Martin Griffiths, the United Nations envoy for Yemen, has arrived in the strategic port city of Hodeidah to discuss plans with Houthi rebels to cede control of the port to the world body and lay the groundwork for restarting peace talks.
UN spokesman Rheal LeBlanc said on Friday that the international agency was ready to play a supervisory role in managing the port, which before the beginning of the war in March 2015, handled more than 70 percent of the country’s imports.
Earlier this year, Abdel-Malik al-Houthi, the chief of Houthi rebels, had said he was prepared to hand over control of Hodeidah port to the UN if the Saudi-UAE military alliance halted its offensive on the city.
Riyadh and Abu Dhabi see the port as the main entry point of weapons for the Houthis and have accused their regional rival Iran of sending missiles to the rebels, a charge Tehran has denied.
WATCH: Yemen peace prospects rise as government, Houthis closer to talks (2:12)
In the past week, fighting has all but diminished with the rebels and pro-government forces, backed by Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, expressing support for the UN envoy’s plan to end the more than three-year-war.
Griffiths is expected to meet with local officials in Hodeidah later on Friday, and according to UN sources will push for calm ahead of upcoming peace talks.
No date has yet been set for the negotiations, but the warring parties are expected to meet in Sweden in early December.
Al Jazeera’s Mohammed Adow, reporting from neighbouring Djibouti, said Griffiths and the international community were aware that “there can be no solution to the massive humanitarian crisis as long as fighting continues in places that are crucial to aid workers”.
According to the World Food Programme, up to 14 million Yemenis are now at risk of starvation.
Years of war
Griffiths had arrived in capital Sanaa on Wednesday and met with rebel leader al-Houthi to discuss their attendance in the next round of consultations.
Mohammed Abdul Salam, a spokesman for the Houthis, said in a statement on Twitter on Thursday that conditions for a ceasefire and an offer for Houthis to receive overseas medical treatment were discussed.
According to the statement, al-Houthi also asked for an end to economic restrictions on rebel-held areas.
Nader Hashemi, the director of the Center for Middle East Studies at the University of Denver, said the pressure was rising on Riyadh and Washington to end the war in Yemen because of the international outcry following the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
The war in Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, started in 2014 when the government slashed fuel subsidies, prompting massive protests in Sanaa.
The Houthis seized the opportunity and marched south from their stronghold of Saada province to the capital, where they toppled Hadi’s government.
Concerned by the rise of the Houthis, a Saudi-led military coalition, backed by the United States, intervened in 2015 with a massive air campaign aimed at reinstalling Hadi’s government.
Since then, data collected by Al Jazeera and the Yemen Data Project has found that more than 18,000 air raids have been carried out in Yemen, with almost one-third of all bombing missions striking non-military sites.
Weddings, funerals, schools and hospitals, as well as water and electricity plants, have been hit, killing and wounding thousands.
We know we freak out over Instant Pot deals on a weekly basis, but even if you ignore all the rest, this is the one to pay attention to.
Amazon is offering the 8-quart Instant Pot DUO (the best-selling Instant Pot model, if you were wondering) on sale for $69.99. It regularly goes for $139.95 and the last time we saw the price significantly drop on this was in September — and now it’s $20 cheaper than it was then.
Just one of the best Instant Pot discounts we’ve ever seen, NBD.
This 7-in-1 model can pressure cook, slow cook, cook rice, steam, sauté, and make yogurt, which is the one thing its little brother, the LUX, can’t do. Long story short: Once you have the DUO on your hands, you can literally clean house when it comes to your kitchen. This is essentially the last cooker you’re ever gonna need.
Aside from those features, the DUO is also equipped with 14 built-in smart programs that know the cook times and temperatures for a ton of foods, has Alexa compatibility, provides access to over 300 recipes and videos, and more.
The DUO itself does go on sale semi-regularly, but when it does, it’s almost never the 8-quart model like we’re seeing today. And, because it’s the bigger size, you can pretty much guarantee that even a huge roast will be fine.
In the early hours of December 16, 2017, hot embers began raining down on the Southern California town of Montecito.
Ominous, orange flames soon appeared on hills above the wooded community as the infamous Thomas Fire, burning for nearly two weeks at that point, lunged over the ridge and pushed into the enclave below.
The odds weighed in the fire’s favor: The winds picked up overnight, blowing 65 mph gusts in the direction of hundreds and hundreds of homes.
But when the smoke and ash finally settled, the fire had lost — for the most part, anyhow.
“They thought for sure that they were going to lose 400 or 500 homes — instead they only lost seven,” Crystal Kolden, a fire scientist at the University of Idaho and former wildland firefighter, said in an interview.
“It was a tremendous success story.”
Fire danger in Montecito, Calif., on Nov. 20, 2018.
Image: Mark Kaufman
While there’s no such thing as a fire-proof town in notorious fire country, Montecito is perhaps as close as it gets.
Now, as fire experts and emergency crews still grapple with the horrors of the Camp Fire, by far the deadliest and most destructive in California history, Montecito’s defensive efforts show that today’s megafires — exacerbated by climate change — can be resisted. It won’t ever be pretty, nor perfect, but homes can be defended, and at worst, people can have time to flee.
