rebel stronghold of Idlib province in 2017. However, it revoked those rules in recent years in response to public criticism.
The Quran, Islam's holy book, tells Muslims - men and women - to dress modestly.
Male modesty has been interpreted to be covering the area from the navel to the knee - and for women it is generally seen as covering everything except their face, hands and feet when in the presence of men they are not related or married to.
Lea Kheirallah asked to take a photo with Sharaa - who was previously known by his nom de guerre Abu Mohammed al-Jolani - when he toured the Mezzeh area of Damascus on 10 December.
Before agreeing, Sharaa gestured for her to cover her hair and she complied, raising the hood on her jumper and then standing beside him for the photo.
Many video clips and pictures of the incident were shared on social media, sparking widespread outrage among ordinary users and media commentators.
People with liberal or non-conservative views saw it as a troubling glimpse into Syria's possible future under HTS, fearing increasingly conservative policies like the requirement for all women to wear a hijab, or headscarf.
France 24's Arabic channel discussed the incident, with a headline asking if Syria was "heading towards Islamic rule".
Others were sharper in their condemnation. One Syrian journalist said: "We replaced one dictator with a reactionary dictator."
On social media, other commentators warned of "ultra-extremists" ascending to power, while others decried the "forcing of a free woman" to adopt a conservative look.
Islamist hardliners on Telegram criticised Sharaa for agreeing to be filmed and photographed next to a young woman in the first place.
Some called Ms Kheirallah a "mutabarijah" - a negative term for women considered immodestly dressed or wearing make-up.
Such hardline figures ranged from clerics to influential commentators whose views are often shared and read by Syria-focused conservative communities online, and are likely to reach HTS supporters and possibly officials.
Most of them appear to be based in Syria, mainly in the former HTS-dominated rebel stronghold of Idlib, with some having previously served in HTS ranks.
They argued that it was religiously impermissible for unrelated men and women to interact closely and accused Sharaa of seeking "vain public attention" and showing "indulgence" in matters contrary to strict religious teachings.
A post on one Telegram channel called Min Idlib (From Idlib) said the HTS leader was "too busy taking selfies with young ladies" to address demands for releasing prisoners from HTS jails in Idlib.
Many of the conservative figures who spoke out against the photo have criticised Sharaa in the past for political as well as religious reasons, and include clerics who have left HTS.
Alphabet's Google proposed new limits to revenue-sharing agreements with companies including Apple which make Google's search engine the default on their devices and browsers.
The suggestions stem from the US search giant's ongoing antitrust battle over its online search business.
In August, US District Judge Amit Mehta ruled that Google illegally crushed its competition in search - a decision the company vowed to appeal.
In a legal filing submitted Friday, Google said it should be allowed to continue entering into those contracts with other companies while widening the options it offers.
These options include allowing different default search engines to be assigned to different platforms and browsing modes.
Google's suggested remedies also call for the ability for partners to change their default search provider at least every 12 months.
The proposals stand in stark contrast to the sweeping remedies suggested last month by the US Department of Justice (DOJ), which recommended that Judge Mehta force the firm to stop entering into revenue-sharing contracts.
DOJ lawyers also demanded that Google sell Chrome, the world's most popular web browser.
Google's search engine accounts for about 90% of all online searches globally, according to web traffic analysis platform Statcounter.
In a statement, Google called DOJ's remedies "overbroad" and said even its own counterproposals, which were filed in response to a court-mandated deadline, would come at a cost to their partners.
Judge Mehta is expected to issue a decision in the remedies phase of the landmark case by August, after a trial.
In 1915, 29-year-old Indian entrepreneur Jhamandas Watumull arrived in Hawaii's Honolulu island to set up a retail shop of his import business with his partner Dharamdas.
The two registered Watumull & Dharamdas as a business on Honolulu's Hotel Street, selling exotic goods like silks, ivory crafts, brassware and other curios from the East.
Dharamdas died of cholera in 1916, prompting Jhamandas Watumull to send for his brother Gobindram to manage their Honolulu store while he took care of their business in Manila. Over the next several years, the brothers would travel between India and Hawaii as they solidified their business.
Today, the Watumull name is ubiquitous on the islands - from garment manufacturing and real estate to education and arts philanthropy, the family is inextricably linked with Hawaii's rich history.
The first South Asians to move to the island from India, they are now one of its wealthiest families.
"Slowly, slowly, that's how we did it," Jhamandas told a local Hawaiian publication in 1973.
Born in pre-independent India, Jhamandas was the son of a brick contractor in Sindh province's Hyderabad (now in Pakistan). The family was educated but not wealthy. After an accident paralysed his father, Jhamandas' mother bought his passage to the Philippines where he began working in textile mills. In 1909, he began his own trading business in Manila with his partner Dharamdas.
His grandson JD Watumull says Jhamandas and Dharamdas moved to Hawaii after a drop in their Manila business after the US, which occupied Philippines at the time, curtailed ties with foreign businesses.
Their Hawaii business was renamed East India Store soon after Jhamandas' brother Gobindram began managing it. In the following years, the business expanded into a major department store with branches in several parts of Asia as well as Hawaii, says SAADA, a digital archive of South Asian American history.
In 1937, Gobindram built the Watumull Building in Honolulu's Waikiki neighbourhood to house the company's headquarters. According to SAADA, the multi-million-dollar business had expanded to 10 stores, an apartment house and assorted commercial developments by 1957.
The Star-Bulletin newspaper describes products at the store - linens, lingerie, brass and teak wood curios - as woven with "romance and mystery" that transported one "to distant lands and fascinating scenes".
The Aloha shirts
As Hawaii emerged as a popular destination for wealthy tourists in the 1930s, shirts in bold colours with island motifs called the 'Aloha shirt' became a sought-after souvenir.
According to Dale Hope, an expert in Hawaiian textile and patterns, the Watumull's East India Store was one of the first on the island to carry designs with Hawaiian patterns.
The designs were first commissioned in 1936 by Gobindram from his artist sister-in-law Elsie Jensen.
"Instead of Mount Fuji, she'd have Diamond Head, instead of koi [she'd] have tropical fish, instead of cherry blossoms [she'd] have gardenias and hibiscus and all the things we know here," Hope said.
The designs were sent to Japan where they were handblocked onto raw silk, Nancy Schiffer writes in the book Hawaiian Shirt Designs.
"These subtle floral patterns, modern and dynamic in concept, were the first Hawaiian designs to be produced commercially," Schiffer notes.
"They were sold by the boat load and were exhibited as far away as London," William Devenport says in the book Paradise of the Pacific.
Gobindram's daughter Lila told Hope that the Watumull's Waikiki store had American movie stars Loretta Young, Jack Benny, Lana Turner and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson coming to buy these shirts.
"More and more we are finding out that Watumull has become a synonym for Hawaiian fashions," Gulab Watumull said in a 1966 interview in the Honolulu Star-Bulletin.
The Watumulls soon bought the Royal Hawaiian Manufacturing Company, where the first matching family aloha wear was created.
Long road to citizenship
Despite their success, it would be decades before the Watumull brothers - Jhamandas and Gobindram - received US citizenship. Their early years in the country were marred by discrimination and difficult immigration laws, the Hawaii Business Magazine wrote.
In 1922, Gobindram married Ellen Jensen, an American, whose citizenship was stripped under the Cable Act for marrying an immigrant who was not eligible for US citizenship. Jensen would go on to work with the League of Women Voters to reform the law and regain citizenship in 1931.
Gobindram would become a citizen in 1946 when a law allowing Indians to gain citizenship through naturalisation was enacted.
His brother Jhamandas, meanwhile, continued to split much of his time between India and Hawaii.
During India's 1947 partition, the Watumull family moved from Sindh to Bombay (now Mumbai), leaving much of their property behind, SAADA says.
Jhamandas' son Gulab eventually arrived in Hawaii to work in the family business and become its head.
In 1955, the brothers split the business with Jhamandas and Gulab keeping its retail portion while Gobindram's family took over its real estate section.
Jhamandas moved permanently to Hawaii In 1956, a few years after the death of his wife and one of their sons, and in 1961, became a US citizen.
India connect
Over the years, the family remained invested in the welfare of India and its people. Gobindram was an active member of the Committee for India's Freedom and often travelled to Washington to support the country's case for independence, Elliot Robert Barkan writes in Making it in America.
Gobindram's home in Los Angeles was "a Mecca for people concerned with Indian independence", Sachindra Nath Pradhan notes in the book India in the United States.
The Watumull Foundation in 1946 sponsored a series of lectures by Dr S Radhakrishnan - who later served as India's president - at American universities.
Gobindram's wife Ellen was instrumental in bringing an international parenthood conference to Delhi in 1959, leading to the establishment of the country's first birth control clinics.
The family's philanthropy has and continues to include funding for educational institutions in Hawaii and in India, endowments for Honolulu-based art programmes and promoting Indian-Hawaiian exchange.
Many of the Watumull brothers' grandchildren now work in and around Hawaii.
In the past few years, as the family business shifted focus to real estate, the last Watumull retail store closed in 2020. The company thanked its customers "for years of good business and good memories".
Watumull Properties purchased a 19,045 sq m (205,000 sq ft) marketplace in Hawaii last year. JD Watumull, the president of the company, said, "The Hawaiian Islands continue to be our family's focus today and in the future."
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Volkswagen has reached a deal with the IG Metall trade union which will avert plant closures in Germany and avoid immediate compulsory redundancies.
The two sides have, however, agreed to cut more than 35,000 jobs across the country in a "socially responsible manner" by 2030, in order to save some €15bn (£12.4bn).
Germany's largest carmaker had previously warned it might have to shutter plants in the country for the first time in a bid to cut costs.
After drawn-out negotiations which began in September, the union said on Friday that the two had "succeeded in finding a solution" that secures jobs and enables future investment.
VW was considering closing up to three factories in Germany and had been calling on its workforce to accept a 10% pay cut.
At the time, the union was calling for a 7% increase.
While the deal will also see a reduction in production capacity across its plants, it was celebrated by union leaders.
"No site will be closed, no-one will be laid off for operational reasons and our company wage agreement will be secured for the long term," said IG Metall's works council chief Daniela Cavallo.
"We have achieved a rock-solid solution under the most difficult economic conditions," she added.
The 35,000 job cuts by 2030 are expected to be found through different solutions such as offered early retirement.
Under the agreement, a 5% wage increase that was previously agreed will also be suspended in 2025 and 2026.
The union said this would help "support transformation" at the company.
The number of apprenticeships on offer each year in Germany will be reduced from 1,400 to 600 from 2026 too, and it will look at shifting some production to Mexico.
It is also looking at alternative options for its Dresden and Osnabrueck sites.
But Oliver Blume, VW's group chief executive, said in a statement that the agreement was "an important signal for the future viability of the Volkswagen brand".
Factory closures in Germany would have been unprecedented in the manufacturer's history.
VW, along with other German carmakers, has been badly affected by a decline in demand for its cars in China, previously a lucrative market.
At the same time, Chinese brands have been moving into Europe, increasing competition for sales.
During the talks, some 100,000 workers joined short, so-called "warning strikes" at sites across the country, in order to put pressure on the company's management.
The latest round of talks began on Monday, with negotiators apparently determined to get matters settled before Christmas.
The German chancellor Olaf Scholz also welcomed the announcement, describing it as a "good, socially acceptable solution".
A funny thing happened on the way to a bipartisan agreement to fund US government operations and avoid a partial shutdown this week.
Conservatives in Congress – encouraged by tech multi-billionaire Elon Musk – balked.
Republicans tried to regroup on Thursday afternoon, offering a new, slimmed-down package to fund the government. That vote failed, as 38 Republicans joined most Democrats in voting no.
All this political drama provides just a taste of the chaos and unpredictability that could be in store under unified Republican rule in Washington next year.
The man at the centre of this week's drama holds no official government title or role. What Elon Musk does have, however, is hundreds of billions of dollars, a social media megaphone and the ear not just of the president of the United States but also rank-and-file conservatives in Congress.
On Wednesday morning, the tech tycoon took to X, which he purchased for $44bn two years ago, to disparage a compromise that Republican Speaker of the House Mike Johnson had struck with Democrats to temporarily fund US government operations until mid-March.
As the number of his posts about the proposed agreement stretched into triple digits, at times amplifying factually inaccurate allegations made by conservative commentators, opposition to the legislation in Congress grew.
And by Wednesday evening, Donald Trump – perhaps sensing that he needed to get in front of the growing conservative uprising - publicly stated that he, too, opposed the government funding bill.
He said it contained wasteful spending and Democratic priorities, while also demanding that Congress take the politically sensitive step of raising – or even doing away with - the legal cap on newly issued American debt that the US would reach sometime next summer.
Support for the stopgap spending bill then collapsed, forcing Johnson and his leadership team to scramble to find an alternative path forward. As they did, Musk celebrated, proclaiming that "the voice of the people has triumphed".
It may be more accurate, however, to say that it was Musk's voice that triumphed.
On Thursday afternoon, Republicans unveiled a new proposal that suspended the debt limit for the first two years of Trump's second term, funded the government until March and included some disaster relief and other measures included in the original funding package.
But Musk's involvement may not land well with some legislators. Democrats in the chamber joked about "President Musk", while even a few Republicans publicly grumbled.
"Who?" Pennsylvania Republican Glenn Thompson responded when asked about Musk. "I don't see him in the chamber."
A majority in name only
North America correspondent Anthony Zurcher makes sense of US politics in his twice weekly US Election Unspun newsletter. Readers in the UK can sign up here. Those outside the UK can sign up here.
More than 11,000 Starbucks baristas in the US have begun a five-day strike in a dispute over pay and working conditions.
The walk outs began on Friday at stores in Los Angeles, Chicago, and Seattle, Starbucks Workers United said. The union added the strike action would spread each day and reach hundreds of stores by Christmas Eve unless a deal is reached.
It follows the union calling for the coffee shop giant to raise wages and staffing, as well as implement better schedules for its workers.
"We are ready to continue negotiations to reach agreements. We need the union to return to the table," a Starbucks spokesperson said in response to the strike announcement.
The strike marks the biggest Workers United action since the organisation started trying to negotiate a contract with the company more than two years ago.
The union has been picking up members since the first store in the US voted to join in 2021. It now represents more than 500 shops across 45 US states.
"It's a last resort, but Starbucks has broken its promise to thousands of baristas and left us with no choice," said Fatemeh Alhadjaboodi, a Starbucks barista from Texas said in a statement sent to the BBC by the union.
Workers United has highlighted what it sees as an unfair pay disparity between its members and senior Starbucks bosses, including chief executive Brian Niccol.
His annual base pay is $1.6m. He could also get a performance-related bonus of as much as $7.2m and up to $23m a year of Starbucks shares.
Starbucks has previously defended the plan, saying that Mr Niccol was "one of the most effective leaders in our industry" and that his compensation was "tied directly to the company's performance and the shared success of all our stakeholders".
The company, which has more than 16,000 stores in the US, also highlighted that it offers average pay of over $18 (£14.40) an hour, as well as "best-in-class benefits."
"Taken together they are worth an average of $30 per hour for baristas who work at least 20 hours per week," it said.
The strike comes at a tricky moment for the company.
The world's biggest coffee shop chain has seen flagging sales as it grappled with a backlash to price increases and boycotts sparked by the Israel-Gaza war.
It replaced former boss Laxman Narasimhan in August, naming Mr Niccol to lead a turnaround.
Under Mr Narasimham, the company had softened its once combative approach to the union, pledging earlier this year to work toward a deal.
The strike at Starbucks comes as one of the most powerful labour unions in the US is staging a protest against Amazon, aiming to put pressure on the technology giant as it rushes out packages in the final run-up to Christmas.
The Teamsters union said Amazon delivery drivers at seven facilities in the US had walked off the job on Thursday, after the company refused to negotiate with the union about a labour contract.
As the ink was drying on one of the world's biggest trade deals, signed in Uruguay this month, and hailed as a milestone for the global economy, anger was brewing thousands of miles away in France.
Under the agreement between the EU on one hand, and Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay on the other, tariffs will be greatly reduced and the amounts of imports and exports allowed will be increased.
The deal would affect almost 800 million people.
It comes as a marked contrast to Donald Trump's plans to greatly increase protectionism when he returns to the White House next month.
The deal still needs to be approved by the 27 EU member states, and France is planning to block it, due to fears that it will harm its farming sector.
Alix Heurtault, a 34-year-old French farmer, says she is worried about her future if the planned agreement goes ahead.
"I fear that the deal will mean making ends meet becoming even more difficult for farmers like me," she says.
As a result, she is crossing her fingers that the French government will be able to stop it.
The planned trade agreement will mean more South American beef, chicken and sugar coming to the EU, and at lower prices. While in the opposite direction, the likes of European cars, clothing and wine would have more access to the Mercosur zone.
For France to block the deal it will need to persuade at least three other EU countries, representing at least 35% of the total population to join it. Ireland, Poland and Austria are also opposed, but Italy will likely need to also come on board to achieve the required population quota.
And with the media giving very conflicting reports about Italy's position, we'll have to wait and see which way the Italians go when the vote is held some time in 2025.
In the meantime, French farmers are continuing to put pressure on Paris to not back down. French President Emmanuel Macron is listening, and has described the trade deal as "unacceptable in its current form".
Ms Heurtault grows sugar beet, wheat and barley on a 150-hectare farm in the small village of Villeneuve-sur-Auvers located 60km (37 miles) south of Paris.
She says that the deal would see French farmers badly hit in order to help EU manufacturers. "It feels like we're a bargaining chip. Farmers in the Mercosur countries [the name of the Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay block] have less restrictions regarding pesticides and lower labour costs."
Ms Heurtault's view is widely held across the French farming sector, which has been holding regular protests in recent months.
A few weeks ago some 200 farmers dumped bales of straw in front of the Grand Palais museum and exhibition centre in Paris.
They lit up red flares, and chanted slogans like "We are feeding you, show us some respect".
The protest was held to coincide with an annual meeting of commodities importers and exporters taking place at the venue.
Stéphane Gallais, a cattle farmer and the national secretary of farmers' union Confédération Paysanne, which had organised the event, explained why it was being held.
"Today's demonstration is a stance against free trade, especially the EU-Mercosur agreement that we've been opposing since it was first discussed in the late 1990s," he said.
While France is opposed to the trade deal, other EU nations, such as Germany, Spain and Portugal are strongly in favour of it.
Proponents welcome the fact it would be a marked contrast to Trump's threats of increased protectionism.
"It would be a good signal at a time when we have movement in the opposite direction towards economic fragmentation and protectionism, especially with free-trade sceptic US President Donald Trump re-elected," says Uri Dadush, a research professor for trade policy at the University of Maryland in the US.
Prof Dadush adds that while European farmers will be negatively impacted, he says this will be very limited.
"The deal is a threat for European farmers, as the world's most competitive agricultural sector gets access to their market, but we're talking about a tiny amount of liberalisation spread out over a long period of time," he says.
He points out that under the agreement the Mercosur nations would still have limits on what they can export to the EU. Such as their proposed initial increased annual quota of beef exports still only accounting for less than 1% of EU consumption of the meat.
Prof Dadush adds that "the deal is an opportunity to push for much needed market-orientated reform in the heavily-subsidised EU agricultural sector, and Mercosur's highly-protected factory sector".
Chris Hegadorn, adjunct professor for global food policies at Paris-based university Sciences Po, and former secretary of the UN's Committee on World Food Security, says the agreement would overall be beneficial to Europe – including its farmers.
"It obviously depends on the subcategory you're looking at, but French cheese and wine producers will benefit," he says.
He adds that it will also improve health and environmental standards in the Mercosur countries, and increase ties with the EU at a time when "China is also trying to get a foothold in Latin America".
But David Cayla, lecturer for economics at Angers University in western France and member of the left-wing collective "The Dismayed Economists", doubts the EU will be able to enforce higher standards in Latin American countries.
"It's impossible to control their implementation," he says. "Our farmers will only face increased competition from countries with a better climate and more fertile soils.
"But we need to protect European agriculture – that's also a question of food sovereignty," he emphasizes, adding that the Covid-19 pandemic showed how quickly worldwide supply chains could collapse in times of crisis.
Antoine Gomel, who in 2017 took over his family's 24-hectare chicken and beef farm in a small village near Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern France, says that opposing the trade deal is about saving the French countryside.
"Farms keep disappearing leaving our villages deserted – the deal will only accelerate that," says the 42-year-old.
"But farms are crucial to cohesion in the countryside, not least as they create jobs. People in France and abroad increasingly vote for the far right because they feel disorientated and alone.
"Farms can contribute to bringing them back together, by literally anchoring them."
Back in front of the Grand Palais in Paris, cleaners were sweeping away the remaining straw from the protesters.
Farmer Stéphane Gallais was still nearby, watching them. "The EU-Mercosur deal is highly detrimental and it would be really symbolic if EU member states didn't ratify it," he said.
Nell Diamond, CEO of Hill House, shares how her small business skyrocketed to global success with a simple, singular product.
At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, Hill House Home's Nap Dress became more than just a piece of clothing – it was a symbol of comfort and versatility for a world in flux. What started as a direct-to-consumer bedding and home business in 2016 had grown into a fashion movement, reflecting how a single dress could adapt to your body over the years and transform depending on the demands of the day.
The company introduced the Nap Dress in 2019, a design that leaned into the idea of smocked fabric from the 1950s and reimagined it with modern, universal appeal. It didn't take long for the dress – now with over 50 designs – to go viral on social media and become common in many closets around the world.
"Our crazy growth happened from 2019 to 2020 – right in the middle of quarantine and while I was pregnant with twins," CEO Nell Diamond tells the BBC. "I could obviously see how much the business was changing internally from the sales volume, but one really pivotal moment for me was working from home, sitting in my bedroom in New York City, and looking out the window to see someone walking down the street wearing one of our dresses.
"Entrepreneurship can feel really lonely and insular, so to realise that people know about your little project is incredibly rewarding. I'll never forget that moment."
Since then, the company has sold over one million Nap Dresses, expanded into categories like outerwear and swimwear, and opened five retail locations across the United States, from New York to Charleston. The brand's reach has also expanded within other retailers, including Shopbop and Saks. Hill House puts its current valuation at approximately $150m (£118m), although the BBC was unable to obtain an independent valuation.
The company has faced challenges, too, including navigating global supply chain disruptions during the pandemic and scaling operations to meet increased demand. But at a time when small businesses struggle to stand out amid economic uncertainty, Hill House's story underscores the importance of adaptability and building strong connections with consumers.
"We've had the biggest year in company history," Diamond said. "The business has continued to grow past even our optimistic plans."
Diamond's love of fashion started early, during her teenage years while attending the American School in London, UK. After graduating from Princeton University, she joined the trading desk of a finance firm, initially entering the same sector of business as her father Bob Diamond, the former CEO of Barclays bank. She quickly realised, however, that her passion lay elsewhere.
"I was always drawn to retail," she says. "I'd steal my friends' equity research papers to learn what companies were doing in the retail space. I realised that this thing which started as a guilty pleasure – loving fashion – turned out to be a viable career opportunity."
Now, as CEO, Diamond oversees every aspect of the business, from growth strategy to creative direction. Below, she talks with the BBC about the company's biggest challenges, its rapid evolution into a lifestyle brand and plans for the future.
Hill House dates back to a startup incubator you joined while in business school at Yale University. How did you turn the idea into a fully fledged business?
I wanted to bring a design-forward point of view to the home category. We started with just home products: bedding, pillows, a little bit of pyjamas and robes. But I really focused on the home and, in particular, the bedroom, drawing off of some of the design elements of my London upbringing – great British brands like [interior decorating firm] Colfax and Fowler and amazing prints that I had seen in the Victoria and Albert Museum.
There were many businesses launching direct-to-consumer [approaches] and talking about cutting out the middleman. I wanted to do the same thing and … start small and focus on just one or two products. While I was at business school, I spent time on the little parts of starting a business – trademarks, legal documents, hiring my first few contractors and setting up our Instagram account. After graduating, I spent the first couple of years bootstrapping the business and really focusing on meeting our customers. It was a very small team in a co-working space in New York City.
By 2019, everything dramatically changed overnight. We went from low and slow and careful growth to the success of the Nap Dress. Within a few months, our business was majority a fashion business based off the strength of this one product line. We went from five people to 30 people and from one store to now having almost six stores. It really changed the scale of the business. I remember our very first order was for a hundred units and being petrified that we wouldn't actually sell them. To have sold a million of them now is really crazy.
Why do you think this one particular product, the Nap Dress, resonates with so many people?
It's so many different things. We didn't invent smocking, which is what makes our dresses most identifiable. My grandmother was wearing smock dresses in the 1950s. Juicy Couture [the Los Angeles-based clothing brand] popularised smocking and terry cloth in the 2000s. But I think what was so important to us was figuring out a very proprietary type of smocking that could stretch with you. I wore it all throughout my twin pregnancy and then the snap back. It works with your changing body and throughout the day – it feels comfortable but you still look kind of put together.
When we first launched the Nap Dress, we would have somebody email in and say: "Oh, my friend was wearing this dress at a dinner party, or at work or at preschool pickup, and I have to have it." It was exacerbated by social media, but organic social media, which is the important distinction there. Even today, 30% of orders on our site come from word-of-mouth referrals.
What are some challenges you faced in the early days that you had to overcome?
There were – and continues to be – challenges every day. Early on and certainly during Covid, there were constant disruptions in the global supply chain, whether it was that one factory had to shut down or another one had delayed shipping.
In 2021, we expected we'd be able to have all the products here by a certain date for a product drop. There were crazy delays at ports all over due to shipping freight issues. That can affect your entire summer selling, your entire quarter of selling. In this increasingly online, seamless-delivery Amazon-dominated world, it is easy to forget how many human touch points there are and how fragile they can be. We internally would get so anxious and nervous any time one of those human touch points had a blockage.
But when we told our customers what was happening, people loved having that insight into the humanity behind the products they're actually buying. I think it made it feel more personal to them. And that might be one of the many reasons why we have such a loyal customer base – we let them into that side of the business. It's clear that it's not so robotic and transactional.
How do you check that manufacturing partners and suppliers are abiding by the highest standards?
We have manufacturers in 12 countries across nearly all continents. It's all about tracking at every stage of the development process. We take that very seriously. We work with an organisation called Transparency One that helps us track across our supply chain at every stage and audit what our manufacturers are reporting. We've had many of the same manufacturers since day one and developed those human relationships with the people who make our clothes. One of our main manufacturers is the same person who we sent those first hundred unit orders to, and they should feel a tremendous amount of ownership over the growth that we've seen over the past couple years.
You've publicly said before that the business is very reliant on global trading routes and global supply chains. Now given that President-elect Trump has campaigned on raising tariffs for imports, are you concerned about how this might affect costs and global trade more generally?
I can only speak for our own company, but I think that tariffs are certainly something we are thinking about.
How have you been expanding the brand?
We have a concept called Nells at our store in Charleston, South Carolina, inspired by my British upbringing. It's a pick-and-mix candy station, and there's a coffee and fountain soda bar, a nod to the Americana roots of the brand as well. It's never been easier to shop online, so if you're asking customers to come into your store, you should be delivering an experience that makes it worth it.
The home category is still really big for us now. But it just seems small in comparison to how all the fashion is doing. A new category we recently launched is swim – and that's performing really well. We asked what else our customers wanted to see from Hill House, and swim was an early answer.
The fashion world can be notoriously fickle. How can you ensure your products remain relevant across changes in fashion on the street?
We focus on our core customer, so I'm not so worried about what's relevant for anyone except for them. It can be easy in fashion to get caught up in a trend cycle, but our core customer is really focused on cute clothes that make them feel great and carry them through all of their different things that they have to do that day. Within that formula, we can deliver a product that makes them happy and not be so focused on a constant cycle of newness. It's about building pieces that last in their wardrobe.
What advice do you have for smaller businesses hoping to expand and build?
One of the most important pieces of advice I got when I was first starting out was to keep your blinders on. I remember constantly playing the comparison game in the early days and looking at other brands, Instagrams or advertisements or stores, thinking: "We should have done that and we should have done this, and why can't we do that?" That was never productive for me.
I had a real unlock when I started to tune out some of that noise and focus on what we have going on internally and how to make that as good as it possibly could be and can be. I mute a lot of people on Instagram if I'm getting a negative feeling from it. I always talk about putting the mute button on in real life, too, if something's not serving you in that way.
More like this:
• The 'missing middle' of small businesses
• Meet the founder of the slogan-jumper brand celebrities love
• Why TikTok creators are so good at getting people to buy things
Where do you see Hill House in the next few years? Do you think the Nap Dress will always be the centerpiece of the business?
My perception is that the Nap Dress will always be a hero product for us. But the growth right now is coming out of these new products, categories and from the retail channel. It's really exciting because I think that our customers have given us permission to go into not only these other rooms of their home but other activities they're doing with swim and outerwear.
I'm also incredibly bullish on retail. I would love to open more stores. We're very much a one-year-at-a-time brand, so I'd like to start with a couple more. But because we are very customer led, I'll let them tell us [what's next].
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Kenyan business student Nelson Amenya has been hailed as a hero by those campaigning for greater transparency in the deals his government makes with private firms.
Recent Kenyan history is littered with stories of huge contracts that have resulted from corruption – and despite laws that are supposed to prevent this from happening, there are suspicions that it continues to take place.
Thirty-year-old Mr Amenya, who is studying in France for an MBA, leaked details on social media of what he said was a proposed agreement between Kenya and the Adani Group, an Indian multinational, in July.
It concerned the management of Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) – the country's - and region's - biggest airport, which is long overdue a complete overhaul.
"The first feeling I had [when I was passed the documents] was that it was just another government deal… I did not understand the magnitude or the seriousness of it," Mr Amenya, whose profile as an anti-corruption activist had been on the rise, tells the BBC.
The documents detailed a $2bn (£1.6bn) proposal by the Adani Group to lease JKIA for 30 years in order to modernise and run it.
As he started to go through the papers, he felt that if it was to go ahead, it "was going to hurt the Kenyan economy" while all the benefit would go to the Indian multinational.
The deal appeared unfair to him, according to what he read, as Kenya would still be putting in the largest share of the money but not reaping the financial rewards.
Mr Amenya had good reason to think the papers were genuine as "the people who were giving me these documents were from very legitimate departments of government", he says.
The Adani Group is involved in infrastructure, mining and energy projects globally, in countries such as Israel, the UAE, France, Tanzania, Australia and Greece. Its founder Gautam Adani is a big player in India's economy and is a close ally of India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Through further reading, Mr Amenya says he discovered that the Adani deal with Kenya could have left his country with an obligation to pay the company if it did not recoup its investment.
"This was a great breach of trust of the people by the leadership of the president, the Kenya Airports Authority, the minister - they all betrayed the people," he alleges.
Despite the evidence in his hands, Mr Amenya wrestled with what to do next. His own safety was at risk, though being in France he was better off than being in Kenya, where anti-corruption activists have been targeted and some killed.
"I was a bit scared. I didn't know what's going to happen. I'm risking my career, I'm risking my life, why should I take the risk to do this?" he asked himself at the time.
However, in the end he felt that staying quiet was not an option.
"You know, it's only cowards who live long."
After spending weeks going through what he had been sent, Mr Amenya leaked the documents on his X page in July, immediately sparking outrage in Kenya.
JKIA airport workers went on strike demanding that the deal be scrapped.
"It felt like a duty for me, for my country. Even if I am far away, I still have a duty for my country. I want to see a better Kenya, my home country becoming developed, industrialised and an end to corruption."
He worried that the airport deal was a harbinger of what might come next.
Mr Amenya says it was not just the unusual terms and lack of transparency that rang alarm bells, it was also, he alleges, that Kenyan laws appeared to have been systematically ignored.
"[The authorities] never did due diligence for this company… they did not follow the due process of procurement."
He alleges that some government officials hoped to bypass the legal requirements, including public consultation, that are supposed to prevent taxpayers' money from being misspent.
A report in April by the Kenya Airports Authority on the proposed deal highlighted that there was no plan to consult stakeholders on the plan.
"This was in April, and by July when I was exposing this, they had not done any public participation. It was quite secret this deal, and by that time they were just a month away from signing the deal," Mr Amenya alleges.
"After I exposed this deal is when they hurriedly tried to come and do like a sham public participation - they called the Kenya Airports Authority staff and started to have stakeholder meetings."
Various officials and branches of the state denied allegations of corruption in the process and the authorities went ahead to sign another multimillion dollar deal with the Adani Group – this time to construct power lines.
The Adani Group said Mr Amenya's claims were baseless and malicious.
A spokesperson told the BBC that "the proposal was submitted following Kenyan Public Private Partnership regulations and was intended to create a world class airport and significantly enhance the Kenyan economy by creating numerous new jobs".
The Adani Group further says that no contract was signed as "discussions did not progress to a binding agreement".
The company also says the proposal for the energy deal was above board and that the company "categorically refutes all allegations and insinuations of any violation of Kenyan laws in our operations or proposals.
"Every project we undertake is governed by a strong commitment to compliance, transparency and the laws of the respective countries in which we operate," the statement read.
But it was not Mr Amenya's leak that actually changed the government's mind.
It was only when the US authorities indicted Gautam Adani for alleged involvement in a $250m (£200m) bribery scheme that Kenya acted.
Representatives from the Adani Group denied the allegations from US prosecutors and called them "baseless".
At a state-of-the-nation address in parliament last month, Kenya's President William Ruto announced the cancellation of both Adani deals.
"In the face of undisputed evidence or credible information on corruption, I will not hesitate to take decisive action," Ruto said in a speech met with loud cheers inside parliament.
Kenyans celebrated the decision which Ruto attributed to new information provided by investigative agencies and partner nations.
"I was in class when this announcement came. I couldn't believe it," Mr Amenya says.
"I think in the first one hour, I had tears in my eyes. I was so happy."
Although he does not see himself as a hero, messages of support poured in from everywhere, including from India.
Forty minutes after the class ended, he posted his now-famous tweet "Adios Adani!!" - goodbye Adani.
"It was momentous… All that I did finally paid off."
The feeling of triumph, however, came after months of personal struggle and pressure.
Soon after exposing the airport deal, Mr Amenya was sued for defamation by an Adani Group representative and a Kenyan politician, making him question whether he should continue.
"Some people were coming to me from the government, they were even ready to pay me, they were telling me: 'You need to cash out and just stop this fight with the government,'" he recalls.
"It would have been the biggest mistake of my life to give up, a betrayal to the Kenyan people."
But even after scrapping the deals, President Ruto still questions why Kenyans opposed this and many other projects he has championed. He says he will find a way to upgrade the airport.
"I saw them saying that those who stopped the upgrading of our airport are heroes. Heroes? What do you gain when you stop the building of an airport in your country?" Ruto asked at a public function in early December.
"You have no clue how it's going to be built, and those who are opposed have never even stepped foot inside an airport, you just want to oppose."
Mr Amenya, who is still facing the defamation cases, is now fundraising to help with his legal fees, and says his future in Kenya is uncertain.
"I have received threats from credible intelligence agencies and people in Kenya that have warned me not to go back because obviously there's some people who are very angry with what I did," he says.
A hefty price, but one Mr Amenya says he would gladly pay again.
"We don't really need to wait for someone to save us," he says.
Go to BBCAfrica.com for more news from the African continent.
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A total of $2.2bn (£1.76bn) in cryptocurrencies has been stolen this year, with North Korean hackers accounting for more than half that figure, according to a new study.
Research firm Chainalysis says hackers affiliated with the reclusive state stole $1.3bn of digital currencies - more than double last year's haul.
Some of the thefts appear to be linked to North Korean hackers posing as remote IT workers to infiltrate crypto and other technology firms, the report says.
It comes as the price of bitcoin has more than doubled this year as incoming US president Donald Trump is expected to be more crypto-friendly than his predecessor, Joe Biden.
Overall, the amount of cryptocurrency stolen by hackers in 2024 increased by 21% from last year but it was still below the levels recorded in 2021 and 2022, the report said.
"The rise in stolen crypto in 2024 underscores the need for the industry to address an increasingly complex and evolving threat landscape."
It said the majority of crypto stolen this year was due to compromised private keys - which are used to control access to users' assets on crypto platforms.
"Given that centralised exchanges manage substantial amounts of user funds, the impact of a private key compromise can be devastating", the study added.
Some of the most significant incidents this year included the theft of the equivalent of $300m in bitcoin from Japanese cryptocurrency exchange, DMM Bitcoin, and the loss of nearly $235m from WazirX, an India-based crypto exchange.
The US government has said the North Korean regime resorts to cryptocurrency theft and other forms of cybercrime to circumvent international sanctions and raise money.
Last week, a federal court in St Louis indicted 14 North Koreans for allegedly being part of a long-running conspiracy aimed at extorting funds from US companies and funnelling money to Pyongyang's weapons programmes.
The US State Department also announced that it would offer a reward of up to $5m for anyone who could provide more information about the alleged scheme.
Government borrowing fell in November as more money was raised from taxes and less was spent on the country's debt interest payments, according to official figures.
Borrowing - the difference between spending and tax take - was £11.2bn last month, the lowest November figure since 2021, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Separate figures from the ONS showed retail sales rose slightly last month, helped by stronger trading at supermarkets.
The latest figures come as economic growth in the UK remains weak and inflation - the rate at which prices increase over time - is rising at its fastest pace since March.
November's borrowing figure was down by £3.4bn from the same month last year and below expectations of around £13bn.
It means the total amount the government has borrowed since the start of the current financial year stands at £113.2bn.
This is below the same period last year, but £2bn above predictions by the government's forecaster the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR).
Debt interest was down £4.7bn from a year earlier to £3bn, mainly due to lower inflation.
Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said November borrowing "undershooting" expectations meant "Christmas has come early" for Chancellor Rachel Reeves.
But she added while the chancellor would be encouraged by the latest figures, weakening in the UK economy meant there was a growing chance of further tax hikes or spending cuts.
Dennis Tatarkov, senior economist at KPMG UK, added the government had some "temporary respite" due to lower interest repayments, but warned the trend was "unlikely to last as actual and projected inflation has moved up in recent months".
Retail sales rose 0.2% in November after a 0.7% fall in October, but a rise in sales at supermarkets was partly offset by a fall in clothing sales, the ONS said.
However, its latest survey period did not cover the official Black Friday date of 29 November.
The latest economic figures come after the Bank of England voted to hold interest rates on Thursday, stating it thought the UK economy had performed worse than expected, with no growth at all between October and December.
The Bank downgraded its growth forecast from 0.3% for the final three months of 2024, to zero growth.
The growth revisions were seen as a blow to Labour, which has made growing the economy its top priority.
Other figures released this week showed inflation hit 2.6% in the year to November, above the Bank's 2% target.
Responding to the latest borrowing figures, Darren Jones, Chief Secretary to the Treasury, said the government had "inherited crumbling public services and crippled public finances" when it entered power.
"Now we have wiped the slate clean, we are focused on investment and reform to deliver growth," he said.
Liberal Democrat deputy leader Daisy Cooper said lower November borrowing was "good news", but added "the bigger picture remains deeply troubling".
She said people were "still feeling the pain of the previous Conservative government's economic mismanagement", but added the new Labour administration needed "a far better plan to turn things around".
At the Budget the chancellor changed the government's self-imposed debt rules in order to free up billions for infrastructure spending, which she said would drive economic growth and create jobs.
"What will worry government is that recent economic indicators such as weak [economic] growth and rising inflation are flashing amber," said Alison Ring, director of public sector and taxation at the ICAEW trade body for accountants.
"Money remains extremely tight and that is unlikely to change any time soon."
Consumer confidence 'low'
The rebound in retail sales in November was slightly lower than expected, with sales on course to decline overall in the year.
Sales were a mixed bag, according to Capital Economics, with supermarkets up but department and clothing stores down "as households continued to delay spending on winter clothing".
Nick Stowe, chief executive of Monsoon Accessorize, said retailers had "seen quite soft demand" due to low consumer confidence, hitting clothes shops.
One of America's most powerful labour unions is staging a protest against Amazon, aiming to put pressure on the tech giant as it rushes out packages in the final run-up to Christmas.
The Teamsters union said Amazon delivery drivers at seven facilities in the US had walked off the job on Thursday, after the company refused to negotiate with the union about a labour contract.
Teamsters members were demonstrating at "hundreds" of other Amazon locations, according to the union, which described it as the "largest strike" in US history involving the firm.
The company, which employs roughly 800,000 people in its US delivery network, said its services would not be disrupted.
"What you see here are almost entirely outsiders — not Amazon employees or partners — and the suggestion otherwise is just another lie from the Teamsters," Amazon said in a statement.
It was not clear how many people were participating in Thursday's action, which was joined by members of the United Services Union (ver.di) in Germany.
In the US, the Teamsters union said thousands of Amazon workers were involved.
Overall, the group claims to represent "nearly 10,000" Amazon workers, after signing up thousands of people at about 10 locations across the country, many of them in the last few months.
The organisation has demanded recognition from Amazon, accusing the company of illegally ignoring its duty to negotiate collectively over pay and working conditions.
"They've pushed workers to the limit and now they're paying the price. This strike is on them," said the union's general president, Sean O'Brien.
"If your package is delayed during the holidays, you can blame Amazon's insatiable greed."
The Teamsters is a storied US union, with more than one million members overall. It is known for winning robust contracts for members at firms such as delivery giant UPS.
Most of the Teamsters' Amazon campaigns have involved drivers technically employed by third-party delivery firms that work with the tech giant.
Amazon denies that it is on the hook as an employer in those cases, a question that is currently the subject of legal dispute. Labour officials have preliminarily sided with the union on the issue in at least one instance.
Amazon employees at a major warehouse in Staten Island in New York have also agreed to affiliate with the Teamsters.
Their warehouse holds the distinction as the only Amazon location in the US where a union victory has been formally ratified by labour officials.
But it has seen little progress when it comes to contract negotiations since the 2022 vote. It was not among the locations listed to go on strike on Thursday.
Amazon, one of the largest employers in the US, has long faced criticism of its working conditions and been the target of activists hoping to make inroads among its workers.
Its fierce opposition to unionisation efforts has also been called into question.
But it is not the only business facing pressure over its refusal to come to the table about a contract years after the start of unionisation efforts.
At Starbucks, where the first coffee shop voted to unionise in 2021, workers also recently authorised a labour strike, accusing the company of dragging its feet on negotiations.
A computer scientist has been found to have committed contempt of court for falsely and persistently claiming to be the mysterious inventor of Bitcoin, Satoshi Nakamoto.
In March, the High Court ruled Craig Wright was not Satoshi, and ordered him to stop claiming he was.
However, he continued to launch legal cases asserting he had intellectual property rights to Bitcoin, including a claim he was owed $1.2 trillion (£911 billion).
A judge said that amounted to a "flagrant breach" of the original court order and sentenced him to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years.
It means if Wright - who is from Australia but lives in the UK - continues to claim he invented the cryptocurrency he will face being jailed.
However, Wright, who appeared via videolink, refused to disclose where he was, saying only he was in Asia.
It means an international arrest warrant would have to be issued if the UK authorities wanted to detain him.
Wright's actions were described in court as "legal terrorism" that "put people through personal hell" in his campaign to be recognised as Bitcoin's inventor.
The judge, Mr Justice Mellor, said Wright arguments were "legal nonsense" but acknowledged that he was not in the UK and "appears to be well aware of countries with which the UK does not have extradition arrangements".
'Lied extensively'
Starting in 2016, Wright claimed to be the man behind the mysterious moniker Satoshi Nakamoto – generally known as Satoshi - the person who invented the world's first and largest cryptocurrency.
As the founder of Bitcoin, Satoshi could be one of the richest people in the world.
The ballooning value of the cryptocurrency - which has shot up since Donald Trump was elected US president - means they would have an estimated $100bn (£80bn) of Bitcoin in their digital wallets.
However, Wright failed to provide concrete evidence for his claim, which was largely disregard by the cryptocurrency world.
In an attempt to assert he was Satoshi, he launched costly legal cases against people and companies that challenged him.
His actions prompted a coalition of industry companies - the Crypto Open Patent Alliance (COPA) - to force a high court trial this year to prevent him from carrying out any further legal cases.
A judge ruled in their favour saying Wright had "lied extensively" to support his false claim.
Copa lawyer Jonathan Hough said elements of Wright's conduct during the trial "stray into farce" - but he told the court it also had "deadly serious" consequences and created a "chilling effect" on the industry.
Wright is one of many people who have been identified either by themselves or others as Satoshi.
However, all of those claims have either been debunked or rejected, meaning the search for the real creator of Bitcoin continues.
This is the third feature in a six-part series that is looking at how AI is changing medical research and treatments.
Ovarian cancer is “rare, underfunded, and deadly", says Audra Moran, head of the Ovarian Cancer Research Alliance (Ocra), a global charity based in New York.
Like all cancers, the earlier it is detected the better.
Most ovarian cancer starts in the fallopian tubes, so by the time it gets to the ovaries, it may have already spread elsewhere too.
"Five years prior to ever having a symptom is when you might have to detect ovarian cancer, to affect mortality," says Ms Moran.
But new blood tests are emerging that use the power of artificial intelligence (AI) to spot signs of the cancer in its very early stages.
And it's not just cancer, AI can also speed up other blood tests for potentially deadly infections like pneumonia.
Dr Daniel Heller is a biomedical engineer at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York.
His team have been developed a testing technology which uses nanotubes - tiny tubes of carbon which are around 50,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair.
About 20 years ago, scientists began discovering nanotubes that can emit fluorescent light.
In the past decade, researchers learned how to change these nanotubes' properties so they respond to almost anything in the blood.
Now it is possible to put millions of nanotubes into a blood sample and have them emit different wavelengths of light based on what sticks to them.
But that still left the question of interpreting the signal, which Dr Heller likens to finding a match for a fingerprint.
In this case the fingerprint is a pattern of molecules binding to sensors, with different sensitivities and binding strengths.
But the patterns are too subtle for a human to pick out.
"We can look at the data and we will not make sense of it at all," he says. "We can only see the patterns that are different with AI."
Decoding the nanotube data meant loading the data into a machine-learning algorithm, and telling the algorithm which samples came from patients with ovarian cancer, and which from people without it.
These included blood from people with other forms of cancer, or other gynaecological disease that might be confused with ovarian cancer.
A big challenge in using AI to develop blood tests for ovarian cancer research is that it is relatively rare, which limits the data for training algorithms.
And much of even that data is siloed in hospitals that treated them, with minimal data sharing for researchers.
Dr Heller describes training the algorithm on available data from just a few 100 patients as a "Hail Mary pass".
But he says the AI was able to get better accuracy than the best cancer biomarkers that are available today - and that was just the first try.
The system is undergoing further studies to see if it can be improved using larger sets of sensors, and samples from many more patients. More data can improve the algorithm, just as algorithms for self-driving cars can improve with more testing on the street.
Dr Heller has high hopes for the tech.
"What we'd like to do is triage all gynaecological disease - so when someone comes in with a complaint, can we give doctors a tool that quickly tells them it's more likely to be a cancer or not, or this cancer than that."
Dr Heller says this may be "three to five years" away.
It's not just early detection that AI is potentially useful for, it is also speeding up other blood tests.
For a cancer patient, catching pneumonia can be deadly and, as there are around 600 different organisms that can cause pneumonia, doctors have to conduct multiple tests to identify the infection.
But new types of blood tests are simplifying and speeding up the process.
Karuis, based in California uses artificial intelligence (AI) to help identify the precise pneumonia pathogen in 24 hours, and select the right antibiotic for it.
“Before our test, a patient with pneumonia would have 15 to 20 different tests to identify their infection in just in their first week in hospital - that's about $20,000 in testing,” says Karius chief executive Alec Ford.
Karius has a database of microbial DNA which has tens of billions of data points. Test samples from patients can be compared to that database to identify the exact pathogen.
Mr Ford says that would have been impossible without AI.
One challenge is that researchers don’t necessarily currently understand all the connections that an AI might make between the test biomarkers and the diseases.
Over the last two years Dr Slavé Petrovski has developed an AI platform called Milton that, using biomarkers in the UK biobank data to identify 120 diseases with a success rate of over 90%.
Finding patterns in such a mass of data is only something that AI can do.
“These are often complex patterns, where there may not be one biomarker, but you have to take into consideration the whole pattern,” says Dr Petrovski, whose is a researcher at pharmaceuticals giant AstraZeneca.
Dr Heller uses a similar pattern matching technique in his work on ovarian cancer.
"We know that the sensor binds and responds to proteins and small molecules in the blood, but we don't know which of the proteins or molecules are specific to cancer," he says.
More broadly data, or the lack of it, is still a drawback.
"People aren't sharing their data, or there's not a mechanism to do it," says Ms Moran.
Ocra is funding a large-scale patient registry, with electronic medical records of patients who've allowed researchers to train algorithms on their data.
"It's early days - we're still in the wild west of AI now," says Ms Moran.
Amazon founder and Washington Post owner Jeff Bezos has become the latest billionaire to meet Donald Trump at his Florida resort.
He was seen entering Mar-a-Lago on Wednesday night on his way to dinner with the president-elect, in video posted on social media.
US media reported that Elon Musk joined the pair. Mr Musk later tweeted "it was a great conversation".
Mr Bezos has pledged $1m (£780,000) to Trump's inauguration fund, one of a number of donations pledged by tech bosses.
Mr Bezos has large business interests with the US government through several of his companies, including Amazon's cloud computing division and Blue Origin, his space exploration company.
US share prices slumped after the central bank cut interest rates for the third time in a row but its economic projections signalled a slower pace of cuts next year.
In a widely expected move, the Federal Reserve set its key lending rate in a target range of 4.25% to 4.5%.
That is down a full percentage point since September, when the bank started lowering borrowing costs, citing progress stabilising prices and a desire to head off economic weakening.
Reports since then indicate that the number of jobs being created has been more resilient than expected, while price rises have continued to bubble.
Stocks in the US fell sharply as Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell warned the situation would likely result in fewer rate cuts than expected next year.
"We are in a new phase of the process," he said at a press conference.
"From this point forward, it's appropriate to move cautiously and look for progress on inflation."
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 2.58% lower, suffering its 10th session of declines in a row and marking its longest streak of daily losses since 1974.
The S&P 500 lost almost 3% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 3.6%.
In morning trade in Asia on Thursday, Japan's Nikkei 225 was around 1.2% lower, while the Hang Seng in Hong Kong was down by 1.1%.
Inflation, which measures the pace of price increases, has proven stubborn in recent months, ticking up to 2.7% in the US in November.
Analysts have also warned that policies backed by president-elect Donald Trump, including plans for tax cuts and widespread import tariffs, could put upward pressure on prices.
Analysts say lowering borrowing costs risks adding to that pressure by making it easier to borrow and encouraging businesses and households to take on credit to spend.
If demand rises, higher prices typically follow.
Mr Powell defended the cut on Wednesday, pointing to cooling in the job market over the last two years.
But he conceded that the move was a "closer call" on this occasion and acknowledged there is some uncertainty as the White House changes hands.
Olu Sonola, head of US economic research at Fitch Ratings, said it felt like the Fed was signalling a "pause" to cuts as questions about White House policies make it more unsure about the path ahead.
"Growth is still good, the labour market is still healthy, but inflationary storms are gathering," he said.
Wednesday's rate cut - formally opposed by one Fed policymaker - is the last by the central bank before president-elect Donald Trump takes office.
He won the election in November promising to bring down both prices and interest rates. But mortgage rates have actually climbed since September, reflecting bets that borrowing costs will stay relatively high.
Forecasts released by the Fed on Wednesday showed policymakers now expect the bank's key lending rate to fall to just 3.9% by the end of 2025, above the 3.4% predicted just three months ago.
They also anticipate inflation staying higher next year than previously forecast, at about 2.5% - still above the bank's 2% target.
John Ryding, chief economic advisor at Brean Capital, said he thought it would have been wiser for the Fed to hold off on a cut at this meeting, despite the likelihood it would upset markets.
"There has been enormous progress made from the peak in inflation to where the US is now and it risks giving up on that progress, possibly even that progress being partially reversed," he said. "The economy looks strong... What's the rush?"
The Fed announcement comes a day before the Bank of England is due to make its latest interest rates decision in the UK, where price inflation has also recently ticked higher.
It is widely expected to hold its benchmark rate steady at 4.75%.
Monica George Michail, associate economist at the National Institute of Economic and Social Research, said the Bank of England was facing rates of wage growth and price increases for services that are hotter than in the US.
Some of the government's plans, which include hikes to the minimum wage, will also put pressure on inflation, she added.
"The Bank of England is trying to remain cautious," she said.
But she warned that inflation risks are present in the US as well, pointing to Mr Trump's tariff plans.
Mr Ryding said he thought the Bank of England - which unlike the Fed, does not have to consider unemployment as part of its mandate - was more clearly responding to the reality of the situation in front of it.
"The Bank [of England] is being more of a prudent central bank than the Fed is right now," he said.
A Labour minister has been named in an investigation into claims her family embezzled up to £3.9bn (Tk 590 billion) from infrastructure projects in Bangladesh.
Tulip Siddiq, 42, who as the Treasury's Economic Secretary is responsible for tackling corruption in UK financial markets, is alleged to have brokered a deal with Russia in 2013 that overinflated the price of a new nuclear power plant in Bangladesh.
The allegation is part of a wider investigation by Bangladesh's Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) into Siddiq's aunt, Sheikh Hasina, who was deposed as prime minister of the country in August.
A source close to Siddiq said these were "trumped up charges".
The source also said the allegations were "completely politically motivated" and designed to damage her aunt.
Conservative shadow home office minister Matt Vickers said: "The fact Labour's anti-corruption minister is reportedly embroiled in a corruption case is the latest stain on Keir Starmer's judgement.
"It is high time she came clean. The British public deserve a government that is focused on their priorities, not distracted by yet another scandal."
Downing Street said Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer had confidence in Siddiq, and she will continue her responsibility as the minister overseeing anti-corruption efforts.
Siddiq has "denied any involvement in the claims" accusing her of involvement in embezzlement, according to the prime minister's official spokesman.
But she has recused herself - or stepped back - from any political decisions involving Bangladesh, the spokesman added.
The investigation is based on a series of allegations made by Bobby Hajjaj, a senior political opponent of Hasina.
The BBC understands that Siddiq has not had any contact with the ACC as part of the investigation.
The ACC is also investigating several of Hasina's family members, including Siddiq's mother Sheikh Rehana Siddiq, and senior officials from her government.
Hasina, who was in charge of Bangladesh for more than 20 years, was seen as an autocrat whose government ruthlessly clamped down on dissent.
Since fleeing the country Hasina has been accused of multiple crimes by the new Bangladeshi government.
Hasina is wanted by Bangladesh's International Criminal Tribunal (ICT) for her alleged involvements in "crimes against humanity" that took place during the demonstrations, in which hundreds were killed.
Arrest warrants have also been issued for 45 others, including former government ministers who also fled the country.
Syed Faruk, who runs the UK branch of Hasina's Awami League party, said the claims were "fabricated".
Siddiq was elected MP for Hampstead and Highgate in 2015, the north London constituency neighbouring Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer's seat of Holborn and St Pancras.
Corruption allegations and convictions against top leaders of ousted governments are not new in Bangladesh.
Hasina's main predecessor as prime minister, Khaleda Zia faced similar charges, which she also dismissed as politically motivated. As did ex-president Hussain Muhammad Ershad, who seized power as head of the army during a bloodless coup in 1982.
The Bangladeshi judiciary's independence has long been questioned.
Government changes often bring judicial reshuffles, with ruling parties regularly accused of targeting political opponents.
Court documents seen by the BBC show Hajjaj has accused Siddiq of mediating and coordinating meetings for the Bangladeshi officials with the Russian government to build the £10bn Rooppur Power Plant Project.
It is claimed that the deal inflated the price of the plant by £1bn, according to the documents - 30% of which was allegedly distributed to Siddiq and other family members via a complex network of banks and overseas companies.
In total, Hajjaj alleges £3.9bn was siphoned out of the project by Hasina's family and minister.
Footage from 2013 appears to show Siddiq attended the deal's signing by Hasina and Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin, recorded by the Associated Press.
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A major journalism body has urged Apple to scrap its new generative AI feature after it created a misleading headline about a high-profile killing in the United States.
The BBC made a complaint to the US tech giant after Apple Intelligence, which uses artificial intelligence (AI) to summarise and group together notifications, falsely created a headline about murder suspect Luigi Mangione.
The AI-powered summary falsely made it appear that BBC News had published an article claiming Mangione, the man accused of the murder of healthcare insurance CEO Brian Thompson in New York, had shot himself. He has not.
Now, the group Reporters Without Borders has called on Apple to remove the technology. Apple has made no comment.
Apple Intelligence was launched in the UK last week.
Reporters Without Borders, also known as RSF, said it was was "very concerned by the risks posed to media outlets" by AI tools.
The group said the BBC incident proves "generative AI services are still too immature to produce reliable information for the public".
Vincent Berthier, the head of RSF's technology and journalism desk, added: "AIs are probability machines, and facts can't be decided by a roll of the dice.
"RSF calls on Apple to act responsibly by removing this feature. The automated production of false information attributed to a media outlet is a blow to the outlet's credibility and a danger to the public's right to reliable information on current affairs."
Apple has made no comment since the story broke last week.
When the grouped notification involving BBC News emerged, a spokesperson from the BBC said the corporation had contacted Apple "to raise this concern and fix the problem".
The notification which made a false claim about Mangione was otherwise accurate in its summaries about the overthrow of Bashar al-Assad's regime in Syria and an update on South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol.
The BBC has not yet confirmed if Apple has responded to its complaint.
Mangione has now been charged with first-degree murder in the killing of Mr Thompson.
The BBC does not appear to be the only news publisher which has had headlines misrepresented by Apple's new AI tech.
On 21 November, three articles from the New York Times were grouped together in one notification - with one part reading "Netanyahu arrested", referring to the Israeli prime minister.
It was inaccurately summarising a report about the International Criminal Court issuing an arrest warrant for Netanyahu, rather than any reporting about him being arrested.
The mistake was highlighted on Bluesky by journalist Ken Schwencke with the US investigative journalism website ProPublica.
Mr Schwencke told BBC News that he took the screenshot and confirmed it was real. The New York Times has declined to comment.
What is the Apple Intelligence notification summary?
As part of its roll out of Apple Intelligence, Apple allows users to group notifications.
Apple said customers might like this to help reduce the interruptions caused by ongoing notifications.
It is only available on certain iPhones - those using the iOS 18.1 system version or later on recent devices (all iPhone 16 phones, the 15 Pro, and the 15 Pro Max). It is also available on some iPads and Macs.
The grouped notifications are marked with a specific icon, and users can report any concerns they have on a notification summary. Apple has not outlined how many reports it has received.
Apple Intelligence does not just summarise the articles of publishers, and it has been reported that the summaries of emails and text messages have occasionally not quite hit the mark.
Malawi's government is demanding the astonishing sum of $309bn (£245bn) in unpaid taxes and royalties from a US-based gemstone company for rubies exported from the southern African state over the last 10 years, its attorney-general has told the BBC.
Columbia Gem House, a family-owned business which says that it upholds fair trade practices, dismissed the claim as "baseless and defamatory".
The government is also demanding $4bn from French gas giant TotalEnergies in unpaid revenue from an oil storage deal, and $9.5m from Turkish tobacco firm Star Agritech, said Attorney General Thabo Chakaka Nyirenda.
TotalEnergies declined to comment while Star Agritech denied owing any money.
The amount being claimed from the three multinationals is nearly 300 times Malawi's national debt of around $1.2bn, and 22 times its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of $14bn.
Malawi was forced to take a $174m bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) last year after running into financial trouble.
Speaking to the BBC Focus on Africa podcast, Nyirenda said that Columbia Gem House had been under-reporting the value of rubies it had exported from Malawi.
He added that "some of the evidence that we'll be using comes from Columbia Gem House itself, such as declarations they have made in the US, and what they have reported on their website, which they have now deleted".
"The amount is not just [for] one year, it goes over 10 years back. It also includes the interest," Nyirenda said.
Columbia Gem House said that the government's sums do not add up.
The $309bn claim "implies Malawi has somehow produced and exported trillions of dollars' worth of coloured gemstones", the firm said in a statement.
"They haven't done this by any stretch of the imagination," it added.
Columbia Gem House said it does not operate in Malawi, but buys its gemstones from Nyala Mines, a Malawian-owned company in which the government has a 10% stake.
However, Nyirenda told the BBC that as a minority shareholder, the government was not involved in the day-to-day management of the company, and "the name of Nyala Mines had been changed to disguise its ownership".
An attempt by the US embassy in Malawi to settle the dispute fell through when the attorney general failed to attend an online meeting, which he put down to "technical challenges".
Mining contributes only 1% to Malawi's GDP, although the government has announced plans to scale this up in the next few years.
Malawian economist Wisdom Mgomezulu said the government may be making the claims now because of its financial difficulties.
"They're looking at all potential sources of income, but if you look at the claim versus the size of the economy, it's just way too much," he told the BBC.
The dispute with TotalEnergies is rooted in a deal Malawi entered with it in 2001, according to Nyirenda.
The French multinational was to provide fuel to Malawi and was to get tax incentives in return, he said.
The profits from the arrangement were to have been shared equally but TotalEnergies "only paid for two years and stopped paying in 2006", Nyirenda alleged.
The government has since taken the company to court in Malawi, and Nyirenda said the government wants it to pay $4bn to settle the matter.
As for the dispute with Star Agritech International, the government accuses it of buying three million tonnes of tobacco worth $15m from Malawi through three subsidiaries - registered in Mauritius, Hong Kong, and South Africa - in 2013, but failing to pay for it.
Malawi Leaf Company, the state-owned enterprise that sold the tobacco, took legal action in Hong Kong and won the case, Nyirenda said.
"Over $9.5m was proven in a Hong Kong court," he said, adding that Malawi wanted Star Agritech International to pay the amount.
He further alleged that the Hong Kong subsidiary of Star Agritech International was established "for the sole purpose of obtaining the tobacco from Malawi".
In response, Star Agritech International told the BBC that it purchased tobacco worth $5m - not $15m as Malawi claims.
"This is completely wrong and is representative of the type of problems businesses face in dealing in Africa," said the company's boss, Iqbal Lambat.
Mr Lambat further claimed that the tobacco shipped was substandard.
"This transaction experienced difficulties as the tobaccos were not one uniform grade but a combination of leftover scrappy tobaccos," he said.
Malawi is not the only African country that is going after money they say multinational companies owe them.
Last week Mali's military junta issued an international arrest warrant for Canadian mining firm Barrick Gold's chief executive officer, alleging the company owes the West African state $500m.
Barrick has responded by threatening to suspend operations in Mali, adding that "local operating conditions have deteriorated significantly with employees imprisoned without cause and gold shipments blocked".
And in November the junta released the head and two employees of an Australian mining company, Resolute Mining, after a $160m tax dispute was settled.
The firm paid half the money upfront, with a promise to pay the other half in the coming months.
For more stories like this, check out the BBC Focus on Africa podcast. It's available on BBC Sounds, other streaming platforms.
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The US could face a government shutdown at midnight on Saturday after President-elect Donald Trump called on Republican lawmakers to reject a bipartisan funding bill that would have kept the government funded through March.
Trump urged Congress to scrap the deal and pass a slimmer version with fewer provisions. His intervention followed heavy criticism of the bill by tech billionaire Elon Musk.
Congressman Steve Scalise, the Republican House Majority Leader, indicated on Wednesday night that the bill was dead after Trump denounced it.
The short-term funding bill will need to be passed by Congress by the end of week to prevent federal government offices from shuttering beginning on Saturday.
Now, Republican leadership must go back to the drawing board, and they only have until 23:59 EDT (04:59 GMT) to reach a deal before funding expires and the government shuts down.
A government shutdown would cause federal services - ranging from the National Park Service to Border Patrol - to limit and begin closing operations this weekend.
Trump and Vice-President-elect JD Vance dealt the final blow to House Speaker Mike Johnson's bipartisan funding bill on Wednesday night following a pressure campaign led by Mr Musk on X.
Mr Musk, who Trump has tasked with cutting government spending in his future administration, lobbied heavily against the existing deal posting repeatedly on Wednesday against the bill, often with false statements.
The president and vice-president elect are pushing for streamlined legislation that does not include Democratic-backed provisions that Johnson negotiated with his colleagues across the aisle.
The now-dead bipartisan deal would have extended government funding until March 14 - several months after Trump returns to the White House.
The legislation is necessary because Congress never passed a budget for the 2025 fiscal year, which began on 1 October. Instead, lawmakers opted to pass a short-term funding extension until December 20.
They also called, in a joint statement, for Congress to raise the debt ceiling, which determines how much the government can borrow to pay its bills, and limit the funding legislation to temporary spending and disaster relief.
"Republicans want to support our farmers, pay for disaster relief, and set our country up for success in 2025. The only way to do that is with a temporary funding bill WITHOUT DEMOCRAT GIVEAWAYS combined with an increase in the debt ceiling," the statement read.
They called anything else "a betrayal of our country."
In posts on his social media site, Truth Social, Trump threatened to help unseat "any Republican that would be so stupid as to" vote in favour of the current version of the bill, which was unveiled on Tuesday.
"If Democrats threaten to shut down the government unless we give them everything they want, then CALL THEIR BLUFF," he said.
Johnson's 1,500-page continuing resolution included more than $110bn (£88bn) in emergency disaster relief and $30bn (£23bn) in aid to farmers. It also included the first pay raise for lawmakers since 2009, federal funds to rebuild a bridge that collapsed in Baltimore, healthcare reforms, and provisions aimed at preventing hotels and live event venues from deceptive advertising.
It is not clear how Johnson plans to proceed. Both parties are meeting on Thursday to decide their party's path forward.
Democrats are unlikely to help Johnson with support for a re-vamped funding bill, blaming him for breaking their bipartisan agreement.
"You break the bipartisan agreement, you own the consequences that follow," Democratic House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries posted on X.
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre issued a statement after Trump came out against the bill, saying: "Republicans need to stop playing politics with this bipartisan agreement or they will hurt hardworking Americans and create instability across the country."
"Triggering a damaging government shutdown would hurt families," President Joe Biden's spokeswoman continued, adding: "A deal is a deal. Republicans should keep their word."
There have been 21 US government shutdowns or partial shutdowns over the past five decades - the longest of which was during Trump's first term when the government was shuttered for 35 days.
UK interest rates have been held at 4.75% after the Bank of England voted to keep borrowing costs unchanged.
In an unexpected split, three members of the nine-member rate-setting committee wanted to cut rates to 4.5% to boost growth.
The Bank said it thought the economy had performed worse than expected, with no growth at all between October and December.
Rates are still expected to fall gradually next year, with the first cut possibly coming in February.
Commenting on the decision, Bank governor Andrew Bailey said: "We think a gradual approach to future interest rate cuts remains right but with the heightened uncertainty in the economy we can't commit to when or by how much we will cut rates in the coming year."
Speaking later to reporters, Mr Bailey said he thought the path for interest rates was "downwards", but added: "The world is too uncertain."
"We will come back in February at our next meeting and review it [interest rates] again."
Figures this week showed that both inflation was higher than the Bank's target and wages were growing faster than expected.
But the economy is struggling. Last month, the Bank forecast growth of 0.3% in the final three months of the year, but it now expects 0%.
The revisions will be a blow to Labour which has made boosting economic growth its top priority.
It has promised to deliver the highest sustained economic growth in the G7 group of rich nations.
In the minutes from the meeting, the Bank said there was uncertainty "around how the measures that had been announced in the autumn Budget were affecting growth".
In the Budget, Chancellor Rachel Reeves announced £40bn worth of tax rises, the majority of which will come from an increase in National Insurance contributions from employers.
By the time of the Bank's next decision in February, it will have more data on the impact of the Budget changes, as well as Donald Trump's incoming US trade tariff policies.
Following the Bank's decision, Chancellor Rachel Reeves said: "We want to put more money in the pockets of working people, but that is only possible if inflation is stable and I fully back the Bank of England to achieve that."
Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesperson Daisy Cooper MP said: "The new government needs to work much harder if it's going to turn the economy around any time soon.
"That must start by scrapping the self-defeating jobs tax which promises to make the crisis in health and care even worse."
Ruth Gregory, deputy chief UK economist at Capital Economics, said the Bank's policymakers had appeared "to have been more open to cutting interest rates this month than we had expected".
She said the comments suggested "that the Bank will cut rates quicker than investors expect".
'House prices are incredibly high'
Danny McGuire, who lives with his parents in Warrington, Cheshire, would like to get on the property ladder, but the deposit size and the lack of properties within his budget range has made it difficult for him.
"The idea of owning your own home is preferable to renting for myself," said the 33-year-old, who works for a local council, but added "average house prices are incredibly high".
Sarah Coles, head of personal finance at Hargreaves Lansdown, said for people looking to secure a fixed-rate mortgage deal, "the fact the market is pricing in fewer cuts between now and the end of 2025 means we're likely to see mortgage rates rise slightly from here".
"Mortgage rates have fluctuated over the past month, as the market struggled to make its mind up about the path of future rate cuts. With so much uncertainty around, it can be a good idea for anyone with a looming remortgage to secure a rate now," she added.
El Salvador has struck a $1.4bn (£1.1bn) loan deal with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) after agreeing to scale back its controversial bitcoin policies.
The global lender said risks related to the adoption of the world's largest cryptocurrency had eased now that businesses will be allowed to decide whether or not to accept bitcoin.
In 2021, El Salvador became the first country in the world to make bitcoin legal tender.
This week, the cryptocurrency briefly hit a fresh record high of more than $108,000.
"The potential risks of the Bitcoin project will be diminished significantly in line with Fund policies," the IMF announcement said.
"Legal reforms will make acceptance of Bitcoin by the private sector voluntary. For the public sector, engagement in Bitcoin-related economic activities and transactions in and purchases of Bitcoin will be confined."
The deal, which is aimed to help support El Salvador's economy, still needs to approved by the IMF's executive board.
The IMF had opposed the Salvadorean President Nayib Bukele's crypto-friendly policies, warning they could become an obstacle to it offering financial assistance.
Still, Bukele celebrated on social media as bitcoin rallied after Donald Trump's US election victory in November.
Earlier this month, as the price of bitcoin topped $100,000 for the first time, Bukele said in a social media post that his country's holdings in the cryptocurrency had more than doubled in value.
He also blamed his political opponents for causing many Salvadorans to miss out on bitcoin's rise.
The cryptocurrency has rallied since Donald Trump's election victory on the 5 November.
The incoming Trump administration is seen as being far more friendly towards cryptocurrencies than President Joe Biden's White House.
On Thursday, the cryptocurrency retreated along with global stock markets after the US Federal Reserve signalled a slower pace of interest rate cuts next year.
Bitcoin is currently trading at around $100,000.
Harland & Wolff, the Belfast shipyard best known for the Titanic, has been saved by a deal with Spain's state-owned shipbuilder.
Navantia had been in exclusive negotiations since October after Harland & Wolff's holding company fell into administration.
About 1,000 jobs are to be saved in the deal, which also includes Harland & Wolff's facilities in Scotland and England.
The UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said the deal was "good for jobs" and "good for national security".
'The devil will be in the detail'
Reynolds said that the deal secures all four Harland & Wolff yards across the UK and guarantees jobs for "years not months in all four of those yards".
He added that the deal was "a major vote of confidence in the UK from Navantia".
Asked whether the government had sweetened the deal for Navantia by changing the terms of a contract to deliver three Royal Navy support ships, Reynolds said there had been a "minor revision" to the contract to include "more support" from the government.
The deal is to be presented as early fruits of the government's post Brexit "reset".
Gavin Robinson, the leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), said he was "delighted that this agreement has been reached which will secure the future of jobs in Belfast and in its other sites".
The MP for East Belfast said that uncertainty over the future of the business had been "hugely unsettling... particularly for all the staff at the yard".
Robinson added that Harland & Wolff "forms part of a wider defence sector that has huge potential for further growth in Northern Ireland".
George Brash, Unite the union's regional officer for the shipyard workers in Belfast, told BBC News NI that it was a "hugely positive move", but that "the devil will be in the detail".
He said Unite would now engage with the deal and work to ensure the delivery of guarantees both for jobs and continuity of employment.
Navantia, which is 100% owned by Spain's government, has been a significant recipient of funding from the European Commission as part of the European Defence Fund.
Joining the fund is a possible objective for the UK-EU security reset, set to be discussed at a summit early in the new year.
The Spanish economy minister responsible for its state-owned businesses, Carlos Cuerpo, met with Chancellor Rachel Reeves and Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds in London last month.
Navantia already has a business relationship with Harland & Wolff. It is the main contractor on a project to build three support ships for the Royal Navy, with Harland & Wolff acting as UK subcontractor.
The company employs a core staff of about 1,000 in Belfast, Appledore in England and Methil and Arnish in Scotland.
Navantia's main shipyard is at Cadiz in southern Spain.
It employs more than 4,000 people and has an annual turnover of about €1.3bn (£835m).
What does Harland & Wolff mean to east Belfast?
For people in Belfast, particularly the east of the city where the yellow cranes, Samson and Goliath, cast their shadows, this takeover will be good news.
Café worker Anne Higgins' family members worked in the Harland & Wolff shipyard in east Belfast.
"It's very iconic for Belfast," she told BBC News NI.
Harry Fisher worked in the shipyard in the 1960s.
"It means everything to this side of the city," he said.
"If it ever folds, I don't know what the people of east Belfast would do. The two cranes will be there forever."
He recalled "thousands of men walking down his street" to get to the shipyard in the morning for work.
Joanne Watton told BBC News NI that the cranes are such a "beautiful sight".
"When you're on a plane and see the cranes, you know you're home."
Analysis: Probably the best result for Harland & Wolff
For some people, a takeover by Spain's national shipbuilder will represent another example of the UK's industrial decline.
For the Harland & Wolff workforce, it is probably the best possible result.
In 2019, the company's Norwegian owner decided the shipyard didn't have a future and it was placed into administration.
It was then bought by a UK company which had ambition but lacked money and expertise.
Now it is heading into the ownership of an established shipbuilder which has the financial backing of the Spanish state.
What is the history of Harland & Wolff?
Harland & Wolff was founded in 1861 by Yorkshireman Edward Harland and his German business partner, Gustav Wolff.
By the early 20th Century, Harland & Wolff dominated global shipbuilding and had become the most prolific builder of ocean liners in the world.
However, in the period since World War Two it has lurched from crisis to crisis and was under UK state control from 1977 to 1989.
In 2019, its then Norwegian owners withdrew financial support and the business fell into insolvency, having not built a ship in a generation.
It was bought by InfraStrata, a small London-based energy firm which did not have significant experience in marine engineering.
InfraStrata later changed its name to Harland & Wolff and in 2022 won the Royal Navy contract as part of a consortium led by Navantia.
However, financial losses mounted as it scaled up its operations and it became increasingly reliant on high-interest borrowings from a specialist US lender, Riverstone.
The company sought a £200m government loan guarantee to refinance its borrowings but that was rejected for being too risky for taxpayers.
Its holding company entered administration in September and restructuring expert Russell Downs was appointed to run the business and find a new owner.
The Oregon Trail was once the most widely distributed software in US schools. It gripped a generation and changed gaming forever, but debates rage on about the history it depicts.
In the autumn of 1997, I fired up my school computer and set out across the United States. I loaded my covered wagon, harnessed my video-game-oxen and followed a 2,000-mile (3,219km) route stretching from Independence, Missouri, to Oregon City, Oregon. The journey nearly killed me, but by the end, it forever changed my understanding of the world.
Some 400,000 settlers took the same path in the 19th Century, only they traversed the real world instead of a glowing screen. Their gruelling trek became known as The Oregon Trail. It made for one of the most significant chapters in US history, a colonisation project that helped cement the country's domination of the land, its resources and the indigenous people who called it home. In 1974, an educational software company released a video game called The Oregon Trail that put players in the shoes of these immigrants. The game was specifically intended to be used in schools across the US, where it became a decades-long fixture. Bringing computer games to the classroom was a semi-radical idea, but the bet paid off.
You may not know the game if you grew up outside the US, but you've felt its impact. Some say The Oregon Trail launched the entire category of educational gaming. Its innovations became video games staples. If you've ever named a character in your gaming party, for example, you can thank The Oregon Trail, which popularised the very idea that you might name companions. But its biggest effects extend far beyond games. The Oregon Trail shaped entire generations' understanding of the US. Although many educators celebrate the game for getting children excited about history, it's also faced sharp criticism for taking a colonialist perspective, and ignoring those whose land was stolen by settlers. Developers have worked to include the stories of oppressed people in more recent iterations, but the debate continues over whether there is a more fundamental problem with turning the violence of westward expansion into a playful quest.
Fifty years after it was created, The Oregon Trail's legacy remains powerful and, in many ways, surprising. Hundreds of millions of players have attempted the journey – though most never make it to Oregon. The phrase "You have died of dysentery", a common end for voyagers, has spawned t-shirts and countless memes in its wake. The quote is even referenced in a bestselling 2022 novel, Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin, about an age bracket of Americans she calls "The Oregon Trail Generation". The game has also seen dozens of sequels, spinoffs and parodies, and now an upcoming live-action movie.
"The lasting fame of the game is a fascinating puzzle," says R Philip Bouchard, team leader and designer of the classic 1985 version of The Oregon Trail, released on the Apple II computer. But on a basic level, it's simple, he adds. "Most kids played The Oregon Trail at school," Bouchard says. "How often do you get to do really fun things at school?"
The road to Oregon
The Oregon Trail was first developed by a team of three teachers from Minnesota, US in 1971. The earliest iteration ran on a computer that didn't even have a screen. Students would read their progress on sheets of paper the computer printed out after every move.
The game was eventually picked up by the Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium, and received its first wide release in 1974, when it was made available to educators across the state. The Oregon Trail was an immediate hit, but it wasn't until Bouchard's sequel for the Apple II that it became a sensation.
"At one time, The Oregon Trail was the most widely distributed piece of software in North American schools," Bouchard says. An affordable licensing program made it easy for teachers and administrators to adopt the game, and it spread like wildfire shortly after its release, he says. "Most kids of a certain era had a chance to play and enjoy the game at school. Consequently, the experience of playing The Oregon Trail is shared by an entire generation of people."
Players start in Missouri, a Midwestern state that marked the beginning of the American frontier in the early 19th Century. You select travel companions and choose supplies before facing obstacles on the trail, including broken wagon wheels, weather, snake bites and more. Activities along the way keep things interesting, including a hunting mini-game and managing the health of the party.
Back in the mid 1980s, many people believed the role of educational computer programs was to serve in lieu of a lecture or a textbook, according to Bouchard. "It was about as boring as anything could possibly be," he says. Instead, he wanted to design a programme that was a game first, but one that worked alongside traditional classroom instruction.
"The game itself was a memorable experience that planted a range of concepts in the mind of the student, including perceptions of geography and details of the historical experience," Bouchard says. "Most students would be quite curious to learn more. A good teacher would intuitively know how to build upon that curiosity."
Bouchard was interested in expanding the game from schools to a home audience and worked to include a variety of options to appeal to different groups. "The Oregon Trail appeals to a wide variety of players – those that are mostly like to hunt, those that love the challenge of managing resources, those that are fascinated by the sudden misfortunes that occur along the way."
The Oregon Trail helped demonstrate the commercial viability of video games in general, says Artur Plociennik, regional publishing director of World of Warships, a smash hit naval battle simulation game. "[The game] very likely influenced the first generation of serious developers of video games as entertainment products… [and] left an impact that's reverberating even now through the modern gaming community."
Blazing the trail for historical video games
If you've spent time playing video games, you likely have experience with some of the mechanics popularised by The Oregon Trail.
"It was built on a few distinct design choices, and those choices were prominently present in many games that came after. Some of those choices even became foundations of whole subgenres or categories," Plociennik says. That includes everything from managing your inventory to the very idea that you can name your characters, or that those characters might die – permanently – and never come back. In modern games like Fallout, players expect random encounters when they're charting a course through the map, a feature he says The Oregon Trail helped cement.
But one of the biggest influences of The Oregon Trail comes down to something far simpler. "It did a great deal to make sure that history would play a central role in video game settings of the years to come," says Tore Olsson, an associate professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, who's studied depictions of history in video games.
The first video games didn't include a lot of story. Pong was a game of table tennis; that was all the context you got. Later, sci-fi and fantasy became common fodder, but The Oregon Trail was among the first to prove history can make for great gaming.
"The underlying concept of The Oregon Trail – surviving a 2,000-mile journey across difficult terrain to a promised land – is perfectly suited to development as a game," Bouchard says. Westward migration is deeply embedded in American culture, he says, and putting players in the shoes of one of the people who made the journey added to its inherent appeal.
History is a primary focus in gaming, and echoes of The Oregon Trail ring through many of the titles that dominated computer games in the 1990s, Olsson says, such as Civilisation and Age of Empires. But some of the biggest parallels might be the 2018 blockbuster Red Dead Redemption II, which focuses on an outlaw cowboy in the American west of 1899.
Olsson, author of a book on the game called Red Dead's History, often calls Red Dead Redemption II "this generation's Oregon Trail". Though the games are very different, they have certain commonalities, he says. "They are both, at heart, survival games, showcasing the demanding task of achieving subsistence in an unforgiving landscape. And they are games about migration – about movement across space in pursuit of an ideology. And they have both been wildly influential in shaping people's understanding of the past."
According to Bouchard, building The Oregon Trail involved detailed study of history and geography, something future versions of the game included with increasing vigour. Developers say it helped set a standard for research in historical gaming.
"I myself played The Oregon Trail in my teens in the 90s, but I only learned to appreciate its impact much later, after joining the industry," Plociennik says. His team centres historical accuracy in their projects, partnering with experts and historians about everything down to the last rivet on their in-game ships.
'An uncritical celebration of eastern white settlers'
The Oregon Trail was created as a teaching tool and accuracy was a primary goal for developers in every iteration that followed. But over the years, many have criticised the game for failing to represent the stories of Native Americans, people of colour and other marginalised groups.
"When we were kids, these games were presented as 'history', and no one bothered to tell us that people in The Oregon Trail were charting lands that had been charted by others first," says Alan Henry, managing editor of PC Magazine and a journalist who's spent years covering video games.
The original iterations of the game were "an uncritical celebration of eastern white settlers and their mission", where western migration is an adventure, not an invasion, Olsson says.
In the launch screen for a 1990s update to the game, Native American tipis sit in the background of a prairie landscape, alongside a rattlesnake and buffalo skull. "Native people are represented as an obstacle like snake bites and the landscape itself, and that land is emptied of any actual Indigenous people," says Margaret Huettl, an associate professor who focuses on Native American history at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh, US. She consulted on the most recent version of The Oregon Trail.
"The 1990s and early-2000s versions of the games didn't do any more to include Native perspectives or complicate the triumphant narrative of westward expansion," Huettl says. It wasn't until the 90s sequels that developers added black people to the game, she says, but even then they only appeared as non-playable characters.
The people managing the game today readily acknowledge The Oregon Trail's failings. "The original game focused too heavily on one perspective only, the white Americans who were travelling west, looking for a new life in a new land," says Caroline Fraser, head of HarperCollins Productions, which now runs The Oregon Trail franchise.
Fraser says the company was focused on a stronger Native American perspective when they relaunched The Oregon Trail and worked with a team of Native American scholars including Huettl to review all aspects of the game.
"They helped us get the dialogue right, the music right, the clothing right, the names right," Fraser says. "They also helped us write playable stories within the game where you’re travelling as Native American characters, with their own aspirations and challenges."
Huettl acknowledges that the game has tried at various times to update the representation of Native Americans and other marginalised groups, and says she hopes the relaunch of the game does better.
"I am proud of the work that we did on this game," she says."There are mini-games that feature Indigenous-centred stories, and the dialogue in the game includes moments of critique on topics from slavery to the destruction of the environment and how that impacted Native people like the Pawnee." But Huettl also points out that ultimately, there are limits to how much the original, central storyline about settlers claiming land can be updated and made more inclusive. In her view, it remains a game that's made by non-Natives for a mostly non-Native audience.
"There are ways that the game continues to perpetuate myths about westward expansion," she says. "The driving motivation of the main storyline is to claim a plot of that Indigenous land for yourself. Winning means participating in Indigenous dispossession. No single game can dismantle all the problematic narratives of US expansion, but my hope is that we have created an experience that at least sparks conversations."
In October 2024, 50 years after The Oregon Trail's first wide release, news broke that HarperCollins has partnered with Apple to develop a live-action movie based on the game, complete with musical numbers in the vein of Barbie. "The re-launch of The Oregon Trail game has been incredibly successful, proving that this iconic game still has a massive fan base," says Fraser. Paired with the movie, it's part of a renewed effort to introduce the game and its story to the next generation of children.
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Despite the promising updates, some expect that The Oregon Trail is destined to become history itself. In the 1970s through the 1990s, The Oregon Trail was special in part because video games were still a novelty, but now, "The Oregon Trail has basically become legacy media – a household name from a different technological order," Olsson says.
"It will likely fade into nostalgic memories of childhood, and that's OK – because the cultural context is changing," he says. "Given that Oregon Trail was never very good history – it was too one-sided, too uncritical, and too simplistic – I'm all for replacing it with more dynamic and thoughtful representations of the past."
* Editing and additional reporting by Thomas Germain.
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US aviation authorities have banned the use of drones in 22 infrastructure sites in New Jersey and another 29 in New York state for 30 days after a spike in drone sightings in the eastern US.
The measures allow the government to use "deadly force" against unmanned aircraft if they pose an "imminent security threat".
Pilots operating in restricted zones risk being intercepted and detained by law enforcement, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said in a statement.
The move comes after weeks of mysterious drone sightings across New Jersey and other states, leading to concern from residents and prompting a number of conspiracy theories online about foreign involvement.
Counting our blessings is an age-old piece of advice – but it turns out that writing lists of good things that happen to us actually does help improve our mood.
Of all the interventions brought to us by psychological research, I think this is probably my favourite. It's both simple and well-evidenced. And as such, it has become well-known.
There are various names for it – three good things, three blessings or a gratitude list. There are variations too in the exact instructions given, but essentially the exercise involves spending a few moments in the evening reflecting on your day, then writing down three things that went well or that you enjoyed. The final element is to think about why these things felt positive to you. You can choose anything, however small and seemingly inconsequential. Perhaps you bumped into a friend you hadn’t seen for a while? Perhaps you and a colleague laughed about something together. Perhaps you enjoyed your walk home from the station in lovely early evening light.
Alternatively, you could include something much more significant, perhaps even life-changing. Like passing an important exam, or getting a promotion, or hearing that a relative is going to have a baby.
Counting your blessings is of course a very old idea, and exercises of this kind had been used clinically for some time. The initial research investigating whether any of us might use this method in everyday life to improve our wellbeing was published in 2005 by Martin Seligman and Chris Peterson, two major figures in the field of positive psychology.
The study involved 577 people who were randomly assigned to different groups. As a placebo, one group had to write every evening about their early memories from childhood. Other groups were given different interventions to try out. In the arm of the trial that interests us, people were asked to list three things that had gone well that day and what caused them to go well. Over the next few months, the volunteers in all the groups were given scales to measure their happiness.
The results were impressive. Notably, within a month, the people who were assigned the three good things task began to show improvements in their happiness levels as well as a decrease in depressive symptoms – with the positive effects lasting for the six months of the study.
Meanwhile those in the placebo group saw a brief spike in happiness in the first week, but their mood soon returned to baseline, and there was no change at the six month follow up.
Since 2005, this technique has been tested with all sorts of different people, from teenagers in slums of Nairobi, Kenya to older women living in Switzerland.
One reason that the three good things strategy can work is because it begins to counter the hard-wired tendency we have as humans to register and remember the negative rather than the positive. There's a strong evolutionary reason why we think this way: it's vital for our survival. So, we hardly notice if a small cat is following us up the street, but if it was a lion we certainly would. Our brains are primed for danger in order to keep us safe. Which is fine, except that in a world of war and suffering, hatred and division – all of which we can instantly access on our phones – this negativity bias can overwhelm us.
An important element of the three good things exercise is that it helps us to focus on the positive in a concrete way. And although I've been suggesting it's an end-of-the-day exercise, its real strength lies in the fact that the impact soon begins to spread through the day. You find yourself searching out good things to add to your list from the moment you get up. (Whenever I get my favourite seat at the front of the top deck of the bus I think to myself, that's one for my list. How lucky!) And before you know it you are training yourself not only to look out for threats, but for good things too.
Today I had a surprise lunch out with my husband when he suggested going to the café which I constantly walk past and wonder about but have never visited. And I was pleased to see that although it's winter my yellow and red dahlia had even more new blooms than yesterday. Then a little later, an academic I had emailed in the US to ask about some psychological research replied to me within the hour, kindly sending me two very useful journal articles. It's mid-afternoon as I write this article, and I already know what my three good things for today are. Once you start it becomes a habit to look out for these moments.
It's true of course that when you are going through very tough times, those positive moments might be harder to find. This is not going to transform your life, but a 2021 meta-analysis of studies found that it could be effective, even when people had depression.
That doesn't mean of course it will work for every individual. When teenagers in India, for example, tried it out, they tended not to find that it useful. The researchers speculated that with the country's schools having such a strong focus on written work, the exercise might have felt like yet another piece of homework to complete.
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• Why you should take notes by hand
But with these kinds of interventions – which cost nothing and take very little time – it can be worth a try to see whether they work for you. Or even to hold it in your arsenal as a strategy to try in the future if you're feeling unhappy with life.
Personally, I found this technique especially helpful to get through the longest lockdown of the Covid-19 pandemic. True, my end-of-the-day list lacked variety: walks around my local park and tasty meals at home featured regularly. But even so, seeking out the positive did lift some of the gloom.
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Around 4,500 years ago, the famous silhouette of Stonehenge would have looked very different. Writer and archaeologist Mike Pitts digs up clues to the mystery of the circle's long-lost stones.
Stand at Stonehenge on midwinter day, 21 December, as the Sun is setting you can experience a striking event – provided the sky is clear. Position yourself between the tall, outlying Heel Stone and the stone circle, and look south-west through the megaliths. In the closing darkness they appear like a huge crumbling wall, orange light slanting through vertical fissures. In the last quick moments, the Sun disappears from a window formed by two great vertical stones and the horizontal lintel they support. It's dark and cold. Stonehenge, it feels, has swallowed the Sun.
My archaeological colleagues and I are convinced that this alignment is no coincidence: it was designed by the monument's builders. But were you able to see this annual drama 4,500 years ago, the spectacle would be yet more impressive. The solstice sightline was marked by as many as six futher upright pairs. Of the greatest of these – the tallest and the most finely carved stones on the site – now just a single megalith known as Stone 56 is left. A projecting bulge on the top of this stone once fitted into a giant lintel. Now that tenon rises exposed and useless.
And many more upright stones have gone. What happened to these missing stones? Who took them down and where did they go? How do we know they were once there? Can we picture what the completed Stonehenge looked like? Indeed, was it ever finished at all?
These are questions that archaeologists like myself have asked for centuries. We can't answer any of them with certainty. But a long, active search has brought my colleagues and I closer. Through survey, excavation and geological studies have helped to clarify – sometimes in the most surprising ways – one of the big puzzles of Stonehenge: is that all there was?
When we visit Stonehenge today, what we see is almost exactly how it looked when the first accurate plan was made in 1740 by John Wood, a leading architect of his time. The first realistic sketches date from the 16th Century, and while they skimp on detail, the impression remains that little has changed. But don't be fooled. Half the stones have been moved.
That happened between 1901 and 1964, when the authorities were concerned that megaliths might fall on visitors. These were justifiable fears: several large stones had long been propped up with timbers, and lintels skewed threateningly. Many of the uprights were straightened and set in concrete, and a few known to have fallen in historic times were restored. The monument was deliberately secured to look as it had when recorded by John Wood, but archaeological excavations conducted alongside the engineering works revealed another, different Stonehenge. For the first time, there was proof that not all the stones were still there.
Such a suspicion had first been raised in 1666 by John Aubrey, biographer and antiquary, who saw five "cavities in the ground" just inside the circular bank and ditch that surround the present stones at a distance. He thought the hollows were created by the removal of megaliths, suggesting there had once been an outer stone circle 85m (280ft) across that is now entirely missing. Excavation in that area in the 1920s revealed a perfect circle of 56 pits (assuming regular spacing through unexcavated areas) now known as the Aubrey Holes. Two further unexpected pit rings were found closer to the existing stones. At the time, it was concluded that none of these had held megaliths, though more recently some archaeologists have come to think that the Aubrey Holes are in fact all that remain of an expansive stone circle.
Restoration and excavation resumed in the 1950s and 60s, when more buried holes were found, this time in amongst the present standing stones. Pits in two closely nested half-circles very likely held small megaliths, and other pits indicate that these stones were taken down and rearranged – with the addition of more stones – in a concentric oval and circle. These two were later adjusted to form the present arrangement of a circle and open-ended horseshoe, of which many stones have gone.
In 1979 my own excavation discovered a pit beside the Heel Stone. On the bottom the chalk had been crushed by the weight of a large stone, which would have complemented the present megalith. It was an entirely unexpected find for a young archaeologist – made on the verge of the road as people were gathering for the then infamous Stonehenge pop festival – that has affected how I think about the site ever since: I never take anything for granted. With the Heel Stone, the missing stone would have created a pair either side of the solstice alignment – to frame, looking out to the north-east, the rising midsummer Sun.
By then, it was clear that Stonehenge had a complex history spanning as much as a thousand years. Archaeologists knew that many stones were missing. How many was an open question. The earlier arrangements were poorly understood, and some archaeologists were suggesting that the stone circle itself had never been finished. Its south-west side had only one standing megalith, and there seemed to be insufficient fallen pieces to complete the ring.
The plot thickened in 2009, when a previously unknown stone circle was discovered in an excavation a few minutes' walk away. Some 25 pits would have held megaliths the size of the small ones at Stonehenge. Every excavated pit was empty.
At this point it helps to know more about what I've called the large and small stones. They are composed of different types of rock, which has affected what has gone and what remains. The big stones – the ones that box the setting midwinter Sun and create the famous Stonehenge silhouette – are formed of sarsen, a very hard relatively local sandstone. The small ones, known collectively as bluestones, are a mix of softer rocks, most brought to the site from south-west Wales. If the Aubrey Holes held megaliths, they were only big enough for bluestones – as were pits at the nearby missing circle, whose stones were probably moved to Stonehenge.
Reports in earlier centuries tell of visitors knocking off bits of the stones to keep as souvenirs. Archaeologists assumed these stories were exaggerated, but in 2012 a laser survey of the megaliths revealed the extent of damage. Hardly a stone was spared by the hammers – it was said in the 19th Century you could hire them in nearby Amesbury. In one striking instance, a sarsen lintel that had fallen in 1797 and been re-erected in 1958 looked like a sausage roll compared to its sharp-angled companions that had remained high out of reach – due to the extent of the rock chiselled away.
Between the circle and the Heel Stone, a large sarsen, known as the Slaughter Stone, lies on the ground, one end scored by hammer and chisel holes as if someone had been interrupted in the midst of stealing a part. Excavation in the 1920s found a large pit beside it. Had the stone once standing there been broken up and taken away? Or was it moved thousands of years ago to stand elsewhere on the site?
Perhaps the sarsen circle is now incomplete on the south-west side because the stones there were broken up in recent centuries too. We may never know their fate, but in 2013 after a wet spring and early summer, custodians noticed marks in the now parched grass revealing pits for all the missing stones. It seems the original megaliths there were thinner and less regular, and thus easier to break – implying that was the "back" of the circle.
Despite searching, no sarsen that was once part of Stonehenge has ever been found away from the monument. It's a different story with the bluestones. An infamous boulder known as the Boles Barrow Stone was given to Salisbury Museum in 1934 by the writer, Siegfried Sassoon, who spotted it in his garden after moving into a new home not far from Stonehenge. This, it was once argued, was proof that a glacier, not Neolithic people, brought all the bluestones to Salisbury Plain. Geology has never backed that case, and archaeologists now agree that the Boles Barrow Stone must have been taken from Stonehenge in the recent past.
Excavation has shown that many bluestones, easier to break than the sarsens, survive as little more than stumps and scattered debris. There are hints from excavations that some of this damage occurred in Roman times, and perhaps even in the Bronze Age, not many centuries after the stones had been erected. One theory is that pieces were thought to have healing powers.
In one case, however, we know exactly who took some chips, when and why. They unlocked one of the most remarkable discoveries ever made about Stonehenge.
At the centre of the monument lies the Altar Stone. It is the only sandstone bluestone, at first thought to be of South Wales origin. However, intensive research by a British geological team led them to suggest it came from northern England or Scotland. They identified two chips from the stone in museums, one knocked off for examination in 1844, the other found during excavation in the 1920s. They sent samples from these chips to an Australian team, who were able to use cutting-edge technology to show, in 2024, the Altar Stone had come from the far north-east of Scotland. The most-travelled megalith at Stonehenge had finally been tracked to its source, after tiny pieces of it had been round the world and back again.
* Mike Pitts is author of How to Build Stonehenge (2022).
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Michael Norton has spent decades studying why human relationships last. Sharing rituals – from a clink of a glass to Christmas Day traditions – have a powerful positive effect.
From the games we play over the holiday season to the elaborate ceremonies that mark someone's passing, our lives are punctuated by rituals.
Michael Norton, a professor of business administration at Harvard Business School has spent years surveying people about these behaviours and the ways they shape their thoughts, feelings and relationships, culminating in his recent book The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions.
He spoke to science writer David Robson about the differences between rituals and habits, and their power to strengthen our relationships with friends, family members, colleagues and lovers.
What inspired you to investigate rituals?
About 10 years ago, I co-wrote a book with Elizabeth Dunn [at the University of British Columbia] on money and happiness. And the idea in that book was what little daily things you could do with $5 or £5 that could make a difference in your happiness. And I started thinking about other things in daily life that might impact our happiness. One of the things that kept coming up was people's daily rituals.
Some people might think they're too rational for rituals.
For sure, there are "ritual sceptics" and I was certainly one before I started studying them, because they do seem a little touchy-feely. But we've all done them at some point or another. They're so ubiquitous in our lives – from what we do in the morning, to graduating or getting married. We can't escape them.
What's the difference between a ritual and a habit?
A ritual is a sequence of actions that meaningful to you. Habits are important, but they're not quite as emotional as rituals.
We might ask someone what they do in the morning, and they might say that they have a coffee and look at the newspaper, but they don't really care. But someone else will do those things at very specific times, and if you asked them to change it, that would make them very upset. That's a ritual.
You've now studied thousands of people's rituals. What stands out?
When I started researching rituals, I thought I was going to be studying the big kind like weddings and funerals and graduation – these really big moments. But the ones that really started to stand out are the little idiosyncratic ones that people came up with themselves. When we were studying loss, a woman said that she washed her late husband's car every weekend the way he used to. And there's so much in her saying that about her spouse, and why she's doing it, and what he cared about and how she cares about him. I mean, you can go to a car wash – it's not inherently a huge thing, but clearly, for her, she's honouring something that's important.
The other one that I love comes from a couple who said that before they eat, they clink their silverware together. To me it's striking because silverware is boring – we literally use it to put things in our mouth – but they just took these boring things that we take for granted and with these little clinks, turn it into something that's a reflection of them. They've been doing it for years, and they're going to keep doing it for years. The tiniest action has all this meaning in it.
Why did we evolve this behaviour? What are the benefits of rituals?
You might imagine that whenever you do a ritual, it makes you feel the same thing, but they have different effects across different domains. It seems like we use them to produce the emotion that we're looking for in a given situation. If we're out for drinks and clinking glasses, we're using the ritual to bring us together as a group, to enhance the experience. But we wouldn't do the same thing at a funeral, when we want to find peace.
Even in the domain of sports, some athletes use rituals to get amped up, while others use them to calm down. It might be exact same thing that they're using, and they're going in opposite directions with it, depending on what they're looking for in that moment.
What's the role of family rituals during the holiday season?
We have an image of what a holiday like Thanksgiving or Christmas will be like, but if you dive into it, each family does it in their own way. It might be that our great grandfather liked mincemeat pies, and now that's been built into our ritual. Whether you have family rituals is a huge predictor of whether you still get together with your family at this time of year: it's a very strong signal of how you feel about them.
I teach undergraduates, and often they won't travel all the way home for Thanksgiving, so they might go to a Thanksgiving with a friend instead. When they come back, I'll ask them what it was like – and almost to a person, they'll say that [their friend's family] was doing it wrong. It's because families use things to define themselves.
What do we know about the importance of rituals in romantic relationships?
You can ask couples, do you have any rituals? And how happy are you in your relationship? And there is a very strong link. People who say that "we have a little thing that we do", they tend to report higher relationship satisfaction, and people who say "no, we don't have anything like that".
When you break up with somebody, they're allowed to date other people, but they are not allowed to recycle your rituals! If we ask people, "How outraged would you be at your ex getting married?" nobody likes it, but the idea that you would reuse our cute little phrase, that's the thing that's a huge violation of our relationship. You can see how important these little things are in establishing bonds between us.
I guess also, it wouldn't be very flattering to your new partner, either, if they discovered that this ritual was something that you shared with multiple other people.
I thought exactly that, but since the book has come out, I've found are two camps of people. The bigger camp is like you and I, who say, if the new person found out it was recycled, they'd be mad too. But there's a tiny camp of people who say, if the new person found out it was recycled, it really shows that your partner is completely over their ex.
It does have its own logic, I guess.
If I refuse to go to a restaurant that was important in my previous relationship, it may be because I'm still in love with the person, but if I go out there with my new partner, maybe it's like an exorcism, and it shows that I'm really over my previous partner.
How about our coworkers? Is it important to have rituals in the workplace?
When I talk to a company about rituals, the number one thing the managers say is, "Can you give us a ritual that we can make our employees do that will make them happy and productive?" And the number one thing that all employees do when they hear about rituals is roll their eyes.
It's an important distinction, because when we ask teams at work, they very rarely report something that was imposed upon them. What they report are ones they came up with themselves, like rituals around lunch, rituals around people's birthdays and things like that. And if you have a ritual with your team, you're much more likely to find meaning in the work that you do with that team.
* Michael Norton's new book The Ritual Effect: From Habit to Ritual, Harness the Surprising Power of Everyday Actions is published by Scribner (USA)/Penguin Life (UK)
* David Robson is an award-winning science writer and author. His latest book, The Laws of Connection: 13 Social Strategies That Will Transform Your Life, was published by Canongate (UK) and Pegasus Books (USA & Canada) in June 2024. He is @davidarobson on Instagram and Threads.
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Patients who beat cancer can be left with an incurable, chronic and painful condition. Sufferers and doctors alike are fighting to bring this hidden condition to light.
During a visit to the oncologist to discuss his cancer treatment, my late uncle gestured to his legs – both limbs had swollen to around three times their normal size. He was fatigued, in pain, and unable to move normally because of the excessive swelling
"Oh, that's lymphoedema, there's nothing we can do about that, I can tell you that much," the clinician said in response, dismissing my uncle's pain and concerns.
I remember being shocked at the blasé attitude of the doctor to something that was causing my uncle so much discomfort and serious mobility issues. Lymphoedema can often occur in patients with cancer or who are undergoing cancer treatment. I couldn't believe there wasn't anything the doctor could do to alleviate my uncle's pain.
What happened to my uncle wasn't unique. Lymphoedema is an incredibly common condition, which affects 250 million people globally. In the UK, 450,000 individuals have lymphoedema, while in the US there are as many as 10 million people suffering from the condition.
Despite this, it remains a "hidden disease" – one that gets little attention, has been underresearched and underdiagnosed.
Lymphoedema is a chronic, incurable condition that causes excessive swelling due to a damaged lymphatic system, a network in the body responsible for maintaining fluid balance in tissues. It occurs when lymph fluid is unable to properly drain from the body, due to a dysfunction or injury to the lymphatic system.
The lymphatic system is a network of glands and vessels that forms part of our body's circulatory system. It plays a vital role in whisking away excess fluid and proteins that leak out of tissues, filtering it and returning the fluid back to the bloodstream. It is vital for immune function, waste removal, and maintaining the right fluid balance in your body. It also serves as a key line of defence against diseases, continuously circulating white blood cells known as lymphocytes that hunt out viruses, bacteria, fungi and parasites. If you've ever been sick, and felt a mysterious bump on your neck, it's most likely your lymphatic system helping you fight an infection.
"The lymphatic system is a very complex system," says Kimberley Steele, a former bariatric surgeon at John Hopkins University in Baltimore, US, and programme manager for the lymphatic research programmes at ARPA-H, a US federal government health agency.
