Zuckerberg calls on US to protect Tech Companies from EU Fines

Technology

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the U.S. government under President Donald Trump should step in to prevent the European Union from fining U.S. tech companies for antitrust and other violations.“I think the strategic advantage of the United States is that we have some of the most powerful companies in the world, and I think part of the U.S. strategy should be to protect them,” Zuckerberg said on “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
He added that he believes Trump, as the new president, supports that approach. “I think he just wants America to win,” Zuckerberg said.
Multi-billion dollar fines

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Zuckerberg has criticized the EU for the fines it has imposed on U.S. tech giants over the past two decades, saying they totaled “more than $30 billion.” In November last year, Meta was fined 797 million euros for violating EU antitrust rules, which included imposing unfair terms on advertising providers.
He called such penalties “almost like a tariff” on American tech companies, criticizing President Joe Biden’s administration for inaction.
“If another country were disrupting an industry that’s important to us, the U.S. government would probably find a way to put pressure on us,” he said. “But here we got the exact opposite result — the U.S. government led the crackdown on companies, giving the EU a free hand to do whatever it wanted with American companies.”
Changes in Meta Policy
Zuckerberg’s appearance on Rogan’s podcast comes just days after he announced the end of Meta’s fact-checking program, moving to a “community notes” model. The move is seen by many as an attempt to bring the company closer to the Trump administration, which has previously criticized its content moderation policies as censorship with a left-wing political slant.
Meta also announced on Friday that it was ending its diversity, equality, and inclusion (DEI) programs, citing changes in the “legal and policy landscape” as a key factor, Politico reported.
Photo: Wikipedia

Taking their shot

2024 Election

Good Colorado Sunday morning, friends. I’m a gatherer, not a hunter. I’ll eat anything grown in my yard — or yours — and have zero qualms about consuming foraged berries or mushrooms or bread made from a culture that sat in a jar on the counter for weeks. I used to casually hang around my…