“It’s the difference between living in a matchbox and a place that’s more resistant,” Kolden said.
Becoming fire resistant
Montecito’s defensive fire efforts, developed over nearly two decades, haven’t required technological breakthroughs nor big infusions of cash. Since 1999, Montecito has spent a little over $1.6 million on becoming fire resistant.
“That’s so small,” said Kolden.
The defensive campaign adopted an almost battle-like strategy. Montecito set out to defend the higher road system that cuts across the top of town, largely separating the sprawling Los Padres National Forest from Montecito.
The intent was simple: Thin about 70 percent of vegetation along the high road system, and effectively create a line of resistance.
Montecito’s location, about a 2 hour drive north of Los Angeles.
Image: google
Not all the vegetation can be removed, of course. That would doom the unstable land during rains, enabling deadly landslides, and debris flows.
“If you go back 20 years, people wanted to run bulldozers behind the whole community,” said Kerry Kellogg, a Montecito city wildland fire specialist. “But that wasn’t acceptable.”
The intent isn’t to keep all the fire out. But to hold wildfires in the hills by choking off their fuel supply. That makes defending the town manageable.
“It’s the difference between living in a matchbox and a place that’s more resistant”
“The fire is going to come through, but it won’t be a big, tall, fire front,” Kellogg, who previously fought fires for 35 years, said.
These changes are subtle, perhaps even imperceptible to the casual observer.
Nearly all the flammable vegetation below a field of oak trees may be removed along the road — but the trees remain amid the naked ground. Or, lines of cactus replace fire-prone trees.
Cleared out ground vegetation along the high road.
Image: Mark Kaufman
These focused lines of defense proved valuable for firefighters during the approaching December 16 firestorm.
“The firemen said when they were in Montecito there was a comfort level,” noted Kellogg. “You feel like you could safely let the fire come to you.”
The same cleared routes also allow people an improved means of escape — if necessary. In rapidly-moving fires over the past year, both law enforcement and the public found themselves in “tunnels of fire” as flames incinerated the vegetation around them.
Cleared vegetation on the right, with sparse vegetation on the hill above the road (distance).
Image: Mark Kaufman
“If we remove vegetation on both sides of the road, that allows people to not have that tunnel of fire,” said Kolden.
The ability to safely flee on short notice is also critical because staying put simply isn’t an option in the U.S. Folks in fire country don’t have anywhere to seek refuge, like underground bunkers to hide away from the (fire)storm.
Sure, some homes may be fire resistant, but can’t necessarily withstand an indomitable urban conflagration, like that in Paradise.
“I would say that unless somebody has an asphalt donut around their house and their house is made of concrete, that’s [staying] not a great option,” Alison Green, program coordinator for Project Wildfire, a government disaster organization in Deschutes County, Oregon, said in an interview.
“As much as we can, we like to move people outof the way,” added Green.
Raining embers
Even before a large wildfire hits town, its embers will start raining down upon roofs and vegetation. It’s how a fire effectively spreads, sometimes well in advance of the flames. It’s what happened in Paradise.
“All it takes is one house,” said Kolden. “Once they start burning it’s really tough to stop them.”
But Montecito urges its residents to clear out their yards, put mesh screening over vents (to block embers), and harden their homes in other ways, such as non-flammable roofs. In fact, it’s state law that homeowners in fire country maintain 100 feet of cleared out “defensible space” around their houses.
That Montecito has professionals ensuring or promoting these defensive measures is critical to its fire resistance.
“What makes Montecito different is there’s always been a wildfire specialist — that’s always been their job,” said Kellogg, who watched the flames burning above town in December 2017.
Falling embers are inevitable. So if all the houses in the neighborhood are resistant to catching fire, a big conflagration will have a difficult time igniting amid an unsuspecting, or still evacuating neighborhood.
“You need to have all the houses hardened against fire, so there’s a herd immunity against fire,” said Kolden.
Montecito vs Paradise
Paradise and Montecito are both situated in fire country, but they’re quite different. Paradise is a working-class community surrounded by pine forest, whereas Montecito is one of the nation’s wealthiest enclaves, settled amid Southern California’s shrublands, gnarled oak trees, and the state’s towering, ubiquitous weed, eucalyptus.
The circumstances around the respective extreme fires were different, too. Montecito had been acutely aware of the Thomas Fire for weeks, and firefighters were prepared to make a stand.
“Fires never will be the same,” noted Kellogg. But robust defensive fire lines and intelligent clearing of flammable brush — a method of fire prevention Montecito takes seriously — would almost certainly have helped the now-gutted town of Paradise.
After sparking, the Camp Fire reached the mountain community of Paradise in just 3.5 hours. Once there, it raged right through, consuming wooden homes. It’s velocity shocked fire scientists. People burned alive in their cars.
“It gives people the time they need to escape,” said Kolden of Montecito’s defensive efforts. “I have to believe that would have made a huge difference in Paradise.”
Because future megafires are inevitable, ever spurred on by a warming world and drying land, developing a Montecito-like fire-resistance may no longer be a choice. These modern infernos will undoubtedly come for other towns, like they did for Paradise.
“There are hundreds of Paradise communities out there,” John Bailey, a fire ecologist at Oregon State University, said in an interview.
