Monday Morning News & Notes
Extreme weather buffets Europe. Swedish COVID study sheds new light.
🍃 Environment & Energy⚡️
🇩🇰
Here comes the darkness. Sunday, yesterday, was the autumn equinox, which marks the exact day when there is an equal amount of daylight and darkness before the shift begins in earnest towards longer nights and much shorter days. The shift back into the light won’t come until March, when the vernal equinox arrives.
Beginning today, we will lose roughly four minutes of sunshine every day until December 21.
The equinox also serves as the official weather shift away from hot sunny temperatures to the usual colder, wetter, and more unsettled weather that marks the fall and winter months in Denmark.
🇫🇮
Weather records continue to fall in Finland’s far north. Utsjoki, the most northern of Finland’s municipalities, saw temperatures reach 21.3°C last Thursday, a new fall heat record.
In southern Lapland, about 30 kilometers from the arctic circle, the thermometer reached 22.2 degrees on the same day. Finnish Lapland has been roasting so far this fall, shattering a number of weather records. The average temperature in the first 10 days of September in Lapland was higher than the normal average for July.
It isn’t just the heat either, as the Finnish Meteorological Institute says that the region has also seen record-low amounts of rain. Water levels in Lake Kevojärvi have reached the lowest point since they began keeping records back in 1962.
🇮🇹🇵🇱🇷🇴🇦🇹🇨🇿
Flood waters from Storm Boris have arrived in Italy. Over the weekend, about 1,000 people have been forced to evacuate across Northern Italy. In some of the harder-hit areas, schools have been closed and train traffic has been stopped.
Red Cross IFRC European Director Andreas von Weissenberg says this is part of the new normal due to climate change.
“We have to accept that this is a window into the future. Unfortunately, we see that this is a trend that we will see more of.”
He believes that the focus on fighting climate change, both locally and globally, needs to shift to adaptation.
“Climate funding still goes to trying to reduce the effects of climate change, but it is a battle we have largely lost. We know that it will take decades before we can hopefully turn that trend around.”
Countries across Central Europe are cleaning up and assessing costs after historic flooding devastated swaths of Poland, Romania, the Czech Republic, and Austria. The floods also claimed more than 20 lives.
The storm didn’t just bring torrential rain and flooding; it also dumped up to two meters of snow in the Austrian Alps, setting a new September snowfall record. However, warmer temperatures since mean the meltwater is now adding to the existing flooding situation.
The Red Cross says some areas in Central Europe remain a disaster zone. As one example, it says there are communities in Poland that were almost entirely underwater. Evacuated residents still don’t know how badly their homes have been damaged or even if they can ever return.
The aid agency says it is putting a new focus on helping survivors deal with their trauma and mental health as they cope with losing their homes and, in some cases their loved ones.
🇸🇪
As flood waters saturate Italy and Central European countries are cleaning up and tabulating flood-related damages, the capital of Sweden is preparing in the event of a similar disaster. City planners in Stockholm have determined that, in the worst-case flooding disaster, sections of the city would end up two meters under water.
Flood Mitigation Strategist Jonas Althage:
“In the worst case, it could be that much. It gives us an idea of how vulnerable the city is in a torrential rain event, and it can also be used by agencies responsible for socially important infrastructure, such as the electricity grids and transportation.”
One of the most at-risk areas of the city is Enskedefältet, a region of the city that has suffered severe flooding in the past.
The city hopes that the worst-case flood projection document will help inform efforts from both homeowners and the municipality on flood mitigation efforts.
“I understand that it is a very big concern, we have produced this planning document so that you can work long-term with the problem areas, and I know that other parts of the city also have work underway.”
With climate change meaning much wetter winters in the Nordics, more frequent cloudbursts, and other severe weather events, flood mitigation has taken on a new focus.
🇵🇹
While flood waters swamp Italy, devastating wildfires continue to burn in Portugal. Searing heat and strong winds have driven the flames in over 40 different wildfires across the. country. The flames have claimed seven lives, including three firefighters who died last week.