"It permeates every organ and tissue, and as surgeons, we can't see it because the lymphatic vessels are translucent. It's not until you are really affected that you appreciate how much it does for you."
Dysregulation of the lymphatic system has been shown to be a key characteristic in many chronic disorders, such as heart failure, Alzheimer's disease, inflammatory bowel disease and cancer.
A silent pandemic
"Lymphoedema can affect anyone, and doesn't discriminate on gender, age, ethnicity, or socioeconomic status," says Karen Friett, chief executive at the Lymphoedema Support Network, a non-profit in the UK.
The condition is a common consequence of certain cancers and the treatments for them, such as surgery or radiotherapy, as the lymph nodes can be damaged or removed. For example, one in five women treated for breast cancer are affected by lymphoedema while between 2-29% of prostate cancer treatments result in the condition. It can occur in 90% of head and neck cancer cases.
But cancer isn't the only cause. Lymphoedema can also be a genetic condition, which people are born with (primary lymphoedema), or it can be the result of injury, obesity, or infection (secondary lymphoedema).
Matt Hazledine, author and founder of Lymphoedema United, developed secondary lymphoedema in 2011 after suffering a severe episode of cellulitis, a potentially life-threatening bacterial infection that can quickly escalate to sepsis.
"The infection came out of the blue, in a very painful experience," Hazledine says. "The by-product of that was a very severe swelling in my left leg that was diagnosed as lymphoedema." His leg swelled so much it became around 60% bigger, gaining 8kg (17.6lbs) in extra weight. "At the age of 40, it was pretty life-changing," he says.
Lymphoedema patients face enormous physical, psychological and socioeconomic consequences. The condition can be not only painful, but disfiguring and lead to a loss of mobility, independence, reduced productivity and depression. With no cure, treatment for the condition is largely palliative and requires meticulous daily management. However this is rarely implemented due to severe lack of available services, expertise, and a postcode lottery for treatment. In the US, access to treatment is patchy and health insurance companies offer cover that applies to few, if any of the treatments available.
"For many people, trying to access the basic level of care, is impossible," says Friett. "Lymphoedema services [across the UK] are being shut down, patients are being ignored, and their condition gets worse every day because there isn't enough support for them."
Hazledine compares the initial years of trying to manage his lymphoedema to "wading through thick treacle in the fog". He says some cancer survivors have told him "they wished the cancer had taken them, because they wake up every single morning with a reminder of their cancer journey, because their lymphoedema is staring them in the face".
"They actually deem the lymphoedema to be more of a challenge than the cancer," says Hazeldine.
There are some clinicians who regard lymphoedema as an overlooked pandemic due to significant chronic public health problem is poses globally. There are comparatively few professionals specialised in its management, placing a substantial burden on health resources. Managing the condition is almost impossible for the majority of patients.
The condition remains underdiagnosed, underresearched, and underfunded in most healthcare systems. This is mainly due to a lack of awareness and understanding about the disease. The consequence of this is that patients can wait decades for a diagnosis, while their symptoms get progressively worse, to the point of disability.
"I couldn't take care of it because I didn't know what it was," says Amy Rivera, who was born with primary lymphoedema. After 32 years of misdiagnosis, stigma, and isolation, Rivera finally found a specialist who was able to diagnose her with Milroy's disease, a rare lymphatic disorder. The lymphoedema symptoms were so severe by this point that Rivera struggled in her daily life while completing her nursing degree.
"My left leg was 200% larger than my right. It was so painful and heavy," she says. "I couldn't wear skirts, I couldn't wear my scrubs, [and] I couldn't stand." The condition meant that Rivera had to give up nursing and change profession, eventually founding a charity to raise awareness of the condition, Ninjas Fighting Lymphedema Foundation. She also now runs Rivera Hybrid Solutions, a company that offers training and equipment for managing lymphoedema symptoms.
Rivera says her own pain and symptoms were frequently dismissed and ignored by doctors for years and that a lack of awareness led to more damage. Her physicians mismanaged the condition and prescribed her diuretics medication, which led to kidney failure as a child, she says.
"I was gaslighted by a rude doctor who said 'you're going to be in a wheelchair by the time your 35, so you better get in what you can get in now, and enjoy your life as it is. It's just swelling, there's nothing we can do about it'," she says.
Rivera spends six to seven hours a day managing the condition.
"Lymphoedema isn't just swelling. It's painful, it's debilitating. It impacts every aspect of your life," says Friett.
A deadly complication
Lymphoedema patients also face a high risk of developing recurrent cellulitis, an infection of the layers of skin below the surface and underlying tissue. It is a major cause of emergency department visits and can result in lengthy hospital stays. Patients often struggle to get a diagnosis, leading to frustration and delays that can make the condition worse.
"I was crying in agony, trying hard not to pass out. Because I knew it wouldn't be good while I had a 41C (106F) temperature," says Didi Okoh, a 2024 Paris Paralympian bronze medallist who suffers from primary lymphoedema. Okoh says she was repeatedly ignored by A&E doctors when she developed cellulitis twice.
"It was literally life or death. Twice I have been left, once for seven hours, and once for three hours, without any treatment, despite me having all the symptoms of cellulitis, and telling [the doctors] you need to put me on antibiotics now, before I go into sepsis," she says. Each bout of cellulitis left her with irreversible tissue damage in her leg. "Every time I get an infection in that leg, it damages that leg. It resets to a bigger size, and I can't get it down to its prior size."
"If we treat lymphoedema properly, we reduce the incidence of cellulitis infections," says Friett. "Cellulitis is one of the most common emergency admissions to a hospital."
For example, in England the NHS spends around £178m ($225m) on hospital admissions due to lymphoedema complications, much of which is attributed to cellulitis infections. In the US, lymphoedema patients rack up around $270m (£213m) in hospital charges alone each annually.
These costs could be prevented, if patients had proper treatment, say those pushing for better recognition of the condition. A study commissioned by the National Lymphoedema Partnership in the UK showed that with appropriate treatment, it is possible to achieve a 94% decrease in complications, and an 87% reduction in hospital admissions.
Despite playing such a vital role in our body, the lymphatic system is almost entirely overlooked in most medical education systems. A survey conducted in the US found that throughout an entire medical degree, less than 25 minutes was dedicated to the lymphatic system.
Combined with a severe lack of research and funding into finding treatment solutions, it has meant that lymphoedema has been largely overlooked compared to the impact it has on millions of patients'
"We are at least 100 years behind on research [into the lymphatic system]," says Kristiana Gordon, consultant physician and associate professor at St George's University Hospital in London, which is the only teaching hospital in the UK to have a dedicated module covering the lymphatic system in its undergraduate medical degree.
"Even if the students aren't interested in lymphoedema, at least they will have heard of and seen it, and know where to send the patients," says Gordon.
Spiralling costs
In the UK, there are only five physicians dedicated and specialised in lymphoedema across two centres, says Gordon. Patients often have to travel large distances to see a specialist physician as there are relatively few with the level of expertise needed. Gordon's patients, for example, have travelled from as far as Scotland, Falkland Islands, and North America, because "they haven't got anywhere to go".
The lack of support and treatment available to lymphoedema patients results in staggering costs to both the patient and healthcare services. Some studies show that around 70% of lymphoedema patients do not receive the necessary treatment they need, leading to complications that require far more involved care. One study found that for every £1 ($1.3) spent on lymphoedema services, it saves the NHS £100($126). According to a global review, breast cancer patients who develop lymphoedema can spend up to $8,116 (£6,426) per year on a wide range of treatments.
In the US specifically, long-term cancer survivors with lymphoedema are left out of pocket by their condition with costs that are up to 112% higher than those without lymphoedema. The condition not only impacts their savings but their productivity.
Breast cancer patients suffering from lymphoedema face extra direct costs of up to $2,574 (£2,035) each year, and indirect costs of up to $5,545 (£4,384) per year. Those from a lower socioeconomic background are the most negatively impacted.
Yet despite this, lymphoedema services are largely underfunded, overlooked, and ignored.
However, studies show that a lot of patients who receive proper care do very well. "Many people can live well with lymphoedema," says Hazledine. "If they can get educated, once they have the right treatment plan, and the right support from a healthcare professional, early on, that can help shape their self-management routine."
Hazledine says that when he was diagnosed in 2011, there was no information on where to go for help or ongoing care. "When I went to my [doctor], lymphoedema was unknown to them. He at the time didn't know where to refer me for help. Unfortunately, that is the same story in 2024 – [doctors] still do not know enough about lymphoedema."
Today, Okoh, Hazledine, and Rivera are able to effectively self-manage their condition and thrive while living with lymphoedema. But it took them years to get to this point.
Not wanting others to experience the same difficulties they did a decade ago, both Hazledine and Rivera founded their own organisations to help support lymphoedema patients.
"I wanted to short-cut that journey to finding the right management strategy and support for them," says Hazledine. 13 years after receiving his own diagnosis he says: "You're not alone, you can live well with lymphoedema."
* Katherine Wang is a research fellow at University College London in the UK who's work focuses on developing wearable devices to alleviate the pain and swelling caused by lymphoedema while allowing patients to self-manage their condition. Her work is inspired by the experience of her uncle's condition.
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Our social goals change in surprising ways over our lifespan – and understanding this can help us build fulfilling connections with others, research suggests.
Do you prefer meeting lots of new people, or spending time with a small circle of close friends? You may think the answer depends on whether you're naturally more of an extrovert or an introvert. But there's another crucial yet little-known factor that shapes our social preferences: age.
Friendship benefits people across all ages, even improving our health and lifespan, a large body of research shows. In later life, friendships can become an especially important source of happiness and life satisfaction. Frequent interactions with a close friend may in fact boost happiness in old age more than those with close family.
One simple explanation for this is that friendships can be more fun, and less tense and fraught, than other relationships. According to a study of Americans aged over 65, encounters with friends were seen as more pleasant than those with family members. These findings contrast with older studies that focus more on close family as the key source of support for ageing adults.
Compared to young people, there is however one important difference in how older people choose and maintain their friendships. While young people tend to actively look for new contacts, older people deliberately shrink their social networks, says Katherine Fiori, a professor of psychology at Adelphi University, New York. While this reduction in the number of relationships in our lives has important advantages, it also has some disadvantages that can be worth addressing, she and others say.
One advantage of cultivating a smaller circle is that the remaining, carefully chosen ties tend to be high-quality.
"As people age, their perspective on the future changes – they have less time to live, essentially," Fiori says. "Their priorities shift, and they tend to be focused on socio-emotional goals."
This is also known as the socio-emotional selectivity theory. Younger adults see their future as expansive and focus on building new connections. Older adults prioritise spending time with people who know them well, and therefore whittle their connections down. Fiori explains that the winnowing down of these weaker ties is purposeful – people are doing it to focus on their close ties as they get closer to death.
Expanding vs shrinking
Researchers have found that as part of that whittling-down, older adults even deliberately drop less-close acquaintances from their social networks. This increases the so-called "emotional density" of their social circle – meaning they work towards creating a smaller, tighter group. Older adults also tend to be more forgiving and positive with those chosen contacts, as they try to savour life and their remaining time together, the research suggests.
This focus on joy chimes with other findings on the role of positivity in older age. For example, compared to younger adults, older adults generally have a more positive attitude, and focus on positive life events and memories – a phenomenon known as the "positivity effect".
However, you don't necessarily have to be elderly to experience this effect of focusing more on close, joyful, positive relationships. When younger people are prompted to think about the fragility of life, and their limited time on Earth, they also change their social goals from a more expansive strategy to a more focused one, according to a 2016 study.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, this effect was particularly stark: at the peak of the pandemic, people across all age categories favoured emotionally meaningful partners, a series of studies showed. In other words, older people continued their standard, age-typical strategy of focusing on fewer but closer ties, while younger people changed their previously open, expansive strategy, and acted more like older people in terms of their social preferences.
"Findings suggest that widely documented age differences in social motivation reflect time horizons more than chronological age," according to the study. In other words, how much time we think we have affects our social strategy more than our actual age.
Welcoming new friends
However, even as a person cultivates those close ties, it's a good idea to also remain open to new friendships, researchers say. Fiori and her colleagues have found that reducing one's network too much isn't necessarily healthy. Perhaps surprisingly, Fiori says there is no evidence to suggest that an exclusive focus on close ties is beneficial for mental or physical health – at any age.
"Friendships are very beneficial for the well-being of people across the lifespan, and part of it is because different relationships fulfil different roles," she says. "Our closest ties tend to be the ones that provide us with social support, emotional support, instrumental support – but there are other functions that we get from our relationships that tend to be just as important, if not more important, but often come from different types of ties."
For example, our friendships might offer intellectual stimulation or simply allow us to have fun – the key difference being that friendships are voluntary, non-obligatory relationships, that can begin or end at any time. (Read here about what to do when a friendship ends).
Alexandra Thompson, a mental health research fellow at Newcastle University in the UK, echoes this. "Friendships give us slightly different benefits to our family relationships for a variety of reasons," she says. "Family relationships can be strained – they can be based on obligation. But friendship is about shared interests, and this can increase positive mood."
Friends may become our chosen family
Some friendships can become so close that the word itself may not feel like enough to convey the depth of the relationship. Perhaps a friend may feel like a sibling, for example. Friends can become "fictive kin", offering the warmth and dependability of family, as well as the pleasure of friendship, says Fiori. "Kinship should not be reduced to just blood or marriage," she says. "When that person becomes kin, then that relationship shifts, becoming more obligatory."
In the LGBTQ+ community, people may rely on such "chosen" or "intentional" families for support as they age. This can especially be the case for the older generation, who often experienced extreme discrimination growing up, including rejection by family, and may not have had the opportunity to raise children. People who have chosen not to have children may also generally rely more on friends than on biological kin as they age.
However, while cultivating close and even kin-like ties, we can also still enjoy looser bonds, Thompson suggests. The key is to choose quality over quantity: "It's not about having hundreds of friends," she says. "It's not a case of, if we keep adding friends, we'll see reductions in loneliness, we'll see improvements to mental health, we’ll see improvements to physical health… I think it's always going to be about having those shared experiences and interests."
Is four the magic number?
Thompson's PhD research explored the optimal number of friends to have as older adults for our psychological wellbeing and to combat loneliness. She found that having four close friends was the ideal number, and past this, she didn't find any substantial benefits to our wellbeing.
"It's about how we encourage people to make good quality, close, intimate connections, or bolster the connections that they already have, to increase that quality and depth of intimacy, so that they're getting these benefits and different kinds of social provisions from their current friends," says Thompson.
The effort is worth it, for many reasons: the advantages of friendship in later life stretch beyond just psychological wellbeing, and include better cognitive functioning and physical health. In fact, research consistently suggests that friendships are as important as family ties in predicting wellbeing in adulthood and old age. A metastudy which pulled together studies together looking at around 309,000 individuals, followed for an average of 7.5 years, found that people with adequate social relationships have a 50% greater likelihood of survival compared to those with poor or insufficient social relationships. Friendships can also be a source of stability, especially important since demographic trends indicate a departure from the traditional, "nuclear family" towards single parenthood, divorce and re-marriage, making family life more complex.
So how do we create this beneficial little network of soulmates and friendly acquaintances?
Opening up opportunities for friendship
For all the positive aspects of ageing on relationships, older adults do face a number of hurdles that can make meeting people very hard, Fiori says.
They don't have the social opportunities of school, university or the workplace. They may be struggling with the grief and loneliness of outliving partners and dear friends. Declining cognitive functioning or mobility issues can add further difficulties. If a person is naturally introverted, approaching new people can also in itself feel daunting.
Gender can also play a role. Older men typically report more social isolation than women. Some research suggests that women traditionally act as "kinkeepers" and therefore have stronger ties to friends and family in old age.
But there's also a factor that is more to do with our mindset – and especially, our own perception of ageing, says Fiori.
"If someone sees themselves as, 'I'm declining [health-wise] and nobody wants to be friends with me anymore. I have nothing left to live for' – that kind of person is not going to be going out and trying to make friends, but someone who has a more positive perception of ageing will," says Fiori.
She suggests that cognitive interventions might be useful to combat this – not just therapy, but more broadly, any kind of intervention that targets change in cognition to help older adults have more positive perceptions of ageing.
"Self-perceptions of ageing can work as self-fulfilling prophecies, such that older people who believe late life is associated with the risk of becoming lonely are less likely to invest in relationships," she says. "In contrast, older people who see their age in a more positive light and believe that it is still possible to make new plans and to engage in new activities will invest more. And these investments in social relationships have positive consequences for well-being."
After all, in some ways, it should be easier for us to make friends as older adults: as our personalities mature, not only does our outlook become more joy-oriented, but we also tend to become more agreeable.
"People over time gain social skills. Older adults are just more skilled socially than younger adults," says Fiori. "So in some ways they may be better able to avoid conflict."
Fitness and friends
Thompson makes the case for providing social opportunities. She worked with the charity Rise, in the north-east of England, on a programme for older adults called Every Move Matters. The participants were recruited through their doctor's surgery, and took part in four, once-weekly sessions that involved a physical activity followed by time to socialise. The idea was to boost physical fitness as well as emotional connection.
The participants said the sessions were fun, and 81% reported improvements, such as reduced experience of loneliness.
"Just having that nudge, that opportunity offered to you can simply be enough to get you to go along to something like that," Thompson says. "And the people that went along loved it."
Reducing the digital divide
Having access to the internet may be helpful for the wellbeing of older adults too, especially if they are experiencing physical decline. Technology can allow them to access a wide range of resources, as well as share things with their friends. However, they are slower to adopt new technologies as opposed to their younger counterparts.
One observational study looked to explore how older adults between 69 and 91 years of age from independent living communities used technology. Each participant already owned a tablet or similar device, after seeing them being used by others, or through recommendations by friends and relatives. Though it used a small sample size, it found that technology can help to connect them with family, friends and the wider world, and therefore makes the case for improving the technological literacy of older adults in the hope of making positive improvements to their lives.
Harold, who participated in the study, said: "I feel more informed; I feel I'm in more contact with my family. I just enjoy it a great deal…for daily news and keeping up with our friends."
More change ahead?
There are signs that further social change is ahead – for the better. Fiori says that more recently born cohorts are spending a lot more time with friends up until late life, in comparison to earlier born cohorts.
"One of the things that we think is driving this change, too, is perceptions of ageing have gotten less negative," she says. "My colleague [Oliver Huxhold of The German Centre of Gerontology] is predicting that in the future older adults will very likely not only mention more friendships within their support network… but will also spend more time with them."
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The Geminids are one of the astronomical highlights of the year, creating a spectacular show of shooting stars every December. Scientists are now starting to understand where they came from.
It was a time of great upheaval. The Roman Empire was in chaos after the assassination of Emperor Severus Alexander, while China was in turmoil following a string of wars. Far above the heads of these human machinations around 1,800 years ago, however, another dramatic event was unfolding – the effects of which we can still see today.
Scientists think that around this time, something catastrophic happened to an asteroid called 3200 Phaethon, causing it to crumble and fling bits of debris into a long ring around the Sun. Every year, our own planet barrels through this cloud of debris, producing one of the most impressive meteor showers – the Geminids.
Look up on a clear night in mid-December and you might catch a glimpse of them – streaks of light tracing across our sky. These are particles of this asteroid being vaporised in our atmosphere at speeds of up to 79,000mph (127,000km/h).
The Geminids are particularly notable for the range of colours they produce, including yellow, green, and blue, says Tomáš Henych, an astrophysicist at the Czech Academy of Sciences. They are also very bright, with up to 150 meteors visible to the naked eye every hour. "You usually see nice meteors," says Henych.
But the Geminids are also unique for another reason – they are the only known meteor shower to originate from an asteroid. All others come from the icy debris emitted by comets as the Sun blasts material off their surfaces. Asteroids, which are mostly rocky, don't normally form tails in this way.
Yet, in 1983, astronomers discovered 3200 Phaethon, a blueish asteroid about 3.6 miles (5.8km) wide, that appeared to closely match the path of debris associated with the Geminids, which get their name because they peak towards the constellation Gemini in the sky. This discovery led to the probable conclusion that the meteor shower originates from this object. "It's highly likely," says Henych. This also explains why the Geminids have such a broad range of bright colours – the particles that produce them "are harder", says Henych, and have a broader number of elements compared to those from comets.
Phaethon's orbit around the Sun is also "very unusual," says Rhian Jones, a planetary scientist at the University of Manchester in the UK. "It goes very close to the Sun, closer than Mercury," she says, down to about 0.14 times the Earth-Sun distance. "So, it gets quite hot," up to around 750C (1,400F).
And this unusual orbit has given scientists some clues about how the Geminids were born.
In March 2024, Russian astronomer Danila Milanov and colleagues modelled the path of the debris of meteors and the orbit of Phaethon, which today are slightly separated by about 20,000km (12,000 miles). They found that 1,200 to 2,400 years ago the two seemed to intersect. "We suggest a catastrophic event happened on this timescale" that formed the meteors, says Milanov, although another study says the event could have occurred up to 18,000 years ago.
Exactly what that event might have been is hotly debated. One possibility is the asteroid collided with another object and broke apart. But Wolf Cukier, a PhD student in astronomy and astrophysics at the University of Chicago who has been studying the Geminids, says this is unlikely because few asteroids are seen close to the Sun. This suggests there is a common mechanism that removes them, and asteroid collisions are rare. "They definitely can't all be explained by collisions," he says. It could be that the extreme heat close to the Sun meant that few asteroids were able to survive. Phaethon, it seems, is an exception.
Indeed, the preferred explanation for the Geminids is that Phaethon was nudged towards the Sun from the asteroid belt, perhaps by gradual gravitational interactions with planets like Jupiter. Then 1,800 years ago or so, its orbit carried the asteroid close enough to the Sun that the heat caused it to break apart.
In 2023, Cukier used data from a Nasa spacecraft called the Parker Solar Probe to learn more about this process. Parker had surreptitiously observed another section of the Geminids debris stream in space in 2020. Using these observations, Cukier concluded that the Geminids likely came from a single violent event, rather than being a continuous release of debris like a comet.
That event might have been a "low speed explosion", says Cukier. "As asteroids get close to the Sun, they get hot, and that causes thermal stress inside the asteroid. If they get too hot, that stress might build up to a point where the asteroid fragments apart into a bunch of pieces."
Another possibility is the asteroid broke apart because of its spin. Phaethon currently rotates once every 3.6 hours, which is "really fast" says Qicheng Zhang, an astronomer at Lowell Observatory in Arizona, possibly a result of the Sun heating its surface and imparting rotational speed as radiation flies off the surface, known as the Yorp effect.
In 2023, Zhang observed sodium being emitted from Phaethon, which could be linked to this process. "It could have lost a bunch of its surface as pieces of it spun off, exposing fresh sodium underneath," he says.
Researchers at the Johns Hopkins University in Balitmore, Maryland, suggest that Phaethon may still be losing tiny amounts of its surface every time it loops back close to the Sun. They say the blue-hue of the asteroid is due to extreme heating during its closest approach to the Sun, which they estimate causes a microscopic layer of rocky material, iron oxide and pyroxene to sublimate off its surface.
An upcoming Japanese mission called Destiny+, set to launch in 2028, might give us answers. The spacecraft will fly past Phaethon, taking images of its surface. If the fast rotation idea is correct, "you'd expect to see landslides and rocks flowing out towards the equator where the centrifugal force should push things off," says Zhang.
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Unravelling the mysterious origins of the Geminids will do more than just help us understand a spectacular annual light show a little better – it can also teach us more about the Solar System as a whole, says Minjae Kim, a planetary scientist at University College London in the UK. "It tells us meteor showers can form through multiple different mechanisms," says Kim. There are other asteroids also known to be quite close to the Sun, which suggests we "might expect similar meteor showers to form in our future."
It's expected that Phaethon will eventually fall into the Sun in 10,000 years or so, says Zhang, leaving only the Geminids behind. Eventually they too will be swept away by our star.
"Phaethon shows us how asteroids die," says Zhang.
But for now, it means we are fortuitously placed in time to observe this meteor shower. "We just happen to be in a point of time and space where Earth is flying through the Geminids," says Cukier.
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StumbleUpon, a tool that led users to random websites, had a stranglehold on millennials in the 2010s. Its influence echoes through everything we do online.
For Kaitlyn Arford, a 31-year-old freelance writer based in Kentucky, US, memories of her early experiences with the internet all coalesce around one website: StumbleUpon.
"Any time I had a moment where I didn't know what to do with myself, I would jump on StumbleUpon in our school's little computer lab," she says. "It was a way to discover things I would have never known existed – it was so joyful and fun in a way that websites just aren't anymore."
Before there was TikTok's For You Page or the Newsfeed on Facebook, there was StumbleUpon – a website (and later a browser extension) founded in 2001 that worked by ushering users down online rabbit holes of semi-randomised websites. The platform helped cement a style of algorithmically-tailored content recommendation that continues to dominate the web. And though it shut down in 2018, StumbleUpon still has a grip on the people who grew up with it, coming to represent a different – and better – time when the internet felt vast, unknowable and delightful.
"I remember going to the site in middle school on my iPod Touch, and it was my first experience with social media," says Elena Schmidt, another millennial with a tender nostalgia for StumbleUpon, who works as a political organiser in Michigan, US. "There was almost a utopian feeling to it. The internet was an inviting, cool place where you could literally stumble upon concepts and ideas that were fun."
A brief search for "StumbleUpon" on X, Reddit or TikTok reveals countless posts yearning for the platform. For many, the mere mention of StumbleUpon brings on a state of reverie and nostalgia for the lost wonders it unlocked, and a seemingly bygone era of internet bliss.
The site's legacy lives on more than a decade after it drifted out of the mainstream. And with all the enduring love for StumbleUpon, many feel its disappearance as a marker of how the web itself has changed – once a sprawling playground of serendipity, now a tightly supervised ecosystem of platforms optimised for profit, efficiency and control.
The rise of StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon was founded in 2001 by four students at the University of Calgary in Canada, led by Garrett Camp, who later went on to co-found Uber. Camp described StumbleUpon in a 2011 New York Times article as a tool that "provides a personal tour of the Internet," a sort of mix between a search engine and social media site. Facebook didn't come around until 2004, making StumbleUpon many people's introduction to social sharing online.
The website allowed you to select general interests and topics. From there, you would hit the "Stumble" button, which sent you a new website, selected at random or curated by a relatively simple algorithm that learned from your browsing habits. Users could hit "thumbs up" on websites they liked and "thumbs down" on content they didn't to better train the feed. If you hit thumbs up on a website that wasn't in the system, StumbleUpon would add the site to its database and recommend it to other users. Those who used StumbleUpon could spend hours drifting further into the unexpected labyrinths of the web.
Some of StumbleUpon's popular entries were things you might find in a different format on today's social media: hate mail from third graders when scientists decided Pluto isn't a planet; photos of street art; tips and tricks to annoy your friends. Arford remembers finding a Star Trek blog and a landscape photography website. Schmidt describes a finger-weaving technique she discovered through StumbleUpon.
But much of what most delighted Stumblers could never exist on TikTok or Instagram. For example, a web-app that topped StumbleUpon's charts let you drag your mouse around the screen to simulate the physics of water – the sort of experimental web design that's only possible on a site where a creator has complete control.
But it wasn't just the material that people loved. Looking back, some users say StumbleUpon gave them a feeling of agency over their digital lives that's been lost on the contemporary internet. For Schmidt, social media is now an endless, fast-moving stream that leaves her feeling powerless. "It's such a firehose of topics that can be overwhelming," she says. "StumbleUpon had that filter, and it empowered me as a social media user to curate my experience."
StumbleUpon commanded a massive influence in the early 2010s. For many, it became the go-to place to waste time online. People were hitting the Stumble button over a billion times a month at the height of its powers. By some measures, more than half of the traffic that social media platforms sent to other parts of the internet in 2011 came from StumbleUpon – it sometimes beat out Facebook, even though StumbleUpon had hundreds of millions fewer users.
But just a few years later, the site had fizzled out. Camp announced in 2018 StumbleUpon would be shutting down the site and migrating users to a similar platform called Mix. The URL stumbleupon.com still redirects to Mix, which – unlike the free-flowing original site – primarily shuffles users through various posts on Reddit based on interest filters. Although other randomising sites have emerged, like the Useless Web, they have struggled to capture the fervour that StumbleUpon garnered in its heyday.
That's because the internet that produced StumbleUpon no longer exists, says Gilbert Wilkes, an information design professor at Mount Royal University in Canada, who co-authored a 2015 paper about the online ecosystems that shaped StumbleUpon.
"The web of 2001 was a web of sites," he says. "Now it's a web of platforms. Those platforms don't support the sort of serendipity, the sort of variety, diversity that the previous internet supported."
In other words, the internet has been widely consolidated since its early days – a small number of platforms are managed by an even smaller number of companies. "That's the story of our era – it's mergers and acquisitions. There is no more development," Wilkes says. "The party is over."
Stumbling blocks
Wilkes divides reasons for the disappearance of StumbleUpon into two main categories: a narrowing of the style of content people make online, and a fundamental consolidation of the internet's infrastructure.
StumbleUpon came into existence at a unique time in the lifecycle of the internet. From 1995 to about 2007, Wilkes says, there was an eruption of experimentation online – most of which was built on individual websites. StumbleUpon, too, was built on a browser that was optimised for desktop computers, not phones. The first iPhone was released in 2007, heralding a major migration away from websites and towards apps. As of 2024, more than 40% of global internet traffic comes from mobile devices. StumbleUpon was "very much a desktop experience", Wilkes says, and couldn't adapt to this evolution.
The idea of a platform built around sending users off to websites owned by another company is practically unimaginable today. The current economic structure of online advertising incentivises companies to keep you on their pages, or in their apps, for as long as possible.
"What made StumbleUpon somewhat different is that it would deliver you to a site," Wilkes says. "It wasn't that you were inside StumbleUpon, like today you are on Pinterest and everything is posted on Pinterest. The brilliance of it was that it was delivering you wherever it wanted to."
That kind of open web is disappearing – it's been replaced by a series of walled gardens, and companies would prefer we stay inside them. That consolidation has contributed to an overall decline in the variety of content online, which StumbleUpon was able to serve users, Wilkes says. When big tech platforms control the attention, and therefore the money, it encourages people to homogenise their content to fit the formats of social media platforms and please their algorithms.
"In the '90s and the early '00s, you had this huge burst of creativity as people were exploring the space, trying to figure out what they wanted to do, and what problems they could solve with it. There was so much activity that is no longer there," says Wilkes. To be sure, there's still enormous creativity on the internet, but it's limited in scope, and to an extent, "the algorithms no longer support the sort of niche, weirdo activity everybody loved", he adds.
Although StumbleUpon no longer exists as we know it, that is not to say it has disappeared, Wilkes says. The structure it pioneered is integrated into nearly every aspect of our current online lives. StumbleUpon curated content based on social filtering – if you like a certain site, another user similar to you is likely to enjoy that site. If you and that user "thumbs up" the same two or three sites, it is even more likely you will have a shared interest in the third or fourth one. This is a basic system that Amazon uses to suggest products to us today, or that TikTok harnesses to recommend videos, Wilkes says.
"It does exist now – it exists now everywhere," he says. "Social filtering is a very powerful means of recommending content."
In a sense, StumbleUpon built the modern internet. "We're still doing the same thing now. It's just been applied to everything," Wilkes says.
Could StumbleUpon return?
Although some say that the internet has changed too much for the glory days of StumbleUpon to come back, that has not stopped people from trying. New websites have sought to capture the randomising magic, including Cloudhiker, the Useless Web and Jumpstick.
The market for such sites is clearly there, says Kevin Woblick, a Berlin-based web designer who created the randomising internet explorer Cloudhiker in 2020. Almost immediately after he shared the site to Reddit, its servers crashed from the influx of visitors.
"There are thousands of people in my age group who miss the old internet and have a nostalgia for being able to just click through random websites," he says. "My mission is to bring back that golden era of the internet and show people that even though things have changed there is still a lot of cool stuff out there you probably don't know about."
Cloudhiker was initially made up of Woblick's own selection of around 1,000 interesting tabs he had opened and other sites he wanted to share with the world. The site now allows users to submit their own contributions, and has reached 21,000 websites in its index. But unlike StumbleUpon and other platforms, the feed is not curated. "There's no fancy algorithm, no AI, nothing like that," he says. "It's a completely random way to explore the web."
Dhruv Amin, co-founder of AI-powered app builder Create, built an app inspired by StumbleUpon in October 2024 using his own technology. He says he fondly remembered using StumbleUpon in his earliest days online and hypothesised it would be even easier to build a similar site today.
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"With AI, we no longer need a large scale of humans voting up and down on things and curating it," he says. "There are so many new [systems] that allow AI to search the web more semantically, and automatically."
His tool focuses on writing specifically and is meant to surface the best human-written content online. However, Amin says other tools may be able to index image and video-based content just as easily. He says his app is just a small experiment, but the positive responses he got from users again underscores the affinity for StumbleUpon that millennials hold – himself included.
"That is where I first found a sense of belonging too – like there are other weird people on the internet who like the same things I do," Amin says. "StumbleUpon opened my eyes to what the internet could be."
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From orange juice to zinc lozenges, chicken soup to garlic capsules, there are plenty of home remedies for the common cold. But is there any evidence that they work?
There are few experiences as universal as catching a cold. And while there are around 200 viruses that cause it, there seem to be almost as many home remedies to combat it. But do any of them work?
At the core of any home remedy is the idea that it bolsters our immune system. When a virus enters our bodies, it comes up against two systems of defence: the innate immune system tries to flush invading cells out, while the adaptive system targets specific pathogens that the body already has had contact with. The latter also creates memory cells when it encounters new pathogens, allowing the body to fight them off if they return. This is why we tend to get chickenpox only once, whereas the common cold – which changes its appearance as it passes from one person to the next, confusing our immune memory cells – is something we can experience often several times a year.
It's well-known that both lifestyle habits and diet affect the strength of our immune systems. It's why many of the remedies often reputed to keep the common cold at bay were also circulated on social media with the promise that they could keep us safe during the coronavirus pandemic. So which home remedies are worth trying in an effort to fight off a cold or virus?
Can supplements like garlic fight off a virus?
Because the immune system is only impaired in otherwise healthy people when we have a vitamin or mineral deficiency, supplementing our diets with so-called cold-busting foods will make little difference if we already have a relatively good diet, says Charles Bangham, head of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Imperial College London.
"Only if you’re short of a vital nutrient, such as a vitamin, zinc or iron, will supplementing that particular item be very helpful," he says. "But if you eat a balanced diet, adding more of these things doesn’t make the immune system any more efficient."
No reliable research has been done on whether a popular cure like chicken soup actually makes a difference. However, studies looking into cures for the common cold have found that supplements (rather than food) can be effective.
A study conducted over the winters of 2016 and 2017 found that taking a multivitamin containing vitamins A, D, C, E, B6, B12, folic acid, zinc, selenium, copper and iron reduces the frequency and duration of the symptoms of a cold, including a runny nose and cough.
One specific popular home remedy that may help is garlic. In one small study, 146 healthy adults were given either a placebo or a daily garlic supplement for 12 weeks over winter. The placebo group contracted 65 colds, resulting in 366 days of sickness – whereas those who had garlic supplements only contracted 24 colds, with 111 days of sickness between them.
Does vitamin C help with colds?
Another supplement many people reach for when they feel cold symptoms is vitamin C. A 2023 review of evidence found that vitamin C supplements can significantly decrease the severity of milder symptoms of the common cold, including runny nose, cough and sore throat, by around 15%. They also concluded that the evidence suggests that vitamin C supplements have a greater effect on the more severe symptoms of the common cold.
Researchers of another study on vitamin C supplements concluded that since the supplements are low-risk, it may be worthwhile trying them to see if they can help.
Orange juice may be less useful: there is no robust evidence that orange juice helps prevent colds, alleviate symptoms or reduce a cold's length. This is because it doesn't contain high enough doses of vitamin C to have the same impact as daily supplements, says Harri Hemilä, a public health researcher at the University of Helsinki and author of the vitamin C supplements review.
A standard small bottle of fresh orange juice has around 72mg of vitamin C, according to the US Department of Agriculture – that's more than the recommended daily minimum of 40mg, but still less than many supplements.
Does zinc help with colds?
Then there's zinc. One review examining the effectiveness of daily zinc acetate lozenges containing a dose of 80-92mg on the common cold found that they shortened the duration of runny and blocked noses by around a third, plus led to 22% less sneezing and almost half as much coughing.
The study concluded that if started within 24 hours of the first symptoms, 80mg daily zinc acetate lozenges may help treat the common cold.
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Previous trials have also suggested some improvement in common cold symptoms among those who take zinc supplements.
But there is some indication that the dose and duration of treatment is important. A 2020 trial where participants were asked to take 72mg zinc lozenges with or a placebo for five days and were then tracked for a further 10 days after treatment concluded that the zinc supplement made no difference to how fast someone recovers from the common cold. In fact, for two days following the five-day trial, those who'd had a placebo rather than zinc recovered faster. The researchers say their results may not indicate a lack of efficacy, and more research is needed to understand if the length of treatment or a higher dose may make a difference.
Often, scientists say that vitamins and minerals are best consumed through foods, rather than supplements – though they point out that, as with vitamin C, it's often easier to get high doses of a vitamin through supplements.
For zinc, however, the opposite is true. In order to be effective against colds, zinc must come from lozenges and not from ordinary zinc tablets or zinc-rich foods, Hemilä says.
"Zinc lozenges are slowly dissolved in the throat region and the effect of zinc is local," he says. "We don't know what the biochemical mechanism of this effect is. But studies finding zinc lozenges to be effective used large lozenges that have dissolved for up to 30 minutes in the mouth."
Placebo effects and the common cold
Still, one complication is that researchers haven't tended to look at whether people were deficient in something like vitamin C or zinc before they started a regimen. So, any cold-fighting benefit might be down to the fact that by taking a supplement, some participants were correcting a deficiency, rather than the supplement making a difference for already healthy people.
Another complication is the power of placebo. Of course, many studies, like that on garlic supplements, do control with a placebo-only group – so the effect for those isn't down to placebo alone.
But if we swear that something for which there's limited or no scientific evidence, like chicken soup or orange juice, really cures us, it may be down to placebo. Placebos have been found to be effective in alleviating many symptoms, from pain to irritable bowel syndrome, although the reasons why aren't yet fully understood. And whether for vitamin C or chicken soup, the placebo effect alone could help us get over a cold.
One study found that people who believed in the alleged cold-fighting properties of herbal remedy echinacea experienced milder and shorter colds when taking daily doses, compared to than those who didn't believe in it. Previous studies in which participants weren't aware they were getting echinacea weren't shown to improve cold symptoms. Whether this is enough to explain why participants taking a placebo in the previously mentioned study recovered quicker than those who'd taken zinc, we do not know.
It works the other way, too. Milk has long been thought to worsen mucus production when we have a cold, although this has now been debunked. But one study found that people who believed that milk causes mucus reported more respiratory symptoms after drinking it.
While placebos are usually administered by doctors in clinical trials, the placebo power of home remedies can come from our everyday lives, says Felicity Bishop, associate professor of health psychology at the University of Southampton.
"Studies show the power of the placebo pill comes from a trusted relationship between patients and healthcare professionals, someone who is caring and can offer treatments with confidence," she says. "And this is kind of what parents do when we’re young. It's the nature of the relationship that is important, rather than who that person is."
As well as trusted friends and family, the placebo effect could also be strengthened by how foods are marketed, Bishop adds.
The good news? Knowing that home remedies are placebos won't necessarily stop them from alleviating our symptoms. "Open-label placebos, when a doctor tells the patient something is a placebo but that it’s helped some people, can still make patients better," she says.
Another effect could be the comfort induced by such foods. Dietician Sarah Schenker says the comfort of having chicken soup, for example, could help someone with a cold to feel slightly better.
Rather than how much vitamin C we stock up on, the chances of being able to stave off bugs in winter depends largely on the individual – including how much we believe in placebos, but also because of our genes.
"Some people's genes make them particularly susceptible to certain diseases. It's much more important to realise we all differ genetically from one another – when some people have the flu, they don't realise they've got it, while others get a very serious disease. This is partly determined by your genes, which have much more of an impact."
For the majority of us with healthy immune systems, we can do little more than rely on the power of placebos to get over winter bugs… though popping some zinc or garlic supplements might help too.
*This article was originally published on 3 December 2018. It was updated on 9 December 2024 to include recent research.
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A victim of an elaborate online romance fraud has told BBC Scotland that she was completely convinced by deepfake videos used to scam her out of £17,000.
Nikki MacLeod, 77, sent gift cards and made bank and Paypal transfers believing she was sending money to a real woman she was in an online relationship with.
She said she was initially sceptical but felt reassured by video messages from the person, which she now knows were fake.
She wants to warn others about the increasing use of AI technology by scammers.
Nikki got in touch with BBC Radio Scotland's Morning Programme during the BBC's Scam Safe week last month.
The retired lecturer from Edinburgh said: "I am not a stupid person but she was able to convince me that she was a real person and we were going to spend our lives together."
The 77-year-old said she was lonely after losing her parents during lockdown and the end of a long-term relationship. She started speaking to people online and met the person she knows as Alla Morgan in a chat group.
She was told this person was working on an oil rig in the North Sea and was asked to buy Steam gift cards to allow them to keep talking. These cards are typically used for buying video games. The person Nikki was chatting to told her she needed them to allow her to get an internet connection on the rig so that they could keep talking.
Nikki said she was sceptical, but was persuaded to buy several hundred pounds worth of the cards.
She repeatedly asked Alla Morgan for a live video call which was refused, or didn't work. It was then that she started receiving recorded video messages.
"I had started to think, are you a real person?" Nikki said.
"Then she sent me a video to say 'Hi Nikki, I am not a scammer, I am on my oil rig', and I was totally convinced by it.
"A few weeks later she sent me another video, also on the oil rig with bad weather in the background. This was before she started asking me for all this money. "
The images and video sent to Nikki were created using AI technology.
There is no way of knowing where the image of the woman - Alla Morgan - came from.
It could have been made using the face of a real person with no connection to the scammers and no idea that their identity was used.
Nikki said documents, images and videos she was sent were enough to convince her to part with her cash.
"She (Alla Morgan) said she was going to come and visit me and asked could I pay for her vacation from the oil rig to come to Scotland," Nikki said.
Nikki was then sent details of a company Alla supposedly worked for and contacted by someone in their HR department who asked for money to pay for a helicopter.
"She said she would pay me back, so I gave them $2,500," Nikki said.
The scam finally came to light when Nikki was attempting to make another payment to a bank account, supposedly belonging to Alla Morgan, and her own bank informed her she was a victim of fraud.
Police Scotland confirmed they are investigating the matter.
How to spot a deepfake video scam
BBC Scotland asked Dr Lynsay Shepherd, an expert in cybersecurity and human-computer interaction at Abertay University, to take a look at the video messages Nikki was sent.
She said: "At first glance it looks legitimate, if you don't know what to look for, but if you look at the eyes – the eye movements aren't quite right.
"There are a number of apps out there, even something as simple as a face swap app or filters, that can do this. You can sometimes see when people are talking, when you look around the jawline, the filter kind of slips a bit.
"It is relatively straightforward to do."
Dr Shepherd said online scammers often claim to be in a location where meeting face-to-face or even a live video call are not possible.
"Oil rigs is one of the common ones - in the military on base, a doctor overseas - and then typically they build up that relationship and then say 'there has been an emergency, I need some money for travel'."
Nikki said she sent around £17,000 in total to the scammers.
Her bank and PayPal have been able to get around £7,000 of that money back, but she was persuaded by the scammers to send some of the money as personal payments - through the friends and family function on PayPal. This has not been recovered.
PayPal said they do not cover personal payments under PayPal Buyer Protection.
In a statement a spokesman added said: "We're very sorry to hear this has happened to Ms MacLeod. Authorised Push Payment (APP) fraud, which includes romance scams, is a threat that has grown across the industry."
He urged PayPal users to be wary of "unusual payment requests" and added "always question uninvited approaches in case it's a scam."
On their website, Steam warn of increasing reports of scammers coercing victims to purchase Steam wallet gift cards. The company said people should never give out a steam wallet gift card to a person they do not know."
Police Scotland said an investigation is under way after the fraud was reported in October and inquiries are ongoing.
A spokeswoman added: "We would ask people to be vigilant and encourage anyone who believes they may have been victim to fraud or a scam to contact police on 101."
Nikki told us the scammers are continuing to contact her, most recently sending her a newspaper article, claiming Alla Morgan is now in a Turkish jail and needs more money.
She wants others to learn from her experience.
"These scammers don't have any empathy at all. It's their job and they are very good at it," she said.
"The documents looked real, the videos looked real, the bank looked real.
"With the introduction of artificial intelligence, every single thing can be fake."
A lorry load of recyclable waste had to be dumped on a road after batteries caused it to catch fire.
Dorset Council said discarded batteries caught fire when they were crushed inside the refuse collection vehicle as it operated near Bridport, Dorset.
The driver noticed smoke coming and dumped its cargo onto the road. It was then extinguished by fire fighters.
The council said nobody was injured and the collection vehicle was not damaged.
In a Facebook post, Dorset Council Waste Services warned batteries could catch fire when crushed inside a recycling vehicle.
It said residents should place batteries in a clear plastic bag on top of their recycling bin rather than being placed inside.
Fires that begin inside lorries are easily spread by recyclable material like cardboard and paper, it added.
In November 2023 a battery fire caused more than £20,000 of damage at a recycling centre in Reading.
In September West Berkshire Council launched a kerbside recycling scheme for batteries in an effort to reduce similar fires.
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The US Supreme Court has agreed to hear last-ditch legal arguments from TikTok as to why it should not be banned or sold in the US.
The US government is taking action against the app because of what it says are its links to the Chinese state - links which TikTok and its parent company ByteDance have denied.
The Supreme Court justices did not act on a request by TikTok for an emergency injunction against the law, but will instead allow TikTok and ByteDance to make their case on 10 January - nine days before the ban is due to take effect.
Earlier in December, a federal appeals court rejected an attempt to overturn the legislation, saying it was "the culmination of extensive, bipartisan action by the Congress and by successive presidents".
The Supreme Court is the highest legal authority in the US, and the decision to take on TikTok's case is significant as it only hears 100 or so cases a year out of the more than 7,000 petitions it receives.
TikTok had previously argued that the attempt to ban it was unconstitutional because it would impact the free speech of its users in the country.
TikTok said Wednesday it was pleased with the Supreme Court's order.
"We believe the Court will find the TikTok ban unconstitutional so the over 170 million Americans on our platform can continue to exercise their free speech rights," a TikTok spokesperson said in a statement to the BBC.
The appeal sets up a clash between free speech and national security, according to University of Richmond law professor Carl Tobias.
"The appeals court found that national security was stronger than the First Amendment contentions. However, the Justices will scrutinize the potentially conflicting, but significant, values," Mr Tobias said in an email.
While it is difficult to predict the outcome, Cornell professor Sarah Kreps said it would be surprising to the court to overturn the prior rulings and go against the wills of both congress and the White House.
"The case has already gone through the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the lower court, all of which upheld the argument that TikTok's ownership by China-based ByteDance poses a national security risk," Dr Kreps said.
Will Trump intervene?
TikTok's future does not just hang on the legal process, however - Donald Trump's victory in the US presidential election may also hand it a lifeline.
He met TikTok boss Shou Zi Chew on Monday at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the BBC's US partner CBS News reported, citing sources familiar with the meeting.
Trump has publicly said he opposes the ban, despite supporting one in his first term as president.
But he will not take office until 20 January, the day after the deadline for TikTok to be banned or sold.
"I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok, because I won youth by 34 points," he claimed at a press conference on Monday - though a majority of 18 to 29-year-olds backed his opponent Kamala Harris.
"There are those that say that TikTok has something to do with that," he said.
But despite Trump's support, senior Senate Republican, Mitch McConnell, urged the Supreme Court to reject TikTok's bid.
In a brief filed to the court, he called the firm's arguments "meritless and unsound."
TikTok has the backing of some civil liberties organisations however.
A group of them have made a joint filing to the court urging it to block the banning of a platform which they argue "millions use every day to communicate, learn about the world, and express themselves."
Kelsey Chickering from market research firm Forrester said Instagram's parent company Meta would be a major beneficiary of ban on TikTok.
"TikTok is central to a thriving creator economy, and a ban would effectively create a Meta monopoly on short-form video," Ms Chickering said, citing a Forrester survey that found 56% of TikTok users would switch to Instagram Reels in that event.
Nasa says that the astronauts stuck on the International Space Station will have to wait even longer to get home.
Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were due to be back after just a week when they blasted off in June.
Their stay was extended to February next year because of technical issues with the experimental spacecraft, Starliner, built by Boeing.
Now - following a delay in launching a new capsule to the ISS - the pair won't be back until late March or possibly April.
Nasa said the delay posed no risk to the astronauts.
In a statement Nasa stated: "The International Space Station recently received two resupply flights in November and is well-stocked with everything the crew needs, including food, water, clothing, and oxygen. The resupply spacecraft also carried special items for the crew to celebrate the holidays aboard the orbital platform."
Most space station missions last six months, with a few reaching a full year. So the extension to Butch and Suni's already overdue stay in space should not be a problem, according to Dr Simeon Barber, from the Open University.
"I'm sure that they are already disappointed that they were going to miss Christmas back home with the folks. But this is only another two months on an already quite long mission, and I'm sure if you ask them, I'm sure they would tell you that the space station is where they love to be," he said.
A new crew needs to launch before Wilmore and Williams can return and the next mission has been delayed by more than a month, according to the space agency.
Nasa's next crew of four for the ISS was supposed to have been launched in February 2025. The capsule carrying that crew was due to be the one bringing Butch and Sunni home, as well as NASA astronauts Nick Hague and Roscosmos cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov as part of the normal crew rotation.
But there has been a delay by the private sector firm SpaceX in preparing a brand-new Dragon capsule for the mission. That is now scheduled for flight readiness no earlier than late March.
Nasa said it considered using a different SpaceX capsule to fly up the replacement crew to keep the flights on schedule.
But it has now decided the best option is to wait for the new capsule to transport the next crew.
Equatic is among a wave of start-ups exploring how the ocean could be harnessed to capture and store carbon. But not everyone is sure it's such a good idea.
Many scientists now think at least some carbon capture and storage technology will be needed to prevent dangerous temperature rise.
A separate challenge, but just as relevant to climate change, is the scale up of green hydrogen, which is often viewed as the key to replacing fossil fuels in areas like industry, shipping and aviation – although current production is miniscule.
So LA-based start-up Equatic's claim to have created an ocean-based carbon removal machine that can tackle both these hurdles at once has an obvious appeal.
"We have a technology that does two things pretty well," says Edward Sanders, chief executive of Equatic. "One is we take CO2 out of the atmosphere and we store that permanently. The second thing we do is produce green hydrogen."
Equatic is among a wave of companies exploring how the ocean could be harnessed to capture and store carbon in the long term, as an alternative to the more common proposal of injecting it into rocks below the Earth's surface. It's the only company, it says, which is also producing green hydrogen in the process.
However, not everyone thinks ocean-based carbon removal is such a good idea. "Marine CO2 removal is simply too risky," says Mary Church, geoengineering campaign manager at the Center for International Environmental Law (Ciel), a non-profit environmental law firm based in Geneva, Switzerland. "It could alter ocean chemistry, causing changes in nutrient levels and species abundance, with significant consequences for ecosystems." Others are concerned about the feasibility of marine carbon removal, and whether it could really put a significant dent in emissions.
With tens of millions of dollars now pouring into companies like Equatic, marine carbon removal is rapidly moving up the climate agenda. Critics argue regulators, and the rest of us, need to catch up.
The ocean has already been a vast and often unacknowledged ally in protecting humans from climate change. It has absorbed more than 90% of the heat generated from our greenhouse gas emissions and absorbs at least a quarter of our CO2 emissions. How much more CO2 it will store naturally in the future is now a subject of intense scientific interest.
Unrelenting global emissions have led many scientists to believe we now need to intervene to take large amounts of CO2 back out of the atmosphere. So far, the bulk of attention for this has been focussed on land-based techniques, such as absorbing the CO2 using trees or other vegetation, or directly capturing it from the air, then burying it deep underground.
Ocean-based carbon removal would similarly attempt to store additional carbon in the ocean, but it has not yet been widely used or thoroughly tested. It is on the rise, however, with tens of millions of dollars pouring into the sector, including from some of the biggest names in tech, such as Microsoft and Shopify, as well as several airlines.
"The ocean is so vast, natural storage is a key advantage [over land-based techniques]," says Sifang Chen, a science and innovation advisor at Carbon180, a Washington-based non-profit which advocates for CO2 removal solutions. "It's more cost efficient to store the removed CO2, and we don't need the same infrastructure like pipelines that we do for direct air capture."
The captured carbon is also highly stable, she says, and both Equatic and Ebb Carbon, another ocean-based carbon removal company based in San Carlos in California whose technology also reduces ocean acidification, are "expected to be able to remove carbon durably for over a thousand years".
Equatic's process works like this: first, it pumps sea water into an electrolyser, a machine that uses electricity to split water into hydrogen and oxygen, which in Equatic's case is run on clean electricity such as wind, solar or hydro. This converts the seawater to hydrogen gas, oxygen gas, an acid stream and an alkaline slurry of calcium and magnesium-based materials. The alkaline slurry is exposed to air, pulling out CO2 and trapping it, then discharged into the sea. A last step is to neutralise the acid waste stream using rocks (in order to avoid ocean acidification) before this is discharged into the sea too.
The CO2 captured by Equatic ends up in the ocean as dissolved bicarbonate ions and solid mineral carbonates, forms in which the CO2 is immobilised for 10,000 years and billions of years respectively, the company says. "In electrochemical methods that convert CO2 into a stable carbon like solid carbonates, the CO2 is locked away permanently," agrees Chen. "Unless that carbonate is heated to a high temperature of around 900C (1,200K), that CO2 will not be re-released."
Other disagree, however. James Kerry, a marine and climate scientist at OceanCare, a marine conservation non-profit based in Switzerland, and James Cook University in Australia, says large-scale marine CO2 removal could harm the important role oceans play in climate, food security and oxygen production. Marine CO2 removal technologies pose "significant threats to human rights and the environment, especially at scale", he says.
Key to Equatic's process, says Xin Chen, senior scientist and co-founder at Equatic, is its development of a specific oxygen-selective anode which lets it do direct electrolysis of raw seawater to make hydrogen – without also producing chlorine gas. Chlorine is a toxic and corrosive gas usually created when seawater is electrolysed, meaning that normally seawater needs to be desalinated to remove its salt (sodium chloride) before it can be used in electrolysis. "It's like a holy grail for an electrochemist, how to do the direct seawater electrolysis without extra steps to clean up the seawater," he says.
The main focus in his lab now is to produce an electrode free of a rare and expensive collection of elements called platinum group metals. Limited supplies of these metals could disrupt the supply chain as Equatic scales up, he says. The team has already created a second-generation electrode free of these metals in lab conditions, but now needs to test it outside the lab, he says.
It's still early days for Equatic, but the company is scaling. In early 2023, it began operating two pilot plants on barges in Singapore and Los Angeles, each removing approximately 30-40 tonnes of CO2 a year (equivalent to the yearly emissions of around eight cars). It's now constructing what will be the world's largest ocean-based CO2 removal plant in Singapore. This will be 100 times larger than the pilots, removing 4,000 tonnes of CO2 and producing around 100 tonnes of hydrogen a year.
Equatic is also in the early stages of building a commercial-scale capture plant in Quebec, Canada running on hydropower, and planned to have the capacity to remove over 100,000 tonnes of CO2 and produce 3,600 tonnes of hydrogen. The plant, which will cover around 30 acres (12 hectares), will come online at the end of 2026 at the earliest, says Sanders.
Such scaling is essential for a carbon removal start-up because the pressure is on to bring down costs and prove their chosen method of carbon capture is really viable. Sanders says the company has designed its technology to comply with existing environmental regulations. The challenge, he says, has been to design a system that is robust, operates in existing planning permits and at a low enough price point for carbon credits to be affordable at scale.
Carbon credits are the big-ticket goal for companies like Equatic. They work by a scheme capturing a specific amount of CO2, permanently storing it (at least in theory), and selling this removal as a "credit" or "offset" someone else can buy.
The main customers for such credits are currently companies in the voluntary market aiming at carbon neutrality, says Asbjørn Torvanger, a researcher in climate economics and policy at the Centre for International Climate Research in Norway. But more incentives could be on the way through compliance markets, he says: the EU, for example, is developing a scheme for CO2 removal certificates.
There have been a wave of scandals about the extent to which many land-based carbon-credit projects really cut or absorb emissions, including investigations by The Guardian and Bloomberg. As a result, scepticism about carbon credits is increasingly high. This has led Equatic to do its entire process inside a closed system within its plant (it had initially planned to discharge an alkaline stream into the sea, which would in theory eventually capture carbon via air-sea gas exchange). This allows the company to more easily measure and validate how much CO2 it's really capturing, says Sanders. "[It] was another whole engineering challenge the team never envisaged they would have to do."
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Equatic is targeting the goal of achieving CO2 removal at less than $100 (£79) per tonne by 2030, says Sanders. It aims to sell credits from the Quebec plant for around $200 (£158) a tonne. "We actually think pricing needs to be below $30 (£24) a tonne to properly stimulate market demand," he says. However, "we won't get there for many years", he says: at least the early 2030s.
Still, by producing hydrogen that can be sold too, Equatic has another way of monetising its process, says Sanders. While the electrolyser itself is less efficient than a traditional electrolyser at actually producing hydrogen, it all helps, he says. Equatic already has a pre-purchase option agreement with Boeing for 62,000 tonnes of CO2 removal and 2,100 tonnes of hydrogen for the plane giant to use in aviation fuels. It is currently a semi-finalised, along with a range of other carbon removal companies, to sell credits to the US government for $460 (£364) a tonne of removal as part of an incentivising project.
So how far could it go in really removing CO2 from the atmosphere? "We would be able to take down 20% of [current] global emissions with about 1,200 of these plants," says Sanders. That's, he adds, assuming far larger 1GW plants each removing some 3.6 million tonnes of CO2 per year, 36 times more than its planned commercial plant in Quebec.
He admits this is ambitious. In theory, though, Equatic would be able to scale up to this kind of level by the mid-2040s, he says. "From an infrastructure point of view… we've seen that sort of coastal deployment before," he says, noting there are more than 20,000 desalination plants dotted around coastlines across the planet.
But even as companies like Equatic are polishing off their processes and doubling down on huge scale-up plans, many are concerned that a rapid increase in the use of ocean carbon removal technologies is not such a great idea.
"At a scale to meaningfully impact the climate, marine CO2 removal would be inherently unpredictable and pose significant, new and unprecedented risks to the fragile ecosystems that sustain life on Earth," says Church. "It does nothing to address the root causes of the climate crisis. Instead, it creates the illusion of a quick 'fix', delaying real solutions to the climate crisis and prolonging reliance on fossil fuels."
Kerry is concerned that Equatic's process would "create 'dead water', killing marine life by processing seawater", noting that it would process at least 350 tonnes of seawater for each tonne of CO2 removed, according to Equatic's own estimates.
And even if the industry could scale up by a thousandfold, he argues, it would still play a negligible role in mitigating climate change, noting that even far more advanced land-based CO2 removal methods still capture only minimal CO2. "We cannot, and should not, rely on these types of technologies as a solution to the climate crisis," he says.
In 2023, the non-profit Ocean Visions published an open letter, which has now been signed by over 400 scientists, warning about the risks of ocean-based CO2 removal. "While [these] approaches have enormous potential, there are also risks," it says. "Society does not yet have nearly enough information about the effectiveness or impacts of any specific approach and so cannot make informed decisions about their use at scale." It called for "rigorous and transparent monitoring and evaluation frameworks" to be developed for these techniques.
While Torvanger says he finds Equatic's technology "interesting", he also cautions that a substantial up-scaling could have potential negative environmental impacts. "The ocean chemistry will be affected, as well as some environmental effects of mining the required amounts of rocks."
However, Sanders says process does not create "dead water", and restores the chemical balance of the sea water before discharge. He notes that Equatic comes in below globally established standards and local regulations for the concentration of discharges and will be monitoring discharge areas on an ongoing basis using buoys. It will also need to conduct marine ecosystem studies ahead of opening any plants, he adds. And while the process requires around a tonne of rock for every tonne of CO2 removed, he says, there are "significant quantities of waste rock… worldwide for this process", such as rock that has already been mined to access and ore body.
Another enormous barrier is resource and energy use, say Church, Kerry and Torvanger. Equatic estimates it would need 2.3MWh for each tonne of carbon removed, This means that drawing down 20% of the CO2 emitted globally in 2023 would use some 50% of the global electricity supply that year However, the hydrogen produced returns around a third of that energy, according to Sanders. It's also worth noting the system would be able to use flexible energy, he adds – for example, it could use extra wind or solar at times of excess.
Sanders says it is "incorrect to say Equatic does nothing to address the root cause of climate change" since it takes CO2 out of the atmosphere and stores it permanently, while also producing clean hydrogen which can replace high-emissions fossil fuels. "We need technologies that both remove CO2 and reduce CO2," he says. "Doing nothing is not an answer. We must remove legacy CO2 emissions from the atmosphere to reduce the climate-induced stress (heat, acidification) that is occurring in our oceans." Similar to industries such as solar, he adds, CO2 removal will take time to develop.
Ben Tarbell, co-founder and chief executive of Ebb Carbon, meanwhile, tells the BBC that work at its demonstration plant was designed to ensure that "every step we take, from research to deployment, is grounded in rigorous science."
"Critically, CO2 removal is not a substitute for emissions reductions," he added, pointing to scientific findings that both reduction emissions and CO2 removal will be needed. "If we're going to have a shot at keeping warming in check, we need carbon removal solutions that can meet the urgency of the climate crisis."
As Sifang Chen sums it up, there are four major challenges which need to be addressed on ocean carbon removal: insufficient governance, a small knowledge base, underdeveloped monitoring and verification processes, and uncertain environmental and social impacts. "Good policies will be critically important to safeguarding our ocean's ecosystems and coastal communities," she says.
Ultimately, says her colleague Charlotte Levy, managing science and innovation advisor at Carbon180, we will need carbon removal at scale to come back from overshoot to 1.5C temperature rise. Ocean carbon removal is "one tool in our box" to do this, she says.
However, she adds, "no removal solution later is as good as mitigation now".
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Facebook has severely restricted the ability of Palestinian news outlets to reach an audience during the Israel-Gaza war, according to BBC research.
In a comprehensive analysis of Facebook data, we found that newsrooms in the Palestinian territories - in Gaza and the West Bank - had suffered a steep drop in audience engagement since October 2023.
The BBC has also seen leaked documents showing that Instagram - another Meta-owned platform - increased its moderation of Palestinian user comments after October 2023.
Meta - the owner of Facebook - says that any implication that it deliberately suppressed particular voices is "unequivocally false".
Since the beginning of the Israel-Gaza war, just a few outside reporters have been allowed to enter the Palestinian coastal territory of Gaza from the outside, and they were only able to do so escorted by the Israeli army.
Social media has filled the gap for those wanting to hear more voices from inside Gaza. Facebook pages for news outlets such as Palestine TV, Wafa news agency and Palestinian Wattan News - which operate out of the West Bank territory - became a vital source of updates for many around the world.
BBC News Arabic compiled engagement data on the Facebook pages of 20 prominent Palestinian-based news organisations in the year leading up to the 7 October Hamas attacks on Israel, and in the year since.
Engagement is a key measure of how much impact a social media account is having and how many people are seeing its content. It includes such factors as the number of comments, reactions and shares.
During a period of war, audience engagement might be expected to rise. However, the data showed a 77% decline after the Hamas attacks on 7 October 2023.
Palestine TV has 5.8 million followers on Facebook. Journalists at the newsroom shared statistics with us showing a 60% drop in the number of people seeing their posts.
"Interaction was completely restricted, and our posts stopped reaching people," says Tariq Ziad, a journalist at the channel.
Over the past year, Palestinian journalists have raised fears that their online content is being "shadow-banned" by Meta - in other words, restricted in how many people see it.
To test this, we carried out the same data analysis on the Facebook pages of 20 Israeli news organisations such as Yediot Ahronot, Israel Hayom and Channel 13. These pages also posted a large amount of war-related content, but their audience engagement increased by nearly 37%.
Meta has previously been accused by Palestinians and human rights groups of failing to moderate online activity fairly.
An independent report in 2021 commissioned by the company said this was not deliberate but because of a lack of Arabic-speaking expertise among moderators. Words and phrases were being interpreted as offensive or violent, when they were in fact innocuous.
For example, the Arabic phrase "Alhamdulillah", which means "Praise be to God", was sometimes being auto-translated as "Praise be to God, Palestinian terrorists are fighting for their freedom".
To see if this explained the decline in engagement with Palestinian outlets, the BBC carried out the same analysis on Facebook pages for 30 prominent Arabic-language news sources based elsewhere, such as Sky News Arabia and Al-Jazeera.
However, these pages saw an average increase in engagement of nearly 100%.
Responding to our research, Meta pointed out that it had made no secret of "temporary product and policy measures" taken in October 2023.
It said it had faced a challenge balancing the right to freedom of speech, with the fact that Hamas was both US-sanctioned and designated as a dangerous organisation under Meta's own policies.
The tech giant also said that pages posting exclusively about the war were more likely to see engagement impacted.
"We acknowledge we make mistakes, but any implication that we deliberately suppress a particular voice is unequivocally false," a spokesperson said.
Leaked Instagram documents
The BBC has also spoken to five former and current employees of Meta about the impact they say their company's policies have had on individual Palestinian users.
One person, who spoke anonymously, shared leaked internal documents about a change made to Instagram's algorithm, which toughened the moderation of Palestinians commenting on Instagram posts.
"Within a week of the Hamas attack, the code was changed essentially making it more aggressive towards Palestinian people," he said.
Internal messages show that an engineer raised concerns about the order, worried that it could be "introducing a new bias into the system against Palestinian users".
Meta confirmed it took the measure but said it had been necessary to respond to what it called a "spike in hateful content" coming out of the Palestinian territories.
It said that policy changes put in place at the start of the Israel-Gaza war had now been reversed, but did not say when this happened.
At least 137 Palestinian journalists are reported to have been killed in Gaza since the beginning of the conflict, but a few carry on despite the dangers.
"A lot of information can't be published as it is too graphic - for example if the [Israeli] army commits a massacre and we film it, the video won't spread," says Omar el Qataa, one of the few photojournalists who chose to stay in northern Gaza.
"But in spite of the challenges, the risks, and the content bans," he says,"we must continue sharing Palestinian content."
Additional reporting by Rehab Ismail and Natalie Merzougui
"Even if he is acquitted, it will not leave him. He'll be cancelled for the rest of time," Patrick Gibbs KC, defending Slowthai, told the jury.
As the not guilty verdicts were read out by the foreman, the rapper collapsed in tears in the dock - he had just been acquitted of three counts of rape following a three-week-long trial at Oxford Crown Court.
In that moment, most people in that court room, including the rapper's friends and family, were focussed on the relief and joy of those two words - "not guilty".
But over the coming weeks, Slowthai - whose real name is Tyron Frampton - will begin to plot a course to overcome his ''cancellation", and regain his status as one of UK rap music's most celebrated artists.
The rapper released his first album in 2019.
He has since gone on to release two more critically acclaimed albums, including 2023's UGLY - which received a five-star review from the NME's Thomas Smith, who called it the rapper's "most exhilarating project to date from front to back".
But soon after the release of his third album, the Grammy-nominated rapper was charged with rape.
He was quickly removed from the line-up of Glastonbury Festival, as well as Reading and Leeds, soon after.
Fast forward 18 months, and he has been cleared of those charges by a jury of his peers - and is now free to re-start his music career.
Marcus Johnstone, who is a criminal defence solicitor specialising in sexual offences, explains: "Winning a criminal case [and being found not guilty] is often not the end, but the start of the real problem actually."
"Celebrities in particular experience being 'cancelled' when they find themselves accused of a sex crime."
"They go from hero to zero overnight."
In predicting how any Slowthai comeback could be received, it may be useful to look at similar cases.
In 2019, JLS star Oritse Williams stood trial accused of raping a woman in his hotel room after a concert in Wolverhampton.
Williams stressed in court that the encounter had been entirely consensual - and was unanimously acquitted after just two hours of jury deliberations.
Two years later, JLS reformed for a 29-date comeback tour that saw the band perform to a more than 350,000 people.
The musician, who has also released his own solo music since being acquitted, has seen his career climb back to, and even possibly exceed, its previous heights since his trial five years ago.
On the other end of the spectrum is the English singer-songwriter Rex Orange County.
The musician was widely regarded as a darling of modern indie music, and had released critically acclaimed albums that reached the top ten in both the UK and US charts, before being charged with six counts of sexual assault in 2022.
All charges against him were dropped later that year, but the singer decided to take a two-year hiatus from music - which ended earlier this year with the release of his fifth studio album, The Alexander Technique.
The album has failed to garner anywhere near as much interest as his previous efforts though, spending just one week in the UK album chart and only reaching 151 in the US.
Despite seeing off the charges, Rex Orange County thus far appears to have failed to shake-off his "cancelled" tag and reignite his career.
The stories of Oritse Williams and Rex Orange County may guide what Slowthai does next with his career - but only the general public will determine the outcome of his comeback.
Marcus Johnstone says he feels there "may be some hope" for the Northampton-based rapper.
"His attraction is to a certain demographic who may not see the need to 'cancel' him," he says.
He adds that Slowthai's future song writing will be "inspired by what he has endured".
In his 2021 song CANCELLED, Slowthai asked: "How you gonna cancel me?"
"Said I won't come back, I must be cancer, ain't got much longer, then I made a comeback," he rapped on the song.
Slowthai will now be hoping that comeback he predicted in a song three years ago will come to fruition - otherwise he will be left to find out the answer to "How you gonna cancel me?".
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From the awe-inspiring photo of a surfer in Tahiti to the iconic shot of US President-elect Trump captured after an assassination attempt, these are 12 of the most eye-catching images of the last year.
1. Solar eclipse, Bloomington, Indiana, US
An airplane bisects a total solar eclipse above Bloomington, Indiana, on 8 April – its extended contrails silhouetted against a shimmering corona. It is not, of course, the first time that the paths of an airplane, the moon, the sun, and Earth have crossed. In January 1925, an American Navy airship, the USS Los Angeles, was loaded with 500lb (227kg) of telescopes and the minds of seven scientists to observe as close as possible a much anticipated solar eclipse whose path passed directly over New York City, making it, according to some, the most watched eclipse in history. Not on board, but watching carefully from behind his easel back on Earth, was the US painter Howard Russell Butler, who captured the event as the third panel of a triptych of stunning eclipses (1918, 1923, and 1925) that he hoped would inspire schoolchildren.
2. Olympics Opening Ceremony, Paris, France
Knowing your art history can save you considerable stress and heartache. That, at least, was one of the lessons learned from the controversy surrounding a photo of a decadent tableau taken during the Olympics opening ceremony. The image, which features an oversized table-setting of a naked figure lying decadently on a platter, surrounded by drag queens and a seductive singer sitting in a fruit bowl, was mistaken for a satire of The Last Supper by some Christian and conservative critics, who condemned the piece as distastefully sacrilegious. Apologising for the confusion, the Paris 2024 organising committee clarified that the tableau was not intended to recall Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece at all, but to summon instead the Greek God Dionysus, recalling the contours instead of a later painting by Jan van Bijlert, The Feast of the Gods, 1635.
3. Transit Centre, Renk, South Sudan
Sudanese refugees wait their turn for assistance in a crowded queue at a Transit Centre in Renk, South Sudan in February. By the beginning of 2024, more than half-a-million people had fled the fighting between the Sudanese Army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, pushing resources in South Sudan to breaking point. The joyful fluidity of colourful fabrics and rhythm of rich patterns contrasts starkly with the sobriety of the migrants' situation. The photo's intensity recalls the rhythm and texture of abstract works by the celebrated Sudanese artist and film-maker Hussein Shariffe, whose poetic paintings blurred the line between the colours we see and those we feel.
4. Volcano erupting, Indonesia
Images of Indonesia's powerful volcano Mount Ruang, which erupted many times in April, hurling hot lava and smouldering columns of ash into the sky, were as mesmerising as they were menacing. The fearsome force of volcanic activity has fascinated image-makers for millennia and a photo of the sublime outpouring of incandescent tephra, vaporised pumice, and molten ore into the atmosphere was uncannily in accord with the violent vision of British Romantic artist John Martin. Two centuries ago, he reimagined the eruption of Mount Vesuvius in 79 AD for his apocalyptic painting The Destruction of Pompeii and Herculaneum, 1822.
5. US President-elect Donald Trump, Pennsylvania, US
Some photos choreograph themselves, prescient of their own enduring iconicity. The hoisting of the US flag over Iwo Jima, for instance, or the raising of fists in the Black Power salute by US athletes during the medal ceremony at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City, spring to mind. Echoing elements of both of those two milestones of image-making, the photo of a defiant, fist-pumping Donald Trump, clambering to his feet with his face bespeckled with blood after a would-be assassin pierced his right ear with a bullet at a campaign rally in July, while a disbalanced Stars and Stripes tilts behind him, had many wondering if this was the moment he won the election.
6. Palestinian refugee camp, southern Gaza
Two Palestinian girls, preparing for Ramadan, light lanterns to decorate crowded refugee tents in southern Gaza on 29 February. The lanterns' soft light contrasts starkly with the eerie gloam of an uncertain sunset flickering in the distance. By summer, 90% of Gazans (roughly two million people) will have been displaced by war. The enchanting act of lantern lighting echoes a famous scene from art history – John Singer Sargent's charming portrait of his friend's daughters in a twilit garden in south-west England, Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose, painted patiently over a span of many months when the light was just right for a few fleeting moments each evening in autumn 1885. All that is missing is the green grass and the wildflowers and an abiding sense of peace.
7. Olympics men's surfing heats, Tahiti
The inspiriting image of Brazil's Gabriel Medina soaring skyward after tackling a huge wave off the French Polynesian Island of Tahiti in round three of the men's surfing heats on 29 July instantly went viral. Medina's seemingly effortless levitation recalls countless religious representations of mystical ascension in western Art, from Giotto to Rembrandt, Il Garofalo to Salvador Dalí. What seals the surprising synchronicity of athletic elevation with spiritual ascent is Medina's raised right arm and the cool thrust of his index finger, pointing precisely to where his body and soul appear to be heading.
8. Flooding, Valencia, Spain
A woman in Valencia, Spain gazes from her balcony on 30 October at the flooded neighbourhood below, as swept-up vehicles smash into one another, like a stampede of steel bulls smashing through the streets. A meteorological phenomenon known as a DANA (Depresión Aislada en Niveles Altos), or "cold drop", struck Valencia a day earlier, triggering unprecedented rainfall. In just eight hours, 500mm (20in) fell, devastating the region. The vertiginous vantage of the Valencian woman, through whose eyes we watch the world crumple and twist, recalls the rumpled perspective of Italian Cubist Carlo Carra's 1912 painting, Simultaneità, La donna al balcone. (Concurrency, woman at the balcony).
9. Billie Eilish, New York City, US
At a listening party for the release of her album Hit Me Hard and Soft in New York City in May, US singer songwriter Billie Eilish appears to dissolve into a dream of smoke-hung light as her body is at once amplified and vapourised into a hefty, if intangible, silhouette. The dissolution of self into resplendent mist calls to mind the evaporative visions of British painter JMW Turner, whose complex painting Light and Colour (Goethe's Theory) - the Morning after the Deluge, 1843, imagines a seemingly unfathomable moment of sublime illumination that sets the stage for every scintillating shade of existence that follows.
10. Toppling of statue, Syria
In a gesture of profound disdain, a circle of citizens in Syria stomps its shoes on the head of a toppled statue of former President Hafez al-Assad on 9 December. Following the collapse of Syria's Baath regime and the fleeing of the Assad family from the country, Syrians were seen tearing down countless effigies of the father of ousted President Bashar al-Assad in cities across the country. There is, of course, a kind of communal catharsis in the shared jubilation of de-pedestaling statues of rejected rulers, as we see in William Walcutt's 1857 painting of a circle of ecstatic New Yorkers pulling down British sculptor Joseph Wilton's statue of King George III in July 1776, following a rousing reading of the freshly adopted Declaration of Independence.
11. Ballerinas, New York City, US
In April, more than 350 dancers gathered to set the Guinness World Record for the most ballerinas ever to pose simultaneously en pointe. A photo of many of the participants excitedly preparing for the competition captured the elegance and energy of the momentous occasion. The claustrophobic crush of so many young women would doubtless have appealed to the French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas, who, it seems, did not merely relish the sight of skilful dancers, whom he called his "little monkey girls", practising and performing, but the anguished sound of their joints "cracking". "I have perhaps too often", he confessed to the painter Pierre-Georges Jeanniot, "considered woman as an animal".
12. National Assembly, Seoul, South Korea
A South Korean woman fearlessly seizes the barrel of a soldier's loaded rifle. Captured soon after President Yoon Suk Yeol declared martial law, the image shows Ahn Gwi-ryeong, 35, a spokesperson for the opposition Democratic party, grappling with heavily armed soldiers who were ordered to prevent lawmakers from gathering. "My only thought", Ahn later said of the confrontation, "was that I just needed to stop them. I pushed them away, shook them off, and did everything I could". Ahn's unflinching determination and even the shimmer of steely light off her clothes calls to mind British artist John Gilbert's stirring 19th-Century watercolour portrait of Joan of Arc.
* The numbers in this piece do not represent ranking, but are intended to make the separate entries as clear as possible.
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Wham's Last Christmas has become the UK's Christmas number one for a second consecutive year.
George Michael and Andrew Ridgeley's festive classic beat songs by Mariah Carey, Gracie Abrams, Tom Grennan and Ariana Grande to top the chart.
Ridgeley said he was "especially pleased" for his late band-mate, who died in 2016 and had always wanted the song to reach number one.
"He would have been utterly delighted [that] his fabulous Christmas composition has become such a classic, almost as much a part of Christmas as mince pies, turkey and pigs in blankets."
"It's testament to a really wonderful Christmas song that in a lot of people's minds evokes and represents Christmas as we would all wish it to be," he added.
The Official Charts Company said the song had been streamed 12.6 million times in the week leading up to Christmas.
The only other songs to have topped the Christmas chart on two occasions are Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody and Band Aid's Do They Know It's Christmas. Neither managed it in consecutive years.
Last Christmas was originally released in 1984, but lost the top spot to Band Aid's single, which raised money for famine relief in Ethiopia.
The charity made a renewed bid for the charts this year, with a 40th anniversary "ultimate mix" of Do They Know Its Christmas, blending vocals from the various versions of the song that have been recorded over the years,
But the re-release faltered after a row over the lyrics, with critics calling the song outdated and colonialist, and Ed Sheeran saying he wasn't asked for permission to re-use his voice.
In the end, the song charted at number 12, nestled between Kelly Clarkson's Underneath The Tree and Andy Williams' 1963 standard It's The Most Wonderful Time Of The Year.
The Christmas Top 10
Last Christmas was written by George Michael in his childhood bedroom in February 1984, "and as far as I was concerned it was a number one", he told Smash Hits in 1986.
Inspiration struck out of the blue, while the singer was hanging out at his parents' house in Hertfordshire.
"There was a footy match on the telly and he suddenly jumped up and disappeared upstairs where he had a little four-track studio," Ridgeley told BBC News.
"About an hour later, he came back and said, 'Andy Andy, you've got to listen to this'. I rarely saw him as excited or as animated as that.
"And as soon as I heard it, it was so apparent that it had all the hallmarks of a Christmas classic. It was a jaw-dropping moment."
Last Christmas has reappeared in the Top 40 every year since 2007, thanks to the advent of downloads, and then streaming - each of which allowed classic songs to contribute to chart data.
Nostalgia has been the driving force behind the Christmas charts ever since, as perennial favourites like Fairytale Of New York and Jingle Bell Rock soundtrack the holidays.
Jack Saunders, who presents Radio 1's Chart Show, said it was hard for new songs to compete.
"It takes time for songs to warm up and become classics," he said.
"I think it would be a huge feat for something to come along and be number one at the first time of asking."
Consequently, 29 of the songs in this year's Top 40 were Christmas-themed, with only two newcomers amongst the standards: Tom Grennan's It Can't Be Christmas and Laufey's Christmas Magic.
Both were commissioned by Amazon Music, which automatically played them to anyone asking their smart speaker to play Christmas music.
That gave the two artists a head start in the sales race, with Grennan's song ultimately making it to number four.
The Coventry singer campaigned hard for that position, even getting a tattoo reading "Christmas No 1 is..." on his right thigh, which he said he would complete with whichever song emerged victorious.
Protest song makes the Top 40
Another song aiming for the number one spot was Freezing This Christmas, a parody of Mud's Lonely This Christmas that criticises the government's decision to cut winter fuel payments for pensioners.
Although it was the most downloaded track of the week, protest songs tend to struggle on streaming - which now accounts for 87.7% of all music consumption in the UK.
In the end, the track just crept into the Top 40, placing at number 37.
US pop star Sabrina Carpenter topped the album chart with Short 'N' Sweet, a record that has produced three number one singles over the course of the year.
Michael Buble's Christmas album took second place, with Chappell Roan's Rise And Fall Of A Midwest Princess at three.
A forensic accountant from Scotland has become the first woman to be crowned Countdown champion in 26 years.
The long-running numbers and words game show has had five other female champions since its launch on Channel 4 in 1982, but none in the 21st Century.
Friday's final match between Fiona Wood, from Kinross, and Chris Kirby, went right down to the wire, but the accountant prevailed after correctly identifying the final conundrum as "lassitude", meaning a state of physical or mental weariness.
Wood said: "I have absolutely no regrets about applying and would encourage other women to give it a go."
Wood is the sixth woman to be named champion of Countdown, which has been broadcast by Channel 4 since 1982, the year the network launched.
The first ever series of Countdown was won that year by crossword compiler Joyce Cansfield.
Since then, four more women have won the series - Hilary Hopper (in 1987), Liz Barber (1990), Verity Joubert (1995) and Kate Ogilvie (1998).
Wood explained she had decided to apply after host Colin Murray appealed for older contestants, and lexicographer Susie Dent encouraged more female applications.
Following the appeals from Murray, Dent and mathematician Rachel Riley, Channel 4 said applications from women had soared.
"Fiona delighted us all and gave us one of the very best moments in our 42-year history," said Dent, who has appeared in the show's dictionary corner since 1992.
"This series also reminded us how much Countdown is a show for everyone, and we would encourage anyone who loves the game to apply."
Murray took over as permanent host of Countdown last year, following the departure of the former Weakest Link host Anne Robinson.
Adapted from the French TV series Des Chiffres Et Des Lettres (Numbers and Letters), Countdown was originally hosted by Richard Whiteley, with Carol Vorderman as co-presenter.
Nick Hewer, Des Lynam, Des O'Connor and Jeff Stelling have also served as presenters.
Zoe Ball has described presenting Radio 2's breakfast show as "an absolute privilege", as she signed off from her final programme.
The 54-year-old announced her departure in November, saying that after "six incredible years" it was "time to step away from the very early mornings and focus on family".
In her closing comments on Friday, Ball thanked everyone who had worked on the show since 2019, whom she said she was going to miss "mighty amounts".
"It's been such a gift to do this show... pretty cool to be the first lass to host, and I won't be the last - remember girls, you can do anything," she said.
"To the biggest stars of our breakfast show, the listeners, young and old, and those in the middle, thank you for tuning in, whether as a lone listener, a family, a work gang, on your morning jogs, dog walks, truck drives, train commutes, or hiding in bed, it's been a real privilege to keep you company through your morning maneuvers.
"You're just there, and I'm just here, having a chat with a mate, it's such a special, intimate relationship, that is never lost on me.
"We've been through life's little highs and lows, and I really do hope we've managed to bring some sunshine and light when you've most needed it, a daft distraction from the harder stuff.
"I've been bowled over by your messages, texts, emails, cards and letters throughout the years. Thank you for sharing your stories with me."
Ball said she would be back on air on Radio 2 in the spring, but details of her next show have not yet been announced.
"As the song says, you give a little love, and it all comes back to you. Well, I have most definitely felt that love from you listeners. I feel very lucky to have been here. I send buckets of love to you and your dear ones this Christmas.
"Take care of yourself, lovely peeps, my top cats," she concluded, before closing with Keeping The Dream Alive by Münchener Freiheit.
'Incredible six years'
Ball will be replaced by Scott Mills, who will move from his afternoon slot in January.
Mills was among the Radio 2 DJs who sent messages in for Ball's final programme.
"You're our friend, a friend to all of us, and in the last few years in particular, an arm round the shoulder when we really needed it," he said.
"And you also make it seem really easy, so no pressure!"
As well as tributes, Ball's final programme featured children calling in to speak to Santa Claus, who is in the studio with her.
Last month, Ball revealed that she'd had treatment for a jaw condition called TMJ disorder, which she said gives her "awful headaches" when she wakes up.
Ball became the station's first full-time female breakfast presenter when she took over from Chris Evans in 2019.
She took a six-week break from the show over the summer, after a previous break in the spring following the death of her mother.
Announcing her departure last month, she said she would stay "in the Radio 2 crew", promising further details in the New Year about what that would involve.
She promised that her final show would take place "just in time for Christmas with plenty of fun and shenanigans".
'Transformative'
Earlier this week on her show, Ball held back tears as Robbie Williams surprised her with a heartfelt message.
"I just want to say thank you for your services so far to the entertainment world, to BBC Radio 2, to all that have gone before you and who will come after you," Williams said.
"But for you in particular, the transformative thing you do and the kindness you exude is important, and has been important and will be important to people's lives, so congrats to you."
The teary-eyed DJ responded: "Robbie, I love you to bits."
Ball also became the first female host of the Radio 1 breakfast show in 1998, after having co-presented the Saturday morning children's TV programme Live & Kicking.
Ball's Radio 2 programme is the most listened to breakfast show in the UK.
But her audience dipped from nine million when she started to 6.28 million this summer, according to industry figures from Rajar.
She was listed as the BBC's highest-paid on-air female presenter for the 2023/24 period - with a salary between £950,000 and £954,999 - and second overall behind outgoing Match of the Day host Gary Lineker.
Sir Paul McCartney has reunited with his former Beatles bandmate Sir Ringo Starr during a gig at London's O2 Arena.
The drummer was brought on stage to thunderous applause before the pair launched into classics Helter Skelter and Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
"I've had a great night and I love you all," Sir Ringo said later as he walked offstage.
Thursday's performance was the last in Sir Paul's Got Back tour, which saw the 82-year-old play in France, Spain and Brazil.
Sir Ringo was not the only musical guest appearance on Thursday night. Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood joined Sir Paul for a rendition of Get Back, during which the latter played his original Hofner 500/1 bass guitar for the first time in more than 50 years.
The instrument was stolen in 1972 but Sir Paul was reunited with it earlier this year.
Sir Paul and Sir Ringo, who are the last surviving members of The Beatles, have played together a number of times since the band broke up in 1970.
That includes at Sir Ringo's 2015 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction and on Sir Paul's last tour, Freshen Up, in 2019.
Sir Paul is known for treating his fans to jumbo performances packed with hits from his lengthy musical career, which also includes the band Wings and several solo albums.
Thursday night was no different, with him playing nearly 40 songs on various instruments.
Other highlights from Thursday's gig included a performance of In Spite of All the Danger. This was the first song recorded by The Quarrymen, the first band Sir Paul was a member of, along with the late John Lennon and George Harrison.
He was also joined by a children's choir to sing his festive favourite Wonderful Christmastime.
From an electrifying action thriller with Keira Knightley to Ted Danson's latest sitcom and a brutal Japanese period epic, we pick the year's greatest programmes to stream right now.
1. Industry
The third season of this show set in the intense word of high finance pushed its morally ambiguous characters to their limits, brought in timely issues including sexual abuse and climate change, and finally exploded its own premise, with spectacular results. Marisa Abela and Harry Lawtey added layers to Yasmin and Robert. She dealt with not-unreasonable guilt over her father's death, which left her a poor little princess. More than ever, Robert seemed adrift, a sad professional failure at Pierpoint, the investment bank they work for. Kit Harington was a dynamic addition to the cast as a charming, manipulative aristocrat and founder of a green startup company, who unsettles both of them. The season ended (spoiler here) with the demise of Pierpoint and such an extreme severing of ties among its players that it felt like a series finale – but not so fast. Another season is in the works, which will mean rebuilding the characters' lives. In this instance, blowing things up to start over is the mark of a great, confident show. (CJ)
Available on Max in the US and BBC iPlayer in the UK
2. A Man on the Inside
This may be the gentlest show on the list, but that doesn't make it any less powerful. The latest sitcom from The Good Place creator Michael Schur reunites with him star Ted Danson, who plays a retired architect, struggling from the loss of his wife, who finds a new lease of life when he gets hired by a private investigator to go into a retirement home as a mole and help investigate a jewellery theft. What Schur does so expertly is balance sitcom sweetness with a moving and occasionally quietly devastating study of the trials and tribulations of old age, from loneliness and mental deterioration to the loss of one’s peers and friends. Which isn't to say it's bleak either, though: the home's residents, as played by a whole host of stellar Hollywood veterans including Sally Struthers, Stephen McKinley Henderson and John Getz, are full of verve. In our youth-obsessed world, you only hope A Man on the Inside's success is a reminder to producers and executives that there's an appetite to see more shows anchored by senior talent. (HM)
Available on Netflix internationally
3. Black Doves
There are plenty of spy shows out there, but only Black Doves has Keira Knightley and Ben Whishaw, who give this savvy action thriller an electrifying boost. The plot is unlikely but absorbing. Helen (Knightley) is married to the British Minister of Defence and for a decade has been spying on him for a mercenary company called the Black Doves. When her lover is murdered, her old colleague Sam (Whishaw) is called in to protect her. The series weaves in their harrowing backstories and establishes a touching friendship between them, never losing sight of the intrigue, which seems to place an assassin around every corner. Sarah Lancashire adds a sinister note as their Black Doves handler. Working for the Black Doves makes Helen and Sam sellouts to the highest bidder, but remarkably, the show builds sympathy for them, especially for Sam and his broken relationship with his former partner, Michael. And like all good spy stories, this one is about more than suspense, taking on love, loyalty, fake identities and global politics. (CJ)
Available on Netfilix internationally
4. Colin from Accounts
This is the second consecutive year this Australian rom-com has appeared on our "best of" list – and arguably it has only got better. After all the "will they, won't they?" of the first season, Sydney-ites Ashley and Gordon are now an established item – and that's where the angst really kicks in. The joy of this show is how exquisitely true-to-life it is in dissecting the trials and tribulations of a relationship, from negotiating your other half's family to feelings of sexual rejection, with situations that feel only mildly exaggerated for humorous effect. Plus, alongside the both charming and sometimes poignant performances of real-life couple Harriet Dyer and Patrick Brammall, the supporting cast of characters is inspired, among them Helen Thomson as Lynelle, Ashley's brilliantly self-involved mother, who has become a kind of anti- #MeToo activist to Genevieve Hegney as Chiara, Gordon's mid-life-crisis-beset business partner. And, of course, Zak and Buster Feddersen as the titular Colin, the stoic border terrier on wheels who acts as the show’s weary, all-seeing witness. Give them an Emmy – or a chewbone – forthwith. (HM)
Available on Peacock in the US and BBC iPlayer in the UK
5. Say Nothing
This extraordinary and fearless series, based on Patrick Radden Keefe's rigorously reported 2018 book, refuses to play things safe. The fictionalised drama dares to take us inside the minds of the highest ranking IRA members in 1970s Northern Ireland as they justify terror and murder as political weapons. At its centre is Dolours Price, who along with her sister Marian served a prison sentence for their part in a London car bombing. (Marian Price has announced that she plans to sue Disney+ because the show also depicts her shooting Jean McConville, a mother of 10 who was abducted and disappeared, which Price has always denied doing. Dolours died in 2013.) The actors bring the characters to life with passion. Lola Petticrew captures the earnest conviction of the young Dolours, and Maxine Peake is especially stirring as the older Dolours, who regrets some of her past actions and wonders what she actually accomplished. Along with its tense drama, the series is intimate and infused with thoughtfulness. (CJ)
Available on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK
6. Slow Horses
This year, Apple continued to throw a lot of money at glamorous A-lister-led shows that hardly seemed to make a ripple in the cultural conversation, but it was this trusty, self-deprecating British espionage comedy-drama, based on Mick Herron's books about a group of MI5 rejects, that continued to represent the channel at its best. Now in its fourth series, the mixture of wry British humour and high-stakes action is more perfectly-calibrated than ever, while the cast keeps accumulating excellent new recruits, from Ruth Bradley as straight-talking MI5 security "dog" Emma Flyte to Hugo Weaving as the villainous Frank Harkness. Indeed, while Gary Oldman's dishevelled spy chief Jackson Lamb and Jack Lowden's gung-ho River Cartwright are the lynchpins, the glory of Slow Horses is just what an ensemble piece it truly is. And in a streaming world where few shows get more than a couple of seasons, the good news is that it has already been renewed for a fifth and sixth. These underdogs are really having their day. (HM)
Available on Apple TV+ internationally
7. Rivals
No one is more surprised than I am to find Rivals on the Best Of list. It's not artistic and it's not ambitious, but this adaptation of Jilly Cooper's 1988 novel about sex and power among the well-bred denizens of the fictional English county of Rutshire may be the year's most entertaining escapism. The series works mainly because of how gleefully the actors take on their over-the-top characters, in a world of country estates and 1980s excess. The standouts include David Tennant as the sleazy owner of a television network, Aidan Turner as a highly-paid but discontented presenter and Alex Hassell as a Thatcher-era Sports Minister, lover of nude tennis and of many women. Full of shifting alliances, secret affairs, and sex in every indoor and outdoor place imaginable, the show is a thoroughly engaging romp. Cooper recently told the New York Times that her goal in writing the novel Rivals was simply "to cheer people up". Its on-screen counterpart couldn't have landed at a better time. (CJ)
Available on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK
8. The Day of the Jackal
This 10-part contemporary update of the 1971 novel by Frederick Forsyth about a globetrotting assassin is the glamorous flipside of Slow Horses but equally as compelling. Eddie Redmayne plays the hitman, and has a lot of fun with some of the prosthetically enhanced disguises he's required to don, while making The Jackal an intriguingly cryptic personality, as he switches from sincerely tender-seeming family man to cold-blooded killer. And Lashana Lynch is every bit the match for him as the agent on his trail: it's pleasing, indeed, just how morally compromised her character Bianca is, guilty of callousness that makes you gasp and makes James Bond look like Mary Poppins. In fact, though, the writer/creator Ronan Bennett (who was also behind Netflix's Top Boy) has given the series a distinct Bond film vibe, from the stylish opening credits with their jazzy torch song theme tune to masterfully-filmed action sequences like a Munich car chase. But, more surprisingly, perhaps, the less high-octane domestic drama also compels, with Spanish actress Úrsula Corberó doing committed work as The Jackal's suspicious, conflicted wife. Blockbuster TV drama at its best. (HM)
Available on Peacock in the US and NOW in the UK
9. The Diplomat
The second season of this sharply-written show remained masterful at blending global politics with personal drama, and added shrewd twists that kept it surprising. Kate Wyler (Keri Russell), the reluctant US Ambassador to the UK, seemed like the smartest person in any room. But it turned out that she misjudged a few little things, like who bombed a British warship, just how high her own ambition is, and how much she relies on her partnership with Hal (Rufus Sewell), the husband she almost left. The political intrigue is polite yet explosive, as Kate learns that political players from the US and UK were complicit in the bombing. And some of the best moments are hard-nosed tete-a-tetes between Kate and Hal as they debate whether she should go after a job the White House is dangling in front of her: Vice President. Allison Janney is steely as the current Vice President, Grace Penn, whose unflinching conversations with Kate about women and power are among the show's best scenes. A jaw-dropping reversal sets up season three. How that will land in a different political landscape is an open and fascinating question. (CJ)
Available on Netflix internationally
10. Feud: Capote vs The Swans
The TV empire of super-producer Ryan Murphy has been on a downward curve for a while, artistically at least, churning out increasingly tawdry, sensationalist series at a rate of knots – such as, this September, the latest instalment in his Monsters franchise about famous killers, which focused on the Menendez brothers. But earlier in the year, he showed it could still produce intelligent, perceptive drama with this study of waspish writer Truman Capote and his coterie of high society female friends. Writer Jon Robin Baitz's script zones in on Capote's fall from grace in the mid-1970s after the publication of an excerpt of his in-the-works novel Unanswered Prayers, which contained scandalous, only thinly-veiled portraits of his close confidantes. Tom Hollander is simply astonishing as Capote, capturing the voice, the mannerisms, the caustic superiority and the child-like neediness, while the Swans are each superbly realised, with varying degrees of hauteur, by the likes of Naomi Watts, Chloe Sevigny, Calista Flockhart and Diane Lane. The series ultimately lands as a study of a particular world of "old money" in its death throes of relevance – and the fact that it manages to find pathos in the characters' fates, despite their frequent moral ugliness, is testament to its novelistic nuance. (HM)
Available on Hulu in the US and Disney+ in the UK
11. True Detective: Night Country
It would have been enough if the fourth season of True Detective had done nothing more than use the unforgettable word "corpsicles" for murder victims frozen in ice, but this revamped series did much more. Jodie Foster is galvanizing as the acerbic police chief in a small Alaska town, who leads the investigation into an increasingly creepy multiple murder case. Set at a time of year when the sun doesn't rise for a fortnight, the show is beautifully shot in midnight blues that let you feel the chill and draw you into a world where high-tech scientists live side by side with locals with supernatural beliefs. You could spend hours teasing out the Easter eggs and connections to the original 2014 season of the show, as many have. But no need for that context. Writer and director Issa Lopez has reenergised the franchise in a way that makes it fresh and captivating from eerie start to jaw-dropping finish. (CJ)
Available on Max in the US and Now in the UK
12. Shogun
As soon as Game of Thrones ended in 2019, conversation turned to what could succeed it – cue many fantasy series, including Amazon's Lord of the Rings spin-off and HBO's own official Thrones prequel House of the Dragon, vying to take its place. But five years on, its most convincing successor has turned out to be a show without any fantasy credentials whatsoever – but rather a historical drama about real-life 17th Century Japan that nevertheless channels Thrones' harsh worldview, epic visuals and keen interest in the business of political manoeuvring. Based on the historical novel by James Clavell, which was already made into a hugely successful miniseries back in the 1980s, Shogun centres on John Blackthorne (played by the Richard Burton-esque Cosmo Jarvis), a British sailor who is shipwrecked on the Japanese coast and gets wrapped up in a battle for power between members of the country's ruling council. What follows is at once gorgeously shot, brilliantly acted, and unflinchingly brutal, the characters' various machinations occasionally erupting in violence that pulls no punches. The cast, too, are uniformly brilliant, from Hiroyuki Sanada as embattled council member Lord Yoshii Toranaga to Anna Sawai as Blackthorne's translator, and lover, Mariko. And while it was originally intended as a limited series, such has been its success, FX has announced plans for two further seasons. Let's hope they can live up to the standards set by this one. (HM)
Available on Hulu and Disney + in the US and Disney+ in the UK
13. Baby Reindeer
Richard Gadd's autobiographical horror story seemed to land on Netflix out of nowhere yet has become, deservedly, one of the year's biggest, most talked about and unsettling hits. Gadd created and plays a struggling comedian named Donny Dunn, who befriends Martha. She comes into the bar where he works, fantasises a relationship between them and goes on to harass him with emails and almost ruin his life. Jessica Gunning is amazing as she makes Martha both threatening and pitiable in her delusions. Tension builds to an excruciating point through the series. Donny is also repeatedly sexually assaulted, in stomach-churning detail, by a man who is a television producer promising to help his career. The show caused a controversy when viewers searched the internet and discovered Fiona Harvey, who they alleged was Martha's real-life counterpart; she has since given media interviews and is now suing Netflix for defamation, negligence and privacy violations. Putting aside those real-world aftershocks, Baby Reindeer is confessional art at its most captivating. (CJ)
Available on Netflix internationally
14. Fallout
Last year, HBO's The Last of Us ended the tradition of sub-par video game adaptations with a gripping rendering of the bestselling action-adventure title. And now here's another screen translation of a post-apocalyptic gaming franchise, which is arguably even more successful: an eye-poppingly stylish and slyly funny take on the Fallout series, which imagines a world devastated by nuclear war where some people now live in shiny underground vaults. British actress Ella Purnell leads the cast as a bright-eyed Vault 33 resident who is forced on an eye-opening mission up to the Earth's surface to rescue her kidnapped father – where, in this future Wild West, she comes into contact with a nervy soldier (Aaron Moten) and a bounty-hunting "ghoul" (Walton Goggins) among others. Co-produced by Lisa Joy and Jonathan Nolan, the makers of the inferior but not dissimilar Westworld, it is an impressively immersive experience which lives up to the source material while finding its own narrative groove. Meanwhile Purnell is a real star in the making, and Goggins is revelatory in a performance that stretches across two timelines. (HM)
Available on Amazon Prime internationally
15. Ripley
Andrew Scott is spellbinding as the lethal con man Tom Ripley in this Hitchcockian version of Patricia Highsmith's novel The Talented Mr Ripley. Set in Naples and Rome in the 1960s, the show's dramatic black and white, shot by the Oscar-winning cinematographer Robert Elswit, perfectly captures the beautiful shadowy world Ripley inhabits as he ascends from a small-time grifter in New York to a denizen of la dolce vita. As Ripley usurps the identity of his idle rich friend Dickie Greenleaf (Johnny Flynn), a single shifting look on Scott's face can reveal layers of the character's deceptions. Flynn, Dakota Fanning and Eliot Sumner are all brilliant as the people Ripley feeds off. In a style far different from the sun-drenched, memorable 1999 film, Steven Zaillian has written and directed a series as enthralling and visually glorious as they come. (CJ)
Available on Netflix internationally
16. One Day
No show has stirred the emotions more than this year than this adaptation of David Nicholls' era-spanning British romance. It follows the up-and-down relationship of two friends, Dexter and Emma, from university onwards, by catching up with them on the same day, 15 July, every year for 20 years. Beginning in the 1980s, it makes for a glorious nostalgic trip for viewers of a certain age, complete with a winning, carefully curated soundtrack of period appropriate pop songs. But at heart what makes this work is the captivating performances of the two leads, individually and together: Leo Woodall, building on the promise he showed in season two of The White Lotus, makes the arrogant, upper-crust party boy Dexter convincingly irritating but also sympathetic, while Ambika Mod, who first came to attention in 2022 medical drama This is Going to Hurt, is on star-making form as the fiercely intelligent but vulnerable Emma. Be warned though: if you don't know what happens, then be prepared for some tears. (HM)
Available on Netflix internationally
17. Monsieur Spade
One of the least likely premises for a series has led to one of the year's most delightful surprises. Clive Owen is wry as the Sam Spade, the private investigator created by author Dashiell Hammett and now relocated from seedy 1940s San Francisco to 1960s small-town France. Instead of mimicking Humphrey Bogart's celebrated tough-guy Spade from The Maltese Falcon (1941), Owen smartly delivers a character who is shrewd and emotionally cool but also sometimes befuddled, especially when trying to master the French language. There are intricate personal relationships – a glamorous lover (Chiara Mastroianni) and a young girl who becomes Spade's ward – and of course murders he can't help but investigate in a lush country town where unregenerate Nazis linger and scheme. Director Scott Frank (The Queen's Gambit) makes the show crisp and suspenseful. Owen makes Spade his own, a man with a heart beneath his considerable sangfroid. (CJ)
Available on AMC+ in the US
18. Mr Bates vs the Post Office
It's rare that a TV show can be credited with having a tangible impact on government business – but such was the case earlier this year with this brilliant British miniseries, focusing on the national Post Office scandal, which saw more than 700 post office branch managers wrongly charged for false accounting, theft and fraud because of a failed computer system. When it aired in the UK in January, it immediately caused huge reverberations, and prompted the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak to announce he would bring in a new law to "swiftly exonerate and compensate victims". What Gwyneth Hughes' four-part drama does so brilliantly is to thread together the human stories of the many upstanding victims – among them the titular Alan Bates (Toby Jones), who became the postmasters' leader in the fight for justice – and contrast that with the inhumane bureaucracy that they came up against. The show's impact proves that, for all the value of documentaries, sometimes a dramatisation can bring a story into the cultural consciousness like nothing else. Will Mr Bates inspire more TV getting to grips with institutional scandals of our time? Let’s hope so. (HM)
Available on PBS in the US and ITVX in the UK
19. The Regime
Kate Winslet is funny, chilling and on top form in this dark political comedy as Elena Vernham, dictator of a fictional Central European country. On the ludicrous side, Elena sings Santa Baby as part of her Christmas address to the nation, and calls its citizens "My Loves". On the ominous side, she masquerades as a populist but is ruthless in her determination to hold on to power, invading a nearby country and imprisoning her political opponents. It's as if she were the child of Eva Perón and Vladimir Putin. Winslet balances the character's comic and evil parts beautifully and is surrounded by a stellar cast, including Matthias Schoenaerts as the sociopathic soldier who becomes her lover, Andrea Riseborough as her cowed servant, and Hugh Grant in a single episode as the Chancellor whom Elena deposed. The Regime's tone is more absurdist than pointedly skewering, yet by the end its politically tumultuous world comes to mirror our own. (CJ)
Available on Max in the US and Now in the UK
20. 3 Body Problem
This sci-fi show arrived with considerable hype, being the next project from Game of Thrones creators David Benioff and DB Weiss. And while it may not have exactly become the phenomenon that the streamer might have hoped for, it deserved serious applause for its intelligence and creative ambition. Based on a Chinese novel, it tells the story of a group of scientist friends as they try and work out what is going on with a spate of suicides within their community – a story that involves flashbacks to the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a mysterious virtual reality game and much more besides. It's an initially mind-boggling mix that nevertheless settles around a brilliantly compelling and timely premise: what would we do if we knew the human race was going to be destroyed, but not for 400 years? Plus it has the single most shocking TV sequence of the year, one up there with GoT's infamous Red Wedding. Netflix have announced that it will return for a second and third season, and that will be it. Here's praying it can stick the landing. (HM)
Available on Netflix internationally
The numbers in this piece do not represent rankings, but are intended to make the separate entries as clear as possible.