Hazy-smoke skies, with wooded Montecito on left and a cleared out high road driveway on right.
Image: Mark Kaufman
Yet just as the potent role of climate change can’t be ignored in parching the land and helping to produce record dryness, either can the role of long-suppressed wildfires in the U.S. Wildfires will always come to town, but they can arrive in less mighty forms.
“Part of the solution is not to suppress fires,” said Oregon State’s Bailey.
For well over half a century, the U.S. government has quashed forest fires, which naturally thin out the forests.
“There are hundreds of Paradise communities out there”
“Post World War ll we not only had a culture to suppress fires, but we had new technology for it,” said Bailey, noting that the Interior Department established a well-organized system of lookout towers, air tankers, and trucks.
There was also a slight cooling trend in the 1950s, 1960s, and into the 1970s, owing to large-scale shifts in the dominant Pacific Ocean (though this certainly didn’t stop nor diminish today’s longer-term warming trend).
“It was pretty easy to put fires out,” said Bailey. “I did it for three years — I’m guilty.”
“Now we’re in a climatic period where the fire seasons are getting longer and deeper, hotter and drier, and maybe even windier,” he emphasized.
Thinning out these forests, however, requires federal funding and commitment. And that commitment isn’t there.
Cleared land along Montecito’s high road system.
Image: Mark Kaufman
Bailey cites the 400,000-some acres of ponderosa pine (a common, fire-vulnerable tree) areas in Oregon’s greater Deschutes National Forest. The U.S. Forest Service only burns, or treats, around 2,000 acres a year, he said.
“Do the math on that,” said Bailey. “In a big fire event, it doesn’t even slow it down.”
But thinning forests won’t slow every fire. The recent Woolsey Fire, south of Montecito, largely burned scrublands and grasslands. There were no overgrown forests to eliminate. It was just a bad fire, helped along by seasonal winds and increasingly dried-out land.
This makes Montecito’s defenses all the more relevant. The fires will continue coming, and these wild woodlands, which sustain life, water, and tranquility, are more susceptible to flame.
“It’s a watershed, it’s a walk in the woods, but it’s also fuel,” said Bailey. “And it’s going to burn.”
Invite anyone from the Irwin family over, and you just know you’re going to get some animal action.
Jimmy Fallon had Animal Planet host Robert Irwin, son of late Steve Irwin, on The Tonight Show, and he brought a lot of furry cuteness on set with him.
Fallon didn’t seem that into the cute baby animals, though. Even the cutest baby otter you’ve ever seen had Fallon visibly uncomfortable.
Velika Kladusa, Bosnia – Broken phones and broken bones: these are the risks refugees are running in Bosnia as they attempt to cross over the border into Croatia, the EU’s newest member state.
In a warehouse near the town of Velika Kladusa, close to the Croatian border, most of the 200 people living here are trying to play “the game”, a term many use for the attempt to reach Europe. It is a game with high stakes and risks as a group of Iranian men living here well know.
Seven men are recovering from a beating, which they say happened the previous night. They say it was at the hands of Croatian police.
They spread out their phones in a line; the screens have all been smashed. One man winces as he pushes himself up to lift up his shirt. “Holy s***,” says Arash, one of the older Iranians who was not with them the night before and is seeing the injuries for the first time.
“They put them in the car one by one and were beating them really hard. They used sticks to beat them. They also kicked and punched them,” Arash says, translating.
Farhad, another Iranian member of the group, adds: “They said, ‘If you come back again I’ll kill you’.”
Locals say minus 10 degrees Celsius in winter is not unusual [Courtesy: No Name Kitchen]
Croatia’s Interior Ministry has dismissed allegations of police brutality.
Representatives from Doctors Without Borders (known by its French initials MSF) were unable to confirm that it was Croatian police who beat those trying to cross the border, but told Al Jazeera that the injuries are consistent with the allegations.
“We also regularly see patients with injuries varying from soft tissue injuries to sometimes fractures which are allegedly inflicted by Croatian border forces. These injuries are consistent with exposure to force on the specific body part and it is therefore possible that these wounds are inflicted as testified by our patients,” says Julian Koeberer, a humanitarian affairs officer with MSF.
This year, Bosnia has seen a surge of refugees and migrants passing through the country. According to data collected by UNHCR, there were 7,600 arrivals in Bosnia and Herzegovina from the beginning of the year until June, compared to a total of 218 in 2017.
A short drive from the warehouse, around 200 people are living in a field next to the local dog shelter.
Stray dogs and puppies roam around the field. Some people say they have sometimes come back to their tent to find a dog inside.
“It’s because we are like dogs, that’s what they think,” says Dalir, a Pakistani.
Doctors expect to treat severe cases of hypothermia and frostbite [Courtesy: No Name Kitchen]
Most here keep playing “the game” even though they keep losing.
“Three times we were pushed back by police, they beat us and broke our mobiles and took a little bit of money,” says Hussein who is also from Pakistan.
The bruises and the beatings will not deter them though, they say they will try again “maybe tomorrow”.
Conditions in the field are poor and MSF, which works in the area, treats people from amobile clinic.
Doctors and volunteers say that scabies and lice are common due to poor living conditions.
But their most pressing concern is the weather.
