Tighter measures are being imposed, but they vary across the continent
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King’s trophy fish found preserved in centuries-old Danish shipwreck
Two-metre-long sturgeon found in pantry of Danish king’s vessel that sank in 1495
A two-metre-long sturgeon, a species today near extinction, has been found preserved in the pantry of a 500-year-old Danish royal shipwreck in the Baltic Sea.
“During archaeological excavations in 2019, a wooden barrel submerged inside the shipwreck revealed the almost complete and well-preserved remains of a sturgeon fish,” archaeologists from Lund University in Sweden wrote in a recent article in the Journal of Archeological Science.
Continue reading...Lego reports sales jump after Covid crisis kept families at home
Shoppers globally bought toys online while physical stores were hit by restrictions
Lego, the toy brick company, has enjoyed a lockdown boost to sales as families around the world were forced to spend more time at home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Total sales rose by 14% in the first half of 2020 and sales were up by more than 10% in its largest markets – including the Americas, western Europe, Asia Pacific and China – despite the closure of toy shops for months in some countries, including the UK.
Continue reading...Denmark announces plans to reform sexual violence laws
The government plan to make consent rather violence the basis for determining rape
The Danish government has announced plans to reform sexual violence laws to make consent rather than violence the basis for determining rape.
“We are moving from a system where there had to be coercion and violence for it to be rape, to one where there must be consent,” justice minister, Nick Haekkerup, told a press conference.
Continue reading...Reopening schools: how different countries are tackling Covid dilemma
As schools in England prepare to reopen, we examine the situation around the world
As schools in England and Wales get set to reopen amid continued controversy over safe conditions, attention has focused on potential evidence of coronavirus transmission in the classroom and on the experiences of other countries.
Research on the ability of children of different ages to catch and transmit the virus is contradictory, and differences in education systems and social conventions make comparisons difficult.
Continue reading...Copenhagen’s Little Mermaid branded ‘racist fish’ in graffiti attack
Expert on Hans Christian Andersen says it is ‘hard to see what is racist’ about fairytale
The statue of the Little Mermaid in the entrance to Copenhagen harbour has been daubed with the words “racist fish”.
The 107-year-old statue has often been vandalised by protesters, ranging from pro-democracy activists to anti-whaling campaigners. As recently as January, “Free Hong Kong” was scrawled on the rock on which the 1.65-metre bronze sits.
Continue reading...Fourth time lucky: Denmark’s PM postpones wedding for third time
EU summit intervenes to thwart Mette Frederiksen’s plan to marry her very patient ‘fantastic man’
Denmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, thought she had finally found a date for her wedding, but has now had to postpone it for a third time due to an EU summit, she said on Thursday.
Many a wedding plan has been upended by the Covid-19 pandemic and it seems not even world leaders are immune.
Continue reading...‘Go Ape gone Viking’ – Denmark’s newest treetop attraction
In the Danish town that is home to Lego HQ, Wow Park is a forest wonderland of swings, ziplines and treehouses immersed in nature
The birdsong is louder 14 metres up and there’s a citrusy tang of pine in the air. Scrambling to the top of a conifer with a six-year-old who suffers from vertigo wasn’t top of my post-lockdown bucket list, but after staring at the same four walls for weeks on end, there’s a welcome sense of perspective to spending time in a forest of 7,000 trees.
This is Wow Park in Billund, the Danish town that’s the home of Lego HQ, and that calls itself the “Capital of Children” – with ambitions to become the most child-friendly place in the world to live and work. Billund’s newest attraction is a treetop wonderland, the largest of its kind in the country, including suspension bridges, nets in the sky, giant bouncy balls, swings and ziplines; all crafted around the trunks of giant trees. It’s like Go Ape gone Viking, with a rough and ready, hand-whittled feel.
Continue reading...Global report: EU nations continue steady exits from lockdown
Infections keep falling in EU but reports suggest Russian death toll much higher than official figures
France is to lift its state of emergency on 10 July, Denmark said opening its bars, restaurants and malls had not led to a rise in infections, and Austria will reopen its border with Italy next week as EU nations pursue their steady exits from lockdown.
However, Germany extended its coronavirus travel warnings for more than 160 countries outside Europe until the end of August and reports suggested that Moscow’s death toll may be twice as high as Russia’s official figures.
Continue reading...Merkel among winners as Europeans give verdict on anti-Covid battles
Satisfaction levels across the continent have risen and fallen, but nowhere have they plunged as for Boris Johnson’s government
All across the continent, most Europeans now trust their leaders generally, and how they have handled the coronavirus pandemic in particular, a little less than when the crisis began – but nowhere has public confidence fallen as far and as fast as in the UK.
