At least 32 people have survived after a passenger plane operated by Azerbaijan Airlines burst into flames as it crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after veering hundreds of miles off its planned route.

The flight was carrying 62 passengers and five crew members, the airline said on Wednesday, suggesting that 30 people had died in the crash. Kazakh authorities said that at least 29 of the survivors, a tally that is believed to include two children, were being treated in a nearby hospital. Azerbaijan’s foreign ministry said in a statement that some were in critical condition.

The plane was en route from Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, to the Russian city of Grozny in Chechnya. A preliminary assessment suggested that both pilots had died in the crash, Russian news agency Interfax reported.

Unverified video of the crash appeared to show the plane bursting into flames as it hit the ground and thick, black plumes of smoke began to rise. Bloodied and bruised passengers could be seen stumbling from a piece of the fuselage that had remained intact.

More than 50 rescuers rushed to the scene, managing to extinguish a fire at the crash site. Kazakh officials later said that more than 150 emergency workers were at the scene, while the health ministry said a flight carrying specialist doctors was being sent from Astana, the capital, to treat the injured.

The plane had crashed hundreds of miles off its scheduled route on the opposite shore of the Caspian Sea, after what Russia’s aviation watchdog said was an emergency that may have been caused by a bird strike.

Officials did not explain why the plane had crossed the sea, but Reuters noted that the crash occurred shortly after drone strikes hit southern Russia. Drone activity has shut airports in the area in the past and the nearest Russian airport on the plane’s flight path was closed on Wednesday morning, Reuters added.

Russian news agencies said the plane had been flying from Baku to Grozny in Chechnya, but had been rerouted because of fog in Grozny.

Azerbaijan Airlines, the country’s flag carrier, said the Embraer 190 had made an emergency landing about 2 miles (3km) from Aktau, an oil and gas hub on the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea.

“Today is a tragic day for AZAL,” the airline said on social media. “We extend our deepest condolences with profound sorrow to the families and loved ones of the passengers and crew members who lost their lives in the crash of the Embraer-190 aircraft near the city of Aktau.”

It said those onboard, according to preliminary information, included 37 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russian citizens, six Kazakh citizens, and three Kyrgyz citizens.

The airline said it had set up a hotline for family members of those on the flight, adding that, in contrast to reports from the scene, there were no children among the passengers.

Hours after the crash, Azerbaijan’s prosecutor general’s Office said it had opened a criminal investigation.

Authorities in Kazakhstan also said a government commission had been set up to investigate what had happened, with members of the commission to fly to the site and ensure that families of those on the flight were getting help. Kazakhstan would cooperate with Azerbaijan on the investigation, the government said.

Mobile phone footage circulating online appeared to show the aircraft making a steep descent before smashing into the ground.

Other footage showed part of its fuselage ripped away from the wings and the rest of the aircraft, lying upside in the grass. The footage corresponded to the plane’s colours and its registration number.

There was speculation in Russian media that the plane could have been shot down by Russian air defences, which mistook it for a Ukrainian drone.

The Fighterbomber Telegram channel, believed to be run by Capt Ilya Tumanov of the Russian army, released a clip showing what appeared to be holes, which some suggested resembled the kind of damage caused by shelling or an explosion with shrapnel.

Fighterbomber said it was unlikely that the holes were caused by a bird strike.

Flight-tracking data from FlightRadar24.com showed the aircraft making what appeared to be a figure-right as it neared the airport in Aktau, its altitude moving up and down substantially over the last minutes of the flight.

In a separate post FlightRadar24 said online that the aircraft had faced “strong GPS jamming” which “ made the aircraft transmit bad ADS-B data”, referring to the information that allows flight-tracking websites to follow planes in flight. Russia has been blamed in the past for jamming GPS transmissions in the wider region.

Following news of the crash, Ilham Aliyev, the president of Azerbaijan, cut short a visit to Russia where he had been due to attend an informal summit of leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a grouping of former Soviet nations, his office said in a statement.