Decisions That Define Us: The Science Behind Life’s Biggest Choices

Science and Health

Exploring transformative decisions, researchers at the Max Planck Institute develop a framework that captures the real-life complexity of major life changes, from emigration to career shifts, emphasizing the psychological and strategic aspects of such decisions.
A groundbreaking study unveils a new framework for understanding life-changing decisions, integrating real-world scenarios with psychological research.
Certain decisions in life are so impactful that they can profoundly shape a person’s future. Choices like emigrating, quitting a job, ending a long-term relationship, or reporting a sexual assault are transformative. They influence personal identity and life paths in ways that are often unpredictable and sometimes irreversible. Researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development have introduced a new framework in a conceptual paper that aims to better understand and analyze these life-changing decisions.
Transformative Life Decisions
Picture leaving a stable career to chase a new path, moving across the world for a fresh start, or making the heartbreaking decision to end a marriage. These aren’t everyday choices — they’re transformative decisions that shape who we are and who we might become. For some, such decisions could involve revealing a long-held secret, undergoing a life-changing medical treatment, or fleeing a war-torn homeland. Each choice holds the power to alter the course of a person’s life, leading to outcomes and emotions that are often unpredictable.
These life-defining moments are the subject of a new paper published in American Psychologist by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development. The study introduces a groundbreaking framework for understanding and analyzing these transformative life decisions.
Rethinking Decision-Making Models
“Understanding life’s biggest decisions requires going beyond the oversimplified models often used in the behavioral sciences,” says first author Shahar Hechtlinger. She is part of a group at the Center for Adaptive Rationality at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development that studies simple heuristics people can use to make good decisions.
“In research on judgment and decision-making, we often rely on highly simplified, stylized tasks. However, these controlled scenarios are in stark contrast to the consequential decisions that people face in real life across cultures and contexts,” Hechtlinger says.
Therefore, she argues for a shift in perspective: instead of reducing transformative life choices to fit models designed for unrealistic problems where the decision-maker has all the relevant information at their fingertips, researchers should examine their real-world characteristics.
Methodologically, this framework adapts a long tradition of mainly lab-based judgment and decision-making research to a text-based approach, thereby setting the stage for empirical work that analyzes real-world decisions using natural language processing. By analyzing diverse textual data—including personal narratives, books, online forums, and news articles—the team identified five key dimensions of transformative decisions.
Analyzing the Dimensions of Transformation
Transformative life decisions can have distinct profiles of these dimensions, with some being more relevant than others. One dimension is conflicting cues, where competing and often incommensurable values make comparison difficult. For instance, emigration may offer safety, but at the cost of leaving loved ones behind. Another dimension is the change of self, as transformative decisions can reshape people’s values and personal identity in both desired and undesired ways, such as becoming a parent or leaving a long-term relationship.
A third dimension is uncertain experiential value, where how a person would experience the anticipated consequence of a transformative decision is unclear. Leaving a long-term career, for instance, can spark doubts about whether the change will lead to fulfillment or regret. Irreversibility is another key feature, as many decisions, such as divorce or migration, are difficult or impossible to reverse. Risk, too, is ever-present, as these choices carry the possibility of significant physical, emotional, social, or financial loss alongside the potential for rewards.
Practical Strategies for Complex Decisions
The researchers proposed simple and psychologically plausible decision strategies to address these dimensions. When values and cues are conflicting and incommensurable, the tallying heuristic, for example, simplifies comparisons by counting positive and negative reasons for each option without weighing their importance.
To deal with anticipated changes of self, the ideal self-realization strategy aligns choices with one’s vision of an ideal self. That allows individuals to make decisions that are consistent with who they want to be. To reduce uncertain experiential value, people can learn from others’ experiences, thereby gaining insight into possible outcomes by observing those who have faced similar choices. For decisions that are difficult to reverse, the testing-the-waters strategy allows people to take small, reversible steps before making a full commitment.
Finally, strategies such as hedge clipping, which involve taking incremental actions while carefully minimizing exposure to harm, can effectively reduce risks. For example, securing housing before emigrating ensures a safety net is in place, making the transition smoother and less precarious.
Enhancing Ecological Rationality
The framework makes a significant theoretical contribution to the study of ecological rationality, which examines how decision-making strategies succeed when adapted to the environments in which they are used. Transformative life decisions, with their inherent uncertainty and potential for reshaping personal identity, challenge traditional models of rationality that often rely on oversimplified assumptions.
“Ecological rationality emphasizes the importance of a fit between decision strategies, environments, and individuals,” explains Ralph Hertwig, co-author and director of the Center for Adaptive Rationality. “Our work extends this theory by integrating subjective dimensions, such as changes in personal identity and values, into the decision-making process.”
By considering the interplay between decision-making strategies, external constraints, and an individual’s evolving identity, the study enriches ecological rationality with insights into the psychological and experiential aspects of decision-making.
Implications for Policy and Practice
The article also highlights its potential applications not only for individuals, but also for policymakers, coaches and therapists, and organizations that provide support during life transitions. Having an idea of how people deal with transformative life decisions may, for instance, help policymakers design programs and policies that accommodate the complexities of fundamental decisions such as migration or long-term caregiving by addressing key dimensions like risk and irreversibility.
Future Directions in Decision-Making Research
In addition to reshaping how transformative life decisions are understood, this framework paves the way for future studies. The researchers are currently conducting a large-scale empirical project to test their framework and explore decision-making across multiple life domains, including relationships, migration, family, and work. Future research will also examine the role of factors such as mental health, personality traits, and risk-taking behavior in shaping transformative life decisions.
Key Points:

Transformative life decisions can reshape identity and life paths in often irreversible ways.
The article identifies five dimensions that define transformative life decisions: conflicting cues, changes in self-identity, uncertain experiential value, irreversibility, and risk.
The article suggests practical strategies for navigating transformative life decisions, such as tallying, ideal self-realization, and learning from others’ experiences.
The article proposes a framework that captures the real-world complexity of decision-making and goes beyond oversimplified models. It integrates subjective aspects with ecological rationality.

