This Medieval-Style Castle Airbnb Is Full of Secret Doors and Chambers

Associated Press
US to announce $500M in weapons to be sent to Ukraine
The U.S. is set to provide Ukraine an additional $500 million in weapons quickly pulled from its existing stockpiles as the Biden administration works to get Kyiv in a stronger negotiating position before President-elect Donald Trump takes office, two U.S. officials said. The announcement is expected during Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s final trip to meet with the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, a consortium of about 50 partner nations that Austin brought together months after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 to coordinate weapons support. The meeting on Thursday is the 25th and potentially last gathering of the U.S.-led group, as the participating countries wait to see whether it will be continued under Trump.
Reuters
Egypt uncovers blocks from 18th dynasty Queen Hatshepsut temple
Archaeologists have uncovered intact portions of the foundation wall of pharaonic Queen Hatshepsut's valley temple in Luxor and the nearby tomb of Queen Teti Sheri, grandmother of Ahmose I, the first pharaoh of Egypt's golden New Kingdom era. The discovery of more than 1,000 decorated stone blocks on the outskirts of Hatshepsut's funerary temple above was announced on Wednesday by team leader Zahi Hawass, an Egyptian archaeologist and former minister of antiquities who has been leading excavations at the site since 2022.
USA TODAY
Attorney General Garland to release Trump report on election charges, but not classified records
Justice Department lawyers said the plan is to release a special counsel report about Trump's election interference charges, not classified documents.
Associated Press
Germany's leader says all countries must respect existing borders, in a rebuttal of Trump
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Wednesday that the principle of inviolability of borders applies to every country, however powerful, and suggested that expansionist comments by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump are meeting with “incomprehension” among European leaders. Trump on Tuesday said he would not rule out the use of military force to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland — an autonomous territory of Denmark, a longtime U.S. ally and a member of NATO and the European Union. In a hastily arranged statement to reporters, Scholz said he spoke earlier Wednesday with several European leaders, whom he didn't name, and the president of the European Council.
AFP
Gaza rescuers say 14 killed in Israel strikes
Gaza's civil defence agency said a series of Israeli air strikes killed at least 14 people on Wednesday, in the latest violence to ravage the already devastated Palestinian territory.Five people were killed and several wounded in an air strike on the house of the Barghout family in the Zeitun neighbourhood of Gaza City, the agency said.
USA TODAY
Eaton Fire prompts more evacuations in California: See map
The Eaton Fire has consumed 1,000 acres and caused dozens of zones to evacuate.
AFP
Palestinians say Israel strike kills two children in West Bank
Palestinian officials said two children were among three people killed in an Israeli air strike on the occupied West Bank on Wednesday which the military said targeted militants.Israeli forces carry out frequent raids on Palestinian towns and villages in the West Bank, which Israel has occupied since 1967.
Reuters
Venezuela's opposition decry arrests ahead of anti-Maduro protests
Venezuelan opposition parties and NGOs decried the arrests of a prominent press freedom activist and a well-known opposition figure, among others, ahead of planned protests against Friday's inauguration of President Nicolas Maduro for his third term. The opposition Popular Will party said on X late on Tuesday that at least 19 people had been detained nationwide in what it termed a "worsening of persecution and repression" by the Maduro government. Neither the Communications Ministry nor the attorney general's office immediately responded to a request for comment about the latest arrests.
Reuters
China foreign ministry not aware of Shandong Port Group ban on US-sanctioned ships
China's foreign ministry said on Wednesday it was not aware of Shandong Port Group's decision to ban U.S.-sanctioned vessels from its network of east coast harbours. The group oversees several major terminals in the province of Shandong, which is the main entry point for Iranian, Russian and Venezuelan oil imported into China. If the ban is enforced, traders say it will drive up shipping costs for independent refiners in Shandong, the main buyers of discounted sanctioned crude from the three countries, and could also slow oil imports into China.
Yahoo Finance
Walmart CEO Doug McMillon meets with Trump ahead of inauguration
The possibility of tariffs remain a top issue for Walmart as President-elect Trump is set to take office.
Reuters
Spain begins events marking 50 years since dictator Franco's death
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Wednesday presided over the first in a year-long series of events to mark 50 years since the death of dictator Francisco Franco, with a warning that the far-right is once again ascending in Europe. Under the slogan "Spain at Liberty", the centre-left government commemorated the country's transition to a parliamentary democracy at a packed auditorium in Madrid's Reina Sofia Museum. Franco died in 1975, aged 82, after ruling Spain for nearly four decades.
USA TODAY
What started the wildfires raging across the Los Angeles area?
Fire officials are investigating what started multiple wildfires near Los Angeles. The Santa Ana winds are likely driving their rapid growth.
USA TODAY
'Hell itself': Video shows frightening scene along Pacific Coast Highway as fires rage
Video footage presented an apocalyptic scene along the Pacific Coast Highway in Los Angeles with smoke, glaring flames and downed power lines.
Politico
Garland prepares to release Jack Smith’s report on 2020 election subversion case against Trump
But Garland intends to withhold the classified docs report while the case against Trump's co-defendants is ongoing.
Associated Press
How a Venezuelan man new to politics became an opposition leader who says it's his turn to rule
Edmundo González has become a beacon of hope for millions of Venezuelans. The government of President Nicolás Maduro says he did not. The stakes for Friday’s swearing-in of the man who will govern Venezuela for the next six years have never been higher in this century.
AFP
Trump asks Supreme Court to block his criminal sentencing
US President-elect Donald Trump asked the Supreme Court Wednesday to block his sentencing this week for covering up hush money payments to a porn star while he appeals his conviction.Trump was convicted in May of falsifying business records to cover up a payment made to porn star Stormy Daniels on the eve of the 2016 election to stop her from revealing an alleged 2006 sexual encounter.
Associated Press
Justice Department says it plans to release only part of special counsel's Trump report for now
The Justice Department said Wednesday that it will release special counsel Jack Smith’s findings on Donald Trump’s efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election but will keep under wraps for now the rest of the report focused on the president-elect's hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate. The revelation was made in a filing to a federal appeals court that was considering a defense request to block the release of the two-volume report while charges remain pending against two Trump co-defendants in the Florida case accusing the Republican former president and current president-elect of illegally holding classified documents. Aileen Cannon, the Trump-appointed judge presiding over the classified documents case, granted the request Tuesday, issuing a temporary block on the report.
CNN
A winter storm is about to paint 1,400 miles of the South with snow and ice, threatening major impacts
Brutal cold will open the door for a winter storm to take a somewhat unusual track through the South and create treacherous conditions.
AFP
Biden says he could have defeated Trump
Joe Biden thinks he could have won reelection if he had stayed in the White House race, he said in an interview published Wednesday -- while conceding he was unsure if he would have served another full term.He has given fewer sit-down interviews and press conferences than any president since Ronald Reagan, and USA Today was the only print outlet scheduled for a one-to-one before Biden leaves office.
Associated Press
IRS has improved taxpayer services but is slow to resolve ID theft, an independent watchdog says
The IRS boosted taxpayer services through Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act but still faces processing claims from a coronavirus pandemic-era tax credit program and is slow to resolve certain identity theft cases, according to an independent watchdog report released Wednesday. “For the first time since I became the National Taxpayer Advocate in 2020, I can begin this report with good news: The taxpayer experience has noticeably improved,” Erin M. Collins wrote in her 2024 annual report to Congress. Remaining service gaps include prolonged delays in resolving claims from the nearly half a million taxpayers whose identities were stolen by fraudsters who received a refund on their behalf.

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