haunting

GERMANY’S army is preparing its forces to treat 1,000 injured troops a day as the prospect of a war between NATO and Russia looms ever larger.

Berlin’s war planning lays bare the scale of devastation that such a conflict would unleash upon the continent.

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The Kremlin denies that it wants a war against Russia’s Western rivals.

But recent incursions of military jets into NATO airspace has amplified fears that Putin has his sights on members of the alliance.

Since Russia‘s brutal invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western countries have been forced to reckon with the prospect of a major war breaking out on European soil once again.

It has prompted military leaders to warn of the scale of casualties that could come if Moscow attacked the alliance.

Germany’s Surgeon General Ralf Hoffmann told Reuters that the exact number would depend on the intensity of fighting.

But he said: “Realistically, we are talking about a figure of around 1,000 wounded troops per day.”

Berlin is far from the only country to ramp up planning for mass casualties in the face of Russian sabre-rattling.

France has also placed its hospitals on a war-footing, with health bosses ordered to be ready for a “major engagement” by March 2026.

In anticipation of a large influx of wounded soldiers, Paris has ordered the country’s health centres to integrate the “specific needs of defence” into their planning.

They want French hospitals to be prepared to take in not only their own country’s injured troops, but also those of NATO allies.

Hoffmann added that Germany needs to look to the war in Ukraine to adapt how it approaches medical training for the battlefield.

“The Ukrainians often cannot evacuate their wounded fast enough because drones are buzzing overhead everywhere,” he warned.

Flexible transport options would be needed to get injured troops out of harm’s way, Hoffmann said, such as how Ukraine has used hospital trains.

Germany’s chief of defence General Carsten Breuer issued a stark warning this summer as to how soon a Russian attack could come.

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He told the BBC that Moscow’s increased military production represents a “a very serious threat” that could come as soon as 2029.

“This is what the analysts are assessing – in 2029. So we have to be ready by 2029,” he warned.

“If you ask me now, is this a guarantee that’s not earlier than 2029?

“I would say no, it’s not. So we must be able to fight tonight.”

In Britain, government officials are hurriedly updating decades-old contingency plans to protect the country in the event of Russian aggression.

Former NATO commander Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon previously told The Sun: “Britain is very much in the sights of Putin’s derision, and we are the ones likely to be attacked first.

“Britain really has got to dust off its contingency plans.

“Over 20 years of neglect, and we understand that’s exactly what this report is about at the moment.”

An assault on one NATO country by Russia would require all other member states to take up arms in their support.

This is because of the alliance’s Article 5 protection guarantee, which makes an attack on one an attack on all.

Fears of confrontation with Russia have spiked since Moscow’s air force launched incursions into NATO airspace in recent weeks.

Russian MiG-31 fighters entered the skies over Estonia earlier this month, prompting Western jets to be scrambled in response to shoo them away.

Moscow’s drones have also entered Polish and Romanian airspace over the past weeks.

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Jay Slater’s disappearance sparked a social media storm as the 19-year-old tragically died while on holiday in Tenerife after sending a haunting message to his friend

Jay Slater sent a haunting final message to his friend, which was only delivered following his tragic death. The 19-year-old went missing while on holiday in Tenerife last year after attending a music festival with his pals.

A vast search was carried out in an effort to find Jay after he was reported missing on June 17, 2024. Sadly, Jay’s body was found in a remote area near the village of Masca on 15 July.

The search for Jay revealed he had vanished after being driven about 22 miles into the mountains to an Airbnb with two men he had met on the holiday. He fell around 80ft to his death in a treacherous ravine while trying to walk back to his accommodation in Los Cristianos.

READ MORE: Jay Slater pal Lucy Law’s ‘urgent 999 call’ to cops reveals ‘he’s going to die up there’READ MORE: Last Jay Slater CCTV before he went missing finally released raising more questions

Within hours of Jay’s disappearance, mass online interest set conspiracy theories flying, causing a social media storm led by true-crime keyboard detectives. The case became the focus of global attention, with over 30 million videos online speculating about Jay’s whereabouts.

Now, a new documentary is set to detail his family’s hunt for answers and is the first time they have spoken publicly about the tragic case. During one moment, Jay’s mum Debbie Duncan recalled finding an unsent message when she logged onto her son’s Snapchat account.

After finally receiving Jay’s phone, Debbie found a devastating unsent message to his friend. She said: “When we signed into Jay’s Snapchat there was an unsent message from Jay to Brad [Geohegan].