Reference: “The psychology of life’s most important decisions” by S. Hechtlinger, C. Schulze, C. Leuker and R. Hertwig, 2024, American Psychologist.DOI: 10.1037/amp0001439

Northern Lights Mystery Solved: Scientists Reveal Hidden Heat Source

Science and Health

Images of the aurora borealis showing the structured continuum emission. Credit: Faculty of Science research team
Researchers have uncovered the nature of a mysterious whitish, grey patch that often appears alongside the aurora borealis.
This patch, termed a structured continuum emission, adds a layer of complexity to our understanding of the northern lights. It was identified using advanced camera technology that captures true-color images of celestial phenomena, revealing it to be a heat source intricately linked with the aurora itself.
Mysterious Sky Phenomenon
A mysterious whitish-grey patch that occasionally appears near the northern lights has been explained for the first time by researchers at the University of Calgary.
Published on December 30 in the journal Nature Communications, the study investigates what researchers call a “structured continuum emission” linked to the aurora borealis.
“You’d see this dynamic green aurora, you’d see some of the red aurora in the background and, all of a sudden, you’d see this structured – almost like a patch – grey-toned or white toned-emission connected to the aurora,” explains Dr. Emma Spanswick, PhD, lead author on the paper and an associate professor with the Department of Physics and Astronomy in the Faculty of Science.
Scientific Inquiry and Discovery
“So, the first response of any scientist is, ‘Well, what is that?’”
While this pale patch has been mentioned in scientific literature before, Spanswick notes that it has never been explained — until now.
Spanswick says the white patch has been referenced in scientific papers before, but it has never been explained.
Her team’s paper concludes it’s “most certainly a heat source” and says it suggests that the aurora borealis are more complex than previously thought.
Technological Advances in Observational Astronomy
Spanswick says the discovery was made possible because an advancement in camera technology allows both amateur photographers and scientists to see true color images of the night sky.
“Everyone has noticed the advancement in digital photography. Your cellphone can now take pictures of the aurora,” she says. “That has flowed to the commercial sensor market now.
“Those types of sensors can now be found in more commercial, more robust sensors that we would use in science.”
Linking New Phenomena with Known Events
The team’s research came after there was a renewed interest in continuum emission with the discovery and observations of the long, glowing ribbon of purple light known as STEVE – or Strong Thermal Emission Velocity Enhancement.
“There are similarities between what we’re seeing now and STEVE,” explains Spanswick. “STEVE manifests itself as this mauve or grey-toned structure.
“To be honest, the elevation of the spectrum between the two is very similar but this, because of its association with dynamic aurora, it’s almost embedded in the aurora. It’s harder to pick out if you were to look at it, whereas STEVE is separate from the aurora – a big band crossing the sky.”
Educational Impact and Student Involvement
The latest research is also significant because it includes three UCalgary students, including undergraduate Josh Houghton who was initially hired as an intern on the project.
“I was still learning things at the time,” he says. “I had just started my internship, and I very quickly got involved. It’s just very, very cool.”
Spanswick says Houghton did a lot of the analysis on the research, which led to his participation in the Nature paper as an undergraduate student.
“He’s had one heck of an internship experience,” she says.
Houghton will continue the research as part of his undergrad honours thesis, before taking on his master’s degree at UCalgary next year.
Reference: “Association of structured continuum emission with dynamic aurora” by E. Spanswick, J. Liang, J. Houghton, D. Chaddock, E. Donovan, B. Gallardo-Lacourt, C. Keenan, J. Rosehart, Y. Nishimura, D. Hampton and M. Gillies, 30 December 2024, Nature Communications.DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-55081-5
The research was made possible by the Transition Region Explorer (TREx), which is a UCalgary project jointly funded by the Canadian Foundation for Innovation, the Government of Alberta and the Canadian Space Agency.
The TREx RGB and Spectograph instruments are operated and maintained by Space Environment Canada with the support of the Canadian Space Agency through its Geospace Observatory (GO) Canada initiative.

