Southern California has been flooded and mudflown by a powerful winter storm, which has caused severe evacuation orders in high-risk areas. Authorities in six counties, including Los Angeles and San Diego, have declared a state of emergency, and they warn that the dangerous conditions could persist through Christmas Day.
Published On 25 Dec 2025
Sam Faiers is reportedly being iced out of their lives by those who were once close to her. And her isolated life comes at a bad time because her beloved TV career has fallen apart as fans turn away.
The 34-year-old former The Only Way Is Essex actress and her older sister Billie Shepherd, 35, had left the ITVBe reality series to pursue a media career. She co-hosted a number of independent TV programs, including The Baby Diaries and The Mummy Diaries.
She described her romantic relationships with her 39-year-old real estate partner Paul Knightley, as well as their three children, Paul Jr., Rosie, and Edward, their youngest son. She is also known for her award-winning brand Revive Collagen, which has earned her admirable standing.
READ MORE: M&S’ coffee and cake hampers are now under £5 in time for Christmas giftingREAD MORE: Sam and Billie Faiers’ reality TV series axed after one series in crushing career blow
However, success comes at a price because Sam is now more of a Billy no-mate and only has friends to hang out with, and fans are concerned that she is distant from her extended family. She recently boasted about taking Paul and the kids to Lapland, where they were recently broadcast on social media.
However, her fans noticed that her mother Sue and sister Billie, who frequently accompany her on such trips, were not present. And it appears that she has completely been iced out of the Essex social scene, leaving her with only work colleagues to socialize with.
A source has told The Sun: “Christmas used to be the time when Sam’s house was buzzing with people, but things feel different now. Her circle is much smaller these days, she keeps to herself, and outside of Paul, her kids and Billie, she doesn’t really have many friends or see many people.
Her former friends in Essex have been discussing how, in spite of the fact that no one else is ever around, she seems to spend her time with. All of them are employees.
They added: “There’s her business partner, her PA, Billie and her Revive Collagen team and that’s it. She seems to have now been permanently frozen out of her old life by the Essex wives.” The Mirror has contacted a representative of Sam for comment.
The depressing news about Sam’s life comes after her most recent TV show, which was cancelled after only one season, was released. The siblings teamed up with sister Billie to create a reality series called Sister Act, which was filmed over a number of episodes last year. The series premiered in August of this year.
But the show failed to find an audience and was axed – however, Sam has argued that she and her sister simply don’t have the time to make any more episodes as they are so busy. Sam shared the disappointing news during a Q&A session on her Instagram stories last month.
Will you and Billie be on Sister Act soon, asks a fan. The reality star, however, cautioned that last year, Billie and I spent the most time filming Sister Act. Truly, it was a truly unique experience. Because both of us are currently working on a lot of projects, we aren’t planning on doing much else for another series.
Despite Sam’s insistence that the decision was made as a result of the workload, it was claimed that Sister Act received the chops due to low rating standards. Sam hadn’t been on TV in a while, an insider told a news outlet at the time, and it appears viewers missed her.
Viewing figures didn’t go as planned, and the show’s focus was on the sisters selling products, which resembled a protracted advertisement.
If Russia agrees to keep its troops out of this eastern region of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, says Kyiv is willing to convert the Donbass region into a demilitarized zone (DMZ).
Zelenskyy’s comments represent Ukraine’s biggest territorial concession so far as he faces mounting pressure from both Russian military advances and United States President Donald Trump to agree to a ceasefire with Moscow.
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The Ukrainian president also spoke of a second DMZ near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, Europe’s largest, which is currently controlled by Russia. Zelenskyy claimed on Tuesday that the US supported the DMZ proposals, which were included in a 20-point peace plan aimed at ending the Ukrainian conflict.
What are our current knowledge of the plan and whether demilitarized zones could be effective in Ukraine:
Zelenskyy read aloud from a copy with highlighted and annotated text during a two-hour briefing with journalists. Over the weekend, Washington and Kyiv in Florida worked together to come up with the plan.
Here’s where negotiations stand on key issues:
Russia has demanded full control of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions, which constitute the Donbas, historically Ukraine’s industrial belt.
Nearly all of Luhansk and 70% of Donetsk are currently under its control.
As long as Russia doesn’t attempt to occupy the area, the most recent proposal would see Ukrainian soldiers leave the area under their control. Instead, that region is to become a DMZ.
Russian troops are in charge of a nuclear plant in Zaporizhzhia, where Ukraine has tried to retake it in vain.
The most recent proposal suggests also creating a DMZ in the area around the nuclear plant.
But it is unclear how the proposed DMZs – if both sides were to agree to them – would be governed, who might ensure that both sides play by the rules and how resources there, such as the nuclear plant, could be shared.
