Norway exhibits one of the highest rates of colorectal cancer (CRC) in the world, and several dietary factors have been associated with the risk of CRC. With higher consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF), a better understanding of how food processing affects CRC might be a new approach for prevention. The current findings are contradictory, and new findings indicate that CRC risk factors might affect colorectal subsites differently. We wanted to study the association between intake of UPF and CRC risk in Norwegian women. In this prospective cohort analysis encompassing 77 100 women (1625 cases) from the Norwegian Women and Cancer study, dietary intakes were collected using validated semi-quantitative FFQ and categorised using the Nova classification system. Multivariable Cox proportional hazard models were used to assess the association between intake of UPF and CRC risk. The average follow-up time was 17·4 years. A high UPF intake (fourth quartile), compared with a low UPF intake (first quartile), was statistically significantly associated with increased total CRC risk after adjusting for all covariates and energy intake (hazard ratio (HR) = 1·24; 95 % CI 1·04, 1·49, Pfor trend = 0·02). Furthermore, a high UPF intake, compared with a low UPF intake, was statistically significantly associated with right-sided colon cancer (HR = 1·58; 95 % CI 1·19, 2·09, Pfor trend < 0·001). More research is needed to understand the associations between UPF, UPF subgroups and total CRC as well as cancer in colorectal subsites.

Many countries struggle to heal the wounds caused by past governmental discrimination against minorities, a process sometimes made difficult by continuing instances of injustice. One tool to improve majority-minority relations is Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs), which document historical injustices. We collect data before and after the release of the Norwegian TRC report on the treatment of the Sámi and other national minorities, which allows us to investigate its effects on reconciliatory attitudes. We further leverage the unrelated outbreak of demonstrations against current injustices, allowing us to examine responses to both past and current injustices. We find greater support for some aspects of reconciliation, but mainly in areas with a small presence of national minorities. Our results show the limits of TRCs when current conflicts shape the interpretation of historical injustice.

Though formal life sentences have been abolished in Norway, forvaring (post-conviction indefinite preventive detention) – a type of informal life sentence – can be imposed on individuals convicted of certain offenses who are considered to be at high risk of future offending. While great attention has been paid to Norway as an “exceptional” penal outlier globally, there is a notable lack of comprehensive knowledge about its indefinite penal sanction. Drawing on extensive historical research and legal and policy documentary analysis as well as leveraging a unique national dataset on the total forvaring population, this article provides the first international in-depth assessment of the evolution and implementation of Norway’s ultimate penalty. In so doing, it highlights significant disparities between policy ambitions and current practice and questions the extent to which the sanction of forvaring can be considered an “exceptional” approach to life imprisonment. It is argued that the development and growth of this type of informal life sentence can be seen as the epicenter of the impact of a more punitive ideology in Norway, emphasizing the need to move away from the concept of penal exceptionalism to better understand the full spectrum and practice of Norwegian and Nordic penality.

Due to the provisions of the Svalbard Treaty, Russia has kept a presence on this Norwegian archipelago – primarily based on coal mining – and has regularly made it clear that ensuring the continuation of this presence is a political goal. Since the late 2000s, Russia has attempted to revitalise its presence, stressing the need for economic efficiency and diversification away from coal. This includes tourism, fish processing and research activities. In recent years, Russia’s official rhetoric on Svalbard has sharpened, i.a. accusing Norway of breaching the treaty’s provisions on military use of the islands. The article contrasts the statements with the concrete actions undertaken by Russia to preserve and develop its presence. Russia’s policy of presence on Svalbard is not particularly well-coordinated or strategic – beyond an increasing openness to exploring new ways to sustain a sufficient presence. Financial limitations have constrained initiatives. The search for new activities and solutions is driven primarily by the need for cost-cutting and consolidating a limited presence deemed necessary for Russian security interest, not as strategies aimed at increasing Russian influence over the archipelago.

Internationally, the home is legally protected as a bastion of private life, where one may retreat to and recollect oneself after a day’s work and enjoy family life. With the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, working from home – facilitated by new collaborative information and communications technology (ICT) platforms and tools – became mandatory in several countries. For many, the workplace was brought into the home. This article examines how working from home on a mandatory basis during the pandemic affected employees’ perceptions and practices of privacy, and its implications for the legal understanding of privacy. With Norway as a case, it investigates the measures taken by employees and employers to safeguard privacy during this period. The data collection and method combine an interpretation of legal sources with qualitative interviews. The analysis shows experiences and practices that suggest a blurring of roles and physical spaces, and the adoption of boundary-setting measures to safeguard privacy.

