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A Swedish city is encouraging its residents to say hello to each other, which sounds like hell for most British people. But never fear - help is at handIn a development more chilling than its -10C temperature, the Swedish city of Lulea is encouraging people to say hello to each other. The Sag hej! campaign is trying to combat social isolation and loneliness during the long, dark Nordic winter by making people feel more seen and a bit more like you belong", according to the campaign's coordinator, Asa Koski. I admit that sounds admirable, but it is also horrifying.I consume a vast amount of energy when navigating interactions with strangers and I am pretty sure that is standard in the UK. Maybe it's different in Sweden (or perhaps not, given that they found 2-metre social distancing too close for comfort), but over here we live by the motto: Why make things simple when you could become ensnared in a web of awkwardness?" The Lulea campaign has made me realise we need help. So, having consulted widely, here are my draft guidelines for one-on-one stranger greetings. Continue reading...

Despite the current pause' in fighting, we increasingly fear that Israel wants to drive us out of the Gaza Strip altogetherAs I began to write this, here in Khan Younis, southern Gaza, Israeli missiles were striking nearby. Once you get over the initial shock of the loud explosions, the shaking of the house and your knees, the first instinct is to immediately rush to calm the children whose cries somehow seem louder and more painful than the strikes themselves.Throughout Israel's invasion, people in northern Gaza have been told to move to the safety" of the south. But our day-to-day lives here are testament to the fact that in Gaza, nowhere is safe. As missiles fall, our house is filled with relatives, including lots of children - some of whom lost their homes nearby to Israeli airstrikes, others who have fled the bombardment in northern Gaza for the safety" of the south. It was here in the south that I lost my closest relatives on my father's side. Three brothers and their wives and children were struck by Israeli missiles, and their entire building was reduced to rubble. Only a few of them survived, mainly those who had gone out to buy supplies. They had no warning whatsoever, and no leaflets had been dropped in the area telling people to evacuate.Rozan lives in Khan Younis in Gaza Continue reading...

The New York fabulist accomplished practically nothing in his political career, just self-promotion through sheer chutzpahIn a way, George Santos is one of the great success stories of American politics.The New York congressman is not responsible for exceptional legislative achievements. His brief tenure in Congress will not be held up as a success story for students of political history. Continue reading...

Experts debate whether Tuesday's transatlantic trip heralds a greener way to fly or a misguided stuntA Virgin Atlantic flight will set off on Tuesday from London Heathrow for New York, a Boeing 787 shorn of paying passengers but with a payload of scientists, aviation leaders, politicians and media, and powered largely by used cooking oil - or as it is now better known, sustainable aviation fuel (SAF).The UK government and aviation industry hope the transatlantic journey, funded with 1m of taxpayer's money, will demonstrate that greener flying is possible and its 2050 jet zero" aspirations are more than hot air. Continue reading...

US students are relearning how to chitchat after lockdown damaged social skills. Maybe Rishi Sunak could take a courseAre you having a lovely weekend? Nice jumper, is it new? Did you see Doctor Who last night? You see, it's not difficult. Yet the younger generation seems to be struggling with the ancient art of small talk. Speaking about nothing but doing it pleasantly is an essential social lubricant. Sadly it seems to be drying up.Students in the US are taking lessons in conducting chitchat" after losing these social skills during lockdown and no longer knowing how to start anodyne face-to-face conversations. College professors are giving tips such as ask questions about their weekend plans, use people's names and make eye contact". Continue reading...