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BBC film critics Nicholas Barber and Caryn James pick their highlights of the year, including an erotic thriller with a twist, an intimate papal drama and the return of a swords-and-sandals epic.
1. Immaculate
Sydney Sweeney (also the film's producer) stars in this wonderfully creepy horror movie about an American novice nun who learns that all is not as it seems in an Italian convent. Immaculate could easily have been a trashy nunsploitation B-movie, but it's (mother) superior in many ways, from the bold commentary on men's treatment of women to cinematography that recalls Renaissance religious art. What's most striking about the film, though, is its willingness to take things to jaw-dropping extremes. There are countless moments when you're watching it and you think, "No... they're not going to go there... they wouldn't..." And then they do. (NB)
2. Civil War
Reactions to this film were almost as polarised as the divided country it depicts, a sure sign that Alex Garland hit a nerve with his vision of a near-future US that has descended into civil war under a fascist president. Kirsten Dunst is at the centre as a photojournalist who, along with her colleagues – played by Wagner Moura, Cailee Spaeny and Stephen McKinley Henderson – put themselves at great risk to witness and report the action around them. Garland makes that action visceral and explosive, from guns and tanks on the streets of Washington DC to violent one-on-one encounters in the supposedly calm countryside. But the most harrowing aspect of the film is how acutely and convincingly he positions the fiction as a hairsbreadth away from the real world around us. Some viewers complained that Garland didn't set up a more pointed political conflict, but to me the film is chilling enough in its vision of an all-too-credible war-torn future. (CJ)
3. Love Lies Bleeding
Kristen Stewart's character has a miserable life at the start of Love Lies Bleeding, as Stewart's characters so often do. She manages a dingy gym in a small town, she avoids her gangster father (Ed Harris), and she tries in vain to persuade her sister (Jena Malone) to end her abusive marriage. But everything changes when a charismatic drifter played by Katy O'Brian stops off on her way to a body-building contest in Las Vegas. Sparks fly, and the fireworks of sweaty sex, shocking violence and all-round craziness keep exploding. A stylish, blackly comic lesbian film noir from Rose Glass, the British director who made her feature debut with acclaimed horror Saint Maud, Love Lies Bleeding is the most fun and imaginative indie crime thriller since Good Time (2017), which happened to star Stewart's Twilight co-star, Robert Pattinson. (NB)
4. La Chimera
Alice Rohrwacher's films – like 2018's great, fabulistic Happy as Lazzaro – are tinged with magic realism. La Chimera, set in Tuscany in the 1980s, is among her best as it walks the line between richly-textured realism and dreams. Josh O'Connor stars as Arthur, an Englishman who works with a band of local Italian graverobbers to find ancient artifacts in Etruscan tombs to sell on the black market. Seedy looking and sad, Arthur is reeling from losing his love, Beniamina. As one character puts it, he is searching in the underground for "a door to the afterlife" and at times seems to find it. Rohrwacher has an eye for finding beauty in ruins, whether the big crumbling house where Beniamina's mother (Isabella Rossellini) lives, or Arthur himself. The plot keeps moving, with danger, crime and escapes from the police, but the film is shaped by O'Connor's poignant, low-key but charismatic performance and Rohrwacher's elegant vision, lushly filmed by the great cinematographer Helene Louvart. (CJ)
5. Robot Dreams
Robot Dreams is a cartoon like no other. It's a Spanish-French production, and yet it's a loving homage to the vibrancy of 1980s New York. It's animated in a 2D picture-book style, and yet it's bursting with tiny details. It doesn't have any dialogue, and yet it's peppered with wit and wisdom. It's all about a dog and a robot, and yet it's a richly human exploration of loneliness and companionship. Adapted from Sara Varon's graphic novel and directed by Pablo Berger, this Oscar-nominated gem tells the enchanting tale of two friends who find heartwarming joy in each other's company – and then have to work out whether they can learn to live apart. (NB)
6. Io Capitano
Few migrant dramas are as stirring, humane and suspenseful as this one, about the treacherous journey of a 16-year-old boy as he leaves Senegal in search of a better life. Matteo Garrone (Gomorrah) won the award for best director at the 2023 Venice Film Festival for the film, and his non-professional star, Seydou Sarr, won best young actor as the fictional Seydou, a gentle boy determined to make it to Italy along with his cousin, Moussa. Each stage of the boys' travels presents a different danger. They set out across the Sahara with a group of other migrants, and when one woman dies, Seydou sees her gliding through the air, as if the reality is too much to take in. In Libya he is imprisoned and tortured. In the final stages he must pilot a boat full of migrants toward Italy, giving the film its title, Io Capitano (I Captain). With relatively few words, Garrone and Sarr create an eloquent, piercingly real film about one person, whose story resonates with the situation of millions around the world. (CJ)
7. Perfect Days
You wouldn't necessarily think that someone who cleaned public toilets for a living had found the secret to happiness, but Wim Wenders' Perfect Days makes a strong case for the idea. A Japanese-language film from the German writer-director, this hypnotic character study follows Hirayama (Kōji Yakusho) around Tokyo as he carries out his janitorial duties, waters his plants, reads novels, listens to American rock music and takes photos of trees, all with the same quiet diligence and pride. There are hints here and there about how Hirayama's life has changed, and how it might change in the future, but the core of the film is a documentary-like meditation on the serenity of an existence stripped to its essentials. Also, the public toilets themselves are so well designed that Perfect Days could well turn them into tourist attractions. (NB)
8. Gladiator II
Ridley Scott's sequel to his 2000 swords-and-sandals Oscar winner is supremely entertaining, from Paul Mescal's dynamic (and underrated) starring role as Lucius, a gladiator and secret heir to the Roman Empire's throne, to the relentless, enthralling action in the Colosseum, where the gladiators' antagonists include sharks, baboons and rhinos. Mescal anchors the film and lets us see Lucius's anger and sensitivity. Outside the Colosseum, Denzel Washington goes over-the-top as the robe-wearing, bejewelled tycoon who buys Lucius and adds him to his stable of fighters, Pedro Pascal turns up as a Roman general, and Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger add a creepy note as the debauched twin emperors who sit in Lucius's rightful place. Colourful and wonderfully excessive, Gladiator II is everything you could want in a popcorn movie, and proof that when Scott is at his best, he can turn out an extravaganza like no one else. (CJ)
9. Babygirl
Babygirl stars Nicole Kidman as the high-powered boss of a zillion-dollar robotics company, alongside Harris Dickinson as an arrogant young intern. As soon as she lays eyes on him, she has a feeling that he might be able to satisfy her in ways that her loving husband (Antonio Banderas) can't, and a highly risky – and risqué – game of domination and submission begins. This could easily be the premise of a glossy erotic thriller from the 1980s or 1990s, and Babygirl sometimes looks as if that's exactly what it is, what with its gorgeous stars, designer clothes and glamorous settings. But writer-director Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) has too much sympathy for her characters to treat them as the predatory seducers and hapless victims who might have been in such a film a few decades ago. Instead, they are flawed individuals with messy lives and conflicting desires, which makes their affair all the more intriguing and unpredictable. (NB)
10. Hard Truths
As he so often does, Mike Leigh shows us that a film doesn't have to be big or boisterous to be spectacular. Twenty-eight years after Secrets and Lies, the director reunites with Marianne Jean-Baptiste, who stars as Pansy, so depressed and so convinced that the world is against her that she lashes out at everyone, from strangers to those who love her best. It's an amazing performance, fierce and angry yet full of empathy and understanding. Without sentimentality or special pleading for Pansy, Leigh and Jean-Baptiste build enormous sympathy for this woman whose bitterness and harsh behaviour come from a profound unhappiness that is inexplicable to her. The supporting cast, especially Michele Austin as Pansy's sister, create a family concerned for her but baffled about what to do. Once more, Leigh proves himself a master at immersing us in the reality of ordinary lives in a film that, despite its prickly heroine, is at times laced with wit and always infused with warmth. (CJ)
11. All We Imagine as Light
Payal Kapadia’s first feature film was a documentary which came out in 2021, but she was largely unknown (by me, at least) until this year, when the release of her first drama propelled her into the ranks of the world's most exciting young directors. All We Imagine as Light stars Kani Kusruti, Divya Prabha and Chhaya Kadam as three Indian women of different generations who all work in the same Mumbai hospital, and who all share a kind of heartache: one is widowed and soon to be evicted from her marital home, one lives thousands of miles away from a husband she barely knows, and one is in love with a man her parents will never let her marry. As the women mull over the question of whether to stay in Mumbai or to move back to their home villages, this soulful, poetic film pays tribute to the dreamy magic of wandering around a busy city at night. Blurring the boundaries between fiction and documentary, it is so intimate and evocative that it makes you feel as if you're wandering around the city, too, side by side with some beloved friends. (NB)
12. Emilia Pérez
There is nothing like Emilia Pérez. Artistically daring, deliriously bonkers and entertaining, Jacques Audiard's musical drama is so outlandish it shouldn't work, but the parts fit together with such wit and kinetic energy it totally does. Karla Sofía Gascón plays a Mexican crime lord, Manitas, who transitions and becomes Emilia with the help of her lawyer (Zoe Saldana). Emilia masquerades as a distant cousin to be close to her own wife (Selena Gomez) and children, and becomes a philanthropist, only to have the criminal impulse catch up with her. The film is full of singing and dancing, with musical numbers next to scenes of violent action. Yet beneath that energetic surface the characters evolve and become heart-piercing by the end; Saldana and Gomez are standouts. In a landscape of superheroes and sequels, wonderful though some of them are, this film stands out for its originality, as Audiard wrangles a splashy mix of genres into one bold and touching film. (CJ)
13. Nosferatu
For too long now, on-screen vampires have either been sexy (True Blood, Twilight) or silly (Hotel Transylvania, Renfield), but Robert Eggers's towering remake of FW Murnau's silent classic takes them right back to their ancient roots in European folklore, at the same time as putting a modern spin on the themes of Bram Stoker's original Dracula novel. Nosferatu is a painstakingly researched period piece set in Germany in the early 1800s. Bill Skarsgård plays the undead Count Orlok – and, for once, we're treated to a vampire who isn't a rakish charmer or a moody loner but a genuinely strange and monstrous demonic force. Still, Eggers's gothic melodrama isn't really about the count, as striking as he is, but about Thomas Hutter (Nicholas Hoult) and his wife Ellen (Lily-Rose Depp), a potentially happy couple who are threatened as much by their insecurities about class and sex as they are by the Transylvanian bloodsucker who has moved into the tumbledown manor house up the road. (NB)
14. Conclave
Conclave is that rare thing: an enthralling commercial film that is also full of artistry, elevated by Edward Berger's meticulous direction and Ralph Fiennes' powerfully subtle performance as a cardinal running the election of a new pope. Berger, whose All Quiet on the Western Front won the best international film Oscar for 2022, gives the film the momentum of a great political thriller as it follows the cardinals' manipulations, dirty tricks and wheeling and dealing. The cinematography is stunning, with beautifully composed shots full of the rich colours of the cardinals' robes and the grandeur of the Vatican setting. Fiennes' Cardinal Lawrence is all surface calm, yet we see how he is anguished as he questions his own faith. And there are dazzling, sharply honed performances from Stanley Tucci, adding a droll touch as a contender for the top job, John Lithgow as a high-ranking cardinal with scandals to hide, and Isabella Rossellini as a nun who often stands in the background and finally chooses her moment to say a few sharp words. Like the best Hollywood films, Conclave is smart, sophisticated and hugely enjoyable to watch. (CJ)
15. Anora
A worthy winner of this year's Palme d'Or, the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival, Anora tells the wild, whirling tale of Ani (Mikey Madison), a young Russian-American woman who dances in a Manhattan strip club. In exchange for a hefty fee, she agrees to have sex with Vanya (Mark Eydelshteyn), the empty-headed son of a Russian oligarch, and she soon comes to believe that they might have a future together. Vanya's parents don't agree. Madison and Sean Baker, the film's writer-director, have created a character with so much verve that she leaps off the screen, and her farcical misadventures are thrilling and hilarious. But Baker always keeps things rooted in the earthy reality of contemporary American life, just as he did in such previous films as Tangerine and The Florida Project. As deliriously entertaining as it is, Anora is an authentic picture of people who are down to their last few dollars. (NB)
16. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
Ignore the confusing title. This Iranian film is one of the most potent and timely of the year. At its centre is a family that embodies the political and generational conflict roiling that country. Iman, the stern father, is an investigator for the Islamic Revolutionary Court in Tehran, his wife is meek and compliant, and their two young adult daughters are part of the women's protest movement on the streets. Director Mohammad Rasoulof includes some actual footage of 2022 protests, but the film is a taut, suspenseful drama, not a tract. When Iman loses his gun and accuses his family of taking it, the true harshness of his personality and the depths of the daughter's resistance to him and the country's patriarchy turn the story into a harrowing thriller. Rasoulof shot the film in secret, fled Iran and a prison sentence to present it at Cannes and now lives in exile in Germany. But the action on screen is what matters, and that is an intimate, intense drama that captures the brutal impact politics can have on individuals. (CJ)
17. The Substance
Coralie Fargeat's genre-crossing hit starts as a slick and shiny showbiz satire in the same neighbourhood as Sunset Boulevard: its heroine is a former Oscar-winning superstar (Demi Moore) who is deemed to be past her prime by the obnoxious producer (Dennis Quaid) of her daytime TV show. The film then changes into a surreal sci-fi drama in the vein of Doctor Jekyll and Mr Hyde, as the ex-star pays to have herself cloned, so that her "younger, better" duplicate (Margaret Qualley) can take over the show. And after that, The Substance morphs into a slimy monster movie for its over-the-top gross-out finale. The commentary on Hollywood's ageist and sexist tendencies isn't exactly subtle, but, well, subtlety is hardly the point. Fargeat proves that if you have something to say, and you say it forcefully enough, then a relatively low-budget film can still get people to watch it – and to argue about it afterwards. (NB)
18. Blitz
Steve McQueen expands his already formidable range in this affecting film that plunges us into the lives of a single mother and her son during the World War Two bombing of London. Saoirse Ronan plays Rita, a factory worker who lives with her father (Paul Weller) and nine-year-old George (Elliott Heffernan). Although McQueen is known for grittier films, like Hunger and 12 Years a Slave, here he seamlessly blends the wartime setting with adventure, social commentary and warm family feeling. When George runs away to avoid being sent to a safe place in the country, his journey takes on overtones of Oliver Twist. The film tackles the racism that surrounds the family, including the way George's father, an African immigrant, was unfairly arrested and deported. The actors are natural even in the most extraordinary circumstances, led by Ronan, who allows us to see Rita's intense love for her son from the start. McQueen's bravura film-making creates a ferocious sense of being in a bombardment, but ultimately this moving war story is about family in all its emotion and heartbreak. (CJ)
19. A Real Pain
Two decades into his illustrious career as an actor, which includes everything from Zombieland to The Social Network to Sasquatch Sunset (another highlight of 2024), Jesse Eisenberg proves that he is just as talented behind the camera as he is in front of it. His second film as a writer-director revolves around two cousins, David and Benji, played by Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin. David is careful and cautious, while Benji is an exasperatingly egotistical extrovert, but in an attempt to rebuild the relationship they once had as boys in New York, the cousins go on a guided tour of Holocaust sites in Poland. What’s so remarkable about A Real Pain is that it deals with its sobering subject matter with respect and sensitivity, and yet it’s packed with laughs from start to finish. The key is that the comedy always feels uncontrived, because it seems to arise naturally from the cousins’ personalities. Eisenberg has managed to make a sincere, insightful and profoundly touching film which is also the year’s funniest. (NB)
20. I'm Still Here
Walter Salles (The Motorcycle Diaries) makes political drama personal in this eloquent film, based on the true story of the Paiva family. In 1970's Rio, Rubens Paiva, a liberal former Congressman and activist opposing the country's military dictatorship, becomes one of many disappeared when he is taken away by police and never seen again. Over the next years and decades his wife, Eunice, and their five children live with the aftermath. Fernanda Torres gives a performance of remarkable understated strength, capturing Eunice's iron will as she fights to support her family and discover her husband's fate. Salles makes us feel the tension and fear of the abduction and of the days after, but few films create such a singular depiction of the long-term effects of such tragedies on those left behind. I'm Still Here elegantly reveals the enduring grief and the way political acts and their repercussions can stop lives in their tracks, as this family learns to look forward without losing sight of the past. (CJ)
The numbers in this piece do not represent rankings, but are intended to make the separate entries as clear as possible.
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From a steamy age-gap thriller starring Nicole Kidman to a Bob Dylan biopic featuring Timothée Chalamet, these are the films to stream and watch at the cinema this month.
Beatles '64
It was in February 1964 that the US succumbed to Beatlemania. The Fab Four spent three weeks in the country that had influenced them so much, and their visit included an appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show, which was seen by 73 million people, as well as their first US concert in Washington DC. Beatles '64 is an intimate chronicle of those whirlwind weeks, produced by Martin Scorsese and directed by David Tedeschi. There are new interviews with Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr, along with such peers as Smokey Robinson and Ronnie Spector (who died in 2022), but the film's main attraction is the rarely seen footage shot at the time by two legendary documentary-makers, Albert and David Maysles. "The Maysles brothers were pioneers of direct cinema, as they called it," Tedeschi said in Rolling Stone. "In that footage, you can see that the Beatles are very relaxed. They have so much charisma on camera. But even the fans, these young women in front of the Plaza Hotel, or what we call the Sullivan Theater now – they also have so much charisma. There's something about the energy of Al and David that relaxed people, and allowed them to project something on film."
Released on 29 November on Disney+
The Return
Ralph Fiennes and Juliette Binoche starred in The English Patient together in 1996, and they're reunited in The Return, another epic drama about the mental and physical scars left by warfare. Co-written and directed by Uberto Pasolini, this swords-and-sandals saga is based on the last section of Homer's The Odyssey, in which Odysseus (Fiennes) comes back to Ithaca after a decade of battling Trojans and another decade of battling giant monsters. His patient wife Penelope (Binoche) has been busy fending off the many suitors who are keen to claim his fortune, but Odysseus may be too badly bruised to step in before it's too late. "It's gritty and dirty and eventually smeared with blood, but it takes its time and weighs every word," says Steve Pond in The Wrap. "Fiennes is magnificent as Odysseus, his face a map of troubles and his voice a virtuoso instrument."
Released on 6 December in the US
Better Man
Robbie Williams found fame as a member of a British boy band, Take That, before becoming a phenomenally successful but scandal-prone solo artist. He's an ideal candidate, then, for a pop-star biopic. But Better Man, directed by Michael Gracey (The Greatest Showman), is more distinctive than that might suggest. Not only is it unusually open about Williams's flaws, it features one bold and bizarre innovation: Williams himself is represented as a CGI chimpanzee, as played by Jonno Davies in a performance-capture bodysuit. "The result is a film that feels grandiose, outrageous, deeply personal and joltingly relatable," says Kristy Puchko in Mashable. "It's Billy Elliot meets Rocketman meets Planet of the Apes. And it's so much more. Rich in vibrant emotion, body-rocking musical numbers, daring performances and a scorching tenderness, Better Man more than rocks. It rules."
Released on 25 December in the US and Sweden, and on 26 December in the UK, Ireland and Australia
Nightbitch
Adapted from Rachel Yoder's novel, and directed by Marielle Heller (Can You Ever Forgive Me?), the boldly titled Nightbitch is a horror comedy that stars Amy Adams as the exhausted and exasperated stay-at-home mother of an infant son. She feels that she has lost her identity as an artist, she doesn't fit in with her fellow suburban mothers and her husband (Scoot McNairy) doesn't appreciate what she is going through. It's at this point that the film shifts from observational comedy to twisted body horror: she believes that she is growing fur and fangs, and turning into a dog. "Adams is having a blast as the mother, taking centre stage with renewed energy and vigour," says Jourdain Searles in Little White Lies. "McNairy is in top comedic form as the clueless husband who thinks of raising his own son as babysitting. There's no denying the universal truths behind the narrative… Nightbitch is about a mother's need to be free."
Released on 6 December in the US, Canada, the UK and Ireland
The Count of Monte-Cristo
Last year, Dimitri Rassam's French production company, Chapter 2, released two lavish epics adapted from Alexandre Dumas' The Three Musketeers. As if that weren't enough, the company has now completed another Dumas adaptation, a three-hour romp through his classic novel of vengeance, disguise and swashbuckling swordplay, The Count of Monte-Cristo. Pierre Niney stars as Edmond Dantès, a young sailor who is wrongly accused of treason in the early 19th Century. He is locked in an island prison for years, but a fellow inmate tells him of a secret stash of treasure, and he eventually enacts his meticulous revenge. This "masterful adaptation stands as one of the best renditions of Dumas' work to date, says Linda Marric in HeyUGuys. "Every twist and turn of the plot is delivered with maximum impact, [but] the film's takeaway is a haunting reflection on the cost of revenge and the perils of letting obsession dictate one's life."
Released on 20 December in the US
Kraven the Hunter
It's been a relatively quiet year for superhero films, but there have already been two set in Sony's Spider-Man Universe, ie they revolve around supporting characters from Marvel's Spider-Man comics, but they don't feature Spidey himself. Neither Madame Web nor Venom: The Last Dance was exactly a triumph, mind you, but maybe this year's third SSMU film, Kraven the Hunter, will hit the mark. Aaron Taylor-Johnson stars as a Russian big-game hunter with enhanced strength and heightened senses. Ariana DeBose is his love interest, Russell Crowe is his gangster father, and Alessandro Nivola is another Spider-Man villain, the Rhino. More intriguingly, the director, JC Chandor, is known for downbeat dramas (Margin Call, All is Lost, A Most Violent Year), and he has suggested that Kraven the Hunter will be another of those. "Sony probably doesn't want me to lead with this," Chandor said in Esquire, "but the story is a tragedy. When the final credits roll on this film, if you've been paying attention, you won't have the feeling that this is all going to end great."
Released on 12 December in cinemas internationally
The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim
A decade on from the last big-screen Tolkien adaptation – Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies – it's time for another film set in Middle Earth. Jackson is the executive producer, and his usual co-writer, Philippa Boyens, is the producer. But The War of the Rohirrim is different from their previous work. Set two centuries before Jackson's films, it takes its story from an appendix at the end of Tolkien's novel, so its main characters haven't been seen on screen before. It also has a Japanese director, Kenji Kamiyama, who has made a cartoon in the Japanese anime style. "When they suggested anime, that's when my brain really started whirring," Boyens said in Entertainment Weekly. "Immediately, the idea of telling this story came to me… I felt that it would work for anime because it's so character-based and also contained within its own world. It speaks to certain things that work really well with Japanese storytelling."
Released on 11 December in cinemas internationally
Mufasa: The Lion King
The Lion King has been a massive hit as a cartoon, a stage musical and a photorealistic remake of the cartoon, and now the franchise comes roaring back with Mufasa: The Lion King, which is a prequel to the photorealistic remake. It tells the tale of how Simba's orphaned father, Mufasa, made his perilous journey to the Pride Lands, soundtracked with new songs by Lin-Manuel Miranda. The most surprising part of the film is its director, Barry Jenkins, who is best known for his Oscar-winning drama, Moonlight. He has been criticised for taking on a Disney prequel, but he has said that Jeff Nathanson's script convinced him that the project was right for him. "I found the story incredibly moving," Jenkins said in The New York Times. "There's this character who we know of as inherently great or inherently royal, and we get to really go in and explore how this person came to be. We're also looking at what makes some people good and others evil, and how people aren't fundamentally one or the other."
Released on 18 December in cinemas internationally
Nosferatu
FW Murnau's unofficial Dracula adaptation, Nosferatu, came out more than a 100 years ago, but it still stands as cinema's creepiest ever vampire film. Robert Eggers, the director of The Witch and The Lighthouse, is such an obsessive fan of the film that he staged it as a school play when he was 17 years old, and now he's written and directed his own remake starring Bill Skarsgård as the undead Count Orlok, Nicholas Hoult as the hapless estate agent who visits him at his Transylvanian castle, Lily-Rose Depp as the woman who falls under Orlok's spell and Willem Dafoe as an expert on vampire lore. Eggers told Anthony Breznican in Vanity Fair that his Nosferatu boasts an authentic 19th-Century setting – and an authentic 19th-Century vampire, too. "This Orlok is more of a folk vampire than any other film version. That means he's a dead person... For the first time in a Dracula or Nosferatu story, this guy looks like a dead Transylvanian nobleman. Every single thing he's wearing down to the heels on his shoes is what he would've worn. That's never been done."
Released on 25 December in the US, Canada, Mexico and Spain
That Christmas
Several intertwining stories set over a picture-perfect festive season in England? A bashful boy who gets tongue-tied in front of the girl he adores? That Christmas may be a cartoon, but it's easy to guess that it was co-written by Richard Curtis, the romantic softy who scripted and directed Love Actually. Inspired by three children's picture books, which were also written by Curtis, it's a cosy animation set in a quaint Suffolk seaside village. Santa Claus (voiced by Brian Cox) is coming to town, but a heavy snowfall there might stop the residents from spending the big day together. This "delightful holiday feature offers something for everyone, especially the people who get mushy about glossy stories about human connection," says Kate Erbland in IndieWire. "The old chestnuts hold true for this one, the goofy holiday puns: it's a gift well worth unwrapping and sharing with the ones you love most."
Released on 6 December on Netflix internationally
A Complete Unknown
Bob Dylan has had such a long and trailblazing career that it would be impossible to sum up its twists and turns in one conventional biopic: when Todd Haynes made I'm Not There, he resorted to casting six different actors (including Cate Blanchett) to play him in six different storylines. James Mangold's approach in A Complete Unknown is to stick to Dylan's early years, in particular his rise to fame as a folk singer in New York's Greenwich Village, and his controversial pivot to electric guitar-driven rock'n'roll in 1965. Timothée Chalamet has the starring role, and is already being tipped for an Oscar nomination. "Oscar voters can't resist a biopic," says the BBC's Caryn James. "Consider this: A Complete Unknown was directed by James Mangold, who directed another awards-bait musical biopic, Walk the Line (2005). Reese Witherspoon won the best actress Oscar for her performance in that film as June Carter Cash and Joaquin Phoenix earned a best actor nomination as Johnny Cash. If nothing else, A Complete Unknown may well bring Chalamet his second nomination, after Call Me By Your Name."
Released on 25 December in the US
Babygirl
Writer-director Halina Reijn (Bodies Bodies Bodies) takes the erotic thriller into the post-Me Too era with Babygirl, a film that brings complexity and realism to the kind of titillating premise that would have excited Adrian Lyne and Paul Verhoeven in the 1980s and 1990s. Nicole Kidman's character is the much-admired CEO of a New York tech firm, not to mention the glamorous wife of a feted theatre director (Antonio Banderas). But she has secret, unfulfilled desires which are awakened by a slippery young intern played by Harris Dickinson. Will she risk everything by embarking on an affair with an employee who's half her age? "Rarely is that workplace taboo as scintillating as it is in Babygirl, a captivating psychological drama," says Johnny Oleksinski in the New York Post. "It's hard to imagine audiences being more glued to another movie this year, so sexy and stirring the story is from start to finish."
Released on 25 December in the US
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This year was defined by a host of average TV shows that were glossy and watchable enough but insubstantial and forgettable – as epitomised by the Nicole Kidman thriller. Here's why.
As the year comes to an end and everyone takes a look back over 2024's best TV offerings, for some there may be a collective form of amnesia. What was that Apple TV+ crime series with that big actor in you watched – was it Presumed Innocent or Sugar? What was that nice rom-com starring Adam Brody called again? Did you watch that series where Nicole Kidman played a wealthy woman who floated around in designer dresses looking worried because her son went missing (Expats), or where she played a wealthy woman who floated around in designer dresses looking worried because someone was murdered on her estate (The Perfect Couple)?
If, perhaps with a quick Google search as a prompt, you realise you did watch The Perfect Couple, it's a show that seems to encapsulate where such interchangeable TV is at in 2024. The Perfect Couple burst onto Netflix in September, a soapy, glossy and silly adaptation of Elin Hilderbrand's 2018 novel of the same name. With a decent cast – including Kidman in a dodgy wig, Liev Schreiber, Meghann Fahy and Dakota Fanning – the six-episodes series unravelled a murder mystery set at an upper-class wedding in Nantucket. The tone of the show was off, slightly; was the melodramatic telenovela-like style in earnest or was this some kind of satire on the murder mystery genre? It was unclear. Also shoe-horned in was a cringey all-cast dance routine on the beach to Meghan Trainor's song Criminals that introduced each episode; even Fahy told Variety: "Everyone [the actors] was saying they didn't want to do this because we just didn't understand." The audience lapped it up – it was most watched on Netflix's TV chart for two weeks in a row – then it seemed to vanish from memory.
"I had actually forgotten I had watched The Perfect Couple," says Manori Ravindran, a TV industry journalist who writes for The Ankler and Broadcast. "And all I can remember about that now is the dance, which, even when I was watching it, felt like a very orchestrated device to make it stick in people's minds; a visual element to make a show memorable." While the dance gave the show a viral moment at the time, the drama as a whole didn't inspire the same cultural conversation. The Perfect Couple was the essence of a 2024 television phenomenon: the rise of Mid TV.
What is 'Mid TV'?
That term was first coined by New York Times journalist James Poniewozik in a piece for the publication in April 2024, where he suggested that the so-called "Golden age of TV" was over. Gone were the captivating and creative dramas of the mid-noughties that were a masterclass in storytelling, like The Sopranos, Mad Men and Breaking Bad, which then led to streamers like Netflix and Amazon breaking further creative boundaries as they entered the market with shows such as Orange Is the New Black, BoJack Horseman and Transparent.
Now, Poniewozik argued, the small screen is increasingly being populated by shows that look good, are fun to watch, and often feature A-lister actors – but are the very dictionary definition of "nice", and as such are instantly forgettable. Shows he placed under this banner include the likes of Apple TV+'s Palm Royale and Platonic, Amazon's Mr & Mrs Smith, and Peacock's Poker Face.
Poniewozik expanded: "Mid is not a strict genre with a universal definition. But it's what you get when you raise TV's production values and lower its ambitions. It reminds you a little of something you once liked a lot. It substitutes great casting for great ideas… Mid is based on a well-known book or movie or murder. Mid looks great on a big screen. Mid was shot on location in multiple countries. Mid probably could have been a couple episodes shorter. Mid is fine, though. It's good enough."
"I think it has been extremely prevalent this year," Ravindran tells the BBC. "I would characterise Mid TV as shows with big stars, generic characters, well-trodden storylines; nothing distinctive and just forgettable."
With a glut of shows that could be classed as Mid TV hitting screens this year, and with many of these coming from streamers such as Netflix, Apple TV+ and Amazon Prime Video, cynics might say that the decision to have its cast bopping on the beach was indeed a move to make The Perfect Couple stand out from the other Mid shows of the time. Showrunner Jenna Lamia even signalled that it was there to indicate the show was not meant to be taken seriously, despite revolving around a murder case. She told Tudum: "Susanne [Bier, the director] had this really brilliant thought that if we were to use a dance like that as the opening credits, it would tell people right away that, yes, this is a murder mystery, and yes, it's a thriller, but you're also going to have so much fun, so sit back and enjoy the ride."
However, Ravindran believes that Mid TV is something that viewers themselves have identified as a phenomenon, rather than a concerted strategy coming from TV makers. "I wouldn't say Mid TV is something the industry – producers, broadcasters and streamers – are necessarily talking about," she says. "But from an audience perspective, this is how it's received and it's quite right."
Certainly, the idea that we are living in an age of Mid TV is supported by many of the tepid reactions to the TV year from critics. Inkoo Kang of The New Yorker says that until a few late arrivals at the end of 2024, "I wondered whether I'd have enough entries for a conventional top 10 list", while Jen Chaney at Vulture said: "It was surprising how much 2024 felt like an uneventful wake for the Peak TV era. There was still great television, but there was so much more mid or meh television and far fewer exceptional offerings or moments when a critical mass of viewers seemed equally excited about the same series."
On the other hand, perhaps Mid TV is not necessarily such a bad thing, argues TV critic and commentator Dan Barrett, who writes the newsletter Always Be Watching. "TV is actually at its best when it helps serve the function that most viewers ask of it: they want TV to help them relax and unwind," he tells the BBC. "While it's great to be able to sit down and really get stuck into a weighty, substantial drama, most viewing is done after a long day at work or looking after the kids. TV that pushes the boundaries and strives for excellence should be respected, but we need to be better at celebrating the TV that meets the viewer's needs by striking that delightful balance of being a bit smart, while also not being too taxing."
Why creativity has declined
There are several reasons that we've seen so many of these distinctly average shows about recently, believe Ravindran and Barrett. "The demand for such a high volume of content from the streaming services has resulted in a lot of money spent on TV shows that look amazing with lush production values, but are often created by writers with limited TV experience," says Barrett. "It results in a lot of TV that isn't very memorable. The shows seem prestigious from the outset, but once you start watching, very quickly you realise they are 100-minute feature film ideas stretched out to 8-10 hour-long episodes."
On top of that, the straitened financial situation streamers have found themselves in recently has had an impact on the types of shows they choose to focus on. 2022 saw what bankers Morgan Stanley described to the Financial Times as "the first streaming recession". In the first quarter of 2022, Netflix revealed that they had lost 200,000 subscribers, while in the second quarter of the year, they shed another 970,000, leaving them with 220.6 million subscribers in total. "It was a really cataclysmic event for the market," says Ravindran. "Wall Street began applying more pressure on profitability. Before that it was all about growth: 'Load up on the debt and just see what happens.' But then after that it was a real turning point for the streamers as there was more accountability in terms of their bottom lines, keeping their subscribers, and growing in a meaningful way."
Netflix, who were once seen as disruptors and who pushed boundaries in the 2010s, changed tack: Netflix VP Jinny Howe was quoted in a New Yorker feature in January 2023 saying that the company's strategy for shows was to commission a "gourmet cheeseburger", ie, something "premium and commercial at the same time", a description that could be applied to many Mid TV shows. In the same article, Netflix Chief Content Officer Bela Bajaria inadvertently explained why the audience might be feeling a bit of deja vu around these samey, safe-bet series now: "What we can do is be always audience-centric: Who is this show for? If you like this show, then we're gonna give you this other thing you like. If you do that, people are gonna watch the shows, and all of those things will help the stock."
Alongside cutting down on password sharing and bringing in adverts, this risk-averse TV commissioning appears to be working for Netflix. Despite spending a relatively modest $13 billion on content in 2023 – a saving of $3.8 billion from 2022's spend of $16.8 billion, or 2021's record of $17.7 billion – they are said to have 282.7 million subscribers worldwide in the final quarter of 2024, up five million on the previous quarter. Their revenues are up almost 7% in a year, from $31.6 billion in 2022, to $33.7 billion in 2023.
Amazon Prime Video, meanwhile, had a bigger content spend than Netflix in 2023 at $18.9 billion, but is currently tied in first place with Netflix for market share in the US streaming market. Mid TV commissioning is working for them too, says Ravindran, because they "want things that are truly mainstream and will appeal to people in multiple different markets, whereas all of the other streamers [including Netflix] are more focused on local stories as they want local hits in domestic markets that then build out".
Jesse Whittock, international TV co-editor at Deadline, takes umbrage with the term Mid TV – he believes it is offensive and reductive – but says that we have landed here based on financial decisions. "I don't agree that it is a genre," he says. "If anything, it's a budgeting trend, and I think the term Mid TV is disrespectful to both the people making the programmes and the people watching them."
"What we have seen is streaming services moving into the [network] TV space that might have [previously] been the only place for what some might call a kind of 'background noise' TV," he adds, "which is probably why we're seeing more of it. They're doing that because data tells them people are watching those shows and because costs have had to come down."
It was notable, too, that one of Netflix's more genuinely boundary-pushing shows this year, the modernised Greek myths drama, Kaos, was swiftly cancelled after it launched in August, causing some online uproar. As some pointed out, it was commissioned way back in 2018, and arguably wouldn't have been given the greenlight in the more risk-averse landscape of 2024. "Pre-pandemic, the market was completely different, and was seeing commissions from Netflix left, right and centre," says Ravindran. "They're still being digested and worked out of the system, in a way."
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One thing that is still going strong from the so-called "before times" is the flocking of Hollywood A-listers to the small screen: Kidman has appeared in no less than three shows this year, while the likes of Jake Gyllenhaal, Natalie Portman and Cate Blanchett have all taken on their first leading TV role. But these days, there is less excitement around such signings, with big-name, award-winning talent increasingly coming on board for shows that are pretty generic and/or simply underwhelming.
Another phenomenon tied to Mid TV that has become wearying for some is the sheer quantity of shows devoted to the exploits of super-rich people. Some of these shows like The White Lotus or Succession have explored these environs meaningfully with dramatic or comedic bite. But there's an increasing number of pale imitators that notionally gesture at saying something about wealth and privilege while really just using an "eat the rich" theme as an excuse to revel in shots of amazing furnishings and big kitchens. As Vinson Cunningham of The New Yorker observed of The Perfect Couple: "[It] is doubling past media – not critiquing it so much as wearing its hand-me-downs and more or less pulling off the look."
Looking to the future
Mid TV, whether an acknowledged phenomenon or not, is working for the streamers. And it's working for viewers: we're watching these shows, after all. As Cunningham adds: "[It's] like [when] Lynyrd Skynyrd plays Free Bird or Billy Joel plays Piano Man: because we're all asking for it, and because we won't stop."
But if Mid TV is the new norm, then where does this leave truly prestige TV, the kind that critics have salivated over since the beginning of the "golden age of TV" all those years ago? We shouldn't worry too much, says Whittock. Among all the many series thrown out across the streamers, "There are edgy and prestige programmes launching all the time and finding success. Shōgun, a Japanese-language historical drama for Disney+, won more Emmys than any other single season of TV in history and [Netflix series] Baby Reindeer, a wild story from a Scottish stand-up comedian about mental health, is arguably the year's most-talked about show."
"HBO will be back in a meaningful way next year," predicts Ravindran. "They were hard hit by the strikes, but things like the Harry Potter show are going to be massive for them. Prestige TV will still exist, but will be reduced, and I think we'll have to get used to returning shows focused around crime, hospitals and police procedurals."
Barrett agrees: "The buzzword now is to make 'returnable dramas' – shows that are more [in] the old-school [episodic] TV format where plots are established and resolved in a single episode, with viewers able to pick up a show at any episode and have a fulfilling viewing experience."
Jackson McHenry of Vulture noted the move towards this format in his publication's end-of-year round-up, too, writing: "I've given in to the power of the procedural, and I think television has, too… This year, as prestige TV contracted, some television producers determined that the old ways might be better, so long as they're well written and well cast."
Whether it's full of episodic procedurals or glossy but insubstantial miniseries like The Perfect Couple, it seems like we could be in for a less creatively exciting era of TV ahead. But if that's what audiences want – and what makes streamers financially sustainable – then critics' complaints may fall on deaf ears.
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This prequel to a re-make "never picks up momentum" – "Don't the talented artists involved have anything better to do with their time?"
When the CEO of Disney announced in February that the studio would start relying more on "sequels and franchises", he wasn't joking. Already this year, we've had Inside Out 2 and Moana 2, and now we have Mufasa: The Lion King, a prequel to 2019's photorealistic remake of 1994's much-loved cartoon.
Yes, we're talking about a prequel to a remake. And, yes, it's as pointless as that description makes it sound. This contrived cash-in may be worth sitting through on Disney+ if you're a Lion King superfan, but, like so many prequels, it devotes tremendous amounts of thought and energy to answering questions that nobody was asking in the first place. When did Simba's dad Mufasa meet his wife Sarabi? Where did Rafiki the mandrill get his walking stick? How did Zazu the hornbill become Mufasa's right-hand man (or, I suppose, right-paw bird)? The film is directed by Barry Jenkins, who made the Oscar-winning Moonlight, and the songs are by Lin-Manuel Miranda, the most feted Hollywood and Broadway songwriter of his generation, so a more pressing question might be: don't the supremely talented artists involved have anything better to do with their time?
The big question the film answers, however, is how a lowly lion named Mufasa (Aaron Pierre) found his way to the idyllic Pride Lands with a friend who would become known as Scar (Kelvin Harrison Jr) – and I can guarantee that nobody had been asking that question, because it contradicts everything that was established in The Lion King. If you remember, the whole point of the original film was that Mufasa's son Simba was the latest in a long line of monarchs who had protected the Pride Lands for generations, and that Mufasa's younger brother Scar was annoyed about his place in the pecking order. But presumably somebody at Disney became uncomfortable with that feudal premise, so they've scrapped it in favour of a more complicated and egalitarian origin story. The trouble is that this democratic new version fits the lore so badly that the producers might as well have renamed their film Mufasa: The Lion Prime Minister. It's as bad as Padmé being "elected" as the queen of her planet when she was a 14-year-old girl in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
Anyway, the film opens with the news that Simba (Donald Glover) and his wife Nala (Beyoncé) are about to have another cub, so they disappear into a forest without telling their daughter Kiara (Blue Ivy Carter) where they're going or why. (The motivation behind this bizarrely bad bit of parenting is never explained.) Kiara's babysitters are Timon the meerkat (Billy Eichner) and Pumbaa the warthog (Seth Rogen), and together they sit in a cave while Rafiki (John Kani) tells her about her grandfather Mufasa. After this unnecessarily long and complicated set-up, the main plot gets underway. (Spoiler ahead)
It turns out that Mufasa doesn't come from a royal bloodline, despite having a name that means "king". As a cub, he lives happily with his family until it's time for one of those childhood traumas that Disney is so fond of: a flood kills his father and washes Mufasa away to a distant region. It's there that he meets the future Scar, who is currently a spoilt princeling named Taka. The two of them grow up together as brothers – but then along comes another childhood trauma. A pack of white lions called the Outsiders invades their territory and kills Taka's father. Mufasa and Taka have to run away, but it's already clear that one of them is becoming noble and brave, while the other is becoming bitter and deceitful.
This series of unfortunate events raises more questions than it answers. For one thing, why do so many fathers get killed in the Lion King franchise? For another, why did Rafiki think that this disturbing tale of woe would be suitable for the worried little Kiara to hear? What we're supposed to be asking is whether Mufasa and Taka's trek will take them all the way to the Pride Lands before the Outsiders hunt them down, but, of course, anyone who has seen The Lion King knows that they succeed, so there isn't any tension. Their odyssey includes lots of racing through meadows and scrambling up trees – and the camera does so much whirling and swinging around that you'd be advised to take sea-sickness tablets – but the film never picks up momentum.
At least there is some gorgeous scenery to admire along the way. Because Mufasa and Taka are on the move, the range of colourful vistas is more varied and engaging than the drab brown backgrounds of The Lion King. But the same isn't true of the CGI animals, who are less naturalistic and less characterful than their 2019 counterparts. One issue is that photorealistic lions don't have the most expressive faces, nor do they look especially different from each other. That didn't really matter in the 2019 film, because the lions were usually interacting with other species. But the new film is all about lions talking to other lions while being pursued by yet more lions, so it can be visually monotonous. It can also be challenging to keep track of which lion is which.
The animation isn't the only problem with Mufasa: The Lion King, either. The fact is, the quality of every component is a step or two down from its equivalent in The Lion King. Miranda's songs show off his wizardry with scansion and rhyme schemes, but they don't have the karaoke-friendly melodies that Elton John and Tim Rice's songs had. And the voice cast gets worse with every addition to the franchise. Rowan Atkinson voiced Zazu in 1994, John Oliver took over in 2019, and now we have Preston Nyman, who doesn't have the comic chops of either of them. Similarly, Scar was played by the mighty Jeremy Irons in the cartoon, and Chiwetel Ejiofor in the remake, whereas now we have Kelvin Harrison Jr, who can't decide which accent he is going for. As for poor Aaron Pierre in the title role, are we supposed to believe that his voice will ever deepen into the impossibly rich and booming tones of James Earl Jones, the man who played Mufasa in both previous Lion King films? That's as ridiculous as the notion that Jake Lloyd or Hayden Christensen could ever grow up to be Darth Vader.
The worst part of the production is the dull screenplay by Jeff Nathanson, which has Mufasa plodding through Africa, bumping into various members of the supporting cast, and having tedious soul-searching conversations that sound like therapy sessions. There are also regular interruptions, as the film keeps cutting back to Rafiki as he recounts his tale, and Timon and Pumbaa make postmodern wisecracks. These interludes add some welcome comic relief, but they're a reminder that there is hardly any humour in the central narrative. "This story is killing me," moans Pumbaa at one point. "I need a bathroom break!" Viewers will know how he feels.
★★☆☆☆
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From Queer to Baby Reindeer and Will & Harper, LGBTQ representation took a step forward as film and TV showed more varied and authentic characters than ever before.
Luca Guadagnino's latest film, Queer, takes us to the dream-like streets of 1950s Mexico City, where we meet Lee (Daniel Craig) – a US expat who spends most of his time downing tequila shots, smoking, and (mostly unsuccessfully) pursuing young men. As Lee self-medicates with alcohol and opiates, he becomes infatuated with Allerton (Drew Starkey), a handsome former US navy serviceman who he meets by chance. The pair soon start a relationship where, for the first time, Lee experiences sex that feels reciprocal, with emotional strings attached. But Allerton soon becomes distant. As a confused Lee feels his young lover pulling away, he begins to ask: "Is Allerton even queer?"
On the face of things, Queer couldn't be more different from sexy tennis drama Challengers – Guadagnino's previous film, starring Zendaya, Mike Faist and Josh O'Connor, which became a hit in April 2024. But there are similarities in how both films explore forbidden lust, the space between identity and desire. Screenwriter Justin Kuritzkes, who wrote both films, tells the BBC that he sees them as "sister" projects. "As I was writing Queer, I didn't realise that it was an echo of Challengers," he says. "But now, I see that very clearly – they're both movies that culminate in a conversation that is happening beyond language."
Aside from their constant simmering sexual tension, another thing that both films have in common is the audience never quite knowing who to root for. This is typical of a year where LGBTQ+ characters in films and TV shows have been seen in a wider variety of different scenarios, roles, and circumstances than ever before, from wholesome romances and coming out journeys, to queer murderers, and characters who put themselves in perplexing (and maddening) situations. In 2024, culture has shown us that LGBTQ+ people and relationships can be messy and complicated, with characters who are chaotic and flawed.
Some might question the interpretation of Challengers as queer art. Aside from its gay director, the film is ostensibly about a heterosexual love triangle between tennis coach Tashi Duncan (Zendaya) and tennis pros Art Donaldson (Faist) and Patrick Sweig (O'Connor). Still, culture writer Zing Tsjeng thinks the queer fandom of the film, which was inescapable online for months surrounding the film's release, speaks for itself: "Even if there isn't an explicit queer context, Guadagnino seems to have crafted the film with a deliberately queer sensibility." Tsjeng thinks the casting of Zendaya as an impeccably dressed alpha female tennis coach is not only destined to spark "a million lesbian awakenings" (especially given the sport's history of pioneering lesbians, such as Billie Jean King) but her character has the makings of an icon for gay men, too. "From the first moment we meet her, Tashi is bending these men to her will," she says. "It's quite similar to the heroines of mid-20th Century cinema, who gay men have been obsessed with for decades."
The bond between Art and Patrick is the most intriguing (and erotic) in the film. Officially, the two of them are best friends-turned-enemies, but their relationship still radiates sweaty, playful, competitive sexual tension. Kuritzkes sees Patrick and Art as both "brothers" and "orphans," who were effectively shunted off by their well-to-do parents to be raised at a tennis academy. Near the start of the film, the three leads drink cans of beer in a cheap hotel room, and Patrick shares the oddly touching story of how he instructed Art on how to masturbate when they were teenagers sharing a dorm room. "They've gone through everything together, and they've shared a lot of the intimacy that you share with somebody who you grew up with," Kuritzkes says. "And whether we acknowledge it or not, in every friendship, and especially in every male friendship between two guys who have literally grown up together since puberty, there's an unspoken hum of eroticism and repression."
In the early stages of the film, there is a scene where Art and Patrick end up sharing an impromptu kiss when Tashi excuses herself from what started out as a three-way smooch. But soon that is eclipsed by an unexpectedly homoerotic scene, where the pair playfully eat a stick of churros together. The moment went viral on social media, and was described as the film's "best sex scene," with some fans even recreating the moment for Halloween. "Art and Patrick's relationship was always very pronounced to me. In every draft of the script from the very first one, there was this theme of them both eating stuff that was shaped like a churro, whether it was hot dogs or smoking cigarettes or whatever," Kuritzkes says. "Then when we got on set, Mike and Josh developed a deeper relationship and it turned into the iconic thing that it's become."
'Real portrayals'
Netflix's Baby Reindeer, written by and starring Richard Gadd, was one of the year's most talked-about TV shows. It followed Donny (Gadd), an aspiring comedian who is targeted by a stalker, Martha (Jessica Gunning), who becomes an overwhelming (and terrifying) presence in his life. As Donny navigates their complicated relationship, he questions his own sexuality. We learn about his encounters with Darrien, a male TV executive (Tom Goodman-Hill) who plied him with drugs and sexually assaulted him. He also begins a relationship with Teri (Nava Mau), a trans woman he met on a trans dating app.
One of the most interesting parts of Baby Reindeer is how it challenges our ideas of how victims are expected to behave. There are many points where Donny appears to encourage Martha's behaviour, or willingly returns to Darrien even though he knows he is abusing him. Jeffrey Ingold, who worked as an LGBTQ+ consultant on the Netflix show, tells the BBC that this represents a "move towards more authentic, interesting and ultimately more real portrayals of queer characters on screen".
As a therapist with a successful career and her own apartment, Teri is a refreshing break from trans characters who are often portrayed as living precariously. (2020 Netflix documentary Disclosure unpacks numerous trans screen tropes, such as the long history of trans characters being portrayed as murder victims in hospital and crime dramas). "One of the conversations we had was about making sure that Teri's character development wasn't entirely relational to Donny," Ingold says. "We wanted to build in moments that showed Teri existing as her own person, so she wasn't just an object of his desire."
Part of Ingold's role as a consultant is helping shows to steer clear of harmful queer stereotypes without "creating the most politically correct characters". Ultimately, Donny ends up treating Teri – the person who seems to care about him the most – badly throughout their relationship, in part because he's ashamed of her and himself. "Queer people are not all good. They're not all bad. There are layers within us as there are with any people," Ingold says. "Representation isn't just about which identities you see on screen, but the spectrum of humanity."
This is on full display in Will & Harper – the Netflix docu-film starring Will Ferrell and his collaborator, Saturday Night Live comedy writer Harper Steele. After Steele came out as trans at the age of 61, the pair embark on a 17-day road trip across the US, to learn more about each other in this new phase of their decades-long friendship. As they travel from New York to California, they discuss what it means to be a trans person – and a friend of a trans person – in the US today, when the community is facing increased legal restrictions.
The film refutes the idea that trans people are some kind of 21st-Century phenomenon. Steele gets very candid about her mental health struggles from a very young age, but also her insecurities about how she looks today, and her relationship with femininity. She tells the BBC that seeing stories like this will be central to humanising trans people in the years ahead. "Representation is extremely important," she says. "Every marginalised community needs both – representation in culture, but also political organising for legislative battles."
Will & Harper is as much about loving a trans person as it is about being trans. Ferrell says the film is one of the proudest moments of his career: "To lend whatever currency I have to a project like this is the most satisfying thing." Still, it is by no means a "how-to" guide. There are times where he well-meaningly gets things wrong, like when they go to a steakhouse in Texas and all-eyes are suddenly on Steele. Ferrell chooses to create a spectacle – by eating a steak in the middle of the restaurant, dressed in a Sherlock Holmes costume – which exposes her to confused staring and, when the footage makes it to social media, transphobic abuse. Ferrell now says he is so happy that those moments were left in, because they help the film to "cut through in a way that is really impactful, and lead to meaningful conversations". And Steele thinks the few uncomfortable parts represent an important lesson when supporting someone who is coming out: "It's OK to be messy."
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Speaking of mess, Layla – a British film released in November, which follows the story of a non-binary drag performer (Bilal Hasna) as they embark on a romance with a well-to-do city boy, Max (Louis Greatorex) – has plenty of it. The film is a wholesome, sexy story about two queer people from different backgrounds who each have their own baggage. It is most notable in its distinct lack of familial rejection or violence, which can tend to occur frequently in LGTBQ+ romance stories. Instead, the stakes are refreshingly low. "I wanted the characters to be frustrating, messy, complicated, and make decisions that annoy the audience," says writer and director Amrou Al-Kadhi. "Layla, the queer Arab protagonist, is not a victim as most audiences would expect. They lie a lot, they don't communicate, they cut people off, they people-please – they are very much the agent of their own chaos."
Thematically, Layla is the opposite of a movie like All of Us Strangers – Andrew Haigh's critically acclaimed romantic fantasy film, which explores grief, gay shame and loneliness. Both films coexisting in 2024 (All of Us Strangers came out in January in the UK), might be a sign that, as Ingold puts it, culture is "moving past the time of audiences simply needing to see queer people," towards a norm where "we want to see queer people in a range of different roles."
Looking back at the last 12 months, it certainly feels that way: there have been villains, like queer-coded killer Andrew Scott in Ripley, Netflix's neo-noir TV adaptation of the 1955 Patricia Highsmith novel. In Netflix's Christmas thriller, Black Doves, viewers may have found themselves rooting for Sam Young (Ben Whishaw), a strangely endearing gay assassin. And on the theme of variety, the streamer also offered up the uber-wholesome teen romance Heartstopper and The Boyfriend, Japan's first ever gay dating show.
In Queer, the characters take us to so many different places, from the streets of 1950s Mexico to the South American jungle, and somewhere between dreams and fantasy. Ultimately, it's a story about something timeless: two people who aren't a match, no matter how much one or both of them might want to be. "Luca [Guadagnino] has said that the movie is not a story of unrequited love, but of unsynchronised love," says Kuritzkes. "That's really beautiful, because when I think about these two characters, Lee and Allerton, they are constantly trying to get in sync. For a moment it works and it's beautiful. But then there is a horror that sets in and it all becomes too intense, so they recoil."
As a protagonist, Lee is a sympathetic figure, but he could never be classed as a "role model". This feels like a sign that, with LGBTQ+ representation becoming more normalised in mainstream culture, queer characters are able to occupy a much more challenging space – somewhere between hero and villain, with both redeeming qualities and flaws. Perhaps this is a step towards an era of more honest, complex representation. "We want characters that are as cruel and kind and honest and duplicitous and sympathetic and unsympathetic and ego-driven and selfless as the people we meet in real life," Kuritzkes says. "Those contradictions are what makes somebody feel real."
Queer is in cinemas now.
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In December 1933, five-year-old Shirley Temple signed with a nearly-bankrupt Fox Studios. In History looks back at how she revived the studio's fortunes – and became a superstar.
"The lesson was 'time is money', and 'it's work not play'. And I learned that before I became a star."
When Shirley Temple was interviewed on the BBC in 1989 about her superstar childhood, she was enjoying a remarkable second act in her career as a US diplomat. Despite being at one time Hollywood's best paid star, she had to work because most of her millions were long gone.
"You also saved 20th Century Fox from bankruptcy, didn't you?" chat-show host Terry Wogan asked the woman who was by then known by her married name, Shirley Temple-Black. "I think so," she replied.
In 1933, Fox Studios was nearly bankrupt. Founded by William Fox in 1915, it thrived during the silent-movie era. By the time the Great Depression arrived, it was operating at a loss, owed millions and share prices had plummeted. To the rescue: one blonde, curly-haired little girl.
Two weeks before signing her contract with the studio, she had been cast in Stand Up and Cheer! alongside James Dunn, who was to play her father. While their parts were relatively small, the pair made such an impression that they were immediately cast in more films together. Shirley Temple became a household name.
Temple's first foray into showbusiness came when her mother took her to dance classes, aged two and a half. She told the BBC: "I had so much energy – and wouldn't take a nap – that she put me in a neighbourhood dancing school that was less than two miles from our house. And I would work out there, you know – learn the rumba and the tango."
It was in that school where she was discovered by director Charles Lamont, and cast in a series of short films called Baby Burlesks. She was paid a total of $10 for every day she was filming but rehearsals were unpaid, and Temple was not complimentary about the production. She said: "He wasn't a great producer. He was a very cheap producer. It was part of a lot in Hollywood called 'Poverty Row'."
Dark clouds
Lamont, along with producer Jack Hays, worked for the Educational Films Corporation. The then three year old starred in eight films, but the set was not a pleasant place for Temple or the other child actors there. She described a punishment for misbehaving: "They had two sound boxes on our set. One of them had a big cake of ice in it, and when any of us misbehaved we were sent one by one into the black box to cool off and think about it. In the dark, with the door closed." She added: "I got a lot of earaches, I got a lot of styes, I got a lot of problems from that. I was in the box several times."
Also, parents weren't allowed on the set with their children. Instead, Temple's mother made costumes, gave her acting lessons and styled her hair every night into distinctive ringlets.
The topics of the films, nowadays, seem incredibly inappropriate. Temple described them as "take-offs of adult movies". One of the first characters she played was named Morelegs Sweet Trick, a pun on film star Marlene Dietrich. War Babies featured a three-year-old Shirley dressed in an off-the-shoulder blouse and a nappy held with a comically large safety pin, dancing for other children playing soldiers, who fight over her and give her lollipops. In Polly Tix in Washington, she is a "strumpet" sent to seduce a "senator". In her first scene, she wears a bra and is filing her nails. She later turns up to the senator's office wearing strings of pearls, and tells the toddler playing the senator she's been sent to "entertain" him. Temple noted in her autobiography, Child Star, that the films were "a cynical exploitation of our childish innocence" and also "occasionally were racist or sexist".
The next step was a series of small roles under contract with producer, writer and director Jack Hays. When he went bankrupt, her father bought back her contract, having realised how bad it had been in the first place. Not long afterwards, Temple was spotted dancing in a lobby by a songwriter who worked for Fox. She was asked to audition for Stand Up and Cheer!, a film that was currently shooting. She got a small part, which meant two weeks' pay.
The film's premise is that the Great Depression is the result of a lack of "optimism", so auditions are held to find entertainers to cheer people up. Temple and James Dunn were partners in a dance sequence. There wasn't enough time for her to learn new choreography, so she taught Dunn a dance that she had learned for a different performance. Immediately after filming, she was offered a one-year contract, with a potential seven-year extension, for $150 a week. Her mother was also paid to accompany her on set. They signed the contract on 21 December 1933. In her autobiography, Temple called it "the first in a series of clouds to hover darkly over the next seven years".
Temple and Dunn's next film was Baby, Take a Bow, which premiered in April 1934. She was also loaned out to other studios for thousands of dollars, many times what she was being paid. Later that year, Bright Eyes came out. Written specifically for the pair, the film featured a song that would become her signature tune: On the Good Ship Lollipop.
But Fox Studios had been struggling ever since the stock market crash of 1929, and in 1934, Fox merged with 20th Century Pictures to become 20th Century Fox. According to Vanity Fair, Fox executive Winfield Sheehan said: "They didn't buy the Fox studio, they bought Shirley Temple."
Raising spirits
In her first year with the company, she appeared in 10 films. That year was so notable that at the 1935 Oscars she was presented with the first Academy Juvenile Award – and she remains the youngest person to have been awarded one.
Temple proved to be a big box-office draw for Depression-era audiences who wanted to see optimistic, happy films in theatres. President Franklin D Roosevelt said of her, "During this Depression, when the spirit of the people is lower than at any other time, it is a splendid thing that for just 15 cents an American can go to a movie and look at the smiling face of a baby, and forget his troubles."
As her films became more lucrative, her pay also increased until she was the best-paid star in Hollywood – all by the age of 10. Her work schedule may have been intense, but as an adult she looked back on it fondly. After signing the contract with Fox, her mother was always on set with her. One notable thing that separated Temple from other child stars is that she had a close relationship with her parents. She dedicated her autobiography to her "loving mother". Other child stars weren't as lucky.
In 1939, California passed the California Child Actor's Bill, commonly known as the Coogan Act, after Jackie Coogan. Coogan, born 13 years before Temple, became one of the first child stars when he appeared with Charlie Chaplin in the 1921 hit movie, The Kid. He earned millions of dollars, but it was spent by his mother and stepfather, whom he sued in 1938. The legal battle led to California passing a bill that specified working conditions, and ensured that 15% of a child actor's wages would be set aside in a so-called Coogan account.
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Temple's good luck with her parents only went so far. Because her father had worked in a bank, he became her business manager. However, as she told the BBC, "he left school right after the seventh grade", and was coaxed into making bad investments. "Out of the $3,200,000 that I had earned from everything – doll sales, books, and clothing and so forth – I had $44,000 left in a trust account," she said.
Many aspects of her films didn't age well. Temple told the BBC that, while she and Bill "Bojangles" Robinson were the first on-screen interracial dance partners, any scenes in which they touched were often cut. Meanwhile, off-screen, Hollywood was often a sinister place for young actors. Long after her film career ended, Temple would recount predatory behaviour she endured when she was as young as 12.
She retired from films aged 22; her last film being A Kiss for Corliss in 1949. It did not mark the end of her interesting career, though – she went on to work in international relations, and to serve in the US government as an ambassador to both Ghana and Czechoslovakia. In their interview, Temple told Wogan that the ambassadorship to Ghana "was the best job of my whole life".
Wogan asked her: "Are you fed up with that Good Ship Lollipop song?"
"No," Temple replied. "It's gotten me a long way."
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The Oscar-tipped film by RaMell Ross adapts Colson Whitehead's novel about two boys at an abusive "reform" school and shoots it from their point of view. The effect is profound.
There's no film this year, perhaps no film this decade, that looks and feels like Nickel Boys. The innovative new film from director RaMell Ross is based on the Pulitzer prize-winning novel by Colson Whitehead about an abusive "reform" school for boys, and provides a revolutionary perspective on the US's racist past (and how it always informs the present), during the era of Jim Crow. This is in part because it focuses on the human experience rather than oppressive systems and punishment, above all through its use of a first-person viewpoint. Ross drops us behind the eyes of Elwood (Ethan Herisse), an idealistic young man living in Florida in the 1960s, a bright future ahead of him. That's cut short when he's wrongfully convicted of car theft and sent to Nickel Academy. The school is functionally a jail, based on a real institution in Florida known for the discovery of dozens of unmarked graves on its property.
At Nickel, Elwood meets another young man named Turner (Brandon Wilson), who has a more cynical outlook on the civil rights movement that is unfolding at the time of their imprisonment. Ross frequently switches perspectives, not just between first-person and third-person framing (where the camera is locked to behind the character's head) but also between the viewpoints of Elwood and Turner, letting us see each character how their friend sees them and transforming our view of each in the process. Like the book, it also periodically checks in with an adult Elwood (Daveed Diggs) reckoning with what happened.
Ross says that the camerawork in Nickel Boys is designed to reflect how every human being is the centre of their own world, but also how they experience the world in a way that they haven't yet processed. "It's about giving the person – about giving Elwood – not the hindsight of ourselves, which is to look at things as if they're meaningful, but just to look at things that will become meaningful," he tells the BBC. "So the narrative will always be secondary to the experience of looking."
The way in which Elwood and Turner's individual experiences are presented through the cameras – which were operated by Ross himself as well as cinematographer Jomo Fray and another cameraman, Sam Ellison, so they could each take breaks – includes movement mimicking that of a person's eyes; the characters voices' come from off screen, and you see their hands and feet, and sometimes their faces if they look at a reflective surface. Sometimes you really feel the restriction of their point of view, such as when they are getting chased and can't tell how far someone is behind them, or hear menacing noises around the corner in their racially segregated hometown.
The filming challenges
In order to create that point of view, the practical requirements of shooting in first person were demanding, but also allowed for spontaneity. Ross and Fray did away with a lot of the traditional structuring and planning of shots, and things were adjusted depending on the scene.
Ross says that "the blocking became more gestural" – more about considering what the character would be looking at, and how to make it so that body parts showed up in frame correctly, than it was about about traditional orchestration of how and where actors moved. For the filming of some of these point-of-view shots, the actor for the character whose eyes we are looking through wasn't even on set.
Nickel Boys isn't the first film to use first-person cinematography, but it's certainly the first mainstream film release to use it in such a profound way. In the past, it's a technique which has mostly been reserved for gimmicky horrors or action films that are often emulating first-person shooter video games – take for example 2017 Korean film The Villainess, or the (awful) 2015 sci-fi thriller Hardcore Henry.
Nickel Boys goes in the opposite direction to these types of films – instead of using the first-person point of view in service of pumped-up sensationalism, Ross is looking to throw out traditional narrative form and create something much more impressionistic. It's a striking choice, in particular, for a film based on a novel, when so often such adaptations rely on chunks of diaristic voiceover and rigid structure. Nickel Boys shows how offering a visual window into the things that a character pays attention to is as good as internal monologue in helping the audience to understand them.
To Ross, the choice to shoot a lot of the film from the first-person viewpoint seemed obvious. "Why can't we get closer to our sensibility and subjectivity on screen," he asks. In particular, he says, adopting the first person POV "seemed to me just to be an act that would be refreshing for black folks, to look up on the screen and see their hands are doing something in the world. For many years I've been like, 'Why has no one ever made [a film like] this?'"
Ross acknowledges that he is hardly the first filmmaker to use first person – he cites Harmony Korine's recent experimental action film Aggro Dr1ft (2023) – but it's the context in which he uses it which sets him apart. His editing collapses scenes together into something resembling stream-of-consciousness, and this experiential viewpoint feels especially significant when applied to Nickel Boys' subject matter: all too often, this era of American race relations and racism is depicted from the outside looking in.
"An original concept in the writing process was, 'What happened if you give Elwood and Turner a camera to make their own Hale County, right?'" Ross says, referring to his acclaimed 2018 documentary Hale County This Morning, This Evening. That film, which made his name, was an extremely intimate, again impressionistic portrait of the black community in the Alabama town of Hale County, where Ross moved in 2009. "Cameras weren't portable, obviously, they weren't digital in the 50s, 60s and 70s," Ross continues. "And so no one would ever be able to gather enough footage to make something as poetic and as observational as that." With Nickel Boys, he and Fray wondered about "how what people understand to be the image of black people [would] have changed if in the 60s people had access to show their point of view".
Its transformative view of black experience
Ellen Jones, journalist and author of Screen Deep: How Film and TV can Solve Racism and Save the World, praises the groundbreaking effect of the film's formal conceit. "What is so exciting and impressive about Ross's use of the camera in Nickel Boys is that it demands we consider not just the story, but how the story is told," she says. "The first-person position of the camera eliminates the voyeuristic distance from racist violence, which has been typical [in film], and inserts us in the subjectivity of the black characters. That fact that it feels immersive and never gimmicky is nothing short of miraculous."
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This first person perspective certainly makes it stand out from the many other films about the Jim Crow era: Jones points out how conventional dramas by white filmmakers, such as Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), Mississippi Burning (1988), Green Book (2018) and Hidden Figures (2016), are designed to speak to a presumed white audience by focusing on sensationalised images of black people in pain.
Ross's break from a tradition of narrative presentation connects back to an appropriately freeform personal essay he wrote for Film Quarterly titled Renew The Encounter. It speaks of decoupling an idea of "blackness" from a commodified, mainstream American sensibility. This aim is reflected in Nickel Boys – as is the expressed desire to "create the personal-poetic experience of blackness". His films do this by taking minute everyday experience and expanding it into an entire visual world, aiming, as he puts it in Renew the Encounter, to "bring elation to the experience of blackness". Doing this and being honest about history is a delicate balance, but Nickel Boys achieves it: the suffering of its protagonists is included as an honest reflection of their lives, but its presentation is not the film's only goal.
The first-person perspective also naturally puts certain limits on what the camera is showing. Some things are missed purely because the eye can only see so much. Others are excluded because the character simply doesn't want to look, such as in one harrowing scene of corporal punishment in which Elwood avoids seeing what is happening to him, the camera's gaze moving to the ground. As such, acts of physical violence often happen in the periphery of the frame – as Ross puts it, Elwood isn't there collecting evidence. "No one's in the world to show black suffering at the time in which black suffering is happening," Ross says, elaborating on his choice. "That's not the purpose of them being human in the world – it's just happening because of the larger context."
Looking back at the basis of Hale County, Ross's manifesto for that film (as shared in Filmmaker Magazine) highlights the point: "participate, not capture; shoot from not at." Nickel Boys might be the epitome of this method, as it shoots from behind its characters' very eyes. That "participation" is part of the simple reason why the film stands out from so many other depictions of the same period of troubled American history: it prioritises showing how black people live, not just what we have endured.
Nickel Boys is out now in US cinemas and in UK cinemas from 3 January
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As Shaboozey's A Bar Song (Tipsy) becomes one of the country's most celebrated tracks in 2024, what made this tribute to good-time drinking resonate so much this year?
At the dawn of 2024, not many would have predicted that the biggest names in country music this year would be Jelly Roll, Post Malone, Beyoncé, and a 29-year-old US singer-rapper of Nigerian descent named Shaboozey.
Yet Shaboozey – born Collins Obinna Chibueze – is poised to end December with one of the most celebrated songs of the year. A Bar Song (Tipsy) not only became the longest-running number one song on Billboard's Hot 100 chart in the publication's 66-year history – a distinction tied only by Lil Nas X for Old Town Road in 2019, but at the time of writing, it also spent its 25th week atop Billboard's Hot Country Songs chart. Multiple Grammy nominations for the singer are also in play. Having a Billboard record tied by two black artists with country songs is significant, since black performers, until recently, have traditionally been underrepresented on the country charts.
Like Old Town Road, the domination of A Bar Song (Tipsy) is tied to its crossover appeal. The strummed acoustic guitar, ghostly whistling, and lively fiddle create a Spaghetti Western vibe that results in a chorus perfectly tailored for line dancers at the neighbourhood club: beat counting, handclaps and group vocals make it irresistible. But there's also rap decadence lining the lyrics – Shaboozey's weary vocals make it clear that the hour is late in clubland and the point of no return has arrived. "It's last call and they kick us out the door/It's getting kind of late but the ladies want some more," he sings, followed by a pause and then the big hook: "Oh my, good Lord."
Like its title suggests, A Bar Song (Tipsy) is the sound of someone teetering on a razor edge, with salvation on one side and wreckage on the other. Where things fall depends on how many more double shots of whiskey the singer can throw back.
In that way, the song is as old as the genre itself. Drinking songs represent a subgenre of country music that dates back its earliest roots. The folk music that emerged from Appalachia in the early 20th Century often incorporated moral religious language regarding alcohol. Wreck on the Highway (1938), for example, tells the story of a horrible car accident where "whiskey and blood run together" in the aftermath. The consequences in the song are stark: "Death played her hand in destruction/But I didn't hear nobody pray."
Drinking became more prominent in the post-World War Two honky-tonk era, when the music added drums and electrification, picked up the tempo, and infused songs with greater psychological despair. The architect of the sound was Hank Williams, whose catalogue created the blueprint for modern country music. Williams was also a notorious alcoholic and prescription drug addict whose ultimate demise – death by heart attack at the age of 29 – appeared lifted from one of his songs. "I'm gonna keep drinkin' until I'm petrified/And then maybe these tears will leave my eyes," he once sang.
Williams set the bar for landmark country and folk artists, from George Jones to Ira Louvin to Townes Van Zandt, whose music channeled the depths of their lifelong struggle as fellow alcoholics. While there are many jolly country songs that celebrate alcohol's many pleasures – I Like Beer by Tom T Hall (1975), A Six Pack to Go by Hank Thompson (1966), and Chug-a-Lug by Roger Miller (1964) are the best examples – the most poignant songs about drinking tend to be those grappling with the reasons people seek a bottle in the first place. For example, on The Bottle Let Me Down (1966) by Merle Haggard and If Drinkin' Don't Kill Me (Her Memory Will) (1981) by George Jones, alcohol is a remedy for killing memories of a failed romance.
Loneliness, isolation, grief, dead-end job prospects, they're all classic fodder for songs built on binge drinking. But the most harrowing songs are those that frame alcoholism as a disease. On the 1953 Webb Pierce classic There Stands the Glass, the singer stares down an empty bourbon glass, "that will hide all my fears/that will drown all my tears". The drink will be the first one he takes that day, and he is resigned to knowing resistance is futile: "Brother, I'm on my way," he sings. The Mary Gauthier song I Drink from 1999, later covered by Bobby Bare, is the best example of this fatalism. In it, an alcoholic reveals that addiction is what defines them to the core, so fixing it is pointless. "I know what I am/But I don't give a damn," she sings.
'A taste of home'
Shaboozey's protagonist is not so despondent. His barfly is a more familiar one in modern country. In fact, in recent years, country music has continued to elevate drinking songs more than ever before, but has done so in a way in which the consequences of inebriation are largely ignored. In songs like Beer Thirty by Brooks & Dunn (1999), Tequila Makes Her Clothes Fall Off by Joe Nichols (2005), Red Solo Cup by Toby Keith (2011), Drink in My Hand by Eric Church (2011), Drunk on a Plane by Dierks Bentley (2014), Day Drinking by Little Big Town (2014), Pour Me a Drink by Post Malone (2024), and countless others, alcohol is presented, not as the thing that isolates the song's protagonist from his or her family and friends, but as the one thing that brings them together to have fun.
The shift corresponds with the intimate relationships alcohol brands have forged with the industry. Stars like Kenny Chesney, Blake Shelton, Alan Jackson, Eric Church, Luke Bryan, Miranda Lambert, Toby Keith and others signed deals to create their own brands of beer, rum, vodka, wine, mezcal – think of a type of alcohol and it's likely that a country hitmaker has their name on a bottle. Shelton, Church, Jackson, Bryan, and Lambert, and others like Dierks Bentley, John Rich, Florida Georgia Line, and Jason Aldean, have also all opened their own signature bars in downtown Nashville. And following a trend already established in hip-hop, some endorsement terms go as far as name-dropping the brand in a song lyric or featuring the product prominently in an accompanying video. With so much at stake, it's now less likely than ever that the latest chart-topping drinking song is going to present inebriation's dark side.
The modern audience is along for the ride. In the days of Hank Williams, so-called "hillbilly" music was largely derided by the broader entertainment industry and performers played to stereotypes that lampooned the genuine despondency felt by the rural poor. Driving the marginalisation of Southern white people was their migration by the tens of thousands early last century to Rust Belt cities like Chicago and Detroit in search of factory work. Stuck in crowded, unfriendly urban environments with harsh winters, people used storefront taverns as places where they could have a taste of home, listen to the latest hits on jukeboxes – and drink to cope with the challenges of their new lives. As this population eventually settled down and raised families that spanned generations, the music largely remained close to its roots.
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But today, country music has moved on because its audience – wealthier, more educated, and urban – has perhaps come closer to the American dream. According to 2021 data from the Country Music Association (CMA), an advocacy group in Nashville, more than a third of country music fans graduated college, more than half have full-time employment and nearly three-quarters own their own home. Half of all country fans have professional careers earning an average of $81,000 (£63,000) a year, higher than the general population, and are likely to live in cities. In other words, many of these people have bright futures, comfortable retirement accounts, and are less likely to be found staring into the bottom of a glass while alone in a dark bar before heading upon sunrise to a dead-end factory job.
Which brings us once again to Shaboozey. Born in Woodbridge, Virginia, a suburb of Washington DC, he entered the music business as a rapper and producer, but not long afterwards he released Cowboys Live Forever, Outlaws Never Die, a hip-hop album that experimented with country music, with Americana tropes lifted from Westerns. Earlier this year he gained greater notoriety by singing on two songs that appeared on Cowboy Carter, Beyoncé's country-infused album. A Bar Song (Tipsy) is another collaboration – its chorus incorporates elements from Tipsy, a 2004 hit single from Midwest rapper J-Kwon. The flirting with country music elements on Where I've Been, Isn't Where I'm Going, Shaboozey's latest album, is the furthest his music has embraced the genre – and the industry representing the genre has embraced him back.
Beyoncé and Lil Nas X have not been as fortunate. Despite its success five years ago, Old Town Road never got the widespread play on country radio that Shaboozey's hit has, mainly because it was more of a viral sensation due to both the emergence of TikTok as a dominant media platform and the marketing power of streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music. The song earned its top Billboard status through streaming; in fact, Old Town Road logged an unprecedented 143 million streams in a single week in April 2019, a record no artist has matched to this day. If the song was heard on terrestrial radio, it was largely via Top 40 pop and R&B/hip-hop stations.
Similarly, Cowboy Carter became a pop sensation last spring via a marketing campaign that announced the album was Beyoncé's reclaiming of country music for black artists, particularly women. With the album's first single, Texas Hold 'Em, she made history as the first black woman to top the Hot Country Songs chart. However, both this song and her cover of Dolly Parton's Jolene received little airplay on country radio, and in September the album received zero CMA Award nominations.
Those snubs reflect decades-old resistance by radio programmers to widen the genre lanes by race. While black artists like Charley Pride and Darius Rucker have managed to have successful country music careers thanks to country radio play, many have faced pushback. Unlike Lil Nas X, who benefited from an organic campaign via streaming platforms, Shaboozey's breakout success is largely credited to old-fashioned radio promotion, but on a much grander scale.
In 2021, Shaboozey signed to EMPIRE, a Northern California independent record label, publisher, and distributor, which had opened a Nashville division two years before. Not long after his signing, the label launched a multi-year marketing push to make him a global star. Part of that strategy was hiring indie promo company Magnolia Music to first push the song on to regional country playlists around the US before approaching other formats. Because Shaboozey was largely unknown – and his music blurred genres – he was not as clearly defined as Beyoncé, a megastar at the peak of her career. That made it easier for programmers to have more open ears and to experiment with the format. The result: A Bar Song (Tipsy) became the first song in history to reach the top 10 of Billboard's Country, Pop, Adult Pop and Rhythmic Airplay charts – which meant it was a song with such strong crossover appeal that country radio couldn't ignore even if it tried.
And in terms of its appeal, one way to listen to A Bar Song (Tipsy) is as a celebration of a lost weekend, whereas a closer listen reveals a protagonist under pressure: his girlfriend is pestering him for an expensive Birkin bag, prices for petrol and groceries are skyrocketing, and his job is not enough to cover it all. "Why the hell do I work so hard?" he asks. A reasonable question – and with good timing. The recent US presidential election proved that economic hardship is what drove the majority of voters to choose Donald Trump as the next US president, above and beyond other issues like abortion rights, immigration, the environment and crime.
But the appeal of A Bar Song (Tipsy) is that the complaint is temporary compared to the response: don't stop the party. These days, when country music contemplates serious socio-economic themes, it turns to outsiders: musicians more readily associated with other genres. Last year it was singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, whose 1988 single Fast Car – a folk song about characters living in a homeless shelter – was unexpectedly reprised by Luke Combs. His version sent the song to the top of the Billboard Hot 100, and two CMA Awards followed: single of the year and song of the year. Similarly, the songbooks of blue-collar icons Tom Petty and Bruce Springsteen have also been recently mined.
Shaboozey's narrator doesn't answer his own question about working hard. Instead, he orders another double shot of Jack Daniel's and considers going to a party on Fifth Street: "I can't worry 'bout my problems, I can't take 'em when I'm gone," he explains. Smart move – if he thought too much, the song might not be a hit.
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Charles M Schulz drew his beloved Peanuts strip for 50 years until his announcement on 14 December 1999 that ill health was forcing him to retire. In History looks at how an unassuming cartoonist built a billion-dollar empire out of the lives of a group of children, a dog and a bird.
Charles M Schulz's timeless creation Charlie Brown may have been as popular as any character in all of literature, but the cartoonist was modest about the scope of his miniature parables. In a 1977 BBC interview, he said: "I'm talking only about the minor everyday problems in life. Leo Tolstoy dealt with the major problems of the world. I'm only dealing with why we all have the feeling that people don't like us."
This did not mean that he felt as if he was dealing with trivial matters. He said: "I'm always very much offended when someone asks me, 'Do I ever do satire on the social condition?' Well, I do it almost every day. And they say, 'Well, do you ever do political things?' I say, 'I do things which are more important than politics. I'm dealing with love and hate and mistrust and fear and insecurity.'"
While Charlie Brown may have been the eternal failure, the universal feelings that Schulz channelled helped make Peanuts a global success. Born in 1922, Schulz drew every single Peanuts strip himself from 1950 until his death in February 2000. It was so popular that Nasa named two of the modules in its May 1969 Apollo 10 lunar mission after Charlie Brown and Snoopy. The strip was syndicated in more than 2,600 newspapers worldwide, and inspired films, music and countless items of merchandise.
Part of its success, according to the writer Umberto Eco, was that it worked on different levels. He wrote: "Peanuts charms both sophisticated adults and children with equal intensity, as if each reader found there something for himself, and it is always the same thing, to be enjoyed in two different keys. Peanuts is thus a little human comedy for the innocent reader and for the sophisticated."
Schulz's initial reason for focusing on children in the strip was strictly commercial. In 1990, he told the BBC: "I always hate to say it, but I drew little kids because this is what sold. I wanted to draw something, I didn't know what it was, but it just seemed as if whenever I drew children, these were the cartoons that editors seemed to like the best. And so, back in 1950, I mailed a batch of cartoons to New York City, to United Features Syndicate, and they said they liked them, and so ever since I've been drawing little kids."
Of Snoopy and Charlie Brown, he said: "I've always been a little bit intrigued by the fact that dogs apparently tolerate the actions of the children with whom they are playing. It's almost as if the dogs are smarter than the kids. I think also that the characters I have serve as a good outlet for any idea that I may come up with. I never think of an idea and then find that I have no way of using it. I can use any idea that I think of because I've got the right repertory company."
Schulz called upon some of his earliest experiences as a shy child to create the strip. As a teenager, he studied drawing by correspondence course because he was too reticent to attend art school in person. Speaking in 1977, he said: "I couldn't see myself sitting in a room where everyone else in the room could draw much better than I, and this way I was protected by drawing at home and simply mailing my drawings in and having them criticised. I wish I had a better education, but I think that my entire background made me well suited for what I do.
"If I could write better than I can, perhaps I would have tried to become a novelist, and I might have become a failure. If I could draw better than I can, I might have tried to become an illustrator or an artist and would have failed there, but my entire being seems to be just right for being a cartoonist."
Never give up
Peanuts remained remarkably consistent despite the relentless publishing schedule, and Schulz would not let the expectations of his millions of fans become a distraction. He said: "You have to kind of bend over the drawing board, shut the world out and just draw something that you hope is funny. Cartooning is still drawing funny pictures, whether they're just silly little things or rather meaningful political cartoons, but it's still drawing something funny, and that's all you should think about at that time – keep kind of a light feeling.
"I suppose when a composer is composing well, the music is coming faster than he can think of it, and when I have a good idea I can hardly get the words down fast enough. I'm afraid that they will leave me before I get them down on the paper. Sometimes my hand will literally shake with excitement as I'm drawing it because I'm having a good time. Unfortunately, this does not happen every day."
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Despite his modesty, Schulz insisted he was always confident that Peanuts would be a hit. He said: "I mean, when you sign up to play at Wimbledon, you expect to win. Obviously, there are a lot of things that I didn't anticipate, like Snoopy's going to the Moon and things like that, but I always had hopes it would become big."
Schulz generally worked five weeks in advance. On 14 December 1999, fans were dismayed to learn that he would be hanging up his pen because he had cancer. He said that his cartoon for 3 January 2000 would be the final daily release. It would be followed on 13 February with the final strip for a Sunday newspaper. He died one day before that last strip ran.
In it, Schulz wrote: "I have been grateful over the years for the loyalty of our editors and the wonderful support and love expressed to me by fans of the comic strip. Charlie Brown, Snoopy, Linus, Lucy... how can I ever forget them..."
Back in 1977, Schulz insisted that the cartoonist's role was mostly to point out problems rather than trying to solve them, but there was one lesson that people could take from his work. He said: "I suppose one of the solutions is, as Charlie Brown, just to keep on trying. He never gives up. And if anybody should give up, he should."
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In December 1950, a BBC cameraman captured the fall of Pyongyang, a defining moment in the Korean War. In History examines how the conflict ravaged the land and its people, defined the future of the peninsula, and pushed the world to the brink of a nuclear catastrophe.
"All roads leading out of the city were crowded with refugees. Few knew where they were going," reported the BBC as it broadcast images of desperate North Koreans trying to flee the burning city of Pyongyang on 5 December 1950.
The footage had been captured by BBC cameraman Cyril Page during his last hours in the North Korean capital. Upon hearing that occupying UN troops were pulling out, Page had taken to the streets to document the chaos and fear as the news spread that the Chinese troops were coming. In the harsh winter conditions, he filmed the frightened refugees carrying whatever they could as smoke bellowed out from the burning buildings behind them.
The panicked evacuation was emblematic of the dramatic reversal of fortunes experienced by the UN forces led by General Douglas MacArthur. Just weeks before, the general had promised US President Harry S Truman that he was poised to unify Korea. The fall of the city of Pyongyang and complete collapse of his military offensive into North Korea would trigger MacArthur to threaten an all-out nuclear war.
The havoc and bloodshed caused by the Korean War had begun six months earlier. In the years leading up to the end of World War Two, Korea had suffered under a brutal Japanese occupation. The US proposed to its wartime ally, the Soviet Union, that following Japan's surrender, they should temporarily divide control of Korea between them. The thought was that it would help them manage the removal of the Japanese forces. In 1945, the superpowers split the country in two along an arbitrary demarcation line, the 38th parallel. The Soviets supported Kim Il-sung in the north's Democratic People's Republic of Korea while the US backed Syngman Rhee in the Republic of Korea in the south.
From the outset, neither of the newly-created Korean governments accepted the other's legitimacy or the demarcation line. "It was never considered in any sense by Koreans to be legitimate or meaningful. It was completely meaningless to them," Dr Owen Miller of the Centre of Korean Studies at SOAS, University of London, told the BBC History Magazine podcast in 2024. Both leaders wanted to reunify the country by force. By 1949, the two superpowers had withdrawn most of their occupying troops from Korea, but it did little to ease the simmering tensions. Increasingly bloody clashes regularly broke out along the de facto border.
On 25 June 1950, North Korea's communist leader Kim Il-sung made his move. In the early hours of morning, he launched a surprise attack with a well-trained fighting force across the 38th parallel. The North Korean troops, equipped with Soviet weapons, quickly overwhelmed the Republic of Korea's army. Within days they had captured the south's capital Seoul, forcing many of its residents to swear allegiance to the Communist Party or face imprisonment or execution.
In the US, President Truman was caught off guard by the speed and success of North Korea's assault. A believer in the "Domino theory" – that if one country fell to communism others would follow – he appealed to the newly-formed UN to defend South Korea. The Soviet Union could have vetoed this vote. But at the time, it was boycotting the UN Security Council because of its refusal to admit the People's Republic of China. And so, on 28 June 1950, a resolution was passed calling on all UN member states to help repel the invasion. MacArthur, the US general who had accepted Japan's surrender at the end of World War Two, was named commander of the combined UN force.
Turning the tide
The US was the first to respond, hurriedly sending its soldiers stationed in Japan. But these troops were ill-prepared to contend with the superior North Korean forces that swept rapidly down the country, pushing them back. As the battles raged, thousands of ordinary Korean civilians caught up in the conflict were killed. By September, the South Korean and UN forces were pinned down, defending a small enclave around the port of Busan on the southern tip. North Korea looked to be on the brink of reuniting the entire Korean peninsula.
In an ambitious gamble, MacArthur decided to attempt a risky, sea-borne assault on Inchon, a port deep behind the North Korean lines. Under a heavy bombardment, UN forces landed on 15 September 1950, capturing the port and then quickly moving on to recapture Seoul. After they retook the capital, tens of thousands of its residents who had sworn allegiance to the city's previous occupiers were shot as collaborators by the South Korean forces. It was just one of a series of indiscriminate horrific mass killings of civilians that would take place over the course of the war. "There were a lot of massacres during the war, not at the frontline, away from the frontline, where people were rounded up because they were thought to be disloyal," said Dr Miller.
The Inchon operation managed to sever the North Korean army's supply lines and communication, and UN forces were able to break out of Busan and mount a fierce counteroffensive. This turned the tide of the conflict, forcing the North Koreans soldiers to retreat northwards and back across the 38th parallel.
But having achieved the UN resolution, MacArthur was determined to destroy the communist forces completely, and he ordered his troops to pursue the North Koreans across the border. By 19 October 1950, UN forces had captured Pyongyang and were advancing towards the Yalu River on the Chinese border. The situation that had been so dire for South Korea just a few months earlier now appeared to be reversed.
Truman was hesitant to expand a conflict that could pull not just China and also Russia, which by this time had developed its own atomic bomb, into another world war. But MacArthur was convinced he was on the verge of a swift, decisive victory that would reunify the country under pro-Western South Korean leadership. He assured the president that the war would be over by Christmas.
But the UN's rapid advance towards its border had unnerved China's communist leader Mao Zedong. Fearing a hostile Western military power on the country's doorstep, he ordered the Chinese army to gather secretly at its border to meet MacArthur's onrushing armies. In late November, with devastating suddenness, China changed the trajectory of the Korean War again.
Thousands of Chinese troops launched a series of devastating attacks on the advancing UN forces. Suffering heavy losses and struggling under the freezing winter conditions, MacArthur's troops were unable to hold the large swaths of territory that they had captured just weeks before. At the Battle of the Ch'ongch'on River, Chinese troops inflicted a catastrophic defeat on UN forces, causing one of the greatest and bloodiest retreats in US Marine Corps history.
The nuclear threat
As the Chinese offensive gathered momentum, the citizens of Pyongyang, which had been taken by UN forces less than two months before, again found themselves in the eye of the storm. Unable to halt the relentless Chinese advance, MacArthur made the decision to abandon the city. UN troops started preparing to evacuate and were ordered to burn any supplies and equipment that might aid the approaching soldiers, causing many of the buildings in the city to go up in flames. Aware that the North Korean and Chinese armies were threatening to purge anyone suspected of having helped the UN forces, thousands of terrified and exhausted Pyongyang residents fled the city.
In freezing weather, Page filmed these Koreans, under the supervision of the British army, desperately trying to make it across the Taedong river to avoid being trapped when the troops left. "Because of priority for military vehicles, the refugees were not permitted to cross the bridges over the Taedong river to the south of Pyongyang," the BBC reported. US engineers were rigging these bridges to blow after the last military vehicles had crossed them in an effort to slow the North Korean advance. "Yet, obsessed by the fear of being left in the city, thousands made their way to the river's edge," continued the report. "There, all kinds of craft were being prepared to take them across."
Page himself was ordered to leave from an airfield before dusk. When he reached the airfield, he discovered that much of it, too, was ablaze, with UN troops busy destroying any material they thought the North Koreans could use. "As darkness fell, blazing hangars and workshops lit up the night sky," said the BBC. "By midnight, hundreds of private dwellings near the airfield were in flames, too."
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As Page's plane left, he captured his final shots of Pyongyang, which was once a site of triumph for MacArthur, but which now seem to symbolise the failure of his military strategy. "It was almost dawn when our cameraman left Pyongyang airfield," the BBC reported, "and as his plane, one of the last to leave, flew him out he saw far below the UN retreat, with the route to the south lying under a cloud of dust from the seemingly never-ending line of vehicles."
On 6 December 1950, as Chinese and North Korean forces re-entered Pyongyang, the US strategy to end the war began to edge towards a much more dangerous idea. Truman had always had a difficult relationship with MacArthur due to the general's tendency to overstep his authority and ignore direct orders. Now in the face of the rapidly deteriorating situation in Korea, the two men found themselves clashing repeatedly over the conduct of the war.
MacArthur, who had downplayed Truman's fears that Mao Zedong might intervene, now began to advocate publicly for escalating the conflict. He argued that the US should threaten the use of nuclear weapons and bomb China itself unless the Communist forces in Korea laid down their arms. MacArthur was not alone in this: Curtis LeMay, head of the US Strategic Air Command during the Korean War, was also in favour of a pre-emptive strike. LeMay, who believed that a nuclear war was enviable, would later try to persuade President John F Kennedy that he should be allowed to bomb nuclear missile sites during the Cuban Missile Crisis.
This insistence of the viability of using atomic weapons deeply alarmed other UN countries caught up in the Korean conflict, including the UK Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, who flew to Washington, DC to object to the idea. But MacArthur was adamant that his plan would work, believing the Russians would be intimidated and not do anything about the US striking China.
'Back to where they started'
On 9 December 1950, MacArthur formally requested the authority to have the discretion to use atomic weapons. Truman refused. Two weeks later, MacArthur submitted a list of targets for strikes, including ones within China, and listed the number of atomic bombs he would require. He continued to push for the Pentagon to grant him a field commander's discretion to employ nuclear weapons as necessary. By late December 1950, the UN forces had been pushed back across the 38th parallel, with Chinese and North Korean troops recapturing the beleaguered and bombed-out city of Seoul in January 1951.
"Possibly if some of the commanders like Curtis LeMay had had the ear of the president more, they might have used nuclear weapons because those commanders like LeMay and MacArthur did want to use them," said Dr Miller. "They thought, 'What's the point of having nuclear weapons if we don't use them?'" With Truman unsure if he could control MacArthur, and fears mounting that the general's aggressive posturing might ignite World War Three, the president fired him for insubordination in April 1951.
The Korean War would grind on for another two years, with Seoul changing hands again for a fourth time. With neither side able to score a decisive victory, it descended into a prolonged, bloody war of attrition. "One of the great ironies of the war is that, at that point in the spring of 1951, where the front line of the two forces is, is not that far from the partition line, the 38th parallel," said Dr Miller. "All of these great losses on both sides, the absolute civilian devastation that had occurred, but they were more or less back to where they started."
The two countries eventually ended the fighting with an uneasy truce in 1953, but they did not sign a peace treaty – meaning that technically they are still at war. The conflict was ruinous to the peninsula. Estimates vary, but it is believed that some four million people died during the Korean War, half of whom were civilians. Many more were displaced or left hungry. The aerial carpet bombing devastated the country, destroying whole towns and cities. Families separated by the partition have never been reunited.
Decades later, the two countries remain stuck in a frozen conflict, kept apart by a 250km (160 mile) demilitarised zone covered with land mines and guarded by hundreds of soldiers. The legacy of a war that never ended.
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In 1988, World Aids Day began with the aim of raising awareness and understanding of a disease that had struck fear in communities around the globe. That same year, US tennis legend Arthur Ashe learned of his own diagnosis. In History looks at the dilemma that faced Ashe, when, after years of secrecy, he once again became a groundbreaking campaigner.
In April 1992, Arthur Ashe made his way into a packed conference room, where the media were poised with cameras rolling. This time he wasn't being asked about his role as the first black tennis player to be selected for the United States Davis Cup team, or about his pioneering victories at Wimbledon, the US Open or the Australian Open. He had cemented his name in history as the first black winner of a major men's singles championship, but after a heart attack that led to multiple surgeries, he had retired from the sport 12 years earlier, at the age of 36.
His intelligence, composure and sportsmanship had made him a popular figure, on and off the court. But the press had heard rumours about his health, at a time when the world was still full of fear of an incurable epidemic. USA Today sports journalist Doug Smith, a childhood friend, confronted Ashe about a tip-off he had received. The next day, keen to control his own story and beat the press, Ashe reluctantly told the world the secret that he and his inner circle had kept since 1988: he had Aids.
He believed that he had contracted the illness from a contaminated blood transfusion during surgery in 1983, two years before blood donations were screened for the HIV virus in the US. The devasting news shocked the nation, but it quickly led to a debate around personal privacy and the ethics of an invasive press. At the conference, Ashe read a statement: "I am angry that I was put… in the unenviable position of having to lie if I wanted to protect my privacy." He added that "there was certainly no compelling medical or physical necessity to go public with my medical condition". In his memoir, Days of Grace, Ashe wrote: "More than 700 letters reached USA Today on the issue of my right to privacy, and about 95% vehemently opposed the newspaper's position."
Some Aids activists criticised Ashe's desire for secrecy around his health, as they wanted public figures to broaden discussion beyond the focus of the LGBT+ community. Some felt that he would have been the perfect spokesperson to raise awareness, particularly amongst heterosexuals and minority groups: one letter went as far as to say that Magic Johnson, the NBA player who revealed his HIV diagnosis just five months earlier, could have been saved had Ashe spoken up sooner.
When asked at the news conference why he didn't go public in 1988, Ashe said: "The answer is simple. Any admission of HIV infection at that time would have seriously, permanently, and – my wife and I believed – unnecessarily infringed upon our family's right to privacy." When the subject turned to telling his five-year-old daughter Camera about having the disease, emotion overcame Ashe, and his wife Jeanne read on his behalf.
The parameters of privacy
USA Today sports editor Gene Policinski had no qualms about his decision to pursue the story. He told the BBC's Tom Brook: "This is one of the great athletes of the 20th Century. His name is instantly recognisable about the world. He has an illness that will prove fatal and, by any definition I've run into in 25 years in the newspaper business, that is news." When asked if he felt any guilt, he said: "No, I didn't. That would somehow imply that I felt my decision was wrong. And I don't."
Three months after revealing to the world that he had Aids, Ashe was in London to commentate on Wimbledon for HBO. During his trip, he was interviewed by the actor Lynn Redgrave on the BBC programme Fighting Back. He said: "I definitely wanted to go public at some stage, when I was reasonably healthy, to give myself time to help the cause worldwide. But my health was so good, I wanted to continue to do what I was doing without being bothered by this... Just the prospect of going public, you have some fears and some inconveniences you know you'll have to undergo."
Ultimately, the issue of privacy loomed large, and as he had done many times before, Ashe asked questions of the status quo. At the National Press Club, he challenged journalists to examine their sensibilities, asking, "What are the parameters of personal privacy? What are they? Who sets them? And by whose authority are they issued? To me, or to any other American, what is sacrosanct and inviolable?"
This was far from the first public stance Ashe took on a wider social issue. While his sporting prowess helped him break barriers on the court for black athletes, he spent much of his time off the court campaigning for change. Born in Richmond, Virginia in 1943, he had retreated into the world of sports and books after his mother died when he was just six years old. "Control is very important to me," he told Redgrave. "You grow up black in the American south in the late 1940s and the 1950s, you have no control. White segregationist laws tell you where to go to school, which bus you can ride on, where you can ride on the bus, which taxis to take, what you can say. Your life is proscribed."
But Ashe was a reluctant activist at first, preferring to concentrate on tennis, despite calls for him to use his public position to further the civil rights movement. It led to some accusing him of being an "Uncle Tom", or someone who is complicit in racial oppression. But after years of being controlled by a racist system, Ashe didn't feel liberated by the 1960s civil rights. He told the BBC that he had "black ideologues trying to tell me what to do", adding: "All the time, I am saying to myself, 'Hey when do I get to decide what I want to do?' So I've always been sort of fiercely protective, with anyone, of my wanting to do and to control my life as I saw fit."
When asked about the public outburst by his fellow tennis star, John McEnroe, Ashe commented: "McEnroe had the emotional freedom to be a bad boy. I never had that emotional freedom. If I had been like that, I am convinced, the tennis world would have dug me out of it… because of my race."
Ultimately, Ashe needed to do things his way, and he would go on to use his position as a world-class athlete to campaign for several causes. At the height of his career, he confronted the apartheid regime in South Africa over many years, and in 1973, he travelled to the South African Championships under the agreement that the tournament would be integrated. Away from the glare of the world's media, he also went on to fund a tennis centre for black South Africans in Soweto.
Ashe felt similarly passionate about inclusive involvement in tennis closer to home. As a co-founder in 1969 of the National Junior Tennis League, his aim was to ensure that children of all backgrounds had access to tennis, and not just those with country-club memberships. And while he was at first tentative in his involvement, in time Ashe would go on to be one of the most powerful voices in the struggle for justice and equality in the US. In the documentary Citizen Ashe, civil rights leader and key figure in the 1968 Mexico Olympics black power protests, Dr Harry Edwards, said of the tennis star, "When you brushed away the gentility, the niceness, the intelligence, the calmness, his statement would be more militant than mine."
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After Ashe suffered multiple heart attacks, he joined the board of the American Heart Association. And after he revealed his Aids diagnosis, it was no surprise when a new campaign began. As well as making media appearances debunking myths about the disease, he established the Arthur Ashe Foundation for the Defeat of Aids. On World Aids Day in December 1992, he addressed the World Health Organisation.
Ashe died in February 1993 from Aids-related pneumonia, two years before a new class of antiretroviral drugs became available that would let people with the virus live long and healthy lives. He told Redgrave in 1992: "I'm not afraid of dying. There's always hope and you must live your life as if there is, or there will be, some hope. Hope should not be a selfish hope. For me the hope is, maybe there's no cure for Aids in time for me, but certainly for everybody else."
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When John Stonehouse's clothes were found in a pile on Miami Beach on 20 November 1974, many people presumed that the UK Member of Parliament had drowned while swimming – until he turned up alive and well in Australia on Christmas Eve. In History looks at the stranger-than-fiction tale of the man who died twice.
When John Stonehouse hatched his plan to disappear completely, he was a troubled man. His political career had stalled, his dodgy business dealings left him facing financial ruin, he was accused of being a communist spy, and he was having an extra-marital affair with his secretary. In a move borrowed from the Frederick Forsyth novel, The Day of the Jackal, Stonehouse stole the identity of two dead men. He travelled on a business trip to Miami where he vanished, in November 1974, then hopped on another plane to Australia. The ruse lasted just over a month. It was British aristocrat Lord Lucan, another infamous fugitive who disappeared around the same time, who would inadvertently lead him to get caught in Australia.
And how did Stonehouse explain his actions? The British Member of Parliament insisted to the BBC in January 1975 that he was on "a fact-finding tour, not only in terms of geography but in terms of the inner self of a political animal".
To the British public in the late 1960s, he must have seemed like a man who had it all. Postmaster General at the age of 43, with a glamorous wife and three children, he was talked about as a future Labour prime minister. He was the man who oversaw the introduction of first- and second-class stamps, but for his political career, that role was as good as it got.
The rot began to set in when a defector from communist Czechoslovakia claimed in 1969 that the country had recruited the MP as an informer. Stonehouse protested his innocence to Prime Minister Harold Wilson, who believed him. Such allegations were rife during the Cold War, but Stonehouse's political reputation was damaged. When the Labour Party lost the 1970 general election, there was no seat for Stonehouse on the opposition front bench. Disillusioned, he decided to devote more time to his London business interests – mostly export services he had developed through his international connections.