Aliyev later signed a decree declaring 26 December to be a day of mourning in Azerbaijan. “It is with deep sadness that I express my condolences to the families of the victims and wish a speedy recovery to those injured,” he wrote on social media.

The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, had spoken to Aliyev after the crash.

“Unfortunately, Azerbaijan’s President Aliyev was forced to leave St Petersburg [where he had a summit]. Putin has already called him and expressed his condolences in connection with the crash of the Azerbaijani plane in Aktau,” said Peskov. “We deeply sympathise with those who lost their relatives and friends in this plane crash and wish a speedy recovery to all those who managed to survive.”

Azerbaijan’s first lady, Mehriban Aliyeva, who is also the country’s vice-president, said she was “deeply saddened by the news of the tragic loss of lives in the plane crash near Aktau”.

“I extend my heartfelt condolences to the families and loved ones of the victims. Wishing them strength and patience! I also wish a speedy recovery to the injured,” she said on Instagram.

Ramzan Kadyrov, the Kremlin-backed leader of Chechnya, expressed his condolences in a statement and said those being treated in hospital were in an extremely serious condition and that he and others would pray for their rapid recovery.

Christmas morning in Ukraine was overshadowed by a massive Russian aerial attack using cruise missiles to target energy infrastructure across the country, which Volodymyr Zelenskyy condemned as “inhuman”.

“Today, Putin deliberately chose Christmas to attack. What could be more inhuman? More than 70 missiles, including ballistic missiles, and more than a hundred attack drones,” the Ukrainian president said on Telegram.

He said there had been hits and blackouts in several regions. “The targets are our energy. They continue to fight for a blackout in Ukraine,” he said.

The attack left half a million people in Kharkiv region without heating, in temperatures just a few degrees celsius above zero, while there were blackouts in the capital, Kyiv, and elsewhere.

“Russian evil will not break Ukraine and will not distort Christmas,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, said the transmission system operator had imposed restrictions on the electricity supply to minimise the impact.

At least three people were wounded in a missile attack on Kharkiv in north-eastern Ukraine, the city’s mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said.

“Kharkiv is under a massive missile attack. A series of explosions were heard in the city and there are still ballistic missiles heading towards the city,” Terekhov wrote on Telegram early on Wednesday.

The governor of Kherson region also reported on Wednesday that one person had been killed in the last 24 hours. In Dnipropetrovsk region, a search and rescue operation after strikes on Christmas Eve found a 43-year-old man had been killed and 17 others wounded, the Dnipropetrovsk governor, Sergiy Lysak, said.

Russia’s defence ministry said in its daily briefing that it had conducted a massive strike on critical energy infrastructure facilities that supply Ukraine’s defence industry.

The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, called the attacks “Russia’s Christmas gift to Ukraine”.

She said on X: “More than 70 missiles and 100 drones, directed at Ukrainian families celebrating in their homes and the energy infrastructure that keeps them warm. For the third holiday season, Russia weaponises winter.”

The UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, also condemned the attacks. “I pay tribute to the resilience of the Ukrainian people, and the leadership of President Zelenskyy, in the face of further drone and missile attacks from Putin’s bloody and brutal war machine, with no respite, even at Christmas,” he said.

“As we go into the new year, it remains vital that we redouble our resolve to place Ukraine in the strongest possible position to end Russia’s illegal aggression against the Ukrainian people.”

Ukrainians were marking their second Christmas on 25 December, according to a new calendar in another step towards erasing Russian influence.

Most Ukrainians are Orthodox Christians and the independent Orthodox Church of Ukraine, set up in 2018, agreed in 2023 to move away from the traditional Julian calendar used in Russia where Christmas is celebrated on 7 January.

Since the start of the war in February 2022, Russia has severely damaged Ukraine’s power grid by repeatedly bombing it, almost halving its generating capacity and causing regular power cuts.

