It started with a goat. Now – via a degree for developers and an incubator for startups – the tiny city is churning out world-famous video game hits. What is the secret of its success?

On 26 March 2014, a trailer for a video game appeared on YouTube. The first thing the viewer sees is a closeup of a goat lying on the ground, its tongue out, its eyes open. Behind it is a man on fire, running backwards in slow motion towards a house. Interspersed with these images is footage of the goat being repeatedly run over by a car. In the main shot, the goat, now appearing backwards as well, flies up into the first-floor window of a house, repairing the glass it smashed on its way down. It hurtles through another window and back to an exploding petrol station, where we assume its journey must have started.

This wordless, strangely moving video – a knowing parody of the trailer for a zombie survival game called Dead Island – was for a curious game called Goat Simulator. The game was, unsurprisingly, the first to ever put the player into the hooves of a goat, who must enact as much wanton destruction as possible. It was also the first massive hit to come out of a small city in Sweden by the name of Skövde.

A margarita dressed in a red vermouth coat with white tequila trimmings … ho ho ho

This smoky, deep-red cocktail takes its cue from our Latin roots, but with a seasonal twist. The mix of mezcal, tequila and vermouth is warming and vibrant, while pomegranate and rosemary lend a winter accent that makes it as fitting for a Christmas gathering as for a relaxing night in.

Maria Yanez and Carlos Socorro, Tiny Wine , London W1

It started with a goat. Now – via a degree for developers and an incubator for startups – the tiny city is churning out world-famous video game hits. What is the secret of its success?

On 26 March 2014, a trailer for a video game appeared on YouTube. The first thing the viewer sees is a closeup of a goat lying on the ground, its tongue out, its eyes open. Behind it is a man on fire, running backwards in slow motion towards a house. Interspersed with these images is footage of the goat being repeatedly run over by a car. In the main shot, the goat, now appearing backwards as well, flies up into the first-floor window of a house, repairing the glass it smashed on its way down. It hurtles through another window and back to an exploding petrol station, where we assume its journey must have started.

This wordless, strangely moving video – a knowing parody of the trailer for a zombie survival game called Dead Island – was for a curious game called Goat Simulator. The game was, unsurprisingly, the first to ever put the player into the hooves of a goat, who must enact as much wanton destruction as possible. It was also the first massive hit to come out of a small city in Sweden by the name of Skövde.

Artificial intelligence could make income inequality even worse and create a new underclass. Governments and society must take action

Nowadays there seems to be nonstop discussion about AI, with much of the conversation focused on whether there’s a speculative bubble or whether the chipmaker Nvidia is really worth $5tn or whether OpenAI will beat its rivals in developing new generations of artificial intelligence. But the vast majority of Americans – just like the vast majority of Europeans and Asians – couldn’t care less about those things.

Their big concern is whether AI is going to cause huge layoffs and create a disastrous job market, especially for younger workers. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, a leading AI company, fed those fears when he said that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years and increase unemployment in the US to 10% to 20%. In October, Bernie Sanders, the top Democrat on the Senate education and labor committee, issued a report saying AI and automation could replace up to 97m jobs in the US over the next decade.

Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues

This rich and moreish (and plant-based) yule log is a Lebanese Christmas favourite that harks back to the country’s French colonial past

I love a yule log, also known as a bûche de Noël . It’s a remnant from the time when Lebanon was a French colony, which lingers to the modern day, and is popular in Lebanese bakeries and patisseries over the Christmas period, often decorated with small figurines, plastic holly leaves and festive messages. Those decorations, and the trompe-l’oeil nature of this treat, enchanted me as a child, and I wanted to bring back some of that enchantment with this take on a woodland yule log.

This is an edited extract from Beyond Baking, by Philip Khoury, published by Quadrille at £30. To order a copy for £27, go to guardianbookshop.com

This rich and moreish (and plant-based) yule log is a Lebanese Christmas favourite that harks back to the country’s French colonial past

I love a yule log, also known as a bûche de Noël . It’s a remnant from the time when Lebanon was a French colony, which lingers to the modern day, and is popular in Lebanese bakeries and patisseries over the Christmas period, often decorated with small figurines, plastic holly leaves and festive messages. Those decorations, and the trompe-l’oeil nature of this treat, enchanted me as a child, and I wanted to bring back some of that enchantment with this take on a woodland yule log.

This is an edited extract from Beyond Baking, by Philip Khoury, published by Quadrille at £30. To order a copy for £27, go to guardianbookshop.com

Artificial intelligence could make income inequality even worse and create a new underclass. Governments and society must take action

Nowadays there seems to be nonstop discussion about AI, with much of the conversation focused on whether there’s a speculative bubble or whether the chipmaker Nvidia is really worth $5tn or whether OpenAI will beat its rivals in developing new generations of artificial intelligence. But the vast majority of Americans – just like the vast majority of Europeans and Asians – couldn’t care less about those things.

Their big concern is whether AI is going to cause huge layoffs and create a disastrous job market, especially for younger workers. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, a leading AI company, fed those fears when he said that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years and increase unemployment in the US to 10% to 20%. In October, Bernie Sanders, the top Democrat on the Senate education and labor committee, issued a report saying AI and automation could replace up to 97m jobs in the US over the next decade.

Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues

This rich and moreish (and plant-based) yule log is a Lebanese Christmas favourite that harks back to the country’s French colonial past

I love a yule log, also known as a bûche de Noël . It’s a remnant from the time when Lebanon was a French colony, which lingers to the modern day, and is popular in Lebanese bakeries and patisseries over the Christmas period, often decorated with small figurines, plastic holly leaves and festive messages. Those decorations, and the trompe-l’oeil nature of this treat, enchanted me as a child, and I wanted to bring back some of that enchantment with this take on a woodland yule log.

This is an edited extract from Beyond Baking, by Philip Khoury, published by Quadrille at £30. To order a copy for £27, go to guardianbookshop.com

Artificial intelligence could make income inequality even worse and create a new underclass. Governments and society must take action

Nowadays there seems to be nonstop discussion about AI, with much of the conversation focused on whether there’s a speculative bubble or whether the chipmaker Nvidia is really worth $5tn or whether OpenAI will beat its rivals in developing new generations of artificial intelligence. But the vast majority of Americans – just like the vast majority of Europeans and Asians – couldn’t care less about those things.

Their big concern is whether AI is going to cause huge layoffs and create a disastrous job market, especially for younger workers. Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic, a leading AI company, fed those fears when he said that AI could wipe out half of all entry-level white-collar jobs in the next one to five years and increase unemployment in the US to 10% to 20%. In October, Bernie Sanders, the top Democrat on the Senate education and labor committee, issued a report saying AI and automation could replace up to 97m jobs in the US over the next decade.

Steven Greenhouse is a journalist and author, focusing on labour and the workplace, as well as economic and legal issues