Category Archives: Norway

European tour tests Chinese foreign minister’s pulling power

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The reassessment of China highlighted by Wang Yi’s trip has political, economic and security implications

The Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi did not exactly end his week-long European tour with his tail between his legs but he may have been chastened if he ever believed Beijing could simply win over Europe by pointing to the extremist cold war rhetoric of Europe’s natural ally America.

The five-nation tour surely marked the end of an era where China can any longer get away with simple homilies on win-win solutions, multilateralism and non-interference in another’s internal affairs. Pointing to Donald Trump is also no longer enough to win European friends.

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Norway plans to drill for oil in untouched Arctic areas

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Critics say plan for fields off Svalbard threatens ecosystem and relations with Russia

Norway is planning to expand oil drilling in previously untouched areas of the Arctic, a move campaigners say threatens the fragile ecosystem and could spark a military standoff with Russia.

A public consultation on the opening up of nine new Norwegian oilfields closed on Wednesday. The areas in question are much further north in the Arctic than the concessions the US president, Donald Trump, announced for Alaska this month.

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Dear Christchurch, Breivik’s trial showed us extremist ideas struggle in the light | Åsne Seierstad

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A 10-week trial of Anders Breivik afforded him publicity, and underground infamy, but the openness benefited the victims too

Terror wouldn’t work if no one wrote about it. Terrorists crave our attention, our anger and our tears. Norway and New Zealand have both been struck by attacks from violent extremists inspired by ideas from the same root – white supremacy and Islamophobia – but the two countries have chosen different paths in how to deal with it. Norway chose openness and full exposure, while the case around the Christchurch shooter seems dimly lit.

In 2011, the then Norwegian prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, sat in his home office to work on a speech he was going to give the following day at the summer camp of the Labour party youth when a loud bang sounded. Anders Breivik had dressed as a police officer and detonated the bomb outside the prime minister’s office in downtown Oslo, killing eight. He then travelled to the island of Utøya where the camp would be held and shot and killed 69 people, mostly teenagers.

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Earth has lost 28 trillion tonnes of ice in less than 30 years

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‘Stunned’ scientists say there is little doubt global heating is to blame for the loss

A total of 28 trillion tonnes of ice have disappeared from the surface of the Earth since 1994. That is stunning conclusion of UK scientists who have analysed satellite surveys of the planet’s poles, mountains and glaciers to measure how much ice coverage lost because of global heating triggered by rising greenhouse gas emissions.

The scientists – based at Leeds and Edinburgh universities and University College London – describe the level of ice loss as “staggering” and warn that their analysis indicates that sea level rises, triggered by melting glaciers and ice sheets, could reach a metre by the end of the century.

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Sweden records highest death tally in 150 years in first half of 2020

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Covid-19 caused about 4,500 deaths in six months to end of June as Sweden opted against strict lockdown

Sweden, which has stood out among European countries for its low-key approach to fighting the coronavirus pandemic, has recorded its highest tally of deaths in the first half of 2020 for 150 years, the Statistics Office said.

Covid-19 claimed about 4,500 lives in the period to the end of June – a number that has now risen to 5,800 – a much higher percentage of the population than in other Nordic nations, though lower than in some others, including Britain and Spain.

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Coronavirus live news: UN warns world faces ‘generational catastrophe’ over school closures

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UN says getting students safely back to classroom must be ‘top priority’; Philippines reimposes lockdown; record fines for isolation breaches in Australia

We’re reporting that builders in the Australia could lose $450m daily under Melbourne stage 4 Covid-19 lockdown.

Work levels from big construction sites to trade businesses set to be pummelled amid predictions new curbs will ‘knock wind out of’ state

Related: Victorian builders could lose $450m daily under Melbourne stage 4 Covid-19 lockdown

Reuters is reporting that Taiwan has provisionally approved the use of dexamethasone, a cheap and widely-used steroid, to treat the new coronavirus because the island faces a shortfall of the antiviral drug remdesivir after the United States bought nearly all global supplies.

Taiwan Centres for Disease Control Deputy Director-General Chuang Jen-hsiang told reporters on Tuesday that medical experts had decided to provisionally allow dexamethasone to be listed as a COVID-19 treatment but that procedures still needed to be completed before it could be given to any patients.

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Coronavirus live news: Greece reports highest number of cases in weeks as Danish expert advises against lockdown easing

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UN says getting students safely back must be ‘top priority’; France says ‘situation is precarious’; record fines for isolation breaches in Australia

France’s Accor, the world’s sixth largest hotel chain, said it was slashing 1,000 jobs worldwide in a major cost cutting plan accelerated by the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.

The group, which runs high-end chains such as Raffles and Sofitel, and budget brands like Ibis, plans to cut costs by €200m by 2022.

After weeks of railing against what he claimed were the potential risks of voting by mail, president Donald Trump has urged voters in at least one Republican state - Florida - to vote by any means.

Trump, who is trailing presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden in polls, has repeatedly warned in recent weeks - without evidence - that mail-in voting carries more risks than voting by absentee ballot and could result in widespread fraud.

Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True. Florida’s Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail! #MAGA

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Two cruise ships hit by coronavirus weeks after industry restarts

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Outbreaks of Covid-19 recorded on MS Roald Amundsen in Norway and the Paul Gauguin in Tahiti

Covid-19 has been detected on at least two cruise ships – one in the Arctic and one in the Pacific – just weeks after cruising holidays restarted.

At least 40 passengers and crew from the MS Roald Amundsen have tested positive for the novel coronavirus, and authorities are trying to contact trace hundreds of passengers from two recent Arctic voyages the ship took.