Winter is coming, temperatures are already dipping below zero at night and snow has fallen.
Locals say minus 10 degrees Celsius in winter is not unusual.
Refugees live in cramped and unhygienic conditions in Bosnia [Katy Fallon/Al Jazeera]
“Living conditions for most migrants in Bosnia remain horrific,” says MSF’s Koeberer, “most patients coming to our mobile clinic suffer from skin diseases caused by poor hygiene conditions and from respiratory infections due to cold weather and are unable to recover while remaining outside exposed to harsh weather.
“During the last weeks, our team already treated an increasing number of patients but with temperatures soon falling below five degrees and further at night … we expect severe cases of hypothermia and frostbite, with people’s lives at risk if not provided with safe shelter.”
The arrival of snow is worrying for all those on the ground.
“It’s zero degrees now, you have to rely on others to distribute food. As you can imagine, it’s not good for your mental health,” says Marc who works with No Name Kitchen, an organisation which provides showers for those living in the field in Velika Kladusa.
He adds that the constant pushback from Croatian police have a significant effect upon those living here.
“Maybe half of the time they are beaten up, their money is stolen, their phones are broken.”
The Bosnian people are good … but the camp conditions are very bad.
Ali, Pakistani refugee
Near the town of Bihac, also close to the Croatian border, is the previously abandoned Borici dormitory.
The dormitory was built in the fifties and intended for war orphans; now around 1,000 migrants live here.
Men cook chapatis outside around a fire. According to the International Organization for Migration, the building is steadily being prepared for winter, but conditions inside are bleak.
It is dark, hard to walk through without tripping up and has the feeling of a squatter camp rather than an official facility.
“The Bosnian people are good … but the camp conditions are very bad,” says Ali from Pakistan.
He points to a dark cavern under the dormitory to show where he sleeps at night.
“They don’t have water to wash their face,” he says of people living there, “it’s very cold here.”
Most of the men express gratitude towards Bosnians and the Bosnian police who they contrast strongly with their Croatian counterparts across the border.
But snow and broken bones will not deter most from attempting to seek safety and economic stability.
Faisal, who comes from Pakistan and is living in the dormitory, rubs his hands together and coughs in the cold.
“I will always try to cross again,” he says.
With snow having already fallen, doctors and aid workers fear for the health of refugees [Courtesy: No Name Kitchen]
Here it is. The moment we’ve been training for. Black Friday is finally here.
If you’ve been tearing through every Black Friday ad possible, making a list (and checking it twice) of all the best deals, and putting your wallets on lockdown until the discounts go live, then it’s time to celebrate. Your patience has been worth it, young grasshopper.
Drum roll, please: Our 2018 master list of Black Friday deals is our most comprehensive yet.
We’ve pulled the best of the best deals from those 50-page ads (and hidden clearance sections) to compare prices and save you a headache — because shopping online should not be as stressful as shopping in-store. You can shop by retailer: Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Amazon, Macy’s, and more are outlined below — or you can shop by category: TVs, laptops and tablets, gaming consoles, Instant Pots, KitchenAid mixers, Fitbits, and more are organized in case you’re looking for something specific.
So sit back, laugh at your relatives bundling up to go fight to the death in the stores, and save some damn money from the comfort of your favorite recliner (or office chair, if you’re less lucky).
Take an extra 15% off with code JOY though Nov. 23 and get $15 in Kohl’s cash for every $50 you spend through Nov. 23. It doesn’t work on everything, but it works on prettymuch everything.
Apple released some pretty exciting new products this year — gadgets that you might be eyeing to get for yourself (or your loved ones, if you’re nice) over the holidays. If you’re hoping to snatch up a new Apple Watch, iPhone, or even a MacBook this holiday season, you might also want to invest in a couple of accessories at non-Apple Store prices.
We’re offering 15 Black Friday deals on Apple accessories you’ll find hard to say no to. Why? Because on top of the discounts, you can get an additional 20% off just by entering the code BFSAVE20 at checkout.
With the AirPower’s fate pending, Apple users still don’t have an official wireless charger on their hands. But why wait for a device that may or may not come when you can enjoy the convenience of wireless charging right now? This pad can juice up two devices at once — Apple Watch, the new iPhones, and Qi-enabled Android phones — for up to 20% faster than other chargers. It also boasts other useful features like temperature control, surge protection, and short-circuit prevention.
As you can probably tell from the name, this bad boy can power up three devices simultaneously. Equipped with Qualcomm 3.0 Quick Charging Technology, it can charge your Qi-enabled iPhone, Apple Watch, and AirPods all at the same time at blazing speeds — wirelessly.
You pay a premium for your Apple gadgets and accessories; you ought to handle them with care, and not just randomly stuffed in your bag’s pockets. The BentoStack can take care of all the organizing for you with its multi-compartment design and secure setup. Styled after a Japanese lunchbox, it has different partitions to store different devices. The bottom stack is designed to house your power bricks, chargers, and Apple Watch bands, while the top section is reserved for charging cables and earphones. The top lid can hold your Apple Pencil or function as a phone stand. It also comes armed with a Qi-certified wireless charger and a 5,000mAh battery which you can use to keep your devices energized when you’re out and about.