The country’s Iberian peninsula is vulnerable to climate change as soaring temperatures combined with drought massively increase the fire risk.
🇩🇰
The EV revolution continues in Denmark. According to Bilstatistik, 62% of all new and slightly used vehicles that were imported into the country last month were electric. In total, 9,688 EVs arrived in the country compared to 5,835 gas or diesel vehicles. Electric vehicle sales have long been outpacing their gas and diesel counterparts in Denmark.
The Danish government has set a goal of getting one million electric vehicles on the roads by 2030 as part of reaching its climate goals.
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Negotiations in the Danish Parliament have begun to create two marine conservation areas. The discussions will decide exactly where the two marine nature parks will be located.
Environment Minister Magnus Heunicke says he knows roughly where the two marine nature reserves should be placed.
"The first two marine parks must be located in areas that are rich in marine life, and it is my plan and goal that the parks will be large. In the Little Belt, we have the densest population of harbour porpoises in Danish waters, and the Øresund is characterized by a thriving cod population. In addition, there are very special natural conditions in both the Little Belt and Øresund, with narrow areas to the north with lots of current and very special conditions where the salty water from the Kattegat meets brackish water from the Baltic Sea.”
Once the marine nature reserves are created, the areas will be strictly protected from the seafloor to the water surface. This will mean no extraction of raw materials, no offshore wind turbines, and virtually no recreational fishing.
Since 2022, the Danish government has been setting aside 10 million Danish kroner annually to find the creation of the two marine nature reserves.
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People in Denmark throw far too much food away, but one Danish charitable organization is looking to change that. Every year, 873,000 tonnes of good food end up in the garbage in Denmark. Of that food waste, households account for 235,000 tonnes. Beginning this week, the Folkekirkens Nødhjælp is working to organize communal dinners where people can use up food in their fridge while enjoying a meal with others.
General Secretary Jonas Nøddekær:
“Eating together does not solve the problem. But it puts the focus on it, and it's a good reason to talk about how we avoid throwing away so much food.”
If you are interested in taking part or becoming a communal dinner organizer, you can sign up HERE.
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The move away from eating meat continues in Denmark, although one school has taken the matter a step further. Students and teachers at Det Frie Gymnasium in Copenhagen have voted to not just remove meat as an option in the school cafeteria but to go completely vegan, as they have also voted to remove dairy products like milk and butter.
The move to a more vegetarian diet is growing in popularity as part of the overall climate movement.
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Good news for Denmark’s osprey population. According to DOF Birdlife, the osprey have had their best breeding season in more than a century. The organization has counted nine breeding pairs of the birds, and of seven of those, there have been 16 young.
“It is difficult to give a clear explanation for the fact that this year the ospreys have done so well, where the success of the breeding sites in other years has been so challenging.”
DOF Birdlife says that from 2010 to 2024 there have been at least 102 osprey chicks born in Denmark.
🇸🇪
Two weeks after being left a little red in the face with a poorly conceived effort to convince people that Sweden will meet its climate goals, the Swedish government is trying again. And it looks like the second go around was as ill thought out as the first.
In a press conference last week, Swedish Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari and Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson said that emissions are estimated to decrease in the years ahead, including next year when reduction obligations will be increased. However, under pressure from reporters, Pourmokhtari confirmed to Swedish national broadcaster SVT that all but one of the four mandated national climate targets look difficult to meet. SVT also talked to Climate Policy Council Chair Åsa Persson, who said that it is far from certain that Sweden will be able to meet any of its four climate targets by 2030 with the current policies on the table. Persson added that Sweden will also likely fall well short of meeting two further EU-mandated emissions reduction targets by 2030.
Sweden risks billions of euros in fines if the country fails to meet European Union mandatory emissions reduction goals by 2030.
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Climate change has claimed another victim, the Sylglaciären (Syl Glacier) in Sweden. After a record hot and rainy summer and continued rise in global temperatures, the glacier has now essentially collapsed. The melt is so severe that hikers and other outdoor enthusiasts are being warned to stay away as it now poses a danger as the glacial melt triggers an increased risk of large, dangerous avalanches.
