As Gaza fades from world headlines, Muslim scholar Omar Suleiman tells Al Jazeera that abandoning the Palestinian struggle now would repeat the very failures that enabled Israel’s genocidal war.
Penny Lancaster broke down in tears as she learned a secret about how one of Rod Stewart’s friends tried to prevent them from dating – for a moving reason.
Rocker Rod revealed to his wife that a close friend withheld her phone number from him until he felt he was ‘fully healed’, following his bitter divorce from model Rachel Hunter. Rod has said his second wife Rachel’s decision to leave him had left him in physical pain and he finally knew what it meant to have a broken heart.
Rod and Penny, who have been together for more than two decades and share two children together, first met when Penny, 54, was a student at Barking College and he was performing.
In the aftermath of Rod’s split from Rachel, the singer, 80, met Penny but his close friend at the time, Carmine Appice thought Rod was not in an emotionally healthy place to be dating again – and so didn’t pass on her number.
The revelation was made during the first episode of Anita Rani’s My Life At Christmas for the BBC. Recalling the story with Penny sat beside him, Rod told Anita: “He was an absolute gentleman, he was band leader and bass player and he kept her telephone away from me.”
He continued: “He didn’t think I was in the right position because I had just got a divorce and didn’t know if I was coming or going and he said I will give it to you when I think you are ready.”
He jokingly added: “I should have fired him but I couldn’t!” And it was at this point in the clip that Penny started to become emotional as she said: “Carmine had kept that telephone number away from him. He said ‘You are going to go a bit crazy over the summer and let your hair down and Penny seems like a nice girl.'”
Believing that she was not going to see the legendary singer again, she continued: “I really thought that was the last I would see of Rod. I remember processing those photos I took of Rod [at his concert] and thinking, ‘what a lovely memory’ and that was that.”
But Rod finally made the leap himself and contacted Penny and their relationship has since gone from strength to strength. The couple welcomed their first son together in 2005. Two years later, the pair tied the knot in a lavish ceremony before the arrival of their second son in 2011. But it seems they had to carefully navigate their way around Rod’s other children from previous marriages and relationships.
Penny candidly described what it was like entering into an already blended family. She explained: “I tiptoed very lightly. Because there were lots of personalities, and more important there were children ranging from all ages. From Liam who was five when we first met through to teenagers to Kimberly who was just about to turn 21 so it was delicate and they were children from different mothers.”
She went on to add: ” It was a scenario I had never faced before and I thought I need to stay in the background but be present and there if they want to approach me. I just wanted to take my time and it took a long time,’ attempting to hold back her sobs she continued, ‘but we got there and we have got to a place that I never thought I would get to with them.”
Rod then chimed in and said: “I must admit the kids adore her now, they look for her for advice.”
Rachel Hunter was Rod’s second wife. Model Rachel was just 21-years-old when she met the Maggie May singer and despite their 24-year age gap, they married and had two kids – Renee and Liam.
The pair stayed married until 1999 when Rachel walked away, stating she’d “lost her identity.” She later admitted: “I’ll take to the grave the pain I caused Rod. I hurt the one person I loved and cared about.” Rod did not take the break up well, saying: “I took to lying on the sofa in the day, with a blanket over me and a hot water bottle against my chest. I knew then why they call it heartbroken. You can feel it in your heart.”
Penny’s tears didn’t end there as the interview swiftly moved on to when they met the Pope in 2018. They had won the chance to meet Pope Francis on the back of a charity bid. Penny said: “As the Pope Francis came along the eye contact that we got was very powerful.
He spent quite a time with us and he placed both our hands on top of each other and placed his hand on top of ours.” Anita asked what that moment mean to her, to which Penny said: “It sort of cemented all the wishes that Rod and I had for one another. “
She added: “All those sort of prayers that we had had quietly. He gave us two rosary beads too and he blessed us as well and it made us feel like… it was all our destiny.”
But it wasn’t just Penny who found the interview emotional, as Rod also shed a tear when asked the secret to a 25 year relationship.
Through tears he said: “I think the age difference, there are downsides to it, but there is a maturity I may have taught Penny and there is an honesty she has taught me. We do not argue before we go to bed and we do not argue after a glass of wine and if we do have arguments it is over real quick. “
He continued: “I try to teach my kids, all of them, that real men say sorry, that’s what they do. There is a wonderful honestly between us and long may it last.”
