The importance of keeping an eye on the rest of the world while the country retires for Christmas

From Bethlehem to Tehran, our home and foreign correspondents on news were ready to respond while most remained paralysed by mince pies

Once again heaving with bodies on 2 January, the Tube was a reminder this week that while some occupations may allow for a couple of weeks’ holiday over the festive period, journalism is one that doesn’t exactly offer the same.

For this editor was also on the refreshingly quiet Tube to the office on 31 December and 1 January, the latter of which was a journey accompanied by many people only appearing to head home.

Throughout the Christmas period, The Independent’s newsdesk was perhaps a bit quieter than usual, but always staffed, and our foreign correspondents similarly remained always available at the end of a phone.

For the news really is a 24-hour beast, and has no respect for bank holidays or religious festivities. And working in the news, especially foreign news, is a constant reminder that while this little island might get completely caught up in Christmas – mince pies and family arguments and all the cultural traditions that come along with that – or with our own news, such as, obviously, Brexit – there’s a whole world of people out there, many of whom don’t celebrate Christmas or care about Brexit.

So on Christmas Day, we had a piece from Bethlehem – yes, also rooted in Christmas, but our Middle East correspondent Bel Trew used it as an opportunity to look at the situation in Palestine and Israel, and the chance for peace in 2019.

Speaking with Palestinian Christians attending Christmas Eve Mass in Manger Square, Trew heard of their fears, and their lack of hope.

“In a nutshell – there is no way we are going to see peace. Every year gets worse and that is the way it is,” said one Bethlehem local.

And on Boxing Day, while many in Britain were understandably very switched off from the news, dual British-Iranian national Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe spent her 40th birthday in the notorious Evin prison, just outside of Tehran, which one of our writers in the UK covered.

Jailed over spying charges she vehemently denies, Zaghari-Ratcliffe – a mother of one who works for Thomson Reuters Foundation – has now said she will go on hunger strike on 14 January, to protest a lack of medical care. Her husband told The Independent that prison officials have refused to allow doctors to examine lumps in her breasts.

So while it might be a national holiday in one part of the world, there’s a lot of life going on outside – and it’s our responsibility not to forget that.

Yours,

Olivia Alabaster

International editor