Free Republic

[video at link]

A number of books and films have told and made familiar the story of the invasion on April 9, 1940 and occupation of the country of Norway until May 8, 1945 by Nazi Germany during World War II. Germany quickly gained control of major coastal towns, but King Haakon VII and his government refused to surrender and went into exile in Britain. The country was controlled by an occupation force of 300,000 under the military commander General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst, and Adolf Hitler appointed the former gauleiter Josef Terboven as head of the civilian occupation regime. Later, a puppet government...

Residents in Norway have been reeling from the country's coldest summer in nearly 30 to 60 years. Early in July, more than 10 m (32 feet) of snow accumulated in parts of the southern region, which was unprecedented for this time of the year. According to state meteorologists, Oslo has recorded an average temperature of just 14.7 °C (58.5 °F) this month, which was the coldest in nearly 30 years. Meanwhile, Bergen's average has been even colder at 12.8 °C (55 °F). Trondheim hit 12.1 °C (53.8 °F), the coldest for almost 60 years. “ In Oslo, we have to...

A couple in St. John’s, Michigan recently took down the red, white and blue flag of Norway displayed on the porch of their bed and breakfast after receiving continuous complaints by ignorant liberals who accused the couple of flying the Confederate battle flag. The Nordic Pineapple, run out of a mansion built in 1861 by a Union general, was started two years ago by Greg and Kjersten Offenbecker. The couple flew the flag of Norway from a pillar opposite the American flag to honor Kjersten’s Norwegian heritage (her grandfather immigrated from Norway.) Both the U.S. and Norway flags were taken...

Norway's success in handling the coronavirus pandemic has left funeral directors struggling to make ends meet. While some countries have seen their morgues overloaded with bodies in a traumatic symbol of their huge death tolls, Norway has seen only 253 deaths from the virus and demand for funeral ceremonies has fallen because of the lockdown. Undertakers say the lockdown has also led to fewer deaths from other diseases, meaning that 'old and sick people' who 'would have died in normal circumstances' are still alive. Half a dozen funeral directors have already turned to the state for help, with some receiving...

Norway’s public health agency has said that the infection rate is now sufficiently low that people can hug a small circle of close friends. “With the infection rate as low as it is now, I think it’s okay to give a hug to close friends,” Are Stuwits Berg from the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (NIPH), told Norway’s VG newspaper. On March 19th, Norway’s directorate of health advised people to “find alternatives to hugging and shaking hands”, and NIPH has also recommended people to avoid hugging, kissing, and holding hands with people outside their household. But late last month, the...

Radiation sensors in Stockholm have detected higher-than-usual but still harmless levels of isotopes produced by nuclear fission, probably from somewhere on or near the Baltic Sea, a body running a worldwide network of the sensors said on Friday. The Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) oversees a network of hundreds of monitoring stations that use seismic, hydroacoustic and other technology to check for a nuclear weapon test anywhere in the world. That technology can, however, be put to other uses as well. One of its stations scanning the air for radionuclides - telltale radioactive particles that can be carried long distances...

The whole story starts with a farmer. Specifically, the farmer at Jortveit farm in southern Norway. Around the beginning of the 1930s he decided to drain a wetland near the farm so he could cultivate new land. But while he was working on the deep drainage trenches, strange things started to crop up. Bones from a bluefin tuna and a killer whale. And huge fish hooks and harpoons made of bones. In the middle of the wetland! The tools eventually ended up in the University Museum of Antiquities in Oslo, where they were studied by archaeologists. The bones, on the...

Invisible for humans, but detectable for radiation-filters. A cloud with tiny levels of radioactivity, believed to originate from western Russia, has been detected over Scandinavia and European Arctic. First, in week 23 (June 2-8), iodine-131 was measured at the two air filter stations Svanhovd and Viksjøfjell near Kirkenes in short distance from Norway’s border to Russia’s Kola Peninsula. The same days, on June 7 and 8, the CTBTO-station at Svalbard measured tiny levels of the same isotope. CTBTO is the global network of radiological and seismic monitoring under the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization. Norway’s nuclear watchdog, the DSA, underlines that...

What is the role of women in a political movement as misogynistic as President Donald Trump’s? What does it take to be the consort to an authoritarian? Washington Post writer Mary Jordan’s deeply reported book focusing on Melania Trump tackles, in its own way, several of these questions. While the initial buzz centered around rumors that the first lady leveraged her husband’s election to revise her prenup - this book is much more than a standard Bob Woodward-style recitation of insider accounts. Far from the helpless stereotype that has become a running punchline, Jordan’s research reveals something larger: the personality...