Breaking the cycle of unresolved conflicts will entail great risks, but it's our only hopeFrom late Friday afternoon, all of Israel was riveted to screens. For hours, the country watched and waited nervously for glimpses of the 13 Israeli and 11 foreign hostages being released from captivity in Gaza, after being snatched by Hamas from their homes on 7 October. Families of the hostages had been begging their government to reach a deal for the release of their loved ones ever since. Now it was here.Headlines tracked every tidbit of information of their journey from somewhere in the ruins of Gaza, to their crossing into Egypt, then Israel, before being whisked off to hospitals for medical attention. It was the first collective bright spot since that terrible Saturday.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

An exhibition of feminist activism charts the struggle towards equality, but hard-won rights are increasingly being taken away around the worldBrainwashed by a homicidal policy" is how the man just elected president of Argentina described supporters of women's abortion rights. The far-right libertarian Javier Milei has pledged to hold a referendum to ban abortion, just three years after Argentina became the largest Latin American country to legalise it, and the country's feminists are gearing up for a big fight to protect their reproductive rights.This development is part of a depressing global picture. The UN has said the world is failing women and girls, and is way off track" to meet targets to improve women's lives. One in five girls is married before she turns 18, it is lawful to discriminate against women in more than half the countries in the world, and almost 250 million women experience physical or sexual violence from an intimate partner each year. In Afghanistan and Iran, the slide backwards from the relatively liberal 1970s, when women thronged the universities and cafes of Kabul and Tehran, has been absolute.Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

According to Sir Patrick Vallance's evidence, figures bamboozled' Boris Johnson. Did he learn only entitlement at Eton?At the beginning of Saltburn, Emerald Fennell's new addition to Brideshead-genre stately worship, the outcast status of a non-posh Oxford student is instantly signalled by, to add to his low stature, his friendship with a mathematical genius with no social skills. Bespectacled, naturally.In a film so thoroughly captivated by its upper-class inventory, inert and otherwise, it makes perfect sense that this outcast would rather be condescended to by the pretty college patrician and his vacuous circle. So it's goodbye geek, hello Saltburn's disapproving butler, complex place settings and non-mathematician style gems like I can wear my suit of armour, Elsbeth".Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

The Party for Freedom leader succeeded last week because he has become part of the Dutch political furniture. This disturbing trend needs to be halted Read more: Riots, race and the end of the Irish welcome'Election results lend themselves to different stories, certainly in the Netherlands, where so many old and new parties compete for votes. Yet the 2023 election will be remembered for one reason: a far-right party topped the polls for the first time, and by a large margin. Geert Wilders' Party for Freedom (PVV) is set to win 37 of the 150 seats in Dutch parliament, more than doubling its 2021 tally.Far-right parties in Europe primarily attract voters on their core issues of immigration and multiculturalism. Most also express a populist message, criticising political elites and calling for popular sovereignty. Wilders' PVV is no different. Continue reading...

On X Spaces Friday night, Republican congressman charted his rise from It girl' to Mary Magdalene of the United States Congress'Republican George Santos has said he expects to be expelled from Congress following a scathing report by the House ethics committee that found substantial evidence of lawbreaking by the lying New York representative.In a defiant speech Friday sprinkled with taunts and obscenities aimed at his congressional colleagues, Santos insisted he was not going anywhere". But he acknowledged that his time as a member of Congress may soon be coming to an end. Continue reading...

The Heller family was at home when the rockslide buried their home on Friday; neighbor Otto Florschutz was also killedThe deadly landslide in south-east Alaska early this week killed five family members and their neighbor, a commercial fisher who made a longshot bid for the state's lone seat in the US House last year, authorities said on Friday.Timothy Heller, 44, and Beth Heller, 36 - plus their children Mara, 16; Derek, 12; and Kara, 11 - were at home on Monday night when the landslide struck near the island community of Wrangell. Search crews found the bodies of the parents and the oldest child late on Monday or early Tuesday; the younger children remain missing, as does neighbor Otto Florschutz, 65, the Alaska public safety department said in a statement that identified the victims of the disaster. Continue reading...

A progressive carbon tax on flying would protect poor people far more than simply abandoning green policiesIs net zero a luxury belief"? A strange assumption seems to have become knitted into the climate debate: that the burden of cutting carbon emissions will - must, inevitably - fall hardest on the poor.This is the logic by which climate activists are sometimes deemed snobby, classist virtue-signallers - and the principle on which, earlier this year, Rishi Sunak signalled a tactical retreat on green policies. It cannot be right for Westminster to impose such significant costs on working people," the prime minister said. Because, of course, this is the group such policies would hurt the most. Continue reading...