Stockholm University Professor Per Holmlund says the glacier has been melting rapidly since about 2014, but this year the melt is the worst since they have seen since they began keeping records in the 1960s.
“It is a brutal change.”
It isn’t just the Syl glacier either, as other glaciers in Sweden are also rapidly shrinking. The glacier on the southern peak of Kebnekaise, one of Sweden’s highest points, receded 3.3 meters just this year, the strongest annual melt of any year in the last three decades.
🇫🇮
Salmon returns in Finland have collapsed over the past two years. WWF Finland is now calling for a complete suspension of salmon fishing in the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Bothnia. The agency says salmon returns in the Tornio River on the border of Sweden and Finland have plummeted by 70%. Reasons for the collapse are unclear.
WWF Finland Fisheries Conservation Officer Matti Ovaska told Yle that a complete fishing ban for at least the next two years is the only option left to safeguard Sal on stocks.
"All excess salmon mortality must now be reduced to zero. Temporarily stopping fishing is the only way we can try to impact the number of salmon that survive to spawn.”
🇩🇰
Denmark is closing in on the EU-mandated goal of having gas storage levels at 90% before the coming winter arrives. The Danish Energy Agency says gas reserves reached 75% as of the beginning of September. The agency says gas supply and market conditions both indicate that Denmark’s gas reserves will reach the required 90% by the end of October.
While Denmark has been putting rocket boosters on the energy transition, some 300,000 households still rely on gas for heating.
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Danish homeowners couldn’t get enough of solar cells last year. The Danish Assessment Agency says some 14,000 solar power systems were purchased and installed on or around homes in Denmark last year. The agency says that is the highest number of solar cell installations on private property in the country in about a decade. In fact, it says in the last two years alone, more solar cells have been bought and installed by homeowners than in the eight years before. It attributes the sudden surge in interest to the 2022 energy crisis, when power prices shot through the roof.
🇬🇧
The last coal-fired power plant in the United Kingdom will soon close. On September 30, the Ratcliffe-on-Soar coal-fired power plant will begin the shut-down process, a process that will take two years to complete. When it shuts down, it will make the UK the first country in the G7 to end all reliance on coal as a power source.
🇬🇱
Greenlandic authorities are dealing with an oil spill along the country’s west coast. Late last week, a ship en route to Qaqortoq in South Greenland hit a reef and sank. The crew all escaped safely, but the vessel had around 20,000 litres of diesel oil in its tanks and another 1,000 litres of engine oil.
Despite a quick response from clean-up crews, strong currents and rough waters have made efforts to contain the spill very challenging. Oil slicks have been reported outside the containment zone. Greenland’s Ministry of Emergency Preparedness and the Environment has asked the Arctic Command for help in cleaning up the spill.
🦠Outbreaks🦠
🇩🇰
After rising slightly across Denmark, COVID activity has dipped according to the latest weekly wastewater surveillance numbers from the Statens Serum Institute.
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Denmark is destroying its remaining stock of COVID treatment pills, Lagevrio and Paxlovid. In a letter sent to the Danish Parliament’s Health Committee, the Minister of Health Sophie Løhde says the pills were bought during the height of the pandemic for about 450 million Danish kroner (about $91 million Cdn). Since the purchase, those pills have largely gathered dust, with only about a tenth of the supply ever being used to treat people with severe infections. The state will now spend another 30,000 Danish kroner to destroy the pills.
Last year, the Danish Health Authority ended its recommendation of use for Lagevrio, citing its lack of any effect.
In 2022, Denmark also destroyed millions of kroner worth of protective equipment bought during the pandemic and that was never used before its best before date expired.
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The usutu virus has arrived in Denmark. The zoonotic pathogen is carried by mosquitoes and can be deadly for birds. The Statens Serum Institute says people have been reporting finding sick or dead blackbirds all over the country. The institute is asking people to notify them if they spot a dead bird so they can conduct autopsies so they can learn more about the virus.
