We're the world's oldest daily, albeit English language. An older German paper has sadly ended its print edition to be just digital but I get little pleasure at our move towards oldest of all because their change reflects challenges for the industry 1/3

Look at the flames in this pic. It was taken by a man from Northern Ireland five miles away. Imagine how massive and destructive it would be right there. And how terrifying if you were a few hundred metres away, in streets clogged with fleeing traffic

I had been mentioning that ever since the Camp Fire in California which killed a horrifying 100 people, I had feared a fire that intrudes into a big neighbourhood in LA. Malibu was badly burned in 2023. I hope to goodness this never happens, let alone now

They were bought just now in the centre of Belfast

@100pcLondoner @gary_ni @JohnSimpsonNews @StBartholomews @SJDKennington @wabbey Thanks. At St Martin In the Fields recently I was impressed by the numbers, but a church near Belgravia over the summer had a small congregation. St George's in Belfast has respectable numbers, partly due to relatives of the excellent choir. I do hope traditional services survive

RT @News_Letter: The News Letter has a Boxing Day edition today, which is in the shops!

@pokeymarley @JohnSimpsonNews What nonsense. I was not criticising the church in any way, but rather wondering if it is doing quit as well as John says. I know about attendances because I so enjoy traditional Anglican ones that I try many of them out in NI and London

RT @NiallcNPC31: Our global warming is 12 degrees and wet, every day, forever.

I have pulled together a story here explaining some statistics behind the exceptionally mild weather. It is actually the night temperatures that are particularly warm. Yesterday early Christmas morning (when still dark) it was up at summer nighttime levels

An unspeakable tragedy at any time, let alone just before Christmas

Not only, as this story explains, is it a very mild Christmas Eve and set to be similarly so tomorrow, but the night time temps are remarkably high: Belfast is set tonight not to drop below 11C, which would be a respectable summer minimum temp

@gerrylynch And i seem to recall the coldest point in the water itself is even later. It can be March. The warmest as late as September. I think the best time to swim Scotland to NI is late August when the water is most likely to be warm but the days are still longish

The days are getting longer! The days are getting longer! Pic taken yesterday in North Down. Sadly for the celebrants at Newgrange, today seems pretty grim. Even so, the light is coming back ... What joy

On Saturday I wrote about how unionists MLAs did all come together last week against the Irish Sea border (a unity which had not been guaranteed) but Owen Polley @3000Versts notes that the calibre of unionist argument was poor

The sun sets in Belfast now on what is the darkest evening. It has set in recent days at 3.57pm but tomorrow the evenings slightly lengthen to 3.58, then later. This all happens before the shortest day, Saturday 21. The mornings don't turn until early Jan

We're often taunted that people in Great Britain don't think us British, how a 'new Ireland' is inevitable. Yet the Irish election shows that the further south you go from the border the less focus there seems to be on scrapping it. My column from Saturday

A devastating analysis by our political editor David Thompson @NewsLetter_Pols of the failure of Stormont's Executive Office Committee to hold to account the first minister @moneillsf. This first appeared in our weekend print edition