Free Republic

[SNIP] In a clear swipe at his predecessor, George W. Bush, the committee praised the “change in the international climate” that the President had brought, along with his cherished goal of ridding the world of nuclear weapons. [SNIP] But Lech Walesa, [SNIP], who won the Peace Prize in 1983, [SNIP], declaring: “So soon? Too early. He has no contribution so far.” Mr Obama’s domestic critics leapt on the award as evidence of foreigners fawning over an untested “celebrity” leader. [SNIP] The Nobel Peace Prize is a notoriously difficult award to predict, but yesterday's decision was clearly a political choice, with...

When I first moved to Norway in 1999, I often heard the term amerikanske tilstander – “American conditions.” It was never, ever used positively; it didn’t refer, for example, to things like freedom and prosperity. No, it was always used to describe some dreaded social or cultural or economic phenomenon that was supposedly on the rise in Norway and that threatened to make the country look more like – horrors! – the United States. Evangelical Christianity? Amerikanske tilstander! Gun crime? Amerikanske tilstander! Rough-and-tumble election campaigns? Dumb TV shows? Private medical options? Growing economic inequality? Amerikanske tilstander! Back then, you never,...

Norway is an EV leader thanks to a generous pot of tax incentives. Today, battery-electric cars make up more than half of all new car sales in Norway. Schalk Cloete takes a detailed look at what those incentives cost, and how many tonnes of CO2 they avoid. Norway – a major oil and gas exporter – needs to sell over 100 barrels of oil (which emits 40 tonnes of CO2) to pay for the tax breaks it gives EVs to avoid one tonne of CO2. And Norway’s electricity is almost completely clean thanks to hydro power, so the CO2 avoidance...

Archaeologists have discovered an ancient bridle and other artifacts from a mountain pass almost 2,000 meters above sea level.Near a mountain pass, not far from Norway's highest mountain Galdhøpiggen, archaeologists have found traces of horse travel.A metal bit and parts of the leather straps that fasten around the horse's head have emerged from under the ice...Traffic through a mountain pass on Lomseggen was at its peak during the Viking Age.Snow and ice melting in the area has previously uncovered hundreds of ancient artifacts. They have revealed that Norwegians used this mountain pass for more than 1,200 years (link in Norwegian)...The...

Norwegian chief of defense claims Putin 'knows very well' NATO is not a threat to Russia Norway said Russian forces have pulled back from its border in the Arctic, claiming the number of soldiers Moscow has there now is "20% or less" compared to the start of the Ukraine war

Nine gold pendants with rare horse symbols, ten gold beads, and three gold rings from the 6th century were recently discovered by a metal detectorist in Southwestern Norway. Erlend Bore just wanted a hobby. So just before this summer, he bought a metal detector. To get him off his couch and go treasure hunting. He was searching around the shore of the island Rennesøy in Stavanger, in Southwestern Norway, when the metal detector started to beep. In a lump of soil, he saw something that looked like gold coins. “At first I thought I’d found chocolate money with a gold...

The directorate of agriculture in the kingdom considered that the Russian reindeer moss, eaten by the Norwegian deer, is now too expensive, and instead of paying for the damage caused in the Pasvik nature reserve, they preferred to destroy the northern beauties in the amount of 42 individuals. In the treasury of one of the richest countries in the world, 47 million crowns (approximately 420 million rubles) were not to be found to save the animals, settling the claims of the Russian side. Russian zoologists acted strictly within the framework of an agreement signed thirty years ago, which regulated the...

...at Vinjeøra in southern Trøndelag County... The first discoveries to make it to the surface... large pieces of flint that were highly reminiscent of early, pioneer settlements...When the excavations in Vinjeøra got under way properly... the researchers found evidence from people who came to Finnmark from the east around 9000 BC.The ice remained the longest in Scandinavia compared to the rest of Europe during the last Ice Age. The Norwegian coast only became free of ice around 12,500 years ago. The first people arrived in what we now know as Norway and Sweden about 1,000 years later.Skeletal analyses have previously...

First a word of warning. This story you are about to read is WORSE than you think. I did not believe this could happen in a democracy. This should not ever happen in a democracy. But then again, I am beginning to ask myself if we are actually still living in a democracy. Let's start from the beginning... This is about a Norwegian man named Trond Harald Haaland. He has long been outspoken about things like the World Economic Forum, climate change and vaccine passports. He has posted a lot about the excess death rates we have been seeing after...

Numerous reports Thursday said NATO-member Norway has rushed to follow the Netherlands and Denmark to donate U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. Norwegian media outlets made their revelations as Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre was visiting the Ukraine capital Kyiv. AP reports there was no official confirmation of the plan, which was reported by Norwegian broadcasters NRK and TV2. Ukraine has long pleaded for the sophisticated fighter jets to give it a combat edge, as Breitbart News reported.