The usutu virus originated in Africa, but over the last 50 years it has migrated to Europe and now Denmark. Blackbirds are particularly susceptible, as are thrushes.
If you find a dead bird, you can report it via email at vildt@sund.ku.dk or read more about it at vildtsundhed.dk. The SSI says the virus poses no danger to humans, and dead birds are not a contagion risk for dogs, cats, or other predators.
🇸🇪
In Sweden, COVID hospitalizations (409) continue to increase (+41) while the number of severely infected people needing intensive care (15) has also crept upward (+4).
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A Swedish COVID study has made some significant findings, shedding light on why men were hit harder by COVID infections while women were more likely to suffer from long-COVID.
Pediatric Immunity Professor Petter Brodin at both Imperial College in London and Karolinska Institute in Sweden says to find an answer, they studied 23 women at birth who were transitioning to become men.
“We have never been able to uncover why this is. So we decided to study a unique condition, which is when individuals assigned one sex at birth undergo gender affirming hormone therapy. There genes are fixed, but their hormone levels change for what is typical from one sex to the other.”
The research revealed new information about how sex hormones impact and interact with our immune system. The difference between the sexes can mean a different immune response to infections like COVID.
“If you remember, in the beginning, before vaccines rolled out, the ICUs were full of men with severe acute COVID. Our data suggests an explanation for why this is. Because testosterone potentiates the pro inflammatory responses and dampens the antiviral defense mechanisms. While females, on the other hand, had a similar overrepresentation in being diagnosed with long-COVID and dealing with prolonged symptoms, which we also think is not a coincidence; it is a cause of the way the immune system is tuned differently between males and females.”
Brodin says the study’s findings will help develop better therapies tuned to different genders. He says it could also lead to improving vaccines so they are formulated to better target male or female immune systems.
🇳🇴
Respiratory infections are rising across Norway. The Norwegian Institute of Public Health says this is pretty normal for this time of year. The agency says no one virus is driving the increase; rather, it is a grab bag of different respiratory infections all making the rounds.
The institute says the summer COVID infection wave continues to subside. The positivity percentage continues to decrease, dropping to 10% the week before last. The number of positive tests among admitted hospital patients, pretty much the only group being tested regularly, also continues to decline. The virus claimed 14 more lives in the latest weekly reporting period. That is three fewer deaths than the week before. The NIPH cautions that while numbers are falling now, another infection wave will likely arrive over the fall and winter months.
Whooping cough remains a problem in Norway. The epidemic began early in the summer and is showing signs that it may have finally peaked. So far, 590 cases have been confirmed this month compared to the 1,035 reported in August.
Like Denmark, the fall COVID and influenza vaccination campaign begins next month in Norway.
🇪🇺🇩🇰🇨🇩
The European Medicines Agency has given its approval for the use of the mpox vaccine produced by Denmark’s Bavarian Nordic for use among children under the age of 12.
Bavarian Nordic CEO Paul Chaplin says the news paves the way for children and young people in Africa to now be vaccinated.
“This is an important milestone in our efforts to make our vaccine available to everyone, and it will help to increase availability for some of the most vulnerable individuals affected by the mpox outbreak in Africa.”
A new mpox variant called Clade 1 is driving a major outbreak among African countries. The outbreak epicenter is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where half of the infection cases are children under the age of 15.
🇺🇦Ukraine/ Russia War🇷🇺
🇩🇰🇳🇴🇸🇪🇱🇹/ 🇷🇺
A maritime drama is playing out in the North Sea between Norway and Denmark. A badly damaged freighter registered in Malta called ‘Ruby’ is carrying a Russian cargo of 20,000 tonnes of potentially explosive ammonium nitrate. It briefly docked in Tromsø, Norway, before Norwegian authorities learned about its cargo and gave the freighter the boot. Since then, Norway, Sweden, and Lithuania have all refused to allow the vessel to dock.