Barry Levinson’s Only Horror Movie Is A Bizarre Found Footage Flick

Arts & Culture, Film & TV

Lionsgate

Barry Levinson is not a name one would usually associate with the horror genre. The Academy Award-winning director — best known for “Rain Man,” “Wag the Dog,” and “Diner” — has mostly leaned toward satirical comedies or tense drama-thrillers throughout his career. While prepping for a documentary about the pollution plaguing the Chesapeake Bay in 2012, Levinson decided to forego the project in favor of a found-footage eco-horror that would mix fact with fiction to disturbing effect. This endeavor was “The Bay,” a mockumentary-style exploration of a contagion premise that feels almost prescient within the context of our post-pandemic world. Despite being the director’s sole foray into horror, Levinson re-invigorates the found-footage subgenre by injecting it with one of the most primal fears accompanying a pandemic: the callous cruelty of wilful inaction.

It is worth noting that Levinson incorporated the scientific research for the abandoned Chesapeake documentary into the film’s narrative framework, and crafted an aura of credibility by shooting a chunk of the footage with commonly-used digital cameras. In an interview with Mother Jones, Levinson explained how he had to take an unconventional filmmaking approach to do justice to the inner workings of the found-footage genre: 

“We made this film for $2 million, shot it in 18 days with a small crew using a lot of first-time actors, and used 21 different types of video cameras, including iPhones and cheap underwater video gear, to make it seem credible. This made for more complicated editing. Everything had to be plotted out and done in one shot.” 

The mixture of reality-based fact and inspired fiction helped create something truly frightening, prompting a delicate suspension of disbelief that is perhaps one of the greatest strengths of “The Bay.” Although not perfect, this overlooked horror entry must be scrutinized for its uncompromising vision, along with its brutality and gruesomeness which bring uncomfortable quasi-real undertones to the surface.

Barry Levinson’s The Bay poses apathy as the true source of terror

Lionsgate

In Levinson’s 2012 film, journalism intern Donna (Kether Donohue) is assigned to cover a Fourth of July celebration in Claridge, a quaint little town in Maryland that thrives on its water supply. Trouble brews when a local chicken farm is found dumping toxins that end up polluting the Chesapeake Bay, and this snowballs into the townsfolk falling ill and exhibiting concerning physical symptoms. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is contacted once the situation spirals out of control, but a mix of apathy and inaction makes matters much, much worse. Droves of dead fish wash up on the shore, infected folks start dropping dead after writhing in unimaginable pain, and dead birds start hitting the bloodied streets. Donna and her cameraperson witness these events firsthand, torn between documenting the horrors of a real-time catastrophe and sheer helplessness when faced with the bizarre symptoms among the infected.

Not everything that unfolds on the screen feels novel or unique, but Levinson is able to use some well-tread tropes to ramp up tension in a situation that comes with no silver lining. Donna’s footage, which is later confiscated by the government and subsequently leaked by a third party, is interspersed with frantic Skype calls, cellphone videos, and digital vlogs that capture the visceral nature of an unchecked epidemic. The bodily horrors of pus-filled rashes, violent vomiting, and exploding entrails add to the heightened narrative, with a couple of mutated creatures thrown in for good measure. No one knows what to do, and those in a position to do something, like the town mayor Stockman (Frank Deal), seem more mortified by the prospect of Claridge losing tourists.

What I appreciate about “The Bay” is that it situates ecological horror at the forefront, and exposes our callousness towards the environment even when our transgressions corrupt the sanctity of life. There is more to this story than the revulsion it elicits, as we are forced to contend with the evidence left behind by the countless mini-vlogs and distressed digital calls that dissect the nature of the mutating outbreak. The shameful display of insensitive apathy accompanying this catastrophe — both during and after — is not pretty, and Levinson deliberately ends “The Bay” on this bitter, discomfiting note.