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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has affirmed support for the creation of a Palestinian state, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again rejected such a move, during the German leader’s inaugural visit to the country.
At a joint press conference on Sunday following a meeting in Jerusalem, the two leaders spoke of their respective priorities for Gaza and the occupied West Bank.
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Merz’s trip is playing out under the shadow of Israel’s genocidal war on Gaza – although Merz, leader of one of Israel’s staunchest supporters, does not consider it a genocide.
Merz told the news conference that Germany, one of Israel’s most unwavering allies, wanted a new Middle East that recognised a Palestinian state alongside the State of Israel.
“Our conviction is that the prospective establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel presumably offers the best prospect for this future,” the German chancellor said.
But he said his government had no intention of recognising a Palestinian state “in the foreseeable future”.
“The German federal government remains of the opinion that recognition of a Palestinian state should come at the end – not the beginning – of such a process (peace negotiations),” he said, putting Germany at odds with several other key European nations, including France, Spain and the Untied Kingdom, who have all confirmed formal recognition.
But Netanyahu said that the Israeli public was opposed to any two-state solution, and that the political annexation of the occupied West Bank – a concern raised by Merz and also rejected by the administration of United States President Donald Trump – remained a subject of discussion, although the status quo was expected to remain for the foreseeable future.
“The purpose of a Palestinian state is to destroy the Jewish state,” Netanyahu claimed without expanding.
The Israeli premier added that the first phase of Trump’s Gaza plan was nearly completed, and that he would be having “very important conversations” at the end of December on how to ensure the second phase would be achieved.
He would also meet Trump later this month, he added.
The war on Gaza has tested the traditionally strong ties between Israel and Germany, for whom support for Israel is a core tenet of its foreign policy, built in during decades of historical guilt over the Third Reich’s Holocaust.
In August, Israel’s actions in Gaza drove Germany – Israel’s second-largest arms supplier after the US – to restrict sales of weapons for use in Gaza. At the time, Merz said – in a public criticism of Israel that was rare for a German leader – that his government could no longer ignore the worsening toll on civilians in the besieged and bombarded enclave.
Netanyahu expressed his anger at the restrictions, which were lifted two weeks ago.
Speaking at the news conference, Merz said the decision to restrict weapons sales had changed nothing “in our very basic attitude towards Israel and Israel’s security, in our support of Israel, in our military support of Israel as well.”
Merz’s visit – coming seven months since he assumed power – has come relatively late in his tenure as chancellor compared to his predecessors, with Olaf Scholz having visited Israel after three months and Angela Merkel after two.
Speaking at the press conference in Jerusalem, Merz said the leaders did not discuss a visit by Netanyahu – who faces an arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Gaza from the International Criminal Court (ICC) – to Berlin.
“We did not discuss the possibility of Prime Minister Netanyahu travelling to Germany. There is no reason to discuss this at the moment,” Merz told reporters.
“If time permits, I would issue such an invitation if appropriate. But this is not an issue for either of us at the present time.”
Earlier this year, Merz vowed to invite the Israeli leader and assured him he would not be arrested on German soil.
In the meantime, back in Germany, activists in the capital Berlin held a demonstration to condemn Israel’s ongoing genocidal war on Gaza, to demand a halt to arms exports to Israel, and to express their support for Palestine.
There has also been criticism from the political opposition in Germany to Merz making the trip at all to meet a leader with an ICC arrest warrant hanging over him.
Prior to meeting Netanyahu, Merz had visited the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem, where he reiterated Berlin’s enduring support.
During the visit, he said “Germany must stand up for the existence and security of Israel,” after acknowledging his country’s “enduring historical responsibility” for the mass extermination of Jews during World War II.
On his arrival in Israel on Saturday, Merz was met at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport by Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar, who called Merz “a friend of Israel”. He then met Israeli President Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem later that evening.
Reporting from Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, Al Jazeera’s Nour Odeh said the relationship between Germany and Israel remained “very strong”, despite recent strains over Gaza.
Not only had Germany resumed arms exports to Israel following a short-lived partial suspension, but it had recently signed a $4.5bn deal for an Israeli-made missile defence shield, reportedly the largest arms export agreement in Israeli history.