The vessel was about to enter the Kattegat to transit from the North Sea to the Baltic, but the Danish Maritime Authority has ordered it to remain where it is. The agency wants some clarity about where it is going and if that port has the capability of dealing with its dangerous cargo before allowing it into Danish waters. If it does proceed towards the Baltic, it must have a Danish pilot onboard and make the trip through the Great Belt under tugboat escort.
Ammonium nitrate is a chemical fertilizer used in agriculture, but it is also very dangerous. In 2020, 2,750 tonnes of it stored in a warehouse in the port in Beirut exploded, causing billions in damages and killed 207 people. The freighter is carrying approximately seven times that amount of ammonium nitrate. Port authorities are extremely concerned about allowing the vessel to dock in highly populated areas.
Aarhus University Department of Chemistry explosives expert Peter Hald says if 20,000 tonnes of ammonium nitrate were to explode, it would be roughly equal to one of the two atom bombs the United States dropped on Japan during World War II. But Hald also cautions that it takes a lot of work for ammonium nitrate to detonate.
“That's the good thing about ammonium nitrate. It is actually quite difficult to start an explosion. It is not the case that if the ship bumps into something or someone drops something into the cargo, it will just explode.”
He notes that in Beirut, the ammonium nitrate actually burned for quite a while before the explosion was set in motion.
The Ruby ran aground after leaving port in Kandalaksha, Russia. Despite having damage to its rudder, propellers and having cracks in its hull, it continued its long voyage around Norway before ending up in the North Sea.
The ship’s course is considered suspicious by Think Tank Europe.
Senior Analyst Jacob Kaarsbo notes the vessel was unusually close to oil and natural gas installations near Bergen, Norway, and even skirted suspiciously close to a NATO base in Tromsø.
“The whole sailing pattern may suggest that it is not just because you need to get some fertilizer from point A to point B, but that there may be something else behind it. The most likely thing is that it is a part of Russia’s hybrid warfare, where you want to cause fear in some way, and you want to see how the Nordic countries react when it comes near our coasts and critical installations.”
🇳🇴/ 🇷🇺
Norway is further tightening border controls with Russia. Norwegian police say the new border security measures, which include, among other things, increased use of drone surveillance, will be introduced immediately.
Police Directorate Emergency Manager Tone Vangen:
“In light of a demanding security and political situation, combined with ongoing technological developments, we have initiated various measures to strengthen and modernize Norway's border controls with Russia.”
Norway shares a 200-kilometre-long land border with Russia in the far north.
🇫🇮/ 🇷🇺
Russia continues to play a dangerous game in the Baltic. The Finnish Transport and Communications Agency says it has seen a significant increase in GPS jamming originating from Russia. The agency already reported a five-fold increase in GPS interference last year.
Traficom CEO Jarkko Saarimäki:
"The radio interference situation in Finland's land and sea areas is exceptional.”
Traficom notes that GPS is more crucial for boats in the fall and winter months when there is more fog at sea and the daylight hours become shorter.
GPS interference has already resulted in some aborted landings in flights between Finland and the Baltic states.
🇩🇰🇸🇪🇫🇮🇳🇴🇨🇦
47 countries, including Canada, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and Finland, are named on a Russian government list of countries holding “dangerous attitudes” towards Russia’s “spiritual and moral values.” However, the most interesting part isn’t which countries were on the list but those who were noticeably absent. Moscow’s list does not include Hungary, Slovakia, Turkey, Moldova, and Georgia. Of the five, the first three are the only NATO member nations to not make the list. Both Hungary and Slovakia have pro-Russian governments, while Turkey has maintained good relations with Russia throughout the invasion of Ukraine.
The Institute of the Study of War says the list is a revival of Soviet-era tactics attempting to create global ideological divisions pitting East against West.
"This move underscores a pattern in which Russian officials accuse the west and the US of creating ideological divides. ISW has also observed that the Kremlin recently intensified efforts to codify a state ideology based on vague Russian 'traditional values' while bypassing the Russian Constitution, which notably forbids such endeavors.”