Ukraine has regularly appealed to its allies for more robust air-defence systems to thwart Russian attacks on the country’s power system.

“This year, it is the 13th massive attack on the Ukrainian energy sector and the 10th massive attack on the company’s energy facilities,” Ukraine’s largest private energy company, DTEK, said.

Washington cleared Ukraine in November to use long-range US missiles against military targets inside Russia, prompting fiery rhetoric and vows of retaliation from Moscow.

Russia launched almost 200 missiles and drones targeting Ukraine’s energy grid in November, with Zelenskyy alleging cluster munitions had been fired in what he called a “despicable escalation” almost three years into the war.

Ukraine, meanwhile, launched another drone attack on several regions in Russia, including Kursk and the Republic of North Ossetia. In Vladikavkaz, the capital of North Ossetia, a fire broke out in a shopping mall after fragments of a drone reportedly struck the building.

On Sunday, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, threatened Kyiv with “more destruction” after Ukrainian drones struck several buildings in the Russian city of Kazan the previous day.

Both sides are manoeuvring to strengthen their positions before US president-elect, Donald Trump, takes office in January.

With the incoming Trump administration promising to swiftly end the war in Ukraine, Moscow and Kyiv are warily considering the prospect of talks.

Moscow’s army claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, with Kyiv struggling to hold the frontline in the face of troop and ammunition shortages.

With his troops on the offensive, Putin last week signalled that he was in no hurry to seek an end to the war, which is nearing the three-year mark.

Speaking during his annual set-piece television event, he reiterated his hardline conditions for ending the war, which include Ukraine refraining from joining Nato, adopting a neutral status, and undergoing partial demilitarisation. He also insisted that Moscow retain control of Crimea along with the four Ukrainian regions he claimed in 2022.

An undersea power cable linking Finland and Estonia broke down on Wednesday, Finland’s prime minister said, the latest in a series of incidents involving cables and energy pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

The Finnish electricity grid’s head of operations, Arto Pahkin, told the public broadcaster Yle that sabotage could not be ruled out.

Finland’s prime minister, Petteri Orpo, said the outage had not affected the country’s electricity supplies.

“The authorities remain vigilant even during Christmas and are investigating the situation,” he wrote on X.

Fingrid said current on the EstLink 2 cable sending electricity to Estonia was cut at 12:26pm local time (10:26 GMT).

Two telecoms cables in the Baltic linking Sweden and Denmark were also cut last month.

Suspicions rapidly fell on the Chinese ship Yi Peng 3, which according to tracking sites had sailed over the cables around the time they were cut.

Sweden said on Monday that China had denied a request for prosecutors to conduct an investigation on the vessel and that it had left the area.

European officials have said they suspect several of the incidents involved sabotage linked to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The Kremlin has dismissed the claim as “absurd” and “laughable”.

The Arelion cable running from the Swedish island of Gotland to Lithuania was damaged early on 17 November, and the C-Lion 1 cable connecting Helsinki and the German port of Rostock was cut south of Sweden’s Oland island the next day.

Tensions have mounted around the Baltic since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

A series of underwater explosions ruptured the Nord Stream pipelines that carried Russian gas to Europe in September 2022, but the cause of the blasts has yet to be determined.

An undersea gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia was shut down after the anchor of a Chinese cargo ship damaged it in October 2023.

A man has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder after pedestrians were hit by a car in the West End of London in the early hours of Christmas Day.

The Metropolitan police said officers were called at 00.45am on Wednesday after reports of a collision and a car driving on the wrong side of the road on Shaftesbury Avenue in Covent Garden.

Four pedestrians were taken to hospital with one in a life-threatening condition, police said.

The alleged driver, a 31-year-old man, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder.

Police said they believed the suspect was “involved in an altercation at a nightclub prior to getting in his car and mounting the pavement”.

They added that it had “been confirmed as an isolated incident which is not terror-related”.