As a distracted world looks elsewhere, US and China have a common interest in halting Asia's accelerating nuclear arms raceFor western liberals and progressive champions of open, democratic government, a clutch of recalcitrant regimes around the world seems firmly stuck on what Barack Obama once called the wrong side of history". Iran's misogynistic theocrats and Myanmar's genocidal generals are among the worst offenders.Then there's Vladimir Putin's Russia, harking back to largely illusory former glories. Belarus, Syria, Nicaragua, Cambodia and Eritrea meet the regressive criteria, too. What all these regimes have in common is denial of the basic human right to self-determination - the individual's right to have a say in how society is ordered. Continue reading...

Kurt P Villani and Monica Villani of Buffalo, New York, died when their Bentley flew through air and exploded into flamesThe investigation of a car crash and explosion at a Niagara Falls, New York, border checkpoint on Wednesday - which killed the married couple inside the vehicle - is examining whether mechanical or medical issues were to blame, according to reports.That detail surfaced as officials identified the Rainbow Bridge crash victims as Kurt P Villani and Monica Villani, both 53. The Villani family owns several hardware stores as well as a lumber business around the Buffalo, New York, region. Continue reading...

News that scientists are setting up a naked clam' farm is wonderful. If only they didn't look so unpalatableA team of scientists at Plymouth University is hoping to set up the world's first shipworm farm. The marine pests, which they have renamed naked clams", are nutritious, high in vitamin B12, and require only wood and water to grow.It's wonderful news. We desperately need sustainable sources of protein: meat is responsible for nearly 60% of greenhouse gases from food production, while industrial fish farming has huge environmental costs. Continue reading...

As divisions over the Israel-Hamas war deepen, some say it's time to saturate campus with conversation'Since the Israel-Hamas war broke out, a campus bridge at the University of Indiana-Bloomington has become a de facto protest site. On 21 October, a student painted Free Palestine. Educate yourself. End the Occupation" on one side of the structure. Less than a day later, someone else painted over the original message with stars of David, a smiley face and the words from Hamas". After this, other students painted prayers for peace in Hebrew and a message to support survivors". Then a fourth group painted over these words with the phrases pray 4 peace", free us" and stop the genocide".What began as a genuinely felt act of civil disobedience - a way for some students to be heard when they felt no one was listening - devolved into a passive-aggressive symbol of pent-up frustration. Continue reading...

Indigenous riders demonstrate real cowboy culture in the US west through Native and general competitionsJoya Taylor, an 18-year-old Los Coyotes tribal member, can weave a horse at breakneck speed around a narrow course of metal drums. Those brief, adrenaline-fueled moments of competition involved in a rodeo, when her horse is flying and a single wrong move could mean hitting a 55-gallon barrel, require Taylor and the animal to move as one entity.I want both of us to be thinking the same thing," she said. I want to move with his body when he moves." Continue reading...

The leading dating app's response to news that online dating is declining is a redesign wrapped in cringeworthy corporate slangI met my wife the old-fashioned way: on a dating app. When our now-toddler is older we'll tell her this story and she'll look at us like we're embarrassing dinosaurs and say mums, what's a dating app?' Continue reading...

Cochise county, Arizona, has been convulsed by the actions of two Republican supervisors who questioned the integrity of elections and faces huge legal costsIn the year since two elected officials in rural Arizona tried to hand-count ballots then refused to certify an election, the consequences have started to trickle in.Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby, the two Republican supervisors in Cochise county who led these efforts, were recently subpoenaed as part of an investigation by the state's attorney general. Continue reading...

