The swans, ducks, and geese of Lake Tjörnin, the idyllic urban pond of Reykjavik, swim peacefully under the cool August sun, unaware of the division with which Icelandic society faces today’s referendum on whether or not to resume negotiations with Brussels for accession to the European Union (EU). The ballot result is expected to be very close.
At least 27 people died and another 42 were injured in a Russian drone attack on Friday against a warehouse that supposedly housed ammunition in the Bucha district, near Kyiv, Ukrainian authorities reported on Saturday.
The Nepal Tourism Board (NTB) raised on Saturday to two the number of Spanish nationals located, after estimating three missing, following the massive flood that has caused more than 600 deaths and nearly 3,000 people unaccounted for in Nepal and the Tibet Autonomous Region (China).
Ratko Mladic, the convicted former Bosnian Serb military chief who died on Thursday in The Hague at the age of 83, will receive a State funeral with full honors, according to Serbia’s Minister of Justice, Nenad Vujić. In statements to the Bosnian Serb channel ATV, the minister said that the preparations will follow the protocol corresponding to Mladic’s military rank, convicted of war crimes and genocide, but considered by many in Serbia as a hero.
Norway bids farewell to its sovereign today. Harald V has passed away at the age of 89 at the National Hospital of Oslo after being admitted for hemolytic anemia, ending more than three decades of a reign defined by stability and closeness. He will go down in history as the heir who challenged the strict dynastic rules by imposing his marriage to the commoner Sonia Haraldsen, the act of determination that marked the character of his trajectory. His departure shocks a nation that saw in his figure a guarantor of neutrality and institutional integrity.
Icelanders go to the polls this Saturday to decide in a referendum whether this North Atlantic island, which for decades has preferred not to be part of the European Union (EU), will resume negotiations with Brussels for a possible accession to the community club.
This Friday in Nepal, excavators continue searching through the mud for victims of the massive flood from two days ago. The police have raised the death toll to 469, while lowering the number of missing persons to 910. On the Tibetan side of the Himalayas, meanwhile, Chinese authorities suspended rescue operations for hours after detecting an imminent risk of overflow at an altitude of 2,900 meters. It is believed to be a natural dam formed by debris from the first flood, containing two million cubic meters of water, which is already showing signs of leakage.
On February 28, the United States and Israeli Armed Forces launched a risky military campaign against Iran with the declared objective of overthrowing the Islamic regime, eliminating its nuclear program once and for all, and ending the threat capacity of its allied militias in the region. Emboldened by a swift and successful operation in Venezuela in January, when they kidnapped the dictator Nicolás Maduro in one night, President Donald Trump promised the American people that this would be a new “excursion” lasting “four or five weeks.” By the end of March, when the deadline arrived, he said it would take “maybe two more weeks to finish the job.” Since then, Trump has repeatedly declared that the Pentagon has emerged victorious, despite the reality on the ground showing a very different picture.
The king is dead, long live the King. Minutes after Harald of Norway was officially declared deceased, his son, and until now crown prince, Haakon, in accordance with the Norwegian constitution, has automatically assumed the head of state, becoming the fourth king of the modern era of Norway after his great-grandfather, Haakon VII, his grandfather, Olav V, and his own father. This very Friday, Haakon VIII will convene the Council of State to sign the acceptance act and deliver his first message to the nation. The until now crown prince, who has just turned 53, receives the Viking throne at the worst moment for the Norwegian monarchy weakened by the situation faced by the until now princess Mette-Marit, who, besides recovering from a lung transplant, has to overcome the situation of her eldest son Marius Borg, who is serving house arrest after being convicted of rape and abuse, and her own crisis after her connections with the sexual criminal Jeffrey Epstein were revealed.
Harald of Norway will go down in history as the first heir to the throne who dared to challenge dynastic laws by breaking a centuries-old tradition in European courts and marrying a commoner. It is known to be his only act of rebellion in his 89 years of life. Today, the third king of modern Norway leaves behind his widow Sonia Haraldsen, the young woman he fell in love with in the late 1950s and with whom, after a ten-year effort and obtaining his father’s permission, he married in 1968.