Forensic officers have arrived at Shaftesbury Avenue. Tourists in Soho have been stopping to look at the police cordon, as blood was visible on the pavement opposite the Gielgud theatre.

The cordon, located on Archer Street and Great Windmill Street, covers the Windmill Soho nightclub and other venues in the city centre.

Deputy assistant commissioner Stuart Cundy said: “Officers responded quickly to this report, working closely with City of London police to arrest a man within minutes.

“Detectives are quickly progressing inquiries as part of this investigation.

“It’s believed that the suspect was involved in an altercation at a nightclub prior to getting in his car and mounting the pavement.

“Several scenes remain in place at the location today.

“This has been confirmed as an isolated incident which is not terror-related.”

Anyone with information is asked to call officers on 101.

Hundreds of university students have rallied in Belgrade to protest against the policies of Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, and his ruling Serbian Progressive party (SNS), which they blame for a railway disaster last month in which 15 people died.

The concrete awning of the recently renovated roof of the train station in the northern city of Novi Sad caved in on 1 November, killing 14 people and injuring three. One of the injured died later.

Students at universities in Belgrade and across Serbia have been protesting since, demanding the publication of documents relevant to the station renovation and the prosecution of those responsible for the disaster.

After a 15-minute silent vigil to commemorate the victims of the accident, students marched to the state prosecutor’s headquarters in Belgrade on Wednesday to deliver 1,000 identical letters of protest to the office of Zagorka Dolovac, the chief state prosecutor.

“Students demand that you fight for the law and justice, without any political or corrupt malpractices,” the letter said.

Students, opposition and civic groups blame Dolovac and prosecutors for the sluggish investigation into the disaster, something they deny.

Students carried banners depicting a bloodied hand, which they say symbolises the government’s responsibility for the awning collapse.

Opposition parties and civic groups have also taken to the streets, blaming the accident on shoddy construction resulting from corruption and nepotism.

The ruling coalition denies this and Vučić has said those responsible must be held to account.

Hundreds of university students have rallied in Belgrade to protest against the policies of Serbia’s president, Aleksandar Vučić, and his ruling Serbian Progressive party (SNS), which they blame for a railway disaster last month in which 15 people died.

The concrete awning of the recently renovated roof of the train station in the northern city of Novi Sad caved in on 1 November, killing 14 people and injuring three. One of the injured died later.

Students at universities in Belgrade and across Serbia have been protesting since, demanding the publication of documents relevant to the station renovation and the prosecution of those responsible for the disaster.

After a 15-minute silent vigil to commemorate the victims of the accident, students marched to the state prosecutor’s headquarters in Belgrade on Wednesday to deliver 1,000 identical letters of protest to the office of Zagorka Dolovac, the chief state prosecutor.

“Students demand that you fight for the law and justice, without any political or corrupt malpractices,” the letter said.

Students, opposition and civic groups blame Dolovac and prosecutors for the sluggish investigation into the disaster, something they deny.

Students carried banners depicting a bloodied hand, which they say symbolises the government’s responsibility for the awning collapse.

Opposition parties and civic groups have also taken to the streets, blaming the accident on shoddy construction resulting from corruption and nepotism.

The ruling coalition denies this and Vučić has said those responsible must be held to account.

Pope Francis has urged the world “to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions”, in his traditional Christmas message, using his address to call for peace in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan, and express concern over the “extremely grave” humanitarian situation in Gaza.

Francis directly addressed the conflict in Ukraine in his Urbi et Orbi message, calling for “gestures of dialogue and encounter, in order to achieve a just and lasting peace”. His message came hours after Russia launched a massive aerial attack, using cruise missiles to target energy infrastructure across Ukraine.

Speaking from the central balcony of St Peter’s Basilica, the pope called for leaders to “open the door” to negotiations. “May the sound of arms be silenced in war-torn Ukraine,” the 88-year-old pontiff added.