According to King’s College London analyst Marina Miron, “there is a point in the plan that is supposed to satisfy both sides.”
“I don’t see how this is going to work because Zelenskyy said in Ukraine that Russia would need to leave its forces, and we are talking about the Donbass, especially if Russia is winning on the battlefield,” Zelenskyy said.
Miron explained that Ukraine designating demilitarised zones in this peace plan was a tactic by Kyiv to signal that it was ready for peace, thereby pushing “the diplomatic burden on Russia”.
The most recent peace plan has not been accepted or rejected by Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Wednesday that Russia was “formulating its position” on the plan. He made no comments on the plan’s specifics.
Several DMZs exist. Among them are:
The Korean DMZ is a 4km-wide (2.5-mile-wide) buffer zone separating North Korea and South Korea.
Following the conclusion of the Korean War, it was established in 1953.
When North Korean forces crossed the 38th parallel in June 1950 to invade South Korea in an effort to reunify the peninsula, a war broke out.
Korea was temporarily divided at the 38th parallel by the US and the Soviet Union after World War II. In the North, the Soviet-backed Workers’ Party of Korea, led by Kim Il Sung, and the South, led by the US-supported Syngman Rhee government.
North Korean troops supported by the Soviets and China engaged in three-year combat with US-led UN forces. It killed an estimated two million people and devastated cities and villages on both sides.
No formal peace agreement was ever reached, and the US, China, and North Korea all agreed to sign an armistice, but South Korea refused to do so. Technically speaking, the two Koreas are still at war more than 70 years later.
Following the Israeli-Syrian conflict in the same year and an armistice signed by the two nations, the UN established a constrained area of land known as a DMZ in the Golan Heights in 1974.
A rocky region of land that is deemed to be Syria’s property under international law is the wider Golan Heights. Israel captured it during the 1967 Six-Day War and annexed it in 1982 in a move recognised only by the US.
The remaining Golan Heights that is still under Syria’s control is divided into the Observer Force Zone. UN peacekeepers continue to monitor the area.
As part of the 1979 Egypt-Israel peace treaty, DMZs were established in the Sinai Peninsula. The Sinai Peninsula was divided into four different security zones, each with its own unique military restraints, according to the treaty.
These zones are monitored by an international peacekeeping force called the Multinational Force and Observers.
Between Sweden and Finland, the Aland Islands are a small archipelago in the Baltic Sea. They are an autonomous, Swedish-speaking region of Finland.
According to a decision made by the now-disappearing League of Nations, they have been demilitarized since 1921. Because the islands were a part of Finland when it gained independence from the Russian Empire in 1917, Finland and Sweden brought the matter before the league.
After this, many Alanders wanted to reunite with Sweden, which spurred tensions.
Under the 1959 Antarctic Treaty, Antarctica was established as a demilitarized zone.
This forbids nuclear testing and military activity, making sure that only peaceful and scientific research can be conducted on the continent.
This is because several nations had made overlapping territorial claims in Antarctica, raising fears of future conflicts.
The boundaries and overlapping claims form the Thailand-Cambodia border, which was formed by French colonial delineation.
These disputes have grown more contentious as both countries strengthened their institutions and the strategic value of certain areas increased.
One of the contested zones is the culturally significant Temple Preah Vihear from the Khmer Empire, which is symbolically important to both nations. In 1962, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ruled that the temple belonged to Cambodia.
Disputes erupted from 2008 to 2011, marked by exchanges of artillery fire, mass displacements and duelling legal interpretations of the ICJ ruling.
A temporary demilitarized zone around the temple was ordered by the ICJ in 2011.
DMZs have been considerably successful in some cases, such as in the case of the Koreas.
North and South Korea’s military conflict has been avoided by the two due to their geographic location.
On the other hand, a border dispute between Thailand and Cambodia this year has caused nearly 100 people to die and a million people to bedisplaced, according to official counts. The two countries reported new clashes on Wednesday.
Demilitarized areas have prevented direct, extensive clashes in other situations, like in the Golan Heights or Sinai Peninsula.
Residents of Aek Ngadol village, located four weeks after deadly floods destroyed parts of Indonesia’s North Sumatra, celebrated Christmas mass amid the wreckage, saying the celebration despite the destruction helped to lift their spirits.
Published On 25 Dec 2025
Judy Parfitt, renowned for her role in Call the Midwife, the BBC’s beloved drama, has had a remarkable career that spans decades.
The 86-year-old actress, who has been a fixture on Call the Midwife since 2012, has a remarkable body of work that spans theater, cinema, and television.
Her professional career began in 1953 when she graduated from the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She later joined the Royal Shakespeare Company, where she performed alongside renowned actors Laurence Olivier and others.
For her outstanding work in acclaimed dramas like Pride and Prejudice and The Jewel in the Crown, she has received numerous BAFTA nominations throughout her career.