With the amount of traveling you’re going to do over the holidays, you’ll be lucky if your phone or tablet can last you the whole trip (unless you’re dozing off the entire flight, of course). Pack enough power for your gadgets with SolarJuice, which delivers a 26,800mAh battery capacity that can recharge a smartphone many times over. It has three high-speed ports built-in — Type-C, USB-C, and QC 3.0 — allowing you to juice up three devices simultaneously. Plus, it’s rain-resistant, dirt-proof, and shock-proof, and comes equipped with solar technology to feed off energy from the sun.
At this point, you’re probably well aware that Apple doesn’t produce the sturdiest of charging cables. Save yourself the trouble (and money) of having to purchase a new one every few months with this virtually indestructible wire. Featuring a tinplate interior, a TPE jacket exterior, and wrapped internal wires to prevent friction or fraying, it can hold over 30,000 bends of 90-degree bend tests and up to 275 lbs, making it 30 times tougher than standard cables. It also boasts an 8-Pin connector that delivers fast data transfer, syncing, and charging.
If you want a portable charger that’s sleeker and easier to carry around, the LifePower A3 is your guy. On top of having an impressive 27,000mAh capacity, a USB-C port, and two USB-A ports, it also features an AC outlet to juice up a wider range of devices — including monitors and even apps.
Your MacBook charging cable is a cable, not a jumping rope. It’s not something worth tripping over. If you’re more on the clumsy side and often find yourself stepping on your power cord, give yourself the gift of a magnetic cable to eliminate the case of the flying MacBook. It mimics the convenience of the now-obsolete MagSafe feature, safely disconnecting from your computer whenever you step on it. It’s even rated to charge your laptop faster than standard cables.
This no-frills charging dock may not look like much, but the convenience it offers easily makes it superior compared to standard chargers. With a thoughtfully-designed suction cup, it can adhere to any surface, so you don’t have to worry about knocking it over, and makes way for effortless one-hand docking and undocking.
Your Apple USB-C power adapter is too powerful to be only capable of charging one device. This expansion cube transforms it into a much more versatile power brick by adding a USB-C PD, QC3.0, and two USB charging ports so you can juice up four gadgets at once. That way, you won’t have to bring a ton of chargers and cables when you’re on the go.
You can do away with the now socially-unacceptable selfie sticks and bulky smartphone stands when you have this anti-gravity case. Featuring a tough polycarbonate exterior, TPU sides, and a nano-suction surface area, it allows you to stick your phone to glass, car dashboards, whiteboards, metal, and more. Need to take a group-fie? Stick it to a window. Watching a YouTube video while you do your skincare routine? Stick it to your mirror. Want to record your deadlifts? That’s no problem either. Stick it to gym equipment, and you can shoot your workout hands-free.
You probably know by now that your car’s built-in USB port won’t get your phone anywhere — not even a 10% battery bump. For fast charging, use this 2-in-1 charger instead. On top of functioning as a 360-degree phone mount, it’s also a Qi-compatible charger that delivers up to 10 watts of rapid charging power. The 360-degree positioning offers enhanced maneuverability and a better viewing angle for your phone, while the Qi compatibility lets you charge without the need for wires. It also comes equipped with other safety features including over-charging, over-voltage, over temperature, and over-current protection.
Whether you want to recharge, connect a 3.5mm jack to your phone, or sync your device to a Thunderbolt 3-enabled Mac, this dongle pack got you covered. It has all the Apple MFi-Certified cables you need for a quarter of the price: Lightning to 3.5mm headphone jack dongle, Lightning to USB-C cable, and a standard Lightning charging cable.
The cable to end all cables, this Nomad Lightning cable doesn’t only exist to connect your device to a power source, but it’s also a battery in itself. It comes equipped with a 2,350mAh (enough to fully charge an iPhone 7) portable battery that, when hooked up, will juice up your phone first before refilling its own internal battery. When you head out, you no longer have to carry a bulky and heavy portable power bank. The Nomad is all you need.
When it comes to traveling, you may pride yourself on quickly adapting to a foreign country, but you can’t say the same for your gadgets. This charging station allows you to do away with having to tote innumerable converters and adapters by letting you charge up to five devices at once — anywhere in the world. All you have to do is attach it to any Apple MacBook power brick, and you’re good to go. It also features a universal AC power outlet built for international travel, and fuse protection to ensure your devices charge safely.
Why did Apple suddenly become so selfish with ports? No one really knows. But don’t spend any more time wondering and get yourself this hub instead. Compatible with new USB-C MacBooks, this gadget packs all the ports you need: two additional USB-C, 2 USB-A 3.0, an SD, and a microSD port.
A bomb explosion has ripped through a busy marketplace in Kalaya town in Pakistan‘s northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa killing at least 25 people, officials say.
Abbas Khan, the assistant commissioner of the district, told Reuters on Friday that a suicide bomber drove a motorcycle into a crowd attending a festival and market that attracts people from different religious communities, before detonating his explosives.
“It was a suicide blast at the festival that takes place every Friday,” Khan said, adding that among the 25 dead were three members of the minority Sikh community and two security officials.
Twenty-six of the wounded are being treated at a government hospital in the town of Kohat, about 50km east of the blast site, police official Nasrullah told Al Jazeera by telephone.