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Coronavirus mass surveillance could be here to stay, experts say

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Use of invasive digital and physical tracking measures soars as the pandemic spreads

Extensive surveillance measures introduced around the world during the coronavirus outbreak have widened and become entrenched, digital rights experts have said, three months after the World Health Organization declared a pandemic.

The measures have often been billed as temporary necessities rushed into place to help track infections, but governments have been accused of denting civil rights with the widespread use of techniques such as phone monitoring, contact tracing apps, and physical surveillance such as CCTV with facial recognition.

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‘I raised hell’: how people worldwide answered the call of World Oceans Day

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From protecting fishing communities to regrowing coral reefs, Guardian readers and environmentalists share how they’re working to defend the ocean

World Oceans Day, which took place on Monday, is marked by hundreds of beach cleans and events globally. Despite Covid-19 restrictions, environmentalists and readers from around the world shared how they are continuing to work to protect the ocean, and told us about the local marine issues that matter to them.

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Norwegian politicians film physically distanced dance for national day – video

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The prime minister, Erna Solberg, and her colleagues filmed the dance during the coronavirus pandemic. It was aired on 17 May on NRK.

Mass gatherings and parades are not permitted until at least mid-June to try and slow the spread of Covid-19 in the country


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Edvard Munch’s The Scream needs to practise physical distancing, say experts

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Art lovers may have to give 1910 version space due to damaging effect of humidity on impure paint

It is a masterpiece that seems to speak to the later horrors of war in the 20th century and even the anguishes of the 21st. Now Edvard Munch’s The Scream has another claim on modernity, after it emerged that an oversight by the artist means the 1910 version of the work needs to practise some physical distancing.

An international consortium of scientists seeking to identify the main cause of deterioration of the paint in the canvas has discovered Munch accidentally used an impure tube of cadmium yellow which can fade and flake even in relatively low humidity, including when breathed upon by crowds of art lovers.

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Norwegian tycoon charged over wife’s disappearance in 2018

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Businessman held on suspicion of murder in case first treated by police as kidnapping

One of Norway’s richest men has been arrested and charged with suspected “murder or complicity in the murder” of his wife in a case that has made headlines in the low-crime Scandinavian country.

Tom Hagen, a hitherto low-profile property and energy tycoon aged 70, was arrested on his way to work, Norwegian media reported.

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Why do female leaders seem to be more successful at managing the coronavirus crisis?

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Plenty of countries with male leaders have also done well. But few with female leaders have done badly

On 1 April, the prime minister of Sint Maarten addressed her nation’s 41,500 people. Coronavirus cases were rising, and Silveria Jacobs knew the small island country, which welcomes 500,000 tourists a year, was at great risk: it had two ICU beds.

Jacobs did not want to impose a strict lockdown, but she did want physical distancing observed. So she spelled it out: “Simply. Stop. Moving,” she said. “If you don’t have the bread you like in your house, eat crackers. Eat cereal. Eat oats. Eat … sardines.”

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Coronavirus ‘under control’ in Germany, as some countries plan to relax lockdowns

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Health minister says Germany will produce 50m face masks a week by the summer

Germany has declared its coronavirus outbreak under control as it prepares to take its first tentative steps out of lockdown next week, while several European countries unveiled contact-tracing mobile apps aimed at facilitating a gradual return to a more normal life.

The German health minister, Jens Spahn, said on Friday that the virus was under control in Europe’s largest economy, thanks to confinement measures imposed after an early surge in cases. “The infection numbers have sunk significantly, especially the relative day-by-day increase,” he said.

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‘Spectacular’ artefacts found as Norway ice-patch melts

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Discoveries exposed by retreating ice include snowshoe for horses and bronze age ski

The retreat of a Norwegian mountain ice patch, which is melting because of climate change, has revealed a lost Viking-era mountain pass scattered with “spectacular” and perfectly preserved artefacts that had been dropped by the side of the road.

The pass, at Lendbreen in Norway’s mountainous central region, first came to the attention of local archaeologists in 2011, after a woollen tunic was discovered that was later dated to the third or fourth century AD. The ice has retreated significantly in the years since, exposing a wealth of artefacts including knitted mittens, leather shoes and arrows still with their feathers attached.

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Norway’s hazmat booksellers: keeping Oslo reading during coronavirus – video

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Two Oslo bookshop owners choose to go delivery-only to keep their business afloat at the start of lockdown. Pil Cappelen Smith and Anders Cappelen deliver books wearing full hazmat suits and gas masks in order to raise local awareness of the seriousness of the situation. But as the global crisis worsens, they embark on one last delivery run before deciding to shut up shop completely

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‘Do not let this fire burn’: WHO warns Europe over coronavirus

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Europe now centre of pandemic, says WHO, as Spain prepares for state of emergency

The World Health Organization has stepped up its calls for intensified action to fight the coronavirus pandemic, imploring countries “not to let this fire burn”, as Spain said it would declare a 15-day state of emergency from Saturday.

Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, the WHO director general, said Europe – where the virus is present in all 27 EU states and has infected 25,000 people – had become the centre of the epidemic, with more reported cases and deaths than the rest of the world combined apart from China.

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Giant dams enclosing North Sea could protect millions from rising waters

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Dams between Scotland, Norway, France and England ‘a possible solution’ to problem

A Dutch government scientist has proposed building two mammoth dams to completely enclose the North Sea and protect an estimated 25 million Europeans from the consequences of rising sea levels as a result of global heating.

Sjoerd Groeskamp, an oceanographer at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research, said a 475km dam between north Scotland and west Norway and another 160km one between west France and south-west England was “a possible solution”.

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