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Starmer asks regulators to focus on growthJimmy Carter, the nation's 39th president who served one volatile term from 1977-81, died at his home in Plains, Georgia, Sunday at 100 after a yearslong battle with cancer during which he demonstrated the same personal strength that he displayed as president. “My father was a hero, not only to me but to everyone who believes in peace, human rights, and unselfish love,” said Chip Carter, the former president’s son, in a statement released by The Carter Center. “My brothers, sister, and I shared him with the rest of the world through these common beliefs. The world is our family because of the way he brought people together, and we thank you for honoring his memory by continuing to live these shared beliefs.” Carter, who lived longer than any U.S. president, had been receiving hospice care, without medical intervention, since February 2023 so he could be with his family after what the Carter Center described as a series of short hospital stays for undisclosed ailments. He is survived by his four children, 11 grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren. His wife, Rosalynn, had been diagnosed with dementia in May 2023 and died Nov. 19 at age 96. "Today, America and the world lost an extraordinary leader, statesman and humanitarian," President Joe Biden said in a statement. "Over six decades, we had the honor of calling Jimmy Carter a dear friend. But, what’s extraordinary about Jimmy Carter, though, is that millions of people throughout America and the world who never met him thought of him as a dear friend as well." Biden was the first sitting senator to endorse Carter for president in 1976, insisting the moderate Southern Democrat was best positioned to defeat incumbent Gerald Ford. Carter would live to see Biden himself elected to the presidency, although he was too ill to attend Biden’s 2021 inauguration. He would famously go on to fulfill his pledge to vote for Biden’s Democratic vice president, Kamala Harris, in October. "To all of the young people in this nation and for anyone in search of what it means to live a life of purpose and meaning – the good life – study Jimmy Carter, a man of principle, faith, and humility," Biden added in his statement. "He showed that we are great nation because we are a good people – decent and honorable, courageous and compassionate, humble and strong." Carter's 43-year post-presidency was the longest in American history. And while his four years in the White House were defined by national and international problems that he was unable to solve, he used his time out of office to work on many charitable projects, fight disease, monitor elections abroad and undertake peace missions that earned him the Nobel Peace Prize in 2002. While Carter had what many considered a disappointing presidency, he earned back the respect and affection of people the world over for his work as a humanitarian, human rights advocate and hands-on builder of homes for the needy. The man voters eagerly discarded after one term went on to be considered America’s best former president. Carter once told reporters that, while the presidency was his most important political experience, his work with the Carter Center in Atlanta, an organization named after him and devoted to research and humanitarian activism, was more "personally gratifying." Through the center, Carter said, he could directly help poor people around the world. His post-presidency was impressive in other ways, as Carter demonstrated a deeply felt commitment to his Christian faith and his community. Even though other former presidents cashed in on their time in office with paid speeches and stints on corporate boards – and many never returned to their pre-presidential communities – Carter was different. He made money from his many books, but he wasn't overly materialistic. He brought attention to a now-well-known project called Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for poor people. The former president and his wife famously participated personally in many building projects. Born James Earl Carter Jr. – and known all his life as Jimmy – the former president came from modest beginnings. He hailed from Plains (population about 600) where his father, James Earl Carter, was a successful farmer and small businessman who for a while ran a grocery store. His mother, the former Bessie Lillian Gordy, was a nurse. Four years after Carter was born, the family moved for a while to nearby Archery, Georgia, even smaller than Plains. Jimmy had three siblings, Gloria, Ruth and Billy, and their father required hard work from all of them around the farm and in his other enterprises. Carter was studious as a boy, also very patriotic and family-oriented. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in June 1946 and married Rosalynn, his sweetheart from home, the following month. He was assigned to the U.S. submarine fleet, serving aboard the USS Pomfret as an electronics officer among other assignments. It was during his Navy career that Carter, training for a role as engineer on a nuclear submarine, was involved with mitigating an incident at a nuclear reactor in Canada. The government of Canada describes the 1952 incident at Chalk River Laboratories in Ontario as “the world’s first nuclear reactor accident,” saying the facility experienced “mechanical problems and operator error that led to overheating fuel rods and significant damage.” Carter was widely credited with helping prevent an accident from spiraling into a disaster. After his father died in 1953, Carter gave up his promising career in the Navy and returned to Plains to help run the family businesses, especially the peanut farm. He won two terms in the state Senate and was elected governor of Georgia as a moderate Democrat in 1970. Serving one term, he audaciously decided to run for president in the 1976 election, casting himself as a maverick, a truth-teller and a Washington outsider. He surprised the political pros by winning the Democratic nomination and narrowly defeating Republican incumbent Ford in the popular vote 50.1% to 48% and 297-240 in the Electoral College. But Carter will always be known for his post-presidency. Mark Peterson | Corbis | Getty Images Former President Carter volunteers at a Habitat for Humanity construction site in 1992. After the White House, he went back to Plains. He wrote his books there, and for years he and Rosalynn made a habit of pedaling their bicycles around the town for recreation. He seemed to know all the local merchants and helped his community by volunteering on community projects and in other ways. He worshiped and taught Sunday school at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, sometimes mowed the lawn there and tidied up after services. There was much for him to forgive in the treatment he received from his critics while he was president, but he tried to move beyond all that. Once an outsider who never fit in with the Washington political arena he struggled to navigate as president, Carter later became the subject of admiration and affection by some of the most prominent figures in American politics. Words of tribute and support came from both sides of the political aisle when the Carter family announced Feb. 18, 2023, that the former president would enter home hospice care for his final challenge – facing a cancer that had spread from his liver to his brain and that he knew amounted to a death sentence. Georgia politicians, from Republican Gov. Brian Kemp to Democratic Sen. Rafael Warnock, issued statements of support. Former President Bill Clinton, a Democrat, tweeted on President’s Day 2023 that he was thinking of Carter – almost 50 years after he first declared his candidacy for the nation’s highest office in December 1974. In a statement after Carter's death, former President Barack Obama and first Lady Michelle Obama lauded him for "the longest, and most impactful, post-presidency in American history." "Elected in the shadow of Watergate, Jimmy Carter promised voters that he would always tell the truth. And he did – advocating for the public good, consequences be damned. He believed some things were more important than reelection – things like integrity, respect, and compassion. Because Jimmy Carter believed, as deeply as he believed anything, that we are all created in God’s image," they said in a statement. Carter elevated his national profile back then with a promise not to lie and a pledge to bring integrity and a common touch to the White House after the imperial reign of Richard Nixon, who resigned amid the Watergate scandal. Ford, as vice president, succeeded Nixon in office but didn't fully connect with the American people despite his personal decency and many years as a distinguished member of the House of Representatives from Michigan. Once in office, Carter did his best to limit the trappings of the imperial presidency. He ordered his staff not to have a band play the martial anthem "Hail to the Chief" when he entered a room. He wore cardigans to show his casual approach and to make the point that he had lowered the thermostats in the White House to save energy. For a while, he carried his own hand luggage aboard Air Force One when traveling. He held town meetings to stay in touch with everyday people. He advocated energy conservation and less reliance on foreign oil. And Americans liked their new president – initially. But as the nation's problems intensified, the public turned on him. The economy got worse. Inflation rose. So did unemployment. Gasoline shortages resulted in huge lines at filling stations across the country and unsettled millions. The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan, a signal to many that Carter wasn't perceived as a strong leader internationally and could be defied by America's adversaries. In response, Carter announced a boycott of the Olympic Summer Games in Moscow in 1980, a protest that saw support from a significant number of