How the Ski Business Got Too Big for Its Boots

Business News

Updated at 2:08 p.m. ET on January 12, 2025In 2016, I was hired to teach skiing at the Park City resort, in Utah. The ultimate fun job: For one winter, I would get paid to do and share my favorite activity.But I soon realized that although the piste conditions might be great, the working conditions were poor. An early clue was a training video that Vail Resorts, Park City’s owner, showed to employees. It bragged about how the company’s charity organization was helping local residents. The only problem: One of the charity cases was a Vail employee. In other words, the company was obliviously broadcasting how underpaid its own workers were.That video came to mind last month when I heard that, starting December 27, Park City’s ski patrollers were going on strike to demand higher wages and better treatment. “We are asking all of you to show your support by halting spending at Vail Resorts properties for the duration of this strike,” the union said in an Instagram post. “Do not use Vail-owned rental shops or retail stores. Do not stay in Vail-owned hotels.”For those unfamiliar with the industry, the union’s decision may have seemed puzzling. People who work on skis tend to love skiing, so why would they want to stop? They’re called ski bums, after all, not ski laborers. But for anyone who has been employed by Vail—and navigated the housing crises that plague resort communities—the union’s pleas are entirely comprehensible. The Park City strike illustrates just how distorted the American ski business has become, both for workers and for visitors. Central to the malaise is one trend: monopolization.For much of skiing’s history, mountains were locally owned and operated. But over the past few decades, that has changed. In the 1990s, ski resorts began buying other ski resorts. Private-equity firms got in on the act. Soon, these conglomerates were gobbling up one another, creating a small clique of businesses that had control over the industry. Independent mountains still dot the country, but most major resorts now are either owned by or associated with one of two giant corporations: Vail and Alterra.This consolidation is perhaps the main reason the sticker price of skiing, never cheap, has become exorbitant. With fewer competitors, Vail and Alterra have been free to jack up prices. In 2000, when Mount Snow (where I learned to ski) was owned by a smaller company, the cost of a day pass was about $93 in today’s dollars. Today, the Vail-owned resort charges approximately $150. The pricing at Park City is even steeper. Twenty-five years ago, you could get a three-day ticket for $308 in today’s dollars. Now you’re paying $850.As a result, skiers tend to buy either Vail’s Epic Pass or Alterra’s Ikon Pass, season tickets that, depending on category, afford varying levels of access to a selection of the companies’ resorts (and, particularly for Ikon, of affiliated ones). These passes offer a better deal than day tickets; in some circumstances, they give better value than the season passes of earlier eras. But they also represent an intricate form of price discrimination filled with disadvantages. Skiers must purchase them before the winter begins. Many of the passes come with restrictions. And, as a lump sum, they’re hardly cheap: The Epic “Northeast Value Pass,” for example, is about $600, and has blackout dates on Vail’s marquee northeastern-U.S. properties. Only the full Epic Pass, priced at roughly $1,000, is limit free.This new economic model means that visitors have fewer affordable ways to hit the slopes—especially if they ski only on an occasional basis. For instance, newbies may find themselves obliged to buy season passes just to spend a few days learning how to ski. The season-pass imperative also forces skiers of all levels to commit to one of two ecosystems, Epic or Ikon. This constrains people’s choice of where to ski, and makes planning trips with friends harder. What it does allow is conglomerates to keep people ensconced at company properties, buying overpriced food, lodging, and equipment.Naturally, this strategy has worked well for both Vail and Alterra. Vail’s revenues have increased by 50 percent since my brief spell with the company in 2017. Alterra, a smaller company, is privately held and does not disclose its