Even leaders seen as having managed Covid-19 the most successfully, such as Germany’s chancellor Angela Merkel and Denmark’s prime minister Mette Frederiksen, have suffered slight dips in popular satisfaction as the weeks have worn on.
Continue reading...‘We can’t relax’: Europeans face up to life after lockdown
From Spain to Denmark, even those who have coped with coronavirus are aware the world has changed dramatically
Her customers may be back and there are, miraculously, more of them. Spring is here; the sun is out. No one wants to dwell on what happened; everyone wants to pick up their lives again, same as before.
“But still,” says Sophie Fornairon, “things have changed.”
Continue reading...Global report: Germany to relax travel curbs as Spain mourns Covid-19 victims
France defends tracking app amid privacy concerns and Hungary aims to lift state of emergency
Denmark has made it easier for cross-border couples separated from their partners by lockdown to meet again, while Germany is expected to allow travel to 31 European countries from mid-June, as EU countries continued to lift coronavirus restrictions.
People living in Norway, Sweden, Finland and Germany can now visit partners in Denmark by signing a simple declaration rather than having to provide photos, phone records and other proof of a relationship, the Danish justice minister, Nick Hækkerup, said.
Continue reading...Coronavirus in Europe: states take small steps towards normality
Restaurants reopen in parts of Germany, while Italy relaxes travel restrictions
Europe took a step towards post-virus normality on Friday when restaurants in Germany and Austria reopened for the first time in two months, and other countries loosened travel restrictions and threw open borders.
Berlin’s restaurants, cafes and snack kiosks were allowed to serve customers again, so long as they obeyed social distancing. People from two separate households could share a table, but had to keep a distance of 1.5m from each other.
Continue reading...Lockdown easing: have other leaders fared better than Boris Johnson?
Guardian writers report on how various European countries have managed the process
Boris Johnson has been heavily criticised for failing to show Britain a clear route out of lockdown. Easing a nation out of two months of confinement is a complicated business, and some degree of confusion is almost inevitable. Here, Guardian correspondents look at how other European leaders have managed the process.
Spain’s lockdown exit strategy – known formally as the Plan for the Transition Towards the New Normality – was outlined by the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, during a televised press conference on the evening of 28 April. Sánchez said the country’s four-phase de-escalation initiative would be “gradual and asymmetric”, adding that the first stage – dubbed phase 0 – would come into effect on 4 May.
Continue reading...Danes and Czechs say easing lockdowns has produced no Covid-19 surge
Encouraging signs from EU states who acted early, as South Korea reports no new cases
Denmark and the Czech Republic have said partially easing their lockdowns has not led to a surge in new coronavirus infections, as the WHO continued to urge extreme caution and Germany relaxed some restrictions but extended others.
As EU governments grappled with the complex and conflicting imperatives of easing the lockdowns crippling their economies while avoiding a disastrous second wave of infections, meanwhile, South Korea reported no new cases for the first time.
Continue reading...Why do female leaders seem to be more successful at managing the coronavirus crisis?
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.”
Continue reading...Greenland wary of US plans for aid projects in its territory
Politicians say expected announcement of $12m must not have conditions attached
Greenlanders have welcomed reports that the US wants to invest in their island, but said the money had to come without conditions.
The US administration is expected to announce the opening of an Agency for International Development office at the new US consulate in the capital, Nuuk, and at least $12m (£9.7m) in aid projects.
Continue reading...Coronavirus ‘under control’ in Germany, as some countries plan to relax lockdowns
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.
Continue reading...Car ‘splatometer’ tests reveal huge decline in number of insects
Research shows abundance at sites in Europe has plunged by up to 80% in two decades
Two scientific studies of the number of insects splattered by cars have revealed a huge decline in abundance at European sites in two decades.
The research adds to growing evidence of what some scientists have called an “insect apocalypse”, which is threatening a collapse in the natural world that sustains humans and all life on Earth. A third study shows plummeting numbers of aquatic insects in streams.
Continue reading...Anna Karina: an actor of easy charm and grace whose presence radiated from the screen | Peter Bradshaw
From her landmark early films with Jean-Luc Godard to later work such as The Nun, Karina’s beauty and charisma shone out
It was Anna Karina’s fate, or curse, to be perpetually described as an “icon” or a “muse”: a devastatingly beautiful figurehead and inspiration-figure to all those male directors doing the creating or critics doing the rhapsodising – one male director-cineaste in particular. She certainly was every bit as beautiful as everyone ceaselessly said, but it was her easy charm, intelligence and grace which made that beauty visible and made it exist. It was the kind of acting talent that made her whole style and address to the camera look easy, or not like acting: the kind of thing that bad or inexperienced actors – or very good male stars – foreground as an effortfully meaningful performance. And she had parallel careers as singer, producer, director and novelist.
Related: Anna Karina, French new wave icon – a life in pictures
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