Last Week in Denmark (17.10 - 24.10) Episode 35
The festival of democracy; Temporary border controls; Vaccine for children; E-cigarettes
Editor HQ
“Posters, posters, everywhere” was probably your first thought as you walked down your street yesterday. The 3 week intense campaign for local and regional elections has started - the posters are up, soon your mailboxes will be full of political material, you will meet lots of smiling faces on the street willing to give you stuff - the democracy festival is in full swing.
On that note, I want to let you know that I am also standing up for elections - I am a candidate for Regional Council North Denmark, the only non-Danish citizen among the hundreds of candidates. If you want to read more about my campaign - check out my website.
Public Health HQ
Status: 76,2% of the population has been vaccinated (4,470,907 people). 75% of the population has received the second vaccine shot (4,402,566 people). 83,2% have received Pfizer/BioNTech; 12,4% Moderna; 3,4% AstraZeneca and 1% Johnson&Johnson. The region with the highest vaccination rate - North Denmark (78,1%).
Corona infection status: There is an average of 1000 new infected people every day. 144 people are hospitalized. The five municipalities with the highest rate of infection are: Albertslund, Brøndby, Ishøj, Lolland and Gladsaxe. Check out more data here.
Travel Guidelines: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced that the traffic light system of categorizing the countries has been abolished. From now on;
Fully vaccinated, previously infected and people with a negative test will be able to enter Denmark without restrictions. If you are not vaccinated or previously infected and without a negative test, you must take one in Denmark in the first 24 hours.
Police border control on COVID-19 is abolished.
COVID19 Vaccine for children: The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is currently evaluating the possibility of giving the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine to children between 5 and 11 years old.
Danish Politics HQ
The former prime minister of Denmark, Lars Løkke Rasmussen, published a new book, which contains among others, what his political party, “the Moderates”, will support or propose in the future. Among the ideas: Drop the property tax; Tax gains from selling houses; Extend compulsory education to 12 years; Cut the SU; Close down the regional councils.
Temporary border controls will be extended until May 2022. Why? Threat of terrorism and organized crime.
The citizen proposal “to stop the deportation of Syrian refugees” has reached 50,000 signatures and now it has to be discussed in the Danish Parliament.
Danish Economy HQ
Shortage of drivers: The transport industry in Denmark suffers from a shortage of drivers. We need 1500 taxi drivers, 1500 bus drivers and thousands of truck drivers.
Negative interest rate: Nordea and Jyske Bank have made it more expensive to let your money get mouldy in your bank account. From -0.6% to -0.7%. To keep 250,000 dkk in your bank account, you need to pay 1050 dkk / yearly. Before it was 900 dkk.
Daily Life in Denmark HQ
Last week, we let you know that the police will focus on speeding in traffic. Unfortunately, 7000 people didn’t get the message and got a fine. Fewer people got a fine compared to last year's focus week, but still too many according to the police.
Driving tests: The responsibility for conducting driving tests has been moved from the police to the Danish Transport Authority since 1st October. Why? To reduce waiting time for getting a driving test. What happened in reality? The DTA has made it worse.
E-cigarettes are bad: Researchers, authorities and the Danish Cancer Society are concerned about e-cigarettes. A new study from John Hopkins University shows that there are 2000 unknown chemical compounds and several known and harmful to health, in the liquid from e-cigarettes.
Former football player, Michael Laudrup received the distinction of “the greatest sport star in the history of Denmark”. Check the list of the 125 biggest Danish sport stars since 1896.
The minister of culture wants the major sports events to be seen on DR. In that regard, she wants to reintroduce the “sports list” which will allow DR to bid first for the transmission of big sports events.
The port of Skagen is moving into the future, by switching the docking system from diesel engines to electricity. This means less pollution and less noise. Good news for the local citizens.
420 new private forests in Denmark. More are on the way. The Danish Agency for Agriculture is allocating 70 million dkk for farmers that want to turn their agricultural land into forest.
The World in 2021 HQ
Rare weather phenomenon in Cuba aka “the cloud pump”
Photo: ALVARO PEREZ SENRA © Ritzau Scanpix
Democracy: The last absolute monarchy in Africa, Eswatini, is struggling. Pro-democracy protests have been going on for months now. King Mswati III ordered the closure of the schools in an attempt to contain the protests.
Abortion: Joe Biden, the president of USA has ordered the department of justice to block the Texas state law against abortion.
New state of matter: Egor Babaev and his team published an experiment that shows evidence of a new state of matter called electron quadruplets.
Major scientific advance: A team of surgeons from New York have managed to transplant a genetically modified pig kidney to a human without rejection. The dream of animal-to-human transplants — or xenotransplantation — goes back to the 17th century with stumbling attempts to use animal blood for transfusions.
Space race: South Korea launched its first homemade space rocket.
The Winter Olympics (Beijing 2021) torch has been lit in the ancient city of Olympia (Greece) and it will go from country to country until it reaches Beijing, as is the tradition.
European Union HQ
Sakharov Prize: Awarded for the first time in 1988 to Nelson Mandela and Anatoli Marchenko, the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is the highest tribute paid by the European Union to human rights work. It gives recognition to individuals, groups and organisations that have made an outstanding contribution to protecting freedom of thought. In 2021, the prize was awarded to Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
German mercenaries: Two former soldiers in Germany have been arrested, accused of trying to form a mercenary group with the aim of intervening in the military conflict in Yemen. Up to 150 other former soldiers and police officers have signed up to become mercenaries for the salary of 40,000 euro per month.