financials. But Big Ski’s business model works well enough at Alterra’s scale that, last year, it purchased a new ski area in Colorado for more than $100 million.The system has not worked as well for staff, who remain underpaid. Vail set its minimum wage at $20 in March 2022, after facing staffing shortages and an earlier strike threat by ski patrollers. But that hourly figure is set against the extremely high cost of living in resort towns: In Park City, the median monthly rent is $3,500, which is about what a Vail minimum-wage employee makes working full-time. Meanwhile, Vail’s charity arm continues to brag about helping staff with “hardship relief.”This is what happens when companies don’t have to compete for labor. Thanks to industry agglomeration, ski-resort workers have only a small number of potential employers, making it harder to switch jobs if they don’t like the way a particular resort treats them. And supervisors can afford to be high-handed. During my tenure, for example, instructors would sometimes have shifts added to their schedule without permission; at other times, they would have shifts canceled after arriving at work—meaning that they’d driven to the mountain only to get sent home without pay.At the Park City resort, Vail owns a formidable collection of lodges and rental properties, but none of it was allocated to employees in my time. In 2022, the company began working with a separate development to help lease out discounted units for 441 of its staffers—but Vail has hundreds more employees at the resort, so those dormitories and apartments are nowhere near enough to make a very expensive town remotely affordable for most workers. In fact, according to a 2023 University of Utah study, only 12 percent of the community’s workforce live in Park City itself. This housing crisis is one of the main factors behind the strike. To help explain the picketing, Quinn Graves, one of the union’s officials, told New York magazine that most of her colleagues don’t live locally.Most of the visitors who fly in to ski at Park City probably do not think much about these issues. They are, after all, there for a vacation, not for field research on economic injustice. But this season, they’ve had plenty of opportunity to ponder that: Because most of the resort closed during the patrollers’ strike, visitors had to wait in freezing lines for hours for brief runs down the few slopes Vail managed to keep open with supervisors and patrollers drafted from other mountains. Many of these guests, sick of Park City’s high costs, came down on the side of the strikers. Online, angry customers blasted Vail for refusing to give staff a raise. One person filed a lawsuit against the company in which he bemoaned how ski-ticket prices have risen “exponentially” over the past 10 years. In person, guests chanted “Pay your employees” while waiting to get on lifts.On January 8, the company listened. It struck a deal to increase average pay for patrollers by $4 an hour and offer better leave policies. “This contract is more than just a win for our team,” Seth Dromgoole, the union’s lead negotiator, said in a statement. “It’s a groundbreaking success in the ski and mountain worker industry.” Other Park City employees, including instructors, have similarly cheered, hoping that the bump will eventually extend to them.The outcome may encourage other ski-resort workers to organize. The idea of unionizing was bandied about by ski-school workers when I was there, and labor-organization rates have spiked at ski areas. The rationale is compelling: To get a fair deal in the face of corporate consolidation, workers may have to consolidate themselves.For now, however, what’s on offer to skiers is governed by the unfortunate logic of mountains and monopolies. America has only so many ski areas, and as long as they’re controlled by a couple of conglomerates, the whole experience will continue to go downhill.This article originally misapplied a male pronoun to Quinn Graves. In fact, Graves is a woman who uses female pronouns.Support for this project was provided by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.About the AuthorDaniel BlockDaniel Block is a senior editor at Foreign Affairs.More StoriesHow a Strongman Made Himself Look WeakThe Democrats’ Senate Nightmare Is Only BeginningExplore More TopicsUtah