Earlier police officials said the deadly blast was caused by “an improvised explosive device hidden in a carton of vegetables” in this remote town in Orakzai district.
No group has claimed responsibility for the blast in Kalaya town, about 60km southwest of the provincial capital Peshawar, police officials told Al Jazeera.
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan and his minister for Human Rights, Shireen Mazari, condemned the deadly attack.
Mazari tweeted that the death toll could rise.
“As the US fails in Afghanistan, [Pakistan should] be prepared for [a] fallout and we must ensure greater security for our tribal areas especially protection of our [people],” she tweeted.
The area is a remote part of the Orakzai tribal district, which was recently merged with the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, after being governed directly by Islamabad for decades.
The blast occurred around the same time as three attackers attempted to storm the Chinese consulate in the southern port city of Karachi in an unrelated incident in which two police officials were killed.
The Karachi attack was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army separatist group.
Being Scandinavian has become a rather weird experience. In the span of just a couple of years, we’ve gone from being a relatively unknown group of shy people from a tiny, cold, dark corner of the world to being hyper-visible and feeling like our culture is being fetishised.
I’m Danish, born and bread, but am now living in London, where I’ve witnessed this curiosity firsthand.
Over here, we Scandis are the object of much envy. But not for the obvious reasons — like our high quality of life, our equality or even the fact that we’ve supplied like a third of the cast of Game of Thrones at this point. No, it’s for small aspects of our culture that a group of advertising executives somewhere saw fit to export and aggressively market as something that’s frankly not really true to who we are.
I’m talking about the obsession with (and, more importantly, the misunderstanding of) hygge. Hygge, a Danish word defined as “a quality of cosiness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being,” has been practically weaponised in recent years in an effort to sell candles, socks, and blankets. Hygge was never a lifestyle, but it’s certainly marketed as one over here by people wishing to cash in on the Scandi-zeitgeist.
“Hygge, to me, has never been something you could buy.”
What ends up on the shelves in your stores is barely recognisable to us. As a Dane, I’m dumbfounded. And I’m not the only one.
Comedian and co-host of the Secret Dinosaur Cult podcast Sofie Hagen, another Danish expat in the UK, is just as confused as me. She has a habit of calling out nonsensical marketing revolving around Scandinavian lifestyle on social media.
“It’s incredibly strange finding a hygge blanket that costs £85 and promises to make you feel hygge,” Hagen tells Mashable. “I found a scented candle called hygge that cost £35 which I had to buy because I was desperate to find out how on earth they thought hygge smelled. I think it was cinnamon.”
Danish comedian Sofie Hagen.
Image: Karla Gowlett
To Hagen, actual hygge can be anything from a cup of coffee on a Monday morning to going out with friends. It’s a feeling closely tied to being relaxed or chilled out. “The weirdest thing is that it is suddenly for sale,” Hagen says. “Hygge, to me, has never been something you could buy.”
I feel the same way. For me, hygge is comfort. It exists only in the complete absence of stress and nuisance and feeds off feelings of happiness and relaxation. It’s not an aesthetic or a trend. Hygge, like love though far less elusive, cannot be bought.
Some misuses of the word hygge are innocent and even funny – an article by The New Statesman called The hygge of Oasis (yes, the rock band) is particularly snickered-at by Scandinavians. But as soon as hygge is being used to sell you stuff you don’t need, it loses its meaning.
So, how did hygge end up on the shelves of your stores?
The road to hygge was paved with good television
It’s not exactly hard to figure out what happened. It started with the excellent Nordic noir thrillers (The Killing, anyone?), which gave the world a glimpse of our beautiful Scandinavian capitals; dark, rainy, and filled with pale Nordeners dressed in gorgeous knitwear.
Seeing detectives run around the dark streets of rainy Copenhagen, the world also got a glimpse of how we Scandis cope with living in a part of the world that is dark for most of the year. We do that by relaxing indoors, snuggling under a blanket with a mug of something hot and lit candles all around: hygge.
A central element to a quaint, Nordic culture. A hard-to-pronounce word with no direct translation. Brits became obsessed – even at Mashable, the hygge-craze led one Mashable writer to inexplicably play guitar on the floor alone in front of a lit candle.
Guardian journalist Charlotte Higgins writes that the version of hygge marketed in the UK was, in fact, invented by London booksellers, after The Killing became massively popular. “Hygge seemed like a perfect distillation of popular lifestyle obsessions,” Higgins writes. According to her piece, entitled ‘The hygge conspiracy,’ booksellers started looking for authors to translate the concept of hygge into a successful lifestyle book.
One of these authors is Dane Meik Wiking, who wrote The Little Book of Hygge, a New York Times bestseller on “the Danish way to live well.” Wiking, who runs the Copenhagen-based think tank Happiness Research Institute, says that “hygge-washing,” as he calls it, is just big business doing what it always does: turning something that has always been free into something marketable.
“I think what is happening is what happened with yoga and mindfulness,” Wiking tells Mashable. “You can get $200 yoga pants, but that is not what yoga is about. You can get a ‘mindfulness plate’ – but what the hell is a mindfulness plate, I ask. In the same way you will get companies that try and ‘Hygge-wash’ their products.”