In 1971, Bangladesh's fight for independence from Pakistan fired Stonehouse with fresh enthusiasm. He became emotionally involved in the Bengali cause, becoming such a familiar and sympathetic figure there that when the war ended, he was made a citizen of the new state as a mark of respect. That was only the start.
He was asked to help set up the British Bangladesh Trust, a bank that would provide services for Bengali people in Britain. But the way the bank was being operated later drew critical comment from a Sunday newspaper and attracted investigators from the Fraud Squad and Department of Trade and Industry in London. The bad publicity and these official inquiries frightened away much of the bank's support, leaving Stonehouse deeply depressed and feeling he was also losing the respect of fellow MPs.
He concocted a plan to escape from it all. First, he forged a passport application in the name of Joseph Arthur Markham, a foundry worker who had recently died in his constituency of Walsall, in England's West Midlands. He turned this new identity into a globetrotting export consultant with bank accounts in London, Switzerland and Melbourne. He then established another identity in the name of Donald Clive Mildoon, who had also just died in Walsall. To help fund this new life, Stonehouse transferred large amounts of cash from his businesses into a series of bank accounts.
'A divided personality'
On 20 November 1974, Stonehouse vanished while, it seemed, he was swimming in the sea in Miami, Florida. There was no trace of the 49-year-old apart from the pile of clothes he left behind on the beach. Was he swept away by the ocean? Was he murdered and put inside a concrete block found near Miami Beach? Had he been kidnapped?
His wife Barbara was in no doubt that there had been a tragic accident. She told BBC News: "I've heard some extraordinary rumours and they're all so much out of character with my husband's personality that they're just not worth answering or worth thinking about. I'm convinced in my mind that it was a drowning accident. All the evidence that we've had points to the fact that he was drowned."
In London, police had their own suspicions. Sheila Buckley, Stonehouse's 28-year-old secretary and secret girlfriend, kept insisting to friends that he was dead, but she knew the real story: some of her clothes had been packed in a trunk and shipped to Australia a month before, she had transatlantic telephone calls from him, and she had also sent him semi-coded letters through one of his two Australian banks. It was having those two bank accounts in different names, Markham and Mildoon, that eventually put Melbourne police on his trail. At the time, they were on the lookout for the infamous missing peer Lord Lucan, who coincidentally vanished on 8 November after murdering his children's nanny. Initially, the police thought that the debonair Englishman spotted signing dodgy cheques might be him.
While Lucan's disappearance has continued to mystify police for 50 years, the Stonehouse mystery lasted just over a month. On Christmas Eve, Stonehouse had to confess his true identity. Later, at Melbourne police headquarters, he asked whether he could phone his wife in the UK. Although he didn't realise it then, the telephone conversation in which he made his bombshell revelation to her was taped.
He said: "Hello darling. Well, they picked up the false identity here. You would realise from all this that I have been deceiving you. I'm sorry about that, but in a sense I'm glad it's all over." For a few days Stonehouse was kept in a detention centre before being joined in Australia by his family, and later by his girlfriend.
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A month after his reappearance, he sat down for an interview with the BBC's Australia correspondent, Bob Friend. He blamed his actions on having developed a "divided personality, with the new personality providing a release to the old personality, which was under stress and strain of considerable proportions". Asked how he could put his wife and family through such anguish, he said: "I was trying – by disappearing – to make their lives easier… by taking away some of the tensions that I gave to them from my old personality."
Stonehouse was still an MP, but rejected any suggestion that he should give up his parliamentary salary while 12,000 miles away from his constituency. He said: "Lots of Members of Parliament go on overseas visits and do fact-finding tours. I've been doing a fact-finding tour not only in terms of geography, but in terms of the inner self of a political animal. Now that tour could be very interesting and, my golly, I think it fully justifies an MP's salary if I can get the story down of my experience." He added: "I think a Member of Parliament, like anybody else in any other job, is entitled to some consideration during a period when he has some sort of illness."
You only die twice
For seven months, Stonehouse tried to stay in Australia, but he was eventually deported and escorted back home by Scotland Yard detectives. In August 1976, after a marathon 68-day trial on charges relating to his failed businesses, he was jailed for seven years for theft, fraud and deception offences. He left prison three years later while recovering from open heart surgery, having suffered three cardiac arrests during his time inside.
His wife divorced him in 1978, and three years later he married Buckley, his former secretary. He died for a second time in 1988 – and this time it was for real. The 62-year-old had collapsed three weeks earlier, just before he was due to appear on a television show about missing people.
But what of those espionage claims that so damaged his political career? In his BBC interview after he reappeared, he dismissed as "ludicrous" the idea that he had been a spy for Czechoslovakia. To this day, his daughter Julia rejects any claims that he passed information to foreign powers, and in 2021 she wrote a book in his defence. Cambridge historian Prof Christopher Andrew is one of the few people who have seen MI5's file on Stonehouse; in his 2009 authorised history of the British intelligence service, he concluded that Stonehouse had indeed spied for the Czechoslovaks.
Speaking in 2012, Prof Andrew told the BBC: "The really decisive evidence came in the mid-1990s when the Czechoslovak intelligence service, having become an ally, made public some of Stonehouse's file. They were pretty disappointed with the quality of the intelligence he passed on as a minister, so to the long list of people who John Stonehouse defrauded, it is just possible that we can add the name of Czechoslovak intelligence."
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Isabel Belarsky was one of the millions of people who were processed on Ellis Island before its immigration facility closed in 1954. In 2014, she told the BBC about reaching the gateway to the US from the Soviet Union in 1930.
On 12 November 1954, a Norwegian seaman Arne Petterson was questioned by immigration officials after overstaying his US shore leave. He risked being deported, but instead he was granted parole, and as he stepped on board a ferry in New York Harbor, he was snapped by a photographer. He was the last person to be processed on Ellis Island.
The same day, the island that had been millions of migrants' first glimpse of the US closed its immigration facilities for good. By the time Petterson left, Ellis Island was mostly being used as a detention centre for illegal entrants and suspected communists, but for more than 60 years for many people it was a stepping stone to a whole new life.
Situated at the mouth of the Hudson River between New York and New Jersey, the island had been selected by President Benjamin Harrison as the site of a central immigration facility in 1890 when it became clear that the one in Manhattan was unable to cope with the influx of new arrivals. In the decades before Ellis Island opened, the patterns of immigration to the US had shifted. From the 1880s there was a sudden rise in people coming from southern and eastern Europe. Many of them were trying to escape poverty, political oppression or religious persecution in their home countries. But as President John F Kennedy wrote in his 1958 book A Nation of Immigrants, "There are probably as many reasons for coming to America as there were people who came."
In preparation, the island was enlarged, partly by using landfill hollowed out from New York's first subway tunnels, and a new dock and three-storey timber building were constructed. This building would need to be rebuilt just five years later when a fire burnt it to the ground, destroying all passenger records dating back to 1855.
On 1 January 1892, Ellis Island opened to receive immigrants. At its peak, during the early years of the 20th Century, thousands of people passed through its gates each day. Angel Island in San Francisco Bay had the same role on the west coast from 1910 to 1940. But according to the National Park Service, some 40% of Americans living today are descended from immigrants who came through Ellis Island. Many of the people who would help shape the identity of the US in the 20th Century, from film director Frank Capra (born in Italy) and science fiction writer Isaac Asimov (born in Russia) to actress Claudette Colbert (born in France) and cosmetician Max Factor (born in Poland), were processed at the island as children.
Isabel Belarsky was one such child. In 1930 she made the arduous sea voyage to the US with her family from what was then the Soviet Union. "Oh boy, that was some journey. It was cold, we had nothing to wear. Everybody was freezing. Finally, we came through Ellis Island," she told the BBC in 2014.
So near and yet so far
The steamships on which immigrants such as the Belarskys journeyed were divided by money and class, with the majority of people being third class passengers crowded together, in often unsanitary conditions in steerage. Before a ship could enter New York Harbor, it first had to stop at a quarantine checkpoint off Staten Island. There doctors boarded the vessel looking for signs of sickness, such as smallpox and cholera. People with contagious diseases were banned from entering the US, as were polygamists, anarchists and convicted criminals, among others. The first restrictions on immigration had begun to be enacted by Congress in the 1870s. Many of these had an explicit racial prejudice, with laws that first targeted Chinese migrants and later excluded immigration from most Asian countries.
If the ship passed its health inspection, the first and second-class passengers would be interviewed and processed onboard. During Ellis Island's first few decades, immigrants to the US did not require passports, visas or any official government paperwork at all. Passports existed, but they were only universally adopted in 1920. Instead, when passengers first boarded a ship, they gave spoken answers to questions which were recorded in its manifest. These were then checked by US officials and, provided those wealthier passengers were sickness-free and had no legal issues, they were allowed to enter the US, bypassing Ellis Island entirely.
Everyone else was tagged with the ship's name and the page number where they appeared on the manifest. They were then put on a ferry to Ellis Island where their future would be decided. When they arrived at the island and entered the main building, women and children were separated into one line and men into the other. Then they climbed the steep winding staircase to the registry room on the second floor, carefully watched by doctors who were looking out for signs of wheezing, coughing or limping that suggested health problems.
When they reached the registry room, they faced a brief medical examination. This was a nerve-racking experience. Immigrant children were asked their names so the doctors could check that they were not deaf or dumb. Toddlers who were being carried were made to walk to prove that they could. "It was interesting but a little frightening, too, because we couldn't speak English," Belarsky told the BBC.
If the doctor suspected a health issue they would mark letters on that person's clothes in chalk: H for heart problems, X for mental illness, CT for trachoma – a highly contagious and much feared eye infection that can lead to blindness. The test for this was particularly uncomfortable: doctors would turn a person's eyelid inside out using their fingers or a buttonhook, an implement used for fastening small buttons. If a person got a chalk mark, they would be removed from the line and confined in what was called the "doctor's pen" for a more thorough examination.
If they then failed a medical inspection they would be detained or outright refused entry and sent back to where they had travelled from. In some cases, this could mean a family being broken up. Official statistics record that only around 2% were refused entry to the US, but that still means that nearly 125,000 people, who had endured the long and difficult journey to get there, were sent home within sight of Manhattan.
Those who passed the medical exam proceeded to a legal screening. Inspectors would check their tags and quiz them, often with the help of an interpreter, about everything from their eye colour and who paid for their passage to whether they were literate and whether they had ever been held in a mental health institution. Most people were processed quickly and went through Ellis Island within a few hours. But if a migrant's answers didn't match the ones on the ship's manifest, or if the inspectors were suspicious about them for some reason, their name was marked with an X and they were detained.
The American dream
Around 20% of immigrants who arrived at Ellis Island ended up being temporarily detained there. This could happen for a variety of reasons. Women travelling alone or with children were often viewed as potential burdens to the state. Officials would frequently class them as Liable to Become a Public Charge (LPCs), detaining them until a male family member – because no women were allowed to leave Ellis Island with a man not related to them – could turn up and vouch for them. Unmarried women who were pregnant could be judged by inspectors as "immoral" and held. Stowaways who weren't on the manifest, migrant labourers suspected of being brought into the US to break union strikes, and anyone officials deemed to be politically suspect could be detained or refused entry.
Although Isabel Belarsky's father, Sidor, was a renowned opera singer who had been invited to come to the US, her family was still automatically detained at Ellis Island. This was because at the time the US did not maintain diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union. Detainees would sleep in triple-tiered bunk beds in dormitory rooms on the building's third floor, receiving three meals a day until their cases could be resolved. Sometimes this could mean an overnight stay, sometimes it could be weeks or months. "They gave us 10 minutes every so often to go outside. When we went out they counted us," said Belarsky. "And when we came back, they counted again. When we sat down, when we ate, they also counted."
If arrivals had been detained because they were ill, and they hadn't been refused entry, they would be held in hospital wards on the island. While most recovered, more than 3,500 immigrants died on Ellis Island in sight of New York and their dream of a better life. Some 350 babies were also born on the island, although this was no guarantee of citizenship for the child.
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Once an immigrant's health or legal issues were successfully concluded, they were registered and free to enter the US and start their new lives. Belarsky said: "For me it was very exciting when I was a youngster. And finally, somebody got us the papers to leave Ellis Island. It was a beautiful sight. Beautiful. That was the greatest day of all our lives."
By the time the Belarsky family came through in 1930, the era of mass immigration to the US had already come to an end. Following World War One, the US Congress enacted sweeping laws based on race and nationality which restricted who could come into the country. The Quota Act of 1921 and the Immigration Act of 1924 were designed to cap annual immigration, imposing strict quotas that favoured people from northern and western European countries.
As immigration decreased, Ellis Island's role began to change. During World War Two, some 7,000 German, Italian and Japanese nationals suspected of being enemy aliens were interred there. Later, US soldiers returning from the war were treated in its hospital. In the late 1940s, as the Cold War developed, suspected communists who were swept up in the paranoia of Senator Joseph McCarthy's Red Scare were incarcerated there while the US government reviewed the often secret evidence against them. But by the 1950s, the use of air travel and modern entry procedures at airports made Ellis Island increasingly obsolete. In 1954, after 62 years of operation, it finally closed down, but it is open again today as a museum that highlights the rich history of new arrivals to the US.
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The UK publication of DH Lawrence's novel, Lady Chatterley's Lover, gripped the nation in 1960. In History looks at the highly publicised trial that led to its release – and the rush to see what all the fuss was about.
Until November 1960, British people were prevented from reading Lady Chatterley's Lover by a law that criminalised the publication of writing considered indecent and immoral. The British publishing house, Penguin Books, wanted to challenge the Obscene Publications Act by printing a complete, uncensored edition of DH Lawrence's book. The resulting trial symbolised social changes that had been bubbling under in the years since World War Two, and demonstrated the gulf between the public and those who saw themselves as the guardians of established morals.
Lady Chatterley's Lover had been published privately in Italy and France in the late 1920s, but was banned thereafter in several countries around the world including the US, Australia and Japan. In the years leading up to the trial, writers and publishers in Britain had become increasingly worried by the number of books being prosecuted for obscenity. In an attempt to allay these fears, the UK's Parliament introduced a new Obscene Publications Act in 1959 that promised "to provide for the protection of literature and to strengthen the law concerning pornography". This amendment provided a defence for anyone accused of publishing a "dirty book". It allowed them to argue that a piece of work should be published if it had literary merit, even if the average person found its material shocking.
Lady Chatterley's Lover was considered controversial as it depicted a passionate relationship between an upper-class woman, Lady Constance Chatterley, and a working-class man, Oliver Mellors. The novel includes swear words and explicit descriptions of sex, and it portrays female sexual pleasure. Lawrence said that he hoped to reclaim sex as something that was acceptable in literature. He wanted to "make the sex relations [in the novel] valid and precious, instead of shameful".
In 1960, Penguin was ready to test the Obscene Publications Act. They wrote to the director of public prosecutions (DPP) and warned that they would be publishing an original version of the book. In August that year, Reginald Manningham-Buller, the chief legal adviser to the Crown, read the first four chapters of the novel while travelling on a boat train to Southampton. He wrote to the DPP, approving legal proceedings against Penguin. "I hope you get a conviction," he said. Sir Allen Lane, the founder of Penguin Books, was in Spain as events unfolded. His colleagues advised him to return home immediately.
The trial of Lady Chatterley's Lover was the first of its kind under the new Act, and the scene was set for a clash between the establishment and those with more liberal views. To support their case in favour of publishing the novel, Penguin summoned a host of expert witnesses including 35 prominent writers and politicians. Among the group was Richard Hoggart, an influential academic and author who was seen as a key witness. He argued that the novel was an essentially moral and "puritan" work, which merely included words that he had heard on a building site on his way to the court.
In opposition, Mervyn Griffith-Jones led the prosecution, which argued that the sex in the novel was gratuitous pornography. "When you have seen the book just ask yourselves, would you approve of your sons and daughters reading it?" Griffith-Jones asked the jury. "Would you leave it lying about your house? Is it a book you would even wish your wives and servants to read?" He also listed nearly 100 uses of swear words in its pages. Mr Justice Byrne, the judge who presided over the trial, pointed out that the low price of the book meant it would "be available for all and sundry to read". These statements are often cited as representing the out-of-touch attitudes of the British establishment at the time. On 2 November 1960, after a six-day trial, the jury took three hours to deliberate and came to a unanimous decision. Penguin Books was found "not guilty" under the Act.
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Lady Chatterley's Lover went on sale immediately afterwards, as Penguin had prepared to distribute it in the event of acquittal. They had to work with a new printing firm as their usual one refused to touch it. But the trial had the effect of promoting the book, which sold out of all 200,000 copies on its first day of publication. It went on to sell three million copies in three months.
A few days after it went on sale, a shop owner in England, Mr Donati, spoke to BBC News about the novel's immediate popularity. "We ordered 1,000 to start with," he said. "We had every hope of getting them, of course, but in the event, it was cut to half. We received 500 copies. We were open quite early, at five to nine, and I should imagine we've sold 50 or 60 [copies] already… I think we should have to wait at least three weeks [for another stock]."
Still, traditional English reserve hadn't vanished overnight. Many customers were too embarrassed to ask for the scandalous novel by name, one bookseller told the BBC. "Some of them just ask for Lady C, some of them just give you three and six [three shilling and sixpence]." As the reporter noted, "It's rather different from selling an ordinary book." But then, Lady Chatterley's Lover was no ordinary book. When published in full, it would become a symbol of freedom of expression, and a sign that Britain's cultural landscape was changing. The poet Philip Larkin captured its significance in his poem, Annus Mirabilis:
"Sexual intercourse began
In nineteen sixty-three
(which was rather late for me) –
Between the end of the Chatterley ban
And the Beatles' first LP."
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A museum that holds the world's largest collection of British road transport is offering visitors the chance to "adopt" some of the classic vehicles.
Coventry Transport Museum is home to then Lady Diana Spencer's Austin Mini Metro and the bus used by Coventry City for their 1987 FA Cup victory parade.
People are urged to make donations of either £25, £50 or £100 to join the scheme, with funds going to the Culture Coventry trust, which helps maintain city tourist attractions.
Taniah Simpson, head of collections at the museum, said the initiative would ensure the items continue to be cared for, so their stories can be told to future generations.
The museum's collection also includes the Thrust SSC from 1997, which remains the world's fastest land vehicle.
Other items include a Rover Bicycle from 1910, a design that became the blueprint for modern bicycles.
Ms Simpson added: "This is a fantastic way for people to feel connected to Coventry's incredible transport legacy."
The adoption initiative will provide supporters with a digital certificate and a photo of their chosen object.
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When Gavin and Stacey announced their intention to get married in Barry, Gavin's mother Pam hit the roof.
"Barry Island?... I am not traipsing the best side of my family all the way down to Wales to see my son, my only son, get married in some dirty fairground," she fumed.
The final episode of Gavin and Stacey will air on Christmas Day, 17 years since it first hit our screens.
In that time there is no doubt the sitcom has drawn droves of tourists to the area - but has it changed perceptions of the south Wales seaside town?
"I think [Pam] was being a bit unkind to the town," said BBC meteorologist and presenter Derek Brockway who grew up in Barry and still lives nearby.
"There are parts of it that some people might find a bit tacky but it's got its own character.
"Barry is a special place... it is definitely on the up and that's been helped by Gavin and Stacey."
Barry Island was once a popular holiday resort with south Wales' miners, who would head there with their families during miners' fortnight, typically the last week of July and the first week of August.
Growing up there in the '70s, Derek recalled seeing a vibrant Barry Island fall into decline when cheap air travel saw the demise of the British seaside holiday and the town's Butlins closed in 1996.
"You didn't necessarily want to go there but since Gavin and Stacey it has put the town firmly back on the map again," he said.
"It's much more popular and a nicer place to visit and you've got lots more shops, restaurants and cafes open, it's a popular place."
Could the renewed interest in the seaside town lead to gentrification?
"I don't think Barry will ever be posh," he laughed.
"That's probably a good thing. It's a very down to Earth town, lots of brilliant people live there, it will never be [affluent Cardiff suburb] Pontcanna by the sea. It will always be Barry Island or Barrybados as I call it."
Barry Island is in fact a peninsula.
In the 1880s the island was linked to the mainland as the town of Barry expanded following the opening of Barry Docks by the Barry Railway Company.
In the sitcom, Stacey and her mother Gwen live up the hill from the island on Trinity Street in Barry, with Uncle Bryn just across the road.
The house is located in councillor Naomi Marshallsea's ward Illtyd and she fondly recalled her children shouting Nessa's catchphrase "What's occurring" at tourists taking photos outside Stacey's house.
"Every single time without fail there is joyous laughter," she said.
She grew up 10 miles away in Cardiff but said she never visited the town.
"It just wasn't perceived in a positive way but Gavin and Stacey has definitely changed that," she added.
She credits the show with bringing "a sense of joy to Barry and a positive feeling of warmth".
"It has put it on the map," she said.
She thinks Barry's image has changed for the better since Pam's outburst over Gavin's wedding plans.
"I think it's probably quite an old-fashioned perception," she said.
She added as well as the fairground and amusement arcades, Barry was now known for its biodiversity, woodlands and country parks.
Marco Zeraschi, who owns Marco's Cafe on Barry Island, where Stacey works in the sitcom, said it was hard to overstate what the programme had done for the resort.
"We're the envy of many, many seaside resorts around the country," he said.
"People know who we are now, we're world famous Barry Island."
He said it had also changed perceptions for the better.
"Gavin and Stacey is always positive, witty, funny, happy, it shows Barry at its best," he said.
"It shows it in such a positive way - they see the beach and the prom, people get curious and curiosity is the best thing for tourism.
"They come here, we get busier and we employ more people."
Louis Ross who has run Barrybados gift shop since 2013 said he was amazed at the reach of the sitcom and got at least one fan from Australia each week.
He said without the series his business would struggle in the winter and the finale has made the business the busiest winter yet.
"It brings people to Barry, it has definitely put Barry on the map... it's everywhere," he said.
Keith Abber, the manager of the amusement arcades that is home to "Nessa's slots" said despite the last episode airing Christmas 2019, the series continues to draw crowds to the town.
He said it was down to visitors to "make their own minds up" about what they thought of the resort.
"It's a typical British seaside town isn't it," he said.
Natalie Bolan, who has lived in Barry all her life, sells greetings cards and posters inspired by the show from her shop Dimensional Art at the town's Good Sheds, a collection of street food, bars, independent shops and local businesses.
She said she had watched the town's fortunes change as the show gained in popularity.
"Barry was a town only busy in the summer, now it brings people from all over all year round," she said.
"Even if locals don't like Gavin and Stacey there is a sense of respect for what it has done for the island."
Ellie Jones, a customer assistant at Marco's Cafe, has lived in Barry all her life and is a big fan of the sitcom.
She said she enjoyed watching Gavin's Essex born-and-bred parents Pam and Mick slowly soften towards her home town.
"As the show went on they grew to love Barry, they wanted to come here," she said.
"They saw it as a place of beauty rather than somewhere dirty."
Back in series one in 2007, Pam's reaction to Gavin and Stacey's plans to get married in Barry was visceral and her dislike for the town laid bare.
She ranted: "Where you going to have the wedding reception? On the log flumes? And what's on the menu for the wedding breakfast? Hot dogs and candy floss?"
By the time series three aired two years later she was enjoying the thrills of the fairground, squealing with joy on the very log flume and chomping on the very candy floss she had once mocked.
While sunning herself on the beach with Uncle Bryn, Smithy, Nessa and the rest of the Shipman-West crew, she conceded maybe Barry Island wasn't so bad after all.
"Wow," she says.
"This is lovely."
The final episode of Gavin and Stacey will air on BBC iPlayer and BBC One at 21:00 GMT on 25 December.
Tributes have been paid following the death of a man who chronicled the changing face of Armagh City.
Roger Weatherup was famed for photographing the city across many decades.
He became curator of Armagh County Museum in 1955 but colleague and current curator, Sean Barden, said one of "his most enduring legacies lies in the fieldwork he undertook, camera in hand, to document the changing landscape of County Armagh".
Mr Barden said Mr Weatherup's contributions extended "far beyond the confines of his office".
His photographic record captured pivotal moments, from the decline of the railway network to the devastation brought by the Troubles, preserving these transitions for the future.
"Roger's profound love for his adopted county, coupled with his extensive knowledge of its history, proved instrumental in transforming Ireland's oldest county museum into a model institution admired across Ireland and the United Kingdom," Mr Barden said.
His family said his legacy would live on in the local area and that he gave a sense of community to those who knew him.
His daughter, Kate, said he "welcomed all irrespective of their background" and was "supportive and generous to all who had an interest in history".
"Dad had lived through so much change and he documented it throughout his life," she told BBC News NI.
"He talked of an Armagh with a train station and a bustling livestock market when he first arrived in 1955, which suffered through the Troubles but always kept resilience and great community spirit."
Mr Weatherup had a "curator's eye", always knowing what to capture with his camera, documenting what may change as time moved on.
His daughter, Diane, reminisced a time when her father asked her to stand in a red telephone box, knowing it would soon be phased out.
Mr Weatherup's family said he loved working at the museum.
It wasn't work to him. History was his passion.
Kate said even on holiday and away from the museum he documented the world around him, "cataloguing historical sites, taking photographs of public transport, natural history and archaeological sites".
He loved the Orchard County.
He promoted the use of townland names and worked closely with the council planning service to ensure that developers respected and reflected local history in the names used in the town and county.
Former museum colleague, Aidan Walsh, said he was a community curator who believed in "serving his community above all other considerations."
Mr Weatherup met members of the Royal Family on several occasions, the late Queen Elizabeth II when she bestowed city status on Armagh.
He accompanied the late Queen and "chatted to her the way he would have anyone in the street", his daughter said.
By the time of his retirement in 1992, Mr Weatherup had devoted 37 years to curating "one of the finest museum collections in Ireland".
Reducing the opening hours of libraries and museums is being considered by a council to cut costs.
Wakefield Council said the change would mean venues opening slightly later or earlier to try and minimise the impact on visitors.
Hannah Appleyard, the council's cabinet member for culture, leisure and sport said the authority needed to "make some changes to help us deliver a balanced budget".
Two surveys asking residents how they use the facilities will run until 14 March, before a final decision is made by councillors.
The authority said it had to review the opening hours "as the funding we're receiving from the government isn't keeping up with how much it costs to run the services".
One survey is focused on library services and asks how often people visit, what time of day they go, why they visit the library and which of the districts libraries they use most often.
The second survey focuses on the council's three museums and Pontefract Castle and asks how many times residents have visited any of them in the last year, which they have visited most often and what time of day the visit took place.
Appleyard said: "We know that our libraries, museums and castles are used and enjoyed by so many people.
"Although we need to make some changes to help us deliver a balanced budget, it is important to us to ensure we can keep running these services now and into the future."
She said they had suggested changes which they believed would have the least impact but hey really wanted to hear the views of people who use "these sites regularly".
In October Wakefield Council confirmed it faced a £88m budget deficit over the next five years.
Wakefield Council's Labour leader Denise Jeffrey said the authority would face "tough decisions" over services as it attempted to plug a shortfall of £33.8m in the next financial year alone.
An online meme that quickly went viral is the first "digitally born object" to go on display at the National Science and Media Museum.
The "absolute unit" meme was seen by millions after being created by staff at the Museum of English Rural Life in Reading in 2018.
It features a photo of an Exmoor Horn ram taken in 1962 which is from the museum's collection, and has the caption "look at this absolute unit".
Dr Ruth Quinn from the National Science and Media Museum said the meme was being exhibited in Bradford as it was "such an important part of popular culture".
Memes are described by the museum as forms of digital content that are often intended to be funny and shared rapidly online, particularly across social media.
The museum has been working alongside Dr Arran Reese from the University of Leeds to look at ways to collect and display social media memes, reflecting their broader cultural heritage.
Dr Quinn said: "I even have it (the meme) printed on a mug so I'm delighted that we were able to work with Dr Arran Rees to develop a method for collecting and displaying social media, so we can share this work with our visitors in an interactive way."
A museum spokesperson said that, as the first born-digital object it had acquired, the meme was an example of how internet culture could create second, unexpected lives for images long after they were first created.
They said the meme told the story of a photograph from negative and print, through to digital reproduction, social media circulation and subsequent new variants.
"The inclusion of the 'absolute unit' meme marks a milestone in the museum in embracing the evolving relationship between photography and the digital age", they added.
The meme will be on display when the museum reopens to visitors on 8 January. It has been closed since summer 2023 for a major refurbishment.
It will be displayed on an interactive touch screen in the museum's Kodak gallery, which looks at the broader history of hundreds of years of photographic technology.
Visitors will be able to scroll as if encountering the meme on their own social media feeds and they will also be able to see a number of responses from social media users.
A reopening event will take place at the museum on Saturday 11 January, with the new Sound and Vision galleries, showcasing all aspects of the museum's collection, opening in summer 2025.
The £6m Sound and Vision Project has been funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund, as well as the DCMS/Wolfson Museums and Galleries Improvement Fund, Bradford Council and the Science Museum Group.
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Nearly three decades after being nominated for an Oscar, British actress Marianne Jean-Baptiste is back in the awards race thanks to a tremendous performance in director Mike Leigh's new drama, Hard Truths.
The 57-year-old jokes she feels "older and wider" (rather than wiser) this time around - a line she credits to co-star Michele Austin, who plays her on-screen sister.
But waistlines aside, her reunion with Leigh, whom she first worked with on 1996's Secrets & Lies, has prompted some of the most positive reviews of her career.
Hard Truths centres on Pansy, a woman who is constantly grumpy and miserable, and the impact her unspoken depression has on those around her.
It would be unfair to call the film a comeback for Jean-Baptiste, because she has been working tirelessly in the intervening years. But her second collaboration with Leigh has led to renewed attention on the film awards circuit.
"It's kind of a full circle moment, rather than a comeback," she tells BBC News.
"It's very interesting, because the first time, I was not aware at all that we were even in an Oscar race. You've got to remember, in 1996, there was still a huge independent film presence in the United States.
"At that time, we weren't that aware of the whole Oscar thing. It was something that happened over there," she says, gesturing far away, "with really big stars. So it really was not on our radar."
Having won the top prize at Cannes, it was only when Secrets & Lies played at the New York Film Festival four months later that Jean-Baptiste became more aware of the awards buzz. "I hadn't even heard of the Golden Globes at that point," she recalls.
"We were just talking about the film, doing loads of interviews, we were just knackered from all the plane rides, so there was a naivety to it the first time.
"Now we have the internet and it's become more of an aggressive pursuit of those awards. The campaigning process has changed quite a lot. Or maybe it hasn't and we just weren't aware of it back then."
Leigh and Jean-Baptiste have "kept in touch over the years", she explains - which ultimately led to their second project together.
Hard Truths has been praised for its hard-hitting but nuanced depiction of depression and complex family dynamics.
There is humour in many of the scenes as Pansy starts arguments with pretty much everyone she encounters, from her closest relatives to her dentist. The man in the car park who asks if she's leaving gets it with both barrels.
But there is something deeper going on. Although the word "depression" isn't mentioned in the film, it's clear Pansy is struggling.
"Yeah, it's not spoken," Jean-Baptiste says. "And the interesting thing about that is the whole family, everyone that she comes into contact with, other than her sister, just sort of gets on with it.
"It's under the surface. 'Oh, it's just Pansy.' And so many people live like that, where you have somebody that's really difficult, and nobody says to them, 'Man, what is it? What's really going on?' You just sort of avoid them."
On paper, it might sound like fun for an actor to play such a juicy, bad-tempered character. But Jean-Baptiste's performance reveals something much more complex.
"People have asked if it was cathartic, the chance to just spew. But no, it wasn't like that," she says. "I felt the very real pain, anxiety and fear. There was not a lot of enjoyment to be had in that.
"And also, Pansy comes from a generation where you're taught to just get on with things. It's like the pre-Oprah generation, self-help - it's before all that. You just went, 'I feel rubbish, but I've got to do the laundry.' You get up and you get on with it."
'Raw and realistic'
In her review of Hard Truths, Carla Hay of Culture Mix said Jean-Baptiste "gives a fierce and complex performance", describing it as "a raw and realistic portrayal of how toxic anger and untreated mental illness can affect a family".
"Even at its funniest, Hard Truths finds Marianne Jean-Baptiste channelling an anger that feels excruciatingly real," wrote Slant's Cole Kronman.
The Hollywood Reporter's Jon Frosch noted that Leigh "pushes the bounds of our empathy and asks us to look, really look, at someone from whom we'd surely avert our gaze if we had the misfortune of crossing her path in real life".
Leigh famously spends several months rehearsing, and crafts his script based on improvisation sessions with the actors.
"Basically, the process is to create a character from scratch," Jean-Baptiste explains. "Their first memory, their education, house they grew up in, family members, neighbours, where the local park was. Minute detail."
The actors are then introduced to one another to build their characters' relationships. "We do all sorts of exercises to establish the family routines and the traditions. We do improvisations based on, 'What's Sunday dinner like?'"
By the time shooting begins, the script is firmly in place. "Nothing is ever improvised on camera," she explains. "So we rehearse it and rehearse it."
Oscars record
Jean-Baptiste is speaking to BBC News the morning after the British Independent Film Awards, where she won best lead performance, one of several early accolades she has picked up.
If she is ultimately shortlisted by Hollywood's Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences on 17 January, Jean-Baptiste could become the first black British woman to receive two Oscar nominations for acting.
Coincidentally, Wicked's Cynthia Erivo is also a contender for best actress - meaning she could match that record, after also being nominated in 2020.
"I guess it's a sign of progress, and I think it's all great," Jean-Baptiste reflects. "It's recognition for a job well done, I guess."
Four black actresses from the US have previously scored two Academy nominations - Whoopi Goldberg, Angela Bassett, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer.
Jean-Baptiste agrees strides have been made on diversity nearly a decade on from the OscarsSoWhite movement, but notes that the real issue is whether the work is available in the first place.
"I think [awards bodies] are trying. It's always going to come back down to opportunity, though," she says.
"If the films aren't being made that feature black women [or] Asian women in the lead role, then they don't even stand a chance of being nominated.
"So we always have to come back to the opportunities in the first place, the work being made, the stories being told."
Notably, Jean-Baptiste now lives in Los Angeles - a place many British actors have moved to for the sake of their careers.
"Well, I was being offered work out there, so it made sense actually, because in the end I left to do a job that would require me to be there for an extended amount of time," she explains, referring to her 2000s TV police drama Without A Trace.
"Because that show went on for seven years. I'd been flying back and forth for the first year or two of the show, and then it was like, you know what, this is a lot. It's a long flight just for a weekend."
When she's back in the UK, she relishes the chance to catch up on British theatre and read books on the London Underground ("You have to drive in LA, so it's books on tape").
For now, though, her focus is on Hard Truths, which will be released in the UK on 31 January. Jean-Baptiste hopes viewers ultimately leave the film with "a bit more compassion for people, difficult people".
"Not to avoid them, necessarily, but just sort of ask your aunt what's going on, and if there's something you can do to help. Don't assume you're going to be berated for doing it."
Older and wider, we all begrudgingly are. But Marianne Jean-Baptiste is clearly quite a lot wiser, too.
Some writers' creative juices start flowing once they bounce ideas about with a pal.
Others might come up the magic staring out of the window of a bus.
Now Doctor Who showrunner Russell T Davies has revealed the secret to his success may be down to a staple part of his morning routine.
"Honestly I swear to you, brushing your teeth," the 61-year-old said.
"I think everything is kind of worked into my mind overnight.
"And you wake up, and you brush your teeth and things click into place."
He compared coming up with ideas in this way to the game Wordle.
"You know, leave it for an hour, and suddenly the word is there," Davies told Radio Wales' Behnaz Akhgar.
"I think a lot if life is [like] that. Your subconscious goes 'click, click, click' and ticks through all the algorithms and ideas.
"So brushing your teeth, honestly, sometimes things go 'boom, boom, boom'.
"I've thought of entire shows brushing my teeth."
When it comes to putting pen to paper, Davies locks himself away.
"I'm very suspicious of those people who sit in cafes," he said.
Though it has been almost 20 years since Doctor Who returned to TV screens in 2005, Davies still gets nervous before broadcasts.
The latest Christmas instalment of the series is being shown on BBC One on Christmas Day.
The episode, named Joy to the World, is about a hotel with a different world in every room.
"You do feel the pressure and you should, that's part of the job," he said.
"You get the fear, you don't want to disappoint.
"You've got to say something new, you've got to have impact, so that is a great fuel to the engine all that stuff."
The Doctor's companion on the Christmas show will be Derry Girls and Bridgerton star Nicola Coughlan.
"She knows Ncuti Gatwa, the Doctor, and they were both in the Barbie film," Davies said.
"On social media, they kind of like chat, and they know each other in that mad social world that actors live in.
"So it was an offer she very quickly accepted. We're delighted."
Davies is also working on a Doctor Who spin-off called The War Between The Land And The Sea.
He said: "It is a different show, it does not have The Doctor in it. We have done that over the years. There was Torchwood, which was set in Cardiff and the Sarah Jane Adventures."
The new series stars Russell Tovey and Gugu Mbatha-Raw.
In it an ancient species emerges from the ocean, triggering an international crisis.
Davies said: "When you look and see what we have done to our seas, if you lived in the ocean, if there was such a thing as an ocean creature, wouldn't you be furious?
"Haven't we ruined them?"
The Doctor Who Christmas special is on iPlayer and BBC One from 17:10 GMT on Christmas Day
The first trailer has been released for James Gunn's hotly awaited reboot of Superman, a film that Hollywood is hoping will come to its rescue as one of the biggest releases of 2025.
David Corenswet plays the Man of Steel in the movie that's intended to kick-start a new era for DC Studios, which writer-director Gunn and producer Peter Safran took over in 2022.
The trailer starts with Superman crashing to Earth in an icy landscape before being revived by Krypto the Superdog, who looks set to become a fan favourite.
The two-minute trailer also unveiled Rachel Brosnahan as the latest Lois Lane and British actor Nicholas Hoult as a bald and menacing Lex Luthor.
Corenswet, 31, who has previously appeared in TV series The Politician, Hollywood and We Own This City, is the fourth person to play the role in a major Superman movie, and the first for a decade.
Henry Cavill, who appeared in 2013's Man of Steel and its spin-offs, announced in 2022 that he would return to the role - but Gunn and Safran decided to replace him after they took over DC.
However, many fans felt Cavill was unfairly treated and in recent days have been airing their views on social media that he should be allowed to finish his Superman saga.
Corenswet has taken ownership of the cape, though, and is seen in the trailer saving a girl from an explosion, smashing out of a glass cabinet and kissing Lois in mid-air.
He also has a rock hurled at his head by a member of an angry crowd as he walks into a Stagg Industries building, and his Clark Kent alter-ego is seen in the Daily Planet newspaper office and with Pa Kent (played by Pruitt Taylor Vince) in rural Kansas.
The trailer also unveils other characters including Guy Gardner/Green Lantern (Nathan Fillion), Rex Mason/Metamorpho (Anthony Carrigan), Hawkgirl (Isabela Merced) and Michael Holt/Mister Terrific (Edi Gathegi).
It received a broadly enthusiastic reaction on social media after being released. The film will reach cinemas on 11 July 2025.
It comes at a key moment for Hollywood, which is trying to retain excitement around blockbuster films after a number of box office misfires and the onset of "superhero fatigue".
DC has struggled to find major hits in recent years, with films like Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Suicide Squad, Wonder Woman 1984 and Joker: Folie à Deux - part of the wider DC stable - each earning less than $60m (£48m) at the North American box office.
Elswehere in Hollywood, Sony's latest phase of superhero films ended with a flop when Kraven the Hunter opened with takings of just $11m (£9m) last weekend.
Kraven the Hunter was the last in Sony's series related to the Spider-Man universe - alongside the Venom franchise, which performed relatively well, and Morbius and Madame Web, which did not.
Meanwhile, Deadpool & Wolverine was a big success for Marvel this summer and the studio remains the biggest hitter, but that was its only release this year. It is due to kick off its sixth phase with a Fantastic Four reboot in 2025.
David A Gross, who writes the FranchiseRe box office newsletter, said a result like Kraven's was "the new normal for superhero films" because "nothing is working outside of well established stories".
Four superhero films were released in 2024 and there will be another four in 2025 - down from seven before the pandemic, he said.
"The Superman story has the history and pedigree to be a hit in today's market," he told BBC News. "It's a 'classic' and will be taken seriously by both superhero fanatics and broader fans.
"James Gunn knows what he's doing and gives the project total credibility. With this kind of story, casting is changeable, and in this case the new cast is a plus - it's part of updating the story.
"Nothing is a given now for the superhero genre, but Superman should do very well, and these films are strong around the world."
The film is expected to focus on its titular character balancing his Kryptonian heritage with his human upbringing.
Gunn has said it starts "right in the middle of the action", with Superman already in existence, and "takes place over a short amount of time".
He has also said there's "plenty of humor in it" - although less than in some of his previous films like Suicide Squad or Guardians of the Galaxy.
"People like Rachel are so funny and David is very [funny as well], so there's humour in it," he said.
"But it's trying to create something that is grounded, but also it's an incredibly fanciful world, it's fantasy, it's taking from other things like Game of Thrones, where it's this universe where superheroes actually exist. What are they like? There's a magic there that's undeniable."
Corenswet's Superman is seen wearing the hero's famous red trunks - but Gunn said he was "on the no-trunks team for a long time" before filming started, until the star convinced him otherwise.
"One of the things David said is that Superman wants kids to not be afraid of him. He's an alien. He's got these incredible powers. He shoots beams out of his eyes, can blow the truck over.
"He's this incredibly powerful, could be considered scary individual and he wants people to like him. He wants to be a symbol of hope and positivity.
"So he dresses like a professional wrestler, he dresses in a way that makes people unafraid of him. That shows that. And I was like, that really clicked in for me."
The reopening of a town's art gallery will not be a success until a much-loved crocodile is back on display, says a council leader.
Museum & Art Swindon reopened in July after a four-year closure and campaigners have been calling for the return of a stuffed gharial - a type of crocodile mainly found in India.
The gharial, which is currently undergoing specialist restoration, will not return to the museum at the Civic Offices in Euclid Street until May 2025, according to Swindon Borough Council leader Jim Robbins.
"I won't consider the museum and gallery a success until the gharial is back on display," said Mr Robbins.
"There is a reason that all the campaigners and people who wanted the museum and gallery opened again had pictures of crocodiles in their front windows," he added.
Gharials are a critically endangered species with fewer than an estimated 1,500 left in the wild.
The Swindon gharial was originally a hunting trophy and its first known owner was Maj Morton Hiles, who lived in India between 1916 and 1922.
He later lived in Warminster and gave the gharial to Warminster School before it was passed to the museum in 1931.
'Proper context'
The appropriateness of the gharial was brought up as the council's overview and scrutiny committee discussed the museum's reopening.
Chairman of the committee, Dale Heenan, raised the issue of it being a hunting trophy, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
In response, councillor Marina Strinkovsky said: "We have to acknowledge that it is not entirely unproblematic. And we want to display it with the proper context."
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Celebrating the 30th anniversary of his legendary stage production, Matthew Bourne tells the BBC about the show that radically changed ballet with one "big idea".
The most iconic dance costume of recent times may be a pair of white feathery breeches on permanent display at London's V&A museum. They're a tribute to choreographer Matthew Bourne's gender-flipping dance version of the ballet Swan Lake. The production, which first premiered in London in November 1995, ruffled feathers in many ways because the swans, until then female roles, were played by male dancers. It went on to become the longest running full-length dance classic in the West End and on Broadway, winning both Olivier and Tony awards.
As the show celebrates its 30th anniversary with a 2024/25 tour, Matthew Bourne tells the BBC the story of the landmark production.
"I think most people thought that when they came to see it, they were going to see men in tutus," says Matthew Bourne, of public expectations back in 1995.
The young, London-born choreographer, then aged 35, had been given the opportunity to stage his own version of Swan Lake at London's Sadler's Wells Theatre. It was a cherished dream for him, he says, "because I've always loved and identified with the story". His big idea, he recalls, "was that all the swans would be male. Everything else about the production flowed from that one simple idea".
He explains that he found the meaning in the story through the character of the prince. "He's constantly being told he needs to get married; his mother keeps pointing at the ring on her finger, which is ballet mime for 'time to get married'. And he keeps saying, 'no I'll only get married for true love'. I always thought there was something else going on there. And that's where the idea of male swans came from, from thinking about the prince himself. I think he's obviously looking for something else."
Bourne trained in dance before becoming a choreographer for television and theatre, and by the early 1990s, had form for putting his own spin on classical ballets. Like the cohort during that era known as the YBAs (Young British Artists) – which included Tracey Emin, Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas – Bourne was seen as an agent of change in his sphere. He had critical success with his version of Tchaikovsky's The Nutcracker, where the setting was a Victorian-style orphanage. In 1994, his version of La Sylphide (called Highland Fling) was set in a modern-day housing estate in Glasgow.
Until this audacious twist on Swan Lake, ballerina Margot Fonteyn's legendary performances as the Dying Swan had become an iconic image not just of Swan Lake, but of 20th-Century ballet itself. When it was announced that Bourne was bringing his own version, he remembers that "a lot of people thought it was a folly".
"No one could really imagine what it would be like, I think," he says. "If you'd been asked what ballet looks like, I think the image of female swans, the dancers, the tutus, was the classical look anyone would imagine."
"They said things like 'he's not the right person to do a new version of Swan Lake, he's known for humour and a jokey approach to things, for parody.' I was called 'the bad boy of the ballet' – I'm not even from the ballet world – and 'the Damien Hirst of Dance'. They thought it was going to be a big send up and there were a lot of people who were either doubting it, or excited that this funny piece was going to happen.
"But I knew I wasn't going to do that. I knew I had a good idea. Whether people would like it or not, that I didn't know."
Part of the visual surprise of the show were the male swans. The look – a single black triangle on their foreheads, cropped hair, bare torsos and feet, and most famously, their white silk chiffon "feathered" legs – were created by Bourne and British designer Lez Brotherston. Bourne was also influenced by Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film, The Birds.
"Lez and I wanted the swans to have a sense of being bird-like, animalistic and human, all at the same time," he says. "That they're mythical and tribal as a group. I had a few visual images, that I gave to Lez, of an Indian dancer that I'd seen jumping in the air with some fringy trousers. He also came up with a beautiful, slightly corseted, top half. For the 'beak' make-up, I'd seen a ballet by Roland Petit, Notre Dame de Paris. The only make-up he had to represent the hunchback was a black square line across his eyebrows. I'd just remembered how simple it was and how it worked well."
Far from being a humorous version of the original love story, Bourne describes his Prince's connection with The Swan as "the heart of the piece for me".
"This Prince is looking for something in his life that he didn't have," he says. "He has a cold mother, no one touches him, which is true of a royal person if you think about it. So, to be embraced by the swan's wings was the heart of it. It represented to him all the things that he wasn't in his own life, which is being free and being wild, to be a free person. It's so well embraced by Tchaikovsky's music. It's very moving, deep stuff, because the story has an element where you can bring yourself to it."
The choreographer also expresses surprise – as the costumes for his 'royal' family were contemporary – that the 1995 headlines mainly focused on The Swan, rather than a perceived connection with the British Royal Family and the divorce of the then Prince of Wales from Diana, Princess of Wales.
"The royal news was so big at the time and the lead did look a bit like Prince Charles at one point. So, I thought that would be picked up on, the story of a troubled prince. But it was all about the cultural icon, which is the Dancing Swan."
Gliding into pop culture
The world premiere of Swan Lake, on 9 November 1995, with Adam Cooper, a Royal Ballet principal dancer playing The Swan, caused an immediate sensation.
"It was a shock to many in the audience, I think, when Adam Cooper and these men in costumes came on," Bourne says.
"It wasn't a bad shock; it was just something brand new. And it was a shock to me, the way it took off in one night. We were front-page headlines in some newspapers. Cameron Mackintosh cornered me in the interval – he didn't even wait for the end of the show – and said that it had to go to the West End. He recognised something in it immediately."
There were, he adds, some who walked out when two men started dancing together, and the sexuality of the piece was a talking point throughout its first record-breaking runs in London's West End in 1996, and on Broadway in 1998. It was still a controversial topic. Although same-sex marriage had been depicted in the US's most popular sitcom, Friends, in January 1996, weeks after the premiere of Swan Lake, it would still be another two decades before gay relationships would achieve full equality in law in either the US or Great Britain.
"It got labelled 'the Gay Swan Lake' in a lot of places, and I was told to keep quiet about it when we first went to Broadway," Bourne says. "They thought it was very bad for publicity. It wouldn't be now, of course."
"Deep down, I knew there was essentially a gay story being told within the piece," he says. "I think I was wary of going too far with it at the time, and thinking of everyone's comfort. I'd be saying about The Swan, 'he is like a father figure'."
"I think that a wider audience found it more palatable in the mid-1990s because it wasn't a straightforward gay relationship. It was a prince and a swan. It was seen through the eyes of a prince trying to find peace in his life, and trying to find someone who would love him. It has a simple universal theme, which you could read several ways, and I think its openness is part of its success. But there were people who didn't like that side of it."
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If Bourne didn't feel able to celebrate the queer narrative within this Swan Lake in 1995, the rest of the dance world took much longer. It wasn't until the 2020s that popular TV dance shows featured same-sex couples, and it was only this year that classical ballet premiered a new ballet, Oscar, with an openly gay story.
"Those barriers have just been broken, which is interesting," says Bourne. "The 30 years of history has changed all of it, it's not seen as controversial anymore, it's 'bring the kids at Christmas, bring the family'. It's changed enormously. But it's gone through a history of whether I can openly celebrate that as well, and I've gone on my own journey about how I talk about it."
Swan Lake's role in helping to question gender norms of that era, however, was evident in Stephen Daldry's Oscar-nominated film from 2000, Billy Elliot, where Jamie Bell stars as a boy who wants to dance. Adam Cooper stars in the last scene of the film, as adult Billy, about to perform as The Swan.
With that one scene, Swan Lake glided into pop culture. And Bourne believes the production had a direct influence on the number of young men who now felt able to pursue a career in dance."Around that time there was an incredible growth in interest from young men, as well as young women, to get into dancing," he says.
"I think it has a legacy in terms of male dancers, along with Billy Elliot, from that time. It became an okay thing to do, because of these swans, this great combination of masculinity and lyricism, they show that both can be embraced. It's an iconic piece that they aspire to learn now."
Swan Lake also broke new barriers when it won a British Olivier theatre award in 1996, and three Tony Awards in 1999, including best director of a musical. It caused consternation among some on Broadway as they were divided on what his production represented. It was almost beyond definition, a contemporary piece set to the original music of Tchaikovsky.
"It is a musical theatre piece, but there was all this controversy about me winning the Tony Award, because there were some who said that Swan Lake wasn't a musical, it's a ballet," says Bourne. "But anything of this nature, this kind of argument, is always interesting because that's how things change, and how things are then viewed differently."
But that many audiences do indeed see his Swan Lake (and his subsequent dance productions) as ballet, has had a lasting impact on the inclusivity of the art form, he thinks. "I think the thing I'm most proud of with Swan Lake is the growth of dance audiences because of that piece, it really embraced wider audiences," he says.
"I think it made people eager for creativity and wanting something different. That's been a definite legacy of the show. And for some people, what we do is ballet, and they want to appreciate that they've found something new, which is, for them, ballet. So, it's all about definitions really. Perhaps we're just a genre on our own."
Matthew Bourne's Swan Lake is on tour from November 2024 for 29 weeks.
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Acclaimed artist Glenys Cour is just weeks away from her 101st birthday and cannot believe her good fortune.
She has built her long and vibrant life around her passion for colour, met the love of her life along the way and even counted the great Welsh poet Dylan Thomas as a friend.
She is still painting every day at her home in Mumbles overlooking Swansea Bay.
Glenys has never used a paint brush, instead preferring the "immediacy" of working oil paint with torn pieces of fabric and her fingers.
"It's exciting, it's terribly exciting, I love it," she said.
"Colour is the most important thing, certainly in my work as well as in my life."
She said her career as a painter, printmaker, collage and stained-glass artist and teacher meant she mixed with the "intelligentsia of Swansea".
As well as Dylan Thomas, who she fondly recalls as a "really naughty boy", her social circle included composer Dan Jones, poet Vernon Watkins, painter Ceri Richards and sculptor Ranald Cour who she would go on to marry.
This "pretty hectic" social life she enjoyed as an adult could not be further from the experience of her childhood years.
Born in Fishguard, Pembrokeshire, in 1924, the then Glenys Carthew was an only child and the daughter of a colliery manager.
Her father's job meant the family moved around the south Wales valleys seven times in total, living in a series of manager's houses set apart from the workers.
During the Depression of the 1930s, the disparity between her relatively comfortable existence and that of the workers and their families left her isolated from other children.
"The circumstances of my father being a manager in a colliery meant you didn't make friends," she said.
She recalled walking behind some terraced houses and hearing a group of children playing and pretending to be her.
"They were playing school and I heard them say 'now I'm Glenys Carthew'," she said.
"And I realised I was posh, I didn't know... it was shattering actually."
But at home, her imagination was fuelled by the books her father would read to her and she began making up her own fairy stories that she would tell to her classmates.
"When I think of it now I must have been very odd," she laughed.
She would also spend hours drawing on paper her father would bring home from work and discovered a passion for creating new colours with watercolour paints.
Becoming an artist was "inevitable", she said, and she flourished at Cardiff School of Art, where she was taught by celebrated painter Ceri Richards.
Richards is regarded as one of the most important British artists of the 20th Century.
"He opened my eyes, he was wonderful, he taught me how to see," she said.
After college, she took a teaching position in Fishguard, living with her grandmother and aunt, but it wasn't long before she moved to Swansea to take a job as an art teacher at Glanmor Girls School.
She began attending an evening classes in life drawing at Swansea College of Art, and it was here she met her husband, the sculptor Ronald Cour, who was lecturing there.
She was lovestruck the moment she met him.
"The funny thing that stood out was the fact he had beautiful hands and anyway, I fancied him," she said with a glint in her eye.
She decided to hide in the ladies' toilets so she could speak to him as he left the building at the end of the day.
"I waited until he came level with the door and I opened the door and bumped into him," she laughed.
"We walked down the stairs together and he said to me 'would you like to come for a drink?'."
They headed to the now demolished Bush Hotel on Swansea's High Street.
It was to be her first time in the pub and also the first time she met Dylan Thomas, a schoolfriend of her new beau.
"I discovered the best place to meet people when you didn't know anybody was the pub," she said.
"I met all the intelligentsia of Swansea really."
At the age of 25, she married Ronald, who was 10 years her senior.
"We had a pretty hectic social life, a wonderful social life, it was a rich social life, music, theatre, everything," she said.
"I loved it all, I was so lucky and I adored my husband.
"He was always over my shoulder telling me I was wonderful."
The couple had a daughter, Jane, and both their careers went from strength to strength.
But in May 1978, Glenys' world was torn apart when Ronald died suddenly and unexpectedly, aged just 63.
"I didn't think I could live," she said.
"Honestly, I really thought I couldn't live without him."
She took a week off work and then threw herself into painting.
"I don't think I'd have got through it if I hadn't," she said.
"I immersed myself in it.
"I go through that door and forget everything."
Almost five decades on, Ronald remains a huge part of her life and she confessed she still speaks to him.
Her living room is adorned with black and white photos of him and his sculptures.
After losing Ronald, she entered a period of vital creativity and spent three decades teaching at Swansea College of Art.
"I love people and I love teaching," she said.
"To be standing up in front of a group of students and trying to open their eyes, there's nothing more thrilling than that."
Today her artworks have found their way into numerous private and public collections and she has been exhibited widely in Europe and the US.
In 2014, a major retrospective of her work was held at Swansea's Glynn Vivian Art Gallery.
To what does she attribute her longevity?
"I think it's the fact that I'm working, I'm sure of it, it's a necessity," she said.
"I could never get over my good luck for the whole of my life, I've been blessed.
"I've had a fantastic life. I really, really mean it."
Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, has long been known as “the green city in the sun” because of its mix of forest and grasslands among the urban sprawl, but it all depends on where you are viewing it from.
Seen from one of the city’s comfortable apartment blocks or homes, then yes, perhaps – from one of its densely packed slums, then no.
There, life can be characterised by poverty and ecological disaster, such as flooding and deadly landslides.
But an art collective - Kairos Futura – has been trying to take what might seem like some of the city’s more dystopian elements and create a vision of a utopia, or at least how that might be achieved.
Their exhibition Hakuna Utopia features the works of seven artists exploring themes of apocalypse and resilience – some in quite abstract ways - as they respond to the daily challenges endured by Nairobi’s six million residents.
One of the collective, Stoneface Bombaa, grew up in Mathare, the capital’s second-largest informal settlement.
He has overcome great odds to become an artist and wants to use his work to address the way that people in Mathare live – often lacking jobs, housing and education.
Bombaa says they endure a “hand-to-mouth economy”, never sure where their next meal will come from.
“People are really angry,” he says, but through art, he feels he can “channel” his community’s anger into something positive as “art unites”.
Bombaa set out to create from the exhibitions “micro-utopia” sites dotted around the city.
He called it the “jungle room” and hoped to get people to connect with nature from within Mathare itself, in an attempt to bridge the ecological divide.
Ironically, the building he had identified as a possible site was demolished by the authorities to make way for a road.
Undeterred, he has been taking children from his community, often stuck living in unimaginable urban squalor, to experience Nairobi’s verdant parks and expose them to green spaces.
“There are no trees or green spaces in Mathare,” Bombaa says.
But by contemplating the idea of utopia, he believes that he can imagine what it would be like if people in his community actually had unrestricted access to the city’s green spaces.
In this way, people in his community can claim a right to access nature that is denied to them simply because they are poor.
Bombaa also complains about how ordinary Nairobians, often scrabbling to make a living, have to pay to enter some of their city’s most beautiful locations such as the arboretum or Karura forest.
The Kairos Futura team are also drawing inspiration from nature to use their imagination in how to address urgent environmental issues.
For example, Coltrane McDowell has applied this to architecture.
In his work Invisible Cities, he was inspired by termite mounds to reimagine what architecture might look like in the future.
Another artist in the show, Abdul Rop, known for his mesmerising woodcut prints and paintings, says that in order to “achieve utopia”, Nairobians need to work together.
“That's why the young people are agitating right now for change,” he says, suggesting they are frustrated by a corrupt political system that hems in their potential.
Gen Z were at the forefront of protests this year against new tax measures, which saw the government make an embarrassing U-turn.
Rop argues that by thinking about utopia through the lens of art, young people may find creative ways to fight for their future.
Rather than being far-fetched, he thinks that it can help imagine a bolder and more equal future for his city.
“The moment to act for the future is now,” he says.
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Ewan McGregor has described live theatre as "good for the soul", as he announced he is to return to the London stage for the first time in 17 years.
The Scottish actor, who has starred in Trainspotting and Moulin Rouge, is set to star in My Master Builder in London's West End between April and July next year.
McGregor told BBC News: "This is the longest I haven’t been on stage, and in honesty, I’ve missed it."
Inspired by Henrik Ibsen's 1892 play The Master Builder, the new show is written by US playwright Lila Raicek and will be directed by Michael Grandage.
"The funny story is, I had literally just finished reading Ibsen’s The Master Builder for pleasure – an extraordinary read," McGregor explained. "Michael got in touch out of the blue and I mentioned how much I’d love to get back on stage.
"And in a moment of pure coincidence, he told me he had a play inspired by The Master Builder sitting on his desk. I asked him to send it to me, and here we are. A moment of total serendipity."
He said Raicek had taken the script in a "fascinating" direction, describing the new play as a "very modern take on sexual politics in a way that resonates particularly for this moment we find ourselves in".
"It examines these issues in a very grown-up way," he continued. "And ultimately, I felt like what a great play it would be to see, and therefore what a great play it would be to do."
Ibsen's The Master Builder focused on a middle-aged Norwegian architect who becomes successful by building new homes following a fire that destroys a residential estate.
But the ambitious and ruthless architect, Halvard Solness, grapples with feelings of inadequacy and fear of being overtaken by younger talent.
The production will begin previews at the Wyndham's Theatre in London on 17 April, and run until 12 July.
Grandage and McGregor have previously collaborated on Othello and Guys and Dolls, both for the Donmar theatre, where Grandage was artistic director.
McGregor described working on the two shows as "amazing experiences", adding he felt "incredibly safe" in the director's hands.
"I really like the work he gets out of me," McGregor said. "He has great creative intention and ideas before we start in the rehearsal room, but when we are actually rehearsing with him, there’s such a great sense of discovering it together."
McGregor's film credits include Brassed Off, Miss Potter, Black Hawk Down, Angels & Demons, Birds of Prey and Salmon Fishing in the Yemen.
He played Obi-Wan Kenobi in the first of the Star Wars prequel trilogy Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 1999. He revisited the role in subsequent Star Wars films and in the 2022 miniseries Obi-Wan Kenobi.
The 53-year-old's other TV credits include Halston, in which he played fashion designer Roy Halston Frowick. McGregor won an Emmy Award in 2021 for his portrayal.
His last stage appearance was more than a decade ago, when he appeared in The Real Thing on Broadway, opposite Maggie Gyllenhaal.
Reflecting on his return to live theatre, McGregor said: "I love acting on film and television, and of course, I love acting on stage. I have always been lucky enough to do all three throughout my career.
"Theatre teaches you so much about acting, the audience teaches you. What works, what doesn’t. It’s very good for the soul. The live experience. The power of storytelling.
"Also I love the routine of it, waking up in the morning with the day aiming towards this event, this electric experience."
Earlier this year, McGregor received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in Los Angeles. He said he was "particularly moved" his star had been placed beside that of the movie franchise's original Princess Leia, the late actress Carrie Fisher.
How a rarely-seen drawing of the Three Graces by Raphael reveals the era's ideas about nudity, modesty, shame – and the artist's genius. It's part of an exhibition, Drawing the Italian Renaissance – at The King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace – of drawings from 1450 to 1600, the biggest of its kind ever shown in the UK.
A wandering lobster and a sturdy ostrich feature among the 150 chalk, metalpoint and ink drawings on show at Drawing The Italian Renaissance, at the King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace. Created by Renaissance giants such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael and Titian, often in preparation for larger painted tableaux, the works are thought to have entered the Royal Collection in the 17th Century under Charles II, several as gifts. For more than 30 of them, it's their first time ever on public display. Rarely shown due to their fragility, these fascinating drawings – which, at the time, were beginning to be recognised as artworks in their own right – make up the broadest exhibition of Italian drawings from 1450 to 1600 ever shown in the UK.
Rarer still than these animal studies are the drawings of female nudes, outnumbered by a factor of three by an abundance of naked men. "The male body is this absolute focus of creativity," explained Renaissance historian Maya Corry, discussing the exhibition on BBC Radio 4's Front Row in October. "This is a Christian society and it's the male body, not the female body, that's made in God's image." Leonardo Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, with his ideal body proportions, is a case in point. It is the male physique, she said, that "comes closest to divine perfection" in those times.
There were practical issues, too. "The artist's workshop would have been a male environment, and in the absence of 'professional models' it would have gone against all societal norms for a woman to undress in front of any man other than her husband," Martin Clayton, the exhibition's curator, tells the BBC. It was male models who would pose for Michelangelo, for example, when he needed a female figure. "This led to misunderstandings and distortions in depictions of the female body."
Raphael, however, was among the first to buck the trend, sketching female nudes based on real life models. "He was a highly pragmatic artist, who used drawing brilliantly to tackle visual problems, and to work very quickly from first idea to final composition," says Clayton. The drawings "allow us to see the artist's immediate responses to the living figure as they investigated pose, proportion, movement and anatomical detail," he adds. In the case of Raphael, "his simultaneous decisiveness and openness to variations and possibilities is always on display."
Raphael’s The Three Graces (c1517-18), a work in red chalk with evidence of some metalpoint underdrawing, reveals the artist's genius at work. As he moves a single model through three different poses, we witness the meticulous process behind creating the exuberant fresco The Wedding Feast of Cupid and Psyche, where these three figures will eventually feature, anointing the newlyweds to confer their future happiness. Unclothed, the complexity of the human body was the ultimate test of a Renaissance artist's talent, while also satisfying the era's passion for science. The women's shapely biceps and quadriceps speak to the same interest in anatomy that we see in Da Vinci's densely annotated The Muscles of the Leg (c1510-11), also on display. But there's a softness about the face and abdomen that is missing from the exhibition's depictions of men, such as The Head of a Youth (c1590) with its angular jaw, attributed to Pietro Faccini, or Bartolomeo Passarotti's sinewy St Jerome (c1580).
The feminine ideal
Much like Michelangelo's David, sculpted a decade earlier, Raphael appears to chase an ideal – even when drawing from life. In a letter reportedly written to his friend Baldassare Castiglione in 1514, he expresses the struggle of capturing perfection in real life. "To paint one beautiful woman I would have to see several beauties," he writes. "But since both good judgement and beautiful women are scarce, I make use of a certain idea that comes to mind."
In Raphael's The Three Graces, "beauty" means hairless, unblemished skin, and breasts and buttocks as perfectly round as the apples the trio clutch in his c1504-1505 treatment of the myth. When Sandro Botticelli made the Graces a feature of his vast tableau Spring, feminine softness was emphasised by flowing hair and diaphanous fabrics, while Pietro Liberi's post-Renaissance rendition of the subject (c1670-80) features the rosy cheeks and marble flesh that we see in works such as Federico Barocci's The Head of the Virgin (c1582), painted a century earlier, and also on display at the King's Gallery.
The rarity of female painters and patrons in the Renaissance meant that artworks inevitably reflected the male gaze. "Perceptions of gender and women's subordinate role in Renaissance culture played out in images, and especially portraits, with images of men stressing their social, political or professional role and status – the masculine ideal being very much one of forceful mastery," says historian and author Julia Biggs, an expert in Renaissance art history. "By contrast, the women encountered in portraits from this time are portrayed primarily in relation to the traits of ideal (youthful) feminine beauty, virtuousness (modesty, humility, obedience) and motherhood."
As deifications of charm, elegance and beauty, the Graces (Euphrosyne, Aglaea and Thalia), daughters of the Greek God Zeus, reflect a male view in their Renaissance depictions, not just of what a woman should look like, but also of how she should behave. They embody this nebulous concept of grace – closely associated with Raphael – which patrons were keen to attach to their image. It was a term that was bound up with distinction, benevolence and love, while the Graces' circular dance suggests balance and harmony − key principles of the Renaissance aesthetic. As a group, they combine a patriarchal lesson on feminine virtue with, unwittingly perhaps, a celebration of the female form and the sisterhood of female bonding.
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At the time, female nudity had different connotations. On the one hand, Biggs tells the BBC, the Three Graces "may have formed part of the trope of 'virtuous nudity', where nakedness was "an indication of truthfulness and purity". Elsewhere, however, female nudity was "associated with shame". In Masacchio's fresco Expulsion from the Garden of Eden (c1424-27), only Eve, branded sinful, covers her genitals, while Biggs notes that "as part of the la scopa – the ritual humiliation of adulterous women in Ferrara, Italy – women were made to run naked through the city".
Such female nudity contrasted sharply with the modest female dress code of Renaissance Italy. "In public, the majority of women would cover their bodies from just underneath the collarbone down to their ankles, and cover their arms," Biggs explains. Mythological and Biblical scenes gave artists a pretext to disrobe them, and also answered, says Biggs, the desire of male patrons to display "erotic erudition" or perhaps even "pay tribute to their own sexual prowess". Even when the women are dressed, Drawing the Italian Renaissance reflects the dichotomous roles available to them, from a seductress in Annibale Carracci's The Temptation of St Anthony (c1595) to13 different Virgin Marys by Michelangelo, Da Vinci and their contemporaries. Yet, the exhibition suggests that we do more than simply stand back and drink in the Renaissance in all its flourishes and flaws. In place of the conventional catalogue is an illustrated sketchbook, and drawing materials are found in the galleries. We are invited to engage with the works through our own creative endeavour – for some an opportunity, perhaps, to redraw their definition of male and female.
Drawing The Italian Renaissance is at the King's Gallery, Buckingham Palace until 9 March 2025
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John Constable's The Hay Wain presents a bucolic view of England – but there's a dark side to the idealised rural image.
Widely satirised and reproduced on everything from bath towels to biscuit tins, John Constable's The Hay Wain (1821) is "the most celebrated and certainly quintessentially English landscape painting", says Alice Rylance-Watson, assistant curator for the National Trust, discussing the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty that inspired the painting. But this rural scene featuring a hay wagon fording a Suffolk millpond is, she says, "an idealised image". In fact, the more we learn about The Hay Wain, the less we can trust its depiction of England.
Exploring the diverse meanings that artists past and present attach to the landscapes they depict was the subject of an exhibition at Bristol Museum & Art Gallery, National Treasures: Constable in Bristol − "Truth to Nature", starring The Hay Wain. The iconic 6ft-wide oil painting, frequently voted one of Britain's favourite artworks, was on loan from London's National Gallery as part of the museum's bicentenary celebrations in 2024. Now it has returned to the National Gallery, it is the focal point of Discover Constable & The Hay Wain, an exploration of the painting's creation and different reactions to it, which opened in October.
There's no doubt that Constable (1776-1837), who leaned more towards Romanticism than Realism, imbued his landscape with the sentimental attachment he had to it. He grew up just a mile from the whitewashed cottage to the left of the canvas, owned by tenant farmer Willy Lott, with its charming view over millpond and cornfields, and he rhapsodised about "the beauty of the surrounding scenery, its gentle declivities, its luxuriant meadow flats…", writing: "I associate 'my careless boyhood' with all that lies on the banks of the Stour".
Yet the rural way of life he depicted did not reflect the industrialisation that was rapidly altering the landscape at the time of painting. While his contemporary JMW Turner was painting a steam train slicing through the canvas, Constable was looking back rather than forward. In many ways, The Hay Wain is a scene that's too good to be true, an anachronism that speaks more to his nostalgia than offering a faithful portrait of rural Suffolk.
Far from being an objective record of the countryside, the scene inevitably reflects Constable's own standing in society as the son of a landowner, Christine Riding, Director of Collections and Research at the National Gallery, tells the BBC. Just off-canvas is Flatford Mill, owned by the Constable family since 1742. "He knows that landscape very well, but he knows it from a position of privilege," she says. "It all looks very natural and contented. People know their place in society and are just getting on with it."
A darker side to rural bliss
But the scene is less happy when you consider the social context. The agricultural workers pictured in the background often laboured under poor conditions in a precarious and bloated employment market, could not afford to eat the bread that they helped produce, and were about to face even greater hardship when replaced by machines.
The picture also ignores the Enclosure Acts (between 1604 and 1914) that placed rural spaces in the hands of the few. "By the time you get to The Hay Wain, there is very little common land," explains Riding. "He's painting places that his father and his brother have ownership over… but you don't see owners, only labourers."
As for depicting "nature", "there's nothing natural about that landscape," Riding says. "It's all man-made…The fields are agriculture, a managed landscape." And though Constable was a pioneer of painting en plein air, the masterpiece was painted from sketches gathered over almost two decades and completed back at his studio in Hampstead, London – then just a village but, within a century, subsumed into the capital's urban sprawl.
In some ways, he's offering up a fiction: a highly curated landscape containing elements that have been added later to improve the composition and broaden its appeal. The panting dog on the shoreline is one example, while, to its right, traces of an erased barrel and a mounted horse still linger beneath the water. Even the hay wain itself, the ultimate symbol of the English countryside, is not a hay wagon, but a wood cart, perhaps painted from a sketch sent to Constable in London, or, as new research suggests, from carts parked around Hampstead Heath's Whitestone Pond.
Yet, in other ways, The Hay Wain is a paragon of verisimilitude, painted by an artist who was true to his artistic vision despite the low position landscapes occupied in the European Academies' hierarchy of artistic genres. "Constable is known for his attempts to be true to nature, and his commitment to painting a landscape that, for him, was very real," Julia Carver, curator of the Truth to Nature exhibition, tells the BBC. "He was working at a time when that was not fully understood by a lot of people in the artworld, and he still held to it."
Indeed, perhaps one of the reasons why The Hay Wain was not an immediate success when shown at the Royal Academy in 1821 is that it was too natural and too mundane for tastes at the time. But it was this same naturalism that saw it awarded a gold medal at the Paris Salon, where it was shown, along with View on the Stour near Dedham and Yarmouth Jetty, three years later. It was there that the writer Stendhal declared: "We have never seen anything like these pictures before. It is their truthfulness that is so striking."
With the academic hierarchy in mind, "a lot of people who wanted to paint landscapes were starting to use history painting as a way to do it," says Carver, referencing Constable's predecessor Richard Wilson (1713-1782) and works by his contemporary, Turner, such as Dido building Carthage (1815). Constable, however, turns away from classicism and the temples, ruins and mythical beasts that populated the landscapes of many of his fellow painters, and he makes green, rather than the traditional brown, the dominant shade. Instead, he writes to childhood friend and fellow artist John Dunthorne about returning to Suffolk to make "laborious studies from nature" and create "a pure and unaffected" representation of the scenes.
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"His copious work outdoors to prepare the end result does help us to see something that was really real, that was true to nature," says Carver. Constable's scientifically accurate cloud formations, for example, were the result of hours of meticulous observation and sketching while out "skying", as he called it. The authenticity of the painting's elements mattered to Constable, and its original title Landscape: Noon speaks to the precision he sought in its representation of the light and the sky.
But for all his careful studies and sketches, some of which are on display in the Bristol and London exhibitions, The Hay Wain, says Christine Riding, is best understood as "an evocation". "Constable did not go in for a mimetic, optical-truth attitude to painting," she asserts. "It's a lifelong study of nature, but through the medium of oil paint".
Over the centuries, people have attached their own truths to the painting, Riding explains. At the time of painting, the Napoleonic Wars had made it clear that an English way of life could not be taken for granted, while the French Revolution and Peterloo were a reminder to families such as Constable's – who owned the means of production – that mobilised workers could upturn the old order at any moment. "Maybe he simply wants things to stay as they are," Riding suggests.
The Hay Wain has continued to be totemic of an England that needs to be protected, but the threats have changed. In 1983, Peter Kennard's The Hay Wain with Cruise Missiles supported the Greenham Common protests against the siting of guided nuclear missiles in the English countryside; while in 2022, The Hay Wain became the focus of climate action when two Just Stop Oil protesters taped a dystopian version on to the original artwork and glued themselves to its frame.
"I think we do Constable a disservice by assuming that all he wanted to do was to strip away traditions and conventions to paint the landscape as it was," says Riding. Constable is paying attention to "people's emotional and aesthetic appreciation of the landscape", she explains, and "trying to navigate the difference between being in a landscape and representing the landscape". What we see might not be a mirror-like truth of this particular corner of Suffolk, but in terms of Constable's personal and emotional connection to that landscape, it couldn't be further from a fake.
Discover Constable & The Hay Wain is at The National Gallery, London until 2 February 2025.
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Many travellers snap pictures during their trips, but others find that slowing down to illustrate a place helps them appreciate it in a more meaningful way.
Back in the 1800s, French artists like Eugène Louis Boudin and Claude Monet packed their paint brushes and set off on long excursions to capture the natural landscape – and in the process, revolutionised art as people knew it.
While painting outdoors on location has been around for roughly 200 years, the "en plein air" (open-air) art movement popularised by Boudin, Monet and others has recently inspired a newer trend: urban sketching. The term was coined by journalist and illustrator Gabriel Campanario in 2007 after he began sharing his drawn-on-the-spot work online and urged others to join in. This casual, free-spirited approach to en plein air art is often accompanied by text to tell the story of the artist's surroundings when they travel.
"Sketching on the go at different places around the globe… opens your eyes to everything from the obvious to the invisible. A sketch captures a memory of people and places in a way that a photograph never can," says Annette Morris, watercolour artist and education director at Urban Sketchers, a global community founded by Campanario that organises urban sketching walks, meet-ups and international trips for painting enthusiasts.
Morris has noticed that as people have become increasingly interested in more immersive travel experiences, there has been a notable rise in the number of people booking urban sketching retreats in the last few years. Since launching in 2009, Urban Sketchers has expanded to 477 cities in 70 countries, and it has opened more than 60 new chapters since the start of 2023.
Alex Hillkurtz, an urban sketcher living in Paris who leads painting workshops and retreats, believes drawing or painting on-location helps travellers slow down and experience a place in a different way.
"While travelling, there's a tendency to rush through bucket-list experiences. Urban sketching retreats allow us to step out of the hustle by creating something by hand," he explains. "As we draw, we notice the beauty in the ordinary: the way sunlight warms a scene, the comings and goings of locals in a market and the colours reflected in the water fountain."
I had long looked to bring my two biggest passions together – art and travel – and chronicle my encounters and experiences in a way that went beyond writing and photography. So, when I discovered urban sketching during the pandemic, I couldn't resist the idea of creating art in the open and slowing down to fully absorb a place and moment.
I went on my first urban sketching trip in 2023 with Painting Holiday Italy in Cinque Terre, a string of five coastal villages on the Italian Riviera. I remember feeling intimidated as I set up my easel and sketchbook inMonterosso al Mare's Borgo Antico (Old Town) that first morning surrounded by my instructor and fellow sketchers. However, with each brushstroke, I soon became more and more engrossed by the village's arched passageways, cobblestone streets, lemon trees and bougainvillaea-clad pastel houses. I found that when you stand still and spend hours absorbing and rendering the small details around you, you appreciate a place's nuances in a different way. As a result, at the end of the five-day retreat I returned home with a deeper appreciation for Ligurian cuisine, culture and architecture.
In the following months, I sketched my way through India, Bhutan, Georgia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Indonesia and the Seychelles; my constant companions were an A5 sketchpad, a pencil, fine-liner pens and a mini watercolour set.
"As an art instructor, it's wonderful to see how each participant brings a fresh perspective to what's in front of them," says Alicia Aradilla, who has completed more than 700 watercolours from 20 countries and now leads urban sketching workshops and retreats. "Every sketchbook ends up being different; I find that incredibly appealing about sketching trips."
Here are some of my and my fellow urban sketchers' favourite travel moments rendered in watercolour, and the story behind each.
"A symbol of Bhutanese warmth and tradition" (Shikha Shah)
One evening in the capital city Thimpu, my local guide and friend Yeshi Samdrup suggested we enjoy a traditional Bhutanese meal at Babesa Village Restaurant, a 600-year-old home-turned-eatery. We were warmly greeted in Babesa's cosy, dimly-lit mud walls with ara, Bhutan's national alcoholic beverage that's often homebrewed by women from fermented or distilled grains. The beverage was poured from an exquisite jandhom, a barrel-shaped vessel decorated with intricately carved metal rings. Mesmerised by the beauty of the container, I opened my sketchbook to remind myself how Bhutan welcomes its guests by evoking its ancient traditions.
"Abode in the tropics" (Shikha Shah)
I recently spent three days surfing, meditating and practicing yoga at in Kerala, India. Driving through a peaceful lane on Varkala's South Cliff, we arrived at a 150-year-old building with a tiled-roof entrance, a veranda and courtyard surrounded by lush trees. The facade made a striking impression on me, so one afternoon, I created a pen-and-ink sketch of the elegant palm-fringed structure. Slowing down and focussing allowed me to notice architectural details I would have otherwise missed: the woodwork; the bird motifs on the roof; the chalky pink and blue of the doors and windows.
When I was back home, I finished it and posted some pictures of the artwork on my Instagram account. To my surprise, a woman replied, "Do you sell your sketches? I would love to buy this! I married my husband behind that gate. We miss it every single day."
"Colours of la dolce vita" (Shikha Shah)
As part of our five-day art retreat in Cinque Terre, we took an early morning train to Riomaggiore – the southernmost of the area's five villages. After strolling its many narrow streets, we arrived at a rocky harbour filled with boats and slender, three- and four-storey houses splashed in sunshine-yellow, rust and orange hues with distinct green-shutter windows. We found a serene spot on the rocks and spent a few hours capturing the scene on paper: fishermen cleaning the boats; nets drying in the sun; houses with empty clotheslines. Today, when I look through my Italy sketchbook, I walk right into the locations we painted together as a group, and feel the salty seaside air and the Mediterranean sun on my face. It is a time travel experience like no other.
"Hanoi's humble stamp-maker" (Shikha Shah)
The Old Quarter of Hanoi, Vietnam is a jumble of 36 narrow streets; each named after a guild whose craftsmen worked for royalty at the Imperial Citadel of Thang Long centuries ago. Today, this neighbourhood is still home to artisans striving to maintain ancient Vietnamese crafts. At the intersection of Hang Quat and Luong Van Can streets, I spotted a septuagenarian diligently hand-carving a wooden stamp, sitting in a tiny shop named Phuc Loi Stamp. I soon learned that the shop owner, Pham Ngoc Toan, had been practising his family's woodcarving trade for more than 40 years. I chose a red stamp symbolising happiness and handed it to him. As he began patiently engraving each letter in my name onto the stamp with a small chisel, I opened my sketchpad to draw him in action. While we didn't speak the same language, we silently bonded over our shared passion for art.
"A bit of Basque gastronomy" (Shikha Shah)
Basque cousin to the Spanish tapas, pintxos are bite-sized delicacies unique to Spain and France's Basque region. My friend and I grabbed a seat inside Bilbao's old-fashioned and atmospheric Café Iruña, ordered a variety of pintxos displayed on top of the bar and washed them down with a glass of txakoli (a slightly sparkling local white wine). As I drank, I managed to create a quick, rough sketch of the pintxos and txakoli.
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Another evening, we went bar hopping in Logroño’s main gastronomic street, Calle del Laurel. At Bar Soriano, we enjoyed the local speciality of mushrooms tossed in garlic butter, skewered onto a stick and topped with shrimp. Similarly, I felt compelled to pull out my sketchbook, the way another traveller might snap a picture with their phone. The simple act of illustrating allowed me to savour these treats a little longer, and their flavours have stayed with me ever since.
"The power of art" (Dan Johns)
For Dan Johns, a passionate urban sketcher based in Brisbane, Australia, his Vietnam art retreat hosted by Art Food Culture became a way to interact with local children and elders of remote Indigenous groups. "When you sit down to urban sketch, it shifts you from being an observer of a location to a part of it. Setting up to sketch the traditional housing in a remote village of the Cõ Tu people, I managed to befriend some local children by offering [them] some paints and a spare empty notebook. Soon, we were sketching together. After the spare paints were over, they politely packed up the gear and handed the finished notebook back to me. This little book filled with artistic chaos is one of my fondest souvenirs from the trip," says Johns.
"A trip down memory lane" (John Skelcher)
John Skelcher has been conducting urban sketching retreats in Italy for more than 15 years and says that painting has helped him forge many unforgettable travel memories. "During my recent retreat in Venice, I organised a painting excursion to Burano when an old Italian lady and gentleman stood by and watched my watercolour demonstration to the group. I was so caught up in painting the scene that I barely noticed the tears trickling down her eyes. Once done with the demo, I asked the lady if she was okay to which she replied that watching us paint rekindled a childhood memory for her. Many years ago, she and her father stood at the same spot, observing another Englishman working with an easel; the man was none other than Winston Churchill. On asking if she had more to share about that day, she smiled broadly. 'Winston crossed that bridge and made a pee against that wall in the side alley there!' she said, and burst out laughing."
"From strangers to friends" (Astrid ten Bosch)
Dutch travel artist Astrid ten Bosch recently joined art educator Alán Ramiro's urban sketching retreat in Morocco. "Walking around a market in Marrakesh, I happened to strike up a conversation with a store owner about a beautiful carpet," she said. "When I asked him whether he was from Marrakesh, he explained that he was originally from a village in the Atlas Mountains; it was destroyed by the recent earthquake, which was why he'd moved to Marrakesh. Curious, I asked if his village was near Imlil and pulled out my sketchbook to show him a drawing I'd made of Imlil. He looked at it visibly moved, pointed at a mountain in my sketch and said, 'Wow! Did you create this? My village is just behind that mountain.' … It was an unexpected and beautiful connection, all sparked by a simple sketch."
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The colour survives in the work of 17th Century Spanish colonial painters, a symbol of the wealth that ultimately doomed the Maya, writes Devon Van Houten Maldonado.
In 17th Century Europe, when Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio and Peter Paul Rubens painted their famous masterworks, ultramarine blue pigment made from the semi-precious lapis lazuli stone was mined far away in Afghanistan and cost more than its weight in gold. Only the most illustrious painters were allowed to use the costly material, while lesser artists were forced to use duller colours that faded under the sun. It wasn’t until the industrial revolution in the 19th Century that a synthetic alternative was invented, and true ultramarine blue finally became widely available.
Across the Atlantic Ocean, colonial Baroque works created by artists like José Juárez, Baltasar de Echave Ibia and Cristóbal de Villalpando in early 17th Century Mexico – New Spain – were full of this beautiful blue. How could this be? Lapis lazuli was even rarer in the New World. It wasn’t until the middle of the 20th Century that archaeologists discovered the Maya had invented a resilient and brilliant blue, centuries before their land was colonised and their resources exploited.
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The ultramarine blue procured from lapis lazuli in Europe was not only incredibly expensive, but also extremely laborious to make. In Europe, blue was reserved for the most important subject matter. Rubens' Adoration of the Magi – the version that hangs in the Museo del Prado in Madrid and which he worked on for over 20 years – is an example. The colour was primarily used to paint the robes of the Virgin Mary, and later extended to include other royalty and holy figures. In Mexico, on the other hand, blue was used to paint altogether less holy and everyday subjects.
Archaeologists studying pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican ruins were surprised by the discovery of blue murals in the Maya Riviera, modern day Mexico and Guatemala, from as early as 300 AD, perhaps the most famous being the murals at the temple of Chichén Itzá (created around 450 AD). The colour had a special ceremonial significance for the Maya. They covered sacrificial victims and the altars on which they were offered in a brilliant blue paint, writes Diego de Landa Calderón, a bishop in colonial Mexico during the 16th Century, in his first-hand account.
Archaeologists were puzzled by the resilience of the blue in the murals. The añil plant, part of the indigo family, was widely available in the region but was mostly used for dyes rather than paint. Indigo was quick to fade in the sunlight and natural elements, so experts mused that the Maya couldn’t have used the same widely available dye to paint the murals. It wasn’t until the late 1960s that the source of Maya blue’s resilience through the centuries was discovered: a rare clay called attapulgite, which was mixed with the dye from the añil plant. During colonisation native materials like Maya blue and cochineal were exploited along with every other resource of the land and its people in the New World. These colours, which supposedly represented the wealth of the Maya empire, would stand as a symbol of all that would be plundered.
Rhapsody in blue
Master painters from the Americas are discussed in art history – if they’re mentioned at all – as a lesser school of Baroque compared to Caravaggio and Rubens. It's overly simplistic to assume that these Baroque masters were only impersonating their European predecessors. In fact, second and third generation painters born in Mexico City, such as Juárez and Echave Ibia, departed from European aesthetics, but arrived to something uniquely layered: enormous and sophisticated compositions that drew upon the full vibrancy of the New World. At Mexico’s National Art Museum (Munal) in Mexico City, works by Juárez seen chronologically show his development from a European impersonator to a New Spanish Baroque master. His early canvases departed from the dramatic spotlighting and warmth of European Baroque imagery and later moved into cold saturation throughout the picture plane (vibrant blues, yellows, greens and reds), multiple light sources, collaged compositions and grand scale – and in part because the use of local materials, such as Maya blue, expanded his palette.
While Rubens also used vibrant colours, his compositions, on the whole, were more chaotic and warmer than those of Juárez. His pallet was even more vibrant than Rubens’, perhaps the most vibrant of the European Baroques, but his compositions were more akin to Caravaggio. Caravaggio's canvases were, without fail, full of rich reds and yellows, but nearly devoid of blue – if you think of a Caravaggio masterpiece, blue is usually absent. The closest to a blue-tinted Caravaggio you can find is Juárez’s work, but, despite his prolific reach and realised compositions, Juárez died in poverty. If Juárez died without a peso to his name, how would he have had the resources to order large quantities of precious lapis lazuli from Europe?
On the other hand, Villalpando, often said to be the most prolific colonial painter in New Spain, imitated the chaotic compositions by Rubens. Villalpando fits more neatly into the European history of Baroque painting and didn't depart from Rubens' ‘fear of space’ – the Baroque notion that every space of the canvas must crammed with imagery and incident – thus he was accepted by the canon of art history as the mascot of Novohispanic Baroque painting. Still, as much as he wanted to imitate Rubens, Villalpando painted with Mesoamerican materials and labour. The consistent result – the same as his peers in Mexico – was that his paintings and murals were cooler and more saturated. His mural adorning the dome of Puebla's cathedral was the first and only of its kind in New Spain. Swirling blue and purple clouds back the images of the virgin, the saints and the angels painted by Villalpando. Even though he sought to make European Baroque in the Americas, his materials gave him away as a criollo, a non-mixed-race descendant of the original Spanish settlers, from Mexico City.
Baltasar de Echave Ibia painted such elaborate blues that he became known as ‘El Echave de los azules’ (the Echave of the blues). His father, Baltasar de Echave Orio, also used blue generously, but Echave Ibia was especially famous for his copious use and mastery of the colour. There is a reason why Ibia, working in Mexico City between the 17th and 18th Centuries, had access to seemingly limitless amounts of blue. All three had had sources of the brilliant colour closer to home.
The lack of written evidence of the use of añil or Maya blue in Novohispanic Baroque paintings is made up for with visual evidence. From these painters and others in the colonised Americas it's apparent that Baroque artists in the New World weren’t using the same blue pigment as their European peers. The lapis lazuli blue being used in Europe was a dark ultramarine blue. While the blue being used in New Spain reflected the vivid azure, originally extracted from añil by the Maya. Maya blue is one of the most durable of all Mesoamerican colours, as seen in the 1,600-year-old murals at Chichén Itzá. Perhaps the same resistance to time has kept Baroque canvases and murals in the Americas, from Mexico to Peru, bright through the centuries.
This cross-pollination of influences, from Maya to European Baroque, happening in Latin America on the canvases of criollo painters suggests globalism began much sooner than academic history has led us to believe.
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Green has symbolised both decay and regeneration, offering a bridge between this world and the next, writes Kelly Grovier.
Beware of green. It can’t be trusted. Leonardo da Vinci knew, and cautioned his contemporaries against the pigment’s toxic instability. Its beauty, Leonardo warned, “vanishes into thin air”. Volatile and evanescent, green is more than just a colour. It is the energy that connects us to the unknown. Remove green from the palette of art history and a bridge between life and death would disappear. Equal parts morbid and vital, green curdles the cadaverous cheeks of Pablo Picasso’s macabre portrait of his young friend, Carlos Casagemas, who shot himself dead in lovelorn torment at the age of 20, while at the same time ignites with joyous chlorophyllic fire the life-affirming and ever-verdant canvases of Claude Monet.
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To dabble in green is not merely to tread a path between being and unbeing, but to make inroads into the mysteries of each. Simultaneously the colour of putrefaction and of verdurous regeneration, green participates with unbiased vividity in decay and rebirth. Perhaps it is green’s teasing ambiguity that compelled Leonardo himself, against his own better counsel, to clad his most famous and enigmatic subject, the Mona Lisa, in a darkening shade of that colour – one that has since bruised itself to a sublime and submarine blackness in the subconscious of cultural history.
Donning the deepest of shadowy green costumes, La Gioconda night-swims in the vitrine of our psyche and has long been recognised as a mystical commuter between the world of the living and that of the dead. “Like the vampire,” the 19th-Century English essayist Walter Pater once wrote of her, “she has been dead many times and learned the secrets of the grave”. Describing Leonardo’s inscrutable sitter as “older than the rocks among which she sits”, Pater proceeds to imagine that Mona Lisa has, throughout history, returned again and again as everything from “a diver in deep seas” to a savvy operator who has woven “strange webs with Eastern merchants”. Ceaselessly resurgent in her murky green gown, which symbolised her status as a merchant’s wife, Mona, according to Pater, was “the mother of Helen of Troy” and the “mother Mary”.
Long before Leonardo reached for green, the colour had been assigned a special esoteric place in cultural imagination. Ancient Egyptians reserved green for the bold beryl complexion of their god of life and death, Osiris – ruler of the underworld, who held dominion over the passage of souls between this world and the next. Typical depictions of Osiris, such as one found on the 13th-Century BC walls of the burial tomb of Horemheb, the last monarch of the 18th dynasty of Egypt, portray a skinny, grassy-skinned god, whose false pharaoh’s beard marks him out as a deity of incontestable pre-eminence.
Perennially young, Osiris was believed to be a serial resuscitator, both of himself and of the natural world. Holding sway over the flow of floods and flourishing of flora alike, leafy-cheeked Osiris, it was believed, would eventually show the souls of Egypt’s kings the path to resurrection.
Flora and fauna
For millennia, concocting green pigments was achieved by a variety of artistic alchemies that harnessed the hues of everything from pulverised malachite to the juice of buckthorn berries, from dessicated foxgloves and fraxinus leaves, to soaking yellow saffron in the purple dye of woad, also known as the ‘The Asp of Jerusalem’. Verdigris, among the more common iterations of the colour, and the one of which Leonardo was most wary, is forged in a curious ritual that involves the slow sousing in wine of a brass or copper blade.
An acetic crust of green that scabs to the metallic surface is then scraped clean and ground into pigment. It was a green ghost of similar chemical contrivance that confirmed to scientists digging recently for the remains of the 16th-Century Danish astronomer Tycho Brahe that they had indeed found their target. Known to have worn a prosthetic nose to replace the one he’d lost in a sword fight in 1566, Brahe’s aesthetic skull bore traces of copper and zinc when, like a disciple of Osiris, it eventually came up for air in 2012.
Fertile with life, even in death, the invocation of green in countless masterpieces from antiquity to the present day impregnates our eye with expectancy. Everything about the physique, posture and gestures of Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini’s green-enrobed wife, who seems to rest her tired hand tenderly on her tummy’s bump in Jan van Eyck’s famous painting, The Arnolfini Portrait (painted in 1434), leads our modern mind to suspect that she is pregnant, however convinced art historians may be that she isn’t. The great gush of cascading green that capsizes our eye, scholars contend, is more likely a symbol of hope for the eventual blessing of children. Green springs eternal.
An alternative reading of the riddling portrait only amplifies the eeriness of green’s potential to wed the living and the dead. According to one theory, the depiction of the woman in Van Eyck’s work is herself a composite double-portrait of two successive wives of Giovanni di Nicolao – his first having died in childbirth. Supporters of this view point to tropes of death that haunt the painting, such as the extinguished wick on the candle above her. Certainly the complex convex mirror, bolted to the back of the painting, which warps the couple’s reflection as if into a different continuum of reality, compounds the sense of strangely splitting selves that reverberate from the painting. If ever there was a colour capable of cloaking such a curious compression of life and death, it’s green.
So green goes, sowing into the story of art the mysteries of our own fleeting appearance in the world. The murky green water that laps against the ochre edge of the River Stour in John Constable’s famous Romantic landscape The Hay Wain, delineates a boundary between the world that the artist can see in the here-and-now and one that haunts his imagination from childhood. Look closer at the weave of summer greenness at which the little dog in the foreground appears to pant, and you can barely discern the ghost of a horseman and barrel that the artist had once intended to include in the painting – a spectre that, over time, is re-sculpting itself from the verdurous summer air that Constable has mystically conjured.
Though rightly celebrated for the accuracy of his carefully observed clouds, Constable is a master too of earthy hues and terrestrial textures. The tapestry of greens he weaves in The Hay Wain is a tour de force of that colour’s ability to convey the vibrancy of nostalgia for a place that ceaselessly shifts in one’s memory between wilting loss and luminous revelation.
Hiding in plain sight
In more recent eras of artistic expression, green has continued to be an enigmatic hue that hides as much as it reveals. Paul Gauguin’s seminal symbolist painting Green Christ (1889) is a teasing tangle of the colour’s contradictory connotations. Over a stone statue of the deceased Christ in the middle distance of the painting, a lucent layer of moss has stitched itself like a second skin. The face of a Breton woman, who stands in the shadow of that sculpture, is tinged a sepulchral green, as if she were slowly turning into the life-in-death and death-in-life statue – as if a kind of chromatic continuum exists between the physical world she inhabits and a mystical one that lies beyond.
Belgian surrealist painter René Magritte’s famous anti-self-portrait, The Son of Man (1964), defies the logic of likenesses by refusing to let the viewer see the key features of the artist’s face by interposing between them and us the greenest of green apples the mind is capable of picturing. “Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see,” Magritte observed to an interviewer. “There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of quite an intense feeling, a sort of conflict one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.”
No contemporary artist has understood more profoundly the rhythms of the visible that is not there and the visible that is, than the Irish-American abstract painter Sean Scully. The bold vertical columns of Scully’s The Bather (1983), inspired by Henri Matisse’s Bathers by a River, painted 70 years earlier, are stripped-down stand-ins for the already over-stylised bodies Scully recalls from Matisse’s work. Intensified by the boxy protrusions that complicate the carpentry of Scully’s work, which physically intrudes into the gallery-goer’s space, the ficus greens of Scully’s torso-wide trunks have succeeded in achieving an effect to which centuries of artists have only aspired: converting green from perishable colour into purest feeling.
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A hue now associated with innocence once had a murkier meaning: Kelly Grovier looks at the ways in which pink has represented violence and seduction.
Pink is a double-edged sword. While red is raucous and racy, and white is prim and pure, pink cuts both ways. Long before the word “pink” attached itself to the pretty pastel shade of delicate carnations, as we define the term today, the London underworld enlisted it for something rather less frilly or fragrant – to denote the act of stabbing someone with a sharp blade. “He pink’d his Dubblet”, so reads an entry for the word in a 17th-Century dictionary of street slang used by “Beggars, Shoplifters, Highwaymen, Foot-Pads and all other Clans of Cheats and Villains”, describing a lethal lunge through a man’s padded jacket, “He run him through”.
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At what point the unlikely linguistic slide was made from mortal piercing to mellow pigment, no one can say for sure. But the enticing hue itself, by whatever name it was known before the assignment of “pink” to the colour chart in the 18th Century, has kept culture blushing since antiquity. Now seductive, now innocent, pink is coquettish and coy, sultry and sly.
Remove pink from the palette of art history and a teasing dimension to the story of image-making would be lost. Edgar Degas’s Pink Dancers would fall flat-footed and Pablo Picasso’s pivotal pink period wouldn’t rise to the occasion.
A flesh in the pan
A key moment in pink’s emergence as an essential element in the development of painting is the creation by the Early Renaissance Italian painter Fra Angelico in the middle of the 15th Century of his famous fresco in the Convent of San Marco in Florence, Italy, The Annunciation, which depicts the moment in the New Testament that the Virgin Mary is informed by the Archangel Gabriel that she will become the mother of Christ. Situated at the top of a staircase solemnly ascended daily by pious monks, Fra Angelico’s ground-breaking painting is one into which an observer’s spirit is summoned to levitate.
Crucial to sparking that mystical lift-off in the fresco is the portrayal of the ethereal Archangel – who has himself mystically crossed planes of being to swoop into Mary’s material sphere. Never mind the polychromatic wings, what’s most surprising about Gabriel’s depiction is Fra Angelico’s decision to clad him in plush pleats of sumptuous pink.
We know from a contemporary artist’s handbook on how to concoct pigments (Cennino Ceninni’s Il libro dell'arte, published a few decades before Fra Angelico painted his fresco) that pink had been traditionally reserved primarily for the rendering of flesh. “Made from the loveliest and lightest sinopia that is found and is mixed and mulled with St. John’s white”, Cennini explains, “this pigment does you great credit if you use it for painting faces, hands and nudes on walls”.
By draping Gabriel in the lushest of pinks, Fra Angelico fleshes the Archangel out as a being of body and blood, breaking down the distinction between holy spirit and ephemeral flesh. Pink is the pivot that humanises heaven. No one would ever see the colour the same way again. In the ensuing centuries, artists would invoke pink as shorthand for the blurring of boundaries.
Bloom of Christ
As the focus of Renaissance master Raphael’s Madonna of the Pinks, a sprig of blushing carnations handed to the Virgin Mary by the infant Christ, may seem unremarkable enough at first glance. In fact it amounts to a kind of miraculous wrinkle in the fabric of time. According to religious tradition, dianthus (the Greek name for the plant, meaning “flower of God”), did not appear in the world until Mary wept at her son’s crucifixion.
The flower’s anachronistic appearance in Raphael’s scene, therefore, tinged with the future blood of the baby who holds it, mysteriously establishes a pink kink in the linear unfolding of the universe.
Over time, pink would eventually blossom beyond the petals of its complex theologies to inflect a wider array of secular personality, all the while retaining its elusive allure and capacity to tease. By the 18th Century, pink was offering itself as the colour of choice for portraying high-profile mistresses, daring observers to deny its very legitimacy as a respectable hue.
Famous portraits by the French Rococo portraitist Maurice Quentin de la Tour of Madame de Pompadour and by the English artist George Romney of his muse Emma, Lady Hamilton (later mistress of Lord Nelson), posing as a mythological maenad, reveal how decidedly deconsecrated the colour had become.
La Tour’s full-length pastel-pencil portrait of the official chief mistress to Louis XV of France, begun around 1748, is a rumbunctious jungle gym of superfluous pinks that spider across every inch and threaten to suffocate its subject. Here, pink is an energy that vibrates from the sitter to the secular subjects with which Pompadour has surrounded herself – music, astronomy, and literature.
Porcelain pink
A patron of the porcelain trade, Pompadour had famously inspired the minting by the Sevres porcelain factory of a new hue of pink, delicately bruised by dabs of blue and black. To Pompadour, pink was no longer a mere accessory but a partner in crime – an aspirational second skin into which she grew intellectually and emotionally. She became her colour.
No painting embodies pink’s gradual pendulum movement from the spiritual to the secular more vividly than the French artist Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s exuberant The Swing, painted around 1767, between La Tour’s and Romney’s works. Here, a fabulous flounce of flowing rose is frozen in mid swivel as the swinging girl, pillowed in pinkness, flicks loose a silk shoe, attracting the titillated attention of any number of camouflaged male gazes hiding in the bushes around her. We’re a long way from the pink whisper of angels now.
In more recent times, pink continues to be seized upon by artists keen to confound our expectations of what notes or message the floral pigment can confidently carry. Having established a formidable reputation in the middle of the 20th Century as a first-generation Abstract Expressionist, eschewing figurative subjects entirely in the 1950s, Canadian-born American artist Philip Guston reached for pink in a dramatic turn back to representational art in the late 1960s.
By then, the colour itself had undergone something of a commercial transformation in American retail culture, having begun the century as a shade more often associated with boys and masculinity than fairy princesses and little girls’ dolls. But by the time Guston began introducing a menacing cast of Ku Klux Klan-inspired cartoon goons, whose implausibly pale pink stubby hoods continue to menace popular imagination to this day, the colour had been re-commodified as delicate and feminine. Grabbing pink by the scruff for his unsettling scenes of a seedy Americana, Guston slaps Barbie across the chops.
At the same moment that Guston’s provocative pink was poking the art world in the eye, scientific studies were underway by Alexander Schauss, Director of the American Institute for Biosocial Research, to determine whether manipulations of the colour could help control the behaviour of subjects surrounded by it. The result of Schauss’s investigation was the concoction of the psychologically subtle shade now known as “Baker-Miller Pink”, after the Naval correctional institute in Seattle, Washington where the pigment was successfully tested on the walls of inmates’ cells and credited with a significant calming of aggressive urges.
Yet despite its ability to inspire docility, pink is still picking fights, challenging our perceptions to an aesthetic duel. Upon learning that the British artist Anish Kapoor had signed a contract giving him exclusive rights to a recently engineered colour known as Vantablack (the darkest shade ever devised), and the legal right to prohibit other artists from doing so, Kapoor’s younger contemporary Stuart Semple saw red.
Emboldened by Kapoor’s black embargo, Semple began concocting a supremely-fluorescent pink paint he contends is the “pinkest pink” ever contemplated (“no one has ever seen a pinker pink”, he insists). As a poke in the eye of Kapoor, Semple has made his colour available at a small price to anyone in the world so long as they confirm that they are not Anish Kapoor nor friendly enough with Kapoor to share it with him. En garde, Kapoor. You’ve been pink’d.
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For centuries, the orange pigment was sourced from a toxic mineral. Kelly Grovier looks at a hue that alchemists believed was crucial to creating the Philosopher’s Stone – and which allows art to swivel between different states of being.
