by Mingming Shi
1) The news service Vísir reported that in Iceland, young people from 16-24 years old, as well as foreign nationals in the country, are statistically suffering worst economically from the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a report issued by ASÍ, the Icelandic Confederation of Labour. Numerous immigrants in the country had been working in the tourism and related sectors, which have been severely damaged by the severe drop-off in global travel, a situation which has led to the high unemployment rates among these groups. ASÍ has also urged the Icelandic government to ‘establish a comprehensive employment policy’ in order to cope with the crisis.
2) According to The Local, the Government of Norway has promised that a free vaccine against the COVID-19 virus will be made available for free for all inhabitants of the country once it is ready for the public. This is estimated to take place early in the new year.
3) As Radio Sweden revealed, a report by the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket) has argued that the Government of Sweden has not done enough to protect biodiversity in the country. This has included missing several key ‘Aichi Targets’ which were agreed upon a decade ago.
4) According to Norway Today, the Government of Norway now believes that an cyber-attack recently affecting email systems in the Norwegian Parliament (Storting) can be traced back to Russia. Prime Minister Erna Solberg warned that Oslo would stand firmly against future such incidents.
Over the Circle 