In March of this year, Francis was criticised by Ukrainian officials after he said the country should have “the courage to raise the white flag” and negotiate an end to the war with Russia. The Vatican’s director of communications later clarified that Francis was calling for a “diplomatic solution in search of a just and lasting peace”.

Francis also used his Christmas Day message to address the conflict in the Middle East, calling for “the doors of dialogue and peace [to] be flung open”.

He added: “I think of the Christian communities in Israel and Palestine, particularly in Gaza, where the humanitarian situation is extremely grave,” he said. “May there be a ceasefire, may the hostages be released and aid be given to the people worn out by hunger and by war.”

The conflict has raged for nearly 15 months, while repeated ceasefire efforts have stalled, with both sides once again on Christmas Day blaming each other for the failure to reach a truce.

On Wednesday, Gaza’s health ministry said in a statement that more than 45,361 Palestinians have been killed since Hamas-led militants attacked southern Israel on 7 October 2023. Thousands more people are believed to be buried under the rubble and tens of thousands have been wounded.

Speaking on Wednesday, Francis urged people to “tear down all walls of separation”, citing examples that ranged from the ideologies that “so often mark political life”, to physical walls. He called for a “mutually agreed solution” to bring down the border wall that has divided the Mediterranean island of Cyprus between the Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus since 1974.

He also called for a ceasefire in Sudan, which has been ravaged by 20 months of brutal civil war, leaving millions under the threat of famine.

“May the son of the most high sustain the efforts of the international community to facilitate access to humanitarian aid for the civilian population of Sudan and to initiate new negotiations for a ceasefire,” he said.

Francis on Christmas Eve opened the “holy door” of St Peter’s Basilica, launching the jubilee year of Catholic celebrations that are expected to draw more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome.

On Wednesday Francis urged people to make the most of the jubilee year. “I invite every individual and all people of all nations to have the courage to walk through the door, to become pilgrims of hope, to silence the sounds of arms and overcome divisions,” he said.

With contributions from Agence France-Presse, Associated Press and Reuters

A Russian cargo ship that sank on Tuesday in the Mediterranean Sea was the target of an “act of terrorism”, according to the vessel’s owner.

The Ursa Major sank while it was sailing through international waters between Spain and Algeria, leaving two crew members missing,

Its owner, Oboronlogistika – a company affiliated with the Russian defence ministry – said on Wednesday that three explosions on the starboard side of the ship caused the sinking.

The firm described the incident as an “act of terrorism”, but did not specify who might be responsible for the apparent attack.

The 142-metre long Ursa Major was the largest ship operated by Oboronlogistika and had a cargo capacity of 1,200 tonnes. Both the ship and its owner were placed under sanctions by the US in 2022 for their ties to Russia’s military.

Spain’s sea rescue service said in a statement that the ship first sent a distress call on Monday morning when it was off the coast of south-eastern Spain in bad weather, reporting that the ship was listing and a lifeboat had been launched.

Moscow said 14 of the ship’s 16 crew members had been rescued and brought to Spain, but that two crew were still missing.

The ship was reportedly on its way to Vladivostok in the far east of Russia, carrying two cranes for the port weighing 380 tonnes each.

Russian officials have yet to comment on claims suggesting foul play in the ship’s sinking.

The Ukrainian navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said on Tuesday that Russia faces “systemic problems” in maintaining its fleet but gave no indication that Kyiv was involved in the incident.

Through a series of drone and rocket strikes, Ukraine has significantly weakened Moscow’s naval capabilities in the Black Sea, restricting its operations in the three-year-long war.

However, Kyiv has not targeted any Russian ships outside the Black Sea and any involvement in the Ursa Major sinking would mark a significant shift in tactics.

The demise of the Ursa Major came days after a Russian tanker carrying oil products sank in the Black Sea, causing an ecological disaster.

The Russian oil fleet has been heavily sanctioned by western nations since the Kremlin ordered the full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.

As a result, Moscow has resorted to using a so-called ghost fleet of tankers, which are often poorly maintained and unsuitable for open waters, to transport oil and circumvent sanctions.

