Category Archives: Norway

Norway (population: 5.7m) beats US (342m) to top Winter Olympics medal table

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  • Country wins most golds (18) in Winter Games history

  • USA, GB and Australia also set team records

  • Norwegians put emphasis on participation

Norway has once again topped the Winter Olympics medal table, surpassing countries with far larger populations.

The Scandinavian country won more gold medals (18) and more total medals (41) than the US, who came second in both categories (12 golds and 33 total medals). Norway’s 18 golds were the most by a country in Winter Olympics history, while their cross-country skiing hero Johannes Høsflot Klæbo accounted for six golds on his own, more than the all but seven other countries at this year’s Games.

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Danish authorities in rush to close security loophole in Chinese electric buses

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Investigation launched after discovery that Chinese supplier had remote access to vehicles’ control systems

Authorities in Denmark are urgently studying how to close an apparent security loophole in hundreds of Chinese-made electric buses that enables them to be remotely deactivated.

The investigation comes after transport authorities in Norway, where the Yutong buses are also in service, found that the Chinese supplier had remote access for software updates and diagnostics to the vehicles’ control systems – which could be exploited to affect buses while in transit.

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Turkey likely to be excluded from Gaza stabilisation force after Israeli objection

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Doubts over whether Ankara will be part of 5,000-strong force to be deployed to prevent postwar power vacuum

Turkey will probably be excluded from the 5,000-strong stabilisation force that is to be set up inside Gaza after Israel made clear it did not want Turkish troops taking part.

Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, said it was a requirement that Israel is comfortable with the nationality of the multinational force, set up to prevent a security vacuum when the massive task of reconstruction in Gaza starts. Turkey has said it is willing to offer troops, but Israel has let it be known that it disapproves of Turkish troops taking part in the force.

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Church of Norway says sorry to LGBTQ+ people for ‘shame, great harm and pain’

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Presiding bishop Olav Fykse Tveit says discrimination and harassment should ‘never have happened’

Against a backdrop of red stage curtains at one of Oslo’s most prominent LGBTQ+ spaces, the Church of Norway apologised for the discrimination and harm it had inflicted.

“The church in Norway has caused LGBTQ+ people shame, great harm and pain,” the presiding bishop, Olav Fykse Tveit, said on Thursday. “This should never have happened and that is why I apologise today.”

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Nobel peace prize officials investigate surge in bets for winner

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Bets for Maria Corina Machado spiked on Polymarket gambling site hours before she was awarded prize

Norwegian officials who oversee the Nobel peace prize are investigating suspicious online betting for this year’s winner that suggests a rare leak from the secretive committee that hands out the prize.

Online bets for the Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado spiked on the Polymarket gambling site shortly after midnight on Thursday, Norwegian time, according to the information on its website.

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Venezuelan politician María Corina Machado wins Nobel peace prize

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Opponent of Maduro regime receives award and praise for keeping ‘flame of democracy burning’

The Venezuelan opposition politician María Corina Machado has won the Nobel peace prize for her dogged struggle to rescue the South American country from its fate as “a brutal, authoritarian state”.

Machado, 58, a conservative often described as Venezuela’s Iron Lady, has spent the last year living in hiding after her political movement was widely believed to have beaten the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, in the July 2024 presidential election.

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Norway braces for Trump’s reaction if he does not win Nobel peace prize

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US president may impose tariffs, demand higher Nato contributions or even declare Norway an enemy, analyst says

With hours to go until the announcement of this year’s Nobel peace prize, Norwegian politicians were steeling themselves for potential repercussions to US-Norway relations if it is not awarded to Donald Trump.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee pointedly said on Thursday that it had reached a decision about who would be named 2025 peace prize laureate on Monday, several days before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire under the US president’s Gaza plan.

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Norway braces for Trump’s reaction if he does not win Nobel peace prize

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US president may impose tariffs, demand higher Nato contributions or even declare Norway an enemy, analyst says

With hours to go until the announcement of this year’s Nobel peace prize, Norwegian politicians were steeling themselves for potential repercussions to US-Norway relations if it is not awarded to Donald Trump.

The Norwegian Nobel Committee pointedly said on Thursday that it had reached a decision about who would be named 2025 peace prize laureate on Monday, several days before Israel and Hamas agreed to a ceasefire under the US president’s Gaza plan.

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Danish PM: airport drone incursion a ‘serious attack’ on critical infrastructure

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Russia denies involvement after Copenhagen and Oslo airports forced to close after drone sightings

The Danish prime minister has said the country was subjected to the “most serious attack on Danish critical infrastructure to date” after a drone incursion shut Copenhagen airport for several hours.

Mette Frederiksen said authorities were still investigating who was behind the suspected hybrid attack, but she said she could not rule out Russia.

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Norway finds place in spotlight during ‘golden age’ of film-making

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Distinctive and critically acclaimed films and drama series from ‘a big hub of talent’ are appealing to audiences around the world

When it comes to film-making, Norway has long been left watching on while its Nordic neighbours Sweden and Denmark put out hit after hit by luminaries such as Lars von Trier, Thomas Vinterberg and Ruben Östlund.

But after years in the shadows, the country has finally found its place in the international spotlight with a number of distinctive, relationship-centred and critically acclaimed films and television shows in what many are describing as a Norwegian “golden age”.