🇩🇰/ 🇷🇺
A company in Aaalborg is off the hook in a potentially costly legal battle with Russia’s largest coal company. A municipal utility company, Aalborg Forsygning, has won an international arbitration case after it was sued for 220 million Danish kroner (about $44.6 million Cdn) by the Russian coal company SUEK. The Danish utility had ordered a delivery of coal from SUEK before Russia invaded Ukraine. After the invasion, SUEK’s owner, Andrej Melnitjenko, was placed under sanctions. Aalborg Forsygning then cancelled its order, leading to the lawsuit. The arbitration decision doesn’t just let the utility off the financial hook, it also ordered SUEK to pay all legal costs.
🇸🇪🇫🇮
NATO’s two newest member nations will work together on increasing preparedness and offering a deterrence against the threat from Russia. Sweden will take charge of a new NATO base in Finnish Lapland. The news was announced in a press conference by the defense ministers from both countries. Once approved by the Swedish parliament and signed off on by NATO, Swedish military personnel will take the lead in conducting military exercises with Finnish armed forces and those from other NATO member nations.
🇪🇺🇩🇰🇺🇦
“We should make Russia pay for the destruction it caused.”
Those were the words of EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as she announced a €160 million support package for Ukraine. Another €400 million will also flow from Europe to Ukraine with the goal of building out Ukraine’s own defense sector so it can procure its own weapons closer to the front lines. This is based on the Danish donation model, and Denmark will be in charge of dispersing that portion of the funding. The money will be financed by the interest from Russian funds that have been frozen due to its illegal invasion.
The loan is, at least from one perspective, a win win. The EU can hand Ukraine a huge amount of money to boost its badly depleted treasury, and European taxpayers are entirely off the hook. Ukraine will use the money to boost its defense industry and procure more drones, buy more air defenses, and rebuild damaged hospitals and energy infrastructure.
The EU will also help repair damaged energy infrastructure with the goal of restoring 2.5 gigawatts of power production, or roughly 15% of the expected winter demand. Among the initiatives is the piece by piece dismantling of a power plant in Lithuania that will then be shipped to Ukraine, where it will be rebuilt. Connections between Europe and the main Ukrainian power grid will also be increased so that another 2 gigawatts of power can be exported into Ukraine.
🇷🇴
Romania is joining a growing list of European countries that is reprioritizing its military in the event of a worst-case scenario, war. The Romanian Supreme Council of National Defence announced last Thursday that it will speed up the procurement of ammunition as the war just across the border in Ukraine rages on. In a statement, the Council pointed the finger directly at Russia’s continued aggression in Ukraine and the subsequent shift in regional security for the move.
It isn’t just buying more ammunition Romania will also put fresh emphasis on developing its domestic capacity to produce more modern military equipment, to increase protection of critical security interests, and to ensure the security of supply. According to the statement, these changes will help strengthen Romania’s defence capabilities to counter new threats, including “the increased acquisition of combat ammunition and the gradual build-up of strategic reserves.”
🇷🇴🇵🇱
NATO is being asked to respond after Russia’s latest violations of allied airspace. After another armed Russian drone crashed in Romania, the latest in repeated incursions by Russian drones and missiles, the Bucharest 9 countries demanded NATO act. The Bucharest 9 countries are Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, and Slovakia. Meeting last week, the countries discussed regional security, especially where it concerns the Black Sea, and the need for additional deterrence and countermeasures.
Romanian Defence Minister Angel Tîlvăr and Polish Secretary of State for Defence Pawel Zalewski held a joint press conference after the meeting to say the nine countries expressed a “deep concern” over Russian airspace incursions. They both said that “a NATO response is necessary.”
Romania shares a 650 kilometer border with Ukraine. In some places along the Danube River, only a couple of hundred meters separate the two countries.
