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I accidentally emailed a stranger 10 years ago. He has been invited to family celebrations ever since | Emma Wilkins

The delight of ‘meeting’ a person from a different country and time zone is one of the wonders of the internet. Perhaps one day we will host a party in his honour One of the many people my husband’s clan and I invite to family celebrations isn’t related to us by blood or marriage. He isn’t dating one of us, he hasn’t met any of us, and none of us – were he to attend – would know his face. But from time to time he gets an invite to a birthday of someone he has never met and is asked to bring a plate. He has never come, but he always responds with excitement and warmth. He’s not technically “one of us”, but he shares a surname with some of us and over years earned himself the ultimate sign of group acceptance: a nickname. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/Sm3xKri
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Halting $400m White House ballroom project is national security risk, Trump officials say

US National Park Service lawyers cite materials that will be installed to make ‘heavily fortified’ facility Donald Trump’s administration is arguing that a judge’s order to halt construction of a $400m White House ballroom creates a security risk for the US president as his team asks a federal appeals court to pause the ruling. In a motion filed on Friday, US National Park Service (NPS) lawyers say that the federal judge’s order to suspend construction of the new facility is “threatening grave national-security harms to the White House, the president and his family, and the president’s staff”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/LYlUrdQ

Children as young as 12 buying and selling knives and weapons via the internet

Government must ‘come down very hard’ on online trade in knives and weapons, says policing and crime minister Sarah Jones Children are setting up online businesses selling knives in the same way they trade clothes, the policing and crime minister Sarah Jones has said. Jones heard how children as young as 12 were buying and selling the weapons on the internet and social media at the opening of the new National Knife Crime Centre in Bloomsbury, central London, on Thursday. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/WHQ2g0Z

Swedish PM offers deal that could see far-right allowed into government

Party, which has neo-Nazi roots, will hold ‘important ministerial posts within immigration’ if four-party coalition wins in September The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said that he will allow the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD) into government for the first time – and give its members key ministerial posts – if his coalition wins the next general election. Despite becoming Sweden’s second biggest political party after the Social Democrats in the last election, SD currently plays only a supporting role in the minority-run coalition. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/FQj4lPp

Tottenham Supporters’ Trust expresses ‘serious concerns’ over De Zerbi’s support for Greenwood

New Spurs head coach supported Greenwood at Marseille Greenwood had charges including attempted rape dropped in 2023 The Tottenham Hotspur Supporters’ Trust has strongly criticised the appointment of Roberto De Zerbi as the club’s head coach, expressing “serious and far-reaching concerns” over his past support for Mason Greenwood. In a statement released soon after De Zerbi signed a five-year contract on Tuesday, the Trust said his arrival placed a “heavy strain” on unity at a time when Spurs are battling against relegation from the Premier League. It also called on Spurs and the Italian to publicly reassert their “commitment to the values that fans hold dear – chief among them equality, respect, and integrity”. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/IgRQJ2n

Chip Taylor obituary

Songwriter and musician best known for the enduring hit Wild Thing, made famous by the Troggs and Jimi Hendrix In a career spanning seven decades, Chip Taylor, who has died aged 86 of cancer, wrote songs recorded by a huge array of artists from Willie Nelson, Linda Ronstadt and the Hollies to Janis Joplin, Frank Sinatra, Aretha Franklin and Emmylou Harris. Yet it was the primitive but irresistible Wild Thing , composed in a matter of minutes, that became his best-known calling card. He wrote it in 1965 when commissioned to write a song for Jordan Christopher and the Wild Ones, but their version was not a hit. However, when the Troggs recorded it the following year it topped the US chart and became a smash around the world. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/VeEMCRi