Deep joy: Wales embraces ‘hwyl’ in tourism campaign to rival Danish ‘hygge’

Travel

The Danish word hygge, which summons a feeling of cosy, fire-crackling contentedness, has done its fair share for tourism in Scandinavia as well as sparking a string of self-help guides.Now Visit Wales is aiming to draw tourists to its hills, valleys, coastlines and cities by harnessing the lovely Welsh word hwyl, which it defines as a “deep state of joy that comes from being totally immersed in the moment”, in its 2025 publicity drive.Visit Wales says hwyl can be found in places and scenarios that mean most to those taking part, whether it be exploring a forest, gazing at stars, surfing or attending a music festival.Pinning a PR campaign to a word can be troublesome. VisitScotland once used the Scottish Gaelic word còsagach to try to convey a feeling of snugness, but some speakers pointed out it meant “a wee nook or hole” such as a small creature might live in – not quite the vibe they were going for.Rhys Iorwerth, a poet and translator from Caernarfon, north Wales, told the Guardian Visit Wales’s initiative could be a winner because the word (pronounced something like “hoo-eel”, though it depends on a speaker’s accent or dialect) could fit so many scenarios.He said: “The beauty of the word is that it can mean various things. It’s commonly used as a noun to convey joy, fun or merriment. But it can also mean one’s frame of mind, disposition or spirit.“For instance, if you ask someone about their hwyliau – hwyliau is the plural of hwyl – you’re asking them in which mood they’re in. Or alternatively, hwyl can mean one’s journey, course or progress. It’s a wonderfully agile word.”Awel Vaughan-Evans, of the school of psychology at Bangor University in north Wales, said: “Hwyl comes to life in both relaxing and energetic environments. On one hand, hwyl can release dopamine, fire neurotransmitters and raise the heartbeat, creating a prolonged sense of euphoria. Alternatively, it can slow it right down with endorphins reducing stress, causing the entire body to relax. Essentially, hwyl is your own particular form of happiness.”Andrew Hawke, of the University of Wales Dictionary (Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru) said: “The history of ‘hwyl’ is rather difficult. The basic meaning of the word is ‘a sail’ and it is first recorded in a list of names of letters in the so-called Alphabet of Nemnius from the 9th century – although the meaning of the word in that example is not known.“It is evidently an old word, and has a cognate in Old Irish séol, which also originally meant ‘a sail’ and developed further meanings over time. It is not certain where these words came from, but they may well have been borrowed from one or more of the Germanic languages, which is where ‘sail’ in English also comes from.“It is of course nonsense to say that the word in untranslatable, but it does have a wide range of meanings. It is also used as an informal farewell, ‘Hwyl’, or ‘Hwyl fawr.’”Also on board the campaign is Maxine Hughes, a US-based Welsh broadcaster who has worked with Ryan Reynolds and Rob McElhenney on the show Welcome to Wrexham.She said: “We’ve got a deep appreciation for the outdoors and having fun here, whether it’s warm or wet, dry or cold. Our landscape and willingness to embrace the outdoors is part of the beauty of hwyl.”The hwyl campaign is being launched on Monday to coincide with Hen Galan, a new year celebration marked by residents of a wooded valley in south-west Wales, Cwm Gwaun. For this event, at least, the residents still work by the old Julian calendar.Delme Harries, a Pembrokeshire county councillor who represents the area, said: “Hwyl is a very positive, feelgood word.” He said the people of Cwm Gwaun would certainly “have hwyl” on their New Year’s Day.More cosy lifestyle wordsHyggeBeaten by “Brexit” as the word of 2016, the Danish word hygge is a cosy feeling of wellbeing. It led to a slew of books, such as The Little Book of Hygge by Meik Wiking of the Happiness Research Institute in Copenhagen.CòsagachVisitScotland came up with its version of hygge, but some experts felt it didn’t quite work, summoning up images of a mossy nook rather than a place a tourist would really like to stay.LagomInevitably, the success of hygge led to a search for other lifestyle words from Scandinavia. Lagom, a Swedish word meaning something like “everything in moderation”, or just enough, fitted the bill but did not have the longevity of hygge.IkigaiThe Japanese word ikigai also had a moment. It can be translated as “a reason for being” – something that gets you out of bed. Finding your ikigai is felt to be crucial to longevity.