Speaking at Sunday’s news conference, Netanyahu said the deal reflected a “historical change” in Israel’s relationship with Germany.
“Not only does Germany work in the defence of Israel, but Israel, the Jewish state, 80 years after the Holocaust, works for the defence of Germany,” he said.
Odeh said Germany’s support had proven controversial at home and abroad, and had seen Germany being accused of complicity in genocide for its military support to Israel, before judges at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled against issuing emergency orders to stop German arms exports.
“The visit itself is quite controversial given that Germany is a member of the International Criminal Court and is obliged to hand over Netanyahu to the court, not meet with him,” Odeh noted.
She said Israel had little tolerance for criticism from Germany, but understood that its occasional comments taking issue with its actions had little bearing on Berlin’s policy response.
Captain Ben Stokes questioned his England players’ mentality after their crushing defeat by Australia in the second Test, saying his dressing room is “not a place for weak men”.
Though England showed some fight on day four, they were thrashed by eight wickets in Brisbane to go 2-0 down in the five-match Ashes series.
Stokes denied England’s problems are down to skill and instead questioned why they have been unable to capitalise on key moments.
“Do we need to start thinking about what mentality we are taking into those pressure moments?” Stokes said.
“When we are on top we are great and when behind the game we are also very good but when that moment is neck and neck we are not coming out on top on enough occasions.”
Stokes led the resistance on the final day by surviving 152 balls for 50 runs but England lost 4-17 after batter Will Jacks was dismissed, leaving Australia a chase of 65 in their second innings.
“There is a saying that we have said a lot here – Australia is not for weak men,” Stokes told BBC Test Match Special.
“A dressing room that I am captain of is not a place for weak men either.”
In a separate interview, Stokes said his players were not “weak” but former England captain Michael Vaughan said “a few better get ready” after the comments.
Speaking after the defeat, Stokes also:
Stokes repeated his “weak” message in three separate interviews. He described failures in pressure moments as a “constant theme”.
“When the game is in a moment of neither here nor there, Australia have managed to get through those periods and outdo us,” he said.
Those moments can be traced back to the fifth Test against India in the summer, possibly back to the 2023 Ashes when England blew good positions in the first two Tests and also went 2-0 down.
England’s recent struggles include:
Stokes said he would have conversations with his players and believes they can come from 2-0 behind to win for the first time in an Ashes series.
Their preparation for the highly anticipated contest has been questioned throughout, with England playing only one, intra-squad warm-up match before the series and skipping a pink-ball warm-up before the second Test.
“We had five intense training sessions leading into this game,” McCullum told BBC Test Match Special.
“Sometimes there is a tendency to overdo things to make up for it. If anything, we trained too much.
“As we all know in this game it is played in the top two inches.”
There are 10 days until the third Test begins in Adelaide on Wednesday, 17 December (23:30 GMT, 16 December) and they now head to Noosa, a resort town on Queensland’s Sunshine Coast, for a four-day break away from cricket.
England’s trip to Noosa was pre-planned. They will fly to Adelaide on Saturday and train on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday.
“We have been here for five weeks and it’s been pretty full-on on the field, off the field, and as physical as this game is, a huge part of it is the mental side,” said Stokes, who took a break from the game for his metal health in 2021.
“I know what the game can do to you when the game is not feeling right or going well. Trust me when I say it is so important for teams, when they do get an occasion or an opportunity to be able to go away as a team – and almost put the pressures of this aside for a couple of days.
McCullum said England, who were also 2-0 down in the 2023 Ashes and came back to draw 2-2, were “slow to adapt” to conditions at the Gabba.
“We have to make sure to stay tight as a group and iron out a couple of the chinks that we have shown in the last two Test matches,” he said.
“When you come to Australia you can’t be below your best. You need to make sure you seize every opportunity.
“In this Test match there were a few moments we had the ascendancy with the bat and we let that slip. And there were times where we didn’t execute with the ball as well as we should have.
“Clearly our catching was an issue as well. [It is] very hard to beat Australia at home if you’re going to be deficient in all those three areas.”
On the preparation, he added: “We all have to find a way that ensures that we feel prepared physically, technically and we are ready for the battle, but also to make sure we are fresh and make sure we can make those decisions in the heat of the games.”
