Hello from The National.

Here are this week’s most compelling and exclusive stories from the UK and Europe.

BIG PICTURE

Lockerbie, 35 years on

Victoria Cummock, from South Florida, was only 35 and had three young children when she lost her husband in a tragedy on December 21, 1988, that resonates to this day.

John Cummock died aboard Pan Am 103 on that fateful flight. His widow realised it was his plane after crash footage on TV showed the briefcase she had bought him lying among the wreckage.

The businessman, who was travelling home to America for Christmas when the terrorist attack took place, was found in the nose cone along with 17 others.

“I cannot say I was ever the same after,” Ms Cummock, founder and chief executive of the Pan Am 103 Lockerbie Legacy Foundation, told The National.

“If something like this happens, you cannot expect to live happily ever after.

“Sadly, Lockerbie isn’t taught in schools. A whole generation of people do not remember the disaster."

Libyan terrorists blew up Pan Am Flight 103 over the small Scottish town of Lockerbie, killing 270 people.

The atrocity saw one man imprisoned, the regime of Muammar Qaddafi blamed and a continuing hunt for justice spanning decades.

Next year another suspect will face the US courts after he was extradited from Libya.

Lori Carnochan turned the pages of an open book of remembrance that contains messages of love from around the world in the Lockerbie church where she is a member of the trust.

The walls are lined with the flags of the 21 countries from where the victims came.

"In the first tribute book to victims, over 100 people were left out and there were no photos," Ms Carnochan said.

"So we searched for pictures of them all and now you can look at their faces and find out about who they were.

"Before, you may never have known Robert McCollum was a professor running development programmes in Nigeria and was returning home after a meeting with Unesco, or that Martin Apfelbaum was a rare-stamp dealer.

"All these people cannot be forgotten.”

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Taylor Swift sideswipes Blackstone

It's easy to lose the run of yourself as the year comes to a close and the festive imperative takes over. Just ask Blackstone. Yes, masters of the universe Blackstone.

They've tripped up trying a little empathy in the style of country queen Taylor Swift. She may have made a billion dollars on tour but Blackstone clearly reckoned they'd be superior. Dealing in trillions not billions does that to a firm.

They made a video. It’s gone viral. According to columnist Chris Blackhurst, many of the 600,000 instant hits they're touting were actually viewers watching from behind their fingers, so unbelievably shocked were they.

That’s the conclusion to be drawn from Blackstone’s five-minute, Taylor Swift-inspired, seasonal greetings tape. It’s awful.

Gaza heartache

Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat MP, has become a public figure in the UK as she works to highlight her relatives’ plight and stresses the innocence of the people sheltering in a Gaza church complex.

In an audio recording, Ms Moran's cousin said her mother had been “locked in” her room, because the Catholic church was surrounded by Israeli snipers.

Although the Israeli military told Ms Moran that food had been delivered, her family said they had not seen any.

People sheltering in the church could starve, the cousin said.

“If people didn’t die from the missiles, they will die from hunger,” she said.

Ms Moran, a British-Palestinian MP, told a hushed House of Commons: “They have nothing to do with Hamas. They are nuns, orphans, disabled people.

"They are a small Christian community and they know everyone. It is categorically untrue to say that Hamas operates from there."

The unbearable nature of the conflict lies behind frantic diplomatic activity.

Germany and the UK have recently aligned with US calls for Israel to discriminate between terrorists and civilians.

Catherine Colonna, the French Foreign Minister, discussed the war in Gaza with UK Foreign Secretary David Cameronin Paris on Tuesday as the two countries said they shared views on protecting civilian lives in Gaza.

Lord Cameron arrived in Jordan this morning and will head on to Egypt to make the argument for a sustainable ceasefire in the war.

It is his second trip to the Middle East since being appointed Foreign Secretary last month. Officials said he is looking to progress efforts on securing the release of all hostages by Hamas, stepping up aid into Gaza and putting a stop to rockets being fired into Israel by Palestinian militants.

Black Sea revival

Ukraine is enjoying a rebound in Black Sea exports that could point the way out of a grain-related rift with neighbours such as Poland.

After Russia scuppered a UN deal ensuring safe passage out of Ukraine's ports, news that at least 200 ships have sailed a new corridor that hugs the Black Sea's western shores is lifting hopes for tension to ease over the issue.

The lane's success is attributed to Ukrainian naval gains and falling insurance costs that have lured ship owners back to the region.

The volume of rail freight destined for Ukraine's seaports climbed by 70 per cent from October to November, according to official figures.

With dozens of merchant ships using the new corridor, Bilal Muftuoglu, a grain and shipping analyst for shipbroker Howe Robinson, said the costs of war-risk insurance were falling, making the Black Sea route more viable as a way of reaching, for instance, Egypt and China.

With Ukraine also working on a tracking system for exports, new Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk can hope that – if he gives it long enough – the issue of grain transit through Poland will slip away quietly.

OTHER STORIES THIS WEEK

	British passport holders face new entry hurdles to Europe
	Scottish spaceport targeting UK's first vertical launch next summer
	America's stubborn Gaza policy is drawing it into isolation