Judy has consistently mesmerized viewers with her appearances in beloved programs like Heartbeat, Midsomer Murders, Jonathan Creek, and Vera, despite not receiving the award for her supporting role in the 2003 film Girl with a Pearl Earring.
In a touching remembrance of her late husband, Judy reflected on her marriage to actor Tony Steedman, recognised for his appearances in Coronation Street and Citizen Smith.
She warmly recalls their initial encounter, saying, “Tony always tried to make me laugh because I was a terrible giggler. He definitely made an impression when I first saw him in a completely hideous, bright red jumper.
He always played the fool, and he always had people watching wherever we went. Tony never took himself or anything else too seriously, unlike I did, and he never took that seriously.
The couple, who got married in 1963, gave birth to son David a year later. In a strange way, Judy hasn’t been single since Tony passed away in 2001.
In a 2014 Mail Online interview, Judy depicted their traditional domestic lives despite their busy professional lives while reflecting on their years together.
She once said, “At home, it was a very traditional marriage, despite our respective busy schedules.” I enjoyed ironing his shirts and cooking with him.
He enjoyed cutting the vegetables while I prepared dinner. He liked using his trolley to carry me to the supermarket, but it didn’t really help him because he liked to chat and joke with the other shoppers.
Judy has previously been candid about her husband’s struggle with dementia, telling the Loose Women panel it’s crucial to discuss the subject.
She said, “I always said, I lost my husband that I loved, but I gained a child that I love because they become your children, and they’re there physically, but they’re not with you,” while reflecting on her experience with the condition.
Judy, who lost her husband, has maintained her dedication to her craft and continues to win over viewers in Call the Midwife as Sister Monica Joan.
Judy, who was born in Sheffield in 1935, described how she witnessed people simply carrying on despite the uncertainty surrounding them. She described her memories of her early years during the war.
She stated in Saga magazine, “I learned how people just got on with things the day after the war, despite food rationing, bomb dropping, and unsure if they would be alive the next day.”
The actress recalls a particular memory from her nine-year-old father when she recalls her wartime experiences.
She claimed that while Sheffield was being blitzed, people in Sheffield continued to work the next day, but my father “held me in his arms.”
Vogue Williams was left “in bits” after fulfilling a lifelong dream to appear on a beloved BBC programme. The 40-year-old presenter, who kickstarted her television career more than 15 years ago on Irish reality series Fade Street, has built an impressive portfolio of screen appearances.
She has since had stints on Bear Grylls: Mission Survive, I’m a Celebrity…Get Me Out of Here!, and last year’s Strictly Come Dancing Christmas Special. This year, the mum-of-three will take on the formidable Gladiators in a celebrity edition of the rebooted show.
She’ll compete alongside Olympic boxing champion Nicola Adams, fitness guru Joe Wicks, and reality TV personality Sam Thompson from Made in Chelsea. Speaking on the Shagged, Married, Annoyed podcast, Vogue described Gladiators as a “sick show” to be part of.
She continued, “I always wanted to do it.” Do you recall watching it when you were younger?
“My stepdad used to be like your man [referee John Anderson] because he was from Scotland. He would be like, ‘Amber [Vogue’s sister] you will go on my…’ And he’d be really strict. We’d go, ‘Urgh’.”
The legendary Travelator, among others, was not held back when the presenter spoke about the physically demanding challenges. She acknowledged that this was her first time saying, “I’m 40.” I had a few bits. I had a few bits.
You practice everything the first day, and I was like, “Oh well, not as good as I thought I would be.” And that’s when you can’t oppose the Gladiators.
According to Vogue, participants in the program have the opportunity to attempt each challenge, with one particularly challenging one. She stated, “You try everything on the eliminator, and I got Joe Wicks to film me on the eliminator.”
I immediately fell on my face as I ran up the travelator. Despite doing a lot of it, I’m not a great runner.
She continued, praising the Gladiators for being inspirational figures for young women, by saying that confronting them directly terrified her. She said, “I adore having people like that on television because I admire young girls… I imagined how beautiful my daughter would be when she looked at them and said, “Look how sick they are.”
They are powerful women who will beat you if you trick them into being p******* off. They put a lot of effort into that, and they’re also great characters as well.
The BBC brought back Gladiators in 2024, over 20 years after ITV axed the beloved show. Sky One had previously attempted a comeback, broadcasting two series from 2008 to 2009.
Before the start of the program, Vogue stated in a statement to the BBC: “I have loved this show since I was a child, and I’ll be living out my childhood dream.” However, I’m still in shock about how to face these incredible Gladiators. I’m simply thrilled to be a contender.”
Vogue will appear on BBC One’s Gladiators Celebrity Special starting at 3:35 PM today (December 25).