American allies. READ: Carter concluded that Americans were suffering from an epic loss of confidence. At one point in 1979, he canceled a major energy speech and secluded himself at Camp David, the presidential retreat in Maryland's Catoctin Mountains. For eight days, he met privately with advisers there and contemplated what to do next. The result was what critics called "the malaise speech." He didn't actually use the word "malaise" but argued that the country was suffering from a profound "crisis of confidence" that damaged the nation's "heart and soul." His critics said Carter was really blaming the country for his own flawed leadership. When he fired half his Cabinet a few days later, he seemed hopelessly adrift. He never recovered politically. "Carter's eventual difficulties with a heavily Democratic Congress sprang as much from his personality and cultural divides within the Democratic Party, as from ideological differences between Carter and his fellow partisans," wrote political scientist Alvin Felzenberg in "The Leaders We Deserved." "Proud that he had won the presidency, without having had to court party power brokers or representatives of special interests, Carter took office believing he owed nothing to the political establishment that he had defeated on the way to the nomination." And his administration scored some successes, at least in retrospect. During 1978, his second year in office, he won Senate approval for transferring control of the Panama Canal to Panama. And he negotiated the Camp David Accords, a major peace agreement between Israel and Egypt. Carter argued in favor of energy conservation, a stance that was not very popular at the time but that resonates much better today. And he made human rights a cornerstone of American foreign policy – a goal that remains widely admired, even though his critics said he was naive and impractical at the time. In one of the worst setbacks to his presidency, Islamic extremists seized the U.S. Embassy in Tehran and held 53 Americans hostage for more than a year. Carter seemed powerless to get them released. When he ordered a rescue mission that failed miserably, his popularity declined even further. In 1980, he suffered a shattering defeat in his bid for reelection, losing to Republican challenger Ronald Reagan by an overwhelming margin and winning just six states and the District of Columbia. He was hurt and embarrassed by this repudiation, and it took him a long time to put the memory behind him. He was particularly proud of having avoided a war during his presidency. And he took comfort in having led the diplomacy that resulted in the freeing of the Iranian hostages, although it happened by design on the very day that Reagan was sworn in as president in January 1981 – too late for Carter to get credit for it. Reagan supporters said the hostages were freed because the Iranian leaders were afraid of what Reagan would do if the crisis persisted. In the decades after his presidency, Carter made a point of tracking political prisoners and working behind the scenes to help secure their release. In 2010 at the age of 85, he traveled to North Korea to secure the release of Aijalon Gomes, who was imprisoned for entering into North Korea from China for what is believed to have been missionary purposes. In a sign of the enduring esteem in which Carter was held, North Korea said it would release Gomes if the former president traveled personally to retrieve him. The final truth about Jimmy Carter was that he concluded, as did so many others, that his real legacy was not being a good politician or a good president but being a good man. There will be public observances in honor of the former president in Atlanta and Washington, according to the Carter Center, followed by a private interment in Plains. The final arrangements for his state funeral are still pending. Former U.S. News political writers Susan Milligan and Kenneth T. Walsh contributed to this report.3 yen to peso 。

NEW YORK (AP) — Same iconic statue, very different race. With two-way star Travis Hunter of Colorado and Boise State running back Ashton Jeanty leading the field, these certainly aren't your typical Heisman Trophy contenders. Sure, veteran quarterbacks Dillon Gabriel from top-ranked Oregon and Cam Ward of No. 15 Miami are finalists for college football's most prestigious award as well, but the 90th annual ceremony coming up Saturday night at Lincoln Center in New York City offers a fresh flavor this year. To start with, none of the four are from the powerhouse Southeastern Conference, which has produced four of the past five Heisman winners — two each from Alabama and LSU. Jeanty, who played his home games for a Group of Five team on that peculiar blue turf in Idaho more than 2,100 miles from Manhattan, is the first running back even invited to the Heisman party since 2017. After leading the country with 2,497 yards rushing and 29 touchdowns, he joined quarterback Kellen Moore (2010) as the only Boise State players to be named