At my most vulnerable, targeted ads started selling me services that could help manage my symptoms - for a price. The law must offer more protectionAfter I was diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in 2022, I started following Instagram accounts that could help me understand the condition. Reels and memes about being neurodivergent started to fill my feed, along with tips on how to manage ADHD in a relationship and other helpful advice. But within days, something else happened: my phone found out about my diagnosis.All of a sudden, I was being served with ads for apps that claimed they could help me to manage my symptoms. There were quizzes to determine what type of ADHD I had: was I predominantly inattentive or impulsive, one asked. Did I definitely have it? Find out by taking this diagnostic test, another promised.Sarah Marsh is a Guardian news reporterDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a letter of up to 250 words to be considered for publication, email it to us at observer.letters@observer.co.uk Continue reading...

Amid the coverage of Sam Altman returning to the helm of OpenAI, women are being written out of the future of AIWe are heading toward the best world ever," said Sam Altman in an interview earlier this month, just before the saga of his firing and rehiring as OpenAI's chief executive. As an expert on gender equity in news, this statement made me wonder: whose world was heading towards being the best ever?As it turns out, the one the Altman team is crafting is largely devoid of women. My analysis amid the furore around his dismissal revealed fascinating insights: for example, of the 702 (out of 750) employees who signed the letter demanding Altman's reinstatement more than 75% were men, a gender imbalance that matches that identified in AI teams in McKinsey's The State of AI in 2022 report. Continue reading...

It is understood the former police officer was stabbed by an inmate, according to reports citing anonymous sourcesDerek Chauvin, the former Minneapolis police officer convicted of murdering George Floyd, is reported to have been stabbed by another inmate and seriously injured at a federal prison in Arizona, according to the Associated Press (AP) new agency, which is citing an anonymous source.The attack is reported to have happened on Friday at the Federal Correctional Institution, Tucson, a medium-security prison that has been plagued by security lapses and staffing shortages. Continue reading...

You have to walk a fine line between managing risk and going overboard - and building trust with your children is key

Protesters shouted 'free Palestine' as Joe Biden took a stroll through Nantucket in Massachusetts with first lady Jill Biden on Friday. The protest happened shortly after the president made a statement welcoming the release of hostages held by Hamas in Gaza

About 400 workers walk out in dispute over allegedly unfair labor practices and failure to agree new contractAbout four hundred Macy's workers in Washington state began striking on Friday - known as Black Friday among retailers and one of the year's busiest shopping days - citing allegedly unfair labor practices and the retail giant's purported refusal to agree to a new contract.The union representing the employees, UFCW 3000, said workers started arriving about 3am on Friday to form picket lines. Workers are striking outside the Alderwood, Southcenter and Bellis Fair Macy's stores and plan to continue for three days. Continue reading...

Ex-governor accused by former aide amid flurry of last-minute claims under New York's Adult Survivors Act

Rainbow Bridge was closed on one of year's busiest days after vehicle reportedly en route to Kiss concert exploded on WednesdayA car crash at the US-Canada border that killed two people, injured a border officer and jangled nerves ahead of the busy Thanksgiving holiday travel period is not believed to be terrorism, according to the FBI.The agency had handed over its investigation to local officials, who are looking into why a luxury vehicle sped towards a border checkpoint, crossed a median, launched into the air, hit a building and exploded into a fireball. Continue reading...

The 15-time major winner returns to action next week but it is his off-course influence which is almost as eagerly anticipatedIt was always about what he did as opposed to what he said. The rise of Tiger Woods, to not only the dominant figure in golf but one of the most recognisable individuals in the world, occurred because of what transpired with clubs in hand rather than in front of microphones. The young Woods had a distrust of the press. Relations grew even more complex after scandal hit the golfer's personal life. The media had to exist alongside him - to an extent careers depended on his prominence - without any sense of mutual warmth until the closing phase of his playing days became a stark reality.This time, it is absolutely about what he says. Woods will make another comeback - Sinatra, etc - at next week's Hero World Challenge in the Bahamas. With his foundation a benefactor and the backdrop lacking frenzy, Woods has made a habit of Albany appearances in December. This will be his first since he limped out of the Masters. Participation is a surprise, given the extent of his physical trouble at Augusta National in April. Continue reading...