Rare elongated dice and board game pieces from the Roman Iron Age have been discovered in western Norway. Last month, Norwegian archaeologists chose to excavate the remains of a small Early Iron Age grave cairn in western Norway. Dotted with monuments and grave mounds, the scenic location overlooking Alversund played an important role in Norwegian history. The site at Ytre Fosse turned out to be a cremation patch. Amidst the fragments of pottery and burnt glass, archaeologists found a surprise: rare Roman Iron Age dice and board game pieces... Archaeologists also found the remains of what was likely a powerful...

A landslide in northern Norway on June 3rd, 2020. (Large chunk of land containing farms slides into the sea) Video Here.

The sustained plunge in global oil prices has brought deep, unexpected shifts on the geopolitical landscape, with impacts felt in the Arctic and the Middle East, and in the fortunes of the American heartland and the future of the Russian-Chinese strategic alliance. A U.S.-engineered market truce has helped energy prices rebound slightly this month after flatlining in April, but analysts say reverberations will likely be felt for years to come as they chip away at the foundational international partnerships in the post-World War II era and create new alliances and rivalries. Analysts say there is no way the U.S. and...

If the project is successful, the 65-foot-long (20 meters) oak vessel -- called the Gjellestad ship -- will become the first Viking ship to be excavated in Norway in 115 years, said Sveinung Rotevatn, the Norwegian Minister of Climate and Environment... The ship is buried at a well-known Viking archaeological site at Gjellestad, near Halden, a town in southeastern Norway. But scientists discovered the vessel only recently, in the fall of 2018, by using radar scans that can detect structures underground. The scans revealed not only the ship, but also the Viking cemetery where it was ritually buried. The team...

BEIRUT (AP) — In troubled times, people have been known to hoard currency at home — a financial security blanket against deep uncertainty. But in this crisis, things are different. This time cash itself, passed from hand to hand across neighborhoods, cities and societies just like the coronavirus, is a source of suspicion rather than reassurance. No longer a thing to be shoved mindlessly into a pocket, tucked into a worn wallet or thrown casually on a kitchen counter, money’s status has changed during the virus era — perhaps irrevocably. The pandemic has also reawakened debate about the continued viability...

Will the financial fallout from COVID-19 make European infrastructure vulnerable to the Chinese government's checkbook? Some experts warn that Europe is already in precarious straits. Teri Schultz reports from Brussels.

...So it is no coincidence that when the opportunity arose, we chose the Pasvik River, the river that forms the border between Norway, Russia and Finland. For one simple reason: the Pasvik River alone tells the story not only of the High North, but also of the continent. Nothing less. We followed it from Lake Inari in Finland, where it originates, to Kirkenes, where it flows into the Barents Sea. From the depths of Lapland, where it tells History, to the Arctic Ocean, where it meets future. The Pasvik border can be summed up like this, stories of reindeer and...

Several countries in Europe have announced plans to reopen at least parts of their economy and society. Sweden remains open and has kept its borders open as well as its preschools, grade schools, bars, restaurants, parks, and shops. Norway is planning to open kindergarten next week. The Danish Prime Minister announced that she expects to open day care and schools up to 5th grade on April 15th. And Austria is planning to lift its coronavirus lockdown while requiring citizens to wear face masks.

Sweden has twice the population Last updated: April 05, 2020, 19:26 GMT Sweden Coronavirus Cases: 6,830 Deaths: 401 Recovered: 205 Last updated: April 05, 2020, 19:32 GMT Denmark Coronavirus Cases: 4,369 Deaths: 179 Recovered: 1,327 Finland Coronavirus Cases: 1,927 Deaths: 28 Recovered: 300 Looks like Finland may be like Montana. wide open space

United Nations (United States) (AFP) - The UN General Assembly on Thursday approved a resolution calling for "international cooperation" and "multilateralism" in the fight against COVID-19, in the first text to come out of the international body since the outbreak began. The resolution, approved by consensus, also stresses "the need for full respect for human rights" and that "there is no place for any form of discrimination, racism and xenophobia in the response to the pandemic." The UN resolution emphasises the central role of the body in the global health and economic crisis. It was submitted by Switzerland, Indonesia, Singapore,...