🇺🇸🇺🇦
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyj will pay U.S. President Joe Biden a visit in the White House this week. Zelenskyj arrives in the U.S. on Thursday, where he will meet both with President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. The situation in Ukraine, U.S. support, and strategic planning will all be on the agenda. Zelenskyj has been lobbying the Biden administration for permission to use U.S.-donated missiles to hit targets deep within Russia - permission Biden is so far loathe to give.
🇪🇺🇩🇰/ 🇷🇺
The EU parliament has passed a resolution calling for member nations to lift any restrictions on the use of donated weapons to Ukraine so they can be used to hit legitimate military targets inside of Russia.
In response, the chair of the Russian parliament is threatening nuclear war if donated western weapons are allowed to strike targets inside Russia. Vyacheslav Volodin, who is one of Putin's allies, threatened that Russian nuclear missiles could strike the EU parliament in Strasbourg, France, in less than four minutes after launch.
In Denmark, Danish Foreign Policy Council Chair Michael Aastrup Jensen dismissed the threat.
“It is an attempt to scare us, and that is a tactic that must not be allowed to succeed. They [Russia] are trying to bring the [Ukrainian] civilian population to their knees, and I honestly don't think they will succeed, and therefore it is necessary to hit the Russians where they have their military forces.”
🇺🇦
Ukraine has issued a blanket ban on the use of the Telegram social media app for anyone working in the government, defense sector, or other critical infrastructure. Ukrainian authorities say the app is a threat to national security because Russia uses it, among other things, for cyber attacks and in helping to target missile strikes.
Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov was arrested in France last month. He has been placed under formal investigation by French authorities over suspicions he is complicit in facilitating illicit transactions, drug trafficking, fraud, and the spread of child sex abuse images, all done via the Telegram app.
🇷🇺
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms, has suspended the accounts of several Russian media outlets. Meta said it had banned the Russian media agencies like RT over allegations of conducting influence operations using Meta’s social media platforms.
The company said that by far the largest share of covert influence operations being conducted on its platforms originated from Russia.
🇩🇰🇺🇸🇨🇦🇱🇻
NATO’s Operation Silver Arrow begins this week, and during the exercise, Danish soldiers stationed in Latvia will assume the role of Russia and “attack” American, Canadian, and Latvian forces. The exercise should help keep soldiers sharp and on their toes. It will take place near the Latvian capital of Riga, not that far from the Russian border.
Odds & Ends
🇩🇰
Transit will be free in Fredericia beginning next year. The city council has agreed on a new budget, which includes measures to make the city’s buses free for all users. The bus system will be free to use as of August 1, next year.
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Danish police are investigating a case of tree theft. 31 trees alongside a road in Odder, south of Aarhus, were cut down and hauled away last week. The trees were on municipal land, but the Kommune says it had nothing to do with the trees being felled. The municipality has reported the case to the police, who are now investigating.
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Young students in Copenhagen might have to make do during class without their mobile phones. The city’s Children and Youth Committee voted to ensure less screen time during school for young kids in grades 0 to 3. Among a number of initiatives on the table is to introduce screen-free days for the youngest students.
The initiatives must pass a city council vote before they can be entered into force.
🇳🇴🇩🇰
It wasn’t quite snakes on a plane, but an SAS flight from Oslo, Norway, to Malaga, Spain, had to make an emergency landing in Copenhagen last week after a mouse was spotted by passengers. Scandinavian Airlines say that it is company policy to change planes if rodents or other pests are spotted onboard.
🇪🇺/🇭🇺
The European Union’s dictator within problem continues to fester. The Orbán government in Hungary has ignored a deadline to pay a €200 million fine levied by the EU over its contentious migration policy. The EU will now simply deduct the money from future funds that flow from the EU to Hungary.
🌍 🌙
The earth will get a second mini-moon for several months this fall. An asteroid about ten meters in diameter will be captured by Earth’s gravity on September 29 and begin orbiting the planet. It will chase the moon for about 57 days before it is able to break free and continue on its celestial journey. It won’t be the last time we see the asteroid called 2024 PT5, as it will return as our mini-moon again next year and then again in 2055.