“So the message was obviously just flying around and then the message sent to Brad, which obviously gave Brad a fright. He messaged me straight away ‘are you on Jay’s phone?’. I said yeah we’ve just signed into his Snapchat.

“He said ‘I’ve just got a message that’s just come through from Jay’. The last message he sent. He said ‘listen, I’m not going to make it’. It’s kind of like he knew he just wasn’t going to make it.”

Jay’s phone is believed to have ran out of charge when his call to friend Lucy Law ended at 8:50am. The documentary plays the desperate ‘999 call’ she made to Spanish police where she tells them: “Jay said he is going to die up there”.

Lucy had known Jay for about six years and was the last person to speak to him on the phone. On the call to Spanish police, Lucy tells them: “My friend he’s met some people, and they’ve drove him up into the mountains. I don’t know why and he’s left the house,

“And I don’t know if something happened, and I was telling him, you need to go back to your friends and tell them to drive you back down.

“And he said ‘No, I can’t. I can’t’. But I don’t know why that was.” The police then asked for the friend’s name and Lucy tells them it is Jay Slater.

The police ask if her friend has asked to be rescued and she added: “Yes, said he feels like he’s going to die up there. And then the phone cut off.” The audio from the call with the police has never been heard before and sheds new light on the events of June 17.

Channel 4 ’s new film The Disappearance of Jay Slater will air next weekend. The Disappearance of Jay Slater also has never-before-seen CCTV footage, previously unheard audio, the discovery of unsent messages, and access to the Slater family as they search for answers about what happened to Jay.

* The Disappearance of Jay Slater airs on Channel 4 on Sunday September 28 at 9pm.

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The UK is home to some of the most beautiful walks in the world, and one in particular is a must-visit this summer – especially if you love to snap photos

If you’re looking for a sign to get outside and discover the UK’s amazing landscapes, consider this your cue. A picturesque harbour town in the UK, boasting stunning coastal views and even a castle to explore, should be on your travel list, as there is so much to see and do there.

Stonehaven, located in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is an ideal destination for a summer getaway. According to a recent study by CEWE experts, this charming location boasts one of the most scenic walks in the UK.

If you’ve visited before, you’ll understand why – the incredible landscape could easily have come straight from a postcard.

Each spot on the list was evaluated based on star ratings, review count, and descriptive terms such as ‘beautiful’, ‘stunning’, ‘amazing’, and ‘lovely’ – words typically linked with photogenic locations that leave lasting impressions.

The walk around Dunnottar Castle tied for second place overall with Powis Castle in Wales, surpassed only by Mount Stewart in Northern Ireland, reports the Express.

Dunnottar Castle in Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire stands as one of Scotland’s most precious landmarks, having shaped the nation’s story across 1,000 years of history.

Boasting dramatic clifftop panoramas, this remarkable fortress has welcomed legendary figures including Mary Queen of Scots throughout the centuries.

The castle has also served as the backdrop for numerous Hollywood productions, including Disney’s Brave and Mel Gibson’s Hamlet, with its official website noting that the ‘haunting’ castle has featured on the big screen many times.

They said: “Perched on a cliff-top amidst striking scenery with stunning seascape views, it’s not hard to understand why the beauty of this outstanding location has been captured on the silver screen on numerous occasions.”

Positioned dramatically on a towering 160-foot precipice and encircled by sparkling waters, this magnificent structure truly must be seen to be believed.

Visitors can venture to the Aberdeenshire coast to secure tickets for exploring the castle itself, or alternatively wander the surrounding grounds whilst admiring the view.

Things to do in Stonehaven

Dunnottar Castle is about 1.6 miles south of Stonehaven, so it’s the perfect place to visit if you’re in the area. But aside from the castle, there are so many brilliant things to do in this town.

No trip to Stonehaven would be complete without dedicating time to the charming harbour area.

There are so many places offering the perfect spots to dine, sip drinks and unwind, whilst there’s nothing quite like observing the boats gently swaying in the water.

During your stay, make sure to explore the Tolbooth Museum, which is the town’s most ancient building and previously served as a jail many years ago.

Many original elements remain intact, including the traditional prison cell entrance. And if you’re in the mood for a bit of adventure, you could also give paddleboarding lessons a go out on the water.

However, if you’re not quite up for braving the sea, there’s an outdoor swimming pool situated along the seafront that remains open until September.