Historically, the picking of cloudberries (Rubus chamaemorus) for sale and subsistence has been of fundamental importance to Sámi livelihoods. Even today cloudberries are commonly described as the “gold” among berries. Based on anthropological fieldwork, participant observation and in-depth interviews with berry pickers in the Várjjat municipality of Unjárga-Nesseby, Northern Norway, this article investigates how relationships of humans, animals, plants and berries take part in the making and remaking of home place landscapes. I emphasise Sámi landscape research and theorizations to elevate their productive contributions to the ongoing, international landscape debates, by engaging with landscapes as homes.

Affluent citizens commonly record higher election turnout than less affluent citizens. Yet, the causal effect of affluence on voter turnout remains poorly understood. In this article, we rely on Norwegian administrative data to estimate the impact of random, exogenous shocks in (unearned) income on individual-level voter turnout. Exploiting the random timing and size of lottery wins for identification, our main findings suggest that a lottery windfall in the years just before an election boosts individuals’ turnout probability by 1.6 to 1.9 percentage points. Crucially, these point estimates reflect only a small share of turnout differences observed across the income distribution. Hence, our findings strongly suggest that most of the commonly observed positive income-turnout associations do not reflect a causal relationship.

In the year 1900, Otani Kozui, along with three travel companions, ventured on a one-month Arctic cruise, visiting the Norwegian fjords, the North Cape, Spitsbergen (Svalbard) and Iceland. The turn of the 20th century was a formative time for early Arctic tourism, and the aura of exploration was still a part of the northern allure. While Otani and his friends were not the first Japanese to cross the Arctic Circle, they were seen among their contemporaries as holding the record for being the first Japanese to cross the 70th parallel, which became a badge of honour in the exclusive Arctic Circle Society that was established in Japan in the early 1930s. As one of Japan’s most important 20th-century explorers, Otani is well known for having collected and studied Buddhist treasures from across Central Asia and the Silk Road. This paper aims to establish the facts surrounding Otani’s Arctic cruise and the Arctic Circle Society, both of which have gone mostly unnoticed by contemporary scholars. The paper also discusses how Otani’s voyage – which contains elements of tourism, study and competition – should be perceived, both in the context of his legacy and the broader historical developments of the era.

Seven new species of Verrucaria are described from Finland: Verrucaria hakulinenii sp. nov., V. juumaensis sp. nov., V. linkolae sp. nov., V. lohjaensis sp. nov., V. norrlinii sp. nov., V. oulankajokiensis sp. nov., and V. vainioi sp. nov. Verrucaria linkolae is also reported from the Czech Republic, Germany and the United Kingdom, V. norrlinii from Norway and V. juumaensis from Canada based on a previously unidentified soil sample. Based on ITS sequences, V. hakulinenii and V. juumaensis probably belong to the Verrucaria hydrophila group whereas V. linkolae, V. norrlinii, V. oulankajokiensis and V. vainioi are closely related to V. hunsrueckensis and V. nodosa. The new species are characterized by a thin brown or green thallus, rather small perithecia and a predominantly thin involucrellum reaching the exciple base level. Verrucaria hakulinenii is characterized by a thin thalline cover of the perithecia, a green thallus and fairly large spores (18–22 × 8–10 μm). Verrucaria juumaensis, V. linkolae, V. norrlinii and V. vainioi are characterized by a predominantly brown thallus, often with goniocyst-like units. Verrucaria linkolae has densely occurring perithecia (100–330 perithecia per cm2) whereas in V. juumaensis, V. norrlinii and V. vainioi perithecia occur more sparsely (40–160 perithecia per cm2). Verrucaria juumaensis and V. vainioi usually have a minute thallus. Verrucaria juumaensis differs from V. vainioi by slightly larger perithecia (0.18–0.27 mm diam.) and longer and wider spores. Verrucaria lohjaensis is characterized by a mosaically dark brown and white, small areolate thallus and conspicuous ostioles. Verrucaria oulankajokiensis has small perithecia that are often thinly covered by thalline tissue and a thallus partly surrounded by dark lines. Most species occur on calcareous rocks, but V. vainioi is restricted to siliceous rocks. Verrucaria linkolae and V. norrlinii are widely distributed both on calcareous, serpentine and siliceous rocks, preferring pebbles. Epiphytic occurrences of V. linkolae and V. norrlinii are confirmed. A key to the new species and species with a similar morphology in Finland is provided.