a finalist. “The running back position has been overlooked for a while now," said Jeanty, who plans to enter the 2025 NFL draft. "There's been a lot of great running backs before me that should have been here in New York, so to kind of carry on the legacy of the running back position I think is great. ... I feel as if I'm representing the whole position.” With the votes already in, all four finalists spent Friday conducting interviews and sightseeing in the Big Apple. They were given custom, commemorative watches to mark their achievement. “I'm not a watch guy, but I like it,” said Hunter, flashing a smile. The players also took photos beneath the massive billboards in Times Square and later posed with the famous Heisman Trophy, handed out since 1935 to the nation's most outstanding performer. Hunter, the heavy favorite, made sure not to touch it yet. A dominant player on both offense and defense who rarely comes off the field, the wide receiver/cornerback is a throwback to generations gone by and the first full-time, true two-way star in decades. On offense, he had 92 catches for 1,152 yards and 14 touchdowns this season to help the 20th-ranked Buffaloes (9-3) earn their first bowl bid in four years. On defense, he made four interceptions, broke up 11 passes and forced a critical fumble that secured an overtime victory against Baylor. Hunter played 688 defensive snaps and 672 more on offense — the only Power Four conference player with 30-plus snaps on both sides of the ball, according to Colorado research. Call him college football’s answer to baseball unicorn Shohei Ohtani. “I think I laid the ground for more people to come in and go two ways,” Hunter said. “It starts with your mindset. If you believe you can do it, then you'll be able to do it. And also, I do a lot of treatment. I keep up with my body. I get a lot of recovery.” Hunter is Colorado's first Heisman finalist in 30 years. The junior from Suwanee, Georgia, followed flashy coach Deion Sanders from Jackson State, an HBCU that plays in the lower level FCS, to the Rocky Mountains and has already racked up a staggering combination of accolades this week, including The Associated Press player of the year. Hunter also won the Walter Camp Award as national player of the year, along with the Chuck Bednarik Award as the top defensive player and the Biletnikoff Award for best wide receiver. “It just goes to show that I did what I had to do,” Hunter said. Next, he'd like to polish off his impressive hardware collection by becoming the second Heisman Trophy recipient in Buffaloes history, after late running back Rashaan Salaam in 1994. “I worked so hard for this moment, so securing the Heisman definitely would set my legacy in college football,” Hunter said. “Being here now is like a dream come true.” Jeanty carried No. 8 Boise State (12-1) to a Mountain West Conference championship that landed the Broncos the third seed in this year's College Football Playoff. They have a first-round bye before facing the SMU-Penn State winner in the Fiesta Bowl quarterfinal on New Year’s Eve. The 5-foot-9, 215-pound junior from Jacksonville, Florida, won the Maxwell Award as college football’s top player and the Doak Walker Award for best running back. Jeanty has five touchdown runs of at least 70 yards and has rushed for the fourth-most yards in a season in FBS history — topping the total of 115 teams this year. He needs 132 yards to break the FBS record set by Heisman Trophy winner Barry Sanders at Oklahoma State in 1988. In a pass-happy era, however, Jeanty is trying to become the first running back to win the Heisman Trophy since Derrick Henry for Alabama nine years ago. In fact, quarterbacks have snagged the prize all but four times this century. Gabriel, an Oklahoma transfer, led Oregon (13-0) to a Big Ten title in its first season in the league and the No. 1 seed in the College Football Playoff. The steady senior from Hawaii passed for 3,558 yards and 28 touchdowns with six interceptions. His 73.2% completion rate ranks second in the nation, and he's attempting to join quarterback Marcus Mariota (2014) as Ducks players to win the Heisman Trophy. “I think all the memories start to roll back in your mind,” Gabriel said. Ward threw for 4,123 yards and led the nation with a school-record 36 touchdown passes for the high-scoring Hurricanes (10-2) after transferring from Washington State. The senior from West Columbia, Texas, won the Davey O’Brien National Quarterback of the Year award and is looking to join QBs Vinny Testaverde (1986) and Gino Torretta (1992) as Miami players to go home with the Heisman. “I just think there's a recklessness that you have to play with at the quarterback position,” Ward said. Get poll alerts and updates on the AP Top 25 throughout the season. Sign up here . AP college football: https://apnews.com/hub/ap-top-25-college-football-poll and https://apnews.com/hub/college-football Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission. Get local news delivered to your inbox!