This was the year that gen Z had their “Brat summer”, or so we were led to believe.

Inspired by the hit album by pop sensation Charli xcx, the trend was seen to embody all the messiness of modern youth: trashy, chaotic and bright green.

But on the teenager’s social media platform of choice, TikTok, a more sepia music trend has been taking root.

Despite having an endless amount of music to pair with their short, scrollable videos, TikTok users have been raiding the back catalogues of artists from yesteryear including Bronski Beat and Sade to soundtrack their posts.

This year set a new high for use of old tracks on British TikTok posts, with tunes more than five years old accounting for 19 out of its 50 top tracks this year. It is the highest proportion since TikTok started monitoring the trend in 2021, when just 8 out of the 50 tracks were from back catalogues.

The trend is also global, with 20 out of the top 50 tracks worldwide coming from back catalogues, led by 80s hit Forever Young by German synth-pop band Alphaville.

The biggest UK hit is Champagne Coast by British artist Devonté Hynes, recording under the name Blood Orange and released in 2011, which was used on 1.1m TikTok posts this year and peaked at number 16 in the UK charts as a result.

TikTok’s head of music partnerships for the UK and Ireland, Toyin Mustapha, said the platform had created a “level playing field” for music acts.

“Older tracks and new releases are given the same amount of love by the TikTok community and it gives artists the chance to find an audience at any stage of their career,” he said. “It has really democratised music.”

Six of the top ten back catalogues tunes were released in the previous century. They include Come and Get Your Love, a 1974 hit for US rock band Redbone, Bronski Beat’s 1984 anthem Smalltown Boy and Sade’s Kiss of Life.

The popularity of Forever Young and Smalltown Boy was driven by challenges – a content staple on TikTok – with the Bronski Beat song used as a soundtrack to asking parents to dance like they did in the 80s and Alphaville’s hit appearing on a water bottle challenge. Champagne Coast proved popular as an accompaniment to “visually striking” content like photo slide shows as well as relationship stories.

“Each song has its own unique trend,” said Mustapha.

The trend has also benefitted more obscure tracks. One of the most popular classic songs for British TikTok users this year is a b-side from US indie band Pavement, called Harness Your Hopes, which was used on 220,000 posts.

TikTok is also a powerhouse in present day music and plays a pivotal role in an industry transformed by streaming and social media. The platform helped power the success of Brat, the hit album by British singer Charli xcx which at one point this year was even co-opted by US presidential candidate Kamala Harris.

That is reflected in the overall top ten tracks for TikTok posts in the UK, which is dominated by recent releases, albeit with Blood Orange at number two. The biggest track was Nasty by US singer Tinashe, released this year, with Benson Boone’s Beautiful Things and Birds of a Feather by Billie Eilish among the other 2024 tracks in the top ten. Globally, the most popular tune was Gata Only, a reggaeton track by Chilean singers FloyyMenor and Cris MJ.

Its role in the US music industry is under threat, however, with the platform facing a 19 January deadline to be sold by its Chinese parent company or been banned in its biggest market. TikTok is appealing the sale order.

Dr Holly Tessler, a senior lecturer in music industries at the University of Liverpool, said the TikTok generation’s interest in back catalogues echoes the sensibility of 90s indie kids who might pick out lesser known tracks in order to stand out from the crowd. The easy availability of vast amounts of tracks online also allows social media users to trawl an array of tunes that was not so accessible in the past.

“People are looking for music that makes them appear distinct while everyone is listening to Charli xcx,” she said. “There is a little bit of music-mining going on and looking for something undiscovered.”

Tessler said her experiencing teaching a masters degree in the Beatles showed how, for younger music fans, the age of an artist’s discography was irrelevant.

“The course included people who were over 50 and under 30 with very few in the middle,” she said. “For Beatles fans who are younger, they don’t really see a difference between listening to the Beatles and Taylor Swift or Harry Styles. They see the Beatles as contemporary music.”