“Hygge is increasingly in risk of being hijacked by commercial interests”
Hygge, Wiking explains, is not about things. Since his book was published and hygge was made trendy, Wiking, too, has noted how the concept has slowly been corrupted. Hygge, which is ultimately just a feeling, has been commercialised, he says. “Hygge is increasingly at risk of being hijacked by commercial interests – and this worries me as hygge, in its original shape, is free.”
While he insists that the original meaning of the word hygge is important to preserve and protect, Wiking also makes the argument that Danes actually don’t have any authority about what hygge is.
“Some fill things into the term that Danes would not necessarily agree is hygge” explains Wiking, before adding: “Denmark does not have a monopoly on hygge. It happens everywhere.”
A sign of the (political) times
Another popular Scandi hygge author is Norwegian anthropologist and chef Signe Johanson, who wrote How to Hygge. When she wrote her hygge manual, she had little idea the western world was heading for a boom in hygge.
“I had no idea there would be so many other books published about hygge, or that it would become a marketing term for companies to flog every blanket, candle, and fluffy slipper,” Johanson tells Mashable. There are indeed many other books on hygge – a quick Amazon search brings up 12 titles.
According to Johanson, the success story of hygge has less to do with clever marketing than with the fact that 2016 (the boom year of hygge) was the year of Brexit and Trump. “It may seem odd to people in Scandinavia that hygge became such a big trend in recent years,” Johanson tells Mashable. “But understanding the context in which it occurred helps us grasp why people became so captivated by all things hygge.”
“The clamour for hygge isn’t just because people are being duped by clever marketeers.”
Johanson says that she receives lots of emails from readers in the UK and North America who find the idea of hygge to be a soothing element in times of upheaval, and who are genuinely interested in why and how Scandinavia has achieved such a high quality of life.
“You and I may not necessarily recognise the aggressively marketed version of hygge we see outside of Scandinavia,” Johanson says. “But, what we can do is try to understand that the clamour for hygge isn’t just because people are being duped by clever marketeers.”
“I don’t necessarily recognise or identify with the aspirational side of hygge,” Johanson continues. “But I reckon if shining a light on one small aspect of Scandinavian living brings people joy in troubled times then I can live with the myriad of unexpected ways in which hygge has become appropriated across the globe.”
Johanson, who notes in a tongue-in-cheek way that Denmark is actually guilty of appropriating the term hygge from Norway (a fair point – the origin of the word is the 16th century Norwegian word hugga,) says that she doesn’t necessarily agree that the meaning of the term hygge has been diluted of meaning by over-eager advertisers. “It depends whether you find yourself irritated by the shift in meaning when a word is adopted by another culture,” she says.
Image: Getty Images/Westend61
You already know how to hygge
What all of we Scandis in this article are getting at— Sofie Hagen, Meik Wiking, Signe Johansen and myself included — is ultimately this: hygge is just a feeling. It costs absolutely nothing. And the thing is, if you’re even thinking too much about it – if you’re forcing it – you’re missing the point.
Hygge is effortless comfort; it has no element of performance. It is absence of all pretence and worry. The word itself may defy direct translation, but you are very familiar with the concept – trust me. Had a nice dinner with a loved one in a cosy setting? Congratulations, you just had hygge. Enjoying yourself relaxing with a good book? Hygge!
Besides, if you absolutely want to fetishise Scandinavian culture, there are other places to start.
I ask Sofie Hagen to point readers in the direction of under-the-radar Scandinavian concepts that the world would benefit from adopting as their own. “We pay 30-50 percent in taxes and I have never, personally, heard anyone complain,” Hagen says. “Because in exchange we get free education with a monthly salary for even attending school!”
My own bid for the next Scandi word the world should start celebrating is a little less weighty, but significant none the less.
“Haps” is a great Danish word. It is used when you rapidly and unexpectedly take something (typically a treat) from another person. Haps! Brilliant word, brilliant concept. You’re welcome.
You’re welcome to consider this the unofficial obituary for the 2018 Atlanta Falcons, who tripped all over themselves in typical Falcons fashion in a big spot Thanksgiving night against the New Orleans Saints.
Even without starters Keanu Neal and Deion Jones on defense and Devonta Freeman, Andy Levitre and Brandon Fusco on offense, the Falcons have one of the most talented rosters in the NFL. They’ve been hit hard by injuries, but so have the 10-1 Los Angeles Rams, the 9-2 Kansas City Chiefs and several other contenders.
There’s no roster-related excuse for why the Falcons have lost three consecutive November games to fall virtually out of contention at 4-7. Few expected them to beat the burning-hot Saints in New Orleans on short rest, but they hardly put up a fight in a 31-17 defeat that included a garbage-time touchdown to make a one-sided affair look more competitive than it was.
Chris Graythen/Getty Images
This is an offense with a former MVP quarterback in Matt Ryan, a future Hall of Fame wide receiver in Julio Jones, a sensational rookie wideout in Calvin Ridley, one of the game’s top No. 2 receivers in Mohamed Sanu, a quality young tight end in Austin Hooper, a dazzling young back in Tevin Coleman and two strong veteran offensive linemen in Jake Matthews and Alex Mack. Yet it is one of just nine offenses that have been held to fewer than 20 points on five separate occasions this season.