Georgia has a chance to post its best start to a season in 94 years ahead of its home meeting with South Carolina State in Athens, Ga., on Sunday. Georgia (11-1) hasn't appeared in the NCAA Tournament in 10 seasons and hasn't won a tournament game since 2002, but the Bulldogs seem primed to make a return. The Bulldogs have won six straight games and a seventh would mark their best start since beginning 13-0 in the 1930-31 campaign. Georgia hasn't played since a Dec. 22 home win over Charleston Southern. Head coach Mike White knows the intensity of the schedule will soon increase as Southeastern Conference play revs up, but that's not to say his team will overlook its next opponent. "We've had a much-needed break, both mentally and physically," White said. "Our guys need to get away from it a little bit, miss it, then come back rejuvenated for one more tune up for the grind of the SEC -- the best league in the country. But we'll be prepared for South Carolina State. They're dangerous, they play really hard, they've been really competitive. They're another good team." Adding to Georgia's success has been the play of De'Shayne Montgomery. After being academically ineligible for the first 10 games of the season, the Mount St. Mary's transfer has averaged 19 points per game in two contests. Asa Newell follows with 15.8 points in 12 games, while fellow Mount St. Mary's transfer Dakota Leffew chips in 12.9. South Carolina State (6-8) will play its fourth road game of a six-game stretch away from home. The other Bulldogs prepare for their final regular season meeting with a power conference team following losses at South Carolina Upstate and Xavier. South Carolina State faces Morgan State on Jan. 4 to start Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference play. Led by third-year head coach Erik Martin, the team boasts a rare roster figure in today's college basketball landscape. "We brought back 90 percent of our returnable student athletes this year," Martin said. "I can pretty much guarantee I'm the only person in America that did that." Sophomore Drayton Jones leads the team with 13 points per game, followed by Omar Croskey's 9.4. Georgia is 2-0 all-time against South Carolina State, last earning a 76-60 win in Nov. 2021. --Field Level MediaThere wasn’t any one moment this season when Rome Odunze felt like he’d built enough chemistry with his quarterback, fellow Bears rookie Caleb Williams. There may never be, at any point in their careers. “You gotta go out there and prove it on the field,” the receiver said this week. “We have to continue to do that ... Kind of like Davante Adams and Aaron Rodgers, they have to go out and prove that every single Sunday, too. And they continue to do so. “Even though we’re at the inception of our duo, you still have to prove it.” The Bears envisioned Williams and Odunze would become one of the best young quarterback-receiver pairings in the NFL — though maybe not to the extent of the former Packers-turned-Jets —when they drafted the former first and the latter ninth in April. The two have shown flashes of that this season — Odunze caught a 50-50 ball for 30 yards on fourth-and-1 Sunday — but not often enough to avoid a nine-game losing streak. Odunze fumbled twice in the first quarter of Sunday’s 34-17 loss to the Lions, once on a fly sweep handoff from Williams, another after a 19-yard catch. Perhaps that’s why Odunze, who is rarely short on words, gave a stilted answer when asked how he evaluated his rookie season. “I couldn’t tell you,” he said. “We still got games to go. I can’t really encapsulate it yet.” Through 15 games, Odunze’s performance has fallen just shy of Marvin Harrison, Jr., the Ohio State receiver that so many Bears fans pined for and who was picked fourth by the Cardinals. In 15 games, Harrison Jr. has 51 catches on 100 targets for 726 yards. Odunze has 51 catches on 95 passes for 701. Harrison has seven touchdowns to Odunze’s three, though. Harrison is fourth in receiving yards among rookie receivers, Odunze fifth. The Jaguars’ Brian Thomas has a league-high 1,088 rookie receiving yards. Neither Harrison nor Thomas has had to break in a rookie quarterback the way Odunze has. The good news is that he and Williams can grow together. The bad news has been self-evident this season, as the Bears’ offense has struggled to find consistency on and off the field. Williams is on his third different offensive coordinator and second different play-caller. “I think Rome has been consistent from Day 1,” interim head coach Thomas Brown said. “The ball hasn’t always found him throughout the year as far as his role in kind of how it plays out from a progression standpoint. “But when he’s had an opportunity to make plays, the guy constantly shows up.” Williams has seen that, even though Odunze ranks third on the team in catches and targets and second in receiving yards. “Being able to have him here and grow with him and our relationship over the years is going to be vital, I think, for the team,” Williams said. “So I’ve been able to be able to continue that and continue to grow that. [It] t is going to be really fun — and really vital.” NOTE: The Bears held a walk-through Tuesday and estimated their player’s participation for a real practice. Guard Teven Jenkins (calf). safety Elijah Hicks (ankle/foot), running back Travis Homer (hamstring) and tight end Marcedes Lewis (rest) were among the players who would have sat out.