She also acknowledged that the popularity of back catalogues reflects the sheer quality of output over decades of popular music.

“A good song is a good song,” she said. “You have a feeling that younger people are growing up to albums and CDs in older relatives’ houses and just think it’s good music.”

Here are the top back catalogue tracks on TikTok this year. To qualify, the songs have to be more than five years old.

1. Blood Orange – Champagne Coast [2011]: 1.1m posts

Ilford-born Devonté Hynes was recording as Blood Orange when he released Champagne Coast in 2011. The track has enjoyed a new lease of life on TikTok 13 years later and hit no.16 in the UK’s official chart as a result, as well as hitting no.1 in TikTok’s US chart. It has been used to soundtrack visually striking content and relationship stories.

2. Alphaville – Forever Young [1984]: 458,000 posts

The German band behind Big in Japan achieved a revival hit this year with another song from their back catalogue, Forever Young, which also proved to be a big hit globally.

3. Redbone – Come and Get Your Love [1974]: 386,000 posts

The US band’s best known tune was a top 5 hit in the US half a century ago and it has become popular again on TikTok as a soundtrack to young couples demonstrating “cuteness”.

4. Tom Odell – Another Love [2012]: 238,000 posts

The 2013 song has trended on TikTok multiple times over the years and has had another resurgence this year.

5. Pavement – Harness Your Hopes [1999]: 219,000 posts

A classic example of lesser known tracks being given a new lease of life by the internet, this B-side by the US band is now their most streamed song ever.

6. Natasha Bedingfield – Unwritten [2004]: 207,000 posts

The British singer was nominated for a Grammy award for her vocal performance on Unwritten and it has returned to the UK Top 20 this year, having been boosted by an appearance on the soundtrack for 2023 romantic comedy film Anyone But You.

7. Christina Aguilera – Genie in a Bottle [1999]: 207,000 posts

This track by the US singer was boosted by a number of TikTok trends including one based on snacks.

8. Sade – Kiss of Life [1993]: 194,000 posts

The British singer and her eponymous band have enduring appeal and many of the posts are driven by appreciation of her aesthetic. The hashtag #sadegirl has been a hit on TikTok recently.

9. Sophie Ellis Bextor – Murder on the Dancefloor [2001] :191,000 posts

The song’s appearance on the soundtrack to the film Saltburn helped make this a viral hit and send it to no.2 in the UK charts.

10. The Fray – Look After You [2005]: 188,000 posts

This track by the US band has inspired a host of covers on TikTok.

Blind and partially sighted people are being excluded from the benefits of artificial intelligence tools and facing “a new level of discrimination”, the new president of the Royal Society for Blind Children has claimed as he called for better design of everything from video games to AI agents.

Tom Pey said existing difficulties for blind children were “now compounded because they’re excluded [and] distanced from their non-disabled peers, because those people can experience games, alternative realities and the AI-driven visual types of technology”.

Pey lost his sight as a child and created the Waymap app which offers step-by-step audio navigation instructions. His comments come as tech firms launch more visually based AI-powered systems such as Meta’s range of spectacles and the Google Lens function, which relies on users pointing their phone camera at objects or places.

Pey called on the technology secretary, Peter Kyle, to “formulate laws that will support the needs of disabled people, but also help direct the big companies and startups, so they include disabled people”.

“If we look at the hardware around AI, a lot of it is visual, and it ignores the needs of blind people, and it ignores people who have difficulty, not just with not being able to see, but being able to interpret visual imagery,” he said. “Those people, like me and others, we’re just excluded.”

People with sight loss are less likely to use the internet every day, more likely to be digitally excluded and less likely to own a smartphone compared with the rest of the population, research by the Royal National Institute of Blind People recently found. But it also reported that digital exclusion for blind and partially sighted people was reducing and that AI technology was becoming more accessible.

In response, tech companies including Google, Meta and Open AI all pointed to initiatives to use their tech to help blind and partially sighted people.

