By Anna Cooban, CNN

The Cotswolds, England (CNN) — In a churchyard, about 100 miles west of London, the rain drives at a 45-degree slant, pounding the stone footpath so hard it bounces back as white fuzz that hovers just below the ankle.

St Mary’s Church is the 14th-century nucleus of Painswick, a town in the Cotswolds, a region in southwest England famed for its hills and honey-colored cottages. It is a chunk of that Jane Austen-esque, close-to-cloyingly twee England that has long attracted tourists and homebuyers — sometimes despite the weather.

Lately, though, local real estate agents told CNN, increasing numbers of Americans are calling it home.

According to those agents, some want their children to attend prestigious British schools and universities; others seek a bucolic, slower pace of life. Some feel pushed to leave the United States by the threat of wildfires or gun violence, or by political changes they oppose. Most are incredibly wealthy.

“I have this funny feeling,” Frances Shultz, a 60-something North Carolinian who bought a Cotswolds cottage in 2023, told CNN, “of being sort of dropped in the middle of a TV series, a very wholesome, sweet BBC one.”

It’s an ambition that Schultz, a journalist and author writing about homes and interior design, had nursed for years. She described living vicariously through the pages of Country Life, a British property magazine teeming with glossy photos of manor houses and their multi-acres.

A divorce in 2022 provided the necessary push: Schultz soon bought a four-bed cottage a stone’s throw from St Mary’s. “It was love at first sight,” she said of her new home.

Katy Campbell, Schultz’s buying agent — a type of realtor finding properties and negotiating their prices on behalf of buyers — told CNN that she’s seen a 20% increase in the number of American clients over the past year.

Historically, a big chunk of these clients were already living in the UK — usually London — when they came to buy their countryside boltholes. Now, Campbell said she’s fielding more calls from Americans based in the United States, and has grown familiar with their tastes.

They purchase homes — usually their second, third or fourth — for between £1 million ($1.3 million) and “tens of millions,” she said. They want cozy (think Kate Winslet’s cottage in “The Holiday,” just much, much bigger) and they want discretion. “They can wander in villages and people don’t really turn and stare,” she added. “So you can be fairly incognito in the Cotswolds.”

Naturally, Campbell won’t name names, but did say that some clients are “from films.”

The Cotswolds span several of England’s “shires” and are sprinkled with British celebrities. David Beckham regularly posts vignettes of life on his Oxfordshire estate to Instagram, including making honey and digging for vegetables. Kate Moss has been photographed tramping around the same shire in muddy boots since the early 2000s.

American celebrities have also drawn attention to the area. Comedian Ellen DeGeneres helped put the area on international radars when she moved there from California in 2024. Vice President JD Vance spent part of his family vacation in the Cotswolds this summer.

Schultz spends her summers in Painswick and the rest of the year in New York City. She once owned a cottage in the Hamptons — the see-and-be-seen vacation spot for the city’s elite that has drawn comparisons to the London-Cotswolds axis — but

Grusho Anna // Shutterstock

The glitz and glam of Hollywood captures the attention of Americans starting from an early age. Beyond celebrities’ Instagram Stories and red carpet poses, there are actors out there paying their dues and honing their craft in pursuit of a sustainable career or a fulfilling sideline. Submitting to casting calls is a big part of that journey.

Whether you’re a working actor or an aspiring one, you might be curious to know which movies and TV shows are casting roles near you. Backstage compiled a list of projects casting right now in Los Angeles, nearby cities, and nationwide, and which roles they’re looking to fill.

Grusho Anna // Shutterstock

‘Schism’

– Project type: short film
– Roles:
— Yara (lead, female, 18-25)
— Mom (lead, female, 50-65)
— ADVISOR (supporting, male, 50-80)
– Average hourly rate: $31
– Casting locations: Los Angeles, California
– Learn more about the short film here

guruXOX // Shutterstock

‘Whispers in the Walls’

– Project type: feature film
– Roles:
— Nurse (day player, female, 23-50)
— Police Officer (background extra, male, 30-60)
— Rose (supporting, 35-50)
– Average hourly rate: $31
– Casting locations: Los Angeles, California
– Learn more about the feature film here

Dpongvit // Shutterstock

‘Ten Will’

– Project type: feature film
– Roles:
— Ten Will (lead, male, 30-65)
— Lillian Hutchinson (supporting, female, 30-65)
— Gena (supporting, female, 4-12)
– Average hourly rate: $15
– Casting locations: Los Angeles, California
– Learn more about the feature film here

Grusho Anna // Shutterstock

‘The Billionaire Boys’

– Project type: scripted show
– Roles:
— Josh (lead, mal

At 444 AM PST, Doppler radar was tracking a strong thunderstorm
capable of producing a waterspout that if develops would move over
land near Highway 101 through Gaviota State Park, or 8 miles east of
Point Conception, moving northeast at 35 mph.