Reducing the carbon footprint of major exports has become more doable as other nations introduce emission charges at their borders, the head of Australia's carbon leakage review says. Login or signup to continue reading "Carbon leakage" is not a very helpful term because it makes people think it's about something leaking from a pipeline," professor of environmental and climate change economics Frank Jotzo told AAP. "Really it's about carbon competitiveness - that's a better label for it, but that's not the nerdy, technical label it has," Professor Jotzo said. His review focused on the risk of the displacement of jobs and emissions offshore and the feasibility of an Australian carbon border adjustment mechanism. The 2024 review examined ways to sustain Australia's heavy industries in the long term, and make sure local production is not disadvantaged compared to imports from other countries where there is not an equivalent climate policy. Prof Jotzo said a "carbon border adjustment mechanism for a few select commodities and in a measured way" had been identified in the final report as the durable solution, and as a useful way to complement the safeguard mechanism. For almost a decade, Australia has relied on the so-called safeguard mechanism - under Labor and coalition governments - to encourage leading industries to stop increasing emissions and invest in decarbonisation. The review found subsidies for decarbonisation investment also had a role but were not a systematic solution to carbon leakage, and relied on public finance that might not always be available, Prof Jotzo said. Britain and the European Union are introducing levies on carbon-intensive products, which sparked fresh discussions - and support from some industry groups - for Australia to have a version of what is known as a carbon border adjustment mechanism or CBAM. Europe's CBAM may be irrelevant for Australia's major exporters but the main effect was to make it possible for other countries to consider a similar mechanism, according to Prof Jotzo. Climate Change Minister Chris Bowen commissioned the Jotzo review to assess and counter the risk of carbon leakage for Australian industries that produce a lot of heat - and therefore greenhouse gas emissions - during production. The existence of carbon leakage, even if at moderate levels, has important implications for economic, industrial and trade policy design, the OECD has warned . But calculations by the global economic body also suggested carbon leakage through international trade was offsetting "modest" domestic emission reductions by aluminium, cement and steel plants. "The main commodities in the spotlight are the heavy industrial commodities where the carbon emissions are high compared to the volume of the product - cement and pre-products like clinker and lime, steel, and ammonia," Prof Jotzo said. "Australia imports these things and we make them ourselves and they are part of the safeguard mechanism in terms of reducing the baseline emissions rates for their production in Australia." Most countries that Australia imports from do not have similar obligations, so that introduces an imbalance that needs to be deal with in some way, he said. There are special provisions in place under the safeguard mechanism for the more trade-exposed heavy industries, which means their facilities are required to reduce baseline emissions less than plants. "But that's complicated and not necessarily the solution you want for the long term," Prof Jotzo said. "It's constantly contested and creates the ongoing need to check whether the bandaid is still the proper size." Labor is expected to stall on adopting the recommendations. Nor has the coalition declared a position, with the latest opinion poll deadlocked heading into the 2025 election. Australian Associated Press DAILY Today's top stories curated by our news team. Also includes evening update. WEEKDAYS Grab a quick bite of today's latest news from around the region and the nation. WEEKLY The latest news, results & expert analysis. WEEKDAYS Catch up on the news of the day and unwind with great reading for your evening. WEEKLY Get the editor's insights: what's happening & why it matters. WEEKLY Love footy? We've got all the action covered. WEEKLY Every Saturday and Tuesday, explore destinations deals, tips & travel writing to transport you around the globe. WEEKLY Get the latest property and development news here. WEEKLY Going out or staying in? Find out what's on. WEEKDAYS Sharp. 