In September Meta launched a system that will allow people wearing its tech-enabled Ray-Ban glasses to connect instantly to a sighted volunteer who will be able to see through their glasses’ lens and provide a real-time description of what is going on in front of them. Open AI has also devised a virtual volunteer that will provide an audio description of whatever the phone is pointed at – for example the contents of a fridge – as well as have a conversation about it. The system, tested by Be My Eyes, an accessibility app founded in Denmark, uses Chat GPT-4. Google has an AI-powered app for people with low vision called Lookout, which audio describes photos and also reads out tests and engages in question and answer.

But Pey said young people with blindness or restricted sight were finding the existing gap between their experience of the world and that of non-disabled peer was now widened “because those people can experience games, they can experience alternative realities, they can experience the AI-driven visual types of technology, whereas people like them can’t”.

He called it “a new level of discrimination, which could be avoided by upfront thinking”.

He added: “The designers need to just wake up to the fact that they should design for disabled people.”

The start of a new year: a time for optimism, ambitious plans to improve the world, and the grim suspicion that the first couple of months may well be a miserable slog through the deepest of winter’s gloom.

But for those who fear the cold and dark ahead, help is on the horizon. Researchers in Canada are investigating a simple trick they hope will boost flagging spirits even when the days are short and frost is in the air.

“People really need something to help them get through the winter, especially after Christmas,” said Dr Holli-Anne Passmore, the psychologist leading the study at Concordia University of Edmonton in Alberta. “If people don’t like winter in the first place, they really don’t see anything good in it.”

Between January and March, the plan is for at least 100 volunteers in Edmonton – a city where winter days can mean seven hours of daylight and temperatures as low as -35C – to spend two weeks going about their normal routines, but with one small change.

The participants will be instructed, while they are out and about, to pay attention to the natural amid the human-made – the frosty tree beside the tower block, the animal footprints on the snowy pavement, the icicles dangling from the warehouse roof – and make notes on how it makes them feel.

Before and after the trial, named the Noticing Nature Intervention, participants will complete questionnaires so researchers can assess their levels of anxiety, stress, happiness, life satisfaction and sense of connection to the world. They will then work out whether noticing nature in a built-up environment provides something of a boost.

The volunteers’ scores, along with measurements of a salivary enzyme linked to stress, will be compared with those from a control group who will go about their business without instructions to change their behaviour.

The trial will run for two weeks to help people build a habit for noticing nature, but can such a simple trick really hope to have an impact? The simplicity of the intervention should not put people off, Passmore argues. “People tend to discount how good they’re going to feel when they notice nature,” she said. “Part of it is our whole western society. We want a pill, we want something new and improved, we always want the latest.”

Besides its parks, trees and other plants, Edmonton is home to squirrels, rabbits, coyotes, beavers and hundreds of wild bird species. In the bustle of daily life, they easily go unnoticed. “We know that people are becoming more and more disconnected from nature,” said Passmore. “One reason is the built environment we live in, but we’re also stuck on our cell phones. Honestly, we just need to look around us.”

Passmore believes winter brings its own delights: the trees sparkle with hoarfrost, animal tracks are visible in the snow, the colour palette and soundscape change. The cold is invigorating, the night sky more visible. “You are more likely to see the stars and the northern lights, because you don’t have to wait up until frickin’ two in the morning,” she said. “It’s much more invigorating being outside in the winter. I always think of it as a bit of an adventure. Every time you go out it’s exhilarating.”

Gary Evans, director of the Forest Bathing Institute, which runs sessions in nature with Forestry England and conducts research with universities, urged people to wrap up warm and get out to see the nature around them.

“Often people think they haven’t got the time, but it doesn’t have to take long,” he added. “Just find a manageable starting point. On your walk to work, give yourself a few extra minutes. If there are two routes from the tube, walk down the street that’s got trees. If people enjoy it, they will expand the time they spend doing it.”