Soldiers in Benin appeared on state television to say they had toppled President Patrice Talon and taken power. But government officials say they thwarted the attempted coup and remain in control.
I grew up less than a mile from Shepherds’ Field in Beit Sahour in the occupied West Bank – the hillside where, according to the Gospel of Luke, the news of Jesus’s birth was first proclaimed. For my family, these were not distant biblical landscapes. They were the backdrop of our daily lives: The olive groves we played in, the terraces we tended, the land where our faith and identity were rooted.
Today, for the first time in my life, I felt fear that the community that raised me may not survive.
In recent weeks, a new illegal Israeli settlement outpost has been established on the edge of Beit Sahour. Caravans and construction equipment have appeared on a site the town had hoped to use for a children’s hospital, cultural centre, and public spaces – projects supported by international donors and meant to strengthen a Christian community that has endured for centuries. Instead, those plans are now suspended, and the families who live nearby are bracing for uncertainty, rising tension, and the real possibility of further displacement.
Others have documented the legal and political ramifications of these settlements. My concern is more personal and more urgent: What is happening today threatens the very continuity of Christian presence in the Bethlehem area – not abstractly, but concretely.
Beit Sahour is one of the last majority-Christian towns in the West Bank. Our families are Orthodox, Catholic, and Evangelical. We worship together, marry across traditions, and share a heritage that traces back to the earliest centuries of the Christian story. But like many Palestinian communities, we are running out of land – and with it, out of time.
Due to decades of confiscation, the separation wall, and settlement expansion, only a small fraction of our town remains accessible for Palestinian construction. Youth who wish to build homes often cannot. Parents worry about their children’s future. Families who want to stay rooted in their ancestral land face barriers that make leaving seem like the only viable path.
That is how communities disappear. Not because they stop believing, but because the conditions required for them to flourish are steadily stripped away by the Israeli military occupation of their land.
For many Christians around the world – especially in the United States – this situation creates real confusion. I hear it often: “We support Israel because we care about the Jewish people. We don’t want to see them harmed, displaced, or endangered ever again. So what do we do when Palestinian Christians say they are suffering too?”
This is a sincere question, shaped by conscience and by history. And yet it reveals a painful misunderstanding – the idea that supporting Jewish security requires tolerating the dispossession of others, or that acknowledging Palestinian suffering threatens the safety of Jews.
It does not. It never has.
The aspiration for Jewish safety is legitimate and deeply important – especially after centuries of anti-Semitism, culminating in the horrors of the Holocaust. No person of faith should ever be indifferent to the vulnerability of Jewish communities.
But affirming Jewish safety does not require silence when Palestinian Christian and Muslim families lose their land, face escalating violence, or see their future shrinking. Safety for one people cannot be built on the insecurity of another. There is no moral framework – Christian, Jewish, or secular – that asks us to choose between the dignity of one child and the dignity of another.
If anything, the deeply biblical truth is that justice is indivisible. When we diminish one community’s rights to protect another, both are ultimately harmed.
And yet, too often, many churches in the West remain silent when Palestinian Christians raise their voices. Every December, American congregations sing about Bethlehem without acknowledging that many families in the Bethlehem area are struggling to stay on their land. Pilgrims visit Shepherds’ Field without asking what is happening to the people who have cared for it across generations.
This silence is not intentional malice. In many cases, it stems from fear of appearing partisan, or from the mistaken belief that speaking about Palestinian suffering undermines support for Jewish safety.
But silence has consequences. It sends an unspoken message that some lives matter less. It weakens the moral credibility of the Church. And it leaves communities like mine – Christian families who have lived in Bethlehem’s hills more than 2,000 years – feeling abandoned by the very global body they belong to.
What is happening in Beit Sahour is not simply a political conflict. It is a question of human dignity and the future of a Christian witness in the place where the Christian story began. If the Christian community in Bethlehem’s district disappears, the loss will not only be Palestinian. It will be a loss for the global Church and for anyone who cares about the continuity of the gospel’s birthplace.
I grew up less than a mile from these fields. I know what is at stake. And I believe that American Christians can hold two truths at the same time: That the Jewish people deserve safety, and that Palestinian Christian communities deserve to live on their land without fear.
This is not a choice between peoples. It is a choice between justice and indifference.