HAZARD…Waterspouts and wind gusts of 50 to 55 mph.

SOURCE…Radar indicated.

IMPACT…Waterspouts can easily overturn boats and create locally
hazardous waters. Gusty winds could knock down tree limbs
and blow around unsecured objects.

Locations impacted include…
Highway 101 through Gaviota State Park.
If outdoors, consider seeking shelter inside a building.

Torrential rainfall is also occurring with this storm and may lead to
localized flooding. Do not drive your vehicle through flooded
roadways.

The post Special Weather Statement issued December 24 at 4:45AM PST by NWS Los Angeles/Oxnard CA appeared first on News Channel 3-12.

Por Jimena De La Quintana y Sol Amaya, CNN en Español

En el centro histórico de Lima, la capital de Perú se alza una imponente edificación que fue la casa del fundador de Lima, Francisco Pizarro y la de virreyes y, a lo largo de los últimos 500 años, sufrió grandes cambios. Es el Palacio de Gobierno, sede del Ejecutivo y centro de poder. A apenas 20 kilómetros, una construcción menos atractiva, angulosa, amurallada, se extiende por unos 800 metros cuadrados. Es la cárcel de Barbadillo. ¿Qué tienen en común ambas instalaciones? Cuatro nombres que en su momento ostentaron la presidencia y ahora conviven en el menos célebre espacio: la prisión.

Se trata de los expresidentes Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006), Ollanta Humala (2006-2011), Martín Vizcarra (2018-2020) y Pedro Castillo (2021-2022). Todos ellos son protagonistas de una historia que podría parecerse más a la ficción que a la realidad. Y es que no hay otro país en el mundo en el que permanezcan detenidos, a la vez, cuatro exmandatarios en un mismo lugar.

Los cuatro expresidentes han sido sentenciados en primera instancia. Toledo y Ollanta Humala, por casos relacionados a aportes ilegales de la empresa Odebrecht; Vizcarra por actos de corrupción cometidos cuando era gobernador de la región Moquegua, y Pedro Castillo, por el delito de conspiración para una rebelión, tras el fallido golpe de Estado de 2022. Fueron condenados a penas que van de los 11 a los 20 años de prisión. Todos defienden su inocencia.

Un dato que torna la situación incluso más surrealista: estos cuatro expresidentes son los únicos reos alojados en Barbadillo, mientras el resto del sistema penitenciario de Perú enfrenta una situación de hacinamiento. Según cifras oficiales, son más de 103.000 los presos que existen actualmente en las casi 70 cárceles que tiene el país, pese a que la capacidad es tan solo para 41.000 reclusos.

Desde sus inicios, Barbadillo fue la “cárcel de los presidentes”, como hoy se la conoce, y el primer recluso fue Alberto Fujimori. Cuando el expresidente fue extraditado de Chile en 2007, para ser juzgado y posteriormente sentenciado en Perú por crímenes cometidos durante su Gobierno, la gran duda era: ¿qué prisión estaría en condiciones de alojar a un personaje de impacto político?

Fue un “tema histórico”, le cuenta a CNN, José Luis Pérez Guadalupe, exjefe del Instituto Nacional Penitenciario (INPE), institución encargada de administrar el sistema carcelario en Perú. “No sabían qué hacer, dónde ponerlo, no había la posibilidad de garantizar la integridad de Fujimori dentro de un penal ordinario”, dice Pérez Guadalupe, que fue la máxima autoridad de esta institución entre los años 2011 y 2015.

Así, al interior de la Dirección de Operaciones Especiales de la policía peruana (DIROES) se decidió construir un espacio especial. “Se adecuó un ambiente, prefabricado, y se le puso allí”, dice Pérez Guadalupe, también exministro de Interior. Tiempo después, Fujimori pasó a otro lugar, dentro del mismo local de la DIROES, un edificio que es finalmente lo que hoy constituye la cárcel de Barbadillo.