An early line from “Salt Bones,” the latest novel from talented poet and novelist Jennifer Givhan, reads, “Daughters disappear here.”

It is a line that haunts the Salton Sea region, where Givhan has set her latest novel and infuses the toxic air upon which her characters must survive. In other words, this warning to keep your daughters close clings to everything. It is in the air, but also — in this thriller that employs elements of magical realism and mystery — it is in the water, buffeting each of these characters with the cadence of windblown waves crashing against the shore.

The Salton Sea is just as much a character here as Givhan’s main protagonists: Mal, a mother of two daughters, and the two daughters themselves — Amaranta, in high school, and Griselda, a science major in college. Through them, we get a sense of this place, what it was, what it is and what it is becoming. A sea that evaporates and pulls back year after year, exposing a lake bed contaminated with agricultural runoff and revealing not just the bones of fish but also a painful history that many would rather remains beneath the water’s surface.

“Salt Bones” by Jennifer Givhan

(Mulholland Books)

El Valle, the fictional town that serves as the primary setting for “Salt Bones,” is haunted by what surrounds it. By the memories of the missing. Daughters like Mal’s own sister, Elena, who disappeared more than 20 years before.

Now with two daughters of her own, Mal is a butcher at the local carnicería. But when one of the workers at the shop, Renata, a young woman the same age as Mal’s eldest daughter, doesn’t show up for work one day, Mal begins to spiral into the past, questioning what she could have done differently, and then what she could do now. And, most of all, why does all of this seem to keep happening here in El Valle?

For Mal and her family, there is no escape. They are followed not just by memories, but also by Mal’s mother’s spite-fueled dementia, which returns all of them again and again to the fissures in time just before and just after the disappearance of Mal’s sister. And now, with Renata gone missing, there is nowhere to hide from the tragedy of this place, not at work, not at home and not even at the edges of the Salton Sea where Mal can sometimes find a tenuous peace.

But it is not just Mal who roams these shores, but La Siguanaba, a shape-shifter often associated with Central American and Mexican folklore, wearing “whatever a man lusts after most. Sequins. Spandex. Fishnet. Nothing at all.” And then after enticing these men to approach, this being — often described as a woman — turns and reveals the “white-boned skull of a horse” beneath her long dark hair.

“By the time they scream,” Givhan writes, “it’s too late.”

La Siguanaba is a cautionary tale and a myth to some in El Valle. She is a ghost story to keep the kids safe and away from danger, but to Mal, she is very real. La Siguanaba comes to her in dreams; in her waking hours, she lurks just beyond the light. Her smell — something like urine and unmucked stables — floats on the wind, acting like a warning, a memory, a message.

But all this — the monster in the shadows, the missing daughters and even a rising tension in El Valle over a lithium plant and a looming ecological disaster — is only part of the story. Mal can only know so much, and it is through the details revealed by Mal’s daughters, Amaranta and Griselda, that we begin to comprehend the depth of this story.

Like all good mysteries, there is a whole world just out of reach: secret lives, secrets kept, secrets used like currency. For us — the readers — the clues are there. Givhan does a wonderful job infusing the early pages with hints and observations from each of the three perspectives, Mal, Amaranta and Griselda, all of whom are hiding things from each other.

To the reader, who benefits from the combined knowledge of these characters, each perspective adds a different lens. Mal, with her mother’s intuition and almost otherworldly connection to La Siguanaba, Amaranta, who is the youngest and still very much a child and who sees what others don’t expect her to, and then Griselda, home from college, who looks on all of this with a fresh, almost outside perspective. All of them come to the same conclusion very early on: Something is very off in this small community.

“Salt Bones” is a worthy read. It’s a book infused with the language and culture of a strong Mexican American and Indigenous community. In some way, like La Siguanaba, it’s a conduit into another world. A complicated, real and very much welcome, if a bit scary, world.

And though the layering of information — of what we know, what remains hidden from us and what has been foreshadowed — does add up (delaying what becomes a propulsive search for the missing in the second half of the novel), Givhan’s talents as a writer of blunt, strong sentences and remarkable poetic passages regarding the landscape and the sea more than make up for any delay.

“Salt Bones” is a triumph. One of the most masterful marriages of horror, mystery, thriller and literary writing that I’ve read in some time. And it is certainly a book that will haunt you (in a good way!) for a very long time after you’ve turned the final page.

Waite is the author of four novels and a book critic for the San Francisco Chronicle.