Image of the week: Blue Christmas
It hasn’t been a vintage season for Lapland tourism, with travel operator TUI cancelling trips to one “fairy tale” resort earlier this month due to a lack of snow and other holidaymakers finding Santa Claus’s “hometown” wet, grey and decorated with distinctly un-magical puddles.
According to the Finnish Meteorological Institute, low snow depths in Lapland this year can be attributed to low precipitation in November and December, natural variability and climate change. The fact that Lapland is warming faster than the rest of Finland suggests this won’t be the last year when snow is thin on the ground.
At the world’s aquariums, however, the tradition of sending divers dressed as Santa Claus into the tanks for a festive swim and hang-out appears to be going strong, with aquariums in Munich, Atlanta, Tokyo and Durban among those to put on a bit of an underwater wonderland show.
Santa’s reindeer, not being a part of this particular madness, were unavailable for comment.
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In numbers: Insta Christmas
7%
A decade ago, Instagram represented about this much of Meta’s advertising revenue in the US. Facebook, as the social media company was known then, had acquired the image-led platform three years earlier for a cool $1 billion.
50%
Instagram will account for more than half of Meta’s US advertising revenues for the first time in 2025, according to a forecast from research firm Emarketer. Something to think about when it’s trying to sell you hangover cures and the elixir of life come January 1st.
$249.68
Average revenue per user Instagram is expected to collect in the US next year. This will be more than any other platform can manage – though Facebook itself is, amazingly, still second on this list, ahead of the much-debated TikTok.
Getting to know: Chrystia Freeland
“Of course I support the prime minister 100 per cent,” declared Chrystia Freeland. Alas, that was in 2019 and Freeland, who resigned as the deputy prime minister of Canada on Monday, has now withdrawn her support from the country’s leader, Justin Trudeau.
The schism came as Trudeau told Freeland, once seen as his possible successor, that he no longer wanted her to serve as finance minister, offering her another position in his cabinet. She decided instead that the “only honest and viable path” was to quit. And as might be expected from a former journalist, her resignation letter was a banger, finding space to accuse Trudeau of making “costly political gimmicks” (a recently introduced sales tax holiday) and warning that Donald Trump’s threat of a 25 per cent tariff on imports from Canada must be taken “extremely seriously”.
As for Trump, he promptly claimed Freeland’s behaviour was “totally toxic”. Sure, Don.
The list: Highest-paid female sports stars
Soaring interest in women’s sport is finally translating into higher earnings for the female athletes at the top of their respective games, according to a new analysis by Forbes. But which stars take home the most?
5. Aryna Sabalenka: The number one women’s tennis player earned the most money on the court in 2024, with her endorsements, including one with acai bowl brand Oakberry, taking her total pay up to $18.7 million (€18 million).
4. Qinwen Zheng: The Chinese tennis star collected $20.6 million to go along with her gold Olympic medal and surely has even more earning potential to realise in the years to come.
3. Eileen Gu: The San Francisco-born Chinese freestyle skiing champion earned $22.1 million, almost all of which was from endorsements with the likes of Louis Vuitton, Tiffany & Co, Porsche and Anta sportswear.
2. Iga Swiatek: If you’re wondering where the golfers are on this list, Nelly Korda was the highest ranked in eighth. At number two, it’s back to tennis and the world number two, Poland’s Iga Swiatek, with new sponsors Lancome and Lego bringing her total to $23.8 million, down fractionally on her 2023 earnings.
1. Coco Gauff: Eclipsing Swiatek at the top of the money list is her regular opponent Coco Gauff, who after winning the US Open in September 2023 went on to earn $34.4 million this year. This included a $4.8 million cheque for winning the WTA Finals, controversially held in Saudi Arabia. Game, set and match.
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