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Norway’s Labour party wins election after seeing off populist surge

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Success for party of the prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, despite increased support for rightwing Progress party

The Norwegian Labour party has secured four more years in government after seeing off a surge of support for the populist right in a polarised election.

Soon after the polls closed, the centre left was projected to win with 89 seats with the centre right taking 80 seats. A minimum of 85 seats are needed for a majority.

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‘Most of this is symbolic’: the new wave of anti-migrant vigilantes in Europe

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‘Citizen patrols’ and self-styled protective forces are fuelling social fears and the far right, say experts

Sporting black shirts emblazoned with an iron cross, a dozen or so men marched through the centre of Reykjavík, courting attention on a buzzy Friday night. In Poland and the Netherlands, vigilantes thronged along the German border, ready to turn back any asylum seekers they came across. In Belfast, they roamed after sunset, demanding to see the identity documents of migrants and people of colour.

Each of the groups, who are part of a renewed wave of anti-migrant vigilantes that have sprung up in recent months across Europe, have sought to cast themselves as a sort of protective force. But those who have studied vigilantes warn that their actions often exacerbate security concerns, sow fear and fuel the far right.

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Son of Norway’s crown princess charged with four counts of rape

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Marius Borg Høiby charged with 32 offences and could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty

Marius Borg Høiby, the son of the Norwegian crown princess, has been charged with 32 offences including four counts of rape, a prosecutor has said.

Høiby, whose mother is the crown princess, Mette-Marit, and whose stepfather is the crown prince, Haakon, Norway’s future king, is expected to stand trial early next year and could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty of the most serious charges.

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Trump reportedly called Norwegian minister ‘out of the blue’ to ask about Nobel prize

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US president told Norway’s finance minister he wants the Nobel peace prize, according to the Norwegian press

Donald Trump cold-called Norway’s finance minister last month to ask about a nomination for the Nobel peace prize, Norwegian press reported on Thursday.

The Norwegian outlet Dagens Næringsliv, citing unnamed sources, reported: “Out of the blue, while finance minister Jens Stoltenberg was walking down the street in Oslo, Donald Trump called … He wanted the Nobel prize – and to discuss tariffs.”

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Israel appears set to approve highly controversial 3,400-home West Bank settlement

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Finance minister Bezalel Smotrich has said he believes E1 plan will ‘bury the idea of a Palestinian state’

Israel appears set to give formal planning approval to a highly controversial settlement project for more than 3,400 new homes that has been frozen for decades and which critics say would split the occupied West Bank in half.

Strongly opposed by the international community, the so-called E1 plan would extend the existing Jewish settlement of Ma’ale Adumim towards Jerusalem, further cutting occupied east Jerusalem from the West Bank, and further separating the north and south of the territory.

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‘No country is safe’: deadly Nordic heatwave supercharged by climate crisis, scientists say

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Historically cool nations saw hospitals overheating and surge in drownings, wildfires and toxic algal blooms

The prolonged Nordic heatwave in July was supercharged by the climate crisis and shows “no country is safe from climate change”, scientists say.

Norway, Sweden and Finland have historically cool climates but were hit by soaring temperatures, including a record run of 22 days above 30C (86C) in Finland. Sweden endured 10 straight days of “tropical nights”, when temperatures did not fall below 20C (68F).

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Nordic countries hit by ‘truly unprecedented’ heatwave

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Scientists record longest streak of temperatures higher than 30C in region in records going back to 1961

Cold Nordic countries are being seared by “truly unprecedented” heat, as hot weather strengthened and lengthened by carbon pollution continues to roast northern Europe.

A weather station in the Norwegian part of the Arctic Circle recorded temperatures above 30C (86F) on 13 days in July, while Finland has had three straight weeks with 30C heat.

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Nordic countries hit by ‘truly unprecedented’ heatwave

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Scientists record longest streak of temperatures higher than 30C in region in records going back to 1961

Cold Nordic countries are being seared by “truly unprecedented” heat, as hot weather strengthened and lengthened by carbon pollution continues to roast northern Europe.

A weather station in the Norwegian part of the Arctic Circle recorded temperatures above 30C (86F) on 13 days in July, while Finland has had three straight weeks with 30C heat.

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Nordic countries hit by ‘truly unprecedented’ heatwave

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Scientists record longest streak of temperatures higher than 30C in region in records going back to 1961

Cold Nordic countries are being seared by “truly unprecedented” heat, as hot weather strengthened and lengthened by carbon pollution continues to roast northern Europe.

A weather station in the Norwegian part of the Arctic Circle recorded temperatures above 30C (86F) on 13 days in July, while Finland has had three straight weeks with 30C heat.

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Bear that bit man in Norway roams free after hunt in which wrong animal shot

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Search for female and her cubs on hold to campaigners’ relief after court had quashed injunction against cull

The hunt for a brown bear that bit a man on the elbow has been put on hold, the Norwegian environment agency has announced, in a case that angered animal rights campaigners after officials shot the wrong bear.

The agency said on Wednesday it did not now plan to act on a bear-culling order it issued in late June in Jarfjord, near the border with Russia, after a female bear bit a man’s arm, leaving him needing stitches.

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