Expunge orange from the history of art and the whole thing collapses. The sky above Edvard Munch’s The Scream falls down and the fire that ignites Frederic Leighton’s famous Flaming June flames out. Take away orange, and everything from the warm eternal glow of Egyptian tomb painting to the troubled stubble of Vincent van Gogh’s smouldering self-portraits vanishes. A savvy arbiter between resolute red and unyielding yellow, orange is a pigment that pivots. It’s a hinge of a hue that enables a work of art to swivel between contrary states of being – this world and another, life and death.
Outside the frame of art history, orange has proved an unusually elastic symbol, blossoming into a spectrum of shapes and cultural meanings. Although the influential European royal House of Orange traces its name back further than the actual coining of the colour in the 1540s, its prominent son, William III (better known as William of Orange), quickly embraced the linguistic coincidence in the 1570s. His orange-white-and-blue rebel flag would become the forerunner of the modern tricolour of The Netherlands. From there orange took on the complexion of everything from Swiss fire engines to the suits worn by astronauts in the International Space Station. But it’s in the realms of art and aesthetics that the colour has fructified more soulfully.
From antiquity to the end of the 19th Century, a volcanic mineral found in sulphurous fumaroles (great gashes in the Earth’s crust) was a significant source for the harvesting of orange pigment. The highly toxic orpiment, rich in lethal arsenic, ripens from mellow yellow into outrageous orange when subjected to the heat of a fire.
Convinced that the luminous shimmer of orpiment (its name is a contraction of Latin aurum, meaning ‘gold’, and pigmentum meaning ‘colour’) must be a key ingredient in concocting the Philosopher’s Stone, alchemists for centuries risked exposure to the noxious substance. So did artists. To dabble in the occult of orange was to flirt with mortality and immortality in equal measure.
A spark to a flame
Intentionally or not, that ambiguous aura is irrepressible wherever orange is conjured in art. Take for example the French Rococo painter Jean-Honoré Fragonard’s portrait of a generic writer captured at a moment of intense vision: Inspiration, painted around 1769. The poet’s plush orange jacket – its vibrant rumples flickering like flares – threatens to engulf the allegorical subject of a poet whose imagination has just been ignited. The furrowed velour has become an outward reflection of the writer’s mind. This evaporative moment of reverie that illuminates the subject, as if from inside his soul, will either ensure his eternal fame as a celebrated bard or will set on fire his very being. Fashion him in any other colour than orange and the work’s flustering power would be utterly lost.
Nor is it possible to imagine Self-portrait with Halo and Snake, painted by the post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin more than a century after Fragonard’s canvas, soaked in any other colours than the two competing complexions of orange that dominate and divide its radiant surface into competing territories of piousness and malevolence. Created by Gauguin while living in the North-western French fishing village of Le Pouldu, the work portrays, in its upper half, a saintly indifference to worldly temptations, as symbolised by a dangling sprig of forbidden fruit. To make certain we don’t miss the unmissable point, the artist has crowned himself in this hemisphere of the work with an angelic halo. The lower half of the wood panel, however, reveals an uncontainable susceptibility to evil as the seductive snake from the Garden of Eden has the artist wrapped around his proverbial finger. Tying the work together tonally is a dramatic shift at its equator in shades of orange – not unlike orpiment itself, before and after its purifying baptism by fire.
And so it goes, work by work, century after century: wherever the colour orange dictates the temperature of a work of art, we know we’ve arrived at a precarious hinterland between a universe we can see and a mysterious unknown we tentatively feel. How else can you characterise the realm in which the liquified face of Munch’s hero howls under a strange and estranging burnt-cinnamon sky in The Scream? How else can you describe the eternal space in which Henri Matisse’s iconic The Dance whirls apocalyptically on the edge of oblivion?
Commissioned in 1909 by a wealthy Russian businessman to adorn the staircase of his mansion, at first glance The Dance might appear the apotheosis of rhythmic delight and synchronised levity. But the eerie apricot tinge of the five ecstatic nudes, who seem to have subsumed into their very being the armageddon orange of Munch’s work, is a tip-off that something more complex and perilous is at play. The two dancers who stretch the foreground of the work have lost their grip on each other’s hands, as the one closest to us begins slipping to the ground. Her left foot is already sliding out of view. Far from depicting untroubled joy, Matisse’s carefully choreographed masterpiece teeters on cosmic disaster. The very rotation of the world is left dangerously in doubt.
Amber alert
Munch and Matisse set the tone, as it were, for the portentous temperament of orange in modern and contemporary art. Throughout the 20th Century, the ominous refulgence of orange will find itself refracted variously in the works of everyone from Francis Bacon, where it sets the sinister scene for the disturbing Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion (1944), as well as Rene Magritte’s Art of Living (1967), where the colour inflates itself to popping point as a surreal cranium. The syncopated pigments and shudders of Rhythm, joy of life, painted in 1931, is characteristic of how crucial orange is to the work and imagination of the Ukrainian-born French artist Sonia Delauney, who once protested: “You know I don’t like orange”. Like it or not, orange is frequently the heat that holds together – while threatening to break apart – the visual music of her sinuous mosaics.
As crucial as orange has been to the story of art through the end of the last century, it has already dyed itself indelibly into the unfolding fabric of contemporary artistic consciousness. Among the most celebrated major works of the new millennium, The Gates, by Bulgarian artist Christo Yavacheff and French artist Jeanne-Claude (known together as Christo and Jeanne-Claude), colonised New York City’s Central Park in February 2005 with over 7,500 passageways – each flowing with orange nylon fabric. The lyrical succession of thresholds, which fostered a poetic sense of the endless comings and goings of life – birth and rebirth, mortality and eternity – could, on reflection, have only been draped in stirring saffron. To some, the colour echoes the robes of Buddhist monks. But to my mind, Christo and Jeanne-Claude (who passed away four years later) were rekindling a sacred flame, inviting those who would come to bask their weary souls in the transformative power of that most mystical of ancient tints: orange.
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Marcel Duchamp’s last painting has influenced artists for a century. Kelly Grovier looks at how it inspired the modern colour chart – and at its 17th-Century predecessor.
This year marks the centenary of one of the more curious milestones in modern cultural history – a landmark in image-making with intriguing echoes of a long-forgotten tome from the 17th Century. In 1918, the French avant-garde artist Marcel Duchamp picked up his brush after a four-year hiatus from painting and created a mysterious work that changed forever the way artists use and understand colour. After completing his painting, Duchamp put his brush back down again and, for the next 50 years (until his death in 1968), never painted another picture.
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The work in question is awkwardly proportioned – over 3m (9.4ft) long, yet barely two-thirds of a metre tall – and was commissioned to hang above a bookcase in the library of the US collector and patron of the arts Katherine Dreier. At first glance, the canvas (which Duchamp eccentrically entitled T um’, a terse abbreviation of the tetchy French phrase tu m’ennuies, or ‘you bore me’) appears to do everything it can to be something other than a painting. Its surface is dominated by shadowy allusions to a series of controversial sculptures that Duchamp had recently been making – found objects such as a hat rack, a corkscrew, and a bicycle wheel – that he christened ‘readymades’.
In stark contrast to these large ghostly echoes of another artistic medium, a scatter of worldly debris is strewn across the painting: safety pins, a bolt, and a brush for cleaning bottles. According to Yale University, “Duchamp summarises different ways in which a work of art can suggest reality: as shadow, imitation, or actual object.” Stretching over this odd array of forms is a carefully-rendered cascade of colourful lozenge-shaped tiles that swoop vibrantly into the centre of the painting from the top left, like the tail of a mechanical polychromatic comet.
Anyone who has ever shopped in a DIY store for domestic paint will recognise immediately this splay of colour tiles. But in 1918, pigment samples from commercial colour charts were still relatively cutting-edge in their retail trendiness, having only hit shop floors towards the end of the previous century. As yet unassigned to an actual object, these ‘readymade’ swatches of colour are at once both physical and theoretical; they haver between the real world of things waiting to be painted and a realm of pure mind in which those things can still be any colour.
A pigment of our imagination
In a sense, this endless deck of dyes bursting into the middle of Duchamp’s painting is a Tarot of tincture, prescient of how things could eventually appear in an ideal world, not as they actually are. Though Duchamp’s tiles are merely a prophecy of hue, they seem somehow more real and urgent in his painting than the shadowy shapes of the hat stand, bicycle wheel, and corkscrew whose space they intersect cosmically, as if from another universe.
The years and decades that followed Duchamp’s final painting witnessed a succession of works by modern and contemporary artists that wrestle with and absorb the implications of his mischievous slicing of the mere idea of colour from the fact of physical form. Where proponents of colour theories of the 19th Century, such as those by the German Romantic Johann Wolfgang von Goethe and by the French chemist Michel Eugène Chevreul, are concerned with how colours are perceived by the human retina, the disciples of Duchamp became obsessed instead with colour as a commercialised concept – a pigment of their imagination.
At the same moment that descendants of post-Impressionism and the early pioneers of Expressionism were formulating quasi-scientific manifestos for how colour functions in the eyes of those who encounter their work, Duchamp was laying his new-fangled cards on the table: colour is an aspirational commodity – a property to be found, not an emotion to be felt.
Titians of industry
Suddenly, two philosophies of colour found themselves competing for artistic regard – one that understood it as a traditional tool of the craftsman to be soulfully mastered, the other that saw it as an artificial aspect of soullessly manufactured goods. That clash of sensibilities was perhaps most dramatically illustrated by the near-simultaneous appearance in 1963 of two very different kinds of publication. It was the year that the German-born American artist Josef Albers released his still-influential visual treatise, Interaction of Colour, which provides complex ruminations on the harmony of hues – a system that continues to be taught to this day. It is also the year that Pantone published its encyclopaedic compendium of subtle shades – a volume that appeared to prove the dominion of industry over the empire of conceivable colours.
The sway over artistic imagination in the 20th Century of the Pantone colour-matching system, and its precursors in the pigment charts distributed by companies such as DuPont, is impossible to overstate. Their influence can be traced in the works of generations of artists from Andy Warhol to Damien Hirst, Ellsworth Kelly to Gerhard Richter. But if Duchamp’s echelon of mechanical colour stretches prophetically forward in time to the obsessions of everyone from the Pop Artists to the YBAs, it also stretches back in history to the preoccupations of one of the most extraordinary, and extraordinarily neglected, books ever created.
Long forgotten until its rediscovery in recent years by Medieval and Renaissance scholars, Klaer lightende Spiegel der Verfkonst is an 800-page handwritten and hand-illustrated volume from 1692 that seeks not only to illustrate every conceivable shade of watercolour possible, but to explain how to create them. An obsessive-compulsive recipe book for concocting the subtlest variations of tint, the book is the brainchild, according to the title page, of ‘A. Boogert’ – a Dutch hustler of hues about whom nothing else is known.
Boogert’s book, which the inscrutable author says was intended to assist artists, came to the attention by accident of a Dutch Medievalist and blogger who was conducting research on the online databases of the Bibliothèque Méjanes in Aix-en-Provence, France, in 2014. Erik Kwakkel’s decision to feature the vibrant volume on his popular scholarly blog, and to provide links to a high-resolution scan of the entire book, helped propel the lexicon of luminosity into wider recognition than the single-surviving copy could ever have enjoyed in the author’s own lifetime.
To click through the digitised pages of the book and watch the hundreds of abutting tiles flick into a shuffled blur of calibrated colour is to find oneself enacting the geometric drama of Duchamp’s pivotal final painting. Speaking to each other across centuries, Boogert’s long-lost opus maximum and Duchamp’s underappreciated prophetic masterpiece reveal a perennial fascination with the mysterious disguises of life’s most elusive dimension: colour.
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Truly vibrant red was elusive for many years: until a mysterious dye was discovered in Mexico. Devon Van Houten Maldonado reveals how a crushed bug became a sign of wealth and status.
Although scarlet is the colour of sin in the Old Testament, the ancient world’s elite was thirsty for red, a symbol of wealth and status. They spent fantastic sums searching for ever more vibrant hues, until Hernán Cortés and the conquistadors discovered an intoxicatingly saturated pigment in the great markets of Tenochtitlan, modern-day Mexico City. Made from the crushed-up cochineal insect, the mysterious dye launched Spain toward its eventual role as an economic superpower and became one of the New World’s primary exports, as a red craze descended on Europe. An exhibition at Mexico City’s Palacio de Bellas Artes museum reveals the far-reaching impact of the pigment through art history, from the renaissance to modernism.
In medieval and classical Europe, artisans and traders tripped over each other in search of durable saturated colors and – in turn – wealth, amid swathes of weak and watery fabrics. Dyers guilds guarded their secrets closely and performed seemingly magical feats of alchemy to fix colours to wool, silk and cotton. They used roots and resins to create satisfactory yellows, greens and blues. The murex snail was crushed into a dye to create imperial purple cloth worth more than its weight in gold. But truly vibrant red remained elusive.
For many years, the most common red in Europe came from the Ottoman Empire, where the ‘Turkey red’ process used the root of the rubia plant. European dyers tried desperately to reproduce the results from the East, but succeeded only partially, as the Ottoman process took months and involved a pestilent mix of cow dung, rancid olive oil and bullocks’ blood, according to Amy Butler Greenfield in her book, A Perfect Red.
Dyers also used Brazilwood, lac and lichens, but the resulting colours were usually underwhelming, and the processes often resulted in brownish or orange reds that faded quickly. For royalty and elite, St John’s Blood and Armenian red (dating back as far as the 8th Century BCE, according to Butler Greenfield), created the most vibrant saturated reds available in Europe until the 16th Century. But, made from different varieties of Porphyrophora root parasites, their production was laborious and availability was scarce, even at the highest prices.
Mesoamerican peoples in southern Mexico had started using the cochineal bug as early as 2000 BCE, long before the arrival of the conquistadors, according to Mexican textile expert Quetzalina Sanchez. Indigenous people in Puebla, Tlaxcala and Oaxaca had systems for breeding and engineering the cochineal bugs for ideal traits and the pigment was used to create paints for codices and murals, to dye cloth and feathers, and even as medicine.
Cochineal in the New World
When the conquistadors arrived in Mexico City, the headquarters of the Aztec empire, the red colour was everywhere. Outlying villages paid dues to their Aztec rulers in kilos of cochineal and rolls of blood-red cloth. “Scarlet is the colour of blood and the grana from cochineal achieved that [...] the colour always had a meaning, sometimes magic other times religious,” Sanchez told the BBC.
Cortés immediately recognized the riches of Mexico, which he related in several letters to King Charles V. “I shall speak of some of the things I have seen, which although badly described, I know very well will cause such wonder that they will hardly be believed, because even we who see them here with our own eyes are unable to comprehend their reality,” wrote Cortés to the king. About the great marketplace of Tenochtitlan, which was “twice as large as that of Salamanca," he wrote, “They also sell skeins of different kinds of spun cotton in all colours, so that it seems quite like one of the silk markets of Granada, although it is on a greater scale; also as many different colours for painters as can be found in Spain and of as excellent hues.”
First-hand accounts indicate that Cortés wasn’t overly smitten with cochineal, more concerned instead with plundering gold and silver. Back in Spain, the king was pressed to make ends meet and hold together his enormous dominion in relative peace, so, although he was at first unconvinced by the promise of America, he became fascinated by the exotic tales and saw in cochineal an opportunity to prop up the crown’s coffers. By 1523, cochineal pigment made its way back to Spain and caught the attention of the king who wrote to Cortés about exporting the dyestuff back to Europe, writes Butler.
“Through absurd laws and decrees [the Spanish] monopolised the grana trade,” says Sanchez. “They obligated the indians to produce as much as possible.” The native Mesoamericans who specialised in the production of the pigment and weren’t killed by disease or slaughtered during the conquest were paid pennies on the dollar – while the Spaniards “profited enormously as intermediaries.”
Red in art history
Dye from the cochineal bug was ten times as potent as St John’s Blood and produced 30 times more dye per ounce than Armenian red, according to Butler. So when European dyers began to experiment with the pigment, they were delighted by its potential. Most importantly, it was the brightest and most saturated red they had ever seen. By the middle of the 16th Century it was being used across Europe, and by the 1570s it had become one of the most profitable trades in Europe – growing from a meagre “50,000 pounds of cochineal in 1557 to over 150,000 pounds in 1574,” writes Butler.
In the Mexican Red exhibition at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, the introduction of cochineal red to the European palette is illustrated in baroque paintings from the beginning of the 17th Century, after the pigment was already a booming industry across Europe and the world. Works by baroque painters like Cristóbal de Villalpando and Luis Juárez, father of José Juárez, who worked their entire lives in Mexico (New Spain), hang alongside the Spanish-born Sebastián López de Arteaga and the likes of Peter Paul Rubens.
López de Arteaga’s undated work The Incredulity of Saint Thomas pales in comparison to Caravaggio’s version of the same work, where St Thomas’s consternation and amazement is palpable in the skin of his furrowed forehead. But the red smock worn by Christ in López de Arteaga’s painting, denoting his holiness, absolutely pops off the canvas. Both artists employed cochineal, the introduction of which helped to establish the dramatic contrast that characterised the baroque style.
A few steps away, a portrait of Isabella Brandt (1610) by Rubens shows the versatility of paint made from cochineal. The wall behind the woman is depicted in a deep, glowing red, from which she emerges within a slight aura of light. The bible in her hand was also rendered in exquisite detail from cochineal red in Rubens’ unmistakable mastery of his brush, which makes his subjects feel as alive as if they were in front of you.
Moving forward toward modernism – it wasn’t until the middle of the 19th Century that cochineal was replaced by synthetic alternatives as the pre-eminent red dyestuff in the world – impressionist painters continued to make use of the heavenly red hues imported from Mexico. At the Palacio de Bellas Artes, works by Paul Gauguin, Auguste Renoir and Vincent van Gogh have all been analysed and tested positive for cochineal. Like Rubens, Renoir’s subjects seem to be alive on the canvas, but as an impressionist his portraits dissolved into energetic abstractions. Gauguin also used colour, especially red, to create playful accents, but neither compared to the saturation achieved by Van Gogh. His piece, The Bedroom (1888), on loan from the Art Institute of Chicago, puts a full stop on the exhibition with a single burning-hot spot of bright red.
After synthetic pigments became popular, outside of Mexico, the red dye was mass-produced as industrial food colouring – its main use today. Yet while the newly independent Mexico no longer controlled the valuable monopoly on cochineal, it also got something back – the sacred red that had been plundered and proliferated by the Spanish. “In Europe, as has happened in many cases, the history of the original people of Mexico has mattered very little,” Sanchez told the BBC, but in Mexico “the colour continues to be associated with ancestral magic [and] protects those who wear attire dyed with cochineal.”
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Released 40 years ago this month, Miloš Forman's best picture-winning Amadeus is often accused of historical inaccuracies – but the film's critics could be missing the point.
When it premiered 40 years ago, Amadeus drew an initial wave of praise. A historical drama revolving around the rivalry between two composers, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Antonio Salieri, it went on to win eight Oscars, including for best picture. Miloš Forman took home the best director prize, Peter Shaffer won for best adapted screenplay and both of the lead actors were nominated: F Murray Abraham, who played Salieri, beat Tom Hulce, who played Mozart.
But in the years that followed, a backlash grew over what some people saw as Amadeus's litany of historical errors. An article in The Guardian declared that "the fart jokes can't conceal how laughably wrong this is", and the BBC commented that "the film plays shamelessly fast and loose with historical fact". Salieri, critics noted, was no pious bachelor (as attested by his wife, eight children and mistress), and it's after all an odd kind of hateful rivalry when the real Mozart entrusted the musical education of his own son to Salieri. As for Mozart's lewd humor, that cheeky insouciance was actually commonplace in middle-class Viennese society. Most egregiously of all, world-famous Mozart was not dumped in an unmarked pauper's grave. If this is a homage to history, the complaint goes, it's akin to Emperor Joseph II fumbling ineptly on the pianoforte and bungling every other note.
But this kind of cavilling may be missing the point. Forman's aim for Amadeus can be seen as radically different from a typical biopic, and that was to use a fictionalised version of an epic clash between musical composers to allegorise the defining global rivalry of the mid-to-late 20th Century: the Cold War. Put simply, the film may have played fast and loose with 1784 because its real preoccupation was 1984.
The film opens in Vienna in 1823. Grizzled court composer Salieri howls through a bolted chamber door that he has murdered Mozart, then slashes his own throat. Days later, as he convalesces in an asylum, a priest arrives to hear his confession. It doesn't disappoint. Salieri recounts that as boy he made a vow of chastity to God as an expression of gratitude for, as he sees it, ushering in the providential death of his father to clear the path for his musical development.
Jump ahead some years, and Salieri is now an eminent composer in the court of Joseph II (Jeffrey Jones), where he eagerly awaits an introduction to musical prodigy Mozart. That eagerness curdles when he sees the man in the flesh – he turns out to be a lascivious vulgarian with an ear-splitting cackle. Convinced that God means to mock his own mediocrity, Salieri hurls a crucifix in the fire and vows retaliation. When Mozart's father dies, Salieri seizes on the misfortune with a dastardly stratagem: dupe Mozart into believing that his father has risen from the grave to commission him to write a requiem, then murder him and pass off the masterpiece as his own. Mozart, feverish and besotted with drink, dies, leaving Salieri addled with bitterness and destined for obscurity.
The premise wasn't original to Forman. Drawing inspiration from Alexander Pushkin's taut 1830 play Mozart and Salieri, Peter Shaffer wrote a highly stylised play called Amadeus, which premiered in London in 1979. Forman, sitting in on a preview, was entranced by the dramatic rivalry and convinced Shaffer to collaborate with him, not merely to adapt the play for the screen but to "demolish the original, then totally reimagine it as a film". Across four irascible months cloistered in a Connecticut farmhouse with Shaffer, Forman fundamentally rebuilt the narrative with a fresh palette of political resonances.
The casting process for the coveted roles of Mozart and Salieri rivaled Gone with the Wind in scope and behind-the-scenes intrigue, all of which played out over a year and involved meetings with literally thousands of actors. Kenneth Branagh was nearly victorious in landing Mozart, then got dropped from consideration when Forman pivoted to a US cast. Mark Hamill endured grueling hours of auditions, only to be told by Forman: "No one is believing that the Luke Skywalker is the Mozart." Al Pacino lobbied hard for the part of Salieri, in competition with Mick Jagger, Burt Reynolds, Donald Sutherland and Sam Waterson. In the end, Forman eschewed splashy celebrities for Hulce and Abraham, only to have casting drama explode again when Meg Tilly, slated to play Mozart's wife, Constanze, broke her ankle playing football: she was replaced by Elizabeth Berridge a week before shooting was to commence. With the plot rebuilt and the cast in place, more than one rivalry was poised to come into focus.
The triumph of genius
The Czech-born Forman had been a galvanising force behind the Czechoslovakian New Wave film movement in the 1960s, reaching a climax with his 1967 film The Firemen's Ball, which satirised the absurd inefficiencies of Eastern European communism. The film was initially warmly received within the reformist milieu of the Prague Spring, but when Soviet tanks rolled into Prague the following year and organised Czechoslovakia into the Eastern bloc, Forman, tarred as a "traitor" to the state, was forced to flee to the West and found refuge in the US.
Nearly all of Forman's film work thereafter would show glimmers of opposition to Soviet-style censorship, confinement, and concentrated power. His first success in the US, for example, 1975's One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, depicted a mental health ward meting out cruelty and coercion to patients under the guise of benevolent care. Audiences barely needed to squint to see the asylum as gulag and Nurse Ratched as the embodiment of the drunk-on-power Soviet bureaucrat. Likewise, Forman's 1996 film, The People vs Larry Flynt, depicted the founder of Hustler magazine squaring off against censorship at the cost of being jailed, locked up at a psychiatric facility and paralysed by an assassin's bullet.
The Soviet allegory can certainly be applied to Amadeus. Perhaps Forman was less concerned with hewing to biographical facts as he was with presenting Mozart as a beleaguered type of ecstatic genius who, hostage to patronage, is stifled and finally crushed by the repressive apparatus of the state. Joseph II, absolute ruler of the Habsburg monarchy, is advised at court by a clutch of prudish sycophants who undermine Mozart's achievements and smear his reputation. Whatever its loose correspondence to the late-18th and early-19th Centuries, this critique can be read as a stab at the USSR – a debilitatingly centralised bureaucracy hostile to insurgent ideas and innovation. But Forman showed that Mozart would get the last laugh. By the events of 1823, Salieri's insipid, state-sponsored melodies have all been forgotten, while a few bars of Mozart draw immediate joy to the priest's face. In the free market of popular tastes, Salieri's mandated drivel has been suffocated by the triumph of genius.
In Forman's hands, the Habsburg Empire bears the hallmarks of Soviet power. The masquerade balls, with their bewildering swirl of masked identities, conjure the confusion and paranoia that proliferated under the Soviet system. Salieri's reluctant servant-spy (Cynthia Nixon) carries out covert surveillance, a nod to the 20th Century's KGB, which had thousands of its moles burrow into the private lives of artists and dissidents. Meanwhile, Salieri's heretical burning of the crucifix and war on God call to mind the ideological struggle between a Christian worldview and secular Soviet hubris. (After Abraham's mother – a pious Italian woman – saw the cross-burning scene, she browbeat her son so relentlessly that he blurted out what he now tells the BBC was a lie: "I told her, 'mum, that was an extra – somebody else threw it in there!'")
And then there's the mass grave into which Mozart's corpse is dumped. This depiction does not fit the facts of what is known about his death, but it makes sense if read as an indictment of Soviet practices – the effacement of individual identity and literal mass murder. Grim excavations of these pits continue to this day. Forman, whose own parents perished in Nazi concentration camps, understood the power of this imagery.
Jeff Smith, author of Film Criticism, the Cold War, and the Blacklist, tells the BBC that Mozart's struggle against the status quo tapped into Forman's own frustrations with Soviet censorship. "The emperor's fatuous judgment about Mozart's opera – 'too many notes' – is just the kind of accusation that was used as a cudgel used against avant-garde artists and thinkers to imply their work isn't pleasant or edifying to Soviet ears. Mozart's enraged incredulity in that scene must have mirrored Forman's own longstanding contempt for Soviet stagnation and repression."
Amadeus behind the Iron Curtain
Shooting took place in 1983 over a six-month period in Prague, which had the virtue of offering basilicas, palaces and cobblestone squares virtually unchanged since the late 18th Century. Even with Soviet power waning, however, Czechoslovakia remained part of the Eastern bloc and Forman was still persona non grata, so a deal was struck: the director would refrain from meeting with political dissidents, and the regime would allow friends of Forman to visit with their repatriated prodigal son.
Forman's own recollections from the shoot centred on the travails of Soviet interference. His landlady warned his phone is bugged. Informers lurked in every room. Two unmarked cars tailed him everywhere, which seemed redundant since his own driver was also a secret agent. In his autobiography, Turnaround, Forman is just shy of explicit about the degree to which themes of Soviet repression leaked into Amadeus. "As it had to be in the socialist Prague," he wrote, "the spirit of Franz Kafka presided over our production".
Perhaps even more telling is a story he recounts of negotiating with the general director of Czechoslovak film, Jiří Purš, who, as Forman recounted, wanted absolute assurance that the Communist Party would have nothing to fear: "I assume that politically there is nothing in the script that they could hang their hats on?" Forman's reply is a model of plausible deniability and acid irony: "Look, it's about Mozart!"
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F Murray Abraham felt the strain of coercive scrutiny as he was traveling back and forth to the United States to shoot his role in Scarface (1983) while Amadeus was in production in Prague.
Abraham tells the BBC, "At the end of every shooting day I had to cross the border to get to the airport in Vienna to return to Hollywood. At the checkpoint, the Czechoslovak Police would make us sit idle at the gate, just as a way to throw their weight around, make you know who's in charge. That sense of bullying and intimidation was everywhere, and even when the Czech people responded with subversive humor, the strain was palpable. We never forgot for a minute that we were under communist surveillance."
That tension between the US crew and Soviet agents finally burst out into the open on 4 July. The production was shooting an opera scene, and the crew arranged so that when Forman yelled "action" a US flag unfurled and the national anthem played in lieu of Mozart's music. Some 500 Czech extras burst forth into emotional song, in effect revealing their sympathies with the West. But not all of them.
Forman recalled, "All stood up – except 30 men and women, panic on their face, looking at each other [asking] what they should do. They were the secret police, dispersed among the extras."
As Amadeus continues to be reassessed at its 40th anniversary, the significance of the Cold War looms ever larger. Paul Frazier, author of The Cold War on Film, tells the BBC that the film brilliantly tapped into a deep vein of Soviet envy: "Salieri is the Soviet Lada trying to be a Ford Mustang. He can't be as great as Mozart, so he resorts to undermining and manipulating him. This too was the approach of the old USSR towards the West: rather than being better than the West, the Soviets resorted to undermining and discrediting the West at every turn."
Historian Nicholas J Cull echoes that analysis. "Think of the Jonathan Swift line: 'When a true genius appears in the world, you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him.' Whether it's the 1780s or 1980s, what you have is true genius facing off against mediocre, conniving bureaucrats. You see this same dynamic at play in a Cold War film like last summer's Oppenheimer, which in some ways is Amadeus with A-bombs. It makes sense that refugee film-makers like Forman and his creative team would be drawn to tell an allegory of communist mismanagement."
Not everyone is sold on the idea that Amadeus wrestles with Soviet totalitarianism. Kevin Hagopian, a media studies professor at Penn State University, says there's a risk of allegorising everything as an unseen Soviet menace, which ends up making art a mere handmaid to politics.
"That ultimately becomes a depressingly narrow way to appreciate the dazzling beauty and emotional breadth of Mozart's music," Hagopian tells the BBC. Nevertheless, he adds, we can't ignore the political resonances.
"The allegorical space that satirical Czech film-makers like Forman opened up meant that audiences began to look for, even perhaps invent, allegorical political meaning," he says. "All films could be read against the grain of a regime that lacked not only humanity but any sense of irony about itself. So if Amadeus wasn't really about Soviet-style tyranny, but audiences merely thought it was, well, I have a feeling that would be just fine with Miloš Forman."
For his part, Abraham is candid about what he believes are the more contemporary political stakes of the film, as he told the BBC in June. "Think about how many Americans now idolise Putin. These autocrats are suddenly celebrated again. It's disheartening, truly demoralising, but if Amadeus can help us see our current predicament through fresh eyes, that shows you how powerfully its message still resonates."
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From a 17th-Century Italian violin stolen from Japan to Drake's lost Blackberry in Mexico, here are musical lost and found mysteries that rival Sir Paul McCartney's.
In musical happy endings, last week, Sir Paul McCartney was reunited with his bass guitar that was stolen 51 years ago in London. The instrument, which McCartney purchased in 1961, was subsequently nabbed from a band van in 1972. Now, thanks to the Lost Bass search project, the Beatle has been reunited with the bass, which had been until recently stashed in a Sussex attic. Both McCartney and Höfner, the instrument manufacturer, authenticated the found item upon its rediscovery, and a spokesperson for McCartney told BBC News he was "incredibly grateful" for the return of his lost guitar.
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But McCartney certainly isn't the only musician to lose a valuable piece of his kit – in fact, he's not even the only Beatle. And for non-Beatles-level musical acts, the loss of an instrument – or worse, an entire kit – can be devastating. The BBC previously reported on the theft of rock band Cemetery Sun's entire kit and van, as well as trio Noisy's stolen kit reappearing with individual instruments and pieces of gear up for auction online weeks later.
Bassist Grant Emerson of Americana band Delta Rae recalls having around $10,000 (£7,937) of musical instruments stolen: "We played at the Bitter End in New York City and parked our van down the street. When we came back to the van, the back door had been broken into, and all of our guitars were gone, plus a pedal board and a piece of the drummer's equipment. Probably four to five pieces of gear were stolen. It was a really terrible drive back to North Carolina." He notes that for most bands, the only recourse is fundraising: "You just rely on your fans. You ask for help and donations, which isn't easy." And he urges all musicians to "photograph the serial number of every instrument and piece of gear you own".
Lost or stolen instruments over the years have kept musicians and fans alike searching for guitars, violins, and even an entire brass band. Here are a few more musical mysteries – some of which remain unsolved to this day.
BB King
The famous blues legend was known for riffs on his legendary guitar, a Gibson he named Lucille – in fact, King had multiple performance guitars named Lucille over the course of his career. The name was inspired by a lover’s quarrel King witnessed in 1949 (the woman arguing was named Lucille, and she left quite an impression on King). When this particular Lucille guitar was stolen, it was eventually found in a Las Vegas pawn shop by Eric Dahl, a fellow musician who mistakenly purchased the guitar and later returned it to King. Dahl offered it without compensation and went on to write a book about King and his many guitars. The Gibson also ended up being one of the last instruments King played before his death in 2015, and it was subsequently sold at his estate auction for $280,000 (£222,286) in 2019.
Eric Clapton
Clapton's Gibson Les Paul guitar, named Beano, was stolen soon after his studio album Blues Breakers with Eric Clapton was released in 1966. Unlike King, Clapton hasn't been so lucky as to be reunited with his lost guitar – yet. But singer-songwriter Joe Bonamassa has claimed he knows where it is: In 2016, Bonamassa gave an interview in which he said the guitar was in a private US collection, which spurred a 2018 petition to encourage Bonamassa to reveal more details. On their YouTube channel, music aficionados Baxter and Jonathan of North Carolina-based Casino Guitars joked that they imagine a "guitar illuminati" trading in lost and rare instruments might not be pleased with what Bonamassa has already shared so far – and pondered whether he has a responsibility to help Clapton retrieve the stolen item if he does, in fact, know where it is.
Takiko Omura
A violin made in 1675 by Nicolo Amati in Italy was stolen in 2005 from the home of Japanese violinist Takiko Omura, who had purchased the instrument in the United States many decades earlier. The violin, which was priced at nearly £300,000 ($377,895) in 2005 when it was taken, was reportedly found in 2020 in Parma, Italy, in the raid of a home of a suspected drug trafficker. Authorities in Italy and Japan worked together to return the instrument to its rightful owner.
Stooges Brass Brand
It's difficult enough to find one lost guitar, let alone an entire brass band. In 2022, a famous local New Orleans "second line" brass band had all their equipment stolen from their van during the worst possible time for them – two weeks before New Orleans Jazz Fest. Nearly $12,000 (£9,526) in musical instruments, including cymbals, drum sets, keyboards and amps, were stolen when the band's van disappeared from outside the home of a band member. The theft threatened to derail the Stooges' festival appearance that year, but the band is back on its feet, with a scheduled appearance on 28 April at this year's Jazz Fest.
Min Kym
As the BBC has previously reported, the violin prodigy Min Kym's Stradivarius was stolen in 2010 from a Pret a Manger restaurant. This was no ordinary violinist and no ordinary violin: At just seven years old, Kym had earned a slot at the prestigious Purcell School of Music in the UK, and at age 11, she won first prize at the Premier Mozart International Competition. When presented with the opportunity to own a rare 1696 Stradivarius, "Kym remortgaged her flat and bought the violin for £450,000 ($580,000). If this seems like an astronomical amount of money, it was in fact a steal in Stradivarius terms: the violin's actual worth was closer to £1.2m ($1.5m) and these instruments are so precious that their value only ever goes up,” reads the 2017 article about the crime. Although the stolen violin was eventually recovered three years later, it was not returned to Kym, and her memoir, Gone: A Girl, A Violin, A Life Unstrung, tells the story of coping with a musical instrument being lost and found and then lost again.
George Harrison
Sir Paul wasn't even the only Beatle whose beloved instrument was absconded with: George Harrison's 1965 Rickenbacker guitar was allegedly stolen in 1966. Rickenbacker CEO John Hall told Reverb that the guitar's mystery has been so longstanding because "no one knows the exact serial number of the original guitar." The Rickenbacker team were, however, able to narrow the list down to five potential guitars based on shipment dates.
Harrison also had his '57 Les Paul, Lucy – which was formerly owned by the Lovin' Spoonful's John Sebastian, Rick Derringer, and Eric Clapton – stolen. It was nabbed from Harrison's home during a burglary in 1973 and then sold to a Los Angeles music store who, in turn, sold it to Mexican musician Miguel Ochoa, who declined to sell it back to Harrison at full price. Instead, Ochoa negotiated a trade with Harrison: Harrison got Lucy back, and Ochoa would get a 1958 Les Paul Standard and a Fender Precision bass.
Drake
In his 2009 song Say What's Real, produced by Kanye West, Drake revealed that he lost some of his best lyrics in Mexico: "Lost some of my hottest verses down in Cabo/So if you find a Blackberry with the side scroll," he raps, followed by an expletive-laden line that finishes the rhyme. For his genre of music, that Blackberry was his instrument, which he used to pen his songs. While it doesn't sound like it's ever been returned, Drake has probably upgraded his tech.
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Many opera companies are working towards full sustainability, and Glyndebourne is among those aiming to be a force for good, according to a new documentary.
A night at the opera is not typically equated with restraint, instead conjuring images of chandelier-filled theatres and arias performed in exquisite costumes against transportative stage sets. Yet, recent years have seen opera companies across the globe make a determined effort to operate more sustainably, implementing numerous strategies in a bid to reduce their carbon emissions and overall impact on the planet.
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This is, in part, the result of climate activists, who have increasingly targeted the arts and entertainment industries over the past few years with the aim of drawing greater attention to their cause. At the end of 2022, for instance, responding to mounting protests, the Royal Opera House cut ties with its long-time sponsor, the oil giant BP. Yet, it is also a response to the shifting expectations of audience members: according to a UK study conducted in 2022, 77% of audience members now expect theatres to address the climate emergency in their work – and opera houses are no exception.
The pandemic, while posing innumerable difficulties for the live entertainment industry, also offered an important pause for reflection. It was during this time that a number of UK theatre-makers joined forces with sustainability experts to conceive the Theatre Green Book, a publication setting a common standard for sustainable theatre production, and providing guidance on how best to achieve it. Divided into three volumes – sustainable productions, sustainable buildings and sustainable operations – spanning the many facets of what it means to run a theatre, the acclaimed guide has already been widely implemented.
A key collaborator in the creation of the Theatre Green Book was the historic East Sussex opera house Glyndebourne, renowned for its summer festival which draws thousands of opera lovers to the stately home's verdant grounds each year. Glyndebourne has been forging a path towards greater sustainability in opera for some time. "Art, opera, nature [has always been] a core trinity for Glyndebourne," explains its archivist Phil Boot in a new BBC documentary Take Me to The Opera: The Power of Glyndebourne.
In 2012, executive chairman Gus Christie oversaw the installation of a 67m (220ft)-tall wind turbine on a hill adjacent to the opera house, which between then and 2022 has generated the equivalent of 102% of the electricity used by the company in the same period. The turbine serves as an important statement of intent for Glyndebourne. Alison Tickell, the founder and chief executive of Julie's Bicycle, a non-profit organisation dedicated to mobilising the UK arts and culture sectors in a fight against climate change, says in the documentary: "I know that many opera companies… don't have the luxury of space. But [the turbine] still remains a beacon for us all [demonstrating] that climate action really matters."
Glyndebourne has innovated in sustainable practice in the years since. In 2021, it joined the global Race to Zero, pledging to halve its direct carbon emissions by 2030, and to reach net zero by 2050. "We are zero waste to landfill now, so any waste we have goes down to [an] incinerator, which provides power for local homes," Christie says of some of the measures he and his team have taken to achieve this. "We compost all our garden waste, we recycle as much of our stage-set material, costumes, props [as we can]. We have about 32 electric vehicle charging points [for visitors] which are all charged from the wind turbine." They are drawing from their resources in other ways, too: by the end of this year, they predict, all water served at Glyndebourne will come from the property's own natural spring, while plants grown in their gardens are being used to produce dyes for the company's costumes. "Rivers around the world are polluted by dyes a lot," says dye room supervisor Jenny Mercer in the documentary. "This way everything goes back into the ground."
Climate action
Glyndebourne isn't the only opera company taking steps towards sustainability. It is now usual among major opera houses, from the English National Opera to Opéra National de Paris, to boast a dedicated webpage outlining their sustainability mission statements, including pledges to adhere to the UN sustainable development goals, facts and figures relating to their reduced energy consumption and carbon emissions, and details of their own planet-friendly solutions.
The rooftop of the Opéra Bastille, for example, is host to an urban farm, cultivated using agroecology, which also contributes to the thermal insulation of the building. This produces around a hundred weekly baskets of fruit and vegetables that are then sold to staff and local residents.
The Sydney Opera House – a longstanding champion of environmental consciousness that achieved carbon neutrality in 2018 – has installed an artificial reef alongside the iconic building's sea wall, encouraging marine biodiversity and supporting Sydney Harbour's native species. Most recently, the opera house was awarded a six-star performance rating by the Green Building Council of Australia, the highest possible ranking. This is no mean feat given that perhaps the biggest challenge facing opera is achieving energy efficiency within its decades-, if not centuries-old, buildings. Indeed, in 2021, a survey by the UK's Theatres Trust found that it would cost more than £1bn ($1.2bn) to make the UK's theatre buildings sustainable.
In the meantime, many companies have been looking to achieve sustainability through new buildings, while doing what they can to reduce waste in their pre-existing spaces. The Royal Opera House's production workshop just outside London, built in 2015, is in the top 10% of sustainable non-domestic buildings in the UK. While Milan's storied opera house La Scala's new office is a zero-energy building, producing more energy than it consumes thanks to rooftop solar panels and an open-cycle geothermal system. La Scala has also cut its carbon emissions by more than 630 tonnes since 2010, according to a recent New York Times article, having upgraded to LED and smart lighting.
Elsewhere, the Opéra de Lyon, Göteborg Opera and Tunis Opera are currently partnered on a new project investigating how best to implement the circular economy of production materials, while Leeds' Opera North is soon to launch its first "green season", using shared set design across its three productions, recycled or second-hand costumes, and including a new "eco-entertainment" work titled Masque of Might.
As the Theatres Trust's study shows, there is still a long way to go, and a lot of money required, to make the changes necessary to safeguard the future of opera amid the ever-worsening climate crisis, but there appears to be no shortage of determination and imagination among opera houses in their quest to do so.
Take Me to the Opera: The Power of Glyndebourne is on BBC News Channel and on BBC Reel
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Is the world of opera becoming more inclusive? A new documentary, featuring conductor Antonio Pappano, explores the mission to open up the art form to everyone.
Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano is renowned for being a warm-hearted "people person". But there's one thing that makes his blood run cold: when he hears opera being accused of being an art form that's only for a wealthy elite. "I get very offended by people who say we're elitist," he says passionately in a new documentary. This is "a misconception that totally distorts the image of opera," he adds. "The fact of the matter is, it's harder to get into a football game in London than it is to get into the [Royal] Opera House."
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This allusion to the beautiful game is not a frivolous one. When Pappano became music director at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (ROH) in 2002, he spoke of his love for popular music by stars such as Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Oscar Peterson, Joni Mitchell, and for musicals. "I like football too," he added. "Does that mean you can't like opera?"
Back then Pappano was 42, and the youngest conductor to lead ROH's orchestra. Some 700 operas later – with many productions of the French and Italian repertoires; a good part of the Russian; Wagner, Strauss and contemporary works – and he is the subject of A Time of Change, presented by Zeinab Badawi, and part of the BBC documentary series Take Me to the Opera.
The documentary follows him from his modest roots, as the son of Italian immigrant parents who came from southern Italy to the UK, who worked hard to make ends meet. They passed on their strong work ethic to him, and he learnt how to work with singers from his vocal coach father, flourishing as a musical talent in the "the family business". A Time of Change goes on to trace a career that includes assisting classical pianist Daniel Barenboim, through to a recent high, conducting the King's coronation service in May, featuring solos by Welsh baritone Bryn Terfel and South African soprano Pretty Yende.
The main focus of the film, though, is Pappano's mission to open up opera to everyone. "Opera shouldn't cater just to one audience, or be focused on just one corner of the repertoire," he says. "It must be open to the interests of many different people." While he asserts that the ROH, like every big opera house, wants to entice young audiences, he does concede: "I think you have to be honest and say, yes, but younger people can't afford very expensive tickets, can they?"
It's true that the price of opera tickets can seem too high to be anything but a rare luxury for most, especially young people. Halley Bondy, writing on the arts website Paste Magazine, describes herself as someone who has been to the opera many times "for a millennial". And although she loves opera – "from the hyper-real grandness to the unbelievable talent, to the septuagenarian, fur-hatted audience" – she finds it "easy to see why places like The Met [Metropolitan Opera House in NYC] are ailing in sales; young people just don't go. It's too expensive, too arcane, too massive… The onus is on the opera houses to do a better job of catering to the young."
Bondy has only managed to attend so often by being treated by a "ridiculously generous friend" or chasing discounted tickets. "Like everything else in the world, the opera is a lot of fun if you have gobs of money," she observes, but she concedes anyone could get in with the $25 [£19.40] rush tickets, student tickets or commercial offers – which make it "affordable, if you just dig a little".
In opera's defence, ticket prices are generally high because it is notoriously costly to produce. All the more reason, argued The Guardian's Charlotte Higgins in February, for adequate government funding. Discussing recent cuts to opera funding, she wrote: "If you starve something, run it down constantly, gradually reduce the provision of it so that few can afford it, it becomes 'elitist'… And if opera in the form that its creators imagine it becomes for toffs, that is nothing to do with opera itself… [it is] precisely the result of neglect and underfunding".
Pappano is also invested in bringing new blood to opera, via schemes like the ROH's schools matinees, which offer young people low-cost tickets to opera productions. Also, its Youth Opera talent development programme gives children aged seven to 13 the chance to try its "rigorous music and drama training".
"We make sure there's a real variety of socio-economic backgrounds and ethnicities, and an even gender split,” says Tom Floyd, ROH senior opera manger, talking about its open recruitment system. Most of the young people who join them "come from families who probably have had no real experience of opera," he says.
Opera for all
Over at English National Opera (ENO), the company has stayed true to its egalitarian roots of the late 19th-Century, when theatrical producer Lilian Baylis and music director Charles Corri shared a vision of it as a place for "people's opera". ENO has "opera for all" in its mission statement. It does not assume knowledge of opera; its website has key figures of the organisation explaining what opera is and how it's made; and the site hints at how it skillfully reimagines crowd pleasers, like La Traviata (to be performed this October), in thrilling new ways, alongside daring new work, such as 7 Deaths of Maria Callas, by performance artist Marina Abramovich (November).
"We sing in English to be accessible to the widest possible audience," an ENO spokesperson tells BBC Culture. The company offers free tickets for under-21s; discounts for under 35s, and tickets from £10 for all. No surprise, then, that more than half its bookings last season were from opera first-timers.
Still, in order to survive the cuts to Arts Council England (ACE) funding, the ENO will next year move its main base from the London Coliseum to outside the capital and in so doing will qualify for £24m funding over three years.
Opera must change, ACE chief executive Darren Henley wrote in an article for The Guardian: "A new generation is embracing opera and music presented in new ways: opera in car parks… in pubs, opera on your tablet". In truth, most opera companies are not digital-age dodgers; they have presences on the popular digital platforms, while the hashtag #operaisopen invites new audiences to click through.
Streaming services – like Royal Opera Stream and Glyndebourne Encore – have dished up productions and events, both popular and esoteric, to reach a wider audience. And there's also opera at the cinema. At ROH, 2022/23 has been its biggest cinema season ever, with more than 1,300 cinemas worldwide having shown or showing 13 productions (opera and ballet), including Madam Butterfly, La Boheme and Aida. The latter, staged in May and June 2023, was conducted by Pappano.
Nurturing promising young talent – like soprano Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha – is a passion of Pappano’s, and he's also a role model for young opera conductors, like Avishka Ederisinghe, who says that watching him talking on YouTube was what inspired him to explore the art form.
As he steps down from his music director roles – at the Academy of Santa Cecilia in Rome after 18 years, and at ROH next summer, after 22 years – Pappano is looking forward to change. He will not be hanging up the baton yet: he will succeed Simon Rattle to become chief conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra, his "dream job".
He describes how he grew up in a council flat that was just "a four-minute walk to Westminster Abbey"; and that rising from his humble background to conducting the coronation at that same abbey was "not a bad gig". Jokes aside, there is a message there that he'd love to hand down to a younger generation: "If you have a vision for what you want to achieve in life, that spark and… the energy and resilience to keep pushing when you know things will get tough, you can make it in any walk of life."
Take me to the Opera: A Time of Change is on BBC News Channel and on BBC Reel
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Opera star Bryn Terfel emerged from an extraordinary cultural heritage and a nation renowned for its love of singing. "It's the air that we breathe," he explains in a new documentary.
Sir Bryn Terfel is pondering a question: what is it about Wales and the Welsh that produces a nation of singers? "I think it's the mountains, and the fresh sea air. And the language – that is very important," he says. "Then there's the hymns… You know, we just love to sing – it's the air that we breathe."
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The Welsh bass-baritone is the subject of Peak Performance, part of the BBC documentary series Take Me to the Opera. Presented by Zeinab Badawi, it follows Sir Bryn – as he has been known since his knighthood in 2017 – from his operatic debut with the Welsh National Opera in 1990, to singing at opera houses across the world, like London's Royal Opera House, where he is a regular star performer. En route, the documentary revisits his roots in rural Wales and looks at how he's nurturing the next generations of singing talent, as well as his invitation to sing at King Charles's coronation.
Sir Bryn is high on the list of great living Welsh opera singers, which also includes luminaries such as Dame Gwyneth Jones, Wynne Evans, Katherine Jenkins, and Aled Jones. (Added to which there are many popular non-opera Welsh singers, including Tom Jones, Shirley Bassey, Bonnie Tyler, Charlotte Church and Cerys Matthews.) But beyond these headline stars lies a whole nation renowned for its love of singing, especially choral. So where does this passion for song stem from?
In A History of Music and Singing in Wales, novelist and poet Wyn Griffith, who wrote extensively on Wales and Welsh culture, observed: "If you find a score of Welsh people, in Wales or out of it, you will find a choir. They sing for their own delight, and they always sing in harmony. They sing as naturally and easily as they talk."
"Wales is known as a nation of music – the 'land of song'," notes the Welsh National Opera (WNO). "Often connected with male voice choirs, it is… recognised for its choral traditions which are rooted in the culture."
Choral singing in Wales dates back to the 19th Century, and flourished with the Cymanafa Ganu (hymn singing) movement, at a chapel in Aberdare in 1859; it was rooted mainly in religious songs, though a steady body of secular songs were also produced. Soon after, a revival of traditional Welsh music began with the formation of the National Eisteddfod Society, a focus for the Welsh passion for singing and song. Any worthy list of classic Welsh songs might include Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau (O Land of My Fathers); My Little Welsh Home by William Sidney Gwynn Williams; and the love song Ar Lan y Mor (recorded by both Terfel and Jenkins). Or the rousing We'll Keep a Welcome (In the Hillsides).
The male voice choir, along with the harp, are two of the most popular signifiers of Welsh music. Professor Gareth Williams traces the male voice choir's origins to the mid-19th Century industrial age: "We are reminded of what Aneurin Bevan once said: 'Culture comes off the end of a pick'," he writes, referring to Welsh coal miners. Choirs started in the 1920s, like Cwbach from the Cynon Valley, and Pendyrus, survive today. After a day's hard graft in a mine, says Williams, the joy and community found in singing with co-workers was "an assertion of working-class male bonding and identity expressed through that most democratic and inexpensive instrument, the human voice".
The Welsh Borough Chapel in Southwark, London, is host to Eschoir, a Welsh male choir of around 20 singers, aged 20 to 75. Singing together since 2009, they've performed at Buckingham Palace, 10 Downing Street, and the Six Nations rugby tournament. Eschoir founder and director Mike Williams, who grew up in south Wales, describes their appeal: "There's a humility to it, as Welsh choirs stem back to the coal mines and chapels. Many people enjoy singing in the pub as much as singing in a concert. There is no pomp… it unites us and keeps us connected to our Welsh roots." And the Welsh take choirs very seriously, he adds.
In tandem with a passion for choral singing in Wales, there has been a rise in popularity of the Eisteddfod. These Welsh singing and recital competitions date back to the 12th Century and today are a platform for public singing, especially for younger singers. It was at local Eisteddfods that the young Bryn Terfel first stood out, winning singing competitions that would lead him to study at Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and to his first professional role in Cosi Fan Tutti at Welsh National Opera, soon after graduating in 1989.
A unique cultural inheritance
In the documentary, Terfel recalls competing in Eisteddfods in his rural north Wales, and how his "parents paid for a lot of petrol to drive me north, south, east and west to compete. They saw something in their son… the passion, how I loved singing. I think that drove them to encourage the singing within me." Eisteddfods are "a wonderful shop window", he says. One of his charitable initiatives is a scholarship to develop promising young performers coming up through Eisteddfods. Peak Performance visits one in Llanadog, near Swansea, as young singers of all genders, from the area and across Wales, prepare to get on stage and sing. "This is where it all starts for us Welsh singers," says one teenage boy in the documentary. "This is where we learn our craft." He believes when Welsh singers go to London to study, "you can see the difference… they’ve got some sort of… confidence."
Certainly, Terfel was swaddled in song and music from the cradle. Born in 1967 in rural north Wales, his father was a farmer, his mother a special needs teacher who used music therapy in her work. The whole family, including older relatives, sang together and in choirs. "My grandfather, my great-grandfather, had the love of singing," he says. "There was constant learning going on in the kitchen, words on the cabinets. A little bit of rivalry as well, which is quite healthy."
Eilir Owen Griffiths, a composer and Eisteddfod adjudicator, explains what he looks for in a great singer: "It's how the voice resonates, and the way it works with text." He describes Terfil's voice as "like a beautiful double bass" – but it's not just the incredible sound he generates: "It's also the control he has – he can sing the most delicate pianissimo as well. It's a unique voice, very special." That quality – and cultural diversity – was drawn on when Sir Bryn sang at the coronation of King Charles, who personally chose him to perform; he sang Coronation Kyrie, a first in the Welsh language at a coronation. "You have the rehearsals in the rooms… Then you have your fittings, and all of a sudden you're in your costume and make-up." And you're onstage, he says, "portraying a character. And that's when the fun really does begin!"
The documentary joins Terfel as he goes through his repertoire for a week in March: as well as the Barber of Seville at the Royal Opera House, he sings the title role in Puccini's Gianni Schicchi at the Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool; then travels to a studio near Cardiff in Wales, to record an album of sea shanties – the likes of Drunken Sailor, and traditional folk songs like Fflat Huw Puw, "about a sailor and his wonderful ship".
It's a voice that continues to thrill audiences, whether in lead roles such as Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House; or Tosca by Puccini at Paris Opera Bastille; or Verdi's Falstaff, at Grange Park Opera, Surrey. As well as big opera houses, he performs for new audiences in concert halls too. Gillian Moore is artistic director of the South Bank Centre, where in recent months he sang extracts from two of Wagner's great roles: "The fact he's passing that on to young singers makes total sense… When he's on stage, you cannot take your eyes off him."
Returning to that question of why the Welsh love to sing, Wyn Griffith suggests it's about an irrepressible spirit – and it's simply in the blood: "Whether they meet in tens or in thousands, in a small country chapel or in a vast assembly… they sing freely… It is not necessary to organise singing in Wales: it happens on its own."
Take me to the Opera: Peak Performance is on BBC News Channel on 10 June at 13.30 and also on BBC Reel
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A radical new wave of artists are sweeping the previously elite world of classical music – with a little help from Squid Game, Dark Academia and fashion. Daisy Woodward explores how classical got cool.
If asked to guess what under 25-year-olds are listening to, it's unlikely that many of us would land upon orchestral music. And yet a survey published in December 2022 by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) found that 74% of UK residents aged under 25 were likely to be tuning into just that at Christmas-time, compared with a mere 46% of people aged 55 or more. These figures reflect not only the RPO's broader finding that under 35-year-olds are more likely to listen to orchestral music than their parents, but also the widespread surge in popularity of classical music in general, particularly among younger generations.
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There are plenty of reasons for this, from the playlist culture spawned by streaming platforms that make it easy for listeners to discover new artists and types of music to fit their mood, to the solace it provided during the pandemic, not to mention the profusion of classical music in pop culture hits like Squid Game. But perhaps highest on the list is the global wave of Gen Z and young millennial classical artists who are finding new ways to be seen and heard, and – just as vitally – new means of modernising what has long been branded music's most elite and stuffy genre.
Unsurprisingly, social media has played a huge part in this, as a quick search of the popular TikTok hashtag "classictok" (currently at 53.8 million views) attests. There, as well as on Instagram, young classical artists have been making use of the digital realm's democratic potential to lift the heavy velvet curtains on their art form, presenting classical music and its storied history in ways that are accessible, unintimidating and, most importantly, fun.
For French violinist Esther Abrami – who has more than 250,000 followers on Instagram, more than 380,000 on TikTok, and was the first classical musician to be nominated in the Social Media Superstar category at the Global Awards – the journey to social media fame stemmed from a desire to share her passion more widely. "I was studying at a top institution and most of the time I was practising for exams, so the whole joy of sharing was taken away. Then, at the very few concerts I did play, there was a very specific type of audience that wasn't very diverse," Abrami tells BBC Culture.
She noticed that a handful of classical musicians had taken to Instagram to broaden their own reach, and decided to do the same. "I started posting a few things, and was stunned by the reaction that I got. Suddenly you have people from around the world listening to you and telling you it brightens their day to watch you playing the violin," she enthuses. "It opened this door to a completely new world."
Nigerian-US baritone and lifelong hip-hop fan Babatunde Akinboboye enjoyed a similarly swift and surprising rise to social media fame when he posted a video of himself singing Rossini's renowned aria Largo al factotum over the top of Kendrick Lamar's track Humble. "I was in my car and I realised that the two pieces worked together musically, so I started singing on top of the beat," he tells BBC Culture. He documented the moment on his phone and posted the video on his personal Facebook account, guessing that his friends would enjoy it more than his opera peers. "But I went to sleep, woke up the next morning, and it had expanded to my opera network, and far beyond that," he laughs, explaining that within two days, his self-dubbed brand of "hip-hopera" had caught the attention of The Ellen Show, America's Got Talent and Time magazine.
Both Abrami and Akinboboye came to classical music in their teens, late by conventional standards, and cultivated their passion for the genre independently. This remains a driving factor in their desire to reach new audiences, which they've achieved on an impressive scale, largely just by being themselves. "I ended up becoming an opera influencer by sharing the parts of me I felt comfortable sharing, which is a lot," says Akinboboye, whose playful hip-hopera and opera videos and posts – taking viewers behind the scenes of a world still shrouded in mystery – have garnered him some 688,000 TikTok followers. "It's a lot about how I relate to opera; my musical background was from hip-hop, but I still found a relationship with opera and that resonated with people," he explains. "Almost every day I get a different message saying, 'I went to my first opera today'. I think it's because they're seeing someone they feel comfortable or familiar with."
'Complex and profound'
Abrami, a similarly enthusiastic content creator, agrees: "I think putting the face of somebody not so far away from them to the genre is a big thing. That's what I'm trying to do, to reach different types of people and create bridges, to show them that this music can really move you. It's complex and profound and yes, it might take a bit of time to understand but once you do, it's amazing."
British concert pianist Harriet Stubbs is another avid proponent of classical music for modern audiences who has been finding her own ways of drawing in new listeners. During lockdown, the musician, who usually splits her time between London and New York, performed multiple 20-minute concerts from her ground-floor flat in West Kensington, opening the windows and using an amplifier to reach listeners outside. "I gave 250 concerts," Stubbs, who was awarded a British Empire Medal by the Queen for this mood-boosting act of service, tells BBC Culture. "I did a range of repertoire from my upcoming album, and also things like All By Myself, which I chose ironically for that audience. And the thing is, people who thought they didn't care for classical music came back every day because of the power of that music."
The fusion of classical music with other genres is a major facet of Stubbs's practice and, indeed, that of many others among the new generation of classical artists (see also the React to the K YouTube channel, where classical artists frequently reimagine K-pop songs with ingenious results, or Kris Bowers' brilliant orchestral arrangements of modern pop songs for the much-buzzed-about Bridgerton soundtrack). Stubbs's innovative first album, Heaven & Hell: The Doors of Perception (2018), was inspired by William Blake and features musical icon Marianne Faithfull. "I always wanted to tie rock'n'roll and classical music together and put them in the same space, supported by literature and philosophy and other disciplines," she explains, adding that her next album, which she's making with pianist and former Bowie collaborator Mike Garson, will be a "Bowie meets Rachmaninoff" affair.
Interestingly, the current swell of enthusiasm for classical music has branched out to become as much of an aesthetic movement as it is a musical one. Digital microtrends Dark Academia and Light Academia – dedicated as they are to the romanticisation of a passion for art and knowledge through imagery – both make rousing use of classical music in order to create the desired ambience. Ascendant Polish countertenor Jakub Józef Orliński, meanwhile, uses atmospheric visuals as a powerful means of contemporising the baroque experience. Depressed by the lack of funding for music video production in the classical realm, he drummed up private sponsorship to make a 21-minute movie to accompany his 2021 rendition of Vivaldi's Stabat Mater. The resulting film conjures a compelling and suitably brutal scenario for the haunting 18th-century hymn, which The New York Times describes as "resembling a Polish remake of The Sopranos".
"I'm really interested in storytelling. I always build an entire concept for my albums – the narrative, the photography, the videos," Orliński tells BBC Culture. "I think now there is this whole new generation of people who really want to add to what classical music can be, to go beyond the singing and be challenged. You just have to know that the end product will be good, and that what you're doing will serve the story," he adds. This is certainly something Orliński has achieved in his own career: an accomplished sportsman and breakdancer, he wowed critics with his 2022 Royal Opera House debut, which found him pole-dancing in a spangled dress as Didymus in Katie Mitchell's production of Handel's Theodora. Other recent projects have included recording baroque tracks for forthcoming video games which, he says, was "an incredible experience" and is something he's being asked to do more and more frequently, as the Metaverse beckons. "Sometimes you need classical music to touch the strings of somebody's soul – a pop song won't work."
Classical music's ongoing and often powerful intersection with pop culture is being foregrounded as part of the burgeoning interest in the genre, both inside and outside its famously guarded gates. The all-teen members of the UK's National Youth Orchestra have just completed a mini tour that included a performance of Richard Strauss's Also Sprach Zarathustra, replete with its opening symphonic sunrise eternalised by Stanley Kubrick in 2001: A Space Odyssey. Last August saw the BBC Proms launch its first gaming-themed programme whereby the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra took on some of the best-loved songs in video game history. While the recent autumn/winter collection from Acne Studios' younger sub-label Face offered up one of the most direct sartorial tributes to classical music to date, presenting crew-neck sweaters, T-shirts and tote bags embellished with the faces of Handel, Mozart and Bach in celebration of "the idea that a passion for classical music is the most left-field move imaginable for a modern-day teenager".
Orliński agrees that classical music has achieved an "almost hipstery" status of late. "It's cool to go to the opera, to know something, and that's because there are a lot of young artists delivering music on the highest level, while making it very entertaining," he enthuses. There is, he observes, a revived interest in classical music personalities such as Maria Callas and Pavarotti, as well as "people like Yuja Wang" who are selling out concert halls, all of which he feels bodes well for the art form. "We have a long way to go to grow as much as other genres of music, but we're moving forward." Akinboboye, too, is tentatively hopeful. "I think opera is definitely being a lot more bold, and I hope that it continues because I think we can catch up," he concludes. "[Classical music needs to] be brave, to do the scary thing. And it'll work out, because audiences are ready."
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A 90-year-old man taking part in pantomime shows since the 1950s has said it has "been his social life for the last 70 years".
Pat Milton is a founding member of amateur dramatic society Kays Theatre Group, which was set up in 1954 by workers at a national catalogue company in Worcester.
Mr Milton, who turns 91 in January, is set to take part in the group's upcoming production of The Glass Slipper at the city's Swan Theatre in early 2025.
"I've always been an entertainer, I just loved entertaining people and making people happy," he said. "That's the secret to life."
Both Mr Milton and his wife Leah have been involved in pantomime shows by the group since its inception.
The Glass Slipper is being shown from 23 January to 2 February and Susan Sedgley, who is playing the part of Queen Esmeralda, the prince's mother, says she has known the pair for a "long time" - since she was 14.
"I've known them forever basically," she explained. "It's very very special. I think it's a testament to them that they came to every rehearsal, they have always throughout the years and obviously every show."
Mr Milton said he had to search for talent when the group first began performances at Worcester's Cooperative Hall, moving to The Swan Theatre in 1965.
Pantomime had been his "lifeblood for the past 70 years", he said.
"I shall be on the stage every performance. And I'm there every performance as I meet and greet the audience as they arrive and I've done that for years and years and years."
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Troupes of performers are set to stage a 195-year-old traditional folk play in streets across the island.
The first known record of a performance of The White Boys in the Isle of Man was in 1830, though the tradition is thought to date back much further than that.
The name derives from the unique, home-made costumes worn by the performers, which are decorated with multi-coloured pieces of fabric.
The performance sees two knights battle to the death before one is revived by a doctor.
James Franklin from Culture Vannin said the tradition was about "the community having fun", which would "always be relevant to the spirit of Christmas in the island".
The White Boys is one of a number of mummers' plays, which are traditional folk performances, to take place across the British Isles in different forms.
The tale acted out annually by Manx performers unique to the island.
Mr Franklin said: "The White Boys being out on the streets is a mark of Christmas being here.
"Before this Victorian idea of Christmas being polite, on the island it was historically a time for relaxing and having fun, and also partying and being silly."
"Knowing how much work people put in behind the scenes to make it happen, it's an important thing which is changing every year."
Though there is no regimented script to the plays, they involve a comedic sword fight to the death between two knights, representing St George and St Patrick, before the revival takes place.
The street performance, which includes a special White Boys carol and culminates in a sword dance, can be seen at locations around the island.
North
At 11:00 GMT in Ramsey, outside the Courthouse.
At 12:00 Kirk Michael, outside Cannan Court
West
At 13:30 in Peel, on Michael Street (Southern Whiteboys)
At 14:30 in Peel, Michael Street (Peel White Boys)
At 17:00 in Peel, Black Dog Pizza, East Quay
South
At 10:00 in Port St Mary, on Bay View Road near the village shops
At 10:45 in Port Erin at the Railway Station
At 11:30 in Colby, at the Methodist Hall
At 12:15pm in Castletown Square
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A new puppet theatre space has been vandalised just days after reaching its fundraising target.
Moving Parts Arts has run Newcastle's Puppetry Festival since 2017 and the company was getting ready to open a permanent home in an abandoned AA call centre in Elswick.
But, on Tuesday, artistic director Kerrin Tatman walked into the new space to find the collection of handmade puppets damaged or destroyed.
Many of the puppets had been created in workshops held in schools, care homes and with community groups, and Kerrin said they "represent the love and creativity of so many children and members of our community".
"It was heartbreaking to see so many carefully crafted pieces thrown about and stamped on," said Kerrin.
"These are not things you can put a price on in monetary terms."
The specialised space will allow for more community workshops, as well as additional performances to go alongside the annual puppetry festival.
Moving Parts Arts said this year, the April festival engaged with more than 28,000 people across Newcastle, but it was already looking at reducing its 2025 offering due to it becoming "more difficult to secure funding".
Margaret Pinder, chair of Moving Parts Arts' board of charity trustees, said it was "such a thoughtless and cruel act of vandalism".
"Funding for the arts is getting tighter every year," she said.
"Kerrin and the team work so hard and the trustees are proud of their terrific contribution to the arts scene here in Newcastle."
Plans remain in place to open the puppet theatre space in April to coincide with the 2025 festival, despite the setback.
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Featuring songs, stories and a celebration of Stoke-on-Trent's grandmothers - or nannas - an alternative take on Jools Holland's annual Hootenanny is being aired on New Year's Eve this year.
It is being organised by the Claybody Theatre and will be filmed at The Production House in Tunstall.
Viewers watching the event via the theatre's website will get to see the Hootenanna's party room ringing in the new year alongside music from the Cor Bach Choir and Penkhull Brass Band.
The event will also feature short films made by community reporters on subjects such as the city's green spaces and Stoke-on-Trent's forthcoming centenary year.
The idea came about as a way to share stories and celebrate nannas from across Stoke-on-Trent, organisers said.
Deb McAndrew, artistic director at the Claybody Theatre, said: "It was just an idea we had really and we thought it was funny.
"But it's covering so much more than the women in the city who are amazing - everybody, from allotment gardeners to food outlets, carnival - it's a really broad, diverse celebration of the city."
Fellow artistic director Conrad Nelson added: "Hootenanny says a party, Hootenanna is about a slightly older generation."
He said it was a "great metaphor for the city" as grandmas were seen as a matriarch with "so much responsibility in all cultures".
Marie Bird from Trentham will host the evening and said she did not feel old enough to be a grandmother.
"I have to say it's been one of the best roles of my life so far, I absolutely adore my granddaughter," she said.
Ms Bird added she had never done any presenting before and was a bit "terrified" about it but the team at Claybody had helped put her at ease.
"It's incredible – the set's amazing, everybody's amazing and I'm loving it so far," she said.
"My daughters are just howling with laughter at it and I've never had so many Facebook messages off people."
Hootenanna will be streamed live via the Claybody Theatre website on New Year's Eve from 20:00 GMT.
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A hotel visitors' book has revealed details of a landmark moment in Southampton's theatre history, almost a century ago.
The fragile lined notebook is signed by performers who appeared in the very first production at Southampton's Empire Theatre - now known as the Mayflower Theatre - in 1928.
It was donated to the Mayflower's archive by the family who used to run the guest house in the Shirley area of the city.
Volunteers are currently digitising the Mayflower's extensive archive of programmes, posters, tickets and other items so they can be accessed online.
The book includes the comments of Cynthia Carlton and Rita Tate, who thanked guest house proprietor, Mrs Stevens, "for her kindness during our fortnight's stay - a home away from home."
Mayflower archivist Holly Scott said: "This book is something we've never had in the archive before.
"It helps us piece together the story of the performers - when they were here rehearsing and on the stage and where they stayed. It brings it all to life."
Ms Scott also researched the family who ran the guest house, discovering they were were circus performers.
"There are definitely those moments where you feel excited because of the [theatre's] history. When I first started this job I didn't realise how exciting it would be."
The performers were part of the large company of Winona - a lavish operetta billed on posters as a "new romantic spectacular musical play".
It was the latest show by Rudolf Friml who had written the hugely popular Rose Marie and The Vagabond King.
Although the show was a commercial success over its two week run in Southampton, mixed reviews meant a plan to transfer the production to London's West End was abandoned.
The Mayflower Theatre
* The new Empire Theatre was opened by Moss Empires in 1928. Over subsequent decades it played host to the biggest stars of the day, including singer Gracie Fields and prima ballerina Anna Pavlova. In 1945 future film star Julie Andrews, then aged 10, gave her first public performance on the Empire stage as part of her parents' music hall act.
* In 1950 the theatre was taken over by the Rank Organisation and renamed the Gaumont. Acts including Buddy Holly, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and David Bowie performed there.
* In the 1980s the theatre owners wanted to turn it into a bingo hall. Following local protests and a public inquiry, the building was bought by Southampton City Council, supported by a fundraising campaign.
* In 1987 the venue reopened as the 2271-seat Mayflower Theatre with a production of Peter Pan starring Bonnie Langford.
* It now hosts a mix of musicals, ballets, operas, bands, comedy gigs and a popular annual pantomime, attracting over 500,000 visitors a year and boosting the local economy by £59.7m, according to the UK Theatre Association.
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Angelina Jolie is notoriously private.
But in a new interview with BBC News, the Hollywood star spoke candidly about her experience of working on set with her eldest sons, saying they saw "the pain" she usually hides from them.
The actress is starring in a new biopic, titled Maria, about opera singer Maria Callas.
Two of Jolie's six children with ex-husband Brad Pitt, Maddox and Pax, took on roles as production assistants on the film.
"The character [Callas] has a lot of pain and they've of course seen me go through a lot of things, but they hadn't experienced me expressing a lot of the pain that usually a parent hides from a child," she said.
"So they were there to witness some of that, but then we would hug or they would bring me cups of tea."
Jolie added that it was "a new way" of finding out how to be honest with her children about her feelings, "in an even greater way".
Written by Peaky Blinders creator Steven Knight, the film focuses on Callas's final years, in the 1970s, when she was living in Paris.
With Jolie taking on acting roles relatively infrequently in recent years, the film has provided something of a comeback narrative for her and could lead to an Oscar nomination for best actress.
Callas was a US-born Greek soprano, and one of opera's best-known singers.
In Maria, a blend of Jolie's own voice and original recordings by Callas are used in the singing scenes.
The actress learnt to sing opera for the role, something she describes as "very physically demanding".
Training took around seven months, she said.
"We started with regular singing classes and it was challenging in many ways, but when the opera classes began, what it requires with your breathwork and your body and just the force of what you push through yourself, it's just a very different physicality."
Jolie, whose previous film credits include Changeling, Maleficent, Salt, and Mr & Mrs Smith, said she hasn't sung before, and was "actually quite shy about singing".
"It was probably one of the areas in my life that I was hesitant," she said.
But she indicated that it was also something she enjoyed.
"One of the greatest privileges of being an actor is you often are supported by a crew to try something and explore something you've never done and this certainly was most challenging," she said.
Jolie's sons Maddox, 23, and Pax, 21, have worked on a number of productions with her before, including her film Without Blood.
Both of them accompanied her at the New York City premiere of Maria in September, alongside their younger sister Zahara.
Jolie filed for divorce from Pitt in September 2016. The pair were engaged in a custody battle that resulted in Pitt being awarded joint custody in 2021.
The Hollywood stars also share daughters Shiloh and Vivienne, and another son Knox.
On the set of the film, both Maddox and Pax were "very busy", director Pablo Larraín said. "They were good professionals," he added.
Jolie said that during filming, Pax recorded a lot of her singing practice "so he was with me in my early horrible days," she laughed.
"It's always good for your children to watch your mum not do something easily, but swear and fight and fail and have to try again," she said.
"So that's an important and beautiful thing."
Maria is the third in a trilogy of films about high-profile, complex women from Larraín, following his movies about Jacqueline Kennedy and Princess Diana.
The film has received mixed reviews, although critics have generally praised its central performance.
"Jolie is absolutely spellbinding as Maria Callas, imbuing her with grace and resolve," said Sophia Ciminello of AwardsWatch. "She doesn't disappear into the role, she transcends."
Time's Stephanie Zacharek was less keen on her performance, however, saying Jolie "plays her subject as haughtily cool and deeply insecure, but captures none of her imperious charisma".
Hailed as La Divina, "The Divine One", Maria Callas began singing at 14 years old.
One of her most famous performances was as Tosca, in Covent Garden, in 1964.
But vocal decline, possibly caused by dramatic weight loss, led to the premature end of her career.
She spent her last years living largely in isolation, and died of a heart attack aged 53.
Larraín said he hoped his film honoured Callas's desire to popularise the art form.
"If this movie bring attention to opera from one to hundred to a million, it will be a success," he said.
"I don't know if there is an art form as strong as opera," Jolie added.
"The way it connects to the soul and the body, so of course it's for everybody."
Maria will be released in cinemas in the UK on 10 January.
National Theatre Wales has come to an end.
The company says it has "ceased to exist" following the loss of all its Arts Council Wales (ACW) funding in 2023.
Naomi Chiffi, head of collaboration at the beleaguered company, called it "devastating" but came after a year of difficult self-reflection.
The company will now evolve into TEAM (Theatre, Education Arts, Music), focusing on the grassroots work it has always done within the community and education.
"I think we stopped listening," said Ms Chiffi.
"It's been a very difficult few months to try and get our heads around, but it's really forced us to look at what we do well and what's most important to people."
"I think what we have come to realise now is that it's maybe time to let the productions happen elsewhere with other people, and hone in on what we're really good at."
In September 2023 the company found out it had lost its £1.6m of core funding from ACW in its investment review.
Ms Chiffi said the company had got "a lot of things wrong" but the real issue had been that it "stopped listening properly" to people within the arts sector and the public.
"What was really successful about the infancy of the organisation was that through models like TEAM, it was really listening to communities, listening to artists, listening to audiences and making work in accordance to that," she said.
"And I think when we stopped listening to the people that we really needed to listen to, and engaging in the way that we could have, we started to make work that maybe wasn't quite as impactful as it had been in the past."
"I think it all boils down to: are we listening and are we actually responding to what Wales wants and needs.
"A scheme like TEAM democratises the arts, brings it to people who don't think the arts is for them and uncovers new talent which is really exciting."
Abena-Mintaah Mensah, a singer-songwriter and young persons' co-ordinator at TEAM, said: "To inspire young people to be artistic and be creative is so important."
She was speaking at a TEAM event in Cardiff celebrating the end of a project with pupils from ACT, a school for pupils outside of mainstream education.
Tobias Weatherburn, a professional actor who will take a TEAM project to Cardiff schools in January, was disappointed at the end of National Theatre Wales, but he was grateful its grassroots work will continue.
"I grew up with National Theatre Wales so it is sad, but I'm happy that TEAM will continue."
National Theatre Wales was established in 2009 and had received Arts Council Wales funding since then.
Early successes include the groundbreaking Passion play in Port Talbot with Michael Sheen in 2011, which lasted three days and attracted 25,000 spectators.
In a letter to ACW last October, the company warned it would close without its funding, and said at the time: "If lost, it will not be easily or affordably replaced."
ACW chief executive Dafydd Rhys said since the "difficult decision" was taken on funding, it had worked with the theatre "in terms of supporting them to reimagine and restructure to a model which is not reliant on core funding on a multi-year basis".
Mr Rhys said the theatre was given transition funding to look at new ways of working, for example.
"We look forward to continuing our regular dialogue with National Theatre Wales as they move into this new phase in their development," he said.
"We have also commissioned a review into English language theatre in Wales, which will be published in the spring."
Chris Davenport is a born New Englander who learned his craft on the region's best slopes. Here are his favourite places to ski in the north-east, from Jay Peak to Stowe.
With its frigid winters, jagged peaks and less consistent snowfall, the US East Coast is frequently outshone by the West Coast as a ski destination. After all, the Rocky Mountains feature the tallest mountains peaks, the deepest powder and the gnarliest terrain.
But the East Coast's rugged topography and icy conditions are precisely why many New England locals proudly display "Ski the East!" bumper stickers on their vehicles. These challenging conditions have given rise to a number of excellent ski towns and produced some of the most decorated skiers of all time, including Mikaela Shiffrin, Bode Miller and extreme skiing champ Chris Davenport.
Though Davenport made history by skiing all 54 of Colorado’s 14,000ft peaks in the span of one year and has lived in Aspen for decades, the daredevil actually cut his teeth in New Hampshire’s White Mountains, where he grew up. Even today, Davenport has fond memories of the landscape that shaped him; particularly of the cabin his grandfather built in the town of North Conway in the 1940s, where generations of Davenports have learned to ski.
Davenport had just stepped off a helicopter while guiding a skiing trip in Northern Canada when we caught up with him to ask for his New England skiing tips.
"I've always believed that it's not the size of the mountains or the quality of the snow that makes the skier, it's how much access you have," Davenport tells the BBC. "New England skiing is so accessible. You can find cool, affordable ski towns, incredible ski clubs and great coaches. New England is a hotbed of cultivating passionate skiers."
Here are Davenport’s top recommendations for skiing the east.
1. Best introduction to the region: North Conway, New Hampshire
When it comes to accessible adventure, Davenport's childhood stomping grounds of North Conway in the White Mountains is where it's at.
This village of just more than 2,000 people is ringed by 800,000 acres of national forest, including Mount Washington, the tallest mountain in New England, making it an ideal jumping-off point for skiing.
"You can go ski Cranmore and then jump over to Attitash and maybe go up to Wildcat or Black Mountain," says Davenport, referencing the ski areas that dot the region. "And if you are more proficient and want to explore the backcountry, you can head to Tuckerman Ravine" – a glacial cirque carved into Mount Washington known for its steep descents and propensity for avalanches.
North Conway is a four-season destination, whether it's for skiing in the winter, biking in the spring, hiking in the summer or leaf peeping in the autumn. As such, it has the amenities to support the constant influx of visitors. Moat Mountain Brewing Company is a popular spot for an après-ski beer and burger; Zeb’s General Store is so well stocked and nostalgic it can have a line down the block during peak summer; and White Birch Books is the perfect place to pick up some local adventure inspo for when you are cosying up by the fire.
Website: https://cranmore.com/
Address: 239 Skimobile Rd, North Conway, NH 03860
Phone: 1-800-SUN-N-SKI
Instagram: @cranmoremountain
2. Best for families: Stowe, Vermont
Nestled at the base of Mount Mansfield – the tallest mountain in Vermont – is the quaint town of Stowe. Davenport has a personal connection; his wife is from the area, and her mother was a ski instructor at Stowe Mountain Resort. "It’s a super authentic and historic ski town with a welcoming vibe and incredible summer recreation," he says.
His own ties aside, the skiing at Stowe is top notch, offering runs for beginners and experts alike – especially those with children. The resort features more challenging trails and 2,360ft of vertical drop on Mount Mansfield, and family-friendly runs on Spruce Peak. There is a fun gondola that connects the two mountains, and at the base of Spruce Peak is Spruce Peak Village, which has a skating rink, shops and restaurants.
Beyond the resort, the town of Stowe has plenty to offer for adults and children. Davenport is a fan of Piecasso, a skier-friendly pizza joint. And for premier New England brewery destinations, it doesn’t get much better than The Alchemist, a local institution that makes one of the most in-demand IPAs in a region known for them. "That’s become a kind of religion up there," says Davenport. That and skiing, of course.
Website: https://www.stowe.com/
Address: 5781 Mountain Rd, Stowe, VT 05672
Phone: +1 (802) 253-3000
Instagram: @stowemt
3. Best powder: Jay Peak
For those looking to sample the deepest East Coast powder, it doesn’t get any better than Jay Peak Resort. Just south of the Canadian border in Jay, Vermont, the snow comes early and often to this part of the Green Mountains. Jay Peak averages 350in of snow a year, which is the highest total in New England.
"Jay has a more adventurous, off-piste spirit," says Davenport. "It has a pretty core local skier community than some of the bigger industrial mountains."
At four hours from Boston, getting there is a hike, but that doesn’t stop people from chasing the pow. "I know families in Massachusetts that drive to Jay every weekend because it’s so awesome, but it’s a commitment," says Davenport. The copious snow and the 2,153ft of vertical drop make it well worth the pilgrimage.
Website: https://jaypeakresort.com/
Address: 830 Jay Peak Rd, Jay, VT, 05859
Phone: +1 (802) 988-2611
Instagram: @jaypeakresort
4. Best après-ski spot: Red Parka Pub
North of North Conway in Glen, New Hampshire, is Davenport’s favourite spot for hanging out after a big day in the mountains: the Red Parka Steakhouse and Pub. "It’s one of the most famous ski bars in the Mount Washington Valley," says Davenport.
"The Parka", as it is known to locals, has been family-owned for 53 years. "Our parents would pick us up at Attitash and on the way home we'd stop at the Parka and they would get beers and we would have wings," Davenport recalls. "That was pretty foundational. There were always ski movies playing on the screen. It just has a really cool ski town vibe." The bar's interior is peppered with ski paraphernalia and there is a patio for summertime dining. After a cold day on the slopes, the famous French onion soup is a definite crowd pleaser.
Website: http://www.redparkapub.com/
Address: 3 Station St, Glen, NH 03838
Phone: +1 (603) 383-4344
Instagram: @theredparkapub
5. Best dual-purpose destination: Burke, Vermont
In Vermont's Northeast Kingdom – a 2,000-sq-mile area comprising three counties and ample lakes and mountains – sits the town of Burke and Burke Mountain Ski Resort. "Burke’s fantastic," raves Davenport. "What a transformation from a sleepy little ski area to this unbelievable destination."
The resort still maintains a homely feel. What it lacks in size it more than makes up for with its reliably enjoyable and challenging runs, sparse crowds and fantastic views, including the distant Willoughby Gap. a glacier-carved notch between Mount Pisgah and Mount Hor.
It is also the home of the Kingdom Trails, one of the premier mountain biking destinations in the world. This makes it a great spot to visit in the summer, or for taking a break from skiing and renting a fat tyre bike in winter. Davenport’s sister Ashley, herself an alum of the US Ski Team, taught at nearby Burke Mountain Academy for a decade (a boarding school for ski racers that has sent 37 alums to the Olympics, including Mikaela Shiffrin), and like many locals, her property borders the extensive trail network, meaning she can get out on a world-class ride from her backyard. For post-ride refreshments it’s hard to beat The Hub Trailside Beer Garden, an idyllic spot on Darling Hill connected to the Village Sport Shop, where you can rent bikes and hit the trails.
Website: https://skiburke.com/
Address: 223 Sherburne Lodge Rd, East Burke, VT 05832
Phone: +1 (802) 626-7300
Instagram: @burkemountainofficial
6. Best region for gnarly terrain: The 93 Corridor
Route 93, a highway which travels from Boston directly into the heart of the White Mountains, cuts through an inordinate amount of steep runs and thrilling terrain. "I like the variety of being able to go to Loon Mountain one day, Waterville Valley the next and then Cannon Mountain," says Davenport. "Growing up, Cannon always felt big and wild and up in the alpine. It has a tram to the top and tight trees."
The Cannon Mountain Aerial Tramway opened in 1938, and still offers year-round rides to the 4,080ft summit, making it the highest ski area in New Hampshire. Another bonus of travelling Route 93 is the town of Littleton, New Hampshire. Not only does it feature Lahout’s, the US oldest ski shop, it has Schilling Beer Co, a riverside destination for delicious pints and exquisite charcuterie boards; and Chutters candy store, home of the world’s longest candy counter.
What's Davenport's ideal rest day in New England? "You shouldn't take a rest day," he says "New England is known for the nature, the mountains, the rivers, the trails, the history. Just keep skiing, because that's why you're there in the first place."
Website: https://www.cannonmt.com/
Address: 2650 Profile Rd, Franconia, NH 03580
Phone: +1 (603) 823-8800
Instagram: @cannonmountain
BBC Travel's The SpeciaList is a series of guides to popular and emerging destinations around the world, as seen through the eyes of local experts and tastemakers.
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Every year, millions of red and white polkagris sweets, also known as candy canes or sticks, are rolled out by hand in the tiny town of Gränna in the north of Småland, considered by many to be Sweden's capital of candy.
Shop windows along Brahegatan (the main street) abound with colourful displays, ready for the multitude of tourists who flock in to taste the iconic treats. During the holidays, the town hosts a Christmas market and concert and visitors can see candy makers handcrafting the red-and-white sticks in shop windows.
The history of this sweet delight dates to 1859, when 25-year-old housewife Amalia Eriksson found herself a widow and single mother to a daughter, Ida. Determined to support herself, Amalia started making candy for weddings, christenings and funerals. At the time, Swedish law didn't allow women to own or operate a business, but after receiving a license to sell the confectionery from Gränna's magistrate, Amalia gained approval from the mayor, Carl Johan Wennberg, to start her own business, becoming one of Sweden's first female entrepreneurs.
Amalia's polkagris stick was made with a boiled mixture of sugar, vinegar and water that was kneaded and pulled. Originally the confectionery was made in small pluttars, or pillow-shaped pieces, but Amalia eventually formed the candy into a stick shape. Part of the dough was coloured red, and the other part, which was white, was flavoured with peppermint.
For years, Amalia kept the recipe for her polkagris sticks a close secret known only to Ida, who worked with her mother her whole life. After Amalia's death in 1923 at age 99, Ida continued the family candy-making tradition and shared their recipe so others could start crafting polkagris too.
In the 1950s, as production in Gränna increased, the candy became increasingly popular, with more women following in Amalia's footsteps and making the candy as a year-round treat. Locals boiled polkagrisar (plural of polkagris) in their kitchens and sent their children out with baskets to sell them on the streets.
Sweet stands soon followed on the Riksettan, the main road that passes through the heart of Gränna and connects southern Sweden with its capital, Stockholm, and the candy cane became a must-have souvenir for visitors.
Today, the polkagris is as in-demand as ever, with only 14 specialist bakers in the town allowed to officially make and sell the colourful canes. In 2022, genuine Gränna Polkagrisar received a protected geographical indication from the EU, which means the confectionery can only be made in the old district of Gränna. Its special status pays tribute to the quality and reputation of the stick and its link to the town.
Candy canes are made year-round by some of the bakers, but 20 April is officially Polkagris Day, when production starts in earnest and Gränna pays tribute to Amalia by churning out the tasty treats in preparation for the holiday demand. The small town, which has roughly 2,700 residents, honours her with a dedicated exhibition at the Grenna Museum, including old photographs and descriptions of what life was like when the cane craze began. Amalia's home on the main street is now luxury boutique Hotel Amalias Hus with just 20 rooms, each decorated and furnished with a nod to the 18th Century.
So popular is the cane with bakers and buyers that in 2013, a one-time candy championship was held among the confectioners, with Stefan Fransson hailed the winner. (Fransson's father, Alf, was of one of the most prestigious bakers in Gränna and his name is immortalised with the words "Polkagris King" written on his gravestone.)
Nowdays, Fransson and his partner Catrin Kvist, along with fellow owner, Susanne Samuelsson, have a shop called Polkaprinsen on Gränna's main street, which is a vital cog in keeping the polkagris tradition alive, along with the other 13 shops.
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In the late 1970s, the first polkagris made in different colours was blue and yellow, resembling the Swedish flag. "This caused a great stir and some thought it was the end of the polkagris," says Kvist, "but more and more flavours and colours have been created and each year we come up with new tastes, some which are added to the assortment, others just for the summer."
Today, Polkaprinsen makes 55 varieties, from the famous red-and-white peppermint to more unusual flavours like cinnamon roll, tutti-frutti, Turkish pepper and whisky.
Making the canes remains relatively simple, using a mixture of sugar, water, vinegar, peppermint oil and food colouring. Visitors to the shops are encouraged to have a go at crafting their own.
"We bake and sell around half a million sticks per year just in our shop and so add that to the other 13 [shops] and it's a lot of candy canes being enjoyed," says Kvist.
The love for the Swedish candy cane sees around 800,000 visitors to Gränna every year, with the traditional red-and-white peppermint the best seller – something Amalia would be proud of 165 years after she first invented it.
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As a new Netflix series thrusts Gabriel García Márquez's masterpiece back into the spotlight, these are the real-life places that inspired the writer's magical realism.
In a small town fringed by banana trees in northern Colombia, a solitary yellow butterfly flutters through the languid, muggy air. Vallenato folk music floats from a shop window, as bicycles as glide down the sun-soaked streets. And the sides of buildings, storefronts and a weathered door with peeling paint all carry the same name: Macondo.
Book lovers might recognise Macondo as the fictional town in One Hundred Years of Solitude, written by Nobel Prize-winning Colombian author Gabriel García Márquez. Considered one of the 20th Century's best-known novels and a masterpiece of magical realism, the book has sold 50 million copies and has been translated into more than 40 languages since it was published in 1967. Now, it's the subject of a popular new Netflix series.
While the fictional village of Macondo was recreated on a set in central Colombia for the series, residents here in García Márquez's childhood hometown of Aracataca – and even García Márquez himself – credit the town with inspiring his work. But this small town, with its chorus of insects and slew of Macondo signs, is one of several places across northern Colombia's Magdalena and La Guajira departments that shaped the epic tale of the Buendía family.
Travelling through this part of Colombia's Caribbean corner reveals vivid scenes that are reflected in the novel's blurred blend of fantasy and reality. Vast swamps, the ones that the "gypsies" navigate in the book, give way to blue waters that José Arcadio Buendía (the founder of Macondo) searches for when settling the town. Endless banana fields, like those surrounding Macondo, sweep into the towering mountain peaks of the Sierra Nevada, which the characters traverse in the beginning of the tale. Fiery-red sunsets melt into black skies glistening with stars, and the brightest of days can be erased in an instant with fierce winds and doomsday-like downpours – which can last for nearly five years in Macondo.
It's therefore easy for fans to understand what García Márquez meant when he once said: "Caribbean reality resembles the wildest imagination."
Here are the real-life places that inspired the magical realism in One Hundred Years of Solitude to come to life.
Aracataca
A little before the late-morning heat casts a hazy spell over the sleepy town of Aracataca, a smattering of tourists, guides and vendors shelter in the shade of a tree-lined street near a large white house-turned museum.
Museum guide Donal Ramos explains that García Márquez was born here in 1927 and lived here with his grandparents until he was eight years old.
"He was a very lively child, but he always came to this place and would be calmer," Ramos explains, standing in the author's grandfather's workshop. "While his grandfather made little fish, Gabo [as García Márquez was affectionally called] would draw," he adds. The gold fish inspired the ones "The Colonel" Aureliano Buendía made that he would sell for gold coins, only to turn into more fish, in the book.
Ramos ushers a small group through other rooms of the house, pausing where a young García Márquez would have slept, before moving on to the kitchen with small animal figures on sticks resting on a counter.
"This is where [García Márquez] saw his grandmother make her candied animals, just like the character, Úrsula Iguarán, did in the novel," Ramos recounts. "The novel was initially going to be named The House," Ramos reveals, because of the abundance of tales that came out of this home, "But it eventually became One Hundred Years of Solitude due to the perpetual loneliness that all the characters experienced."
Outside, the aroma of freshly brewed coffee swirls around a small stall. Its beans were grown by a local producer in the nearby Sierra Nevada mountain range that characters in the novel cross at the start of the book and the new Netflix series.
The stall's owner, resident Emilia Salcedo, explains her love for García Márquez's most famous work. "It's a book that's always on my nightstand. Every time I read it, I identify with it more and more," she says, explaining that she feels closest to Macondo at Aracataca's train station, when butterflies are swept away by the breeze of the long, creaking trains.
In the book the arrival of the railroad brings modernity to Macondo, and García Márquez writes that 120 train carriages carrying bananas "took a whole afternoon to pass by". In Aracataca too, the railroad once transported passengers and bananas, but today the single-track trainline only carries freight. Yet, locals still gather on its benches, watching the trains – and butterflies – disappear into in the distance.
At Aracataca's central Plaza de Simón Bolívar, women with push carts sell drinks, just as vendors do in Macondo's main square. Nearby, residents rest in doorways on what García Márquez called The Street of Turks – Macondo's main commercial hub, where Middle Eastern immigrants would sell their merchandise. When children finish school for the day, some dash off to play in the town's river, with its bed of polished stones that García Márquez wrote resembled "prehistoric eggs".
Elsewhere, businesses are named after Macondo, murals of García Márquez abound, the library and certain hotel rooms are named after characters in the novel and paintings and statues immortalise key moments in the book – such as one of Remedios the Beauty floating to heaven while hanging laundry.
Ciénaga
A 60km drive north from Aracataca, Ciénaga is an attractive town set on the salty shores of the Caribbean Sea. Its paved and cobbled streets offer a glimpse of the wealth that once flourished thanks to its huge banana exports at the start of the 20th Century. Yet, Ciénaga is used as a backdrop for a harrowing event that takes places in the latter half of the novel.
In 1928, employees at The United Fruit Company went on strike to demand better working conditions, but they were gunned down by the Colombian army. Estimates vary wildly for how many people died, but in García Márquez's retelling in Macondo, there's only one survivor. Local guide and artist Yeiner Mendoza points out a tall statue of a banana worker holding a machete at the town's former railroad station. "It's called Prometheus of Liberty," he says. "What García Márquez describes [in the novel] is what is known in Colombia as The Banana Massacre."
Later, Mendoza points across Ciénaga's elegant main square to the grand San Juán Bautista church that was damaged in a fire in 1902 during Colombia's War of a Thousand Days. "The scene is recounted in One Hundred Years of Solitude, where the church is destroyed by the Liberals and Colonel Aureliano Buendía later rebuilds it," he says.
Despite its pretty colonial and Republican-style architecture, the name Ciénaga actually means "swamp". Adjacent to the town lies the Ciénaga Grande de Santa Marta, a Unesco Biosphere Reserve and the largest swamp in Colombia.
"Márquez would travel [from Ciénaga] across it towards the city of Barranquilla, at a time when the highway didn't exist," Mendoza explains. "And so, Gabriel García Márquez was able to describe so vividly what it was like crossing the 'great swamp' where the gypsy character Melquiades passed through."
Riohacha and La Guajira
Tracing the Caribbean coast, buses dip into the city of Santa Marta – the first Spanish settlement in Colombia, founded in 1525 – before continuing towards the country's northernmost tip. The region of La Guajira is home to a sanctuary of vibrant pink flamingos, blue seas, golden beaches, tawny brown desert and a carpet of shimmering salt flats with dusty pink pools.
In many ways, La Guajira is really where One Hundred Years of Solitude begins. Before the founding of Macondo, the characters in the novel leave behind their homes in La Guajira, as José Arcadio Buendía wants to flee after killing a man, and other townspeople want a fresh start. This is where García Márquez's own story starts too, as the themes of uprooting and settling in a new land are partly inspired by tales he heard growing up of his ancestors relocating from their home in La Guajira's largest city, Riohacha, to Aracataca.
Riohacha is where García Márquez was conceived during his parents' honeymoon, and as a child, his grandmother would tell him fantastical tales about the city and La Guajira. Anthropologist and Riohacha resident, Weildler Guerra, explains that when García Márquez was a boy, he visited Riohacha with his grandparents and mother, and he later described as being like a "journey to the seed" where he borrowed and embellished details that he inserted into the novel.
Guerra says they'd talk of pirate raids and the city's devotion to Nuestra Senora de los Remedios, Riohacha's patron saint. Details of these pirate raids in Riohacha made it into the novel, and one of the story's most iconic characters is Remedios.
Riohacha is also the hometown of the priest who helped organise García Márquez's parents' marriage – and rumours circulated that he could levitate. According to Guerra, the priest inspired the character of Father Nicanor Reyna in the novel: a man who casually levitates while drinking hot chocolate.
Riohacha and La Guajira, more generally, is home to the Wayúu people, who feature prominently in One Hundred Years of Solitude – especially in the characters of Visitacíon and Cautare, who work for the Buendías. When García Márquez was living with his grandparents in Aracataca, the servants in the house were also Wayúu. García Márquez learned some words in Wayuunaiki, the Wayúu language, as a child, and two of the book's children, Aramanta and Arcadio, learn Wayuunaiki before they can speak Spanish.
For Guerra, who himself is Wayúu, the inclusion of Indigenous characters to the novel adds a cultural richness to the narrative that reflects the region. "Visitación and Cataure were the ones who knew about the plague of sleep and about cosmologies that were present," he says, explaining that for the Wayúu, dreams are a way of bridging spiritual world or predicting reality.
While García Márquez died in Mexico in 2014, the magic he extracted from this slice of Colombia's Caribbean will forever live on in his writing. As García Márquez once said: "The truth is that there's not a single line in all my work that does not have a basis in reality."
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Long known as the home of sticky toffee pudding, Cartmel in Cumbria is experiencing its own sweet taste of success. Just how did this small village on the edge of the Lake District establish itself as one of country's leading luxury destinations?
Some 60 years ago, the handful of amenities here included a petrol station and a school.
And while visitors have always been attracted to Cartmel for its 800-year-old priory, its racecourse and its famous dessert, people living here have seen a shift from seasonal influx to year-round flow.
About 20 years ago, it became home to chef Simon Rogan's three Michelin-starred restaurant L'Enclume which, coupled with an ever-growing interest in the Lake District, has shaped the village's reputation.
"Now we're getting a constant stream of tourism which never used to happen," says resident Barry Dean, who also represents the area on Allithwaite and Cartmel Parish Council.
"It has stimulated other trade as well."
The Lower Allithwaite parish, of which Cartmel is a part, has fewer than 2,000 residents, according to ONS figures, and Dean says about 400 people live in Cartmel itself.
Yet within a couple of miles of the village sit dozens of hotels, guesthouses and self-catering units, many aiming for the higher end of the market. And more are coming.
While the tourism trade brings important employment opportunities, it all comes with its challenges.
"We had a massive event - Christmas in Cartmel - but it was so popular we were inundated," Dean says.
"Previously that would have attracted local people [but] it was so over-attended we couldn't do it this year."
Dean says while the success of "brand Cartmel" is great for the village, it also drives investment from second-home owners and real estate investors, meaning fewer local people are able to buy properties here.
"The downside is it's driven out a lot of people who looked after the village, the doers who got involved in the community."
Jenny Boak, 62, has always lived in this corner of Cumbria and remembers the days when Cartmel was a sleepy village.
"All you needed to come to Cartmel for was to go to school," explains Boak, who now sits as a Liberal Democrat on Westmorland and Furness Council.
"The growth has all been organic, it has come from enterprise and employment has gone up."
While there are many holiday homes in and around its main square, Boak is keen to stress the area at large has managed to secure social housing.
She claims a "strong neighbourhood plan" put in place by the council, which identifies areas that can be developed, ensures a "balance" between tourism and community.
Newlyweds Lauren and Greg Foggo are the latest investors to be attracted to Cartmel, having purchased the village's multimillion-pound old grammar school which is to become a hotel and wedding venue.
"Cartmel seems to be a really luxury destination," says Mrs Foggo.
"Obviously you've got L'Enclume and [sister restaurant] Rogan and Co, you've got the racecourse, you've got lovely pubs that all seem to work well together as a community."
The couple - who have never worked in the hotel business - received the news their purchase of the Grade II listed 1790 building had gone through just 10 days after tying the knot in October.
They are preparing to open in the new year.
Mrs Foggo's parents bought a property near Cartmel and fell in love with the area, she explains, and that is what attracted them here.
Christie & Co, the company that dealt with the sale, said the previous owners carried out extensive renovations but wanted to sell the property to retire.
"The feedback has been that the local community are happy that it's going to be a hotel again, that it's going to bring more people to the village and hopefully we can bring something back to them as well," the 28-year-old says.
Although the cost of living crisis continues to affect many sectors, Cartmel continues to attract wealth.
Jim Walker, president of Cumbria Tourism, says: "We've found post-pandemic that there is still strong demand among the more expensive, higher value end of the market."
As for Cartmel's success, he puts it down to its "buoyant" offering and he does not think its charm will stop attracting visitors any time soon.
"It has become quite a centre of excellence in terms of super experience for visitors.
"It's a real community, it's very vibrant, but it's worked hard to earn its place with some fantastic culinary offers for both visitors and the local people."
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Passengers have criticised plans to replace the free upstairs viewing deck at Jersey Airport with a paid-for "premium lounge".
Ports of Jersey said the new space, operated by No1 Lounges, will open next year providing guests with "panoramic sea views, exceptional hospitality and seasonal hot dishes".
Passengers have expressed disappointment at losing the existing viewing deck which is popular with families and questioned whether Jersey Airport needed a premium lounge.
Airport officials said there would also be an "alternative quiet space" for free use by passengers, as part of wider redevelopment plans at the airport.
Father of three Sam Hirst described the change as an "absolute shame".
He said the current lounge was "a great space" for families with young children and gave them space to run around, especially when flights were delayed.
Another parent, who did not want to be named, said she frequently used the current viewing area as a place for her baby to "play, feed and nap away from the hustle and bustle and judgement of others".
She described the area as a "safe haven when travelling alone" and branded the changes "unaffordable for normal people".
Passenger Colin Pallot said he had used private lounges at Gatwick but questioned the need for one in Jersey, based on the length of time people spent at the airport.
"I really don't think this concept would work at Jersey airport unless there are significant delays for a flight," he said.
He suggested that the space would be better used as a "family friendly space", such as a children's play area.
Ports of Jersey said passengers would be able to access the lounge using airline frequent flyer schemes, some credit card scheme, or by walking in on the day, with prices yet to be published.
Matt Thomas, Ports of Jersey chief executive, said he was delighted at the prospect of providing a "stylish sanctuary from the busy terminal".
He said the new lounge would provide "a memorable experience for every guest, and a relaxing environment to unwind before flying".
A spokesperson for Ports of Jersey said the needs of all passengers would be considered in development plans for the airport.
"As we redevelop the airport terminal in the coming years, we'll be opening more space for passengers to view the airfield," they said.
Nearly 14 million drivers are expected to hit the road during the last weekend before Christmas, marking a new record, according to the RAC motoring group.
Rail disruption due to engineering works is also expected to add to congestion on the roads.
So how can you avoid hotspots - whether travelling by road, rail, air or ferry?
Stagger travel times on roads
The RAC says that overall, the impact of the Christmas getaway will mean many roads "feel busier" than on an average weekend.