The Conservatives' stubborn stance on the islands' future is merely a refusal to let go of our last spark of military gloryThe Falkland Islands are the Parthenon marbles of Britain's diplomacy. They bring out the silliest antics in what passes for its role on the world stage".The election of a new populist leader in Argentina made the reopening of the Falklands issue a near certainty, and so it has proved. The bizarre figure of Javier Milei may not be on the world stage for long, but he did pay British history the compliment of calling Thatcher one of the great leaders in the history of humanity". He duly suggested the time might have come, yet again, to reopen the issue of Falklands sovereignty, not militarily but by diplomacy.Simon Jenkins is a Guardian columnistDo you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Bottom of the league table after 12 games, Burnley fans are reevaluating what it means to be a Premier League sideBurnley are in need of therapy. They're the married couple who've lost their spark after a whirlwind romance that was winning the EFL Championship in 2022/23, England's second division, by a landslide 101 points. They're the nostalgia-laden searcher of purpose, wondering what is the point of all this?If they were on the figurative couch, they might need more of a Frasier Crane than Jennifer Melfi to help work through classic psychodynamic defense mechanisms of repression, denial and rationalization. After all, it's the same coach and players who trapezed the club to great heights last season. How do you confront something so diametrically opposed as their current malaise of being bottom of the Premier League table, behind a team that just picked up a 10-point deduction? Continue reading...

Orange county prosecutors say Craig Sumner Elliott, 68, shot Antonio Garcia Avalos, 40, three timesA California jogger allegedly filmed himself killing a homeless man who was blocking the sidewalk, according to prosecutors announcing charges against him.Craig Sumner Elliott, 68, was jogging with his two dogs and pushing a cart on 28 September when he came across Antonio Garcia Avalos, 40, who was sleeping in the middle of the sidewalk, prosecutors in Orange county, California, said. Continue reading...

Have you been following the big stories in cricket, football, golf, tennis, darts, boxing, rugby, Formula One and the NFL? Continue reading...

For decades, parliament has been far too lenient about the royal family's finances. This avaricious practice needs to endAs a royal author, I have come across plentiful examples of royal greed. It is standard practice for the royals to seek to minimise their personal expenditure while maximising their income from other sources, normally the public purse.But the revelation that King Charles III's personal slush fund, the Duchy of Lancaster, is having its already bulging coffers augmented by the estates of people who die in parts of England with historical links to the royal estate plumbs new depths of disgusting avarice.Norman Baker was the Liberal Democrat MP for Lewes from 1997 to 2015Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here. Continue reading...

The exit of Democratic senator Joe Manchin signals nadir for the party in the state as Republicans tighten gripNibbling appetizers off American-flag printed paper plates in a city hall basement, the group of Democrat voters had been listening to a party official's appeals to get active in politics when Terri Rodebaugh stood up to air a grievance.One thing I want to say is I'm tired of being called a baby killer, which I am not," said Rodebaugh, her shirt pink and her hair, like most others in the room, gray. Yet having such epithets hurled at them is what it has come to for party faithful and pro-choice West Virginians like Rodebaugh in Nicholas county. Continue reading...

Mediator Qatar says operations room in Doha will monitor the truce. Plus: the upward trajectory of the far right in Europe

Edelman, world's largest public relations company, paid millions by Saudi Arabia, UAE and other repressive regimesPublic trust in some of the world's most repressive governments is soaring, according to Edelman, the world's largest public relations firm, whose flagship trust barometer" has created its reputation as an authority on global trust. For years, Edelman has reported that citizens of authoritarian countries, including Saudi Arabia, Singapore, the United Arab Emirates and China, tend to trust their governments more than people living in democracies do.But Edelman has been less forthcoming about the fact that some of these same authoritarian governments have also been its clients. Edelman's work for one such client - the government of the UAE - will be front and center when world leaders convene in Dubai later this month for the UN's Cop28 climate summit. Continue reading...