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Trump’s social media company is exploring a crypto payment service called TruthFiAll mobile owners at risk of huge FINE that could ruin 2025 over ‘utterly ridiculous’ ruleAs another frigid winter approaches, people like Ed Kranz are embracing the cold — and working up quite a sweat. Kranz and his wife, Colleen, are among those who believe the best way to endure winter is to heat up in saunas and then cool off in icy weather. On a bone-chilling Sunday morning, they set up a mobile wood-fired sauna from their business, Saunable, near a frozen lake in the Minneapolis suburb of Eagan. After about 10 minutes of sweating in the 185-degree sauna, they moseyed outside into the 15-degree temperatures, lingering around a fire in bathing suits before repeating the process three or four more times. One brave soul dipped into a hole in the frozen lake for a post-sauna cold plunge. Their hot-and-cold venture is common in Minnesota, where plenty of residents embrace sauna culture for warmth and community. Devotees say they are mingling Old World traditions with newfangled internet-based communities and making social connections in a society that can feel isolating. Sauna and cold plunges go together like peanut butter and jelly, said Glenn Auerbach, a self-described sauna evangelist and the founder and editor of SaunaTimes. Auerbach started the website in 2008 to share his thoughts, research and conversations with movers and shakers in the sauna world. He and his interlocutors mull over the nitty-gritty of sauna construction, how to cultivate “good sauna vibes” and the potential health benefits of the sauna lifestyle. A typical temperature to achieve the holy trinity of the sauna experience — heat, steam and ventilation — is about 180 to 200 degrees, a temperature that starkly contrasts the frigid winter weather in places like Minnesota. The craftiest in the sauna community can build a facility for about $10,000, according to Auerbach. Those looking to skip the physical labor can outsource the construction. Saunas’ popularity, which enthusiasts say spiked following the COVID-19 pandemic, has brought with it a rise in manufacturers selling saunas for about $30,000 to $40,000. While saunas’ cultural cachet may have increased in recent years, they long predate the Instagrammable spaces now popping up, Auerbach said. The smell of cedar wood has been lodged in Justin Juntunen’s memory ever since he first stepped into his family’s sauna as a child. Juntunen, the founder of Cedar and Stone Nordic Sauna, is a descendant of Finnish immigrants who came to America in the 1880s. They brought with them an appreciation for saunas and the communal values the steam-filled rooms impart to local life. People in Finland say there are more saunas than cars, Juntunen said. When immigrants like his grandfather came to Minnesota to work in the mines, mills or docks, they would often save up to build a farmhouse. But they would build a sauna first, living in the space while the house was constructed. Later, saunas would serve as informal town centers. People gossiped in saunas, they gave birth in saunas, and they died in saunas, Juntunen said. The public nature of the facilities reflects the egalitarian ethos that infuses Nordic culture, and sauna culture by extension, he added. “This is a tradition that’s actually for everyone,” Juntunen said. “My favorite Nordic proverb is ‘All people are created equal, but nowhere more so than in the sauna.’” In addition to a desire for in-person experiences following the COVID-19 pandemic, enthusiasts say interest in saunas rose after some of the internet’s most famous figures, such as podcasters Joe Rogan and Andrew Huberman, touted them. “Every big podcaster in the world discovered that you could jump in cold water and it feels kind of good. And then people click on it online,” Juntunen said. In this way, technology has been a paradox for sauna culture, he added. Digital media helped sauna culture grow at the same time that saunas were billed as reprieves from the pervasive reach of technology over every facet of daily life. Either way, almost all of sauna culture’s adherents say its rise is inextricably linked to a desire for community. Those who committed to building their own saunas have hosted friends, neighbors and former high school hockey teammates. This has created a new form of post-COVID-19 contagiousness: “Good heat is contagious,” Auerbach said. This core function of sauna culture spans generations. Juntunen’s grandfather would rush to the sauna after work because it was the space where stories were told. “It’s a space where storytelling happens, where connection happens or silence happens,” Juntunen said. “I think that is a really beautiful example of what a sauna truly is.” Get local news delivered to your inbox!