On Saturday, most traffic is expected between 13:00 and 18:00, and it is best to set off in the morning, it says.
The AA advises people to be prepared with plenty of fuel, have their phones charged and tyres and lights checked.
It also suggests carrying food and warm clothes in case you get stuck in a traffic jam during what it says could be one of the busiest festive periods for road travel since it started keeping records in 2010.
Experts say that with Christmas falling midweek this may see people commuting sharing the busy roads with those visiting friends or family.
"Check the traffic reports before you leave and try to travel when it's quieter if you can, or consider taking a different route to beat the jams," the AA's Chris Wood says.
Travel expert Julian Bray says if travelling by road, "go earlier and come back later" as rail engineering works taking place over the festive period will also add to traffic.
Check for rail engineering works
Network Rail advises passengers to check their journey before travelling.
Some services such as West Midlands Railway are running an amended service because of engineering works and last-minute train cancellations are possible.
As London Paddington is closed between 27 and 29 December for HS2 construction works, rail travel to and from Heathrow Airport will be disrupted, as well as journeys to south Wales and south-west England.
The RMT union has also announced strike action affecting Avanti West Coast on 31 December and 2 January, and the train firm will run amended timetables.
Eurostar says that it expects Boxing Day and 29 December to be its busiest days and to leave plenty of travel time.
Rory Boland, from Which? Travel, says: "If your rail journey is delayed, you'll be entitled to compensation, though how this is awarded can vary between rail companies."
Under the Delay Repay scheme, for example, it varies according to the length of the delay.
And she points out that if your train is cancelled you may be entitled to a full refund.
Confirm your return flights
Data analysts Cirium looked at all departures scheduled between 20 December and 2 January and says that overall, this year will see 5% more departures compared with 2023.
The busiest day for Gatwick, Manchester, Stansted, Birmingham and Bristol airports is expected to be 22 December.
Mr Bray says customers should stay in touch with their airline and expect alterations.
Leaving plenty of time for travelling to your departure airport is sensible, as well as checking baggage rules as some airlines have changes their policies recently.
He also says that customers should always reconfirm their return journey before setting off.
Which? advises that passengers will also be entitled to assistance from the airline, with things like food and drink, if their flight is delayed by more than two hours.
"For short-haul flights, the threshold for compensation kicks in after a three-hour delay - but is only payable if the delay is deemed within the airline's control, meaning you won't be entitled to it if your plane is held up by a snowstorm or security incident" Mr Boland says.
For cancellations, you should also get the choice of a refund or rebooking on the next available flight.
Arrive only for your allotted ferry sailing
The Port of Dover is one of Europe's busiest ports and it says that if you have booked with a third-party provider, you should check your details before travelling.
Allow plenty of time for your journey, and arrive only for your allotted sailing.
It also suggests having passports open and ready before Border Control, in addition to carrying snacks or entertainment to pass the time.
One of Britain's busiest ports in Holyhead in north Wales will remain closed until 15 January at the earliest after it sustained damage during Storm Darragh.
Mr Boland says: "If your ferry is delayed, you won't be entitled to compensation if weather conditions mean the ship can't safely operate, or there are other extraordinary circumstances."
Otherwise, compensation is usually paid on a sliding scale depending on the length of your journey and the amount of time you're held up.
She adds that if the ferry is cancelled or delayed by more than 90 minutes, you should be offered the choice between an alternative sailing, or a refund.
You may also be entitled to overnight accommodation if required, she adds.
Drivers are being told to prepare for "one of the busiest Christmas getaways in years".
Heavy traffic is expected across the West of England on roads including the M4, the M5, A38 and A303, particularly later and on the Saturday and Monday before Christmas, motoring organisations have warned.
Drivers were advised to avoid travelling between 11:00 and 18:00 GMT on those days. Great Western Railway has also warned train passengers that its services are likely to be very crowded.
Friday is predicted to be the busiest day on the roads during the festive period, with an estimated 23.7 million drivers planning a trip, the AA said.
That is more than the busiest Christmas getaway day of any year since the AA began recording data in 2010.
Pinch points are expected at the M4/M5 Almondsbury interchange and on the A38 in Somerset.
The RAC's breakdown cover expert, Rod Dennis, said he was dubbing 21 December "snarl-up Saturday".
'Last-minute trips'
On Monday, jams are anticipated on the A303 around Stonehenge in Wiltshire, and on the M5 between Bristol and Taunton.
"Our research shows it could be one of the busiest Christmas getaways that we've seen in years," Mr Dennis said.
He added that Christmas Eve would also be hectic, with "lots of people making last-minute trips to see friends and family".
To avoid the worst of the jams, drivers were advised to tune into local radio stations and refer to traffic apps before setting out.
Great Western Railway has issued warnings advising people not to travel by train to Bath on Sunday.
More optimistically, the Met Office has said conditions for drivers will not be too bad over Christmas, with temperatures well above freezing, although wind and rain is expected.
Christmas Day, Boxing Day and New Year's Day are expected to be the quietest days on the roads.
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Four chambers of commerce in the Highlands have raised concerns about the possible introduction of a tourist tax.
Highland Council is consulting on a 5% visitor levy which it says could generate at least £10m a year for the region.
But Cairngorm, Caithness, Lochaber and Inverness chambers say the extra cost on holiday accommodation could put visitors off coming to the Highlands.
Highland Council has been approached for comment.
It has previously said money raised from the levy could be used to improve infrastructure, such as roads.
Highland Council started a 12-week public consultation last month.
The local authority has said the levy could be introduced in September 2026.
MSPs approved a plan in May for councils to add a charge to overnight accommodation such as hotels, B&Bs and holiday lets.
Accommodation providers would be responsible for collecting the levy from visitors.
Chambers of commerce are associations or networks of businesspeople.
The four Highland groups want the work towards introducing a Highland tourist tax paused and reviewed.
They are concerned it would put an administrative burden on businesses and put the region at a competitive disadvantage.
In a joint statement, the chambers said: "We understand that change is needed for the tourism industry and are very happy to explore all options with relevant stakeholders.
"We believe that a well-considered and carefully implemented approach to tourism development is crucial for the long-term success of the Highlands.
"Therefore, we urge caution and a thorough review of the proposed visitor levy before any decisions are made."
The Highlands get more than six million visitors a year - including day trippers, overseas tourists and cruise passengers, according to Highland Council's figures.
Among its attractions are the North Coast 500 tourist route, which starts and finishes in Inverness, also the landscape of Skye and beaches along its 3,050 miles (4,905 km) of coastline.
The area also has parts of the Cairngorms National Park - the UK's largest national park - and in the north the new Unesco Flow Country World Heritage site.
Highland, Edinburgh and Aberdeen and other councils supported proposals for the tourist tax six years ago.
Zhangjiajie, China's first national park, also features glass-bottomed bridges, a mountain elevator and a food court complete with a McDonald's for those inclined to take it easy.
Shy was not an impatient person, but even she struggled to keep her cool when I whipped out my phone to take what must have been the 100th photo of the same view. Shy – short for Shen Hong Yan – was my guide through Zhangjiajie National Forest Park in central China, and she knew there were better viewpoints up ahead. But I couldn't bring myself to move on just yet; the soaring sandstone quartz pillars of this forest were unlike anything I had seen anywhere else in the world.
Located in the north-western corner of Hunan province, Zhangjiajie is China's first national park, established in 1982. This forest is part of the larger Wulingyuan Scenic Area that was included in Unesco's list of World Heritage sites in 1992 and later given Global Geopark status in 2001. The name may be a tongue-twister, but there is an easier way to remember it – as the inspiration for the Hallelujah Mountains that featured in the blockbuster movie Avatar. In fact, before I visited Zhangjiajie, that was the only fact I knew about this place. Shy confirmed what I had suspected: that Zhangjiajie used to be an underexplored destination even among Chinese tourists before the movie catapulted it into their consciousness.
The film franchise's official website says: "The Hallelujah Mountains are comprised of mountains floating in the air above Pandora." And while the ones I was gaping at didn't exactly levitate, the way they rose up from the ground through a wispy blanket of cloud and fog gave them an otherworldly feel. Hence the reluctance to tear myself away.
But Shy was right, and the scenery did get increasingly spectacular as we hiked on. When we reached the rockstar attraction – the solitary quartzite-sandstone pillar that the local tourism department has labelled "Praise the Lord Mountain" (a loose translation of Hallelujah) – she was practically jumping up and down with excitement. "This is what everyone comes for," she said, explaining the crowds clustered around this viewpoint trying to capture the imposing majesty of this natural spectacle on their tiny phone screens.
Originally called the "Southern Sky Column", this rock soars 1,080m into the air with clumps of dense foliage outgrowth adding splashes of bright green to the overwhelmingly brown landscape. I waited patiently for the chattering groups to move away for a chance to finally enjoy a moment of solitude and silence.
"We used to call this 'qiankun'," Shy whispered, hesitant to break into my reveries. The word means 'Heaven and Earth", signifying that this pillar connected the two. An apt name for what seemed like a piece of Earth reaching up to the very skies. From my vantage point, it looked like the pillar was thinner at the base than at the top, but it stood steady and unyielding, just as it has for millions of years.
Scattered through the park are more than 3,000 such pillar rocks and jagged peaks, formed by the process of natural erosion and the persistent movement of gentle water cutting through hard stone. The area encompassed by the national park is quite small, at just more than 48sq km, further divided into smaller sections that make it easy to cover the highlights in a couple of days. The most spectacular lookout points are in the areas known as Yuanjiajie, Tianzi mountain and the Yellow Stone Village (known locally as Huangshizhai), and that was where we initially focused our energies.
While there are several walking and hiking trails for people of all skill and stamina levels, there are also shuttle buses, cable ropeways and even an elevator on the mountainside for those inclined to take it easy and just tick off the top photo locations. As it happens, the Bailong Elevator – which whisks 50 people to a height of 326m in less than two minutes – is one of the park's star attractions, with people queueing up for hours in peak season for a ride.
That was my first clue to how different hiking in China can be compared to countries in Europe and North America, where I had hiked in the past. Here, there were clusters of cafes and souvenir shops, loud voices and even louder music blaring from speakers all along the trails. So, I was not entirely shocked when at lunchtime, Shy took me straight to the bustling mountaintop food court, complete with a McDonald's outlet and dozens of street food stalls.
However, the spectacular views and the fanciful names for each of them – Fields in the Sky, No 1 Bridge Under Heaven, Three Sisters Peak, Ecstasy Terrace – more than made up for lack of tranquility. It was a dull, grey day with the sun playing hide and seek with the clouds, and when we stopped on top of Tianzi mountain after lunch to look for the "Fairy Maiden Giving Flowers" outcrop, Shy was disappointed we didn't get a clear view. But I was delighted by the way the swirling mist made it seem like a traditional Chinese painting come to life.
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By the time we descended the mountain, the mist had begun to clear, and we hiked for a couple of hours along the gurgling brook known as Golden Whip Stream. This easy walk provided an interesting ground-up perspective of the rock pillars, with the crowds thinning out a few hundred metres into the trail. Shy fell into step with me and we walked on in utter silence punctuated only by the sound of running water and the occasional screeches of the brown macaques who have learned to recognise humans as potential snack sources.
The next morning, the thick clouds seemed to follow us to Tianmen mountain, located an hour away in the heart of Zhangjiajie town. This area is not part of Zhangjiajie National Park, but Shy recommended it highly for its "something special". Much like the elevator inside the national park, the big draw here is the cable car that goes up and down the mountain. Sitting inside the eight-person glass gondola, I could see what the excitement was all about. This is the world's longest cable car ride, stretching more than 7km and taking around 30 minutes to reach the top. It glides at a hair-raisingly steep incline and offers 360-degree views of the towering peaks and the mountain road with 99 sharp bends.
I quickly discovered that with its numerous glass-bottomed bridges and cliff-edge trails, Tianmen is not for the faint of heart. I could hear my heart thudding loud and fast in my ears, as I took one tentative step after another on the glass-bottomed bridge shrouded in fog. It was definitely a bad time for Shy to point out that this skywalk was originally called the "Walk of Faith". Visibility remained poor through the morning, but I could see the faint outlines of pillars and peaks much like the ones we had seen inside the national park. And then on to the special part – the cavernous arch between two hilltops that Chinese legend considers the doorway to heaven (hence the mountain's local name Tian Men Shan, or "Heaven's Gate Mountain").
While many tourists huffed and puffed their way up the 999 steps to reach the mouth of this cave, we chose to stand at the open plaza at the bottom and look up despairingly at the white curtain covering the landscape. And suddenly, in one of those unexpected moments that makes travel so exciting, the clouds parted, the mist lifted and the cave appeared. People around us gasped loudly, some even clapped. I just gazed in awe.
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This year marks the 20th anniversary of the animated film, The Polar Express, and the train arrives for the first time with Santa in London from now until 23 December.
The Polar Express, the award-winning children's book by American writer and illustrator Chris Van Allsburg, has become synonymous with Christmas.
In the story, a little boy climbs aboard The Polar Express steam train that magically appears on Christmas Eve in front of his house. The train takes him and some other children on a journey to the North Pole. He receives a sleigh bell from Santa, loses it and is heartbroken. On Christmas day, Santa returns his bell, confirming to the little boy that Santa exists. He's able to hear the bell, but his parents cannot.
Steam trains and Christmas have been linked well before the book was published in 1985 (and made into an animated film in 2004), however. Model train sets were seen circling in holiday window displays of Macy's, the major retailer in the US, as early as 1883; while in the UK, model railways became popular with the 1920s Hornby Clockwork Train Set and appeared in holiday display windows in the mid 1930s at London's Whiteley's department store.
"It felt like magic for people to be able to stay in touch with each other, travel and send packages after the Industrial Revolution," explained Dr Matthew Teichman, a philosopher with a film studies background and adjunct professor of computer science at the University of Chicago. "[Rail travel] was socially transformative."
When I hear that The Polar Express train ride is coming to London for the first time this December, bringing to life parts of the book and film, I hope that some of that Christmas magic will rub off on me. My five-year-old daughter has started to doubt Santa's existence, and my own father passed away on Christmas Eve last year, so it is a poignant time. I want us to feel the spirit of Christmas by riding this 10-carriage, 640-seat train. But at around £60 per seat for a 12-mile roundtrip journey between Euston and Wembley, I'm slightly sceptical.
Arriving at Euston station, we manage our way through the evening rush-hour commuter chaos to Platform 16 and find a queue of families acting out the scenes from the story. There are three weeks until Christmas, but it looks like Christmas morning, with children and adults dressed in festive pyjamas to replicate scenes from the film.
We're handed wristbands and golden tickets for our journey. Above a makeshift stage, the neon-purple Polar Express sign glows like the North star. Holly and Noel, two entertainers, are singing Christmas classics as if they are on a broadcast radio station in the era of Norman Rockwell Americana. A young girl is doing cartwheels; my daughter joins a crowd of dancing children. My partner and I are still dubious, especially after passing a wall of merchandise that catches the eyes of children and captures the wallets of parents.
Then, a black steam engine arises out of a haze of smoke and we are enveloped by the smell of burning coal. Characters from the movie, such as the conductor, the Hobo and an elf, emerge. A Tom Hanks doppelganger appears as the conductor and instructs us to board the train. Like the movie, he is everywhere on the train – this time with a replica of himself in each carriage welcoming the passengers aboard instead of playing most of the main characters.
We alight a formerly retired British InterCity rail carriage and sit facing each other at four-seat tables, each with an electrified kerosene-like lantern. The car is decorated with Christmas lights that twinkle to the music. I feel transported to post World-War Two Midwestern America; my daughter feels like she is part of the movie.
The conductor and two women, named Chef Crumbs and Chef Cocoa, dance and sing through the narrow aisles as we start the journey. My daughter and the other children clap and dance in their seats. We listen to a narrator read the book over the loudspeaker while the conductor, Chef Crumbs and Chef Cocoa each hold an oversized book of The Polar Express and walk through the aisle. The children on the train are asked to turn the pages as the voice overhead recites the story, and we are encouraged to make hissing train noises and other sound effects to accompany the story. Hot chocolate served in take-away cups and chocolate chip cookies keep both the adults and children pacified.
There is more singing and dancing but now to Christmas carols. We receive song sheets, and my daughter sings along with the characters on the train. "Are we going to the North Pole or is it pretend?" she asks me.
We've actually reached Wembley and are returning to Euston, but the highlight of the journey, Santa, is yet to appear. He is pre-empted by the Hobo from the movie, who runs through the carriage holding a bell, while making a ringing motion. He says that only believers can hear it. My partner and I can't hear the bell; my daughter says she can hear it, but I think she's imagining it.
As we wait for Santa to reach our table, the conductor punches our golden tickets. When Santa arrives, he hands us each a silver bell and asks if we hear it. I see my partner genuinely smile as it rings.
Dr Jennifer Frost, associate professor of management, sport and tourism at La Trobe University, later tells me that while the Polar Express is transformative for the children in the book, perhaps it's also transformative for adults. "You have children who don't believe in magic and won't be able to see magic. But once you believe, you can see all these amazing things unfolding."
The whole carriage, from grandparents to grandchildren, starts to sing Jingle Bells and the Twelve Days of Christmas. As the engine pulls into Euston station's bright lights, the voice of Van Allsburg, the author of The Polar Express, ends the journey by reminding us to "remember the thing about trains: It doesn't matter where they're going. What matters is deciding to get onboard."
I am touched when my daughter shakes the silver sleigh bell that Santa has given her and slyly asks me, "Mummy, can you hear the bell?"
Putting on my coat at the end of the journey and heading back through crowds of commuters in Euston station, I am a bit sad that the experience is over. Even my partner, who had his doubts, says he enjoyed the trip. The magic of The Polar Express has left us believing again.
My daughter in the meantime is saving her bell for grandma.
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Just in time for the holidays, stylist to the stars Erin Walsh shares her insider recommendations for getting to the heart of New York City's vast shopping scene.
New York City's shopping scene is undeniably iconic. The nation's undisputed retail capital since the late 1800s, its shimmering concrete streets teem with luxury flagships, historic department stores and edgy indie boutiques. And yet, few out-of-town visitors venture past the chain stores of 5th Avenue, Rockefeller Center and Herald Square.
"If you only go [there], you're missing the special gems," said Erin Walsh – long-time New York resident and stylist to flawless Hollywood celebs like Anne Hathaway and Selena Gomez. Walsh is a passionate shopper, and equally passionate about New York City. "I love New York so much," she said. "I feel like when you live there, it becomes not just a part of your identity, but energetically, your heart starts to beat with it."
Walsh's approach to shopping in New York City is simple: "Get lost. The only way you get surprised and inspired is when you just wander around." But for Walsh, getting lost means meandering through laser-focused "pockets" of her favourite neighbourhoods to create ultra-niche experiences that don't stop at shopping. "I always think of the restaurants around it," she said. "Things that feel cosy… it just makes it more fun."
Here is her expert guide to "getting lost" in New York City's shopping scene.
1. Best for women's fashion: SoHo between West Broadway and Broadway
Walsh's "pockets" often span mere street blocks, carving up a neighbourhood into unofficial micro-nabes, like the cobblestoned stretch of West Broadway and Broadway in SoHo that's her pick for women's fashion.
Artsy SoHo – famed for its tony boutiques – is teeming with "so many options", she said, naming The Webster, Kate Spade and Chloé as her go-to luxury brand stores in the area.
Walsh also likes combing the streets to uncover surprising indie boutiques, like Kirna Zabête on Mercer Street, which offers highly curated selections from both legendary and up-and-coming designers.
While in this stretch of SoHo, Walsh likes to make a stop at "special places", like La Mercerie. "It's not only a restaurant," she said. "It's clothing, a showroom. Everything that's in the restaurant is for sale. They even sell flowers… and then you go to Balthazar [restaurant and bar] at the end of the day."
2. Best for men's shopping: The Bowery
When it comes to shopping for her male clients and loved ones, Walsh heads to the industrial Bowery neighbourhood in downtown Manhattan – a stretch of gritty city blocks she fondly calls "woodsy" and "underrated, absolutely".
Her favourite Bowery neighbourhood shops are found in the pocket near The Bowery Hotel, including [upscale home decor store] John Derien on 2nd Street, which Walsh calls her "Christmas problem solver". She also always makes a stop at Dashwood Books on Bond Street. "It's my husband's favourite bookstore," she said. "Just that little stretch there. It's so cosy and wonderful. They put the Goop shop there, too. It's a special collection of little shops."
3. Best for traditional holiday shopping: Midtown
New York City shopping is always otherworldly, but never more so than during the winter holidays (blame Miracle on 34th Street). The Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade down 5th Avenue draws hordes of spectators each year, the ritzy shops at Rockefeller Center are almost as much of a draw as the plaza's massive Christmas tree, and the high art holiday window displays of 5th Avenue's historic department stores like Bergdorf Goodman and Saks are nothing short of legendary.
Locals generally avoid the tourist-thronged madness of Midtown during the holidays, but Walsh always makes it a point to visit. "You have to go to Midtown and do all of that," she said. "It's just so special. Even with my kids, taking them to the Christmas tree [in Rockefeller Center] when there's so many people you can barely move. It's great."
4. Best for home interiors: Tribeca, the West Village
Walsh, who studied theatre at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, is just as passionate about interiors as she is about fashion, finding joy in layering textures and materials in New York City's tiny spaces. "If you're living an aesthetic, it's the spaces that you allow into your energy that really impacts how you feel," she said.
She hits sophisticated Tribeca and the skewed streets of the historic West Village when she wants to snap up beautifully designed homewares and surprise gifts, from mirrors to candlesticks. "I've given rugs, I've given furniture pieces, trays, books. I think a robe [dressing gown] makes a beautiful gift," she said. "I like that idea when you give someone a present… you want them to feel held and seen."
She also enjoys visiting candle stores and shopping for fragrances, which she thinks are a "surprising gift". "People always say don't do that," she said. "But I always feel like the best gifts, you take a risk."
5. Best for kids: SoHo, between Thompson and West Broadway
Whenever she needs to shop for children, Walsh heads back to artsy SoHo but narrows her focus even more tightly to a two-block stretch on SoHo's westernmost edge, citing Bonpoint on West Broadway as the touchstone for children's designers in the area. "There's so many cute little kids shops there, and you only find that when you're wandering around," she said.
Another of her favourite stores for children is Makie on Thompson Street: "The most beautiful kids clothes... It's Japanese but feels a little bit Scandinavian somehow." And a final stop at Ladurée [café] on West Broadway for their signature macarons in a beautiful box will delight adults and children alike.
6. Best for quiet luxury: the Upper East Side, around The Mark Hotel
Walsh's favourite shopping pocket in uptown Manhattan is the swanky stretch of Madison Avenue surrounding The Mark Hotel. But before even venturing to the boutiques, Walsh recommends visiting Georgia Louise Atelier on 71st Street for a "reset" facial and a luxe beauty haul of high-tech face tools or products from Louise's own skincare line.
Afterwards, she suggests hitting the avenue's stretch of luxury shops like Sidney Garber jewellery, Ralph Lauren and La Ligne clothing boutique, which she loves for its sweaters. "I could give probably everyone I know and that I don't know, a sweater from La Ligne and everybody would be thrilled," she said. Rounding out Walsh's Upper East Side luxe shopping experience is a visit to the Gagosian art gallery and finally winding down at the end of the day with a drink at The Mark.
7. Best for making a whole day of it: SoHo, between Lafayette and Crosby Streets
Walsh recommends another ultra-niche pocket of SoHo with a tight concentration of enough fun businesses to tie up an entire day. "There's some great furniture and jewellery shops on the corner of Crosby and Howard," she said."You get your nails done [at Paintbox nail salon]. And then you get your man a present and coffee at Saturdays [NYC]."
Of the area's handbag and jewelley stores, Walsh enjoys visiting Prada and Dinosaur Designs, then exploring the smaller, up-and-coming boutiques in the area before meandering one block east to Lafayette Street, where she zeroes in on Santa Maria Novella (the NYC branch of the luxe Italian fragrance line) and the McNally Jackson indie bookshop. Afterwards, she makes a point to stop by the Sant Ambroeus bar for a refreshing Campari spritz. "Always feels good," she said. "It's about getting lost, right?"
8. Best new kid on the block: Dover Street Market (Flatiron/Madison Square Park)
As much as Walsh loves shopping in Manhattan's classic downtown neighbourhoods, she keeps her eye on up-and-coming shopping areas, too, like the Flatiron district's Dover Street Market. The Flatiron District – home to the striking wedge-shaped Flatiron building and Madison Square Park – "has really exploded in the past few years", said Walsh. "They have a unique and diverse selection and there's so many cute little coffee shops and restaurants… there's great jewellery, a more international selection of designers."
Walsh notes that the area is becoming a foodie magnet as well, with Eataly and Cecconi's locations, as well as several hotels like Ace, where shoppers can rest their bags – and their feet – as they take a cocktail break. "Enjoy it," recommended Walsh. "A lot of times people feel like they're in a crazy rush, and that's when you get bad presents."
This article was originally published on 23 November 2023, and updated on 11 December 2024.
BBC Travel's The SpeciaList is a series of guides to popular and emerging destinations around the world, as seen through the eyes of local experts and tastemakers.
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As New Delhi makes headlines yet again for its choking smog, experts and holidaymakers alike are pondering how worsening air quality will change travel in the long-term.
My first words during a Christmas trip to Hanoi last year did not bode well: "It looks like the set of Bladerunner." I peered out of the airplane window, expecting to see Vietnam's capital twinkling in the sunset. Instead, just like the 1982 dystopian sci-fi film, I was met with a blanket of grey, dirty mist smothering the city lights. A cautious traveller, I had double-checked my hotel bookings, taken out insurance, packed carefully. But there was one thing I hadn't planned for: smog.
Luckily, Hanoi's haze – which at the time reached "very unhealthy" levels on the Air Quality Index (AQI) – cleared eventually. But the first days were spent scrambling to buy air masks, squinting through low-level headaches and postponing leisurely walks to explore the lively streets.
Welcome to smog season
Dangerous air pollution – whether from wildfires, slash-and-burn farming, industrial emissions or even intensive cremation practices – is now common for residents and travellers around the globe. Even as cities choke, they find it hard to clean up their act. New Delhi, which recently saw air pollution levels 30-35 times the safe limit recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), issued a ban on firecrackers during Diwali, a colourful festival high on many tourist itineraries. The ban was largely ignored and pyrotechnics went off across the city – worsening air quality even further.
Many places see "toxic air seasons" as the new normal: a regrettable, unavoidable part of the calendar. Unfortunately, this drastic pollution may see visitors shunning countries entirely for those periods. End-of-year travel is a key time for holidays, but coincides in many destinations with colder temperatures that trap pollutants close to the ground.
Some nations worst-hit by smog also depend keenly on tourist dollars. Bangladesh, for example, was ranked fifth worst in the world for air quality in 2022 – yet 4.4% of the country's GDP comes from tourism. Egypt, ranked ninth worst for air quality, relies on holidaymakers to support one in 12 local jobs.
Air power
With climate change worsening global air pollution trends, it's likely that nations, and travellers, will start to see fresh air as a precious natural resource.
Bryce Merkl Sasaki, a digital nomad who has travelled extensively in Southeast Asia, has seen several destinations marred over the past few years. "Smog was definitely an issue where we lived in Mae Sot [in Western Thailand]. Many times when we wanted to take a bicycle trip along the river, the air was so bad that we decided to stick inside," he recalls. "Another time we cancelled a trip to Chiang Mai because the smog there was way above safe levels."
When he moved to rural Cambodia as the marketing manager for a local arts school and circus, he struggled with recurring dust and haze. "As someone who worked in the tourism industry, I can say the smoggiest days definitely meant fewer tourists coming to the circus that night."
With 6.5 million deaths attributed to bad air each year, the issue is now spotlit on global public health agendas. Apart from the obvious symptoms of respiratory diseases, exposure to air pollution is linked to higher risk of diabetes, obesity, cancer, infertility and even dementia.
Fresh air is such a commodity that it has even become a souvenir, with multiple countries, including Iceland, Italy and Canada, selling their canned local air to amused and envious visitors. (Ironically, these marketing stunts create an added carbon footprint from their manufacture, one that further worsens air quality.)
Solutions on the ground
So what can be done? Technology may come to the aid of our lungs, on a local level at least. A team at the Insight SFI Research Centre for Data Analytics at Dublin City University are developing an app that can map Dublin's air pollution. The app will calculate routes allowing pedestrians and cyclists to adapt their journey, circumventing the more harmful pockets of the city. As the issue develops, tools like these may become everyday must-haves, at home and abroad.
Meanwhile, alarming air quality is already shifting consumers' travel decisions, says Cathy Feliciano-Chon, managing partner, APAC at FINN Partners, a global marketing communications agency with a practice in travel and hospitality. "Especially now when experiences outdoors and in nature have become even more popular since the pandemic." During this period billions of people, stuck in hotels, hospitals and homes, suddenly became aware of how the natural environment affected their mood.
No wonder some hotels scrambled to add a specific line item to their budgets: industrial HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning) systems designed to kill on-site mould and dust. Other properties are targeting the bedroom: RH Guesthouse, a boutique hotel in New York, proudly offers the FreshBed, a US$50,000 piece of kit that wafts purified air through the mattress so guests can customise temperature and humidity levels for restorative sleep.
Travellers looking for air that beautifies can rest easy too. Cryotherapy, which exposes the body to extreme cold temperatures, now features in luxury spas, who tout the pure air's ability to restore circulation to the skin of jet-lagged travellers. Victorian-era doctors would approve.
The future of "air" travel
Countries lucky enough to sit on prime real estate – brimming with clean air – are waking up to their commodities. A 2020 study by travel think tank TCI Research found that air quality is one of Europe's top three key competitive selling points for tourists. And you can already see this theme cropping up in marketing campaigns around the globe. Tourism Canada's 2023 campaign invited tourists to "take your maple leave". The video ad features a cheerful Canuck by a windswept lighthouse, urging viewers to enjoy "a breath of fresh air in a world full of stress".
The same year, Australia's Tourism Tasmania showcased their tranquil "Come Down for Air" campaign. One video featured no dialogue, just a lone swimmer diving into the waves, audio of the restless sea breeze and an ending line: "Walk-ins welcome." Nor is their campaign slogan mere hot air – Tasmania's atmosphere regularly ranks among the cleanest on the planet.
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But Feliciano-Chon, who is also an advisory board member of the Global Wellness Summit, an annual conference covering health and lifestyle trends, says tourists won't come for easy breathing alone. "It's more about the overall nature proposition. Nor is the desire to visit places of unspoiled natural beauty limited to one demographic. It's global. It's a common thread among adventure, wellness and solo travel segments. And it's a trend we only see as growing in the coming years."
With an unsullied atmosphere increasingly desirable, holidaymakers are prepared to head for extremes. In its 2022-2023 summer season, Antarctica saw more than 100,000 visitors flood the continent for its pristine views, bracing wind and solitude. That number is expected to balloon. Some worry this will be the next of many hotspots to wrestle with overtourism.
"It is a top concern, and ecotourism taxes like the ones we've seen in Bhutan and New Zealand are designed to mitigate that," Feliciano-Chon notes. "The reality is we're moving in the direction where there will be a premium to access these places, one which only affluent travellers will be able to afford."
In volatile times, it's just one of the many ways the travel map is being rewritten.
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Set some 40km off Iceland's northern coast, this windswept sliver is home to one of Europe's most remote settlements and a thriving seabird population.
Even on a sunny day in late August, the wind on the island of Grímsey cut through our waterproof layers with so much force that one bad gust felt as if it could wipe us clean off the map for good.
My husband and I arrived on Grímsey's beautiful, blustery shores carrying a couple of wooden walking sticks – not so much to help us keep our balance against the elements, but rather to ward off the Arctic terns that are notorious for dive-bombing unassuming tourists who wander too close to their nests along the craggy coastline. As we slowly walked around the island's dramatic basalt cliffs, we also noticed a few puffin stragglers who had yet to migrate out to sea before returning to Grímsey in full force come April.
A 6.5-sq-km island set some 40km off Iceland's northern coast, Grímsey is the country's northernmost inhabited point and the only sliver of Iceland located within the Arctic Circle. In many ways, this frigid far-flung isle cast off a frigid far-flung island nation is Iceland at its most elusive and extreme – and therein lies its appeal.
Until 1931, the only way to reach Grímsey was by hopping aboard a small boat that delivered letters twice a year to the island. These days, 20-minute flights from the city of Akureyri and three-hour ferries from the village of Dalvík whisk adventure-seekers to this rocky, remote island – most of whom, like us, are keen to see one of Europe's most remote settlements and its incredible variety of seabirds and wildlife. In addition to the kamikaze Arctic terns and a thriving puffin population, black-legged kittiwakes, razorbills and guillemots – along with free-roaming Icelandic horses and sheep – also call this idyllic island home. It's estimated the seabirds here outnumber residents by roughly 50,000 to one.
"You won't believe it, but there are only 20 of us living here full time," explained Halla Ingolfsdottir, a local tour guide and owner of Artic Trip.
Born in Reykjavík, Ingolfsdottir grew up in south-east Iceland and started spending extended stretches of time in Grímsey after visiting her sister, who moved to the island years earlier after meeting and marrying a local fisherman. After more than 20 years living part time in Grímsey, Ingolfsdottir said she decided to become a full-time resident in 2019, and she hasn't looked back since.
"People think I moved here for love, but I fell in love with the island," she explained. "There’s a magic, and I fell in love with how people lived here, the islanders and the nature. Nature is very powerful here; it's a different natural force in the winter, and with the darkness comes the Northern Lights, the stars and the storms. In spring comes the light, and the birds; every season is special," she added.
In addition to running a tour company, Ingolfsdottir also owns and operates a nine-room guesthouse out of her home. When she's not leading tours and tending to her visitors, Ingolfsdottir stops by Grímsey's power station once a day to ensure the island is generating enough electricity to keep things running. While mainland Iceland relies heavily on geothermal and renewable energy, Grímsey is so remote that it's actually off the national power grid. Instead, the entire island runs on a single diesel-powered generator.
"People on my tours always ask if I get bored, but I have so much to do," Ingolfsdottir said. "We do the same things as those who live on the mainland: we work, we go to the gym, we exercise, but it is nature that keeps me here."
There is no hospital, doctor or police station on Grímsey. In case of emergency, Ingolfsdottir says that the Coast Guard and emergency services have trained islanders to take action. "When you live here, you must learn to be flexible and adjust to different situations and scenarios," Ingolfsdottir said. "We are prepared for anything. In case of an emergency, they train us to be ready for the first response, and a doctor comes to visit every three weeks by plane."
A small collection of homes (many of which double as guesthouses for tourists) is located on the south-west side of the island. The settlement, known as Sandvík, also includes a schoolhouse that now functions as a community centre, as well as a handicraft gallery and cafe that offers homemade Icelandic wares, knits and other knickknacks. There is also a small grocery store that's open for about an hour each day, as well as a restaurant with a bar, a swimming pool, library, church and the airstrip – which doubles as a popular landing spot for birds.
Like many small towns and villages in Iceland, Grímsey's history is rooted in local lore. As the story goes, the island's name is linked to a Norse settler named Grimur who is believed to have sailed from Western Norway's Sogn district. The earliest known reference to Grímsey dates to 1024, as recorded in the Heimskringla, an ancient Icelandic saga in which King Ólafur of Norway requested Grímsey as a token of friendship. Local leaders refused, deeming the island too valuable to relinquish, thanks to its abundance of fish and birds.
By the late 18th Century, Grímsey's population nearly collapsed due to pneumonia and fishing-related accidents – a combination of small rowboats, bad weather and lack of a natural harbour making landing here a risky pursuit. Still, the community endured, thanks to the steady stream of fishermen from the mainland and those who arrived to trade with the nearby settlement on Húsavík, located on Iceland's northern coast.
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In 2009, Grímsey became part of the municipality of Akureyri, yet the island's few hardy locals remain proud of their unique identity. "Today, Grímsey's land is owned by residents, the town of Akureyri and the Icelandic state who work to preserve the island's legacy as both a natural treasure and a resilient community," said María H Tryggvadóttir, Grímsey's project manager for tourism.
Like many who visit this beguiling island, Tryggvadóttir has developed a special connection of her own with Grímsey. "What fascinates me most about Grímsey is its remoteness, [its] unique light and incredible birdlife," Tryggvadóttir said. "There's something truly exceptional about wandering along the steep cliffs of this grassy island, feeling the deep tranquility of the landscape, while being surrounded by thousands of seabirds. But it's the sincerity and warmth [of the people] that create a welcoming, close-knit community [and] make Grímsey feel truly special."
In addition to puffins, the island's other main tourism draw is its geographical location. Located at 66°N latitude, Grímsey celebrates its status as the only part of Iceland located in the Artic Circle with not one but two landmarks. In 2017, a 3,447kg concrete art installation called Orbis et Globus was inaugurated and placed on the highest, northernmost part of the island to mark the imaginary line where the Arctic Circle and Grimsey intersect.
"It has been a great marketing tool for the island, but it's impossible to move and we have to have special equipment from the mainland to move it," Ingolfsdottir said. "We have another monument for the Arctic Circle, which has been here much longer, since 1970, I believe, I hope you had a chance to visit it!" she added.
Because the Earth rotates on a tilted axis at 23.5 degrees, the sphere must also be moved annually to align with the line of latitude for the Arctic Circle – generally about 14m each year. Depending on the year, the sphere has been moved as much as 130 meters south. In 2047, when the island will technically no longer fall within the Arctic Circle, the plan is to roll the sphere off a cliff and send it off into the ocean for good.
Grimsey's position so far north also means that islanders experience polar nights, when the island is cast into a months-long stretch of total darkness from early December through mid-February. "In my case, the darkness does not bother me. It does bother some people after a certain point, but we know that it will get light again," Ingolfsdottir said.
One of the ways islanders have decided to cope with the darkness is by making their own light. "We start decorating for Christmas early because we want to light up the darkness, and we decorate a lot with the Christmas lights. It's like a little Christmas town here, and we don't take them down until February," Ingolfsdottir said.
As far as the future of Grímsey goes, Ingolfsdottir says there are plans in the works for some new developments as soon as next summer, including a retreat for writers and other creatives to come and stay in a set of existing houses that will be renovated to accommodate longer-term stays.
We didn't end up getting attacked by terns during our visit, but our brief time on Grímsey left me with a deeper appreciation for the importance of community, and an even deeper desire to return for a longer term visit.
"We don't want mass tourism on the island," Ingolfsdottir said. "One of the things I love about this island is how personal it is, and we have a limit on how many people can come here; it's something the island has been doing well from the very beginning and something that the rest of Iceland should take note of before it's too late."
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You can’t book them and you don't know who else will be there, but they're an excellent way to explore Britain's most remote corners – for free.
Hiking up to the top of a valley in Wales' Cambrian Mountains, I was struck by the silence. The noise of the modern world that we've trained ourselves to filter out becomes conspicuous by its absence. This is probably the best indication that you've entered one of Britain's remote places, and a good sign if you're trying to find a bothy, one of the free-to-use shelters that dot the country's wild areas.
Founded in 1965, the Mountain Bothy Association (MBA) is a registered charity that maintains "simple shelters in remote country for the use of all who love wild and lonely places". The organisation manages more than 100 bothies in Scotland, Wales and Northern England.
The system is simple. Bothies are free to use and open to anyone. They can't be booked in advance, and there's an unwritten rule that the bothy is never full (although groups of six or more and commercial groups are asked not to use them). As long as you follow the MBA's Bothy Code, which is based on respect for other users, the bothy and the surroundings, you're welcome.
That is if you can find them. Although the grid references are available online, don't count on phone signal when looking for them, and even with a well-marked map, they can prove elusive.
I was hiking a network of trails in an area known as the "Green Desert of Wales" because of its lack of settlements, roads and infrastructure. I planned to sleep at Nant Syddion bothy before heading to Aberystwyth, the largest nearby town, the next day. Given the relative scarcity of buildings in the landscape, I'd expected to locate the bothy easily. But climbing up and down a succession of forestry tracks as the sun began to set, I began to wonder if I was going to find it at all.
With relief, I finally caught the reflection of a window through the trees and climbed down a steep path to a two-storey stone building that looked like a home transported into the middle of nowhere, complete with a spiral of smoke climbing out of the chimney. And that's exactly what it was. Nant Syddion used to be home to a lead miner and his family and now provides a temporary home for hikers.
Every bothy is an adapted building with a previous life. Most are old shepherd's huts, farmsteads or workers' accommodation. In the early 20th Century, hill farming declined and fewer and fewer people lived in remote locations, leaving many buildings derelict. After World War Two, hiking and mountaineering as leisure pursuits dramatically increased in popularity and those exploring the outdoors began using these abandoned buildings as shelters. The MBA was created by Bernard Heath and a group of friends to restore and maintain them for like-minded individuals.
Remote upland country takes its toll on buildings; the wind and rain age, erode and wear almost everything. However, arriving at the bothy, I found that everything was watertight and functional. Even the gate and the front door had recently been painted.
Keeping 100 buildings habitable in some of the remotest parts of Britain is no mean feat. When you factor in that this work is all done by volunteers (and where bothies have toilets, it involves carrying the waste out), it's a step beyond altruism. Each bothy has two maintenance organisers, and work parties are organised for any large-scale or structural jobs, which, Neil Stewart, head of communications at the MBA, told me, are rarely lacking in willing hands.
Although they're maintained, bothies are by no means luxurious. You won't find electricity or running water and will be lucky to have a long-drop toilet. Most will have a stove, but there's no guarantee a supply of fuel will be there. Your comforts are carried in, and you should pack as if you're camping, including a tent if the bothy is overcrowded or you don't fancy the company.
* Don't expect a hostel. Bothies are left empty and have no electricity or (very rarely) running water. The majority also don't have a toilet but will have a spade that you can use to dig a hole at least 200m away from the building.
* Bothies are also called stone tents because you're essentially camping within a shelter. You'll be reliant on your camping skills for comfort, so practice these before your trip.
* Bring a tent. There's no way to predict how many people will be at the bothy, and if you don't fancy sharing the space with a large group, you'll need a backup plan.
The company you find in bothies, and the fact that it's completely unpredictable, is one of their unique attractions, according to Phoebe Smith, author The Book of the Bothy. "In a world where everything is bookable and controllable, I love that you can't do that with a bothy," she said. "You just have to go and turn up, and you could have it all to yourself or you could meet some incredible people and share some incredible memories. [Bothies] connect you with other people."
When I arrived at Nant Syddion, there were already two cyclists in the main room who were doing an off-road tour of the area. I laid out my roll mat and sleeping bag in the last unoccupied upstairs room and went to join them.
After introducing myself to the cyclists, Alex and Simon, I prepared a quick meal over my gas stove while they battled to get the fire to take. Built to withstand its exposed position, the bothy had thick walls and small windows, so when the light began to disappear, it got dark quickly. We lit a succession of candles and arranged our chairs in a semicircle around the roaring fire.
One of the best parts of bothying for me is that people are drawn to socialise together – although you're under no obligation if you want your own space. As we warmed up by the fire, one, then two bottles of whisky (something of a traditional drink for bothies) did the round and stories began to flow. We talked about recent hiking trips in the Dolomites and our bothy experiences, arriving at one to find it full of ex-soldiers in the middle of a reunion drinking session. Hours passed and laughter continued until we remembered we had to hike and cycle back out the next day, and reluctantly left the warmth of the main room to sleep.
A feature of every bothy is the bothy book, where people record their experiences and motivations for visiting. The next morning, I read through accounts ranging from people sheltering from the rain to alleged supernatural happenings. There was an entry roughly every couple of days, indicating a steady flow of people passing through.
* In New Zealand, the Department of Conservation manages more than 950 huts across the country. Some can be booked in advance, others operate on a first-come-first-served basis, and there's a fee for using them.
* There are many mountain hut systems in the US, such as the Appalachian Mountain Club that manages eight staffed huts on the high peaks of the White Mountain National Forest offering hikers catered accommodation.
* Europe has more than 1,300 huts across the Alps, managed by Alpine clubs from different countries, with some privately owned. There are different types of accommodation and prices vary too, but they normally require advance booking.
* In Patagonia, refugios (refuges) provide remote accommodation and operate like hostels. Around San Carlos de Bariloche in Argentina, there are seven refugios that have a caretaker and provide accommodation and food for a fee.
However, it's only been in the last decade and a half that bothies have shifted away from being something of a closed society. In 2009, the locations of the MBA bothies were shared online by the organisation. "It used to be quite a secretive organisation in the sense that people found out where the bothies were by joining the association or just coming across them in the wilderness areas," Stewart explained. "But that was unsustainable with the internet and people using the outdoors. And it was against our charitable aim. If we're providing buildings for people to use, it's logical we have to tell them where they are, we can't leave them secret."
This move wasn't unanimously popular. Part of the concern was that the people might begin using these spaces as places to party as opposed to a shelter while enjoying outdoor pursuits. But, as Stewart told me, it's not a problem that's unique to bothies. "We have had examples of drinking parties in bothies, but we're not particularly bothered with that… There are problems with wild camping in many areas of the country. Up in Scotland, there's a ban on wild camping in one of the national parks because people were littering, leaving rubbish [and] cutting down trees for fires."
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The MBA has no way of accurately recording visitor numbers, but anecdotal evidence from their maintenance teams suggests their use has increased with the greater availability of information around them. Smith said, "There's a whole debate to be had, but the fact of the matter was that bothy users and volunteers, who were fixing them and repairing them, were ageing out and we need younger people coming in."
While the locations of the MBA bothies are no longer a mystery, these aren't the only bothies that exist in the UK. There are others, maintained by estates or climbing clubs, where the old system of secrecy endures. As well as the adventure of seeking out hidden bothies whose locations still can't be found online, every bothy experience is unique. With a constantly changing cast of people seeking shelter, the sheer unpredictability is a rare chance in the modern world to embrace serendipity, and that's what inspires me to continue seeking them out.
Hiking out the next morning, I stopped at the bend in the track behind which the bothy would be lost in the trees. It would remain open the next night and the next, for anyone needing shelter, and I thought about all the stories and experiences I'd read through in the bothy book. The MBA network continues to grow and develop. Compostable toilets are being added to more sites, and Stewart shared that two new bothies are currently in the pipeline. That means plenty more stories to come.
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From Colombia's upcycled sewer pipes to spheres suspended in the sky in Canada, capsule hotels have been reinvented for a new generation of travellers.
By night, the world's first capsule hotel (founded in Osaka, Japan in 1979) must have looked like a morgue, with neat rows of narrow sleeping capsules each containing a recumbent body. But the following day, the occupants – mostly businessmen who had worked late - would rise up and head back to the office, grateful for this efficient sleep solution that had saved them a commute home in the early hours.
As the concept spread, tourists happy to sleep in a room no bigger than its bed began to bunk up alongside them, eager to sample this unusual aspect of Japanese culture. Fast-forward to today, and high hotel room rates, fuelled by years of rising real estate prices, have supercharged this typically low-cost concept, which offers budget travellers priced out of traditional hotels more privacy than a hostel dormitory and more comfort and connectivity than camping. The capsules, which are predominantly single-occupancy, also answer the current boom in solo travel, with single-sex capsule hotels providing additional security.
With the global capsule hotel market projected to reach $327m by 2031, curious hybrids have emerged to sustain the trend and attract new customers. They're tempting the TikTok generation with increasingly outlandish forms, from upcycled sewer pipes in the Colombian desert to space-age pods with a dashboard of ambient controls in downtown Sydney, Australia – all promising a unique experience and shareable stories for social media. Meanwhile capsule-cum-bookstores invite book lovers to snooze among the shelves, and boutique versions bring luxury to a traditionally no-frills market with fancy decor or promises of fluffy duck-feather duvets.
As the concept continues to reinvent itself, here are eight of the most extraordinary examples.
A sleep laboratory
Nine Hours, a chain of 13 hotels across Japan, from Fukuoka in the west to the north-east island of Hokkaido, has an unusual by-product: sleep data. In the Shinagawa Station (men only) and Akasaka branches, guests can sign up for a "9h sleep fitscan" service, where sensors detect everything from breathing to facial expressions to generate a sleep report that tracks their heart rate, identifies sleep apnea and even monitors snoring. In a sector where a novel or low-budget stay is often prioritised over comfort, Nine Hours' interest in how well its guests are sleeping sets it apart.
Across the franchise, the white, minimalist decor continues this clinical theme, while its rows of sleek, shiny sleeping pods would not look out of place on the set of a science-fiction movie. The name refers to the hotel's cost-cutting concept that reduces room rental to the essential nine hours, allowing seven hours for sleep and an hour on either side for washing and dressing. Just need a nap? Hourly rates are also available.
Climb to the sky
A night in a transparent sleeping pod clinging to a cliff face above Peru's Sacred Valley is not everyone's idea of a relaxing stay, but for adrenaline-lovers, it's hard to beat – not least for the incredible 300-degree views of the surrounding mountains and the formidable condors that inhabit them.
A near-vertical climb of 400m is the only way to reach the Skylodge Adventure Suites, but climbing experience is not necessary – only good health and a head for heights – and descending is speedier thanks to a series of zip wires. Each capsule includes a private bathroom ensuring that night trips to the toilet are not life-threatening, and when the sun rises, you can enjoy a cup of tea on your private deck. Looking for a little more luxury? A little further down the Urubamba river, sister site, Starlodge, adds hillside hot tubs to the capsule hotel experience.
A desert oasis
The Tubo Hotel, La Tatacoa is just a 10-minute drive from Colombia's second-largest desert, the eponymous Tatacoa, famous for its clear starry skies. When you've taken in the giant cacti and curious rock formations of the Tatacoa's cinnamon-coloured sands, this rainbow of tiny, air-conditioned rooms with a shared swimming pool offers a welcome oasis. The 37 capsules are fashioned from concrete sewer pipes painted in candy colours, providing just enough room for a double bed. Almost half of the rooms have a shared bathroom, but the room rate is a snip and you've a shady garden, bar and restaurant on your doorstep. "This innovative and colourful place offers you a unique experience," says Ambar Quintana, the hotel's administrator. "It has everything you need to rest in a natural environment of fresh air and vegetation."
Immerse in nature
Suspended among the conifers like oversized Christmas baubles, the Free Spirit Spheres on Vancouver Island, Canada, feel "like you are floating in the canopy among the sleeping birds", according to owner Tom Chudleigh. The first sphere was introduced 25 years ago, driven by a desire to promote ecotourism and preserve Canada's ancient forests.
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There are currently three spheres, each based on the principle of biomimicry and shaped with a giant seed pod or nutshell in mind: light but with a strong shell. "Eryn" is fashioned from Sitka spruce and has a dining area, sink and slightly undersized double bed inside; while more recent additions, "Melody" and "Luna", are fibreglass and have similar amenities but with full-size double beds that can be stowed. Each sphere is accessed via a spiral staircase wrapped around a tree, and is available to rent in temperatures as low as -20C, when even a trip to the composting toilet at the accommodation's base will feel intrepid.
The shape makes bespoke fittings a prerequisite, and every little detail has been meticulously crafted by Chudleigh, from walnut fold-out furniture that maximises the space, to door handles cast from bronze.
Small but soothing
Inside a Brutalist building in Singapore's Chinatown lies a surprisingly serene interior. Opened in 2021 and based on an aesthetic it describes as "soft minimalist", KINN Capsule offers a Zen take on the capsule concept with walls painted in calming peachy tones and pale wood sleeping chambers fitted with crisp white bed linen. Even the smell of the place seems an antidote to its urban location as a special house fragrance designed to evoke the wildflowers of a Nordic forest hangs in the air. There are 72 capsules in total, sealed off with blackout blinds and spread across seven rooms, but the vibe is more boutique than bunkhouse.
A book at bedtime
A traditional mud and wood farmhouse in eastern China's Zhejiang Province got a prize-winning makeover in 2019 when it reopened as a capsule hostel, bookstore and community library, sleeping 20 in tiny single bed-sized compartments concealed between bookshelves made of local bamboo. A smattering of small landings are connected by zigzagging stairways that recall the serpentine paths of the surrounding forests of Tonglu. It's hard to know which is more dramatic: the remote building's transparent floor-to-ceiling panels that light it up like a cathedral at night, or the lush mountainous scenery that's visible through them.
Cupboard love
In Oud Zuid, one of Amsterdam's most upscale neighbourhoods, guests are paying to sleep in cupboards. The quirky De Bedstee Hotel draws on the 17th-Century tradition of the Dutch bedstee (box bed), a bed concealed behind cupboard doors to create a cosy sleeping nook. The hotel's Art Deco features and acid-coloured wallpapers downstairs give way to a shabby-chic design in the first-floor dormitories, where the bedstee windows are framed by red gingham curtains and little wooden ladders lead to the capsules above. Relax in the hotel's small terrace garden or take a half-hour stroll to the Rembrandt House Museum in the city centre to see several historic box beds in situ.
Pristine and comparatively posh
Another hotel with a signature smell is the Resol Poshtel in Tokyo's Asakusa district – the Resol Hotel chain's first venture into capsule sleeping. The aroma, which includes orange, chamomile and neroli, is said to induce "a feeling of gentle calm" – of benefit, perhaps, given the communal sleeping arrangements. At bedtime, there's nothing but a curtain between you and fellow visitors, but few one-star establishments can match this hotel's cleanliness and functionality, with hairbrushes, slippers and razors included in the freebies. The Edo-era styling − such as the sleeping cubicles' arched entrance reminiscent of tea ceremony rooms, and the traditional Japanese murals surrounding the bed − add a hint of heritage to the hotel's modern lines. The city's oldest Buddhist temple, Sensō-ji, is a five-minute walk away, as is the lantern-lined Nakamise-dori street, home to a parade of colourful shops selling souvenirs and street food.
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Canadian freeski champ Mike Douglas stands at the vanguard of his hometown's ski culture. Here are his local favourites, from schussing down Peak to Creek to ahi poke at Sushi Village.
Cradled in British Columbia's magnificent Coast Mountains 120km north of Vancouver, the town of Whistler is a snow-sports haven. It's also home to Whistler Blackcomb, North America's largest ski resort.
Biggest isn't always best, of course. But Whistler Blackcomb's terrain – more than 8,000 acres of endless cruisers, adventurous glades, steep bowls and backcountry possibilities – is revered for good reason. The diversity at the bottom of the hill is similarly impressive. Boosted by its role in hosting the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics, Whistler boasts an array of restaurants, cultural experiences and high-profile events.
Named after the twin peaks looming above, Whistler Blackcomb has long been a bucket-list destination and stomping ground for the planet's best skiers – including freeskiing legend Mike Douglas. Douglas – aka: "the godfather of freeskiing" – arrived from Vancouver Island at just 18 years old, back when Whistler's ski scene was dominated by the Whistler and Blackcomb resorts (they merged in 1997) and the population was just around 3,000. Within two years Douglas made both the BC and Canadian freestyle teams. He has stood at the vanguard of Whistler and wider ski culture ever since.
Does he long for those early days?
"I actually don't think I'd want to go back," he says, explaining that Whistler is now a much more holistic community, with excellent amenities and cultural programming. Unlike other famous ski towns, Whistler still feels like a thriving hometown. From daycares to gymnastics programmes, "raising a family here has made me appreciate the community even more". Ultimately, Douglas reflects, "how this [amazing] community is what kept me here. People are really progressive and forward thinking. Everything is possible."
Not that paradise is perfect; even Whistler's hallowed powder is vulnerable to climate change. Douglas remembers how "thick and full" Horstman Glacier on Blackcomb peak once was. "It was hard to imagine that in my lifetime I would see that essentially completely disappear," he says. Observing these changes first-hand helps motivate his work with Protect Our Winters to mobilise the snow-sports community and get climate-positive policies on the national agenda. "Outdoors people who participate in these sports have an obligation to try and protect these environments."
Here are Douglas' favourite ways to enjoy Whistler.
1. Best for a pre-ski coffee: Rockit Coffee Co
Skiers seeking a shot of energy before hitting the slopes will find Rockit Coffee Co by the base of the Creekside Gondola (one of the resort's original lifts) at the end of Peak to Creek; one of Douglas' favourite runs. Rockit is actually in Whistler Creekside, 4.2km south of Whistler; you can travel between the two by ski and ski lifts. "[It's] my go-to coffee shop these days," he says.
Rockit's big draw is its ambience. "It's got a fully committed retro-music vibe and feels warm and cosy inside," says Douglas. "Always good tunes, great coffee and tasty food." The walls are festooned with '70s-style posters, art, gadgets and curios; one wall is simply a Tetris jumble of old-school speakers and subwoofers. Visitors can warm up by the wood stove, hang out on window stools or get comfy in an egg-shaped capsule chair.
Given most tourists stay in the main village, Creekside is a great spot to soak up the local atmosphere, says Douglas. He doesn't live far away himself. "Now that I've got an e-bike, I've been using that to go skiing sometimes," he says. "I'll ride over to Rockit and just lock it up, riding wearing my ski boots!"
Website: https://www.rockitcoffee.ca/
Address: 2063 Lake Placid Rd #227, Whistler, BC V8E 0B6
Instagram: @rockit_coffee
2. Best signature ski run: Peak to Creek
Descending 1,529 vertical metres over seven miles, Peak to Creek is one of North America's longest continuous ski runs – without a single flat section requiring ski-pole pushing or binding unclipping.
It starts on Whistler peak, offering a sensational 180-degree view of the southern Coast Mountains, and winds all the way down (with diversions aplenty) to the base of the Creekside Gondola. "[It's] a classic," says Douglas.
The run is a leg-burner in the best snow conditions, but a particular challenge when it hasn't been groomed all the way – which is often. "It can get pretty gnarly down at the bottom there!" Douglas says. "It's a good all-rounder, a big challenge – and something that people often come here and want to try and do by the end of the week." Thankfully it finishes next to Dusty's, a beloved pitstop serving beers and massive BBQ plates on the terrace or by the fireplace. "The pulled-pork sandwich is always a fave there," says Douglas.
Douglas also recommends Whistler's Harmony Ridge and Blackcomb's Cloud Nine as similar runs offering sweeping vistas and epic cruise potential.
3. Best for a post-ski surprise: Vallea Lumina
Vallea Lumina Night Walk is an immersive, after-dark, multimedia forest adventure. Following clues and cryptic radio transmissions in search of two lost hikers, participants proceed through a mystical storyline rendered with holograms, lasers, music and more. It's designed in collaboration with Moment Factory, which has staged Cirque Du Soleil events.
"Honestly, I remember that when I first heard about it, I thought it sounded cheesy as hell," Douglas admits. "I didn't really have much interest – until I started hearing from people that went to it." The reviews were so good that he had to check it out, and "it's world class!" he says. "I've probably been six or eight times. If I have friends here from out of town for a week, it's always a recommendation."
If visiting with children or people with access requirements, note that Vallea Lumina requires a kilometre of self-guided walking along snow-cleared but uneven winter terrain.
Website: https://vallealumina.com/
Address: Sixteen Mile Creek Forest Service Rd, Whistler, BC V0N 1B8
Phone: +1 833 800 8480
4. Best for dinner: Sushi Village
"Sushi Village – all time fave!" Douglas says when asked to name a Whistler culinary highlight.
The Japanese Hawaiian fusion menu at this local mainstay is full of delights: "way ahead of the whole poke craze," says Douglas. He recommends the Tangy Agedashi Tofu (deep-fried tofu on a bed of bean sprouts with a soy-based sauce) and the Ahi Poke. The atmosphere – always fun, sometimes raucous – is also key.
Sushi Village is also a sentimental place for Douglas, given he worked there for four years shortly after moving to Whistler. "One of my local claims to fame is inventing the modern recipe for the Strawberry Sake Margarita on a hilarious drunken night with owner Miki Homma when I worked there in the early '90s," he reminisces.
But the true magic of Sushi Village lies in its legendary role in Whistler's history. "It is the cultural heart of Whistler, in my opinion," Douglas says. And, when asked whether his friends would agree, he says he "can't think of a single one that wouldn't".
Sushi Village was Whistler's sixth-ever restaurant, opened in December 1985 by three Vancouver friends who simply wanted to ski every day. It soon became a storied hangout for the outdoor community. "It seems most of the celebs that roll through Whistler make a stop," says Douglas. "Check out the 'Wall of Fame' on the 'five-mile' walk to the restroom."
Website: https://sushivillage.com/
Address: 4340 Sundial Crescent, Whistler, BC V0N 1B
Phone: +1 604 932 3330
Instagram: @sushivillagewhistler
5. Best for a rest day: Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre
The area today known as Whistler is located on the unceded territories of the Lil'wat and Squamish First Nations. European colonists – mostly prospectors and fur trappers – only started settling there in the late 19th Century as part of a long process of displacement and oppression of Indigenous communities.
Engaging with and learning about this Indigenous heritage is essential for an authentic experience of Whistler – or anywhere in modern-day Canada. And the Squamish Lil'wat Cultural Centre is the perfect place for it. "Especially for people that haven't been to Whistler, or haven't been exposed to our Indigenous culture, I think it's pretty well done and a really cool thing to check out," says Douglas. "There are thousands of years of human history in this region that were never properly acknowledged until this century. It's nice to see the record finally being set straight."
The centre is a museum, art gallery and event space promoting and exploring First Nations culture and history through diverse and ever-changing exhibitions, activities and events. Visitors can connect with Cultural Ambassadors, join an interpretive forest walk, participate in Indigenous craft workshops and more.
Website: http://slcc.ca/
Address: 4584 Blackcomb Way, Whistler, BC V8E 0Y3
Phone: +1 604 964 0990
Instagram: @slccwhistler
6. Best for sore legs: Scandinave Spa
Scandinave is a sumptuous spa on the north edge of town, surrounded by old-growth forest. With dry saunas, hot pools, thermal waterfalls, cold plunges and massage therapies available, there is no more luxurious way to recuperate after hard days of skiing.
"I'll go into an hour-and-a-half rotation of hot tub, cold plunge, sauna, relaxation room," says Douglas. "I prefer it in winter, and I prefer it when the weather isn't good… when the skiing is crappy." He recommends either booking ahead or going early in the day to ensure a spot and avoid the crowds.
Website: https://www.scandinave.com/whistler
Address: 8010 Mons Rd, Whistler, BC V8E 1K7
Phone: +1 888 935 2423
Instagram: @scandinavewhis
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As the world turns its gaze to Italy's Cortina d'Ampezzo as one of the hosts of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics, veteran Olympic skier Kristian Ghedina shares his hometown picks.
Nestled between the jutting spires of Italy's Unesco-listed Dolomites mountain range, the small town and ski resort of Cortina d'Ampezzo (altitude 1,224m), is often called the "Queen of the Dolomites". Located in a valley near the rainbow-hued Cinque Torri mountain, Cortina's distinctive Tyrolean architecture has remained mostly untouched by modern developments.
This jewel-like ski resort is also one of Italy's favourite wintertime destinations, luring local jet setters and professional skiers for the settimana bianca, or "white week" – the Italian custom of taking a weeklong winter ski retreat. The resort has become so synonymous with style that designer and athletic labels like MC2 Saint Barth and Kappa have used its name to sell a myriad of clothing items. And yet, Cortina d'Ampezzo has been largely unknown overseas – until now.
This sleepy ski town is about to attract a global audience as one of the hosts of the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics. But 2026 will hardly be its first Olympic foray; Cortina d'Ampezzo was also the host of the 1956 Winter Olympic Games. It's further known for being the birthplace and home of retired Olympic downhill skier Kristian Ghedina.
"In Cortina, every youngster skis," says Ghedina. "I've travelled the world… but I'm attached to my land, my town. It's a very strong bond that [you have] with snow and skiing."
Ghedina has spent his life on the slopes; his mother, Adriana Dipol, was the town's first female instructor. After qualifying for his first national competition at age 16, Ghedina won 13 World Cup gold medals and has become an ambassador for the sport and his hometown.
We asked this veteran ski champ about the best things to do, eat and see during a settimana bianca in Cortina d'Ampezzo.
"It's a fantastic place. It's in a beautiful, open valley," says Ghedina, noting Cortina's status as a luxury resort. "It's earned its image… It's a brand name by now, a bit like saying Venice or Monaco."
But the town also has a demure charm, one that Ghedina particularly loves – especially in the quieter months. "I prefer Cortina in the off season, in the autumn," he says. "It has fantastic colours, there are fewer people".
Formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian empire, Cortina is multilingual – in addition to Italian and German, many locals speak Ladin, a local language similar to Romansch – and the region's culture in many ways more closely mirrors that of nearby Switzerland and Austria than what many consider quintessentially "Italian".
Here are Ghedina's favourite ways to enjoy Cortina d'Ampezzo.
1. Best ski slopes: Le Tofane
Skiing is impossible to escape in Cortina d'Ampezzo; a town whose fortunes were built upon the sport. Affluent tourists flooded into the town by the end of the 19th Century, leading to the development of some of Cortina's main landmarks — including its distinctive neo-Gothic belltower, known in Ladin as el Cianpanín. The town opened its Ski Club in 1903 and hosted the winter games 53 years later. Over the decades, it has developed the infrastructure for many winter sports – including bobsleighing and figure skating – and pistes of different levels, which can be reached from the centre via cable car.
"The slopes are steep here," says Ghedina. "People from the neighbouring valleys [Val Gardena and Val Bardia] come to ski in the winter. They enjoy our slopes more, they have remained the same. You can ski better here. You have smaller crowds, which is a plus."
As for the best ski slope? "Olimpia delle Tofane," says Ghedina. One of Italy's most famous downhill descents, having gained renown after the 1956 games, Le Tofane stands at 1,778m high and allows skiers to schuss right to the centre of town amid stunning scenery of the surrounding Cinque Torri and rugged mountains. It will host the Olympic women's and Paralympic Alpine skiing competitions during the 2026 Milano Cortina Winter Olympics.
2. Best restaurant for local cuisine: Rifugio Scoiattoli
Outside Italy, the catch-all term "Italian cuisine" is overwhelmingly associated with Bolognese, Roman and Southern Italian dishes like lasagna, pasta cacio e pepe and pizza. But up in snowy Cortina and the neighbouring regions, typical dishes are hearty, buttery and calorie-dense: the perfect fuel for any wintry excursion.
While visitors will indeed find pizza and pasta at most of the area's restaurants, traditional local recipes have a decidedly more Austro-Hungarian flavour.
"Here, you can eat casunziei, ravioli made with potato and red or white turnip, served with melted butter and poppy seeds," says Ghedina. "Game also makes for a popular secondo (meat dish)."
Amongst Cortina d'Ampezzo's best-known local specialties is the aptly named bombardino: a brandy and eggnog mixture served with whipped cream. A true "hyper-caloric bomb", says Ghedina.
All of these can be savoured at Ghedina's local culinary pick; the Rifugio Scoiattoli. Opened in 1969, the chalet is a local institution, and is reached by skiers and hikers venturing up to the Cinque Torri mountain range.
Great food – from casunziei and polenta to deer fillet – aside, Ghedina points out the chalet's scenery. "There's a fantastic panorama of the [mountain range], it'll leave you speechless," he says. "A true 360° view."
Website:https://www.rifugioscoiattoli.it
Address: G24W+VJ, Loc. 5 Torri, 32043
Phone number: +39 333 814 6960
Instagram:@rifugioscoiattoli
3. Trendiest place for après-ski: Chalet Tofane
For the many devotees of the settimana bianca, unwinding with a few drinks after a day of skiing is just as important as the sport itself.
As the sun sets, snow chasers head to bars to mingle and unwind, making après-ski the social highlight of the winter calendar.
While post-ski socialising has a relatively recent presence in Cortina d'Ampezzo, the town's association with the shenanigans of the fashionable elite is certainly not new.
"[Already] at the beginning of the 1900s, you had wealthy gentlemen coming for their holidays," says Ghedina.
In the following decades – prompted by the 1956 Winter Games and post-war Italian economic boom – winter tourism began to accelerate, with well-to-do Italians from northern regions flocking to the Alps to ski.
"They shoot Christmas films here. Many businessmen have bought their homes and bring friends… it's a true hub, especially in the high season," says Ghedina.
But tourism has not gone entirely unscathed from local disapproval: "Some traditionalists criticise the [wealthy] who come, spend and build, don't respect nature."
So to experience the hippest après-ski and the most fashionable scene Cortina has to offer, Ghedina suggests heading to Chalet Tofane.
"It's a fun place," he says. "There's a nice facility, a great open space."
The Chalet opened a mere six years ago – the brainchild of Michelin-starred chef Graziano Prest and expert sommelier Kristian Casanova – and has become a sought-after spot for parties and outdoor aperitivi (pre-meal drinks and light bites), famed for its stunning mountain-top views of the town.
Website: https://chalet-tofane.it
Address: Lacedel, 1, 32043 Cortina d'Ampezzo BL
Phone number: +39 351 8562956
Instagram: @chalettofanecortina
4. Best mountain hike: Sentieri della Grande Guerra
Apart from skiing, the Dolomites – with their mesmerising mountain peaks and ancient trails – offer spectacular hikes. Few visitors come to Cortina d'Ampezzo hoping for a history lesson, but the Sentieri della Grande Guerra – or "trails of the Great War" offers a double whammy of spectacular views and a less charming past.
Back in World War One, the site was the battleground for Italian and Austro-Hungarian troops. After the former managed to occupy Cortina, soldiers blew up the "Castelletto" rock to finally be able to attack Habsburg troops.
More than a century later, the fields are no longer the site of bloody battles but rather a bucolic pathway that encircles Cortina d'Ampezzo and offers breathtaking views of the Marmolada and Tofane mountains. Over at the Lagazuoi area, remnants of the battles – including trenches – can still be found, much to the satisfaction of history buffs as well as nature lovers.
The appeal of the Sentieri della Grande Guerra isn't strictly seasonal, as Ghedina notes. "They're very picturesque, and great to visit in the summer."
The 20km-long trail is just part of Cortina's cobweb of pathways, which extend approximately 300km.
5. Most beautiful viewpoint: Rifugio Faloria
For Ghedina, choosing a specific panoramic spot in Cortina d'Ampezzo is quite the challenge, as the area is not short on natural beauty.
Indeed, Cortina boasts one of the crowning jewels of the rugged mountain range: the Cinque Torri ("Five Towers"), a cluster of five jutting rocks made up of the area's distinctive grey limestone, which have an almost rosy glimmer at sunset.
But when pressed to answer, Ghedina says that the views offered by the Rifugio Faloria are the area's best.
A rustic cabin sitting on the Faloria mountain, the Rifugio Faloria's terrace reveals the full breadth of Cortina's valley and surrounding mountains.
"You have a terrace with a panoramic view of the entire village," says Ghedina. "The advantage of having this wide-open valley is the stunning mountain frame, offering a view of the basin."
Surrounded by the idyllic, quiet grandeur of Cortina's surroundings, it's not hard to imagine why Ghedina fell in love with the slopes that took him to peaks of success.
Website: https://faloriacristallo.it/parliamoci/
Instagram: @faloria_cortina
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Tess Ledeux grew up on the slopes of La Plagne and now she's a world-class freestyle champion. Here are her picks for her home slopes, from après-ski to otherworldly Alpine views.
The ski resort of La Plagne in Savoie, France, might be primarily known as a family-friendly Alpine destination, but it has serious Olympic cache: in 1992, it was a bobsledding venue for the Albertville Olympics, a feat it hopes to repeat in 2030 when the French Alps is in line to host the Winter Olympics. It's also the home of French ski prodigy Tess Ledeux; an Olympic medallist with a record 16 freestyle World Cup victories under her belt.
Ledeux took a break from her heavy training and competition schedule to chat with the BBC about the best spots to eat, drink and ski in La Plagne. "I grew up in La Plagne so for me it will always be unique," says Ledeux, fresh off a big air win at the FIS Freeski World Cup in Beijing and one of France’s biggest hopes for the Milano-Cortina 2026 Olympics. "I would get home from school and build little jumps for my skis or sledge in front on our apartment. The ski resort is really big, but it is the slopes that make it so important. They have everything: runs for beginners and professional skiers, a glacier, a forest…"
La Plagne, the concrete vision of French Brutalist architect Michel Bezançon, was designed very specifically for alpine skiing in 1961, hence the prevalence of functional ski-in-ski-out apartment blocks at snow-sure altitudes and an aggressively modern lift system. The resort might not be a place of obvious natural beauty, but families love it for its bounty of affordable, predominantly self-catering accommodation and flush of brilliant outdoor activities – for all ages and abilities, on and off the slopes.
Here are Ledeux's top ways to explore La Plagne.
1. Best panorama: La Grande Rochette
Bezançon ensured that his resort in the then-untouched Tarantaise Valley scaled great heights; 11 interconnected villages in La Plagne spider spectacularly up the mountainside from the town of Aime on the valley floor to the resort-village of Aime 2000 at 2,100m, climaxing with a monumental zigzag of urban residences. Resembling ocean liners, the 50m-high, 250m-long, pyramid-shaped apartment blocks were spawned by the Pompidou government’s controversial Plan Neige (1964-77) that championed the construction of new, fully serviced mountain "towns" on virgin high-altitude sites.
Ledeux's favourite viewpoint across this utopian creation? "Grande Rochette – the 360-degree view from the summit is just amazing" she says. "You can see Courchevel, Méribel and most of the Les Trois Vallées, the Grande Motte [3,453m] peak, the glacier in Tignes and all the slopes in La Plagne." Ledeux recommends taking the Grande Rochette cable car from Plagne Centre any time of day. "It’s always beautiful". Early birds hungry for fresh corduroy can also join the ski patrol at sunrise for first track skiing from the 2,500m-high summit and panoramic views sans le ski crowd.
Website: www.skipass-laplagne.com/en/first-tracks
2. Best downhill slope: Colorado
With 225km of downhill slopes in La Plagne, and another 200km in the neighbouring resorts of Les Arcs and Peisey-Vallandry to form the world’s second-largest interconnected ski area known as Paradiski, Ledeux is hard-pushed to single out just one slope.
"I really love Colorado," she says. "It's just so fun for everyone, beginner to advancer skier. It is fast and offers such a lot of options." From the top of the Colorado chairlift, a continuous 1.5km descent down to Plagne Centre reveals rousing views of Mont Blanc, Europe’s mightiest 4,805m peak and children squealing with delight on the sledge run through the Colorado Canyon. "Under the lift, next to the trees, there are lots of secret small spots with great views to discover," says Ledeux. "Mostly off-piste, but completely accessible and only known by local skiers."
For advanced riders, Ledeux recommends the largely ungroomed red and black pistes on the partly mogul-pocked Bellecôte glacier. The legendary off-piste terrain on its north face must only be tackled with a guide. More off-piste opportunities and steep gnarly black runs preside in the Biolley ski sector above Aime 2000, where, explains Ledeux, high avalanche risk means slopes like Le Morbleu are only open on sunny, bluebird days. "Le Morbleu is a risk slope," she says. "It is normally just too scary for me, but when the weather and snow conditions are good, it is perfect."
3. Best affordable dining spot: Chez Marie
In keeping with the resort’s retro spirit, many dining options are tucked away alongside sports shops, bars and other services in covered galeries or malls – 2.4km snake around Bezançon’s landmark 1971 residences up at Aime 2000.
As the daughter of restauranteurs from the south of France, Ledeux is accustomed to dining well and Chez Marie is a longstanding favourite. Inside the main galerie in Plagne Centre, rustic wooden tables, a toasty wood burner and the occasional vintage ice axe or sheepskin as wall decoration transport hungry skiers into a cosy Alpine "chalet". Alongside pots of fondue Savoyard (mixing equal parts of Beaufort, Gruyère and Comté) tangy raclette melted on burners at the table and other traditional cheese dishes from the region, Marie’s kitchen cooks up sweet crepes and savoury galettes (savoury crepes)made with Breton buckwheat flour.
"I suggest the classic complète with ham, Gruyère cheese, mushrooms and an egg," she says. "For dessert it can only be a crepe with caramel beurre salé (salted butter caramel)."
Website: https://chez-marie-la-plagne.eatbu.com/
Address: Rue de la Gaité, Plagne Centre
Phone: +33 4 79 00 22 12
4. Best adrenaline rush off the slopes: A bobsleigh descent
The sensational speeds that freestyle skiers hit while executing their feather-light tricks is incomparable to the extreme g-force experienced on La Plagne’s adrenalin-charged bobsled track, Piste de Bobsleigh de La Plagne. ‘It’s completely different – the feeling is incredible!" says Ledeux. "It’s definitely the activity to do in La Plagne. It is like being in a very fast car."
A thrilling legacy of the 1992 Albertville Winter Olympics, the 1.5km-long descent in La Roche remains the only bobsled track in France. In the early 19th Century, off-duty miners from the local silver- lead mine – operational from 1810 until 1973 – raced down the mountain on sleds and later created a bobsled club in the hamlet, leading to the site being selected as an Olympic venue.
Outside of high-level competition periods, visitors can rollercoaster down the ice tunnel with 124.5m vertical drop, either alone in a custom-made self-braking bob or in a four-seater bob with a professional driver. The ride lasts little more than one minute. Speed peaks at 120km/h on bend No 10, one of 19 numbered curves crafted to gravity-defying precision by a small team of specialists who water, plane and care for the extraordinary 6,800 sq m of ice.
Website: https://en.la-plagne.com/
Address: Piste de Bobsleigh, La Roche
5. Best zone for soaking up freestyle action: Riders Nation
Ledeux whisks friends visiting La Plagne for the first time straight to Riders Nation, the resort’s superlative snow park accessed by the Arpette chairlift from Plagne Bellecôte then the blue Replat piste. Jumps, rails, kickers and walls of varying difficulty beneath the Bellecôte peak are marked XS to XL, while a "spectator route" allows those watching to move safely between the 36 modules and freestylers flipping in the air.
"I don’t train in the snow park because it's too small for me," explains Ledeux, who was the first female athlete to ever execute her now-signature "double cork 1620" aerial trick and actually spends 60-70% of her intensive training time off the snow, in gyms, on airbags, dry slopes, bikes and hiking trails. "But just for fun? Yeah! It's a really new thing in La Plagne and it has everything. There is a fun slope and a chill zone with sun loungers and big poofs."
For locals, the chill zone is clearly the indisputable crème de la crème of La Plagne picnic spots. "If the weather is good, there is often a barbecue in the chill zone," says Ledeux. "You have a great view from here too, of all the snow park and the surrounding mountains."
Website: https://www.skipass-laplagne.com/en/riders-nation
Address: Le Bijolin 2200 73210 Montchavin-les-Coches
6. Best bar for après-ski drinks: Le Brix
Traditional après-ski drinking, dancing and merrymaking spills across all 11 villages, making the infamous post-ski party in La Plagne something of a diluted, fragmented affair. In her native Plagne Centre, Ledeux recommends Le Brix for its notably chill, laidback vibe.
"Le Brix is a beer bar with a real freestyle spirit," she says. "There is always some freestyle skiing on the TV and everyone is very friendly, supportive of each other." With eight beers on tap and 120-odd bottled labels, the bar is as much about tasting artisan beers brewed by local microbreweries as wolfing down mixed platters of Savoyard charcuterie and cheesefrom farms and dairies in the surrounding Tarantaise Valley. Beers to look out for include the award-winning Lost in the Woods IPA brewed by Sapaudia in Aime, and the aptly named Free Rider bohemian-styled pilsner from Brasserie du Petit St Bernard in Bourg Saint Maurice. Hardcore craft-beer aficionados may also enjoy a fiery shot of eau de vie de bière (beer "brandy"), distilled locally at the artisanal Distillerie de Chantemouche.
Website: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100037207910669
Address: 118 Rue de Refuge, Plagne Centre
Phone: +33 9 52 55 24 47
Instagram: @le_brix_bar
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Actor Ekin Koç called seaside Antalya home before conquering the world of Turkish film. Here are his picks, from hiking the Lycian Road to catching a concert at the Aspendos Theatre.
Though its name may be less familiar to overseas travellers than Istanbul, the Turkish resort city of Antalya is no stranger to visitors. Founded by the Ancient Greeks as Attalia in the 2nd Century BCE, Antalya has since been occupied by the Romans, the Seljuk Sultanate and the Ottomans; even withstanding a brief Italian occupation after World War One before Turkey claimed independence. Today, Antalya – the crowning jewel of the Turkish Riviera and, along with Istanbul, one of the world's most visited cities in 2023 – attracts both families and A-list celebrities with its 2,000-year-old Old Town and stunning turquoise waters.
Sometimes, the celebrity strolling Antalya's spectacular seashore is actually a native. We caught up with Antalya-born film star Ekin Koç (best known to English-speaking audiences as Turkish business advisor Kadir in HBO's Succession) to get his take on his beautiful hometown, studded by the Taurus mountains and cradled by the Mediterranean sea.
"If you're from Antalya, you have a special connection with the sea," says Koç. "The sea is everywhere. We eat from the sea, we swim, we sit next to the sea. I've always loved being in connection with the sea."
Koç relocated to Istanbul for university and his film career but returns to Antalya whenever he can. "Istanbul is so stuffed," he says. "It's crowded. People are in a hurry. And you're never alone. [But] in Antalya, because of the heat and the Mediterranean culture, people are more relaxed."
When Koç is home, his presence inevitably spurs hordes of fans, but he loves strolling the Old Town's streets and taking advantage of the city's balmy shores and snowy mountain peaks. "You can literally go up to the mountain and ski and go back to the seaside and swim in the same day, if it's a sunny day," says Koç. "It's very unique."
Here are Koç's favourite ways to experience Antalya.
1. Best culinary experience: Piyaz, fresh Mediterranean seafood and meze
Antalya's rich cultural history has created a delicious culinary legacy, inspiring local dishes like yanıksı dondurma – a "burnt" ice cream made of Maltese goat's milk, which boils at a higher temperature, producing a frozen treat with a uniquely delicious burnt flavour.
Whenever Koç is in town, he immediately notes the regional differences in traditional Turkish dishes, such as piyaz, a Turkish white bean salad typically made with tahini, eggs, parsley and onions. "[But] in Antalya, it's not a salad," explains Koç. "It's hot. People in Antalya usually prefer it with grilled meatballs."
Antalyan piyaz is distinctive for the tangy tarator (Lebanese tahini) sauce poured directly over the beans. Several restaurants in the city are known for their spins on the dish, like Piyazcı Ahmet in the beautiful Muratpaşa district and Antalyan mainstay 7 Mehmet, famed for its chic industrial-meets-opulent Ottoman decor and massive 650+ dish menu.
"[7 Mehmet is] very popular," says Koç. "I haven't been in a while, but it's been at the top for many years. People don't want to miss it when they're in Antalya."
Koç himself is a pescatarian, which he says can be a challenge in meat-loving Turkey. But Antalya's coasts teem with fresh fish: "Calamari and shrimp are very popular. Seasonal fish and meze. Of course, when you're here, you have to try meze."
Meze, enjoyed throughout the fertile crescent, are hot and cold starters like hummus, olives and sarma (stuffed grape leaves) served on small plates at the beginning of a meal. "There's a spectrum of meze," says Koç. "So what you would call a traditional dinner, if you're a pescatarian, you will order mezes, which are very, very delicious, and some shrimp, calamari and then a grilled seasonal fish with a nice Mediterranean salad."
Website: https://7mehmet.com/EN
Address: Meltem Mahallesi, Atatürk Kültür Parkı, Dumlupınar Bulvarı No:201, 07030 Muratpaşa/Antalya
Phone: +90 4440707
2. Best outdoor experience: The Lycian Way
Mountainous, coastal Antalya has no shortage of thrilling outdoor experiences, from taking the cable car up the 2,365m Tahtalı Dağı (Lycian Olympos) Mountain – home of Yanartaş, the eternal flame – to scuba diving off the city's coasts. But, "if you're looking for an adventure, like a real experience, there is the Lycian Way," says Koç, citing a popular trekking trail tracing Turkey's southern coastline. The trail, carved out in the mid-1990s by British expat and amateur historian Kate Clow, was designed to connect 18 ancient cities in Antalya's vicinity, including the Unesco-listed Letoon and Xanthos.
The mammoth trail spans 540km and takes approximately 35 days to complete. "You don't have to go all the way from the beginning to the end," says Koç. "You can choose a part of it and finish that path. But you're going to see ancient cities, ruins, Roman, Greek and Byzantine theatres. You're going to see traditional Turkish villages, some local people. You're going to be able to swim anywhere. You're going to see some stunning views. You're going to be able to camp. You're going to be able to go on a hike, climb, whatever you want. And it will definitely be a very good outdoor memory for you."
Due to Antalya's soaring summer temperatures, it is recommended to tackle the trail in spring (February-May) or autumn (September-November). Following the red and white path markers along the trail's four sections, trekkers will find a network of inns and restaurants along the way that punctuate the sprawling expanses of turquoise sea, ragged cliffs and sky.
Website: https://www.lycianway.org/
3. Best cultural experience: Aspendos Theatre
Antalya boasts a healthy calendar of cultural events – including music and gastronomy festivals, and the Antalya Golden Orange Film Festival, held each autumn – but when it comes to local entertainment, Koç finds himself drawn to more ancient ground: Aspendos Theatre.
"It's a theatre where people thousands of years ago watched plays," he says. "You can still go there today and watch concerts, dance shows or plays."
This exquisitely preserved Roman theatre is located the ancient city of Aspendos on the banks of the Eurymedon River, approximately 47km east of Antalya's city centre. Built in the 2nd Century BCE during the reign of the Emperor Marcus Aurelius, the 15,000-seat, semi-circular theatre was dug out of the slope of the city's acropolis and features a magnificent 100m-wide façade. The theatre made the Unesco Tentative Heritage list in 2015 and along with daily visiting hours, hosts a regular series of musical concerts and dance performances, bolstered by its flawless acoustics.
"You can literally sit where people sat a couple thousand years ago," muses Koç. "I mean, imagining that literally somebody was sitting where I sit right now. It's pretty remarkable."
Address: Belkıs, Aspendos Yolu, 07500 Serik/Antalya
4. Best way to experience everyday life: Kaleiçi
For a taste of everyday, modern life in Antalya, Koç's recommendation is not without a hint of irony: "Going to the Old Town would be a good idea," he says. "It's called Kaleiçi. A bit touristic, but you're going to be seeing history, and you're going to be very close to the daily life of the local people, while also being around nice cafes, bars and restaurants."
Antalya, like many modern cities with ancient roots, has repurposed the ancient dwellings of its Old Town into fashionable contemporary businesses, turning the 2,000-year-old walled port area of Kaleiçi into one of Antalya's liveliest neighbourhoods. "I spent a lot of time there during my teenage years," Koç reminisces. "Whenever school let out, we used to get together there in cafes, bars; go to restaurants to eat fish. We would go to the port to take a little boat tour. We loved it there."
Kaleiçi's marina is a hive of yachts and boat companies offering tours of the marina – and has amazing views of the city and the coast. "It's very beautiful," says Koç. "First of all, you're looking at the cliff. The cliff is, for me, the soul of Antalya. And when you're closer to it with the boat, you look up and you're like, 'wow'. It's very crazy."
Apart from shops and bars, Kaleiçi's labyrinthine streets are home to picturesque red-roofed homes and numerous historical sites from Antalya's Hellenistic, Roman, Byzantine, Seljuk, Ottoman and modern Turkish eras, like Hadrian's Gate and Kesik Minare Cami, a 2nd-Century Roman temple converted first into a Byzantine church and, later, a mosque.
5. Best nighttime experience: A swim in the sea
Koç admits that he's a little rusty on Antalya nightlife. "People usually go to Kemer," he offers, noting a seaside resort town 40 minutes outside of the city. "There are clubs everywhere. People mostly go there early in the day, they swim, they enjoy their time, and then at night they start partying. It's supposed to be the destination for the people who want to party."
But though it's been a while since Koç partied in a local club, nightlife in Antalya still means one thing to him: a festive night swim. "What we always did – which is what most people do, which is very traditional – you go out, you have fun, and then you just jump into the sea," he says. "Then you get out and start drinking on the beach, on the sunbeds. It's, like, the after party."
Antalya's jagged coastline is rife with wonderful beaches, like the perennially popular white sand Konyaaltı Beach just outside the city centre with its "beach park" area of green spaces and restaurants and the petite Mermerli cove beach in Kaleiçi. But Koç doesn't play favourites when it comes to a night swim. "You can do it in [Konyaaltı] Beach Park," he says. "You can do it in the beach of the hotel you're staying in. You can go to [a] random beach. Wherever you party, if you see a sea, just enjoy it."
Address: Meltem Mh., 07070 Muratpaşa/Konyaaltı/Antalya
Phone: +905437440536
BBC Travel's The SpeciaList is a series of guides to popular and emerging destinations around the world, as seen through the eyes of local experts and tastemakers.
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From hiking Dunn's River Falls to having bun and cheese, here are international pop artist Shenseea's picks for how to experience the best of her home nation.
Though Jamaica is known as a tropical retreat, it's also a country of contrasts, where the island's serene beaches and lush Blue Mountains coexist with bustling urban streets. Kingston, the island's capital, is buzzing with energy and offers travellers new hotels, swanky lounges and museums dedicated to Jamaica's art and culture.
We spoke to Shenseea, the Kingston-born international pop artist who broke out in 2017 with the cheeky viral dancehall hit Loodi, to get her advice on how to experience the city where she grew up and the scenic countryside beyond.
"I was born in Kingston, but I also love being in nature, surrounded by greenery," she says. “My grandparents had acres of land in St Elizabeth, where they used to farm and raise cattle. It wasn't noisy like the city, and I sometimes miss the farming and the smell of the country."
Though the singer spends several months of the year touring around the world, she goes back to her hometown as often as six or seven times a year. "It's important to reconnect with your roots," the Grammy-nominated artist says. "Kingston is my home. It's where I grew up, and it's just where my heart is. Nothing can compare to the nonstop energy of Kingston."
Jamaica's tropical weather makes it an ideal place to spend the last months of the year. In autumn and winter, the island's rainy season has tapered off, leaving blue skies and temperatures that hover around 25C.
"If you come to Kingston, book an Airbnb or hotel and enjoy the parties and events throughout the week," Shenseea suggests. "You can explore the city and get a feel for the local life."
Here are some of Shenseea's favourite ways to explore Jamaica.
1. Best way to soak up the "real" Jamaica: Explore Kingston
Montego Bay, Negril and Ocho Rios are three coastal resort destinations that are perennially popular with visitors, but its capital city of Kingston is what Shenseea calls the "real" Jamaica.
"Kingston is where you'll find the real hustlers," she says. "During the day, people come to Kingston to grind. Then, at night, the nightlife doesn't stop. It's never dull in the city."
Where other parts of Jamaica offer sun-soaked leisure, Kingston – the island's most populous city as well as its financial centre – is buzzing with restaurants, sleek high-rises and nightclubs that stay open until sunrise. It is also the birthplace of dancehall music, which takes its name from the inner-city dancehalls where boisterous parties are held. A departure from the mellow roots reggae sound, dancehall focuses on the realities of life for urban Jamaicans, often including provocative, unfiltered lyrics. Many of Jamaica's famous dancehall artists, like Sean Paul and Beenie Man, hail from Kingston, and it remains the heartbeat of Jamaica's dynamic music scene.
For a classic Kingston night out, Shenseea heads to Ribbiz Ultra Lounge.
"Ribbiz Ultra Lounge in Kingston is my favourite place to party, and it's one of Kingston's most famous nightclubs," she says. "The music there is always a vibe; they play everything so all ages can enjoy themselves. Their audience is broad because they're versatile, and I love the versatility. I'm always entertained there, and after a night of partying, the late-night food always hits the spot." Anchored by a sleek bar, the intimate waterfront lounge is the place to be seen after hours. The venue often hosts themed nights with guest DJs.
Kingston is also home to several museums, including the Bob Marley Museum and the National Gallery of Jamaica. The Bob Marley Museum is housed in the reggae legend's former home, where visitors can see his photos and personal record collection, while the National Gallery features a collection that includes artefacts from the island's early Taino Indians as well as paintings and sculptures from contemporary Jamaican artists. Just a few paces away is Kingston's Arts District, comprised of several blocks of vibrant murals.
Website: https://www.ribbiz.com/menu/barbican/
Address: Ardenne Emirates Plaza, 7-9 Ardenne Rd, Kingston, Jamaica
2. Best beach: Maiden Cay
While travellers might be more familiar with Seven Mile Beach in Negril, famous for its coral sands and crystalline waters, Shenseea says Jamaica's best beach is actually Maiden Cay, a 20-minute ferry ride from Kingston.
"Not many people know about Maiden Cay," she says. "You have to take a boat to get there, and the water is as blue as the sky. The beach is very clean and feels like a little island of pure white sand in the middle of the ocean. Some locals like to take boat trips on Sundays and just enjoy the beach for the day."
Maiden Cay is one of the main islets off the shore of Port Royal Cays on the north-eastern region of the reef. Its secluded atmosphere and incredible marine life make it a must visit.
3. Best outdoor experience: Dunn's River Falls
Another natural attraction on Shenseea's list is Dunn's River Falls. Just an hour from Kingston, Dunn's River Falls and Park is one of the most popular attractions on the island for good reason; the falls attract nearly a million visitors every year, and if you're brave, you can climb to the top of the falls with the help of a local guide.
"Dunn's River Falls is made up of these massive falls that flow into the ocean. It's just one of the most beautiful falls," Shenseea says. "It's a place that everyone can enjoy."
The area is not just for climbing waterfalls. The park also offers a zipline ride over the falls and a splash pad for kids.
Website: https://dunnsriverfallsja.com/
Address: Ocho Rios, Jamaica
Phone: +1 876-974-4767
4. Best cultural experience: Craighton Estate Blue Mountain Coffee Tour
Jamaica's Blue Mountain Coffee is lauded for its smooth, balanced flavour and sweet, subtle aftertaste. The beans are grown in the elevated Blue Mountains on the eastern coast; a region known for its lush greenery, cool climate and stunning views.
"Jamaica has the best coffee, and the Blue Mountains are one of our best attractions. People come here because it's very refreshing being out in nature," she says.
To experience the best of the Blue Mountains, Shenseea recommends planning a visit to the Craighton Estate, a coffee farm that has been producing coffee since the late 18th Century. "Coming here allows you to learn about the coffee-making process, and you can also relax and unwind," she says.
The estate offers guided tours of the working coffee farm, where visitors can learn about the coffee-making process from bean to cup. The tours also include a coffee-tasting session of the estate's finest brews.
Address: Craighton Estate, Irish Town, Jamaica
Phone: +1 876-929-8490
5. Best places to eat like a real local: Scotchies, Tastee and KFC
What's the first thing Shenseea wants to eat as soon as she lands in Jamaica? Her answer is simple: "KFC". The fried chicken at KFC restaurants has been a Jamaican craze since the American fast food franchise arrived on the island in 1975, earning a loyal fan base among locals and visitors for their superior fried chicken, which many insist tastes exponentially better than KFC in other countries due to the use of local chickens and Jamaican spices.
Besides KFC, Shenseea likes two no-frills restaurants serving Jamaican staples like jerk meat and golden baked patties. "If people want some good, local food, they should go to Scotchies," she says. "They have a lot of delicious jerk food on their menu."
Scotchies on Montego Bay is a no-frills eatery with wood tables under thatched-roof tiki huts, where the jerked meat is prepared in an open pit, and there's a rustic bar for ordering rum punches. One of Jamaica's most well-known dishes, jerk refers to both the spices and how the meat is cooked. Coated with a blend of spices like thyme, scotch bonnet pepper and garlic, the meat (often chicken, pork or goat) is slow roasted over a fire or grill, giving it a smoky flavour.
"Another place I like is Tastee," says Shenseea. "[It's] a local fast-food restaurant. I love their rice and peas, fried chicken and patties." With more than a dozen locations across Jamaica, Tastee specialises in patties, an inexpensive pastry that's baked golden brown with savoury meat fillings like beef and chicken. Patties can be eaten plain or sandwiched between coco bread, a soft, sweetened bread made with coconut milk.
Shenseea also recommends travellers try two of her favourite snacks while they're in Jamaica: bun and cheese (a slice of cheese sandwiched between a spiced bread roll) – "Bun and cheese for me is top tier!" – or a sugar and spice cake from Sugar and Spice, "if you want something really sweet and smooth. That's my favourite cake in Jamaica." The family-owned bakery has been in business since 1971 and has several locations around Kingston.
Scotchies Address: Coral Gardens, Ironshore, St. Ann Ocho Rios
Phone: +1 876 953 3301
Instagram: @scotchiesjamaica
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Montreal-born chef Michele Forgione makes one of the best poutines in the city. Here are his top poutine picks in Montreal, from Chez Ma Tante to Ma Poulle Mouillée.
Piping-hot French fries topped with squeaky cheese curds and brown gravy: in Canada's Quebec province, poutine is tantamount to passion. The beloved dish has become emblematic of the province and opinions abound on which curds make the best topping or how the frying method affects the dish.
Legends about its origins are also plentiful. In a 2015 tourism campaign, the town of Drummondville, Quebec, claimed ownership of poutine, declaring that it was invented in the 1960s by self-proclaimed "l'inventeur de la poutine" Jean-Paul Roy of local restaurant Le Roy Jucep. Another legend states that a customer mixed cheese curds with French fries at restaurant La P'tite Vache in Princeville, Quebec in 1966. But the most prevailing legend points to the town of Warwick, Quebec, in the late 1950s, when restauranteur Fernand Lachance of Le Café Idéal exclaimed "Ca va faire une maudite poutine!" ("It will make a damn mess!") when a customer asked him to put cheese curds in a takeaway bag of frites.
In Montreal, Quebec's largest city, poutine can take many forms. Since the invention of poutineries (poutine-only restaurants) in the 1980s, poutine has become a vehicle for an endless range of toppings, representing the great cultural diversity of the city itself, as many of the city's ethnic groups offer their own takes on the dish.
To find the city's most delicious poutine, we spoke to Michele Forgione, restaurateur and owner of modern Montreal casse-croûte (Quebecois snack bar) Chez Tousignant, whose poutine is often touted as one of Montreal's best. "I truly believe that the culinary heritage that every single ethnicity brings to the city is very important," he says. "Montreal is a melting pot, and one can really travel through different cultures through its food. That to me is so unique." But no matter what goes on top of a poutine – from Portuguese chicken to Haitian griot (pork shoulder) – there are three non-negotiable elements: French fries made from red skin potatoes, dark gravy made from chicken or beef stock and fresh cheese curds. "Not mozzarella!" says Forgione.
Here are Forgione's top poutines in his hometown of Montreal.
1. Best classic poutine: Chez Ma Tante
For a proper introduction to Montreal's poutine scene, Chez Ma Tante – a casse-croûte in Montreal Nord – is it. Their take on the dish is the "quintessential, classic poutine", says Forgione. What makes it a classic? It's all in the fries – using red skin potatoes means that the fries "will never get too crunchy. They can't – they have a higher starch content." The frying technique is also key: the potatoes must be double fried, first on a lower heat setting – around 138C – and then again, 38C hotter says Forgione. "You're getting the outside super golden. It's like a tempura batter. You just want to eat it more; it becomes addictive."
Chez Ma Tante started life as a mobile restaurant in 1929 (first in a horse-drawn carriage, then in a campervan). In 1950, the establishment built a permanent home on Rue Fleury and has been there ever since, with minimal changes to the decor or exterior. "It's the classic diner. There's no seating, really – it's an in-and-out situation," says Forgione. He also recommends a steamé, their famous steamed hot dog. "It's one of those places where you know you can have a steamed hot dog and a poutine and that's it, that's all you want."
Website: https://chezmatante.ca/
Address: 3180 Rue Fleury E, Montréal-Nord, Quebec H1H 2R3
Phone number: +1 514-387-6984
Instagram: @chez.ma.tante
2. Best for a Portuguese twist: Ma Poulle Mouillée
Situated in Montreal's colourful Plateau neighbourhood – lined with brightly painted townhouses bedecked with characteristic outdoor staircases – Ma Poule Mouillée is a local favourite and a prime example of fusion cuisine. This counter-service Portuguese restaurant is famous for its flame-licked chicken, which also tops their chorizo-studded poutine that has since become legendary for melding two iconic dishes.
"It's like a meal," says Forgione. "[The chicken is] juicy, it's tender, it's moist. It just goes together. You're accustomed to all the flavours, but it's served in a different way. It's basically chicken salad! That's how I see it."
The restaurant's signature sauce mingles with the gravy and gives the dish "a little heat", says Forgione. "It all just goes together." What exactly is in the sauce is a closely guarded secret – owner Tony Alves, who opened the restaurant in 2013, will only concede that he uses piri piri peppers. Thanks to Montreal's sizable Portuguese population, there are several restaurants in town specialising in the country's famously fiery rotisserie bird (including down-the-street Romados), but the chicken-poutine hybrid is a Ma Poulle Mouillée special.
Address: 969 Rachel St E, Montreal, Quebec H2J 2J2
Phone number: +1 514-522-5175
Instagram: @mapoullemouillee
3. Best for high-end poutine: Au Pied de Cochon
Au Pied de Couchon, also in the Plateau neighbourhood, is without a doubt one of Montreal's most beloved restaurants; the brainchild of legendary Canadian chef Martin Picard. "[He's] a good friend," says Forgione. "He's one of the top chefs in Canada, if not North America."
Since it opened in 2001, the restaurant has championed Quebecois food. Twenty-five years ago, the province's cuisine was rarely taken seriously by the city's chefs, who preferred elaborate French techniques to the homey, lard-soaked dishes of French Canada. Picard created a sea-change in local attitudes by presenting humble, traditional Quebecois ingredients and flavours in new and surprising formats – like their famous Plogue à Champlain, a buckwheat pancake piled with melted cheese, roasted potatoes, bacon, demi-glace and a drizzle of maple syrup.
And no dish is more representative of Picard's cooking style than Au Pied de Cochon's foie gras poutine. It's a cult favourite across the city for its irresistible high-low approach, which pairs a classic poutine with a custardy sauce made from duck or goose liver. Forgione is particularly fond of it. "The French fries are super crispy, very addictive," he says. "The foie gras sauce is unctuous, decadent. It's on another level. And the cheese curds are just squick-squick. That taste when they're fresh, you know what I mean?"
Website: www.aupieddecochon.ca
Address: 536 Av. Duluth E, Montréal, Quebec, H2L 1A9
Instagram: @restaurantaupieddecochon
4. Best for late nights: La Banquise
Ask any Montrealer where to try poutine and most will suggest La Banquise. This local institution has been around since 1968 and serves an expansive menu of creatively topped poutines, as well as burgers, hot dogs and brunch. It's also open 24 hours a day, making it the preferred post-party stop after a night at the city's famous clubs and bars.
Forgione remembers several of his own poutine-fuelled nights here. "You're a kid, you're in your teens, 20s… after going out with your friends until 03:00, 04:00 in the morning, you'll [have] burn[ed] the calories."
His favourite is La Galvaude, a version of the classic poutine topped with grilled chicken and green peas, or "anything with hot dogs on top". There are also vegetarian and vegan poutines on the menu; a relative rarity.
Website: https://labanquise.com/
Address: 994 Rue Rachel E, Montréal, Quebec H2J 2J3
Phone number: +1 514-525-2415
Instagram: @restolabanquise
5. Best for a two-in-one classic: Jarry Smoked Meat
There's another dish no visitor should leave Montreal without trying: smoked meat. The city's signature deli meat is a cousin to New York's pastrami, and it's served atop poutine at Jarry Smoked Meat, a deli in the north-eastern Saint-Leonard neighbourhood. Forgione grew up nearby – where "all the Italians" live, he quips – and remembers many evenings spent in the classic diner, eating poutine topped with strips of brisket that's been dry rubbed rather than brined, giving it a stringier, softer texture than New York's fattier navel cut.
Both brisket and smoked meat come from Eastern European Jewish immigrants, who applied traditional techniques for preserving meat to North American beef. "It was a method of feeding the masses," says Forgione. "It was cheap cuts of meat. Don't look at brisket today, whose costs have gone through the roof. It was a cut of meat nobody want[ed] because what do you do with a tough, tough piece of meat? You had to know what you were doing, and they brought so much knowledge."
Smoked meat is most often served between two slices of rye bread, and Jarry does serve a smoke meat sandwich as well. But their smoked meat poutine is the ultimate indulgence, says Forgione. "It's beefy, it's salty, it's sweet a little, it's smoky," he enthuses. "It's the ultra-decadent food. Merging these two iconic dishes from Montreal [is] euphoric. It's like Metallica playing Mozart at [Montreal performance venue] Place-des-Arts."