The inconsistency is astonishing. They scored 12 points in Week 1, more than 30 in each of their next three games, 17 in Week 5, 34 in Week 6, 23 in Week 7 and 38 following a Week 8 bye. Now they’ve been held to 19 or fewer points in three consecutive losses to Cleveland Browns, Dallas Cowboys and Saints.
Not that we should be surprised. After all, that was a trend throughout 2017 as the Falcons struggled to get acclimated to offensive coordinator Steve Sarkisian’s system. Last year, an offense that led the league in scoring in 2016 scored 17 or fewer points six times (something that happened just once in Kyle Shanahan’s final season at the offensive helm).
That makes it impossible to establish a groove and make a run, which is why the Falcons haven’t won more than three consecutive games since that unforgettable but now distant 2016 campaign.
But again, this isn’t about the personnel. The Falcons outgained the Saints while registering more than twice as many passing yards as their streaking opponent Thursday night. They averaged nearly as many yards per play, but they were the inferior team in key moments. New Orleans was better on third downs, New Orleans was less mistake-prone and New Orleans was a better finisher.
The surface-level numbers indicate the Falcons generated 17 points on four red-zone possessions against the Saints. That number is too low to begin with (it should be at least 20), but it doesn’t account for the fact that seven of those points came on that aforementioned garbage-time touchdown. As well, Atlanta lost fumbles inside the red zone on two plays that started at or beyond the 30-yard line.
Technically, the Falcons controlled the ball inside the New Orleans 20-yard line five times while the game was still within reach. They turned it over in three of those instances, and in another Ryan took a killer sack (one of six on the night), forcing them to settle for a short field goal.
That speaks to this team’s mental fortitude, as well as its inability to rise to occasions.
That predates Sarkisian, who was coaching in the Pac-12 when the Falcons lost four of their first five playoff games with Ryan under center.
In the first seven years of Ryan’s career, the 2008 No. 3 overall pick compiled an 80.8 fourth-quarter passer rating, compared to 91.3 in the first three quarters. From 2013 to 2015, 70 percent of his interceptions came in the second halves of games. And from 2013 to 2016, he threw an NFL-high 11 interceptions in the final two minutes of the fourth quarter (seven of those picks came in one-score games).
The pre-Sark Falcons had a reputation for blowing big leads, even before they blew the ultimate big lead against the New England Patriots in Super Bowl LI.
The Falcons masked their choker mentality in 2016 because Shanahan’s offense was so damn good that they rarely had to grind out close games. They didn’t face a lot of adversity, and we all saw what happened when they finally did.
But now Shanahan is gone, and Sarkisian hasn’t gotten as much out of the talent on that side of the ball. As a result, the Falcons are just 14-13 since that Super Bowl loss, and their offense ranks 13th in football with a points-per-game average of 23.4 during that span.
A lot of that falls on their offensive coordinator, who—as former NFL offensive lineman Geoff Schwartz pointed out with an eye-opening example Thursday night—seems to lack the ability to adapt and change his approach:
Geoff Schwartz @geoffschwartz
The Saints also must have seen something on film. They are bringing pressure from the safeties all game and the Falcons haven’t blocked them once. No adjustment from the pass game either.
Jones, who remains their brightest star, has scored just six touchdowns in those 27 games. He’s often the focal point when Sarkisian’s red-zone offense is criticized—something we should expect more of following Thursday’s debacle in New Orleans.
Don’t forget that with the season on the line late in last year’s divisional-round matchup with the Eagles, Sarkisian ditched his running game and developed tunnel vision. Ryan threw four consecutive passes on a final series inside the 10-yard line, three of which went to a well-covered Jones.
Philadelphia safety Malcolm Jenkins later mocked Sarkisian’s approach by suggesting that he and his teammates knew what play was coming on fourth down “before they broke the huddle.”
In the very next football game they played, against the very same opponent and in an eerily similar situation, they again leaned on a doubled-teamed Jones on multiple occasions. In that 2018 prime-time opener, the Falcons reached the Eagles’ 15-yard line three times and came away with zero points on those drives.
So not a lot has changed, and it might be too late for minor tweaks. It’s obvious Sarkisian isn’t the right man for this job, and he should be relieved of his duties between now and Black Monday.
Scott Cunningham/Getty Images
Beyond that, head coach Dan Quinn’s job shouldn’t be much more secure. It was Quinn who was in control during the most infamous championship-game collapse in NFL history, and keep in mind that he’s a defensive specialist. That Falcons team’s success had little to do with Quinn’s area of expertise, and while the defense made tremendous progress in 2017, the admittedly beat-up unit has been a mess once again this season.
This isn’t about the roster. Nobody expects the Falcons to give up on Ryan just months after signing him to a new five-year, $150 million contract, and his supporting cast isn’t likely going anywhere. That young, fast defense can bounce back too, especially when Neal and Jones are healthy.
The Falcons possess Super Bowl talent, and that will likely still be the case next season, but the team’s continued lack of consistent execution should lead to significant changes in the coming weeks and months.
Otherwise, we’ll probably be writing this team’s obit again before winter arrives in 2019.
Brad Gagnon has covered the NFL for Bleacher Report since 2012.
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