26. apríl 2022 The board of Efling has faced a lot of criticism since lay­ing off all employees working in the union’s office. This decision, made by the chairman Sólveig Anna Jóns­dóttir, has trig­gered some harsh responses from the public. People seem to either condemn the chairman’s decision or embrace it as part of Jóns­dóttir’s fight for sal­ary increase for the lowest paid....

25. apríl 2022 Queer Iceland in an International Context is the name of a series of lectures by Eyrún Eyþórs­dóttir, where she talks about LGBTQ+ people’s experience of hate crimes, also counting hate speech and discrimination due to sexual orientation and gender identity. In the lecture, Eyrún cites data from her study. She has a doctor’s degree in Ant­hropology from the Uni­versity of...

19. apríl 2022 Kristinn Hrafns­son, the editor at Wikileaks, wrote a post on his Facebook page, reg­ar­ding the Icelandic govern­ment sell­ing its stake in the bank Íslands­banki. In his post, Kristinn uses the tale of Jack and the Bean­stalk as a metaphor. „If I was like Sif Sig­mars­dóttir, Iceland’s most prominent columnist, I would surely write about Jack and the Bean­stalk,“ Hrafns­son beg­ins...

13. apríl 2022 Hörður Jónasson, a for­mer dri­ver, donated most of his furnit­ure and household items to refugees from Ukraine. Hörður had advert­ised his things free of charge. However, he then decided to give the items to refugees at Bifröst uni­versity campus. Frétta­blaðið orig­inally reported on this. Hörður got in contact with a couple from Hafn­ar­fjörður that was collecting furnit­ure and other items...

12. apríl 2022 The film director Ridley Scott is one of the most prominent film directors in history, with films like Alien, Blade Runner, Thelma & Louise and Gladi­ator on his res­umé. Scott and the film director Scott Free have secured the film rights for Úti, a book by the aut­hor Ragnar Jónasson. The plan is for Scott to produce a film based...

11. apríl 2022 There has been a nota­ble increase in reports to the poi­son center in Land­spít­ali hospi­tal from the year 2020 to 2021, due to nicotine pouches. This is stated in the center’s annual report. Frétta­blaðið reported that according to information from the poi­son center, there were a few reports of poi­son­ings from nicotine pouches that had been eaten by young children....

11. apríl 2022 Mannlíf recently publ­is­hed screenshots of a list of tasks, meant for an „au pair“ liv­ing with a host family in Iceland. The list in question has been hars­hly criticized. It contained examp­les of rules and tasks that the au pair was meant to follow and do. The tasks and working hours on the list are not in accordance with the...

8. apríl 2022 „No, I had no idea,“ Bjarni Bene­dikts­son, Iceland’s Minister of Finance and Economic Affairs said when asked whether he had been aware of his father purchasing a share in the bank Íslands­banki. On Wednesday it was revealed which companies, indi­vi­du­als and associations had bought shares in the 22,5% stake in Íslands­banki previously owned by the Icelandic govern­ment. The long list...

5. apríl 2022 The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has allowed for people to receive their fourth dose of mRNA-vaccines aga­inst Covid-19. The vaccines in question are Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna. This was orig­inally reported by mbl.is. The fourth dose, or second booster dose, will be availa­ble to those who are over 50 years of age, as well as those with a...

5. apríl 2022 Sigurður Ingi Jóhanns­son, Iceland’s mini­ster for infrastructure, has rel­e­a­sed a statem­ent on his per­sonal Facebook page, where he apologizes for a comment made by him about Vigdís Häsler, director of The Icelandic Farmers Association. Sources have claimed that the mini­ster’s comment was of a racist nat­ure. He is said to have refer­red to Vigdís as „the black one“ at a...

2. apríl 2022 „I cannot really comment on the matter while it is being investigated by the Directorate of Health,“ says Jón Helgi Björns­son, head of the Health Care Institution of North Iceland. He says that it is quite common for nur­ses to be assigned to check-ups for people with health problems. Jón Helgi could not in full discuss a tragic case where...

30. mars 2022 A man who is an intravenous drug user says that there is a fent­anyl epidemic among drug users in Iceland today. He says that three young men he knew died due to a fent­anyl over­dose last year. He says there very well may have been more. Fentanyl is a prescription-only drug. Kristján Hafberg Ein­ars­son, a 51-year-old man, claims to be...