Panic in Turkey as underrated country next door tries to steal its tourists

Travel

Cheaper journeys and a rise post-COVID travel have boosted visitor numbers around the world in recent years – but Turkey is one country that is struggling with falling rather than rising levels of tourism.And now the growing popularity of one of its eastern European neighbours is setting alarm bells ringing as it could steal yet more tourists away.As Turkey looks to bolster its economy in a bid to boost footfall, Georgia, which also borders Russia and Azerbaijan, is implementing similar schemes in a bid to grow its reputation as a tourist hotspot too.Georgia’s plans to accelerate growth through improved public transport infrastructure, cruise ports and international signage comes as economic trouble in Turkey sees its status as a Brit-favourite budget destination decline amid rising costs and an exodus of its own residents during peak seasons.Sarah Donaldson, senior travel claims analyst at Fast Cover Travel Insurance told Express.co.uk that “hyperinflation” was the main cause of the dip in tourist trade, suggesting that “even foreigners find it hard to justify the cost of accommodation and dining”.Turkey’s level of inflation peaked at 75% in May 2024 but had dropped to 44% by December, sparking hope that a drop in visitors last summer will prove to be a short-term trend.While many would-be holidaymakers and Turkish locals have shunned the country in favour of Greek islands amid the high costs, the increased prominence of immediate neighbour Georgia is likely to put its future as a budget-friendly spot in an even more precarious position.Georgia’s tourism industry has been its fastest-growing economic sector in the last quarter century, with completed schemes including modern disability-friendly bus systems, a huge five-terminal shipping port in the city of Batumi and inclusive access to major museums, green spaces and train stations.Tour guide Tariel Tabashidze, who lives in the capital of Tbilisi, says growth has been put on the backfoot by the country’s political turmoil and its embroilment by proximity in the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, but expects tourism to hit new peaks if and when peace is achieved in the region.”Georgia is becoming more popular now with people from around the world,” said Mr Tabashidze.”I’m taking people on tours who have got direct flights from India, and they are visiting too from Europe, the US, Australia and Switzerland. I’m not surprised – it’s a very interesting country.”He added: “The pro-EU protests have also put some people off – I had four or five clients cancel their trips because of them, but I hope things are slowly going back to normal.”The West Georgian native describes his home country as “one of the most beautiful in the world” and says the visitors he takes on tours are reliably impressed by the imposing landscapes, historic monuments and rich cultural background.Among the Transcaucasian country’s underrated attractions are the labyrinthine cobblestone streets of Tbilisi, the medieval villages and towns of the Upper Svaneti region and the beautiful Lake Rita in the Caucasus mountains.

Fears in Spain as Balearics warned tourists ‘will not come’ if prices continue to rise

Travel

There is rising prices as well as panic in the Balearic Islands as industry bosses worry that the much-loved holiday spot has become too expensive.As 2024 closed in the Balearic Islands with record tourist numbers – around 18.8 million and 2.2 million more compared to pre-pandemic levels – eyes now turn to the state of the tourism industry for 2025.The Mallorca Hoteliers Federation – one of the archipelago’s most staunch opponents of the current tourism model – believes this year will be much the same as 2024.However, there are major concerns about ever-increasing prices on the islands including Majorca, and what impact this will have on tourist numbers. In a recent interview, the CEO of Riu Hotels & Resorts, Luis Riu, warned that “Either we all lower prices or people will not come next year,” the Majorca Daily Bulletin reported.The president of the Aviba association of travel agencies, Pedro Fiol, also believes that, while the season will be “very good”, he is concerned about prices – particularly the use of sustainable air fuel in Spain. Airlines estimate this will cost them 234 million euros (£196.5 million), and as a result, the airline association is seeking a government subsidy. If this is not accepted, the use of the fuel will be reflected in the price of tickets. “It is clear that the price of tickets will become more expensive,” says Fiol. However, he does not think this will shrink demand. If anything, he anticipates an increase, noting that a record number of airline seats to Spain have been programmed for the low season up to the start of April.Fiol has shared concerns about how long there will be capacity to continue offering the type of prices now being charged for travel and accommodation.He believes that 2025 will be “the last year with this approach (of ever higher prices) to tourism supply”.Further complications may also arise from the new traveller registration systems for British tourists, including the ETA and ETIAS, or equally from higher tourist taxes, though the latter is yet to be confirmed. Tourists staying on the island overnight pay the tax, typically a few euros a night, when staying at accommodation on the island. The government of the Balearic Islands, which also include Menorca and party hub, Ibiza, has announced the tourist tax per visitor will be increased during peak summer months – potentially bringing in millions more euros in revenue.Currently, the rates stand at four euros (£3.36) for those staying in luxury hotels, three euros (£2.52) for mid-ramnge accommodation, two euros (£1.68) for cruise passengers and cheaper hotels and one euro (84p) for campers and hostel guests. Those under the age of 16 are exempt.