Website: www.jarrysmokedmeat.com
Address: 6549 Rue Jarry E, Saint-Léonard, Quebec H1P 1W2
Phone number: +1 514-322-3220
Instagram: @jarry_smoked_meat
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Istanbul-born chef Fatih Tutak shares his favourite culinary experiences in his hometown, from Turkish barbecue at Ahmet Ustam Ocakbaşı to micro-seasonal menus at Nazende.
Straddling two continents, Istanbul has been shaped by millennia of Silk Road traders and the meeting of great religions. From the Byzantines to the Ottomans, each of the city's historical inhabitants have left behind impressive architecture, unique cultural traditions and a rich culinary legacy.
"Turkish cuisine is an undiscovered diamond mine," says chef Fatih Tutak of two-Michelin-star Turk in Istanbul. "In the early '90s, Turkish food became very much [seen as] street food, especially in Europe. [There], you can make a very bad quality döner kebab and no one [knows]. Turkish food is not very easy to cook properly. It's complex. [In Istanbul] we have many different people from around Turkey and they cook their own cuisine. It's a melting pot."
At Turk, Tutak gives age-old Turkish recipes a cutting-edge spin. However, when he's not in the kitchen, he prefers something lower key. "As a chef I am very specific when I go to restaurants in Turkey, especially in Istanbul," he explains. "I try to always go very local and where the food is ultimately high quality, prepared with amazing ingredients."
A year-round destination with warm summers and cool winters, the city topped Euromonitor's list as the most visited city in the world in 2023, so there's never been a better time to dive into Istanbul's excellent culinary scene.
Here are Tutak's favourite dining spots in his hometown.
1. Best for Turkish barbecue: Ahmet Ustam Ocakbaşı
Visitors to Istanbul will likely notice the word "ocakbaşı" plastered on restaurant signage everywhere. It means "fireside" in Turkish, and is the name given to grill houses where a chef cooks kebabs on glowing hot coals. It is one of the most popular ways to dine in the city, and for Tutak, Ahmet Ustam Ocakbaşı is the best in the business.
"This is where I go on my days off," he says. "[They have] an artisanal way of making kebabs; hand chopped, with different varieties of meat cuts. They do the best minced kebab and shish kebab, and also chicken wings and salad and grilled veggies and lavash (thin flatbread).
For Tutak, it's not just about the food but also the experience. "Chef Ahmet has been doing this job for almost 20 years. He is very passionate," he says. "You sit down in front of the grill and he is there cooking in front of you; like Japanese robatayaki. Also, you can drink rakı [a Turkish aniseed flavoured spirit] because the best way of enjoying the kebab, for me, is [with] rakı: the Turkish way."
Tutak's advice: "You should not leave without eating the Adana kebab," which he proclaims to be "the best in the city". Possibly Turkey's most popular variety of kebab, it's made from skewered mincemeat and seasoned with red pepper flakes for mild heat and named after the city of Adana in south-eastern Turkey, where it originates from.
Address: Maslak Mah. Dereboyu 2 Cad. No:8/1, Istanbul
Phone: +90 53 0175 6114
Instagram: @ahmetustamocakbasi
2. Best for pide: Karadeni̇z Pi̇de Kebap Salonu
Pide can be found all over Turkey, but according to Tutak, this canoe-shaped dish – often referred to as "Turkish pizza" by tourists, much to the locals' chagrin – originates from the province of Trabzon on the northern reaches of the country's Black Sea coast. There are various versions and regional variations, but in its simplest form, yeasted dough is stuffed with different fillings like cheese and meat, then baked, resulting in a pillowy soft crust with golden edges covered in melted cheese.
Located in the central neighbourhood of Vefa, just a 10-minute walk from the famed 16th-Century Suleymaniye Mosque, is Karadeni̇z Pi̇de Kebap Salonu; Tutak's pick for the city's best pide. "This restaurant is very special because they are the third generation preparing pide. They are famous for [it]," he says.
Tutak appreciates the family-run restaurant's dedication to tradition. "They use a woodfired oven and make their own very nice fermented dough and use different kinds of stuffing. You can order cheese, minced meat, chopped beef, cheese and egg. It's very special," he says, adding: "my favourite is with minced beef."
Address: Hacı Kadın, Muhabir Sk. No:6, 34134 Fatih/İstanbul
Phone: +90 21 2519 0128
3. Best for micro-seasonal menus: Nazende
At the helm of Nazende, a Mediterranean restaurant just off upscale boulevard Bağdat Caddesi, is snowy-haired businessman-turned-chef, Uluç Sakary. "This is my favourite restaurant in Turkey," announces Tutak. "Uluç used to have a textiles business. He used to cook at home for his friends and then when [he turned] 50, he decided to become a chef and open a restaurant."
Nazende – which opened in 2019 – quickly garnered critical acclaim and is full most evenings. "He does his own shopping every morning. He goes to the fish and vegetable markets and makes his daily menu and just [cooks] whatever he wants, but it's out of this world," says Tutak. "The variety of meat dishes [is] amazing. [They have] amazing offal dishes on the grill such as lamb liver, sweetbread and kidney. They have seafood, they also have great starters, mezes and salads."
For diners visiting in April or May (goat season) Tutak recommends the woodfire oven-baked suckling goat, a meat eaten widely in Turkey. The restaurant is also lauded for its baby calamari and rice pilaf enriched with nuts and raisins.
Address: Caddebostan Plajyolu Sok. Sembol apt. No:13/A, Istanbul
Phone: +90 533 6170 268
Instagram: @nazendecadde
4. Best for local fare: Köroğlu Et Lokantası
Lokantas or "tradesmen restaurants" are where time-strapped locals head for well-priced and freshly prepared home-style dishes. They are found all over Turkey but Tutak's favourite in Istanbul is Köroğlu Et Lokantası. "When you enter the restaurant there are a lot of dishes already cooked; you select [what you want] and they send it to you," he says. "They open only for lunchtime, so you need to go around 12:30."
The menu is ample, but there are some dishes the restaurant is especially known for. "They cook amazing beans with rice called fasulye – a very typical local dish, which is braised beans from Ispir (in north-eastern Turkey) with butter and beef," says Tutak. "Also, the eggplant dishes are amazing. I would say confit beef is their signature. It is very traditional from the northern part of Turkey. You leave the beef for six hours [to] cook very slowly. Amazing. Served just with plain rice and fried potatoes; easy."
Address: Akşemsettin Caddesi No:4 Fatih/İSTANBUL, Istanbul
Phone: +90 212 531 23 05
Instagram: @koroglu_lokantasi_
5. Best for döner kebabs: Dönerci Engin
One of Turkey's most famed exports, the döner kebab (seasoned meat cooked on a rotating spit then shaved off in layers) can be found in abundance all over Istanbul, from hole-in-the-wall joints purveyed by solo chefs armed with just a vertical rotating meat spit, to sit-down establishments with bowtie-wearing waiters.
Dönerci Engin, a five-minute walk from the Galata Tower, leans more towards the former, with the addition of a few tables outside. "[The chef] is from [my mother's] hometown Erzurum," says Tutak. "He prepares the doner with a mix of sliced beef and lamb and he has a special marinade using tomato, purple basil and onion and milled black pepper. The quality of the döner kebab is very thin, very juicy and really caramelised. Just the perfect doner."
There are only five items on the menu, which consist of doner meat served in various receptacles. Essentially "on a plate or inside bread," says Tutak. "I like it my way, with white rice and sliced onion and meat and that's it. No garnish, just rice." For bread eaters, he recommends the gobit pita: "It's like a balloon pita, wood-fired. He makes his own."
Address: Bereketzade, Okçu Musa Cd. No:3, 34421 Beyoğlu/İstanbul
Phone: +90 212 293 9787
6. Best Turkish taverna: Asmali Cavit
The lively Asmalı Mescit neighbourhood in Istanbul's central Beyoğlu district is a crisscross of narrow streets filled with bustling bars and restaurants, particularly traditional tavernas. "[A] Turkish taverna is the place where you go for drinking and eating. They have them in Greece as well," explains the chef. "We call it meyhane; taverna is a Greek name. This is where people gather and enjoy meze, small dishes, seafood and alcoholic beverages, especially rakı."
The chef is a long-time fan of Asmali Cavit. "[It] is a beautiful place run by a family: the father, mother, son and daughter. Every day, they're on duty and [have been] running the place for almost 25 years," says Tutak. "It's in a touristy area but mostly local people go. It's mostly shared dishes, cooked with olive oil, and seafood appetisers: fried calamari, squid, grilled fish, mussels – and also cured seafood."
Seafood isn't the only thing on the menu. "The baby kofta grill is amazing," says Tutak. "The fried beef liver is also very nice. Also, Armenian mezes, like topik, a dish cooked with a lot of onions and chickpeas."
Address: Asmalımescit Caddesi No: 16/D Asmalimescit Mahallesi, Beyoglu, İstanbul 34430
Phone: +90 212 292 4950
7. Best for fish: Balikci Kahraman
Tutak compares Balikci Kahraman to the renowned Michelin-starred Elkano fish grill in Spain. "It's the Turkish version," he says.
In fish-loving Istanbul, Black Sea turbot is beloved for its flavoursome and meaty texture, thanks to cold water currents. "Balikci Kahraman is very famous for its turbot," says Tutak. "They cook it on a tandoor grill very slowly and season it with salt. They serve it with their signature tomato salad (with red onion, cucumber, green chilli and lashings of olive oil) and cornbread which is cooked in a pan."
The restaurant is located on the city's outskirts in the small fishing village of Sarıyer on the banks near where the Black Sea flows into the Bosphurus River. "The owner has two boats. He sends his fishermen to the sea every morning, they catch it and bring it to the restaurant. It's super fresh."
Diners will need to factor in the journey time. "It is about one hour from the city centre but worth it to travel there. I just took my Japanese sushi chef friends from Tokyo who loved it," says Tutak.
Website: https://www.balikcikahraman.com/
Address: Rumeli Kavağı, İskele Cad. No:15 Sarıyer, İstanbul
Phone: +90 212 242 98 99
Instagram: @balikcikahraman
BBC Travel's The SpeciaList is a series of guides to popular and emerging destinations around the world, as seen through the eyes of local experts and tastemakers.
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Manuela Barrios has performed flamenco around the world. Here are her favourite spots in Seville to see the spectacle, from casual nights at La Carbonería to the cabaret shows of Tablao Las Setas.
Seville, the capital of Spain's Andalusia region, is known for its tiled Moorish architecture, colourful 19th-Century facades and the thousands of fragrant orange trees lining its streets. This romantic city is also often called the "birthplace of flamenco".
Flamenco is characterised by rhythmic dancing accompanied by guitar, singing or poetry, hand clapping and finger snapping. It has a mournful folk quality and is ruled by duende, an expressive emotion which most closely translates to "spirit" or "soul".
Many scholars trace flamenco's origin to Triana, a neighbourhood on the banks of the Guadalquivir River. The area was historically home to Seville's Roma (Gypsy) minority who migrated to Spain from India in the Middle Ages, bringing along instruments like tambourines and castanets. Because the dance was connected with the marginalised Roma and working-class and minority communities like the Moors, it was looked down upon by Spanish elites. But today, tourism and modernisation have changed this perception drastically, and flamenco has become popularised as a quintessential symbol of Andalusia and Spain.
We spoke to Manuela Barrios, a Seville-based professional flamenco dancer, to find the city's best flamenco experiences. "We have the best flamenco artists in the world here in Seville," says Barrios. "It's a small city, but they haven't lost their traditions." Seville’s many tablaos (flamenco venues) offer theatre-style shows on a daily basis. Outside of formal performances, flamenco is also an important part of public life in the city. Street performers often dance in squares such as the city's central Plaza de España, and in traditional neighbourhoods like Triana. Flamenco singing and guitar can also be heard from the windows of local bars and features prominently in Seville’s Feria de Abril (April Fair), where locals show off their dancing skills with informal styles such as Sevillanas.
Seville's vibrant professional flamenco scene has a tight community spirit. "People are very empathetic and willing to help, and there's a family-oriented culture. Especially with the [Roma] artists," says Barrios. "They're amazing. They bring their whole family to dance and perform."
Here are five of Barrios' favourite spots to experience this Andalusian art form.
1. Best fun, casual night out: La Carbonería
For an affordable introduction to flamenco, this casual bar nestled between the trendy nightlife hub of Alfalfa and the historic district of Barrio Santa Cruz is a solid choice.
"La Carbonería is a place that has a lot of solera (tradition)," says Barrios. "It's a very fun place and has kept the same vibe for so many years. You just have to pay for your drink and you can see flamenco, with singing and everything."
In a bustling wide room with simple wooden tables and long benches, guests can watch the performance in a relaxed atmosphere. "All the really good guitarists and singers started in La Carbonería," says Barrios. "It's a place where talented artists get their first performing experience."
Entrance to La Carbonería is free, but you can buy drinks and tapas onsite – note that payment is cash only. Food and drink options include pitchers of sangria, plus simple tapas like cheese, olives, chorizo, picos (crunchy breadsticks) and Spanish omelette.
Website: https://lacarbonerialevies.blogspot.com/
Address: Calle Céspedes 21A, 41004, Seville
Phone: +34 954 229 945
Instagram: @carboneriadesevilla
2. Best off-the-beaten-path experience: Peña Flamenca Torres Macarena
Just outside the old city's medieval walls, near the modern steel bowstring Barqueta Bridge, you'll find the Peña Flamenca Torres Macarena.
A "peña flamenca" is a club or cultural association where aficionados can enjoy flamenco-related events. "If you want to see something not very touristy, this is the place to go," says Barrios. "The entrance is much cheaper than a tablao, but you don't know what you're going to see – it may be stars or amateurs."
The Peña Flamenca Torres Macarena opens 60-90 minutes before each show, and shows are typically held three times per week. The venue has a traditional Andalusian tiled patio where visitors can enjoy drinks and tapas beforehand. Although performances are open to the public, the first two rows are usually reserved for club members, and payment is generally cash only.
Website: https://www.xn--peaflamencatorresmacarena-9nc.com/
Address: Calle Torrijiano 29, 41009, Seville
Phone: +34 605 931 254
Instagram: @pflamencatorresmacarena
3. Best cabaret-style theatre show with top stars: Tablao Flamenco Las Setas
Beneath the iconic modern building of the same name, visitors will find the Tablao Flamenco Las Setas. "This tablao is one of the top places in Spain. They bring all the best flamenco stars," says Barrios. "For example, [famed flamenco star] Belén López was there yesterday, and she's never come to Andalusia to dance before. They have high-quality shows, and the owners have a lot of taste."
Las Setas (The Mushrooms), also known as Metropol Parasol, is widely considered the largest wooden structure in the world and is a famous symbol of Seville. Besides the flamenco tablao, the building is also home to a Roman site known as the Antiquarium, as well as the Mercado de la Encarnación (Incarnation Market), which sells fresh meat, vegetables and seafood.
Tablao Flamenco Las Setas accommodates 110 people but still offers an intimate atmosphere, according to Barrios. "People leave in tears every night. You can see the show really close up, and flamenco needs to be seen close up because you have to observe the facial expressions, the pain and emotion."
Visitors to this tablao will be treated to a cabaret-style spectacle that captures the most dramatic side of flamenco. "It's a different atmosphere than any other tablao in Seville. They don't just have lunares y flores (polka dots and flowers). They want to add a bit of a cabaret taste, something different, with lace and other unique styles."
Website: https://tablaoflamencolassetas.com/
Address: Plaza de la Encarnación, Pasaje de Las Setas, 41003, Seville
Phone: +34 684 776 981
Instagram: @tablaoflamencolassetas
4. Best traditional flamenco with dinner: Tablao Flamenco El Arenal
Located in a building dating to the 17th Century, Tablao Flamenco El Arenal features a grand white dining hall flanked with wooden beams, where you can savour a meal before enjoying a flamenco show. "This is one of the oldest tablaos in Seville," says Barrios. "If you want to see cuadros de flamenco (flamenco groups) and have dinner, you can come here to see very good stars perform in a very traditional way."
Located right in the centre of Seville's old city, near the Seville Cathedral and the University of Seville campus, this tablao has been operating for more than 40 years. Visitors can choose from ticket options that include a drink, tapas or a multi-course meal.
"To see a full flamenco cuadro where you have four dancers, three singers and two guitarists… that's really amazing," says Barrios. "For a first taste of flamenco, it's very impressive. They have shows every day, and you should buy tickets online, because they're sold out almost every day in the high season [April - May, September - October]."
Website: https://tablaoelarenal.com/
Address: Calle Rodo 7, 41001, Seville
Phone: +34 954 216 492
Instagram: @tablaoelarenalsevilla
5. Best tertulias flamencas: Ánima Galería Taberna
The word tertulia means "conversation" in Spanish, but in the context of flamenco it's more like a jam session. At these informal meetings, musicians and dancers gather for a spontaneous performance.
Ánima Galería Taberna, situated near Seville's bohemian Alameda de Hércules square, hosts flamenco tertulias every Wednesday and Saturday night. "You can see locals and foreigners singing and playing guitar," says Barrios. "You never know exactly what's going to happen. The bar is very authentic and has a beautiful terrace. My students say this is the best place for tertulias, because you can go there and feel the atmosphere."
Website: https://animataberna.wordpress.com/
Address: Calle Miguel del Cid 80, 41002, Seville
Phone: +34 954 386 708
Instagram: @galeriataberna_anima
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Nearly a decade before Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was even born, Växjö set itself on a path to a new vision of green urban living.
The 1,000-year-old Swedish city of Växjö sits 450km south-west of Stockholm in the central region of Småland amid a lush tapestry of sylvan landscapes dotted by hundreds of lakes. This is a land known as the Glasriket ("Glass Kingdom") that's home to a string of globally renowned glassworks such as Kosta Boda and Orrefors who have created crystalline gorgeousness from fiery furnaces since the 1740s.
But that glassmaking heritage is now matched by changemaking: this compact city of fewer than 100,000 inhabitants has become a global beacon in the battle against climate change. Nearly a decade before Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg was even born, Växjö set itself on a path to a new vision of urban living that's now been emulated worldwide.
"It was a seminar in 1996 led by the mayor, which asked the question: 'What would it be like to live in a fossil free city?'," explains Henrik Johansson, environmental strategist for Växjö Municipality. By the end of that meeting, a unanimous vote saw Växjö become the first city in the world to commit to become fossil fuel free. This has now evolved into a bigger target of climate neutrality by 2030 – 15 years ahead of Sweden's nationwide commitment.
Växjö's groundbreaking 1990s commitment drew media coverage from as far afield as Japan, with TV crews ironically taking fuel-guzzling long-distance flights to visit the place Johansson wryly describes as "this crazy town looking to go fossil free". None of it seems crazy now, however, with Växjö's per capita carbon emissions slashed by more than 70% from 1990s levels, all while the city has grown in population by a third and doubled its per capita GDP.
Here, local buses and council vehicles run on biofuel made from domestic household organic waste. More than 90% of the city's energy, meanwhile, is sourced from forestry by-products and other biomass, with plentiful material coming from the vast surrounding forests. This ranges from sawdust from local timber mills to branches left from tree-felling to make goods for IKEA – the global design giant born just a half hour train ride away in the town of Älmhult.
The few CO2 emissions that linger in the air stem from personal car users who are still not taking advantage of one of Sweden's best provisions of electric car charging stations, plus places to fill up on non-fossil biofuels such as ethanol.
The boldest transition, though, has seen Växjö become perhaps the world's leading showcase for large-scale timber architecture, with half of all new builds required to be in wood, sourced from the same sprawling forests that once provided fuel to fire the glasswork furnaces.
I arrive in Växjö by train and can't help but start snapping pictures of a station interior unlike any I've ever seen. Stepping off the platform, I enter a seven-storey edifice that hosts both the Central Station and Växjö City Hall, and everywhere I look, there's wood. Here, timber is used for both structure and decor in a calm, soaring space that also includes a tourist office, exhibition area and eye-catching artworks made from pale wood. It's such a welcoming space that it's been nicknamed the city's public "living room".
A wooden bridge connects the station with a museum quarter that I explore the next day, featuring the Swedish Glass Museum within the Småland Museum; plus the House of Emigrants, which tells the often revelatory story of Swedish mass emigration to North America.
The museum enclave is also home to myriad relocated buildings from past centuries – I particularly like the windmill as a symbol of ancient green power, built from timbers painted the iconic Swedish shade known as Falu or Falun Red, named after its historic source from mines around the eponymous town.
Heading down to the shore of Lake Trummen – one of two nearby lakes, along with sculpture-lined Växjösjön – I potter along a trail of modern sculptures that provides a cultural promenade of contemporary works chosen and voted for by residents. Glass art is celebrated too, with contrasting crystalline creations placed along the cosmopolitan length of Sandgärdsgatan that runs through the heart of the city centre to the iconic double-spired cathedral.
It's a beautiful stroll, and I wonder whether people would have been so keen to leave Sweden if 19th-Century life had offered what the 21st-Century nation does. Alongside enviable public services and a famously equable society, I'm getting housing envy staring up at contrasting high-rise wooden apartment blocks that make up the award-winning Kvarteret Geologen residential complex (also known as Trummens Strand), standing tall and proud by the lake.
Here, I'm joined by Olivia Thim, a sustainability expert for property management firm Vöfab. "For a long time, we had the tallest wooden building in Sweden," Thim says. "But also a diversity: apartments, sports arenas, schools. We just thought that we should try to build everything in wood first."
Also with us is architect Karin Hård Af Segerstad from leading Växjö practice Arkitektbolaget, who tells me about the super-strong cross-laminated timber (CLT) used for structural frames, augmented by cedar shaving facades and various interior woods. This swaddling in natural materials is as pleasing to the residents as it is to the eye, she says: “People report an improved sense of well-being living surrounded by wood."
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For architects and engineers, Växjö's showcasing of innovative timber builds has been a valuable learning curve. "People weren't so knowledgeable about wooden high-rise buildings, so we have close collaboration with the local university," says Segerstad. "Every time there was a question, there would be research done."
This includes sensors within buildings to record how the structures perform over years and changing seasons. "Now we have researchers coming from around the world," she continues. "Many from Austria and Germany, but also places in Africa such as Congo. We have become world pioneers to build in wood. Aesthetic principles are as important as ecological ones."
The environmental drive underpinning Växjö's modern wood architecture is matched by how the city powers its 21st century life. Exploring the city centre, I can see innovative new wooden structures next to historic clapboard buildings, many transformed into trendy shops or atmospheric restaurants, such as Kafe de Luxe where the traditional Swedish dishes rely on produce from the surrounding land and water.
Meanwhile, at modern design hotel PM & Vanner, the restaurants focus on local, seasonal and organic dishes, including produce from the hotel's own garden – while dishes are cleaned using an energy- and water-saving dishwasher. Food waste is turned into biofuel, and the hotel is also part of an innovative textile recycling system.
Before I leave, I walk around the wood-decorated offices of local power generator VEAB with CEO Erik Tellgren, who tells me how forest and wood product "waste" taken from around Växjö easily provides all the electricity requirements of the city, in a manner that also helps the battle to mitigate climate change.
"Forest residues left to decompose generate CO2," says Tellgren. "So, using it up helps cut emissions." And, he adds, the ash produced from the burned wood is returned to the forest floor as an excellent compost.
He smiles as he recalls how Växjö's first power plant, which fired up here beside the lake in the 1880s, burned wood, and now some 140 years later, the town is again relying on the material as it leads the world away from fossil fuels
"So we began with wood, and now we come back to it again," he says.
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Copenhagen's once-industrial port has been planned to make everything – from schools and play areas to businesses and recreational spaces – accessible within five minutes.
While cruising the canals of Copenhagen in the summer of 2023, my guide pointed out Nordhavn, the city's once-industrial neighbourhood, excitedly claiming it would become the coolest new city in Europe. From the boat, I couldn't see much beyond a few residential buildings and lots of giant construction machinery, but, as an architect, I was interested to know more.
So, 12 months later, I returned to Copenhagen and headed back to Nordhavn, just a 15-minute metro ride from Copenhagen's central station.
This time, standing at Århusgadekvarteret, the core of the new development, I could see gleaming apartment buildings, high-end office spaces and a cafe-lined boardwalk along the previously industrial harbour. Dozens of people were lying on colourful beach towels spread across the waterfront, all soaking in the Scandinavian summer sun. It was a peaceful, serene scene, with none of the morning commuter chaos I was used to seeing in cities around the world.
And that's because Nordhavn has been specifically designed to make life easier.
"Although it looks like any modern district, it's the world's first five-minute city," explained my guide, Bente Hoffman from immersive cultural tour company Slow Tours. "When the project is complete, everything you need will be within a 400m walk."
Commuting is one of the biggest challenges of modern life as it adds so much time into the daily routine. Nordhavn (officially a district of Copenhagen, but described as a city due to its scale and scope) has been designed to make everything – from schools and play areas to businesses and recreational spaces – accessible within five minutes. It is setting a blueprint for a world where residents can fit in a morning workout before strolling to the office, grab lunch at a cute cafe, have a quick swim at the harbour and still make it home in time to take your kids to the playground – all before enjoying a cosy candlelit dinner at home.
Imagine doing all of this without driving from one point to another, without feeling exhausted, and being able to repeat it every day while staying carbon neutral.
"We are creating a neighbourhood that meets everyday needs and special occasions," explained Peter Bur Andersen, an architect from BRIQ Studios that played a crucial role in zoning Nordhavn. "Everything is within walking or biking distance, minimising the need for commuting. The area also promotes a mostly car-free lifestyle, connected by cycle paths and the metro."
Copenhagen is currently the Unesco World's Architecture Capital (until 2026) and innovative solutions for smart living have been brewing across the Danish capital: from Paper Island, designed to focus on public spaces and housing for all income groups; to Carlsberg City District that's built on four pillars of beer production: science, innovation, art and culture.
However, Nordhavn's five-minute city concept is unique. While there are a few 10-minute cities being developed around the world, including one in Seoul, South Korea, Nordhavn's one-of-a-kind concept is the most ambitious urban development project in Scandinavia. It is also the only new urban district anywhere in the world to receive a gold certification for sustainability from the German Sustainable Building Council, or DGNB (the largest network for sustainable building in Europe), according to Andersen.
In Nordhavn, sustainability is about more than reducing energy consumption. Every building constructed must consider its social, economic and environmental impact. For example, the Big Bio Cinema – the city's newest theatre – is constructed from recyclable materials such as aluminium in case the building ever needs to be demolished.
And, according to Anderson, social and economic inclusion has been at the core of all planning. "It is important to bring back what worked well in history," he said. "We used to have the butcher, craftsman, baker and cheese shop – that diversity in everyday encounters. The future city should mix recreational, cultural and commercial spaces, all easily accessible within the neighbourhood."
But until relatively recently, no one would have considered living in this once-industrial district. Irshia Nasreen, an engineer born and raised in central Copenhagen, says, "While I was trying to find a new neighbourhood to move out of the city centre, I never thought I'd move here."
Bente adds, "I didn't think I would do tourist walks in Norhavn. There was nothing to see."
After all, for centuries Nordhavn was a free port filled with cargo ships, grain silos and metal containers. The buildings that existed were warehouses and industrial shipping structures. Then, in 2008, a competition was held to create a sustainable neighbourhood for Copenhagen's future: 179 proposals were submitted and a group of four architectural firms, COBE Architects, Sleth, Rambøll and Polyform were winners.
They designed an urban area of "soft mobility", where it is easier to walk, bike or use public transport than it is to drive; and put the idea of hybrid spaces – something that "avoids creating lifeless spaces and fosters community among residents, employees and visitors", according to Andersen – at its heart. For example, in Nordhavn, a multi-storey car park might have a gym on its roof; an apartment building could include a public restaurant; and a hotel could house a concept store.
Although the entire Nordhavn project won't be finished until 2060, it is being developed in islets (small islands), with key areas such as Nordø and Århusgadekvarteret, already complete and full of life, brimming with locals and tourists. A metro extension to Nordhavn and Orientkaj opened in 2020, providing easy access from the city centre.
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As Hoffman and I walked through Nordø, I admired the ingenuity of using once-unassuming buildings to create chic destinations. Audo House, a warehouse from 1918, is now a boutique hotel, concept store and cafe. Across the road, MENY food supermarket was once a factory for building guns. Because of the building's protected status, MENY had to use the same walls, windows and ceilings as the former World War Two gun factory to create what is now a futuristic food market. Nearby, the raw steel surface of The Silo still resembled its days as a grain silo. But it has now been transformed into a luxurious 17-storey residential building with a public restaurant.
"The beauty of Nordhavn lies in the blend of old and new architecture standing side by side," said Hoffman. "Sustainability is also about preserving the past by repurposing old buildings for modern use."
Nasreen moved to Nordhavn in 2023 and says the calm, car-free environment has transformed her lifestyle. "I love walking around here," she said. "After living in the city centre for 40 years, not hearing the hums of vehicles is refreshing. The proximity of water to all residential areas gives a sense of peace and fresh air. My nephew is awed by the fact that he can swim in the harbour, walk back home for a shower and then go back to the waterfront to enjoy coffee in a cool café. Isn't that amazing?"
She added: "I work from home, and when I need a change of scenery, I head to The Audo House. It's a multifunctional space, so you see tourists checking in the hotel and people shopping for art and furniture while I have a coffee in its cafe on a winter afternoon."
In the early 20th Century, when legendary Danish designer Arne Jacobsen said, "Architecture is not just about creating buildings; it's about shaping the environment and enhancing people's lives," it was theoretical. A century later, Hoffman is leading curious designers and architects like me on walking tours around Nordhavn. As curious as I am, and perhaps with the same intent, they are looking for answers to the question: can architecture be one of the keys to creating a happier urban environment?
For Nasreen and many others living in Nordhavn, the answer is a resounding yes.
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This year's Global Responsible Tourism Award winners demonstrate that travel can be inclusive, climate-friendly, nature-positive and a positive force for local communities.
Celebrating its 20th anniversary this year, the Responsible Tourism Awards are a standard bearer for the positive side of the travel industry. Run by the non-profit International Centre for Responsible Tourism Global, the awards aim to showcase the benefits of tourism and inspire other firms to do the same.
Awards like these are particularly important at a time when tourism is under pressure. With global travel and tourism numbers back to pre-pandemic levels and one in 10 people employed in the industry, the need to improve the sector's environmental, economic and cultural impact is clear. Lifting up businesses that give back to their local communities creates a win-win for tourists and locals alike. And for travellers interested in supporting local culture, having extraordinary nature experiences and a ensuring a responsible travel industry, the winning firms have demonstrated their ability to do that and more.
Tess Longfield, head of sustainability communications at Sabre, who sponsors the awards, commented that extraordinary work is being done by all the winners to create a more sustainable and equitable world through tourism. "It's a testament to the power of responsible travel to make a real difference," she said.
From a private ecolodge in South Africa to a volunteering organisation in a Peruvian biosphere reserve, these are the firms to book with in 2024 and beyond:
Winner – Employing and upskilling local communities: Grootbos Private Nature Reserve, South Africa
This five-star ecolodge set in 3,500 hectares of South African wilderness is constantly researching pioneering ways of doing things to improve the lives of the local community and protect the fragile landscapes and wildlife that surround it.
As well as offering unique tourism experiences to guests, such as guided walks to the flora-rich fynbos and coastal safaris in in waters teeming with great white sharks and dolphins, Grootbos' lodge provides ecotourism jobs to the local community. Profits from the lodge fund the Grootbos Foundation, which gives free skills and business training for hundreds of local people in the areas of hospitality, horticulture, entrepreneurship and biodiversity. It creates a ripple effect that's much needed during a period of serious unemployment in South Africa.
The judging team called Grootbos "an exemplary business that others can learn from", praising the way that it constantly pushes the boundaries and explores new ways of developing responsible tourism.
"Grootbos cares about community and conservation," said Phil Murray, fundraising, donor relations and communications manager at Grootbos Foundation. "Neither can be ignored, and both can mutually benefit from programmes and a responsible tourism business that prizes people and planet."
Winner – Championing cultural diversity: Rajasthan Studio, India
Rajasthan Studio curates art experiences with master artisans in Rajasthan, allowing travellers to experience, understand and value the local culture of the place they are visiting. Travellers can visit master artists at their homes and studios, meet their families, see the process behind making local handicrafts and co-create a personalised souvenir with the crafter.
The experiences include an insight into rare and unique art forms like puppetry and the blue pottery of Jaipur, pichwai art and sea foam carving of Udaipur, leather juttis and tie dye of Jodhpur and much more. The idea is to build a community of artists and scale the business to different parts of Rajasthan, and eventually across India.
"Rajasthan as a state is blessed with a wonderful art heritage and travellers are eager to explore every bit of it," said company founder Kartik Gaggar. "But why should we limit it to exploring? We asked the same question and the answer was: let's turn it into an experience."
The judges were impressed with how Gaggar has created an immersive cultural experience that both economically benefits artists and enriches travellers. They called it a "highly replicable approach".
Today, the company offers more than 20 hand-on art experiences in Jaipur, Jodhpur and Udaipur, with plans to include artists from Jaisalmer, Bikaner, Bundi and Kota in the near future.
Winner – Increasing local sourcing and creating shared value: Sivatel Bangkok Hotel, Thailand
As this year's protests have been demonstrating, tourism has an impact on local people as much as visitors. Sivatel Bangkok was this year's winner for its innovative approach that brings together local providers to directly help the community.
The hotel sources 70% of its ingredients organically and partners with more than 50 local farmers through the Sivatel's Farmer Friends Network. It also supports local producers and fosters a sustainable ecosystem through the "Sivatel Sustainable Market", a pop-up market within the hotel where local artisans and food producers can sell their wares to travellers. Uniforms are designed by Folkcharm, a local sustainable fashion brand that supports local artisans.
Perhaps most uniquely, it runs a "From Kitchen to Chicken" programme, diverting hotel food scraps to feed black soldier fly larvae, which are then used as protein for organic chickens at a local chicken farm, where the hotel then sources its meat.
The judging panel found Sivatel Bangkok's structured programme based around regenerative agriculture and funding impressive, along with the way it sources and trains local providers.
"We believe that to live on this Earth, we cannot live alone but must support each other," said Sivatel CEO Alisara Sivayathorn.
Winner – Making tourism inclusive: TUI UK&I
With a business that serves more than six million holidaymakers a year, TUI is one of the best-known tourism brands in Europe. Its deep and comprehensive commitment to inclusivity impressed the judges: the tour operator has devised a unique way to help those with access needs book their accommodations.
Among TUI's many initiatives, they have 90 dedicated agents in their contact centre who have had specialist accessibility training; the team has partnered with AccessAble to survey hotels and develop detailed access guides; and also works with Sign Live to provide interpreting services for British Sign Language Users.
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"Around one in four of the UK population lives with a disability or condition that impacts their daily life," said Marina Snellenberg, TUI's accessibility manager, "and the prevalence of disability rises sharply with age. It's important that TUI consider the needs and expectations of the disabled community, allowing for a sustained and deliverable customer experience for years to come."
Judges were pleased to see a major tour operator address the needs of those with access needs so comprehensively, and hope that others will follow their example.
Winner – What are you doing about climate change?: Jetwing Hotels, Sri Lanka
This award celebrates a small hotel group in Sri Lanka that is actively decarbonising its operations, showing that even smaller players can take meaningful steps towards sustainability and inspire others while doing so.
In a tropical climate like Sri Lanka, air conditioning can consume up to 60% of a hotel's energy needs. Across its 19 hotels, Jetwing Hotels uses renewable energy from biomass, solar PV, solar thermal and biogas for power. In 2023, the hotel group generated the equivalent of the power needed for about 13,490 households through renewable energy alone. The company has also shortened its supply chain, reducing transport emissions, and is now sourcing 40% of their inputs locally to their hotels.
"By reducing energy costs and promoting a culture of environmental responsibility among our staff and guests, we ensure that our business practices are not only beneficial for the environment but also economically viable," said managing director Dmitri Cooray, "Our success shows that even the smallest efforts can create a ripple effect, encouraging others to make impactful changes."
Winner - Nature Positive: CREES, Peru
The award founders believe that the travel industry has a responsibility to contribute to the reversal of biodiversity loss and protect nature for future generations by promoting a regenerative approach to tourism. CREES, a Peruvian company offering tours and volunteering opportunities in the Manu Biosphere Reserve, is this year's winner of the Nature Positive award.
This educational tourism operation is working to benefit local people and conserve biodiversity at its three research stations in the Manu National Park that are home to one of the longest running and largest biodiversity studies in the Amazon. Guests get to witness conservation efforts first hand, exploring the rainforest in the company of the centre's naturalist guides, and participating in ongoing projects like checking pitfall traps, monitoring birdlife and taking visual surveys of reptiles and amphibians at night. Many of the projects monitor the life of the forest in newly regenerated forest areas, replanted by the team's conservationists, as a way to understand species recovery.
Judges were particularly impressed by how CREES approaches its work, citing its broad and holistic agenda aimed at promoting sustainable alternatives that respect human rights, intergenerational rights, biodiversity rights and the rights of species to ensure long-term sustainable economic development, as key factors in its win.
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The fuel-guzzling town of Queenstown, New Zealand, has an audacious goal to become the first tourist destination on Earth to have a completely carbon-zero visitor economy – and all by 2030.
By 2030 – if things really go to plan – you'll land in Queenstown on New Zealand's South Island (possibly even aboard an electric-powered Air New Zealand airplane) and make your way to town via an electric gondola or on a hydro-powered ferry across the town's famous glacier-fed lake, Lake Wakatipu. Skiers and snowboarders – who in winter descend on this region in ever-increasing numbers from around the world – will ride electric-powered chairlifts to the peaks of the surrounding ski resorts.
Year-round, travellers might take high-speed rides on Lake Wakatipu and along the shallow whitewater rapids of the Shotover River town aboard the world's first fully electric jet boats. Even the TSS Earnslaw – this hemisphere's oldest coal-fired, passenger-carrying steamship that has transported young families on day excursions since the 1970s – will run on hydrogen.
It's all part of the region's very ambitious plan to become the first tourist town on Earth to have a carbon-zero visitor economy by 2030. The "adventure capital of the world" – a title earned through decades of innovation creating death-defying activities that had been done nowhere else, but ones that run primarily on fossil fuels – now wants to become the ecotourism capital of the world. And they're aiming for a carbon-zero visitor economy in six years, not an easier-to-achieve carbon-neutral visitor economy (where Queenstown could use carbon credits, like planting trees, to achieve its environmental goals). Becoming carbon-zero is much harder to achieve – because it means you can't emit any carbon at all.
"Well, 2030 creates urgency, doesn't it?" Destination Queenstown CEO Mat Woods asks rhetorically. "2030 seemed so hard to achieve that it got the community excited. It means that everyone in the community has to be part of this [push to carbon-zero]."
Queenstown's huge environmental challenge stemmed from a concern that the region's infrastructure was struggling to cope with the sheer number of tourists coming to town. Queenstown is set around a massive lake, fringed by the rugged mountains of the country's Southern Alps. It's been a skiing hotspot since resorts first opened in the 1940s, but the development of an adventure tourism economy built around its dramatic landscape since the 1960s established the region as one of New Zealand's most popular destinations.
Last year, almost 400,000 international visitors came here, an almost-20% rise since 2019, just before the pandemic. This number is particularly significant when you consider Queenstown has a permanent population of around 50,000.
"Locals were asking, what's in this for us," Woods says. "And can we really sustain this region the way it's going?"
The three local regional tourism organisations – Destination Queenstown, Queenstown Lakes District Council and Lake Wanaka Tourism – proposed the audacious goal in 2021 and were surprised at the support they got from tourism operators. "We took the plan out to the community and weren't sure what to expect," Woods says. "And everyone supported it. And that's the most important part in all of this. Every person has to play a part."
That could be someone like… say, Mr Chippy. While New Zealand eagerly awaits the really big shifts towards environmental sustainability in tourism – like the trial of the region's first e-plane flight, set for 2026 on an Air New Zealand cargo route between Wellington and the Marlborough Sounds – Mr Chippy, aka Michael Sly, has been quietly composting 20 tonnes of hotel food waste each month around Queenstown. His company, Waste To Wilderness, turns the scraps left by tourists into nutrient-dense soil used for food growing – a perfect example of regenerative tourism. "You don't have to take giant leaps," he says. "Take little steps in the right direction and you'll be amazed by what you can achieve."
Though given the number of tourists coming to the Queenstown region each year, local accommodation providers must become the most consequential players in Queenstown's plan to run on alternative energy. The promising news is that already no accommodation can match what Headwaters Eco Lodge has achieved – and long before the 2030 goalpost. It's the first accommodation on the planet to be recognised by the Living Building Challenge, the most rigorous of all environmental assessment programmes.
Surrounded on all sides by the Southern Alps and braided river valleys in the picture-perfect hamlet of Glenorchy, 45 minutes' drive west of Queenstown, the lodge is built entirely from recycled building material. It uses the world's most advanced compost toilets, while every single litre of wastewater irrigates extensive wetlands built through the middle of the property. All of its power comes from one of the South Island's largest solar gardens – there's nearly 600 solar panels on site – which produce so much energy that the excess is used to power another business up the road.
"My husband Paul and I came up this idea of creating these slow tourism experiences that could support this idea of regenerative design," says Headwaters Eco Lodge co-owner, Debbi Brainerd. "We're in the most beautiful place here in Glenorchy. We liked the idea of creating accommodation that had a positive carbon affect, so we created these things in design to help us get there."
Within Queenstown itself, a refurbished 40-year-old motor inn, Sherwood Queenstown, made Expedia's Top 10 eco-friendly stays list in 2019. It runs almost entirely off 248 solar panels and a full-time horticulturist grows nearly half of all produce required by the hotel's restaurant on a hillside within the property that overlooks Lake Wakatipu. "We say that it's all about small things done consistently that really make a difference," explains general manager Hayley Scott. "But it's also important to have big goals to work towards. Everyone in this community is committed to getting as close to achieving carbon-zero by 2030 as we can. It's got us all thinking."
Dig a little deeper and you'll find that world-first environmental innovation is happening across the Queenstown region. Shotover Jet, which whisks travellers through the narrow canyons of Queenstown’s Shotover River at 85 km/h, are trialling the world's first electric-powered jet boat. It's taken three years, but the prototype boat is capable of the same spins and turns – where pilots drive guests just centimetres from the cliffs beside the Shotover River – as their fuel-powered counterparts. But the electric version will actually be far more powerful than the original fuel model. And once it's built, Shotover Jet plan to share the prototype with the rest of the industry to ensure carbon output is eliminated across all jet boat companies in Queenstown.
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And the world's first electric hydro-foiling ferry will soon start operating on a lake just south-west of Queenstown. Expected to save more than 240 tonnes of carbon emissions each year (equivalent to taking 52 petrol cars off the road), the Swedish-designed ferry will operate on Lake Manapouri from early 2025 using battery power only. The same type of ferry is expected to operate on Lake Wakatipu next, with local marinas recently updated to enable electric boat charging for all lake users.
And the innovations towards a carbon zero visitor economy keep on coming. A local wine tour company – Appellation Wine Tours – has introduced two new electric vehicles to their fleet; while tour company Nomad Safaris started Tesla Tours, taking zero-emission electric vehicles on private tours to the most scenic parts of the region, like an area just beyond Glenorchy dubbed "Paradise", where rivers running down from glaciers high in the national park above feed the deep waters of Lake Wakatipu.
The region has also developed 130km of bike trails that follow the edge of Lake Wakatipu and lead deep into the backcountry beyond town, sometimes along swaying suspension bridges crossing the emerald-coloured Kawarau River, making it globally recognised as a cycling destination. By 2026, it's estimated biking will reach as much as 50% the size of the more carbon-unfriendly ski visitor economy that currently dominates tourism in the area.
And every one of these developments spur other businesses to push for their own environmental victories and make the next big carbon-zero conquest. As global temperatures surge and storms wreak destruction of unprecedented proportions, it's inspiring to see an entire community of tourism operators embark on a challenge that, if successful, will cut 20 years off the carbon-zero target set by the United Nations Climate Change Council. Their efforts may go largely unnoticed in mainstream media, but this community of former fuel-guzzlers plan to show the world there's still hope for us all yet.
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Fruity, nutty and slightly tangy, this deliciously rich, spiced cake symbolises love and affection – and making it is a true labour of love.
We never had a white Christmas growing up in Sri Lanka, but it was a time of joy. It was the season when supermarkets put up Christmas trees, homes were decorated with images of snowmen, kids gathered to practice Christmas carols and twinkling lights flickered in the night. But the best part of Christmas was biting into a slice of slightly crunchy and decadently moist love cake, a traditional Sri Lankan Christmas dessert. For me, this addictively fruity, nutty and slightly tangy cake pinned the season into place.
One of my earliest memories tied to love cake was the rustling sound of wrapping paper as my mother opened a piece she received as a gift. At first glance, love cake appears brown, boring and bland, but then the heady fragrances hit you: citrusy, floral and spicy. This dense, rich cake melds roasted semolina and chopped cashew nuts with pumpkin preserve. It's flavoured and perfumed with ground spices like cardamom, cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, along with lime zest, rosewater and honey. Firm and crusty on the outside and soft and fudgy on the inside, love cake feels like a warm hug from home.
Sri Lankan-born chef Dhayanie Williams – a media personality and MasterChef Australia contestant – says that love cake has a fascinating history that goes back several centuries. She explains that love cake was first baked in colonial Ceylon (as Sri Lanka was known during the 16th Century), borrowing influences from the Portuguese and the Dutch – who controlled Sri Lanka's coasts for their spice trade – and merging it with local culinary customs.
"The idea of a rich, spiced cake symbolising love and affection likely stems from Portuguese traditions of baking dense, flavourful cakes with ingredients like nuts, spice and preserved fruits," Williams says.
In fact, a common belief is that Sri Lankan love cake originated from a Portuguese cake called bolo d'amor ("cake of love"), a tart-like dessert made with semolina, cashew and sherry with a similar texture to love cake. Portuguese settlers and traders introduced ingredients, techniques and recipes that were adapted by the local population, Williams says. For example, the use of pumpkin preserve could be a rendering of dolce de gila, or Portuguese squash preserves; and Sri Lankans may have adapted the original recipe to suit the local palate with readily available ingredients like cashews and nutmeg. All ingredients play their role, William explains, adding that scenting the cake with fragrant rose water gives it a sense of indulgence and romance.
British food writer and photographer Ranji Thangiah, whose family hails from Sri Lanka, says that the addition of rosewater is a notable Arabic influence. "It's found in cakes dating back to the Moorish occupation of Portugal and Spain," she says.
There are other tales and theories tied to how love cake received its intriguing name. It's etched in folklore that Sri Lankan women baked this cake to win the hearts of Portuguese sailors. Another story, Thangiah says, is that the recipe uses ingredients that were considered rich and exotic – cashews, butter and spices – and you would make it only for someone you loved dearly.
Many chefs and home bakers also believe that preparing love cake is a "labour of love and patience", as Williams describes it, which is perhaps what gave the cake its name. "It's very labour intensive. You need a delicate balance of ingredients and put in meticulous attention. It shows the care you give to your loved ones, making it more special."
Traditionally, love cake is prepared during Christmas by the Dutch Burghers – descendants of the Europeans who intermarried the local Sinhalese and Tamils who are now an ethnic minority in Sri Lanka. However, Sri Lankans of different communities, both on the island and throughout the diaspora, have come to embrace it. When Thangiah was growing up in north-west London, her Tamil-Sri Lankan mother would bake love cake as a treat and not for special occasions. She baked it for "no other reason than to show us that she loved us", Thangiah says.
As ethnic lines blur, love cake has cemented its role in celebrations where connection and bonding are central. As well as being gifted by families and shared among friends over Christmas, the cake is often baked during weddings, birthdays and anniversaries and given as a "symbol of love and good luck, especially to newlyweds and new family members", says Williams.
Often, families add their own twists to the recipe – such as honey, brandy or almond essence – and those tightly guarded family traditions are passed down through generations. As it's rich and intense in flavour, love cake is also often served in small slices, which according to Williams, adds a touch of luxury to every bite.
Growing up in Sri Lanka, Williams always bought love cake from bakeries across the island. But when she met her Burgher husband in Australia, she saw her new family preparing love cake on most celebratory days. She remembers learning from her mother-in-law, who refers to a recipe in Hilda Deutrom's Ceylon Daily News Cookery Book originally published in 1930, a classic tome of Sri Lankan cooking. But the measurements were in pounds, which confused her as she was used to the metric system, so Williams spent time flipping through Sri Lankan cookbooks and speaking to friends and family to piece together a love cake recipe she could perfect.
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As she mastered it over time, there was always one thing that dwelled on Williams' mind. "My mother-in-law used to say that a good piece of love cake should have three layers. The top layer should be like a crust, the middle soft and gooey and the bottom slightly hard," she says. During Christmas, Williams and her mother-in-law would get together to chop up ingredients and bake love cake. But things have changed since Williams began taking online orders. "Sometimes my mother-in-law orders from me, so I put extra care because she's the hardest critic," she says.
Although making love cake is laborious, Williams explained that organisation is key. During the festive season, she hand-chops up 10-15kg of cashews, which she describes as the "hardest task". "There are no shortcuts," she says, "but you can now use the cake mixer to blend up sugar and eggs so you don't need to whisk by hand." Although perfecting this Sri Lankan treat takes time, it becomes a lot easier when "you hit the right flavour profile and consistency," Williams adds.
As I have come to learn about the long-cherished cake-making traditions tightly knitted to the heritage of Sri Lankan Burghers and welcomed by all Sri Lankans, I now know that the beautifully textured, exquisitely flavourful love cake of my childhood represents goodwill, love and comfort. The last time I served it was at my own wedding, baked by my Tamil aunt-in-law and wrapped in gold foil – one for each guest to take home.
Sri Lankan Love Cake Recipe
By Dhayanie Williams
Serves 20-24
Method:
Step 1
In a dry pan over medium heat, toast the semolina lightly until fragrant (about 3-4 minutes). Place the toasted warm semolina and soft butter together in a bowl and mix with a spatula until the butter is melted and absorbed into the semolina. Set aside until required.
Step 2
In a mixing bowl, cream together egg yolks and sugar until light and fluffy.
Step 3
Once the egg-and-sugar mix is ready, add semolina and butter mixture to the eggs and mix well using a spatula. Then add chopped cashews and follow the same process. Add chopped candied melon and mix well until everything is well incorporated. The mixture will be very sticky and thick at this stage.
Step 4
Stir in the ground nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves and cardamom. Add almond essence, vanilla extract, rose water, honey or golden syrup and brandy. Add lime zest and mix well, set aside until required.
Step 5
In a separate bowl, beat egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gently fold the egg whites into the batter, incorporating them carefully to keep the mixture airy.
Step 6
Preheat the oven to 150C (300F). Grease and line a baking pan (8x8in or similar).* Pour the batter into the prepared pan and smoothen the top. Bake for 60-75 minutes, or until the top is golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean. The cake should have a slightly chewy texture.
Step 7
Let the cake cool in the pan for at least 8 hours before cutting into squares or diamonds (do not put on a wire rack). Store in an airtight container. It keeps well for several weeks, and the flavour deepens with time.
Step 8
Serve a slice of Sri Lankan love cake with a cup of tea or coffee.
Notes
*When you place the baking paper on the cake tray, make sure you have extra baking paper overlapping as this will help you to easily remove the cake once cooled.
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For award-winning bartender Virgie Nieves and many others across her home island of Puerto Rico, there's one thing that signals the start of the holidays: coquito.
This creamy, sweet drink, made with a trifecta of milks – coconut milk, condensed milk, evaporated milk – and of course, rum, is a staple of the island's festive season. It's always served cold, either as a chilled shot or over ice, as winter on Puerto Rico still means tropical weather. And since Puerto Ricans have one of the longest holiday seasons in the world, coquito can generally be found in homes, and sometimes bars, starting from just before Thanksgiving until Three Kings Day on 6 January. It's also a hit at the annual San Sebastian Festival that takes place in the streets of Old San Juan on 20 January.
"In the supermarkets you can see the empty bottles [to make] the coquitos," says Nieves. "The rack of evaporated milk and condensed milk. They put it in the front row, so you know that the holiday is coming soon."
While the origins of coquito are murky – with rumoured stories ranging from a pre-Columbian creation by the island's historical Taíno people to an island version of eggnog – the most likely version seems to be that coquito was invented in the 1950s after the introduction of evaporated and condensed milk to the island, considering that the drink's popularity didn't really take off until the 1970s. Similar creamy rum drinks, often with little local tweaks, can be found across the Caribbean, including coco punch on the island of Guadeloupe, ponche de creme in Trinidad and Tobago and Haiti's kremas.
In many ways, coquito's ingredients are a microcosm of Puerto Rico's unique makeup. For example, the drink closely resembles the milk and brandy possets that were popular with the Spanish who colonised the island; while coconut, its main ingredient and the origins of its name "little coconut", was originally brought to the island alongside the enslaved Africans who worked in the sugar plantations. And of course, the rum is a local creation, made from fermenting those same sugar canes.
"I like to use like H rum when I prepare it," said Nieves, referring to the local Ron del Barrilito rum, known locally as H rum due to its production in the town of Hacienda Santa Ana. "It's a local rum that's really good."
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Nieves, who has been a bartender on the island for more than 19 years, is the official coquito maker for her family. In the past, she worked for the popular (but now permanently closed) Taiguey Beach Bar in Isla Verde. However, she currently makes cocktails at the Caribe Hilton in San Juan, where she serves coquito during the holiday season.
As a bartender, she occasionally likes to switch up her coquito recipe by adding unique flavours or different alcohols, like Cuarenta y Tres, a Spanish liquor made of 43 ingredients including citrus, herbs and vanilla. "I have a list of flavours [for coquito]," she said. "Nutella, pistachio, Oreo, even pumpkin."
Even so, Nieves warns that changing major elements of the drink can be frowned upon by purists. She explains that most families make the same recipe, which is passed down through generations with very few alterations. Any tweaks and tricks, she says, are closely guarded family secrets. Because of this, coquito is much more likely to be served at a holiday party than at a bar.
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The drink makes a perfect dessert after a traditional Puerto Rican holiday meal of pernil (roast pork), rice and peas; and homemade pasteles, a tamale like dish made with plantains, root vegetables and meat wrapped in a banana leaf. For those who can't swing an island Christmas escape, the drink can also be found in the mainland US or wherever Puerto Ricans gather for the holidays.
Virgie Nieves' Signature Coquito
Makes up to 20 shots
Method
Place all ingredients in a large bowl or jar. Mix well, bottle and leave in fridge overnight to make sure all ingredients blend well.
Serve as a shot or over ice.
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British-born gin connoisseur Simon Ford breaks down the components of a proper (and perfect) martini, a staple of any festive holiday gathering.
While most people agree that classics never truly go out of style, there's no denying the martini is having a moment in London right now. Forget low-ABV spritzes – the spirit-forward cocktail made with gin (or vodka) and vermouth and served in a V-shaped glass is so iconic, it's an emoji and status symbol all at once.
"The martini is a drink that bartenders love," says Simon Ford, cocktail expert and founder of Ford's Gin, who is a longtime fan of the classic. "It's a symbol of elegance and sophistication – and shows you have a deeper understanding of cocktail culture when you make and serve one well."
Ford notes that assembling the perfect martini requires a bit of attentiveness, a few specific ingredients, and just-the-right-sized glassware, preferably chilled. (He suggests serving martinis in smaller martini glasses – never the oversized ones – so that you and your guests sip only cold cocktails.) Attention to detail, he says, cannot be overlooked.
"The vermouth needs to be fresh, the glass should be in the freezer till the very last minute right before being poured," Ford says. "When it comes to making a martini, all the ingredients need to be treated with a lot of respect. It's a very sophisticated cocktail. It almost reeks of sophistication, and in terms of booze, it's much like a Manhattan or an old fashioned: it's a stirred, spirits-forward cocktail. If you live in a cold climate, a martini is a warming drink and fits quite nicely into a celebratory holiday. It's also a treat; a martini is not an everyday drink."
Ford points out that there is an art to making the perfect martini, and the bespoke service and attention to detail is often worth the price. "There are places that specialise in making good martinis these days," he says, "places where you spend a little bit more money, and you expect extra service with a very proficient bartender in front of you. The whole thing lends itself to being a more celebratory drink."
The origins of this classic cocktail date back more than a century. Its recipe is actually a riff on other cocktails that came before it, but the martini was popular right from the very start, Ford explains. In fact, in pre-Prohibition New York City, the martini was the status symbol of its day.
"The martini is an evolution of the Manhattan, which was invented in New York City in the pre-Prohibition era," Ford says. "It put gin firmly on the map as one of the most important spirits in the US. The martini was everywhere in New York City up until Prohibition, just like the espresso martini today, just like the cosmopolitan in the Sex and the City days. It was very sophisticated – arguably the mother of all cocktails."
Not only was the martini a hit in the Big Apple, it had international ripples, a merging of a spirit invented in London (dry gin) with New York's cocktail culture, and it wouldn't be long before the martini found its way to the British capital. Ford points out that most significantly, the American Bar at the Savoy in London helped fuel the fervour of the cocktail.
"The American Bar was very known for making the martini famous [in London] and the influence of Ian Fleming and James Bond on the martini and its connection to London cannot be overlooked," he says. "Bond was drinking gin and vodka martinis. England's most sophisticated fictional character (at the time) was drinking martinis because Ian Fleming was drinking them! The Vesper martini was born out of fiction – and not a bar – which is remarkable in itself."
Ford explains that World War Two destroyed London and its cocktail culture, but in the 1980s and '90s it started to come back. What never went away, however, was the American Bar at the Savoy Hotel, which was serving martinis perfectly, even when it wasn't in fashion. ("When cocktails were cool again and there was media attention, people like Peter Dorelli and Salvatore Calabrese were like, 'We've been doing this for 30 years!'")
Ford says the cocktail culture in London today is equally (if not more) exciting as the glory days of the past – and he is constantly in awe of and inspired by what bartenders old and new are doing. He sees the old guard upholding tradition with each classic martini poured, while the new are putting unique spins on the drink, among other riffs on classics.
At A Bar with Shapes for a Name, for example, "where they turn cocktails into an art", says Ford, they are currently serving an innovative take on the espresso martini, as well infusing dill in spirits using a sous vide method for their riff on a dry martini.
"There are so many different styles of drinks and creative bartenders putting their own twists and spins and pushing the limits," he adds. "London has become a hotbed of creativity in the drinks world, without a doubt: There's Lyaness, a bar that takes a very sustainable approach to creating drinks; and Tayēr + Elementary, which is like walking into the NOMA of cocktail bars. In the meantime, you go to Satan's Whiskers, which is a bartenders' favourite, where they do perfect martinis, Negronis and all the classics. Of course, all these new places are juxtaposed with the classic hotel bars delivering exceptional service. That's what's making the martini in London so hot right now."
Fords Gin, created in 2013 by Simon Ford and 10th-generation master distiller Charles Maxwell, is made in the newly relocated Thames Distillers in Southwark, south-east London. The team recently opened a state-of-the-art bar and tasting room next to the distillery, which will be opened to the public but is currently only for trade and private events. Ford often gives tours to bartenders and is elated that they now have a space to showcase their gin, specifically in a martini.
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"After we have a martini at our distillery, we'll then take our guests on a tour of London's cocktail bars," he says. "London is such a hub of cocktail culture, and Ford's Gin was born in London and made in London, and now we get to celebrate the whole thing together – properly."
Simon Ford's Perfect Dry Martini
"The perfect martini (to me) is three or four parts Ford's Gin to one part vermouth, plus a dash of orange bitters; stirred always, with a lemon twist to express the oils – nice and cold, served in a smaller-sized, chilled martini glass. It's finding the balance between having the martini cold, and the right dilution and balancing the vermouth." – Simon Ford
Method:
Step 1
Chill the cocktail glass by placing it in the freezer for at least 30 mins before serving
Step 2
Fill a mixing glass with ice, using the best quality ice available
Step 3
Pour in the gin, vermouth and bitters
Step 4
Use a bar spoon and stir for approximately 30 seconds until icy cold
Step 5
Strain the cold martini into chilled martini glass
Step 6
Garnish with a lemon peel
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The legendary chef explains how to make the perfect roastie, why turkey still triumphs over beef and the unusual ingredient in his Christmas pudding.
It's only 16:00 on a freezing autumn afternoon in central London but the daylight outside has already started to fade. As chef Richard Corrigan descends a staircase into the elegant Art Deco bar of his Mayfair restaurant Bentley's Oyster Bar & Grill, however, he brings with him a blast of energy and exuberance to blow away any gloom brought on by the darkness outside.
The larger-than-life character roars with laughter and tells riotous stories that underline his reputation as a bon vivant who has pretty much seen and done it all in the world of food.
Corrigan is a legendary figure in London's dining landscape, and 2024 marks 30 years since he first won a Michelin star and 46 since he started working as a trainee chef in his childhood home of County Meath, just north of Dublin.
Today, in addition to Bentley's, he runs the restaurants Corrigan's Mayfair, Daffodil Mulligan, Gibney's London, The Portrait Restaurant (atop The National Portrait Gallery in London's Trafalgar Square) and Virginia Park Lodge in Ireland's County Cavan. He has published two books and made countless TV appearances – including winning BBC's the Great British Menu no fewer than three times and serving as a judge on the show. He has also cooked for guests including Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II and Barack Obama, in a dinner at 10 Downing Street.
I ask him how the pressure of cooking for those very special diners compares with cooking for his family at Christmas?
"I think [preparing a meal for relatives is] even more stressful because my kitchen isn't professional," he replied. "I have a fan oven that only takes so much and they're all sitting there, expecting miracles, thinking they're in some (expletive) posh Michelin restaurant, while their old man is working his nuts off."
Hilarious and candid in equal measure, the answer is peak Corrigan and makes it easy to imagine why Christmas at home with him would be unforgettable, on multiple levels.
To put the Christmas feast on his home dining table into context, he first talks about his childhood. He grew up on a 25-acre farm, one of seven children.
"I'm a farmer with a restaurant. I'm the real deal, I'm the country bumpkin. I have a love of meadows, corncrakes, curlews, the waders and wild ducks coming in to roost. We had an outside dairy where everything was prepped; milk, butter and buttermilk were all made out there. It was built under the trees, so it was cold in summer, and really cold in winter. My father shot rabbits, then there'd be eels and a few pheasants hanging in the house."
It was a bounty that inspired Corrigan's profound love of the finest ingredients, which ends up on his own dining table in North London as well as those in his restaurants. Come Christmas Day, everything is in place for a day of classic festive feasting with his family. Here's Corrigan's classic Christmas menu:
Wild smoked salmon and oysters
"So, at 11:00 on Christmas Day we always have a bit of smoked salmon from Sally Barnes at Woodcock Smokery in West Cork. I'll take a paper-thin slice of it, put a little milled pepper on it and I just let it melt on my tongue, I wouldn't even dare close my lips, just let the oils of the wild salmon seep in. Then I like to warm my soda bread ever so slightly, put some Lincolnshire Poacher butter then a bit of smoked salmon. Take a nibble – don't take a bite."
Bottles of chilled Champagne are opened around the same time, then oysters are served from Rossmore in County Cork in Ireland and Loch Ryan in Scotland. Corrigan adds that he also used to serve langoustines and prawns, but: "we realised there's no need – salmon and oysters are the perfect start".
The main event happens around 16:00 and features an epic festive spread enjoyed by Corrigan, his wife Maria and especially their three children: "For kids who have travelled the world, they're suckers for a good traditional Christmas lunch."
Honey roast ham
Corrigan explains that ham is a crucial part of any Irish Christmas table, whether in his childhood home or his current home, London.
"The ham on the bone would have been done the day before, the classic hock riddled with brown sugar, cloves and honey. At home [growing up in Ireland] maybe there'd be a bit of a marmalade if mam was feeling very Robert Carrier" (an American who was one of the first TV chefs, from the 1960's onwards).
"When you bake it, and you let it rest, you don't need to serve ham warm. It can just be served, carved beautifully to a certain thickness – it should never be carved thin... you should be able to cut it with your knife, not fold it with a fork."
Turkey
The hero protein in much of the world for Christmas lunch or dinner, turkey continues to divide diners between those who love it and those who are happy that it's only served once a year. Over the years, Corrigan has tried serving other birds.
"I've done mallards, pheasant, goose and one year an homage to all the birds. But if you're looking for a wonderful slice of meat, you never feel fulfilled with them; there's never enough to go around with a goose."
Now, he says, "It's time to bring turkey back to the table. Christmas is not roast beef. In Ireland, turkey was always over-fed, it was a really big bird, 16-18lb [7.2-8.2kg]. Because they were free range, they tasted great. They were heavily grain-fed, also on a root vegetable called a mangel (also known as a mangold) that we'd cook in a big pot with oatmeal."
At home he serves a Kelly Bronze turkey, but it's a sauce that really makes his eyes light up with excitement.
"Cranberry sauce, to me, is the most delicious thing. Cranberries cooked in some port with a zest of orange. Before they break down, take them off the heat, let them go cold and then grate some fresh horseradish on top. Hallelujah! It really lifts even the most boring piece of country turkey, the bird that couldn't fly, the Irish ostrich!"
Roast potatoes
"I can make a roastie – I could make a roastie out of a (expletive) stone."
The enthusiasm is again tangible as Corrigan explains his way with roast potatoes, known as "roasties" in much of the UK and Ireland.
"I just parboil good old red potatoes, either Golden Wonder or British Queen. They're really soft but make a great roast potato because they're fluffy – you just have to handle them carefully.
Cook them in their skins, take them out before they're cooked and then let them steam so the skins crack. Then let them cool down, take the skins off ever so carefully, then get your goose fat and a bit of butter for good measure.
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Let it splutter away nicely and slowly, don't rush it, you don't want high heat on them, then all of a sudden, they become like little crystallised snowflake stars, like a snowflake under a microscope, as cracks within cracks appear. They fluff up, and once I get a bit of colour on them on the stove, I put them into a nice hot oven. You could eat the outside and mash the inside – that's my perfect roastie."
Herb and onion stuffing
Many recipes for traditional Christmas turkey stuffing feature sausage meat, but the idea sees Corrigan launch into another tirade.
"Sausage meat gets in the way; you're not making a meatloaf! I still think mam's stuffing was the best. Take white breadcrumbs and onions and as much butter as they could absorb, [along with] parsley, sage, black pepper, a squeeze of lemon or lemon zest and a tiny bit of salt at the end. The onions have to be plentiful, but with no colourisation, they still need to look and feel like an onion. Just bread and herbs – you don't need sausage!"
Vegetables
Despite his clear love of all things meaty, Corrigan is adamant that vegetables are just as crucial for a Christmas feast.
"The vegetables should be as good as the main act. We know what fresh is; veg should not be sitting in a fridge for five weeks. You pick it, you wash it, [the] next day you cook it. Use fresh vegetables, natural, organic if at all possible. If you're living near a farm, go and knock on the farmer's door and just buy them off them."
"I love my parsnips not to be too soft and I love Brussel sprouts with a bite. I don't want them mushy like mam's boiled cabbage, you know what I mean? And respect my veg, don't put bacon on top of them! If you have a few chestnuts, then wonderful, go for the Santa Claus feel."
Christmas pudding
The festive feast finishes, of course, with Christmas pudding.
"Christmas pudding at home was never too dry, it was always incredibly, beautifully alcoholic – and goddamn rich. Guinness and whiskey, lots of dried fruit and peels. Always grated carrot in there too as it keeps it moist and gives a natural sweetness without using too much brown sugar.
It'd be wrapped in muslin then boiled in the big beautiful old brown basins. We'd serve it with custard and cream – no brandy butter in our house. You can't beat a crème Anglaise (a light French take on custard) with good vanilla essence – you don't need Madagascan vanilla. I'd drink it in a pint glass."
It sounds like the perfect toast to Christmas.
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In 1947, Gorizia was abruptly split between Italy and Slovenia. In 2025, the two towns will reunite as the first transnational European Capital of Culture.
Right now, I'm standing in Nova Gorica – a modest but beautiful planned Modernist town in Slovenia with a population of 30,000. But if I take just a few steps, I can cross an invisible border into Italy to the medieval town of Gorizia, without even showing my passport.
Once upon a time, Nova Gorica and Gorizia were one; the two cities were created – and separated – in 1947 after World War Two when the Treaty of Paris established Europe's new borders, restricting travel between Italy and the former Yugoslavia. An Allied commission determined that Gorizia should belong to Italy and the less-developed part of town should be part of the Slovenian republic within the Socialist Federalist Republic of Yugoslavia. The new town was to be called Nova Gorica (New Gorizia), and from that moment on, Nova Gorica and Gorizia have existed as two towns split across two countries.
But with Slovenia's entry into the EU in 2004, the border between them was dissolved, allowing a cross-cultural exchange for the first time in generations. And in 2025, Gorizia/Nova Gorica will reunite as the first transnational European Capital of Culture, in a project called GO!2025.
Because of this accolade, between two and five million visitors are expected to descend upon the two towns in 2025, compared to the usual 250,000 annual tourists. That's a big leap for an otherwise under-touristed, out-of-the-way destination, even if Gorizia was dubbed "the Austrian Nice" from 1867 to 1918 when it was part of Austria-Hungary. To celebrate the honour, a robust calendar of cultural events, including musical and dance performances and art exhibits, has been launched. And I'm here to explore.
Though cut from the same cloth, the two towns couldn't be more different. Medieval Gorizia is old-worldly, cobblestoned and lined with lively cafes, dominated by an imposing castle that features an expansive museum packed with interactive exhibits and high-tech installations that portray life in the castle through the ages.
By contrast, Nova Gorica – designed to show the world that Josip Broz Tito's Yugoslavia was capable of large-scale urban development– is Modernist, and its relative newness, with concrete architecture laid out in lines, is the most obvious clue that you've crossed a border.
As I wander around this planned town, once known mostly as a centre of casinos and nightlife for Italians, I'm not surprised that it has not been on my radar, despite the fact that I have lived in Slovenia for more than a decade. However, although Nova Gorica seems unglamorous on first sight, I soon discover hidden gardens, crumbling palaces and tucked-away Social Realist frescoes – all relics of its turbulent history. With any luck, the status of European Capital of Culture will offer millions a chance to be charmed and intrigued, as I soon am.
The European Capital of Culture is awarded by the EU each year to two towns (the other 2025 selection is Chemnitz, Germany). Towns apply nearly a decade in advance for this status, which provides many benefits, including EU funding for programming and new infrastructure like monuments and bridges, as well as touristic promotion.
As the first transnational application for the title, the joint bid was particularly engaging; it's refreshing to have a Capital of Culture that contains an intentionally open border and that celebrates the cultures on each side of it. The idea of a "borderless" capital, a laboratory on how nations can better connect and cooperate, navigating multiple languages and political systems, feels ideal for our time.
Administratively Gorizia and Nova Gorica are two towns, but in practice almost everyone who lives here speaks both Slovenian and Italian, and locals live and work on whichever side of the border they prefer. Tomaž Gržeta, for instance, is a Slovenian music journalist born in Nova Gorica but lives in Gorizia because he likes the vibe.
You won't always be aware of when you cross between the countries; since 2004 there has been no checkpoint and no barrier. However, the border is celebrated at Piazza Transalpina (Transalpine Square) in front of the main train station (technically in Slovenia), where tourists line up to have their photos taken standing half in Slovenia, half in Italy. This is where the most expansive intervention has taken place as part of the GO!2025 programme, with the square newly transformed into a cultural, performance and museum space that includes both an underground art gallery and amphitheatre-like step seating that rise up like wings on either side of the border point.
Gorizia/Nova Gorica's very borderlessness means that its history is complicated, to say the least, as it passed so frequently into different political hands: it was owned by the Habsburgs, the Counts of Gorizia, Napoleon, Austria-Hungary, the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats and Slovenes, the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, the Kingdom of Italy, Yugoslavia, and now by Italy (Gorizia) and Slovenia (Nova Gorica).
Evelin Bizjak, a local tour guide, gave me an example as we stood outside the Slovenian smuggling museum, Muzej na Meji (MM). "We live in a house near Solkan," she said, naming the world's longest stone arch bridge, built in 1905, that spans the Soča River. "My grandma was born in Austria-Hungary. My father was born in the Kingdom of Italy. I was born in Yugoslavia. If I had kids, they'd be born in Slovenia."
When the new border was drawn at the Paris Peace Conference, the Allied powers drew a straight line in pencil with a ruler on a map and instructed soldiers to paint along it. The line cut through fields, sometimes even houses. A photo from that year shows a cow with its hind legs in Italy and its front end in Slovenia. A few steps from where that photo was taken in the direction of Gorizia is Lasciapassare, the Italian smuggling museum. A hop, skip and a jump in the other direction is Muzej na Meji, its Slovenian counterpart. Each was built in their respective customs house, and the two miniature museums offer complimentary exhibits – the point is to visit both and cross the border, walking about 200 steps, in doing so.
The museums reveal what life was like along a border. Yugoslavs could cross with a special booklet that functioned as a day pass to travel a maximum of 30km. It contained vouchers that allowed you to buy goods unavailable in Yugoslavia to bring back home. Coffee, laundry detergent, bananas and chocolate were the hottest commodities for Yugoslavs, while Italians crossed the other way for meat and homemade schnapps. You had to smuggle anything more than what your vouchers permitted, and it was a common practice. A T-shirt sold by the Slovenian smuggling museum features a Yugo car with various illicit goods hidden in the panelling.
"When the border was drawn, families had two months to decide if they wanted to be Yugoslav or Italian," said Alex Tamer, a docent at Lasciapassare. "Everyone around here has family on both sides." Those who chose to be Yugoslav became the first residents of Nova Gorica, a municipal project that turned the cluster of houses and farms that had existed in the outskirts of Gorizia into a new town proper.
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The design was entrusted to modernist architect Edvard Ravnikar, and thousands of residents of far-flung Yugoslav territories were invited to build the town in exchange for free housing and jobs in the new factories. But only about a quarter of it was built to Ravnikar's design. The rest was erected piecemeal, prioritising budget over liveability, leaving the feel of Nova Gorica less a complete thought than an unfinished notion.
The final stop on my tour of town is Kostanjevica, a 16th-Century hilltop Franciscan church covered with scent-heady Bourbon roses and gnarled chestnut trees. The church was nearly levelled in World War One but lovingly restored after bombs tore apart all but the floor and the presbytery. But the main attraction is in the whitewashed crypt: six polished marble coffins that contain the remains of the French king Charles X Bourbon (1757–1836) and members of his family. His heart was removed and interred with him, like something out of a horror movie.
Charles X was the last Bourbon king of France and the only French king to be buried outside of France. He died here of cholera, but his reign was so unpopular that France didn't want his body. So Charles' family buried him beneath the local church in a coffin that stands on a plinth containing French soil. Perhaps a transnational town is a fitting resting place for a Franco-Austrian royal family with no kingdom to rule.
As I step out of the cool darkness of the marble-lined crypt, the Mediterranean sunlight pours over me. I can see both Gorizia and Nova Gorica from this hilltop. The Adriatic is just 30km away to the south, the Alps just 40km to the north. This is where these climates meet and where two cultures and nationalities have coexisted almost entirely in harmony. It's the perfect place to see how borderlessness can function smoothly in practice, and GO!2025 offers an ideal chance to explore and celebrate one of the true transnational places in Europe.
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As ski resorts around the world grapple with the effects of climate change, dry slope skiing may be the green answer to the sport's future.
Slipping into a wood-heated hot tub at CopenHot, an outdoor Nordic spa in Copenhagen's hip, industrial Refshaleøen neighbourhood, I gazed across the Øresund strait towards one of the city's most striking landmarks, CopenHill. The swoop-shaped incineration plant is now topped with an urban park – a man-made mountain in an otherwise flat city. Although it was August and a sunny 22C, I was surprised to see skiers careening down the sloped greenspace atop the facility.
Designed by Danish architect Bjarke Ingels, CopenHill features hiking trails, a rock-climbing wall and a rooftop cafe. But the landmark's most interesting attraction is 400m-long ski piste created through a synthetic surface called Neveplast that mimics hard-packed snow by using concentric conical stems to provide grip. Since opening in 2019, some 10,000 residents and tourists eager to learn how to dry slope ski or board descend on this former plant every year – including thrill-seekers like Ellen Dansgaard, who perform ski and snowboarding tricks during Friday Night Freestyle rail jams for skiers and snowboarders.
"I moved to Copenhagen for my studies in 2021 because it's the only place in Denmark where I could ski [year-round], and the rail jams really bring the community together," says Dansgaard, who skis at CopenHill three times a week and competes in freestyle events across the country. "If you've skied on hard-packed snow, that's what dry slope feels like. The best part is you can ski all year and practice your skills."
As a lifelong downhill skier, I was intrigued. Growing up in Montreal, Canada, I remember ski seasons starting in early November, but as ski resorts around the world grapple with the impacts of climate change and less snow, many mountains open later and close earlier each year.
According to the US Environmental Protection Agency, snowpack season (the number of days with snow on the ground) has decreased by more than 15 days since 1955, and a recent study predicts that by 2050, as average ski seasons get shorter, the demand to produce artificial snow will increase between 55% and 97%.
After watching skiers and boarders racing down CopenHill, I learned that a ski resort near my home in Quebec, Tremblant, recently invested $1.4m in a dry slope run as a warm-weather alternative. And so I wondered: could artificial surfaces help preserve or extend the ski season?
Maybe, says ski writer Patrick Thorne, who publishes a monthly newsletter, DrySlopeNews.com. According to Thorne, the earliest artificial ski surfaces date back to the 1950s when Jacques Brunel, a Canadian-born ski jumper and instructor living in Beacon, New York, dreamed of making snow in August. Brunel crushed plastic and laid it over a mat made of nylon parachutes, allowing skiers in bathing suits and shorts to ski in the summer. After Brunel's invention garnered national attention in 1956, he went on to patent his "Artificial Skiing Mat".
Dry slopes became hugely popular – especially in the UK – in the 1970s, and while many closed in the 1990s and early 2000s after falling out of favour or succumbing to mismanagement, Thorne has noticed a recent resurgence, perhaps because of climate change. Today, there are more than 1,000 dry slopes in 50 countries.
"In China, hundreds have been built in the middle of cities, and they're really pushing it as an activity for everyone," Thorne says, noting that many resorts in areas with little to no snow offer year-round dry slope skiing. Other facilities use dry slopes when snow cover is inconsistent – something the manufacturers of the materials are encouraging resorts in low-altitude ski areas to adapt.
"I got an email from a guy who runs a ski resort in the Czech Republic asking to be connected to manufacturers – he said they can't guarantee snow anymore, so he wants to put in a dry slope," says Thorne, who lives in Inverness, Scotland, and has skied on about 50 dry slopes.
Ski writer Rob Stewart says dry slopes might be the answer to future-proofing ski resorts – especially ones in lower altitudes.
"Artificial ski slopes make a lot of sense. If the dry slope's there and it snows on top, you're never going to know [the synthetic surface] is there. But if the snow doesn't arrive, you've got a surface you can still ski on," says Stewart. "Artificial snowmaking has become ubiquitous at most ski resorts across Europe and North America. It obviously makes a big difference, but there is a question mark over how challenging the snowfall is going to be over the coming years. Are lower slopes going to start struggling more and more? Most people will probably say yes."
For now, some resorts want to test the waters first. Tremblant is a four-season resort, and according to its marketing director, Jean-François Gour, the plan was to launch the dry slope as a summer activity and then see how interested people are before developing steeper runs.
Established dry slopes tend to have strong community support. For instance, in October, residents of Polmont in central Scotland rescued their 50-year-old facility, Polmonthill Ski Slope, from closure by taking over ownership. Ski instructor and racer Bailey Ross learned to ski there, spends four days a week on the slopes and is thrilled it's been resurrected.
"It means a lot to me and the community – it's a massive part of their lives – and a great place for people to try skiing," says Ross, adding that learning on a dry slope can make you a better skier on snow. "Skiing on a dry slope is harder because when you make movements on snow, it can move about underneath you. Dry slopes are either hard or grass-like, so every movement under your feet is completely different, but once you feel comfortable on your skiis, it's amazing. And every time you jump onto it, it's a new feeling: on warm days, the slope runs a bit slower and stickier. When it's cold and wet, the mat feels more firm underneath you, and it goes fast."
Manchester-based Catherine Beresford has been skiing at Runcorn Ski Centre in Cheshire, England, for 38 years, and on snow across Europe. She notes that because dry slopes don't grip as well as snow, you can't dig your edges the same way, so your movements are more subtle.
"The dry slope is less forgiving, but that's a positive in my book, because if you learn to ski on snow, you can make mistakes quite easily," she explains. "But when you learn on dry slope, technically you've got to be a much better skier. When you take those technical skills onto a mountain, you have a lot broader knowledge of skiing."
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The only dry slope in the United States is Liberty Mountain Snowflex Centre in Lynchburg, Virginia. Celebrating its 15th anniversary this year, the facility once catered mostly to high-level athletes training in the off-season, but today it's open to the general public.
"We're seeing more families and first-time ski and snowboard people now," says the Centre's director Derek Woods. "In Virginia, we don't have the best conditions or the longest winter season, and in the past couple of years, Wintergreen, the local ski resort, has struggled to get snow production, but we're here year-round."
Idalette de Bruin and her partner Richard Sinclair run SNO, a London ski travel business, and say they have noticed changes in how often their customers book ski holidays. With many citing the cost-of-living crunch, regular customers now book only one ski holiday per winter, filling in the gaps with more days of dry-slope skiing back home. Their clients have reported a 150% increase in the number of visits to dry slopes – mostly to practice before a ski vacation, entertain children in school holidays and to socialise with other skiers.
De Bruin, who often takes her teenage sons dry slope skiing, also notes that this option requires less planning and special clothing.
"Because you're not exposed on a mountain, you can get away with normal clothes, a jacket and gloves. I love that you can go just for an hour or two, depending on what suits you," she says. "If you want to get your ski legs before going on a big vacation, a couple of hours each weekend in the month before means you'll hit the slopes with more confidence."
And after seeing how much fun those CopenHill skiers were having, I'm eager to try out Tremblant's dry slopes when they open in the spring – or whenever the snow melts this year.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story incorrectly stated that CopenHill is a zero-emission facility. This has been updated.
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Many international travellers will soon need to register for an online authorisation before touching down in the UK or many EU nations.
Millions of travellers planning a trip to the UK will soon need to register for an online authorisation before landing – even if they're just transiting en route to their final destination.
From 8 January 2025, visitors from the United States, Canada, Australia and other non-European nations who currently do not need a visa for short stays in the UK will be required to obtain an Electronic Travel Authorisation (ETA) to enter the country.
To receive an ETA, travellers must fill out an online form and pay a £10 fee (approximately US $12.75). Applicants should hear if their authorisation has been approved in a few hours, but in some cases, a decision may take up to three business days. The authorisation is valid for multiple entries to the UK for stays of up to six months and is good for a two-year period or until the traveller's passport expires – whichever comes first.
The new authorisation isn't just aimed at non-Europeans, though: beginning on 2 April 2025, EU nationals will also be required to obtain an ETA before entering the UK. (Citizens of the UK, Ireland and those with valid UK visas will be exempt.)
According to the UK government's Home Office, the expansion of the ETA scheme (which previously only applied to citizens of seven Middle Eastern nations) is aimed at creating a more streamlined entry system by confirming traveller eligibility to enter the UK before they leave their country of origin. When boarding a plane to the UK, gate agents will verify your ETA status via digital link to your passport thereby reducing time and confusion at border crossings. The Home Office also says the biographic, biometric and contact details collected during the application process will also help to increase security by better tracking traveller movements.
"This expansion of ETA is a significant step forward in delivering a border that's efficient and fit for the digital age," Seema Malhotra, UK Minister for Migration and Citizenship, said in a statement. "Through light-touch screening before people step foot in the UK, we will keep our country safe while ensuring visitors have a smooth travel experience."
The UK's ETA expansion is just one example of several new electronic entry programmes being rolled out around the world. Starting in the spring of 2025, the EU will require a new travel authorisation for visa-exempt foreigners from 60 nations (including the UK, US, Canada and Australia) before they are allowed to enter 30 EU nations. Similar to the ETA, this new programme, called the European Travel Information and Authorisation System (ETIAS), requires short-term travellers to apply online, pay a small fee (€7 – roughly US $7.40 or £5.80) and then wait up to 96 hours for applications to be approved.
The EU is also poised to launch a separate digital monitoring initiative called the Entry/Exit System (EES), which uses face and fingerprint scans instead of passports to identify non-EU nationals. Unlike the ETIAS, this new security measure (which was scheduled to roll out in November 2024 but has been delayed until sometime in 2025) doesn't require travellers to apply for anything before they start their trip. Instead, travellers will be registered upon entering any of the 29 EU nations using the system.
According to the EU's travel information website, the goal of the EES is to modernise border crossings and speed up long immigration lines that have surged with the post-pandemic travel demand. Like other digital entry systems that have been in place for years around the world – such as in the US, Canada, and Australia – the new entry system is also aimed at combatting identity fraud and the number of people overstaying in the EU.
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However, not everyone is happy about the increased digitisation of the border entry process. Critics of the expanded ETA scheme are concerned that the extra process and fee will be a barrier to younger and less affluent travellers. Others worry that as nations and regions continue to move towards online entry forms, they'll no longer receive passport stamps, which have long held a sentimental place among travellers. There's also a general concern about what happens in the event of a tech glitch.
"I'm sad about [the digitisation of travel] and also concerned," said Kita Jean, a frequent traveller and member of Nomadness Travel Tribe, an online community for travellers of colour. "Passport stamps are a great way to document memories and look back at, but they're also good for when processes and technology fails."
As more places continue to implement digital entry systems and fees, only time will tell whether these new changes will help make crossing borders more efficient or whether travellers view them as an inefficient an unnecessary hoops to jump through.
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Amid talk of sustainable aviation fuel and electric flights, there's another form of air travel currently being mooted as a green alternative to flying: the airship.
Technically, the airship is all a load of hot air: a typically cigar-shaped, self-propelled aircraft made of a vast balloon filled with nearly weightless lifting gases, featuring an attached car or gondola for carrying passengers, crew and cargo. If it conjures up a black-and-white image of the past, you're right – airships were popular at the beginning of the 20th Century before the rise of aviation as we know it. And now, they're making a comeback.
Modern technological advances, paired with a need to develop the aviation industry as it struggles slowly towards net zero, have led aeronautical engineers to re-examine the airship. New materials – including new forms of ultralight nylon – developed since its heyday have made a new type of aircraft possible. Replacing flammable hydrogen with helium has allowed for safer development and aims to avoid a repeat of the Hindenburg disaster, the luxury German airship that exploded live on film in 1937. The new advances and stronger aviation standards mean that really the only thing these new airships have in common with the Hindenburg is their shape and the fact that they're using a gas lighter than air.
Though an airship, which typically flies at around 100-130km/h, won't ever reach the speeds of a jet plane, they are being talked about as forms of slow travel like cruise ships and night trains, where the experience makes up for the speed. Airships fly at a lower altitude than a plane, with unpressurised cabins where you can open and look out of the window, making it more comfortable for passengers. The large balloon also takes far less energy to power – and potentially could operate with electric engines powering liftoff and steering, making them a zero-carbon emitting form of air transport.
"It's good that we are testing different ideas and innovations, as exploring various solutions is key to improving aviation and making it more sustainable in the future," said leading aviation expert Thomas Thessen, adjunct professor at the University of Aalborg and chief analyst at Scandinavian Airlines. "The biggest advantage I can see is that they can stay in the air for a long time, and their ability to fly vertically up."
Airships do not require a runway to take off, meaning they can take off and land anywhere that has a flat space large enough for them, which could be somewhere as simple as a field, providing there is something to tether it to. This also means that they can help rescue people people in the event of natural disasters, where internet and telephony may be knocked out.
The world's largest aircraft, the LTA Pathfinder 1, is currently being tested in Silicon Valley, California. The 124.5m by 20m new age zeppelin is equivalent in size to four Goodyear blimps and longer than three Boeing 737s. LTA – which stands for "Lighter Than Air" – is one of a handful of airship manufacturers around the world currently poised to enter the aviation market. Founded by Sergey Brin, former president of Alphabet, Google's parent company, the company believes that next-generation airships can reduce the carbon footprint of aviation by using the helium inside the balloon to do the lifting, rather than a carbon-emitting jet engine, and using far smaller engines for thrust. Applications for their airship include more efficient cargo transport from point to point (rather than port to port); and humanitarian aid, where the airship can support relief efforts by delivering supplies even if runways, roads and ports are damaged.
They are not alone: French company Flying Whales is also currently developing airships for cargo use, aiming to reduce the environmental impact of cargo transport; while British firm Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV) are focused on how a hybrid airship – using electric engines as well as helium – can unlock a zero-emission form of air travel.
While sustainable aviation has a long way to go to be a mass travel solution, it all adds up to a mini revolution in the skies. Along with sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) and electric planes, the new generation of airships are offering an alternative to our carbon intensive status quo of flying.
"We say that the Airlander connects the unconnected," said Hannah Cunningham, head of marketing at HAV. The Airlander 10 is their first production aircraft, a helium-filled, curvaceously shaped vehicle that wouldn't look out of place in a comic book. It has some distinct use cases: one of them is connecting remote islands where it isn't economical to build airports.
"You don't need masses of infrastructure like an airport or train line with an aircraft like this – all you need is a flat surface for landing," she said. "It opens up lots of opportunities to connect places that aren't currently connected, for example communities in places like the Highlands and Islands in Scotland."
Airlander 10 will have four kerosene engines, but due to the helium-filled hull, it emits 90% less CO2 than a typical aircraft. (By 2030, HAV intends to have a hydrogen fuel cell-powered electric engine and offer flights with zero emissions.) It travels at a top speed of 130 km/h and can operate as a mass passenger transport vehicle for up to 90 people.
It's nowhere near as fast as a plane – a typical commercial passenger jet flies at 770-930km/h – but it's not trying to replace them either. The great benefit is how it can connect places where infrastructure is too costly or passenger numbers are too few, said Cunningham.
Plans are moving forward at pace: last year, HAV signed an agreement with Spanish airline Air Nostrum to double their reservation of Airlander aircraft to 20 for passenger use from 2028, with the idea of using them to connect Spanish islands with the mainland. With a site in place to build hybrid aircraft and certification underway with the Civil Aviation Authority, they could be certified as safe to fly and going into production in four years' time.
For Thessen, the idea that airships could fill the skies like planes is not a realistic one.
"The main thing about aviation is speed," he said. "When you compare aviation with airships, airships travel closer to the speed of a car. In my view, airships cannot replace aircraft but might have a niche role to play, like cruise ships, on slower journeys."
He can however see a role for it for anyone who is excited by slow travel.
"If you can put your head out of the window and get a view as you travel slowly over the landscape, I could see it having a small role as a special experience."
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In Germany, you can already try these kinds of special experiences. For around €500 for a 45-minute flight, Zeppelin offers classic Goodyear blimp airship flights over a number of cities in the Bodensee area of southern Germany, much in the mould of hot air balloon experiences.
Ocean Sky Cruises are taking things one step further. The pioneering ultra-luxury airship-airline is offering once-in-a-lifetime experiences on a trip from Svalbard to the North Pole, making the most of the fact that an airship can land on ice and does not need an airstrip or an airport. The journey is expected to take two days and will be conducted at the height of luxury in an airship gondola decked out with panoramic windows, fine dining areas and opulent cabins containing eco-luxury beds that take in the views of the icebergs as you go.
Cabins for the extraordinary experience are selling at around US$200,000 – and they are selling so well that the only seats left are on a waiting list basis, despite the fact that there are no current departure dates and the aircraft for the voyage (expected to be the Airlander 10) has not been certified to fly, let alone purchased. Future plans include a route following the Tropic of Capricorn from Namibia's Skeleton Coast to Victoria Falls on the Zambia-Zimbabwe border, flying low and slow over extraordinary landscapes and wildlife, and stopping in locations hard to reach by plane. Theoretically, it sounds incredible; practically speaking, there is a long way to go.
The airship sector is still in its very early stages, and much could blow it off course. Will airships go the way of flying taxis and run out of money before they can get off the ground? It's certainly possible. But Brin's LTA at least seems to have the capital to make their cargo and humanitarian aid plans a reality; and with buy-in from airlines and other investors, HAV is moving ahead with plans to have its hybrid aircraft in the air in the next decade, with potential to connect remote communities currently under-served by airlines.
For those of us who love to travel, green innovations in the sector are certainly a good thing, however niche. As Cunningham says, "If we want to keep exploring the world the way we do now, we don't want to be destroying it as we do."
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Nearly 500 years after the collapse of the largest empire in the Americas, a single bridge remains from the Inca's extraordinary road system – and it's rewoven every year from grass.
"I believe since the history of man, there has been no other account of such grandeur as is to be seen on this road, which passes over deep valleys and lofty mountains, by snowy heights, over falls of water, through the living rock and along the edges of tortuous torrents."
– Pedro Cieza de León, 1548
A blast from a conch shell cut through the canyon. Two men in white wool jackets and brightly coloured chullo caps placed a glistening llama foetus atop the glowing embers of a fire still feeding on a bloody sheep's heart. As they lifted their hands to the heavens in hopes the gods may accept the offering, Victoriano Arizapana slung a golden coil of rope over each shoulder and walked toward the edge of a cliff.
A hush fell over the sea of sombrero-clad men who parted as the 60-year-old slowly approached the abyss. With a deep breath, Arizapana carefully lowered himself onto four tightly braided cables spanning the 30m crevasse, each the circumference of a man's thigh, and straddled them with his bare feet dangling over the sides. He then poured a few drops of clear cañazo cane liquor on each cable, whispered the names of the four mountain spirits who would decide his fate and pushed himself off the end of the stone abutment into the gaping chasm.
Balancing precariously 22m over the rushing Apurimac River, Arizapana worked slowly. With each advancing scoot, he reached high above his head to grab the smaller ropes from the top of the handrails, tying them tightly to the outside cables to join them with the base as balusters. He then leaned forward so that his torso was parallel to the four braided cables he teetered on like a seesaw to pass the smaller ropes underneath, uniting the four bottom beams into a single, wobbling plank.
Sparrow hawks swooped under Arizapana's feet, darting back into their nests pocked into the sides of the rock face. It was 11C, and the last gasps of day painted the sky pink and dappled the Spanish moss drooping from the canyon's basalt wall. As the wind whipped up, the suspended structure began to sway back and forth like a giant hammock. Arizapana suddenly stopped working and gripped both handrails to balance himself, causing the unfastened ropes to fall from his hands and plunge into the foaming river below.
In Quechua, Apurimac means "the God who talks", and like all apus (mountain spirits), it's a living being that needs to be fed in order to keep the flame of life burning. Arizapana wouldn't be the first man to be swallowed up by the river, and he knew that one wrong move now could be the difference between life and death.
As the cables continued to tremble above the gorge, Arizapana remembered the words his father once told him: "Trust yourself, have faith in the apus, and don't look down." He reached over his head for a new rope, bending himself so far forward that his face touched the careening cables, and continued diligently fulfilling a duty that men in his family have maintained for more than 500 years: weaving the Q'eswachaka, the last suspended rope bridge from the Inca Empire.
Located on the western edge of South America, tucked between Earth's largest rainforest (the Amazon), its driest desert (the Atacama) and the tallest mountain range in the Western Hemisphere (the Andes), the Inca Empire was one of the world's most unique civilisations. They developed in near isolation, expanding their territory from Cusco, Peru, in the 1430s and ruling for just 100 years until the Spanish conquest of 1532. But through an ingenious system of engineering and strict organisation, they managed to create the largest empire ever seen in the Americas – a sprawling two-million-sq-km civilisation that extended across parts of modern-day Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chile and Argentina – encompassing as many as 12 million people and 100 languages. It was roughly 10 times the size of the Aztec Empire and had twice its population. Remarkably, the Inca managed to forge this vast society without the wheel, the arch, money, iron or steel tools, draft animals capable of ploughing fields or even a written language.
Instead, one of the keys to the Inca's rapid expansion was an extraordinary network of roads used for communication, trade and military campaigns known as the Qhapaq Ñan (The Royal Road). Considered one of the greatest engineering feats in the ancient world and rapturously proclaimed "the most stupendous and useful works ever executed by man" by 19th-Century geographer and explorer Alexander von Humboldt, the Qhapaq Ñan extended for nearly 40,000km – roughly the circumference of the globe. It stretched from Quito, Ecuador, past Santiago, Chile, on two main north-south arteries, along with more than 20 smaller routes running east to west like a giant ladder.
Second in length only to the Roman road system, the Qhapaq Ñan was in many ways even more impressive, as it traversed some of the planet's most extreme geographical terrains. This historic highway linked the snowcapped peaks of the Andes at more than 6,000m with the continent's steamy rainforests, barren deserts and yawning canyons. To do this, the Inca bore massive tunnels through mountains, lined valleys with immaculate stone paths and carved spiral staircases up cliff faces. Where the earth abruptly ended, they used a brilliant system of suspension bridges to leap canyons and stitch their road network together. But the Inca didn't build their bridges out of metal or wood. They wove them from grass.
At the empire's height, it's estimated that some 200 suspension bridges spanned the cliffs along the Qhapaq Ñan, each one strong enough to support the weight of a marching army. Today, nearly 500 years after the collapse of the Inca Empire, only one bridge remains, and it dangles over the Apurimac River near the 500-person village of Huinchiri in Peru's southern highlands. In the past, each Inca bridge was overseen by a bridge master (chakacamayoc) who was responsible for guarding and repairing it. These days, the last Inca bridge is overseen by the last living Inca bridge master: Arizapana, the latest in an unbroken line of chakacamayocs that he says stretches back to the Inca, like braided rope.
Arizapana uses the same method to build and repair the Q'eswachaka as his forefathers did half a millennium ago, which means the bridge only lasts one year and needs to be constantly rebuilt to prevent it from collapsing. Weaving enough grass to make a 30m suspension bridge requires a lot of manpower. So, every year in the second week of June, 1,100 people from four surrounding communities living at more than 3,600m elevation come together to cut, braid and transform blades of straw-like ichu (Peruvian feathergrass) into golden coils as strong as steel. For three straight days, Arizapana oversees every aspect of the bridge's construction, from measuring the length of its cables and crossbeams to the thickness of its handrails. After the cables have been heaved to the edge of the rocky canyon and painstakingly pulled into place by teams working on opposite sides of the river, the villagers cut down the old, sagging bridge, letting the all-natural structure plummet into the Apurimac and slowly decompose.
Then, when the time is right, Arizapana murmurs a blessing to Pachamama (Mother Earth) and upholds this sacred expression of the Inca's bond with nature by taking a leap of faith that his ancestors, the community and the gods have commanded of him.
Eliot Stein is a journalist and editor at the BBC. This story is excerpted from his new book, Custodians of Wonder: Ancient Customs, Profound Traditions, and the Last People Keeping Them Alive.
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Once an important port that supplied food to ancient Rome, off-the-beaten-path Testaccio remains the city's favourite culinary destination.
On a warm Saturday evening last autumn in Rome, I took two friends and first-time visitors, Boba and Smiljana, to Testaccio, a centrally located neighbourhood on the left bank of the Tiber River. We went to a party held twice a month at the Mercato di Testaccio (Testaccio Market), when stalls stay open late, offering classic Roman dishes like cacio e pepe, carbonara and supplì (deep-fried risotto balls) – alongside wine, beer and music.
Though visiting the market isn't part of a typical traveller's itinerary, Boba and Smiljana loved the detour. "Who needs a tourist-trap meal near the Colosseum when you can eat this?" Boba said, happily sinking her teeth into porchetta (stuffed, slow-roasted pork) sandwiches – a classic Roman street food.
From Grand Tour sightseers to religious pilgrims, Rome has always drawn visitors. But as 35 million tourists now descend on the Italian capital every year, the city has recently considered limiting access to some of its most famous sites in an effort to curb its growing overtourism problem.
While parts of Rome can feel like a historical theme park, Testaccio offers a refreshing glimpse into modern Roman life. You won't find tourist mobs or gladiator-clad reenactors here. Instead, Romans from across the city flock here to shop for ingredients, chat with vendors – often in Roman dialect – and bite into what has always been one of the city's favourite food destinations.
I've since returned to the Testaccio Market many times – not only for pizza bianca (bubbly, plain pizza dough sprinkled with salt) and vegan snacks, but also for the rich cultural heritage that pulses through – and even below – the market.
Rome is built on layers of history, stacked one on top of the other like a lasagna of eras. The Testaccio Market bears witness to this. The ground floor houses a modern market, the first floor has exhibits showcasing Testaccio's 2,000-year-old role as the kitchen of ancient Rome, and below it all lies one of Rome's most unique archaeological treasures: an amphora graveyard from the 1st to 3rd Centuries CE where vessels containing ancient ingredients are still buried.
"The Tiber River was the real entrance to the city of Rome in the ancient time," said archaeologist Luca Mocchegiani Carpano, who leads free tours of the site below the market hall during its evening food parties.
Mocchegiani Carpano explained that where Testaccio stands today, ancient Romans built the Emporium, a port that brought in goods from all over the Mediterranean. Established around 193 BCE, the Emporium was Rome's largest inland port and was where goods such as olive oil, wine and fish arrived and were sold, subsidised or given for free to everyday Romans. During the 1st Century CE, under emperors like Claudius and Trajan, the area grew into a thriving commercial hub to feed the city's growing population.
In ancient Rome, sauces, oils and many food items were transported in amphorae – a type of terracotta jar. These jars were stacked on ships and sealed to preserve their contents during long trips. Once emptied, amphorae were recycled into the walls of the port complex beneath today's Testaccio Market or shattered and discarded. These shattered, discarded vessels eventually formed a 35m-tall hill of broken pottery, known as Monte Testaccio or "Monte dei Cocci" (literally: "Mountain of Shards"), which stands at the heart of today's Testaccio neighborhood. In fact, the name "Testaccio" comes from the Latin word testae, which means "potsherd".
After the fall of ancient Rome in 476 CE, the Testaccio area was largely abandoned and used as farmland. At the base of Monte Testaccio, Romans carved caves into the hill's structure. Known as grottini (small cellars), these spaces were used to store wine and other goods. The porous fragments of amphorae that make up the hill helped maintain naturally cool and stable temperatures, ideal for preserving the stored items, and Testaccio became Rome's de facto cupboard. Today, these caves house numerous restaurants – some of which feature ancient amphorae embedded in their walls, making dining an immersive historical experience.
Testaccio's unique culinary heritage is perhaps best captured at the well-known restaurant Checchino dal 1887, which was originally established to serve the neighbourhood's growing working-class community. During the late 19th Century, the industrial development of Rome and the opening of a nearby slaughterhouse, known as the Mattatoio, drew an influx of workers to Testaccio. Using leftover ingredients provided by the slaughterhouse workers, Romans began transforming humble ingredients like offal (so-called "fifth quarter") into the flavourful dishes of the cucina povera – Rome's "cuisine of the poor".
One such dish is coda alla vaccinara (oxtail stew), which is Checchino's signature. Since the recipe was created using leftover meat from the slaughterhouse, it still relies on what is largely considered scraps. Poor in price but rich in taste, oxtail stew has since become one of Rome's most iconic dishes and is now offered on menus across the city.
Over time, Checchino has grown from a humble eatery to a fine-dining establishment, achieving prestigious awards, including a Michelin star in 1991 and a spot on The World's 50 Best Restaurants list in 2003. Despite its success, this family restaurant has preserved its simple, rustic setting at the foot of Monte Testaccio. It also offers a dedicated "historical menu" of the Roman cucina povera dishes that originated in the neighbourhood, such as insalata di zampi (a salad made with boned veal trotters), bucatini alla gricia (a pasta dish made with cured pork jowl) and cicoria di campo saltata (sauteed chicory with garlic and chilli pepper).
Da Oio, Felice, Perilli a Testaccio and Pecorino are other family-run restaurants in Testaccio that have preserved the authentic recipes of popular cucina povera dishes that have since become synonymous with modern Roman cuisine. Adventurous eaters shouldn't leave Testaccio without trying coratella (lamb offal cooked with vegetables like artichokes), trippa alla romana (beef tripe with Pecorino cheese and mint) or rigatoni con la pajata (pasta with a sauce made from the intestines of milk-fed calves).
Today, the former slaughterhouse is a cultural centre focused on sustainability named Città dell'Altra Economia (CAE) (The City of Alternative Economy). Beyond its concerts, film screenings and other cultural programmes, CAE hosts a variety of food festivals. One of them, the Magna Roma Festival celebrates the city's rich culinary heritage while cleverly playing on two meanings: in Latin, magna means "great", while in Roman dialect, magna means "eat".