For many years, progressives and self-avowed socialists have touted a small group of countries as models for the cushy welfare state they hope to create in the US: the Nordic states. Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, and Iceland offer extensive welfare benefits to their citizens, and many on the American left have taken this as evidence that socialism works... However, there is a reality that has received less attention in this debate: despite being modern in many ways, the Nordic countries have retained much of their traditional cultures, elements of which are repugnant to the worldview of American progressives. These nations...

Major General Sir Nils Olav III, Baron of the Bouvet Islands, is now the most highly decorated penguin in the world - probably even the universe. A penguin has been promoted to the third highest rank in the Norwegian Armed Forces. Sir Nils Olav III, a resident of Penguin's Rock in Edinburgh Zoo, was given the honorary title of Major General in the King's Guard of Norway on Monday, as their official mascot. Some 160 uniformed soldiers visited the Scottish zoo to bestow the unique honour upon the king penguin, involving much military pomp and circumstance. The decorated bird, already...

A significant discovery has been made in Norway that could have a positive impact on electric cars. Norge Mining, a government organization responsible for finding valuable minerals, recently found large deposits of phosphate rocks in the country. These rocks can be used to power electric cars. According to the mining company, there could be up to 70 billion tonnes of phosphorus in Norway, which is enough to meet the demand for electric power generation for the next 50 years. Phosphorus is an important mineral listed by the European Union as crucial to the economy. Previously, the largest deposits of phosphate...

Bjórnar Moxnes got caught on cameras. He publicly apologized The leader of Norway’s left-wing Ródt party, Bjórnar Moxnes, was caught red-handed while stealing a pair of sunglasses from the Duty Free at Oslo airport. Moxnes was fined 3,000 Norwegian kroner (just over €257) for theft with intent. The news has raised a hornet’s nest of controversy. Over the weekend, the leader was interviewed by Norwegian public broadcaster Nrk, to which he recounted the incident and admitted his guilt: “I want to start by saying I’m very sorry.” Moxnes explained that he only realized he had left the shop without paying...

A group of UK islands could become a territory of Norway under dramatic new proposals. Orkney, off the northeast coast of Scotland, has a population of less than 23,000 people spread across its 20 inhabited islands and makes up one of the country's 32 council areas. But next week a motion will go before the council, exploring "alternative forms of governance" including changing the archipelago's status within the UK or becoming a self-governing territory of the Scandinavian nation. "We are looking for the very best position for future generations and our place in the world," council leader James Stockan told...

Here's what it tastes like.We’ve all heard the expression “aging like a fine wine,” which implies that, like the best bottles, certain things get better with time. But what would happen if, say, that aging took place at the bottom of the ocean in a remote location just shy of the Arctic Circle? That’s the question that Norwegian boating company Hurtigruten wanted to test when it partnered with British Rathfinny Wine Estate to lower bottles of its 2018 Classic Cuveé to the ocean floor in hopes of bringing back a higher-quality, more mature product and, if not, to at least...

The four fish traps discovered by mountain hiker Reidar Marstein last summer consist of long poles that have been driven into the seabed. They form the pattern of a fence that has guided the fish into a chamber. From there, Stone Age folks could easily use a fishing net to catch the fish they needed.Each chamber consisted of around 40-50 poles, and the archaeologists have found remains that are as much as 80 centimetres long. They are so well preserved that they 'might as well have been cut last year', they write enthusiastically on KHM's Facebook page.In the Norwegian mountains,...

In 2022 Norway’s third richest man, Kjell Inge Røkke, announced in an open letter to shareholders he was moving to Lugano, Switzerland. “My capital will continue working in Norway,” wrote the fishing magnate turned industrialist who launched his empire four decades ago with a 69-foot trawler he bought while saving money working on ships off the coast of Alaska. Røkke, who Forbes estimates has a fortune of $5.1 billion, will cost the Norwegian government an estimated 175,000,000 kroner annually (roughly $16 million) with his departure. That might not sound like a lot of money, but Røkke is not the only...

The U.S. is an “outlier” among Western nations in providing body-altering drugs and surgery to children who identify as transgender, as concern grows in the scientific community about the results of such treatments. Described by many Democratic politicians as “gender-affirming care” for “trans kids,” puberty-blocking drugs and sex reassignment surgeries at a young age may not reduce psychological distress, and may have long-term and irreversible consequences that children cannot factor into their decision-making at a young age. The Wall Street Journal reported Monday: The U.S. is becoming an outlier among many Western nations in the way its national medical institutions...

OSLO, June 19 (Reuters) - Large and mid-size private firms in Norway must have boards comprising at least 40% women, Norway's government proposed in a bill on Monday, in a further push to break the glass ceiling preventing women from reaching top positions. The Nordic country was the first in the world to introduce a 40% gender quota on the boards of listed companies, in 2005, kick-starting an international push to force companies to have more women on boards. In December, Norway's government proposed an extension of its quota law to apply to large private companies. On Monday, it said...