by Mingming Shi
1) Visit Greenland, a tourism website overseen by the Government of Greenland, produced a 40 minute-long autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) video. This video mainly features the sounds of touch and percussion, (with palms and fingers), using various typical cultural items in Greenland.
2) An article on how Iceland has been combatting the COVID-19 pandemic was published by the Bloomberg news service. In this piece, Ragnhildur Sigurdardóttir, the author, outlined several major factors, including close cooperation between scientists and governmental authorities, strict border testing and timely controls, and sufficient information to residents, as well as public participation in following regulations, in explaining Iceland’s success in flattening the curve.
3) As RÚV reported, there have been constant earthquakes in Iceland since Wednesday, mainly in the southwest region of the country. So far, there are no reports of casualties or significant property damage caused by the seismic activities. As Kristín Jónsdóttir, a local expert on natural disasters at the Icelandic Met Office, has estimated, further quake activity in the coming days is to be expected.
4) In the latest of a series of ‘Arctic Circle Virtual‘ lecture videos, produced by the Arctic Circle Forum in Reykjavík, an online discussion [video] was held with Iceland’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, and former Icelandic Foreign Minister Össur Skarphéðinsson, on the subject of the recently released report by the Icelandic Foreign Ministry on Greenland-Iceland relations. Össur was the chair of the committee which produced the report.*
5) A cat named Harrison, who had been living at the NWT SPCA shelter in Yellowknife, Canada, finally arrived his permanent home after spending over three years at the facility, according to CBC News. Due to his rough life experiences before arriving at the shelter, the feline had become known for being independent and quite fiercely defensive.
*Note: It is common for Icelanders to formally address others, even presidents and prime ministers, by their first names.
Over the Circle 