The CAE is also home to the Collettivo Gastronomico Testaccio, a restaurant founded by local chefs who use local ingredients to create traditional Roman dishes like pici e baccalà (thick, hand-rolled pasta, paired with baccalà, salted cod) and amatriciana (pasta with pork cheek, tomato sauce and Pecorino Romano cheese) with modern twists.
Despite its status as one of Rome's last "Roman" neighbourhoods, Testaccio hasn't been immune to the gentrification and touristification other parts of the city have experienced. In the last few decades, the area has gradually shifted from a working-class area to a more upscale district for artists, actors and young professionals. More recently, it is becoming increasingly popular with tourists, as numerous Airbnbs, more English-menu restaurants and food tours showcasing Testaccio's Roman eateries and its market appear.
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In May this year, when McDonald's opened a restaurant in the building of Testaccio Market, local media called it an "affront to the heart of romanità", the authentic spirit of Rome.
Marina Minucci, a translator, has called Testaccio home for the past two decades. "The changes began before I moved to Testaccio. But luckily enough, there's still a good balance between new inhabitants and old residents, so-called Testaccini," she said.
For Minucci, the real charm of living in Testaccio is its people, which has drawn her into the Gruppo di Acquisto Solidale Testaccio Meticcio (GAS), a group that purchases organic and sustainably produced food directly from local farmers. On Thursday evenings, Minucci and her fellow GAS members meet just an amphora's throw away from Monte Testaccio to pick up their fresh vegetables, fruits, dairy and meats that the farmers drive into the city.
In a way, the group's gatherings reflect the area's historic role in food distribution, transformed into a sustainable, community-driven initiative. Their shared love for food has also fostered lasting friendships and big, communal dinners at local restaurants. Minucci says their next gathering is just around the corner: a Christmas dinner, where they will enjoy traditional Roman dishes that originated in Testaccio and raise a glass to the upcoming year.
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Christmas has become the dominant festival in the Western cultural calendar, but echoes of the pre-Christian past can still be found across the continent.
Christmas is the dominant festival in the Western winter, with an immediately recognisable cast of characters: Jesus, the Holy Family and gift-giving figures like Father Christmas and the Three Magi. Look closer, though, and you'll find a mysterious ensemble of shadow characters populating Europe’s winter festivals, whispering echoes of a pre-Christian past. Some resemble stock characters from myth and legend, like witches and demons; others have an animist feel, invoking the spirits of nature.
Historically the Church tried to stamp out these folkloric figures, but many of them survived, often by being absorbed into Christian cultural customs. Today, they offer a fascinating glimpse into how folklore and religious traditions intertwine, forming the basis for vibrant festivals that travellers can experience for themselves. Here are four of the most fascinating:
Festa della Befana, Italy
The image of a witch riding through the night on a broomstick may not seem compatible with Christianity. And yet, in overwhelmingly Catholic Italy, that is the form taken by La Befana, who delivers gifts on the night of 5 January (also known as Epiphany Eve).
The Befana bears many similarities to Father Christmas. She flies through the night to deliver presents to children, Santa-style, and even enters their houses through the chimney – which is why she’s normally depicted covered in soot. She also serves a moral function, rewarding children who have been well behaved with gifts of toys and caramelle (hard candies), and punishing those who have been naughty by leaving them lumps of coal.
The Befana may have pre-Christian origins – she shares similarities with Strenua, the Roman goddess of new year gift-giving – but she has been co-opted into Italian Christianity through a myth that she sheltered the Three Magi when they were on their way to meet baby Jesus.
The Befana is found in folklore across Italy, but her home is considered to be the town of Urbania in the Marche region, where she is celebrated each January with the Festa della Befana. Some 30,000 spectators descend on the town to snack on befanini (rum-flavoured, witch-shaped shortbread biscuits), see the world’s longest stocking (an impressive 50m) paraded through town, and shop at pop-up markets selling local majolica ceramics. There are even costumed witches who perform dances in the street and "fly" (zipline) between church towers on their broomsticks.
Krampusnacht, European Alps
The date of 6 December marks the feast day of Saint Nicholas, a 3rd-Century Greek bishop who became the patron saint of children and is the real-life origin of the Father Christmas legend. In the Central European Alps, particularly Bavaria, Austria and South Tyrol, Saint Nicholas Day is marked, like the Italian Epiphany, by the giving of gifts to well-behaved kids.
The night before, though, is an altogether darker and more frightening affair: Krampus Night. Folklore in this part of Europe tells of the Krampus, a demonic figure – half-man and half-goat, depicted with a huge waggling tongue, dark fur, horns and wild eyes – who, like the Befana and Santa, punishes naughty children. The Krampus’s methods, though, are more severe: he beats children with rods of birch, or if they’re particularly badly behaved, carries them straight to hell in a basket he wears on his back. The Krampus is presented as Saint Nicholas’ assistant, and this odd couple often appear on greetings cards together.
The exact origins of the Krampus are lost to history, although, as with the Befana, it’s likely that he was a non-Christian folklore character who has been absorbed into the Christmas tradition. Nowadays, the night of 5 December sees the Krampuslauf (Krampus Run), with townsfolk and villagers across the Alpine regions donning Krampus masks and costumes, drinking significant amounts of schnapps (Krampus’s favourite tipple) and shaking bells to drive away bad spirits. Krampus Runs happen all over Austria and South Tyrol, but one of the largest and most accessible takes place in the Old Town of Salzburg.
Mari Lwyd, Wales
In Wales, the Christmas and New Year period is marked by one of the most striking British folk customs: the Mari Lwyd. This ancient tradition sees a horse’s skull decorated with tinsel and streamers and its eye sockets inlaid with baubles, with the whole thing attached to a pole and a bedsheet and worn as a costume by a local man. He then goes with a group of acolytes around the neighbourhood, knocking on doors and asking, through the medium of verse, to be let inside and given food and drink.
Similar practices are a feature of other festivals – trick-or-treating at Halloween, or door-to-door carol singing at Christmas. In the Mari Lwyd’s case, it is a variation of wassailing, in which people would go from house to house singing songs and offering a drink from a wassail – a large punch bowl containing mulled wine or cider – in exchange for gifts.
Mari Lwyds can be spotted around south Wales across Christmas and New Year, but the biggest event is held in the town of Chepstow on the border with England each January, which sees dozens of these strange skeletal horses descend on the streets. Each one is accompanied by a squad of Morris dancers, who give performances across the town before processing with the Mari Lwyds to the town’s museum, various pubs and Chepstow Castle, where they knock on the door in reference to the house-to-house wassail tradition.
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They then move to the Old Wye Bridge, which marks the border between England and Wales, for a symbolic border ceremony with wassail groups from England, who are ultimately invited over to the Welsh side. Everybody then gathers in an orchard outside the castle for an apple wassail, where cider is poured over the tree roots, slices of toast are hung on the branches, and there is much Morris dancing, singing and, most of all, cider drinking. It’s said to bestow blessings for a good crop for the coming year – a very enjoyable, if somewhat eccentric British folk tradition.
Bear Dance, Romania
Bears famously hibernate through the winter, so you’d be justified for being even more alarmed than usual if you were to see a pack of them rounding a corner, snarling and swiping their claws, at this time of year. In the eastern Romanian region of Moldavia, though, it’s a common sight in towns and villages on 30 December – the occasion of the Bear Dance.
Romania is home to the biggest population of brown bears in Europe outside Russia, with as many as 8,000 of them roaming the forested slopes of the Carpathian Mountains, so it’s no surprise that this fearsome creature has become a potent symbol of spiritual power in Romanian culture. The Bear Dance sees townsfolk dress in real bear skins – which have been passed down through generations and weigh up to 40kg – and process through town while dancing to drums and pan flutes played by musicians in traditional folk costumes.
The main dance sees the bears symbolically die and become resurrected, representing renewal for the year ahead. It’s believed that the rite has its origins with the Geto-Dacians, the Indo-European tribespeople who pre-dated Roman arrival into Romania. The Geto-Dacians saw bears as sacred animals of strength and new life, to the extent that they were known to anoint newborn babies with bear fat. The Bear Dance takes place across north-eastern Romania, but the most famous festival is held in the town of Comănești.
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The BBC speaks to residents and travellers in some of the top-ranked countries on the 2024 Global Innovation Index to find out how cutting-edge technology benefits day-to-day life.
With the rise of AI, self-driving cars and wi-fi connected appliances, it can feel like innovation is everywhere these days. But certain countries are known for developing cutting-edge technologies that benefit residents and visitors alike.
To dive into those countries making the most impact in these areas, the World Intellectual Property Organisation recently released its 2024 Global Innovation Index, ranking 130 economies based on measures like their education system, technology infrastructure and knowledge creation (like patents filed or mobile apps created).
To find out how innovation benefits day-to-day life in some of the top ranked countries, we spoke to residents and frequent travellers, who shared their tips on how to best experience the heart of the tech ecosystem and the ways that technology has improved their quality of life.
Switzerland
This small European country has had a remarkable year in the rankings, with high placements in the Smart Cities Index and the Global Liveability Index. So perhaps it's no surprise that the country placed in the top spot for innovation this year. In fact, 2024 marks the 14th consecutive year that Switzerland has maintained its number-one ranking.
Fuelling that score are its world-leading innovation outputs in both knowledge and technology (measured by assets like patents, technology company valuation and high-tech exports), and creative outputs (measured by things like national feature films, mobile app creation and trademarks). It also scores highly in university and industry research and development collaboration and patents.
"Switzerland is very focused on innovation and fosters a culture of support and creativity," said Zurich resident Rosamund Tagel, founder of Glow Concierge. "There is a solutions-focused work ethic that is ingrained in children from a young age, which leads to people working to solve common problems and help the population as a whole." As one example, she points to Swiss company Climeworks that is able to remove excess carbon dioxide from the air.
As an entrepreneur herself, she finds Switzerland also has no shortage of business opportunities and resources available. "When I was starting my business, there were several sources of funding available as well as startup accelerators and incubators," she said. The government offers step-by-step advice and resources to those looking to start a business here, with specific advice geared toward foreign nationals.
Frequent travellers also love how innovation makes life easier here. Travel journalist Simone Harvin recently travelled throughout Switzerland and found the ease of public transport tech one of the best in the world. "The SBB [Swiss national railways] app allowed me to connect to the country's various modes of transportation – trains, buses, cable cars – and easily plan my trips from one city to the next," she said. "The hyper-planner in me loved being able to see which trains expected more passengers than others and which train cars offered amenities like quiet zones and restaurants."
She also took advantage of SBB's door-to-door luggage service. "Being able to drop your belongings at check-out in one city and checking in to your new city that evening with a day of bag-free exploring under your belt is the best way to make the most of Switzerland's jaw-dropping train rides," she said.
Sweden
Ranking second in the index, Sweden has become a tech leader, particularly in the AI and the automotive industries. Its highest scores come in infrastructure and business sophistication, followed closely by knowledge and tech outputs.
Stockholm, Sweden's capital, is sometimes referred to as the "Unicorn Factory" for its success in nurturing tech startups like Spotify and Klarna, said Daniel Langkilde, the founder of AI company Kognic. But he also recommends visiting Gothenburg, the country's second largest city, to really appreciate the spirit of new tech.
"Living here, I'm constantly inspired by the spirit of innovation that surrounds us. Sweden's innovative ecosystem plays a huge role in shaping my day-to-day life," he said, noting that the city is home to companies like Volvo and AI research hubs, which leads to a spirit of creativity and collaboration.
But tech here isn't just for tech's sake. "What stands out about innovation here is how deeply it integrates with sustainability, a cornerstone of Swedish culture," he said. "From advanced electric vehicle technology to smart city solutions [from waste management to city planning], Sweden doesn't just innovate for the sake of progress but focuses on making life better and more sustainable."
To get a taste of it, he recommends visiting Lindholmen Science Park, an innovation hub focused around AI, mobility and green technology. The area frequently hosts events, like how to use VR in education, and is home to restaurants and hotels.
United States
Home to Silicon Valley, the California hub where tech companies like Google, Apple and Meta are headquartered, the US has consistently been a major player in global tech innovation. Placing third in the index, it ranks the highest of all countries in market sophistication and second in business sophistication. It also ranks among the top for both domestic and foreign patent and trademark applications.
That doesn't surprise entrepreneurs like Richard Robins, who says a spirit of innovation has been baked into the country since its founding. "Benjamin Franklin, one of my personal historical heroes, represents well the attitude of the founders of the United States, whose temperaments were highly focused on making improvements in government and developing technology that would benefit society," said Robins, owner of The Technology Vault. "America's founding was built upon the premise of solving problems based upon experience and forward thinking."
While Silicon Valley remains an important keystone city in innovation (especially because of its proximity to major research university Stanford University), other regional hubs like New York's Silicon Alley (the tech hub near the Flatiron District in NYC) or Seattle's Cloud City have incubated a number of successful startups and major technology companies, from Peloton to Amazon.
Don't be surprised if you see driverless cars hauling passengers in many cities across the country, including Austin, Texas, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Waymo, one of the first autonomous driving companies, can be hailed on an app just like Uber and uses sophisticated cameras to get from destination to destination – all without a driver.
United Kingdom
Ranked fifth in the index, the United Kingdom scored high in market sophistication and creative outputs (ranked third overall) and its knowledge and technology outputs (fifth overall). It's a country where innovation has helped make everyday life easier, with many residents pointing to the Oyster card system where you can use your credit card or a digital card to navigate London's public transportation system, that has recently been expanded to more national rail stations, including most recently Stansted Airport.
"This made life in one of the busiest cities much easier," said Justin Bagri, travel blogger at Julina Explores who is based in the UK. "Less standing in queues topping up the card, no worries that you need to buy a day ticket (to save money) if you plan to travel a lot in a day, the system does it all for you."
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Innovation also appears here in less expected, but no-less-useful ways. Evie Graham, who runs the waste management firm Waste Direct in London recently implemented AI-driven route planning for waste collections. "This uniquely British approach combines historical data with real-time traffic patterns," she said. "Visitors can see this technology in action across London, from smart bins that compact waste automatically to underground collection systems in newer developments."
While most travellers spend their time in central London, one of the newest innovation hubs is Stratford's Here East, built specially for the 2012 London Olympics but now home to start-ups, early innovation companies and universities. The community runs a number of free events, open to all, from VR masterclasses to skateboarding demos, and the area hosts an arcade bar, coffee shops and craft breweries.
South Korea
Leading Asia and ranking sixth overall in the index, Korea stands out for its top placement in human capital and research, followed by its second-place ranking in creative outputs. Home to tech innovators like Samsung and LG and leading car manufacturers including Kia and Hyundai, the country has also recently started putting more money into its startup ecosystem, with venture investment growing significantly year-over-year. The government also launched Startup Korea in 2023, including a new visa that makes it easier for international entrepreneurs to settle in the country.
Technology plays a growing role in day-to-day life for both locals and visitors. AI researcher Elle Farrell-Kingsley travels extensively to South Korea for work and notes how advanced even menial things can feel. "One of my favourites was an AI-assisted robot in the National Museum of Korea," she said. "QI, an AI-operated, self-driving robot uses speech recognition technology to help visitors navigate the exhibition halls and exhibits. QI could identify and walk next to me, respond to my voice commands and assist in multiple languages – Chinese, English and Japanese, as well as sign language for the hearing-impaired."
She also noted the high use of watches that double up as translators. "People would whisper into their wrist and it would translate a question, so they could either use it to know what to say in English or translate what I was saying," she said. "Very Bond-esque."
While Korea's capital, Seoul, has a very tech-forward culture, the country's second-largest city, Busan, has earned the nickname "The San Francisco of South Korea" for its emphasis on smart city infrastructure and tech innovation. The city has recently also committed to being a 15-minute city with a ₩150bn (£84.5m) investment to create sustainable urban living initiatives by 2027.
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One of Europe's last wild rivers, the Vjosa winds some 272km from Greece's Pindus Mountains to Albania's Adriatic coast, coursing through narrow gorges and expansive valleys, its blue-green waters slipping past Illyrian ruins, timeworn villages and stark mountainous landscapes.
Home to more than 1,100 species, including the critically endangered European eel, otters and the rarely sighted Egyptian vulture, the Vjosa is more than just a river; it's a lifeline for riverside communities and a symbol of Albanian heritage and renewal. Its turquoise waters and diverse habitats support wildlife, fishing, agriculture and increasingly, eco-tourism.
In a historic move, in March 2023, the Vjosa was established as Europe's first Wild River National Park – a status aimed at preserving its unique ecosystem and biodiversity.
"Rivers are among Europe's most endangered habitats, with less than 10% free-flowing," said Beth Thoren, director of environmental action at Patagonia, which collaborated with the Albanian government on the establishment of the national park. Thoren stressed the importance of protecting rivers like the Vjosa. "Standing on the Vjosa's banks, you realise you've never seen a truly 'wild' river – no dams, reservoirs or concrete banks restricting its flow."
Though the Vjosa now enjoys protected status, potential threats persist. Plans for the Kalivaç Dam, a hydroelectric project on the river, were scrapped in 2021 after public outcry, but other pressures loom. The construction of Vlora International Airport next to the Vjosa-Nartë Lagoon – a vital stopover for migrating birds – has alarmed environmentalists, as has a recent law allowing luxury tourism developments within protected areas. Big-name investors like Jared Kushner are now eyeing the Vjosa Delta for high-end resorts, sparking fears that the region could face irreversible changes.
After some hairy encounters with Class II and III rapids, I reached the village of Çarshovë and stopped for lunch at a riverside restaurant owned by Ana Janku, a lifelong resident of the Vjosa. Janku's restaurant, like so many along the river, is entirely self-sustained, with everything sourced from her family's plot of land: vegetables, livestock and home-baked bread, as well as freshly caught fish (while we were chatting, her son Stavro was busy casting his nets).
As I tucked into a spread of byrek (a savoury filled pastry), goulash and fresh tzatziki, Janku explained how the Vjosa has sustained her family for generations, and while she welcomed the national park status, she still worries about future development that might threaten the Vjosa. "This river is everything to us," she said. "We looked after it long before it was officially protected." She also expressed relief over the now-abandoned Kalivaç dam. "If anyone wants to invest in the Vjosa, they have to make sure they respect it."
Continuing downstream, I passed through the villages of Kanikol, Strembec and Kaludh where the river took on a more communal character. Locals bathed in calmer pools, young men leapt from the cliffs and fishermen stood quietly by the shore, their lines dipping into the water. As I traversed a gorge near Kanikol, an eagle circled and swooped down towards the river.
From Kaludh to the city of Përmet, I joined a group tour with Vjosa Explorer rafting company to safely tackle the river's more treacherous sections (I'd already pushed my Alpacka packraft to its limits). I spoke with Irma Tako, the company's passionate owner who founded Explorer eight years ago to create jobs for young people in the Vjosa River valley. "Emigration is one of our country's biggest problems," she told me. "The valley is beautiful, but we lack human resources."
Tako also emphasised the need for sustainable development. "The river is ours, and she belongs to everybody, but restrictions are still needed to preserve her biodiversity and the aquatic world she supports," she said, noting that while the national park status is an important step, enforcement and vigilance are crucial to the river's future.
I spent the following day bathing in the hot springs at Bënjë (famed not only for their soothing warm waters but also for the iconic centuries-old Ottoman-era Kadiut Bridge) before paddling the 20km to the town of Këlcyrë. From here, the river widened slightly and the current calmed, but the scenery remained dramatic with towering mountains in every direction (roughly 70% of Albania is mountainous). I stopped for a swim and spotted an otter bobbing in and out of the rocks.
The visible abundance of life on the river is no accident – it's the direct result of a collaboration between the Albanian government, local activists and international partners such as Patagonia, EcoAlbania and the Save the Blue Heart of Europe campaign. These efforts have yielded impressive results: maintaining the river's free-flowing waters and thriving habitats, raising awareness of its ecological value and promoting sustainable practices, all while supporting the cultural and economic well-being of riverside communities.
"The Vjosa Wild River National Park protects more than just nature," said Thoren. "It was established in consultation with local communities to ensure it preserved both the natural landscape and the cultural heritage of the regions it flows through."
The next day, I kayaked through Këlcyrë Gorge, one of the Vjosa's most stunning passages, where the river flows between steep, craggy walls and waterfalls cascade down the cliffs. From here, the voyage took a more challenging turn as both the current and tourist infrastructure dwindled. What didn't let up, though, was the rugged grandeur of the landscape as the river started to fan out into a braided network of serpentine channels – revealing an otherworldly vista of sun-bleached sandbars and interlocking emerald streams.
Olsi Nika, executive director of EcoAlbania – an environmental organisation central to the campaign for the Vjosa's National Park status – spoke to the delicate balance between tourist development and conservation: "The Vjosa isn't ready for a tourism boom. It has great potential – a mix of nature and culture with trekking, rafting and fly fishing in the tributaries – but it's underdeveloped, almost a blank page. We need infrastructure and plans for tourism while ensuring we preserve the Vjosa for the next generation."
The region's cultural depth hit home the next day as I explored the Illyrian ruins of Byllis, a hilltop city that played a pivotal role in ancient Illyria in the 4th Century BCE and was later integrated into the Roman province of Epirus Nova, which included parts of modern-day Albania and North Macedonia. Now a key archaeological site with sweeping views of the valley, its preserved fortification walls, theatre and temple serve as reminders of its storied past as a trading and cultural hub from a bygone age.
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On the final day, the weather was clear and the wind was up as I paddled towards the mouth of the Adriatic. Vast nets hung from the riverbank, and a lone fisherman in his canoe paddled past me upstream. As I approached the estuary and turned across the peninsula, waves slapped the side of my little boat with such force that I almost capsized.
At last, gear drenched in salt water, I emerged onto the open ocean. The scene before me was nothing short of astonishing: to my left, the deserted coastline, distant mountains, their peaks shrouded in cloud; to my right, the endless Adriatic horizon. For those last few kilometers, I felt a deep, meditative calm – a full surrender to the power of the natural world.
I let the waves carry me to shore, located a path back to civilisation past some graffiti-sprayed communist-era bunkers and made my way down to the city of Vlorë.
With my adventure at an end, two takeaways were as clear to me as the river's waters. First, the Vjosa's designation as Europe's first Wild River National Park represents not just an ecological victory for Albania, but also a compelling example for environmental efforts that could extend far beyond the borders of the Balkans. Its status has the potential to set an inspiring precedent: preserving uninterrupted natural rivers and the interconnected ecosystems they sustain, while guarding against threats such as overdevelopment, pollution and habitat loss.
"This national park creates a model for how nature should be preserved," Nika explained. "It's a living river system flowing freely from source to sea without human interference – extremely rare today. That this model should come from a small country with huge problems of its own ought to give the rest of Europe hope."
The second? That the Vjosa is one of Europe's natural treasures, thanks in no small part to the tireless efforts of conservation groups working behind the scenes and those who live and work along her shores, ensuring she remains unspoiled. As Ana had said on that very first day in Çarshovë: "I just hope the river remains as it always has been and how it is now – natural, and wild."
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An amphibious mouse with webbed feet and a blob-headed fish are among 27 new species scientists have discovered in Peru.
They were found in an expedition to Alto Mayo - which includes the Amazon rainforest - by scientists from the non-profit organisation Conservation International and members of local indigenous groups.
Up to 48 other new species may also have been found, although further study will be needed to determine whether they are new, Conservation International says.
"Discovering so many new species of mammals and vertebrates is really incredible, especially in such a human-influenced landscape," said Trond Larsen, senior director at Conservation International.
Alto Mayo is a protected area in northern Peru with multiple ecosystems and Indigenous territories.
It has a relatively high population density, putting pressure on environmentalism through deforestation and agricultural expansion, Conservation International said.
Yulisa Tuwi, an Awajún woman who assisted with the research, said the report "allows the Awajún to protect our culture, natural resources and our territory", as it gives them a better understanding of the ecosystems.
"[The Awajún] have extensive traditional knowledge about the forests, animals and plants they live side-by-side with," Mr Larsen said.
The expedition also found a new species of dwarf squirrel, eight types of fish, three amphibians and 10 types of butterfly.
This "blob-headed" fish is a new discovery to science, but the Indigenous Awajún people who helped with the expedition were already aware of its existence.
The fish scientists were particularly shocked by its enlarged head - something they had never seen before.
This dwarf squirrel measures just 14cm (5.5in), half the length of an average grey squirrel in the UK, which ranges from 24 to 29cm, according to the UK Squirrel Accord.
"[It] fits so easily in the palm of your hand. Adorable and beautiful chestnut-brown colour, very fast," Larsen said.
"It jumps quickly and hides in the trees."
Scientists discovered a new species of spiny mouse - named after the especially stiff guard hairs found on their coats, which function similar to the spines of a hedgehog.
They also found a new "amphibious mouse", which has partially webbed feet and eats aquatic insects.
It belongs to a group of semi-aquatic rodents considered to be among the rarest in the world, with the few species known to exist only spotted a handful of times by scientists.
Travel disruption in Northern Ireland is possible over the weekend before Christmas with the Met Office warning of likely delays to road, rail, air, and ferry transport.
Weather warnings for strong winds are in place, with gusts between 50-60mph (80-95km/h) expected on Saturday.
Coastal and high ground areas are expected to experience stronger gusts.
Wintry showers on Saturday night and through Sunday are also likely to bring snow, especially over hills and mountains, affecting some communities and higher transport routes. The yellow alert lasts from 07:00 GMT until midnight.
Large waves and spray could affect coastal communities with possible power outages for parts of Northern Ireland.
Given that it is the last shopping weekend before Christmas, increased travel volume could increase disruption.
Coastal and hilly areas
Strong winds will persist on Sunday with a second yellow warning lasting from midnight on Saturday until 21:00 on Sunday.
Gusts between 50-60mph can again be expected across much of Northern Ireland with gusts about 70mph for coastal and hilly areas.
Squally showers with hail and thunder are also possible through the day.
Together, these could result in similar disruption expected on Saturday to travel, coastal areas, and infrastructure.
P&O Ferries announced on X that several sailings between Larne and Cairnryan on Sunday had been cancelled.
Republic of Ireland
In the Republic of Ireland, a two-day yellow warning has been issued for eight counties.
The alert for Counties Donegal, Galway, Leitrim, Mayo, and Sligo lasts from 03:00 local time on Saturday until 14:00 on Sunday.
A separate alert for Clare, Kerry, Limerick last from 15:00 on Saturday until 15:00 on Sunday.
Irish weather service Met Éireann is warning of difficult driving conditions, large coastal waves, and fallen trees.
Ferry sailings between the Isle of Man and Lancashire have been cancelled amid weather warnings forecasting gusts of more than 50mph.
The Isle of Man Steam Packet Company said its 19:45 GMT service from Douglas to Heysham has been cancelled due to the "forecast adverse weather", along with its return crossing at 02:15 on Sunday.
The Met Office weather warnings come as millions of people are travelling ahead of Christmas.
A yellow warning came into force at 07:00 on Saturday and will last until 21:00 on Sunday for Scotland, northern England, and parts of Wales and Northern Ireland.
Steam Packet passengers had been warned the severe gales were set to cause disruption this weekend.
The ferry operator also warned of delays to its service between Douglas and Liverpool.
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Conservationists are calling for people to use cuttings from one of UK's rarest native timber trees to help save the species.
Cuttings of the black poplar have been cultivated at Bere Marsh Farm, near Shillingstone, Dorset.
The farm, which is owned by the Countryside Regeneration Trust (CRT), said there were only about 7,000 black poplar trees in the country.
Jenny Ashdown, from the trust, said saplings were "ready to be shared with those eager to help".
The black poplar can be identified by its triangular leaves and spreading branches.
Its catkin flowers are found on separate trees, with males being red and the females yellowy green.
The flowers are pollinated by the wind and female catkins then develop into fluffy cotton-like seeds that fall in late summer.
The trust said it was taking "an important step" towards the "crucial" preservation, as only about 600 of the trees were female.
Bere Marsh Farm has one male and one female black poplar on site, with others nearby across the road and along the River Stour.
With support from Trees for Wimborne, who tested the tree and found it to be native, CRT volunteers made 35 cuttings ready to plant from the male tree.
Ms Ashdown said the cuttings would be distributed to people around Dorset and further afield, who are interested in growing their own black poplars.
"The saplings we have now... are a vital part of the project, and they're ready to be shared with those eager to help," he said.
The trust said that the key to saving the black poplar lies in spreading them across the country and increasing the genetic diversity of the population.
Those interested in planting them should keep in mind that the trees thrive in wet, boggy ground and can grow to be quite large.
CRT added that it was essential to plant them "in a space that can accommodate their size, which could reach 50 metres (98ft) in height.
It added that each cutting costs £10 to cover the costs of compost and potting.
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A young puffin found injured on a beach following a storm has been "fitting in well with his new friends" after being rehomed at a rescue centre.
Cliff the puffling needed urgent care after being washed up on Douglas beach in October 2022 and was nursed back to health by a team at Curraghs Wildlife Park.
Despite his recovery, the bird could not be released back into the wild as he could not fly, so has joined a colony of 10 other puffins at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary.
Tamara Cooper from the centre said: "Cliff's condition meant he needed a safe haven where he can live comfortably and safely, which is where we stepped in."
A statement from the sanctuary in Gweek, near Falmouth, explained that Cliff had taken a long time to fully recover at the Manx park and had had to "stay in human care".
"With no other fellow puffins in rehabilitation, he became imprinted on his human care team and seemed unable or not willing to fly so the staff at Curraghs then set about finding him a permanent home," it added.
'Ideal home'
The Atlantic puffin, which is a species that recently returned to the Calf of Man, is currently listed as vulnerable by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.
The team at the sanctuary said Cliff had "taken everything in his stride and is a very cool customer" and they were now "going through the careful process of introducing him to his new friends".
Due to the presence of avian influenza in the UK, additional precautions, including testing and hygiene measures, had been taken to ensure "the safety of both Cliff and our 10 existing puffins", the team said.
Curraghs Wildlife Park general manager Kathleen Graham said Cliff's "journey had been remarkable" and the Manx keepers were "delighted to hear he has integrated well into his new flock".
"This is the ideal home for him, and I believe they even have a single lady puffin who hasn't picked a partner yet, so who knows, Cliff may find a little love as well," she added.
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Plans to build an electricity storage station have been rejected by a council after hundreds of people objected.
A committee at Buckinghamshire Council voted by a majority of seven to two to throw out proposals for the 500MW storage facility near Granborough, a village between Buckingham and Aylesbury.
Statera Energy wanted to store batteries in 518 shipping containers on what would have been a 33-hectare site.
The company said it was "disappointed" by the decision and would look at next steps.
At the meeting of the Strategic Sites Committee on Thursday, the council rejected the plans on the grounds that they would harm the landscape and its character.
Conservative committee chairman Alan Turner told fellow councillors: "It is a business opportunity rather than providing any green energy."
People living near the land, which is next to the East Claydon substation, also raised concerns about the risk of fires and explosions caused by so many batteries placed together, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
Parish councillor Steve Slater cited the Buncefield fuel depot fire in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire.
A spokesperson for the Department of Energy Security and Net Zero said battery fires at storage sites were "extremely rare in the UK".
They added: "Every battery storage facility we construct helps protect families from future energy shocks".
'Hideous monster'
Statera wanted to store energy from renewable sources for the National Grid, such as from wind and solar, and the firm has said it wants to help wean Britain off fossil fuel.
The system would have remained in use for 40 years and would have helped power 540,000 homes, the company said.
The MP for Mid Buckinghamshire, Conservative Greg Smith, warned the site would have been "devastating" to the environment and communities, and would have been another "hideous monster to ravage the countryside".
Proposals by different companies for a solar farm and another battery storage unit in the same area have also faced local opposition.
Statera Energy said: "We are disappointed by the council members' decision to refuse the application, especially given the positive recommendations from its officers."
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Global temperatures rose and extreme weather ramped up, but there were also some significant breakthroughs for the climate this year. Here are seven quiet wins that may have gone under your radar in 2024.
It's been another tough year for the climate and nature. From the 1.5C threshold set to be breached for a full year for the first time, to the disappointment of vulnerable nations at this year's UN climate summit, it can feel like the challenge is overwhelming. Then there's the extreme weather increasingly impacting both poor nations and rich countries.
But this year also saw some extraordinary breakthroughs for climate and nature. In case you missed them, we have rounded up some of the biggest wins for our planet from the past year.
The end of coal in the UK…
The UK closed its last coal-fired power plant in 2024. It was a symbolic moment as the UK was the first country in the world to use coal for public power generation and the fossil fuel was the lifeblood of the industrial revolution.
On 30 September, the turbines at the Ratcliffe-on-Soar power plant in Nottinghamshire fell silent and its chimneys stopped belching out fumes. The site will now undergo a two-year decommissioning and demolition process. It is unclear what the site will become after that, but one proposal is to turn it into a battery storage site.
This has already been done in West Yorkshire, at the decommissioned power plant Ferrybridge C, which has a storage capacity of 150MW, enough to power 250,000 homes. As countries aim to rapidly decarbonise their economies, many former fossil fuel power plants are proving to be promising sites for industrial-scale batteries.
Read more about the UK coal plant that became a giant battery in this story by Michael Marshall.
…and a global surge in green power
Renewable energy sources are growing rapidly around the world. In the US, wind energy generation hit a record in April, exceeding coal-fired generation.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects the world to add 5,500 GW of renewable energy capacity between now and 2030 and to grow global renewable capacity 2.7 times compared to 2022, slightly falling short of a UN goal to triple capacity by 2030. By the end of this decade, renewable energy sources are set to meet almost half of all electricity.
The lion's share of this growth comes from just one country: China. By 2030, China is forecast to make up at least half of the world's cumulative renewable electricity capacity, according to the IEA. Read about China's "bullet train for power" designed to cope with this growing renewable capacity.
Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, noted at a press conference that the world's "massive growth in renewables" was mainly driven by economics rather than government policies, as renewables – especially solar – were the cheapest option in almost every country in the world. The major expansion was a "beautiful story", he said, which he could sum up in two words: "China" and "solar".
The rivers, mountains, waves and whales given legal personhood
Back in 2021, the Ecuadorian government issued a landmark ruling stating that mining in its Los Cedros cloud forest violated the rights of nature. Another ruling in Ecuador stated that pollution had violated the rights of the Machángara River that runs through the capital, Quito.
This year, a report was published which found that such rulings can indeed help protect endangered ecosystems. Read more about Los Cedros legal personhood in this article by Becca Warner.
Beyond Ecuador, a growing number of natural features and spaces were granted legal personhood in 2024. In New Zealand, the peaks of Egmont National Park – renamed Te Papakura o Taranaki – were recognised as ancestral mountains and jointly became a legal person, known as Te Kāhui Tupua.
In Brazil, part of the ocean was given legal personhood – with the coastal city of Linhares recognising its waves as living beings, granting them the right to existence, regeneration and restoration. Meanwhile, a new treaty formed by Pacific Indigenous leaders saw whales and dolphins officially recognised as "legal persons".
"A case filed to protect whales from cross-ocean shipping may rely on an individual claiming to be harmed because her ability to whale watch has been diminished," says Jacqueline Gallant, a lawyer working in climate change, biodiversity and rights. "If whales themselves were recognised as legal subjects, the case could more accurately focus on the harms to the whales themselves as opposed to the individual claiming an ancillary harm in order for the court to hear the claim."
Gallant, who works for the Earth Rights Research and Action programme at New York University School of Law, says they are pushing the boundaries of legal imagination.
"Legal personhood provides the understanding that nature and living non-human beings should be understood as subjects [as opposed to objects] – with intrinsic value and interests and needs of their own," she says.
New ocean protections for the Azores
The North Atlantic saw a new marine protected area (MPA) announced by the Azores. When established, it will be the largest in the region, spanning 30% of the sea around the Portuguese archipelago. Half of the 111,000 sq miles (287,000 sq km) protected area will be "fully protected", with no fishing or other natural resource extraction, according to the initiative behind the MPA. The other half will be "highly protected".
The area contains nine hydrothermal vents, 28 species of marine mammals and 560 species of fish, among many others.
MPAs can be highly effective in protecting biodiversity if their restrictions are adequately enforced. Overall, just 2.8% of the world's oceans are effectively protected and only 8.3% are conserved, according to a report by Bloomberg Philanthropies Ocean Initiative.
Read about how MPAs and other large-scale protections can boost biodiversity.
Amazon deforestation reaches nine-year low
Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon dropped to a nine-year low in 2024, falling by more than 30% in the 12 months to July, according to data released by Brazil's national space research institute, INPE. Roughly 2,428 sq miles (6,288 sq km) of the rainforest were destroyed, an area larger than the size of the US state of Delaware. While this area is still vast, it is the lowest annual loss since 2015. Deforestation fell despite the fact that fires in the Brazilian Amazon increased almost 18-fold during the same time period following a historic drought.
The development comes almost two years after President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva took office and pledged to end deforestation by 2030 and crack down on illegal logging.
Conservation really can make a difference to biodiversity
A major review of conservation initiatives this year found that more often than not they are effective in slowing or reversing biodiversity loss. The scientists reviewed 665 trials of conservation measures across the world, including several historic trials, and found they had had a positive effect in two out of every three cases.
One example of this is the Altyn Dala Conservation Initiative, which worked in Kazakhstan with local partners and other international organisations to save the critically endangered Saiga Antelope in the Golden Steppe grassland from extinction. The project used careful, science-based monitoring, tagging and habitat protection and restoration to ensure the best recovery for the Saiga Antelope, which numbered just 20,000 in 2003. Today, 2.86 million of the antelope roam the Golden Steppe, and it has been moved from "critically endangered" to "near threatened" status on the International Union for Conservation of Nature's Red List.
Indigenous-led efforts replenish skies and rivers
In California, wildlife has benefited from decades-long drives by the Native American Yurok Tribe to replenish animals on tribal territories. In 2024, this culminated in salmon returning to the Klamath River.
After a 100-year hiatus, the fish were spotted in Oregon's Klamath River basin, following an historic dam removal further downstream in the California stretch of the Klamath. In August, the final of four dams were removed – in what was America's biggest dam removal project – following pressure from environmentalists and tribes. Read about the return of salmon to the river in Lucy Sherriff's story.
Tribal members expected salmon to take months to return to the upper stretches of the river, as their numbers had been decimated by poor river health caused by the dam blocking natural water flow. But in October biologists sighted the fish in Oregon tributaries.
"What's surprising is the sheer number of fish that are back, and the geographic range," said Barry McCovey, senior fisheries biologist for the Yurok Tribe. "I couldn't believe they'd been spotted in Oregon. It was incredible news to hear – it was mind boggling. When I heard, I was like 'wait, already?!'. They've exceeded any expectations anyone had."
More like this:
• The people cracking the toughest climate words
• Scandinavia's push for more Arctic fox cubs
• The 1969 mission to save Vermont's wild turkeys
Meanwhile, an intensive programme to reintroduce California condors, saw growing success too. The tribe has been running a release project for the vulture-like bird, which is sacred to the tribe, since 2008. On 4 October of this year, the tribe released two more of the birds, bringing the total of California condors in Yurok territory to 18. Read the full story on the condor's return to Yurok skies.
"They're doing great," says Tiana Williams, director of the Yurok Tribe Wildlife Department and member of the Yurok Nation. "It's been really exciting to watch the flock expand and change in their dynamics."
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One million trees worldwide are cut down each year to make toilet paper. Is it more sustainable to grow your own?
In Meru, a town in eastern Kenya, a lush, leafy plant sways over the landscape. Benjamin Mutembei, a Meru resident, is growing the Plectranthus barbatus plant – not for food, but to use as toilet paper. He started growing the plant in 1985. "I learned about it from my grandfather and have been using it ever since. It's soft and has a nice smell," he says.
Plectranthus barbatus is a leafy plant that can grow up to 2m (6.6ft) tall. Its leaves are roughly the size of an industrial toilet paper square and emit a minty, lemony fragrance. Covered in tiny hairs, the leaves have a soft texture. This plant thrives in warm tropical temperatures and partial sunlight and is widely grown across Africa, where it is sometimes used to demarcate property boundaries.
"This has been an African tissue for a long time, and everyone in my household uses the plant. I only buy modern toilet rolls when the leaves have all been plucked," Mutembei says.
The Plectranthus barbatus plant has provided Mutembei with a cost-effective alternative to purchasing toilet paper in Kenya. Like many commodities, the price of toilet paper has risen across Africa, largely due to the high cost of imported raw materials, such as wood pulp, which is essential for the production of toilet roll. Raw material costs now make up 75-80% of the final cost of tissue products in Kenya, according to the Kenya Association of Manufacturers.
Toilet paper made from virgin wood pulp currently dominates the global industry. "Typical toilet paper is made of 70-80% short fibre hardwood and 20-30% long fibre hardwood," says Ronalds Gonzalez, a professor in the Department of Forest Biomaterials at North Carolina State University.
According to research by the environmental impact consultancy Edge, roughly one million trees are cut down worldwide each year to make toilet paper.
The pulp and paper industry is the world's largest consumer of virgin wood, using roughly 35% of harvested trees for paper production. This is driving deforestation, biodiversity loss, soil erosion, species extinction and widespread ecosystem disruption according to the latest Ethical Consumer report on ethical toilet paper.
Martin Odhiambo, a herbalist at the National Museum of Kenya who specialises in traditional plants, thinks the solution to the environmental impact of cutting trees for toilet paper may already be here.
"Plectranthus barbatus is the African toilet paper. Many young people nowadays are unaware of this plant, but it has the potential to be an environmentally friendly alternative to toilet paper," he says.
There is no official data on exactly how many people use the plant as toilet paper in Kenya; however, it is widely grown in various parts of Africa and continues to be used in many rural areas where it is easily accessible, says Odhiambo.
Plectranthus barbatus grows to its full height in 1-2 months from a cutting and the cutting itself costs around 50 Kenyan shillings ($0.37).
"The leaves are similar in size to an industrial toilet paper square, making them suitable for use in modern flush toilets or for composting in latrines," says Odhiambo.
Visitors from across Kenya attend Odhiambo's lectures on the uses of Plectranthus barbatus and buy cuttings from his botanical garden at the National Museum of Kenya in Nairobi.
"My class has grown to over 600 participants. People are enthusiastic about learning how to use the plant and often ask for cuttings and seedlings to take back to their towns," he says.
The potential of the plant is also being explored in other countries.
Robin Greenfield, an environmental activist who runs a non-profit advocating for sustainable living in Florida in the US, has been using the leaves of Plectranthus barbatus for five years.
Greenfield runs a "grow your own toilet paper" initiative and cultivates over 100 Plectranthus barbatus plants at his Florida nursery. He shares cuttings for free or for voluntary donations, encouraging people to grow their own toilet paper. So far, he says he has distributed cuttings to hundreds of people.
"There are many people who associate using the toilet paper plant with poverty," says Greenfield, though he points out that industrial toilet paper is ultimately made from plants too.
Greenfield says he's had positive feedback from people who have used the plant. "For anybody who feels a little hesitant to try this plant, I would say to drop your worries about what people think about you. And simply by saying, 'I'm going to be me, and that might mean wiping my butt with some really soft leaves that I grow,'" he says.
But how realistic is it that this plant might become more widely used?
Large-scale production has not yet been explored. Instead companies such as WEPA, one of Europe's largest toilet paper manufacturers, are reducing the environmental impact of conventional toilet paper in other ways. WEPA has developed a new method using recycled cardboard to produce toilet paper, which does not involve bleaching the fibres, a spokesperson says.
Typically wood pulp is bleached before it is turned into paper, which releases chlorinated compounds into the environment. These compounds can react with carbon-based materials, creating dioxins which are highly toxic chemicals associated with cancer and other health risks, according to a report by the non-profit Natural Resources Defense Council.
The toilet paper plant, meanwhile, is expected to have a "minimal" impact on the industry, says a WEPA spokesperson.
One drawback is that wastewater and disposal systems, especially in Europe, aren't designed to handle this type of paper, as only soluble items can be flushed through the system, the spokesperson says.
Greenfield says that's where compost toilets come in. "I use a compost toilet. The leaves go back to the earth and produce soil, which can then support food growth. It's a closed-loop system, and I think using these leaves could lead us to a conversation about the environmental benefits of composting."
There are also limitations on the locations and countries where of Plectranthus barbatus can be grown, says to Wendy Applequist, an associate scientist at the Missouri Botanical Garden. In South Africa, for example, Plectranthus barbatus is regarded as an invasive species, and growing or selling it is banned. Invasive species cost the global economy more than $423bn (£333bn) every year and are a major driver of biodiversity loss. (Read about the proven ways to stop biodiversity loss.)
Applequist suggests that growing the plant in a controlled environment, within a designated area, and monitoring its growth to limit expansion into the existing ecosystem could help mitigate environmental risks.
Perhaps the biggest challenge to going mainstream, though, remains public acceptance. But from his plant nursery in Nairobi, Odhiambo remains hopeful.
"I know some people see using leaves as toilet paper as a step backward, but understanding the benefits of this plant, I believe it could become the next green alternative," says Odhiambo. "I've been growing it in my nursery and sharing it with communities across Kenya, and people have been amazed by its convenience. If we keep an open mind and continue promoting this plant, we could eventually mass produce it for widespread use."
This content was created with funding from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
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Bird flu is decimating wildlife around the world and is now spreading in cows. In the handful of human cases seen so far it has been extremely deadly.
The tips of Lineke Begeman's fingers are still numb from a gruelling mission. In March, the veterinary pathologist was part of an international expedition to Antarctica's Northern Weddell Sea, studying the spread of High Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), the virus that has now encircled the globe, causing the disease known as bird flu.
Cutting into the frozen bodies of wild birds that the team collected, Begeman was able to help establish whether they had died from the disease. The conditions were harsh and the location remote, far from her usual base at the Erasmus Medical Centre in the Netherlands. But systematic monitoring like this could provide a vital warning for the rest of the world.
"If we don't study the extent of its spread now, then we can't let people know what the consequences are of having let it slip through our fingers when it began," Begeman tells BBC Future Planet. "I imagine the virus as an explorer going through the world, to new places and bird species, and we're following it along."
Relatively few people have caught the virus so far, but the H5N1 subtype has had a high mortality rate in those that do: more than 50% of people known to become infected have died. In March 2024, the US discovered its second case in humans, which was also the first instance of mammal-to-human transmission. By May 2024, the first death from a rare H5N2 subtype of the virus was reported in Mexico. Then in August, the US saw its first hospitalisation for H5 avian influenza with no known exposure to a sick animal.
Moreover, the impact on animals has already been devastating. Since it was first identified, the H5 strain of avian influenza and its variants have led to the slaughter of over half a billion farmed birds. Wild-bird deaths are estimated in the millions, with around 600,000 in South America since 2023 alone – and both numbers potentially far higher due to the difficulties of monitoring.
At least 26 species of mammals have also been infected. In Denmark, millions of mink were culled after bird flu spread through fur farms. In France, a captive bear was found to be infected, as have free-ranging bears in Canada. Among wild mammals, scavengers and marine mammals have been particularly badly hit. The virus has killed ten of thousands of seals and sea lions from Quebec down to Chile, Argentina and Peru - with concerns rising that it may be adapting to spread more easily between mammals and then back to birds.
In Antarctica's Northern Weddell Sea, Begeman and her colleagues sampled around 120 carcasses from different species, including several Antarctic fur seals. The virus was detected at four of the 10 sites they visited.
It was not the first time bird flu had been detected on this remote continent. That first case was a month prior, in February 2024. But theirs was the first confirmation from this particular region, and the first time, Begeman believes, that a multidisciplinary team had set out to systematically determine its Antarctic spread.
"The moment we found the first evidence of that destructive serial killer virus amidst such a bird-rich, pristine area, we realised what disaster is about to happen and it became sickening indeed," says Begeman.
Already the worst bird flu outbreak in wildlife on record, scientists like Begeman are now racing to track its journey – and so better understand how its further spread among humans might be stopped.
Where does bird flu come from?
China's southern Guangdong region is a mosaic of lakes, rivers and wetlands. These watery habitats are well suited to aquatic birds, who are natural hosts for low pathogenic avian flu. And it was here, in 1996, that a farmed goose became the world's first bird to be diagnosed with a new, highly pathogenic strain of the virus, known as H5N1.
The categorisation of bird flu as low or high pathogenic was established in relation only to chickens, not to other bird (or mammal) species. But whereas low-path avian influenza is non-fatal in wild birds and only causes mild disease in chickens, in poultry, low path strains can mutate into fatal high-path ones, causing severe illness and often death.
It should be no surprise that the highly pathogenic virus's first case was detected on a poultry farm, says Thijs Kuiken, a comparative pathologist at Erasmus University Medical Centre in the Netherlands. "High pathogenic avian influenza is typically a poultry disease, which doesn't occur in the wild. What's unusual now, is this particular type has spilled into wild birds and this has allowed it to spread worldwide."
Although wild birds have now helped the virus reach far beyond China, "people are the real problem", Kuiken warns. And in particular, humanity's ever-rising demand for farmed meat.
When this outbreak started in 1996, there were around 14.7 billion poultry birds in the world, mostly chickens. Now there's double that number. "Biomass-wise, poultry currently forms over 70% of all avian biomass worldwide," Kuiken notes.
If the current poultry farming trends don't change, then "other highly infectious pathogens will continue to spread into the few wild birds remaining," Kuiken says. House finches, for instance, are proving particularly susceptible to a bacterial poultry disease, Mycoplasma gallisepticum. Virulent strains of Newcastle disease are also crossing over into multiple species, including parrots and macaws. "HPAI [high-pathogenic bird flu] is only one threat."
How did bird flu spread around the world?
By 2005-06 the virus had spilled over into wild birds and was travelling as far as Europe, Africa and the Middle East, but it was disappearing in these populations after only a few months – likely a combination of not spreading well enough in wild birds, not surviving well enough in water, and some birds developing immunity, says Kuiken. This helped to limit the extent of its impact and its ability to further mutate.
That relative containment changed in 2020, however, when a new strain of H5N1 emerged. Though it's not known exactly why, the strain could maintain itself in wild bird populations year-round. Now able to spread during springtime when birds gather in high densities to breed, the virus rapidly became endemic in wild bird populations.
In late 2021, the virus arrived in the New World via Canada's eastern Newfoundland province. A black-backed gull, found sick in a pond, was taken to a wildlife rehabilitation centre where it died the following day. It was later found to be positive for H5N1. Days after its death, a poultry farm started reporting increased mortality rates and autopsies also confirmed presence of the virus.
The fact there was no evidence this farm had imported poultry from Europe helped to confirm scientists' theories that wild birds' migration routes are the key long-distance carrier, explains Kuiken. There have been some exceptions, however, such as the transport of infected turkeys from the UK to Europe.
By 2022, birds in colonies from the UK to Israel were dying in their thousands. In October 2022, the virus was detected in wild birds on the west coast of Peru and Chile. After travelling down the coast, it then returned up the east, spreading to the Falkland Islands and South Georgia – the stepping stones to the Antarctic.
Along this route, the virus has diverged to infect a wide variety of mammals – including 21 species in the US alone. And with such cross-over, the opportunity for both human contact and mammal-to-mammal spread has increased.
By 16 April 2024, HPAI was confirmed in dairy cows on 26 farms in the US, from Texas to Michigan. Some of these may have been infected through wild birds, but other cases have been connected to cows' long-distance transport.
In December, the number of cases among cattle in the US had surged, with more than 800 farms in 16 states affected. Sporadic infections have been detected in a wide range of other mammals in the US, including mountain lions, skunks, dolphins, polar bears, domestic cats, mice and foxes. Meanwhile, an H5N1 virus strain was detected in two pigs on a farm in Oregon in October. The animals had been mixed with poultry on the farm.
But farms can create conditions that allow disease to spread more easily, offering new pathways for adaptation. "Wild birds can transmit the virus, but domestic farms can amplify it," says Gregorio Torres, head of the science department at the intergovernmental body the World Organisation for Animal Health, of the need for farmers to be especially cautious. "It's like avoiding getting into a packed metro when you're already sick."
One bright spot is that birds in New Zealand and Australia have so far been spared. The countries are part of the East Asian-Australian migration route, but their visiting birds are mostly shorebirds or waders, rather than more-susceptible waterfowl like ducks or geese, Kuiken notes.
How does bird flu spread to humans?
The current outbreak of H5N1 bird flu has also hopped species numerous times to infect various mammals, including humans. So far, however, the virus is not thought to have evolved or mutated sufficiently to jump easily between the mammals it infects – though September 2024 the US confirmed its first case with no known exposure to animals.
The very first human cases were reported in Hong Kong in 1997, and the global spread of the virus was relatively slow: during its first 13 years only 800 people were reported infected, with poultry and slaughterhouse workers at greatest risk.
Contact with sick birds – or with their droppings, saliva or feathers – was found to be the biggest risk factor for contracting the virus, though the exact mechanism by which the virus jumps species is not yet known.
Is bird flu the next pandemic?
In March 2024, a new, rare form of the virus was detected in cattle. By April, a farm worker in Texas became the second human in the US to ever contract H5N1 – in what it thought to be the first instance of mammal-to-human transmission.
Cow-to-cow transfer has since been confirmed, with "anything that comes in contact with unpasteurised milk" potentially spreading the disease, according to the US Department of Agriculture.
Scientists cannot yet predict if bird flu will become the next global human pandemic, says Torres. Yet what is clear is that the disease is here to stay – and we need to be prepared. "Every time there's a jump between species, it's a signal of potential increased risk," says Torres. "That's why we're quickly acting to try to understand and anticipate its evolution."
Torres adds: "The worst case is it adapts to mammals, with a greater risk of human-to-human transmission."
Diana Bell, a conservation biologist at the University of East Anglia in the UK, says when people ask her what the next pandemic in humans will be, bird flu immediately comes to mind. "I say we already have a pandemic in animals and birds [a panzootic]."
Can we prevent bird flu in humans?
So can bird flu be stopped? Not in wildlife, experts say; transmission is too hard to prevent. But there are still things we can do to limit the harm to both wild and farmed mammals – as well as humans.
Dead wild birds should be left untouched and reported to authorities, experts encourage. Meanwhile, farms are also being urged to deploy biosecurity measures, from covering waste to reporting illnesses. And the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) is pressing to ensure compensation schemes are in place for all farms that undergo mandatory culling.
More controversial is the question of vaccinating poultry. Preventative vaccination in the most high-risk species and areas has been shown to minimise outbreaks, and WOAH advises this. Some nations, like China, already vaccinate routinely, but others have been more reluctant. Not least due to trade barriers which restrict the import of poultry and eggs from vaccinated flocks.
"When you vaccinate poultry, it's harder to demonstrate absence of disease and early-detect its presence. So it's posing a challenge for international trade, as everyone wants trade to be safe," says Torres. But better surveillance can offset this risk, he adds.
Future outbreaks of HPAI could also be controlled and even prevented via reforms to global meat production, Kuiken says. A more sweeping approach could include a cap on the global poultry population size and more equitable consumption – Europe currently eats twice as much meat as global health authorities advise, Kuiken notes. (Read BBC Future's article on sustainable sources of protein.)
How badly is wildlife affected by bird flu?
HPAI is already a pandemic in global wildlife. "With this virus, the conservation impact is already unprecedented," says Marcela Uhart, a veterinarian at UC Davis. "It's on a scale we've never seen: in terms of the number of species and regions affected, we've never seen anything like it."
Of particular concern in Uhart's home nation of Argentina, has been the virus's spread in wild mammals. Her study into its adaptation to such mammals showed the same virus was nearly identical in fur seals and sea lions, and that many of the adaptations they detected were also present in a human case in Chile. "For all we know it could already be further adapting to spread between mammals – and we need to detect that as quickly as possible."
And while this is worrying in terms of the future impact on humans, it is also already proving devastating to other mammals: more than 17,000 elephant seals are thought to have died from the virus during the 2023 breeding season, including 70% of all the season's pups. Since no one knows how many adults went on to die at sea from the virus, Uhart and her colleagues are now waiting apprehensively for the creatures return from the ocean this spring. If enough pregnant females come back, there will be capacity for recovery, Urhart says. If not, or if the virus hits again this year, "the impact could be major".
"We're all feeling very anxious about this," Urhart says. There is pressure to keep monitoring the population-level impact on wildlife, though she says there is inadequate funding. "Everything we're doing now is on a shoestring," she says.
But the need to keep monitoring is key. "The removal of these species from the food chain could disrupt the whole ecosystem," Urhart says. "A lot of what's coming into the future is just so uncertain."
How can we help wildlife cope with H5N1?
Reducing other pressures on wildlife could aid their survival as H5N1 becomes a new pressure on bird and mammal species. Climate change, habitat loss, bycatch in fisheries, overfishing, invasive species and pollution – via everything from plastics to pesticides – are all reducing global biodiversity. Easing those human pressures could help give populations infected by HPAI more scope to recover, says Richard Phillips, a seabird ecologist at the British Antarctic Survey.
Phillips' work on albatrosses has shown that fishing vessels that use mitigation methods (such as not discarding fish at the same time as trawling, and using bird-scaring lines) can reduce the amount of seabird bycatch. With bird flu already hitting the vulnerable wandering albatross, Phillips fears the species' outlook is "bleak" unless the threat from fisheries is addressed.
In the meantime, scientists will continue to track HPAI's spread in wild populations, and find new ways to do so.
Begeman's expedition, for the first time, set up an entire testing laboratory on an Antarctic-bound ship. Wildlife biologists would scout sampling areas on foot for dead birds, while others would sample apparently healthy animals, she explains. Her role was to cut into the carcasses to investigate, shoo-ing away curious sheathbills as they went. "We were really like detectives, able to get to sites where people had never visited."
The hope is that by collecting this information from the most far-flung places on the planet, scientists can inform the choices we make closer to home. For Kuiken, policy changes to reduce risk in the poultry industry are high on his list. Meanwhile, vaccination, preventative measures and conservation could all be crucial to help birds and mammals through this outbreak.
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This story was updated on 19/12/2024 with information about new cases of H5N1 in the United States.
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Wildfires are becoming more common in Southern California – where horse riding is a popular pastime. So what happens to horses when disaster hits?
The call came in the middle of the night. "There's a fire in Malibu, go check on your horse," Jocelyn Writer, a model living in Los Angeles, was told. "That was it," she says. "I wasn't sure where the fire was, or how big it was. And most of all I wasn't expecting to be driving through it."
But during Southern California's recent Franklin Fire, that's exactly what Writer had to do at 2am to rescue her horse Cashew, a caramel-coloured stallion who was boarding at Zad Ranch stables, a picturesque retreat for equines with ocean views. The blaze, which more than 1,300 firefighters have been battling since it started on 9 December, forced thousands to evacuate from the wealthy enclave. It burned more than 4,000 acres (16.2 sq km), but is now 100% contained as of 18 December. There were dramatic scenes over the mountains which border the Pacific Ocean as helicopters were deployed to drop water on the flames, which damaged 27 structures and destroyed 19 – although there were no human fatalities.
"I was worried Cashew would burn or be stuck in his stall with the fire," Writer continues. "I drove as fast as I could to get to him."
A video Writer sent to the BBC shows her driving through a blazing inferno either side of the road, smoke billowing, trees on fire and lights flashing from emergency service vehicles.
"It took us hours to evacuate all 30 horses from the ranch. They were pacing back and forth, they just wanted to run away.
"We used some horse trailers that we had on the property and some from friends, but it was hard because we were only able to fit seven horses in the trailers at a time, so we had to do a lot of trips."
The blaze spread quickly due to dry conditions and Santa Ana winds, a natural phenomena in Southern California which occurs when air from the dry desert region of the southwestern US flows towards to California coast, through mountain passages. They're typically warm, and strong, and increase the wildfire risk because of the speed which they can spread flames.
The Red Cross established evacuation centres in nearby Pacific Palisades and Santa Monica, which were open to residents and small pets. But the shelters couldn't take the larger animals from Malibu, of which there were many thanks to the multiple stables, ranches and farms that exist in the area. They went to Pierce College in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, which works in partnership with the Red Cross and can house around 200 horses, alongside cows, pigs, goats and other farm animals. The college's president said the shelter can be expanded to accommodate more animals as the school staff is trained for a situation like this. "We will stay open as long as we need to until the fire is over, and it's safe for them to return," Aracely Aguilar, the Pierce College President, said in a statement.
"Partners are essential in supporting a community in the aftermath of a disaster," says Stephanie Fox, who works at the American Red Cross National Headquarters. "While the American Red Cross aims to accommodate smaller pets, we rely on the support of groups like Pierce College, who have the facilities and staff, to best care for larger animals.
"Due to the climate crisis, we're seeing more frequent and more impactful disasters that are taking a substantial toll on communities," adds Fox. "As needs grow, these partnerships [with colleges like Pierce] become even more important to ensure comprehensive support anywhere a disaster strikes."
Cashew was one of the animals that found itself at the college – and so was Debra Fine's horse Athena. Fine heard about the fire on Monday night, when the owner of the ranch where she boards her horse called to say he could see smoke billowing from one of the ranch's barns. The next morning, the owner called Fine again to say the fire was getting too close, and she had to come and rescue her horse.
"There were about 15 of us who all went up together. We own about 30 horses between us, so we divided them up and took them to various safe places – we brought about 10 of the horses to Pierce.
"I can't believe how easy it's been," Fine adds. "Everybody really came together and everyone at the college absolutely had it down."
Volunteers deliver hay to the horses by 3pm every afternoon, and Fine is free to visit her horse whenever she likes. The college provided shelter to 41 horses, two cows and a pig, and assistance is provided by LA County's volunteer Equine Response Team, which helps care for the animals. The team works year-round to educate horse owners about disaster preparedness due to the unique challenges of owning horses in Southern California. Owners are advised to ensure their horses are trained to be loaded into trailers, to have an evacuation plan – including escape routes and know which vehicles are available, and to evacuate early when there is an evacuation advisory, rather than waiting for the mandatory evacuation order.
Anyone living in a wildfire-prone area like Southern California needs to be prepared – both physically and emotionally, says Bob Roper of the Western Fire Chiefs Association. "They should understand what a wildfire is and is not, so they do not panic. Like a person having a 'go-kit', a person caring for an animal should have extra food, bedding and any medications. Like with people, they should know their escape routes and be ready if directed to evacuate. Likewise, if they cannot evacuate in time, they should know what to do."
Roper added that although counties have animal control services that can help, there's usually not enough government services to handle the demand in emergency services. "Animal communities usually have volunteer groups that can be mobilised to help, but all this needs advance preparation and disaster training," he says.
Malibu's equestrian community is becoming all too familiar with the drill as wildfires grow increasingly more frequent and severe in Southern California. Malibu is particularly impacted by fire, with 99% of properties being at risk of wildfire damage. In 2018, the Woolsey Fire burned more than 85,000 acres (344 sq km) of land and impacted almost 16,000 buildings.
In the past, the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) has provided emergency help to animals in California during wildfires. Kelly Johnston, a senior programme officer with the non-profit, says that large animal owners need to be more prepared living in wildfire prone areas. "Large animals are more difficult to evacuate," she says. "Those who own large animals or other animals unable or unaccustomed to being contained and being driven elsewhere need to do more planning for their family."
Fires can be so fast moving, she adds, so owners are given little time to get to safety – and if the animal's owner lives somewhere else, planning and preparation becomes even more vital. "Evacuation of all large animals is not always possible or required, so plans to ensure the best possible outcomes for your larger animals in a variety of situations is also needed."
Johnston suggests a number of steps that large animal owners can take to prepare for wildfires. Working with neighbours and friends with trailers to come up with disaster plans – and practising them in advance is "critical", she says. "Getting animals accustomed to being loaded and doing it with positive reinforcement regularly, increases your odds of a faster and smoother loading and evacuation."
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Having a week's worth of medication and food somewhere that's easy to find is also helpful, as is planning where you would take your animals during a disaster.
"Disasters are becoming more frequent and more ferocious," Johnston adds. "It is important that communities plan and prepare for all types of disasters with their residents, including plans for animals."
Writer says she is taking precautionary steps for when the next fire happens. "I'm getting a trailer of my own, so when this happens again I can get my horses out faster."
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"Can I give you some polar bear advice?" asks Tee, a confident 13-year-old we meet during a visit to a high school in Churchill, Canada.
"If there's a bear this close to you," she says as she measures a distance of about 30cm with her hands, "make a fist - and punch it in the nose.
"Polar bears have very sensitive noses - it'll just run away."
Tee has not had to put this advice to the test. But growing up here - alongside the planet's largest land predator - means bear safety is part of everyday life.
Signs - in shops and cafes - remind anyone heading outside to be "bear aware". My favourite reads: "If a polar bear attacks you must fight back."
Running away from a charging polar bear is – perhaps counterintuitively - dangerous. A bear's instinct is to chase prey and polar bears can run at 25mph (40kmph).
Key advice: Be vigilant and aware of your surroundings. Don't walk alone at night.
Churchill is known as the polar bear capital of the world. Every year, the Hudson Bay - on the western edge of which the town is perched - thaws, and forces the bears on shore. As the freeze sets in in Autumn, hundreds of bears gather here, waiting.
"We have freshwater rivers flowing into the area and cold water coming in from the Arctic," explains Alysa McCall from Polar Bears International (PBI). "So freeze-up happens here first.
"For polar bears, sea ice is a big dinner plate - it's access to their main prey, seals. They're probably excited for a big meal of seal blubber - they haven't been eating much all summer on land."
There are 20 known sub-populations of polar bears across the Arctic. This is one of the most southerly and best studied.
"They're our fat, white, hairy canaries in the coal mine," Alysa explains. "We had about 1,200 polar bears here in the 1980s and we've lost almost half of them."
The decline is tied to the amount of time the bay is now ice-free, a period that is getting longer as the climate warms. No sea ice means no frozen seal-hunting platform.
"Bears here are now on land about a month longer than their grandparents were," explains Alysa. "That puts pressure on mothers. [With less food] it's harder to stay pregnant and to sustain those babies."
While their long-term survival is precarious, the bears draw conservation scientists and thousands of tourists to Churchill every year.
We tag along with a group from PBI to search for bears on the sub-Arctic tundra - just a few miles from town. The team travels in a tundra buggy, a type of off-road bus with huge tyres.
After a few distant sightings, we have a heart-stopping close encounter. A young bear approaches and investigates our slow two-buggy convoy. He sidles up, sniffs one of the vehicles, then jumps up and plants two giant paws up on the side of the buggy.
The bear casually slumps back down onto all fours, then looks up and gazes at me briefly. It is deeply confusing to look into the face of an animal that is simultaneously adorable and potentially deadly.
"You could see him sniffing and even licking the vehicle - using all his senses to investigate," says PBI's Geoff York, who has worked in the Arctic for more than three decades.
Being here in 'bear season' means Geoff and his colleagues can test new technologies to detect bears and protect people. The PBI team is currently fine-tuning a radar-based system dubbed 'bear-dar'.
The experimental rig - a tall antenna with detectors scanning 360 degrees - is installed on the roof of a lodge in the middle of the tundra, near Churchill.
"It has artificial intelligence, so here we can basically teach it what a polar bear is," Geoff explains. "This works 24/7, it can see at night and in poor visibility."
Polar bear attacks are rare, but they are a risk for people who live and work in isolated Arctic environments. Earlier this year, a Canadian worker was killed by two polar bears near a remote defence station in Canada's northern Nunavut territory.
Co-existing with these ice-dependent predators, when the Arctic climate is changing faster than at any time in history, creates a paradoxical challenge for Churchill: The polar bear population here faces long-term decline. But, in the short term, the bears are spending more of their year on shore, increasing the probability of bears and people coming into contact.
Protecting the community is the task of the polar bear alert team - trained rangers who patrol Churchill every day.
We ride along with ranger Ian Van Nest, who is looking for a stubborn bear that he and his colleagues tried to chase away earlier that day. "It turned around and came back [towards] Churchill. He doesn't seem interested in going away."
For bears that are intent on hanging around town, the team can use a live trap: A tube-shaped container, baited with seal meat, with a door that the bear triggers when it climbs inside.
"Then we put them in the holding facility," Ian explains. Bears are held for 30 days, a period set to teach a bear that it is a negative thing to come to town looking for food, but that doesn't put the animal's health at risk.
They are then moved - either on the back of a trailer or occasionally air-lifted by helicopter – and released further along the bay, away from people.
Cyril Fredlund, who works at Churchill's new scientific observatory, remembers the last time a person was killed by a polar bear in Churchill, in 1983.
"It was right in town," he says. "The man was homeless and was in an abandoned building at night. There was a young bear in there too - it took him down with its paw, like he was a seal."
People came to help, Cyril recalls, but they couldn't get the bear away from the man. "It was like it was guarding its meal."
The polar bear alert program was set up around that time. No-one has been killed by a polar bear here since.
Cyril is now a technician at the new Churchill Marine Observatory (CMO). Part of its remit is to understand exactly how this environment will respond to climate change.
Under its retractable roof are two giant pools filled with water pumped in directly from the Hudson Bay.
"We can do all kinds of controlled experimental studies looking into changes in the Arctic," says Prof Feiyue Wang.
One implication of a less icy Hudson Bay is a longer operating season for the port, which is currently closed for nine months of the year. A longer season during which the bay thaws and becomes open water could mean more ships coming in and out of Churchill.
Studies at the observatory are setting out to improve the accuracy of the sea ice forecast. Research will also examine the risks associated with expanding the port. One of the first investigations is an experimental oil spill. Scientists plan to release oil into one of the pools, test clean-up techniques and measure how quickly the oil degrades in the cold water.
For Churchill's mayor, Mike Spence, understanding how to plan for the future, particularly when it comes to shipping goods in and out of Churchill, is vital for the town's future in a warming world.
"We're already looking into extending the season," he says, gesturing towards the port, which has ceased operating for the winter. "In ten years' time, this will be bustling."
Climate change poses a challenge for the polar bear capital of the world, but the mayor is optimistic. "We have a great town," he says, "a wonderful community. And the summer season - [when people come to see the Beluga whales in the bay] - is growing."
"We're all being challenged by climate change," he adds. "Does that mean you stop existing? No - you adapt. You work out how to take advantage of it."
While Mike Spence says "the future is bright" for Churchill, it might not be so bright for the polar bears.
Tee and her friends look out over the bay, from a window at the back of the school building. The polar bear alert team's vehicles are gathering outside, trying to move a bear away from town.
"If climate change continues," muses Tee's classmate Charlie, "the polar bears might just stop coming here."
The teacher approaches to make sure the children have someone coming to pick them up - that they're not walking home alone. All part of the daily routine in the polar bear capital of the world.
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Climate change, nature loss and food insecurity are all inextricably linked and dealing with them as separate issues won't work, a major report has warned.
The review of scientific evidence by the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) found governments are underestimating or ignoring the links between five key areas - biodiversity, water, food, health and climate change.
This "siloed" approach has unintended consequences, such as damaging biodiversity through tree-planting schemes, or polluting rivers while ramping up food production, the report said.
The latest assessment was approved by almost 150 countries meeting in Windhoek, Namibia.
Understanding the interdependencies between the different areas is "critical" in addressing the crises affecting the natural world, said the report's co-chair, Paula Harrison, professor of land and water modelling at the UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.
"Our current governance systems are often different departments, they're working in silos, they're very fragmented," she said.
"Often these links are not even acknowledged or ignored and what that means is you can get unintended consequences or trade-offs that emerge because people just weren't thinking in an holistic way."
She said the report has identified more than 70 solutions to tackling the problems holistically, many of which are low cost.
Examples given in the report include the disease bilharzia, which causes long-term health issues for more than 200m people worldwide, especially in Africa.
Tackling the problem as a health issue through medication sees people get reinfected.
A different approach in rural Senegal tackled water pollution and the invasive plants that are habitat for the snails which host the parasitic worms which carry the disease, resulting in health and biodiversity gains.
Current decision making has prioritised short-term financial returns while ignoring the costs to nature, said the report's co-chair, Prof Pamela McElwee, of Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey.
"It is estimated that the unaccounted-for costs of current approaches to economic activity – reflecting impacts on biodiversity, water, health and climate change, including from food production – are at least $10-25tn per year," she said.
Nature's true value overlooked in decision making - IPBES
COP16: What is biodiversity and how are we protecting it?
Unsustainable logging, fishing and hunting 'driving extinction'
* More than half of the world's population - especially among developing countries - live in areas hit by the biggest impacts from declines in biodiversity, water and food
* Biodiversity – the richness and variety of all life on Earth – is declining everywhere, largely as a result of human actions, with "direct and dire impacts" on food security and nutrition, water, health and wellbeing, and resilience to climate change
* Delaying the action needed to meet policy goals will also increase the costs of delivering them. For example, delayed action on biodiversity goals could as much as double the eventual costs – while increasing the probability of species extinctions.
The report also looked at future challenges and scenarios, focussing on the periods up to 2050 and 2100.
It found that under current "business as usual" trends, the outcomes will be extremely poor for biodiversity, water quality and human health.
Dealing with only one area in isolation will probably lead to negative outcomes in other areas. Focusing only on climate change, for example, can lead to negative outcomes for areas such as biodiversity and food, reflecting competition for land.
"Future scenarios do exist that have positive outcomes for people and nature by providing co-benefits across the nexus elements," said Prof Harrison.
"The future scenarios with the widest nexus benefits are those with actions that focus on sustainable production and consumption in combination with conserving and restoring ecosystems, reducing pollution, and mitigating and adapting to climate change," she said.
The IPBES is often referred to as conservation scientists' equivalent of the IPCC - the key UN group of climate scientists.
It provides policy makers with scientific assessments relating to the planet's diversity of fauna and flora, and the contributions they make to people.
Previous reports have looked at how policy makers undervalue the true worth of nature and, in a hard-hitting 2019 report, how human activity was risking the extinction of a million species.
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Around eight million properties in England - or one in four - could be at risk of flooding by 2050 as the danger increases due to climate change, the Environment Agency (EA) has said.
In its first assessment of how a warming world could affect flooding, the EA warned of increasing threats from heavier rainfall and rising sea levels.
The number of at-risk properties could be even higher if more houses are built on floodplains, but could be lower if flood defences are improved.
Currently, 6.3 million properties are considered at risk from flooding, new figures show, which is higher than previously thought.
"The frequency and severity of the kind of flood events that we've been experiencing are likely to become more and more challenging," Julie Foley, director of flood risk strategy at the Environment Agency, said.
The EA considers flooding from three main sources: rivers, the sea and surface water - where heavy rainfall overwhelms drainage systems.
It defines properties as being "at risk" when the yearly chance of flooding is greater than one-in-1,000.
Currently, the EA says that 4.6 million homes and businesses are at risk of surface flooding, with London the most affected region.
This is a 43% rise on its previous estimate, but this is almost entirely due to improved datasets and computer modelling techniques, rather than a real-world increase in flood risk.
However, the EA says that climate change could raise the number of properties at risk of surface flooding to around 6.1 million by the middle of the century.
It is well-documented that a warming world generally increases the intensity of heavy rainfall.
Between October 2023 and March 2024, for example, the amount of rainfall on the stormiest days in the UK increased by an estimated 20% on average due to climate change.
The report also highlights a rising risk of flooding from rivers and the sea - from 2.4 million properties today to around 3.1 million by mid-century.
The East Midlands, Yorkshire and The Humber, and south-east England are particularly at risk.
This type of flooding - from rivers bursting their banks or storm surges bringing seawater onto shore - can be particularly damaging as it often brings deeper floodwaters.
Wetter winters increase the chances of river flooding, while sea-level rise makes coastal flooding more likely.
Global sea levels are rising mainly due to a combination of melting glaciers and ice sheets, and the fact that warmer water takes up more space. They are expected to continue rising for centuries to come.
Average sea levels around the UK have already risen by nearly 20cm since 1900, with most of that occurring since 1990.
This also has knock-on effects for coastal erosion - the displacement of land along coastlines due to the action of waves.
The UK already has some of the fastest eroding coastlines in Europe.
But climate change could increase the number of properties at risk of effectively being lost into the sea to nearly 20,000 by 2100, even if adequate shoreline management plans are put in place, the EA says.
That would be up from 3,500 between now and mid-century.
Preparations for flooding
This report only considers how climate change affects future flood risk.
There are many other factors, from building on floodplains to improvements to flood defences, that could shape the impacts of flooding in the future.
Partly thanks to the Thames Barrier flood defence, for example, London is currently considered less at risk of flooding from rivers and the sea than some other regions.
But there have been repeated warnings that the UK is poorly prepared for the impacts of a changing climate.
Earlier this year, a cross-party committee of MPs warned that the government had not maintained enough of its existing flood defences or built enough new ones. A lack of funding has been a key issue.
In response to today's report, Floods Minister Emma Hardy acknowledged that "too many communities are exposed to the dangers of flooding".
"That is why we have committed £2.4 billion over the next two years to maintain, repair and build flood defences to protect communities across the country," she said.
Additional reporting by Jonah Fisher and Miho Tanaka; map by Erwan Rivault
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Changes that begin in the ice at the tops of high mountain ranges are cascading down to lower altitudes. As the world warms, they are changing borders, livelihoods and the shapes of mountains along the way.
It is a sunny day in autumn, and I am walking up a rocky slope next to a glacier at around 3,000m (9,800ft) above sea level, on the border between Austria and Italy. Next to me is Paul Grüner, the owner of a mountain refuge on the Italian side, which overlooks the glacier. Two brown ibexes – a type of wild mountain goat – graze peacefully by a turquoise glacial lake, their long, curved horns peeking out between the rocks. At our feet, a southern slope leads down into Italy, and on the other side, a northern slope faces Austria. Nearby, a weather-beaten wooden signpost with an arrow reads "Grenze / Confine" – meaning "border", in German and Italian, both of which are spoken in this multilingual area.
Grüner, who has been running the refuge since the 1980s, has invited me up here to show me how much the glacier, called Hochjochferner has dwindled due to global warming. One startling consequence: its meltwater, which used to flow into both Austria to the north and Italy to the south, now just flows into one country, Austria. That's because the southern part of the glacier has retreated much more dramatically than the northern part, and is now gone, those familiar with the glacier say. It's just one example of how profoundly climate change is reshaping the mountains – with far-reaching consequences for everything from border relations, to hazards such as rockfall, to Europe's water supply.
"When I was a child, the glacier covered this entire ridge, and the meltwater on that side flowed down to Italy," says Grüner, who grew up in the area, gesturing at the south-facing slope. That slope is now rocky and bare. "And now it flows down here, and into Austria," he adds, and gestures at the slope below our feet, which points down towards that country.
Adapting a border
"Here in the Alps, one of the most striking consequences of glacier loss is the difference in meltwater. For example, when the water suddenly goes down the 'wrong' side of a mountain, and is then missing on the other side," says Andrea Fischer, a glaciologist and vice-director of the Institute of Interdisciplinary Mountain Research at the Austrian Academy of Sciences. That's what happened with the Hochjochferner, she says. "Because of the glacier's retreat, the meltwater no longer flows down to the south, and instead, flows to the north, to Austria."
When a retreating glacier sits at a national boundary, the consequences can even redraw the political map.
"Since 2022, we've had extreme glacier loss, much more than in previous extreme years," says Fischer. "The loss is especially big at the high altitudes, and that's where the borders tend to be."
Austria and Italy's border was drawn in 1919, after the countries fought a high-altitude war. Mountain ridges define parts of the border, while other parts are defined by straight lines between peaks, Fischer says. So if a peak collapses, or icy ridges melt, "it can affect the border, and cause it to shift", she says.
The two countries acknowledged the role of melting glaciers in their 2006 border treaty, which states that their border "follows the gradual, natural changes" of ridges, including those caused by changing glaciers. If a glacier disappears altogether, the border is then defined as running along the exposed rocky watershed. Because both countries are in the European Union, the border is in any case open. Switzerland and Italy are also in the process of adjusting their border due to shrinking glaciers.
But there's also a much bigger cross-border consequence, experts say. The Alps are known as Europe's water tower, as their runoff and meltwater feeds into big rivers, such as the Rhine, that pass through several countries.
Glacier meltwater is an important part of that supply because it replenishes the rivers at the height of summer, during hot, rainless periods, says Matthias Huss, a glaciologist at ETH Zurich who monitors glaciers in Switzerland. Missing meltwater from Alpine glaciers can therefore cause problems as far as the Netherlands, he says.
"Glaciers are retreating at an ever-faster rate," warns Huss, who has had a close-up view of that change.
"When you monitor a glacier, you experience these changes very vividly," he says. "You walk along the same trail every year, to the same place. And then one day, after decades of measurements, there comes the moment when you realise, it's over now. The ice is so small, you can't measure it anymore, or maybe the area has become inaccessible, due to rockfall," as the ice no longer glues the rocks together.
At those moments, he packs up his instruments and leaves, walking back down one last time with the dismantled equipment on his back. "And of course we expected that loss, but when it happens, it can feel emotional," says Huss.
'Wildly romantic' sled rides
In the cosy, wood-panelled dining room of his sturdy refuge on the Italian side of the border, Grüner shows me a time series of the shrinking Hochjochferner that runs along the wall. He co-authored a book about the refuge – called Schöne Aussicht – Bella Vista ("Beautiful View", in German and Italian) – for its 125-year anniversary, documenting its eventful history. In the 19th Century, when the glacier was vast, tourists even crossed it on a sled drawn by horses or mules in the summer.
"In July, August and September, one can go on a sled ride in this wildly romantic area, 2,800m (9,200ft) above the sea," noted an astonished observer in 1867, Grüner and his co-authors write.
At the time, there was no national border along the glacier since South Tyrol belonged to the county of Tyrol (also spelled Tirol) back then, and was part of the Habsburg Empire. After World War One, South Tyrol became part of Italy, and the border was drawn. (South Tyrol is still part of Italy.)
These days, the high mountains are seeing more visitors than ever, and tourism here is booming. But Alpine mountaineering clubs have warned that many refuges are struggling with water shortages as their local supply dries up, due to the glaciers' retreat, and less snow. Some are replacing flushing toilets with dry toilets, scrapping showers, and asking guests to buy bottled water to brush their teeth.
Grüner has not been affected, he says, as he has an alternative water supply: his own deep mountain spring, which he found in the 1990s. But he knows of other refuges that "don't have any water left, and they have to pump it up from further down," he says.
Some traditions remain unbroken: farmers from the Italian side of the Hochjochferner take thousands of sheep over to the Austrian side every year, as they have done for generations, using ancient herding rights. Only these days, instead of walking across the glacier, they walk across rocks.
"The Hochjochferner is vanishing before our eyes. In a few years' time, it will be gone," says Ulrich Strasser, a professor at the University of Innsbruck in Austria who specialises in modelling water and snow conditions in the Alps, and is part of a team observing this glacier and others.
Carleen Tijm-Reijmer, an associate professor in polar meteorology at Utrecht University in the Netherlands, has been visiting the Hochjochferner for interdisciplinary research since 2003. She has also co-organised a long-running summer school in the area, for glaciology students. "My impression of the retreat is a sad one, and perhaps also a feeling of being a bit privileged that I have seen the glaciers in the Alps when they were larger and still there," she says.
Strasser says this emotional impact deserves more attention.
"We humans are good at finding technical solutions that replace natural features," he says. Strasser suggests that water could for example be stored in reservoirs, to make up for missing glaciers. "But a glacier is of course much more beautiful than a giant reservoir. And that's what we're not discussing enough, this question of natural beauty. If we don't protect our remaining natural landscapes, then future generations won't even know what they're missing. They will just think that's what the mountains look like: a landscape of bare rocks."
Walking around Grüner's refuge, my hiking pole scratching against the bare scree where horse-drawn sleds once glided across smooth ice, I get a close-up view of this transformation – as Huss puts it, a "landscape changing from white to grey".
It may not be too late to prevent total loss: while small glaciers like the Hochjochferner are vanishing, scientists suggest climate action could still save parts of the biggest glaciers. And there is one thing that helps enormously when dealing with the problem, the scientists say: friendly cross-border relations.
From barbed wire to an open border
When Grüner took over the refuge in the 1980s, one of his first tasks was to clear away rolls of barbed wire left by the Italian military, after an Italian crackdown on German-speaking, South Tyrolean separatists. Those tensions were resolved, thanks to autonomy agreements.
In fact, Grüner and his team now cross the open border every day, to make beds: his refuge is on the Italian side, but he also runs a micro-hotel over on the Austrian side, in a former Austrian toll house that sleeps two people. "The border doesn't affect me at all," he says.
Fischer sees this openness as helpful in many ways: "Being under the European umbrella is really good for solving these sorts of issues, because no matter how much the border shifts, it's definitely still in Europe".
In areas where diplomatic relations are tense or non-existent, however, glacier loss can cause cross-border strife.
Cross-border catastrophes
The Hindu Kush Himalaya mountain range, for example, supplies water to people in eight different countries including China, India, Pakistan and Nepal – several of which have hostile relations.
The actual national borders in the area may not be that affected by glacial melting, says Miriam Jackson. She is the Eurasia director of the International Cryosphere Climate Initiative, a network of policy experts and scientists specialising in the cryosphere (the Earth's frozen areas). The mountain borders in the Hindu Kush Himalaya tend to cross very high glaciers, which are not yet melting, she says. The ones already disappearing are lower. However, the retreat of these lower glaciers can still cause trouble across borders, she says.
"The water doesn't recognise national borders – rivers are often transboundary," Jackson says. "This is true in Europe, and it's also true in the Hindu Kush Himalaya." Even people who live a long way away, who have probably never seen a glacier, could be very dependent on the meltwater from that glacier, she says. A glacier vanishing in one country could leave another country's farmers dry.
Another risk is climate-related disasters. In 2016, a glacial lake, which had formed as the result of melting ice, burst in China and caused catastrophic downstream damage in Nepal.
"This [issue of glacial lakes] is a huge problem," Jackson says. As a person living in another country downstream, "you might not even know the lake is there, and if it's in another country, you can't do anything about it" – such as monitoring it, or installing early-warning systems, she says.
There could be more water-related disasters in store for the Alps too, says Fischer, which might in turn affect Europe's changing borders. "Laser scanning has revealed that the mountains in general are much less stable than we thought, even in areas where they look the same," she explains, due to melting permafrost inside the mountains. "So here in the high mountains, having a border that's 100% fixed, is not going to be possible in the long term."
Over home-made apple strudel at his refuge, Grüner reflects on our relationship with the mountains. These days, we can get up them much faster than before, thanks to modern equipment, he says. "It feels like the mountains have become smaller and closer, since I was a child," he says.
In the past, refuges like his own provided a necessary, practical function, he explains, because back then "you couldn't go straight from the valley to the summit, you had to stay somewhere overnight". That practical function is gone, he says, since these days, you could go straight to the summit, and skip the refuge. And yet, Alpine mountain refuges are more popular than ever.
"We don't need refuges for practical reasons anymore. But I think today we have a need for refuges in another, metaphorical sense – as protective spaces, where humans can get away from their daily worries," says Grüner. "If you look at why people go into the mountains these days, it's to get in touch with themselves, and to feel good. Down in the valley, life is so busy. Up here, it's still calmer. The mountains are a sanctuary."
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Are beer, wine or spirits better for the climate? And how does alcohol overall compare to other drinks and foods? Jocelyn Timperley takes a look into her drinking habits to find the most environmentally friendly tipple.
A few years ago, I discovered that the glass in some wine bottles can weigh as much as the wine inside, effectively doubling the transport emissions of the wine.
I decided to try a switch to boxed wine and, living in France at the time, found some decent ones. But I also found that a constantly open box in the fridge made me drink more, and after moving back to the UK where good boxed wine seemed harder to come by, I dropped the experiment.
While I've taken steps to reduce my personal carbon footprint from things like food and transport, the environmental footprint of alcohol consumption has largely remained off my radar. In fact, alcohol often seems to be given rather a silent free pass when it comes to discussions on sustainable food choices. So I decided to investigate in more detail how much alcohol is actually contributing to my carbon emissions – and whether I can enjoy it in a more sustainable way.
My first port of call was Megan Cook, a research fellow at the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research (CAPR) at La Trobe University in Australia, who recently co-published a call for more research on the contribution of alcohol to climate change and other environmental problems.
Cook says the evidence around the environmental impacts of alcohol is "underdeveloped". "There is both a lack of evidence and little consensus on how to measure the environmental impact of alcohol," she says. "Currently estimates can vary quite widely depending on which factors are considered and how estimates are calculated." These estimates do show, however, that alcohol "does have a substantial impact" in terms of emissions, says Cook.
A 2021 study in the UK, for example, found that drinks, predominantly tea, coffee and alcohol, contribute around 15% of the greenhouse gas emissions from diets, while a 2018 Swedish study concluded alcohol specifically contributed 3%.
Some researchers have suggested a reduction of "luxury" low-nutrition crops used to make alcoholic drinks, such as vineyards, as a way to make diets more sustainable and free up land, although others have noted that this would be a "controversial cultural topic".
The carbon footprint of alcohol can vary hugely depending on what is being looked at, how far it has travelled, and the method used for evaluating it. A 2022 review of studies about wine, for example, found carbon footprints ranging from 0.15 to 3.51kg carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) per bottle.
Even when comparing the same lifecycle stages, "we found carbon footprints with differences as high as around six times between different wines," says Luís Pinto da Silva, assistant professor in geosciences at the University of Porto in Portugal and co-author of the study.
A key question I wanted to know was whether there was any clear-cut difference in carbon between different types of alcohol. In the 2018 Swedish study, researcher Elinor Eva Mari Hallström from the Research Institute of Sweden (Rise) and her colleagues looked at exactly this.
Using self-reported data from 50,000 people in Sweden, a country with similar overall alcohol consumption to the US, they calculated the lifecycle climate impact of beer, wine and spirits. (Beer is the most widely drunk alcohol in the US: it makes up 49% of alcohol consumption, compared to 18% for wine and 34% spirits.)
The study found that beer has around a third of the carbon footprint of wine and spirits per litre. Adjusted for portion sizes, though, beer and wine come in as roughly equal: a standard 12oz (350ml) 3.5% beer would have a footprint of around 0.28kg CO2e, while a 5oz (150ml) glass of wine would be 0.32kg CO2e. A 1.5oz (40ml) portion of a spirit, meanwhile, would emit on average just 0.09kg CO2e, far lower than either beer or wine.
Another analysis looking at a wider range of drinks found that cider has around double the carbon footprint of beer, while sparkling wine and champagne have the same emissions as wine, and brandy/cognac has substantially higher emissions than vodka, sherry and coffee cream liqueur.
Overall, the Swedish study found, alcohol consumption generated an average of 52kg of CO2 equivalent (CO2e) per person per year, equivalent to around four steaks or 70 glasses of milk. But for the 10% of people with the highest intake of alcohol, yearly emissions reached four times this amount, and overall alcohol intake among men generated 90% more emissions than among women.
Kimberly Nicholas, a senior lecturer at the Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies in Sweden, says it's important to put findings like this in perspective within overall emissions.
In Sweden, Nicholas notes, meat consumption per person leads to around a tonne of CO2e per year – some 20 times more than drinking alcohol. "That means that for a Christmas dinner you would save far more emissions by swapping out a steak for a lovely mushroom wellington, for example, and having an extra glass of wine," she says.
And for high emitters in industrialised countries, the majority of emissions come from flying and driving, Nicholas adds. "Food [and drink] is also an important area but it's much smaller than those other two," she says.
Joseph Poore, director of the Oxford Martin Programme on Food Sustainability at the University of Oxford in the UK, says there are a lot of interesting sustainable businesses out there trying to do good things. "I think it's actually just a case of looking out for sustainable businesses and trying to support them," he says.
Others have attempted to produce spirits using captured CO2 from the atmosphere. In recent years some beer companies have experimented with ways to reduce their carbon impacts, from attempting to offset their emissions to sourcing barley through regenerative farming. You can even buy beer brewed from discarded bread crusts, stopping them going to landfill.
Some spirit companies are also turning waste streams, such as old bread, croissants and pastries, into vodka.
While Poore is doubtful of the claims from some companies, he says others have decent life cycle assessments behind them. Still, sustainability claims, he adds, are "not well regulated at the moment".
Pinto da Silva says companies should be quantifying and disclosing the environmental impacts of their products. In fact, a detailed public emissions inventory is one good way to discern whether a company is really serious about cutting carbon.
Still, unlike the clear cut advice given in other areas of food (such as to avoid certain types of meat or fish), there are fewer clear cut rules about how to consume alcohol sustainably, Poore tells me.
Poore's one piece of advice would be to consider buying organic wine, due to the high quantities of pesticides involved in conventional wine. The largest carbon impacts come from viticulture (growing the grapes) and bottling, with transport and the wine production contributing to a lesser extent.
Emissions from growing grapes come from the diesel used in agricultural machinery and, to a lower extent, the use of fertilisers, says Pinto da Silva. But viticulture can also contribute to carbon removals, he adds. "Healthy vineyard soils can absorb and store atmospheric CO2. If nearby vegetation is integrated and maintained in the vineyard, they can absorb and store CO2 as part of their biomass."
Such carbon removal processes can be "enhanced by good agro-environmental practices," Pinto da Silva adds, helping to mitigate the carbon impact of wine production.
Organic and regenerative agricultural practices to increase soil health, such as minimising tillage, eliminating synthetic fertilisers and introducing more biodiversity, have long been used in some vineyards despite the wider industrialisation of farming. But they are now gaining increasing prominence as a way to mitigate and adapt to the impact of climate change.
Still, it's actually the bottles that several studies find to be the main contributor to the carbon footprint of wine, says Pinto da Silva.
Unlike most foods, says Nicholas, research shows that packaging actually makes up a substantial portion of the emissions from alcohol. This is especially the case for spirits and wine, where producing the packaging alone accounts for around a third of the carbon footprint.
According to Systembolaget, a government-owned chain of liquor stores in Sweden, boxes and bags are the most climate-friendly way to package alcohol, followed by cartons, returnable glass and cans. Glass comes in as by far the most carbon intensive, a finding backed up by other research.
Manufacturing glass is carbon intensive, and glass's heaviness also contributes strongly to food miles. "Basically it takes a lot of energy to melt sand into glass, and a lot of energy comes from fossil fuels right now; glass is heavy and it takes energy to ship it around," says Nicholas.
Glass wine bottles have slowly been gaining weight over the past few decades, and now weigh 550g (19oz) on average. This has been attributed to a perception that people associate heavier bottles, dubbed by some as "bodybuilder" bottles, with higher quality wine.
As producers attempt to cut their carbon footprints, some are moving towards lighter wine bottles, which can weigh as little as 330g (12oz). Some package-free shops are also experimenting with reusable wine bottles: one wine shop I used to go to in London would always have an excellent box of red, white and rose which you could fill up reusable bottles with for £10 ($12.75).
And what about my own short-lived boxed wine experiment? Bag-in-a-box wine was first introduced in the 1970s and its association with cheap wine has meant it developed a bad reputation in some places, but it’s actually an excellent way to transport and store wine and has been seeing something of a revival in recent years as winemakers try to reduce emissions.
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Being made of plastic and cardboard, wine boxes are far lighter than glass, and their mechanisms are great for avoiding the wine being exposed to oxygen as it is in an open bottle, meaning the wine stays fresh for three or four weeks after opening.
Of course, there are disadvantages too: it tends to come in boxes of 3-5 litres, equivalent to four to seven bottles of wine: a lot of wine to get through in just a few weeks. It also has a shorter shelf life than bottled wine so is only suitable for wine you'll be drinking soon-ish, not for ageing. Plastic is also far less recyclable than endlessly recyclable glass, says Poore, which can also in theory be returned for reuse. In order to reap the benefits of recyclable or reusable packaging, though, we have to actually recycle or reuse them, and this isn't always happening, says Cook. In the US, for example, the rate of glass recycling was only 31% in 2018.
During my quest for lower carbon alcohol, I bought a box of wine to mull for a Christmas party, and I plan to experiment more to see if I can find some boxed wines I like.
But it's clear that there is a dearth of good information out there on how to cut the carbon impact of alcohol as a consumer. "It's not just on individuals here – we need global intragovernmental coordination to address climate change, and to hold the alcohol industry to account for their climate impacts," says Cook.
The easiest and most obvious way to reduce carbon emissions from alcohol is simply to drink less of it, she says. This would also have knock on health benefits: some 178,000 people die from excessive alcohol use each year in the US, and the less you drink, the lower your risk for a huge range of health effects, including breast and colorectal cancer. It's worth noting that the US government recommends no more than one drink a day for women and adults over 65, and no more than two for men.
Research has shown that the glasses we use to drink wine have been gradually increasing in size, and that this could be influencing how much we drink. In the UK, researchers recently called on the government to stop serving beer in pint (0.6 litre) glasses after a study showed they led people to drink more compared to smaller glass sizes.
My biggest takeaways are to concentrate on drinking smaller amounts of better quality alcoholic drinks, and particularly to seek out producers using regenerative agricultural practices (such as a focus on biodiversity), renewable energy and sustainable packaging. As Poore puts it, "consume less and better".
Still, a point from Nicholas sticks in my head: for the same climate impact as a round-trip flight between New York and London, she calculates, you could drink some 1,250 bottles of wine. "So [you could] potentially have many lovely evenings around the dinner table enjoying a nice wine instead of a weekend in New York or London."
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Once pushed to the brink of extinction by overfishing, bluefin tuna has experienced a spectacular rebound in recent years. But can it survive the onslaught of climate change?
$3.1m. That is the staggering amount (£2.5m) a sushi tycoon paid for a bluefin tuna at an auction in Tokyo in 2019. The 278kg (612lbs) tuna – the same weight as a grizzly bear – was the most expensive fish ever sold.
Tuna is the most commercially valuable family of fish in the entire world and bluefin, typically used in sushi and sashimi, is the most expensive, says Sarah Glaser, senior director of the oceans futures team at the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) US. A single bluefin fetches more than a tonne of skipjack, the smallest and most abundant tuna species. This high value has led to overfishing, with huge global demand for sushi severely depleting bluefin stocks, pushing the species to the brink of extinction in 2010.
But in recent years, bluefin tuna populations have experienced an incredible rebound after countries introduced more sustainable fishing quotas and cracked down on illegal fishing.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) downgraded Atlantic bluefin tuna from "endangered" to "least concern" in 2021. Meanwhile, Pacific bluefin has rebounded to new highs, exceeding international targets a decade ahead of schedule. Southern bluefin tuna remains endangered but is no longer "critically endangered" on the IUCN red list.
"It's a big success story. We managed to reverse this trend of overfishing and near stock collapse in less than 20 years," says Alessandro Buzzi, WWF's fisheries project manager who specialises in tuna fishing. "We are now in a situation where overfishing is not a threat anymore."
But bluefin tuna now face another major challenge: climate change. Studies show that bluefin tuna are highly sensitive to temperature changes, with small increases affecting their metabolism, breeding and feeding habits. Scientists warn that these changes to bluefin tuna could in turn impact other marine wildlife as well as fishing communities.
Measuring 6-10ft (1.8-3m), bluefin are the world's largest tuna. They can live for up to 40 years and are apex predators that hunt schools of fish including herring and mackerel by sight. The warm-blooded fish are among the fastest swimmers on the planet. They migrate thousands of miles every year to spawn and hunt. But these migration patterns are now starting to shift.
Moving north
As ocean temperatures rise, bluefin tuna are moving to colder waters.
One recent study by the National Marine Fisheries Service found that large and small Atlantic bluefin tuna are moving further north, to waters off the coast of Massachusetts, at a rate of 4-10km (2.5-6.2 miles) a year.
Irish scientists found that in 2019, six giant Atlantic bluefin peeled away from their established migration routes between Ireland and the Bay of Biscay or the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, to move further north towards Iceland. The new route was thought to be in response to a marine heatwave.
"We are seeing bluefin tuna feeding in unusual areas, for example in the North Sea, around Scandinavia and Iceland," says Buzzi. "We are already seeing changes in migration patterns."
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There are also concerns about the impact rising temperatures will have on spawning grounds, says Buzzi. In June and July, Atlantic bluefin flock to the Mediterranean to spawn, helping make the Mediterranean Sea the most important bluefin tuna fishery in the world.
The Mediterranean Sea is also a "climate hotspot". By the end of the century, average ocean surface temperatures in the Mediterranean are projected to increase by 1-3C (1.8-5.4F).
"Being so narrowly constrained with not as much circulation and overturn as the bigger ocean basins, the Mediterranean Sea is going to [experience] a much faster and greater impact from climate change," says Glaser.
Rising temperatures may drive juvenile bluefin out of the Mediterranean within the next 50 years, according to a study by the University of Southampton in the UK. The study found that marine temperatures exceeding 28C (82F) adversely impact the metabolism and growth of juvenile bluefin tuna.
To discover this critical temperature threshold, Clive Trueman, professor of geochemical ecology at the University of Southampton, developed a pioneering method which analysed the metabolism of bluefin tuna via their ears. Specifically, Trueman and his team looked at a feature called an otolith – a calcium carbonate structure in the inner ear of fish, which enables them to balance, and perceive noise and vibrations.
Similar to tree rings, otoliths reveal a fish's age and contain isotopes which disclose its past environmental conditions, says Trueman. The oxygen isotopes reveal the water temperature the fish experienced while alive, while the carbon isotopes indicate how quickly it converted food into energy, namely its metabolism, he says.
"Those two things together give us the temperature at which the fish was living and its metabolic rate," says Trueman. The level of detail these bones revealed about the fish's conditions was unprecedented. "It's astounding. It's basically like having a smart watch."
Bluefin need warm water to spawn – their eggs develop when temperatures reach 20C (68F) – but if the water warms past a certain threshold then their metabolism starts to decline, Trueman says. "That threshold is 28C [82F]."
The temperature in the Mediterranean Sea exceeded this critical threshold in August 2024, when the daily median surface temperature reached a record-breaking 28.45C (83.21F). According to Trueman, studies show that bluefin tuna spend most of their time in the upper 20m (65.6ft) of the water column. "So it's likely that surface water temperatures are really critical for juvenile (less than one-year-old) tuna in the Mediterranean," he says.
As ocean temperatures increase, bluefin tuna are expected to move their nursery areas away from the Mediterranean into cooler waters, potentially into the Bay of Biscay, says Trueman. "If the juveniles' habitat does start to shift, then the places they are forced to [migrate to] are places with other traditional fisheries," he adds.
The concern is that juvenile tuna might end up as bycatch in established anchovy and sardine fisheries in the Bay of Biscay, he says. "You need to think about how you might change your monitoring or change your fishing regulations to adapt to those changing distributions."
Saving bluefin
Changing migration patterns will also affect the fishing communities who depend on catching tuna for their livelihood, says Buzzi. "In the Mediterranean, a lot of fishing communities have historically depended on tuna passing by their part of the coast at a certain time of year. The tuna traps work based on these migrations. If climate change alters the migrating patterns, this cannot be a reliable system anymore."
"[These communities] don't see the ocean temperatures changing and the ecological models. What they see is that they have to go further to catch fish," says Glaser. "They see that the fish are moving, that they are changing their migration habits."
Smaller fishing communities are already impacted by strict measures which were introduced to prevent overfishing of bluefin over the past two decades, says Buzzi. In the early 2000s, "there used to be hundreds of boats catching bluefin tuna in Italy…there were no rules," he says. "It was possible to catch bluefin tuna with no restrictions, at any age, even before they reached sexual maturity."
This free-for-all benefitted both large and small fishing boats but also caused bluefin stocks to reach near collapse in 2007.
The strict new fishing quotas have led to the collapse of a lot of the bluefin fishing industry, says Buzzi. "Now just 12 [boats] are allowed to catch bluefin," he says. This tightly regulated quota system favours bigger boats, with observers on board, rather than smaller harvesters, he says. Although the restrictions may have helped bolster fish stocks, the needs of smaller fishing communities haven't always been prioritised. "This is the next challenge that needs addressing."
While bluefin populations have rebounded in recent years, "the risk of extinction has sadly never gone away", says Glaser.
"If we manage to change our policies and regulations and make fisheries much more sustainable, a lot of fish will be able to adapt to climate change," she says. But this is more difficult for long-lived species such as bluefin, which don't spawn until they are about eight, than small pelagic fish like sardines and anchovies. These smaller fish reproduce very quickly, so their populations are better able to respond to changes in temperatures, she adds.
"We are on a path to recovery," Trueman says. "We've just got to make sure that this isn't scuppered by the next problem down the line. Other problems are looming."
Glaser says that the global effort to save bluefin tuna is not lost. "I would cautiously say we're seeing important scientific improvements in bluefin tuna stocks around the world," she says. "And that gives me hope."
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