Durante la gestión de José Luis Pérez Guadalupe, que inició años después de la llegada de Fujimori, el exmandatario era, todavía, el único preso en el lugar. “Había más o menos 17 empleados del INPE asignados a ese penal y el único interno era Fujimori”, por eso “en su momento dijimos que era el preso más caro del Perú”, dice refiriéndose a la cantidad de empleados que había por un recluso. En aquella época el expresidente, quien murió en septiembre 2024 fuera de prisión y tras recibir un indulto, “tenía la libertad de pasearse por todas las instalaciones”, dice el ex jefe del INPE.

El segundo inquilino de Barbadillo llegó muchos años después, en 2017: fue Ollanta Humala. Luego llegaría Pedro Castillo, en 2022, Alejandro Toledo, en 2023 y finalmente Martín Vizcarra, en 2025.

El exjefe del INPE cuenta que, en la

By Brenda Goodman, CNN

(CNN) — It started with the cutest little desserts: chocolate acorns with nut-covered caps that popped up in my search for Thanksgiving cookies on Pinterest, a site I visit for inspiration and some step-by-step instructions. There were also chocolate-dipped strawberries that you could turn into little turkeys using pretzel sticks, with marshmallow pieces for the drumsticks, but the acorns looked easier.

“Who wouldn’t love these things?” I thought.

The recipe said you could whip up a batch in 45 minutes. I splurged and bought my favorite Lindt chocolate bars to make them.

It ended at 1 a.m., after about five hours of effort – including an emergency run to the grocery store for a missing ingredient – with parchment-covered baking sheets spread across my kitchen, holding misshapen globs of chocolate-dunked peanut butter sandwich cookies that didn’t come close to resembling acorns. Despite my many attempts at adjusting the temperature of the chocolate and MacGyvering the cookies — I cut them, stacked them and stuck them together with chocolate — they just could not match the acorns in the photo.

I’m usually pretty good at these things (pie crust being a frustrating exception). I’m an experienced baker, and this should have been an easy project, more assembly than baking. I wasn’t going for gourmet; I needed a lot of treats for a church event and was short on time.

I finally had to admit that no matter how many times I reread the recipe and attempted to follow the instructions, it wasn’t going to work. I was stumped.

Then it dawned on me: Could this recipe have been generated by AI? Had I been had?

Even as I had been reading through the instructions, I kept wondering how the blogger got the Nutter Butter cookies — which are flat, with a peanut-like curved shape — to turn into the nice rounded shape of the acorns. The recipe recommends holding the cookies by the pointier end “to create the more natural looking” acorn.

OK, I thought. Maybe I need to just trust the process.

“They’re ridiculously cute, surprisingly simple, and honestly? They’ve become the most photographed dessert at every family gathering I bring them to,” gushed food blogger Anna Kelly, who described herself as a professionally trained pastry chef who runs the website DessertsPro.com. “My sister-in-law now requests them specifically, and I’ve made them at least twelve times since I first stumbled upon the idea three years ago.”

I fell for it. I bought three packages of the regular-size Nutter Butter cookies and searched several stores for the bite-size ones, which were supposed to be for the caps. Then I noticed a problem: The bite-size cookies were much smaller than the ends of the big Nutter Butters. It didn’t seem like they would work to make the overhanging acorn cap.

I still didn’t question the recipe. Instead, I thought I had bought the wrong size cookies. Was there a medium-size Nutter Butter? Oh, the recipe said Kelly sometimes uses Nilla wafers. That made more sense, but it was getting late, and I wasn’t going back to the grocery store.

Thankfully, the chocolate melted like it was supposed to, but it was pretty thin, and I was losing hope that it would coat the cookies thickly enough to look like the acorns in the photo. I tried popping it in the freezer to thicken it.

The website DessertsPro.com says Kelly created it to share her favorite tried-and-true recipes with home cooks. Her “About Us” page promises “clear, simple instructions,” easy-to-find ingredients, “honest tips and tricks” and “recipes that actually work.”

The problem is that neither Kelly nor her creations appears to be real.

‘Bad actors’

I attempted to reach the creators of the site through a “contact us” email as well as through the contact form