Oakland is an acute victim of a stadium-financing racket that has existed for decades. But the loss of the city's three pro sports teams over the past decade is a special kind of tragicProfessional sports' exodus from Oakland, California gets sadder all the time. The Golden State Warriors' move across the Bay Bridge to San Francisco in 2019 was tough for Oaklanders to swallow. The two cities aren't the same, after all. But at least the Warriors stayed nearby. The NFL's Raiders left for Las Vegas in 2020, an even rougher departure given the distance between the Bay and the desert. And now Oakland has taken a body blow, as the final major professional team in the city has headed for the exits: Major League Baseball's Athletics, whose own move to Sin City was finalized last week.The drying-out of the pro sports landscape in Oakland is, on some level, the same simple story that gets written every time a city loses a team. The Warriors played in an old arena that left them lagging behind the rest of the NBA in commercial opportunities. The Raiders and A's played in an old stadium, the Oakland Coliseum, that put them at a similar disadvantage to their NFL and MLB peers, respectively. And when the Oakland football and baseball franchises couldn't get local governments to give in to their demands for public assistance to subsidize a sporting venue whose benefits would mostly be reaped by billionaire club owners, the teams simply cut and ran. The Warriors, blessedly, financed their new home privately. Nevada taxpayers are on the hook for the Raiders and A's, however. Continue reading...

The retired NFL great's brutal assessment was harsh. But as GMs try to hack the cap by relying on rookie QBs before they're ready, the results are no surpriseNo sports entity markets itself quite like the NFL. The shots of rabid fans idolizing legends in the making, the countless hours of pregame buildup, the wild popularity of fantasy football, the alternate broadcasts, the push to grow internationally. For most of the last two decades, no league has fed its marketing department as much red meat as the NFL. But when it comes to the on-field product, this season has been pedestrian from an offensive standpoint and especially putrid when it comes to quarterback play.Tom Brady, who was part of more than a few marquee matchups in his 23-year NFL career, blasted the state of football on ESPN uberpundit Stephen A Smith's radio show earlier this week. Continue reading...

Merrick Morton has been documenting gangs in Los Angeles for more than 20 years. Collected in Clique: West Coast Portraits from the Hood, and published by Hat and Beard Press, his distinctive style provides an understanding of marginalised communities, often ignored or shown in crude stereotypes Continue reading...

I took my seat expecting a masterful take on French history. Instead, we got an industrial-grade sex-and-battles disasterWhen the trailer for Ridley Scott's Napoleon was released last summer, French social networks shuddered with excitement. The trailer's promises were bountiful, and the historical inaccuracies spotted here and there (no, Napoleon didn't fire cannon at the Pyramids) did little to dent our enthusiasm; great artists are allowed some poetic licence, after all. How daring of the 85-year-old English film-maker to tackle such a momentous subject - we were in awe already. Would his Napoleon measure up to his masterful debut, The Duellists, set in France during the Napoleonic wars and adapted from a short story by Joseph Conrad? Hopes were running high.That it was an Englishman charged with this latest blockbuster interpretation of Napoleon's influence only fuelled the anticipation. Most of us welcome a foreign take on our history and cultural heritage, perhaps even more when it comes from a former best enemy. This cross-cultural experience fosters fascinating exchanges and conversations. How many musketeer, Sun King and Marie Antoinette stories has Hollywood churned out since the birth of cinema? We have lost count. How many Joan of Arcs? There was Ingrid Bergman, Hedy Lamarr, Jean Seberg, Milla Jovovich, not to mention the unforgettable Renee Falconetti in Carl Theodor Dreyer's masterpiece. Continue reading...

Hundreds of thousands across south-east Asia are forced to work for industrial-scale criminal enterprises. Reporting scams is therefore criticalNever click on a suspicious link. Beware of unsolicited emails. Don't access your bank from public wifi. Just as suddenly as Black Friday has become the new" Boxing Day, so have the warnings about online scams become commonplace.The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission recently reported that scams, largely perpetuated online, had cost Australians an estimated $3.1bn in one year. That was an 80% increase on recorded 2021 losses. Clearly, these warnings require serious attention. Continue reading...