Norway's news in English
NEWS ANALYSIS: New Agriculture Minister Sylvi Listhaug is a farmer’s daughter who has referred to the country’s highly regulated farming and food industries as a “Norwegian form of communism.” Now she’s in a position to tackle many of the aspects that make food in Norway the most expensive in the world, and the powerful farming […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: The strongest warnings ever about the hazards of climate change, issued over the weekend, have prompted Norway’s new environment minister to promise that emissions cuts will be made in all sectors, including the country’s important oil industry. Others are urging a halt to all oil and gas exploration on the Norwegian continental shelf, […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: Environmental groups were pleasantly surprised when Norway’s new conservative government unveiled some new climate-friendly goals earlier this month, including full electrification of new offshore oil fields. The government is already facing strong objections from state-owned oil company Statoil, but this week’s release of the UN’s latest climate report shows that such measures are now urgently […]
EXPATRIATE MUSINGS: Racism continues to rear its ugly head in Norway from time to time, most recently this winter when a group of young white men attacked an immigrant in the county of Nord-Trøndelag. Samson M Mahari, an immigrant himself who came to Norway from Eritrea, offers a voice of calm amidst heated debate, noting […]
NEWS ANALYSIS/UPDATED: As conflict escalates between Russia on the one side and Ukraine and most of the rest of Europe on the other, the Norwegian government has so far come out solidly in favour of the acting government in the Ukrainian capital. As Foreign Minister Børge Brende pays his respects in Kiev, though, it’s not […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: Tapped to memorialize the greatest trauma of Norway’s recent history, Swedish artist Jonas Dahlberg has a big job ahead of him. His winning proposal for memorials to the terrorist attacks of July 22, 2011, which involves a “cut” through the terror-hit island of Utøya that will bring parts of the land back to central […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: Siv Jensen was making her debut this week as her party’s first-ever finance minister at the government’s deceptively festive annual launch of state budget negotiations. It’s important for both her and the Progress Party she leads to put their clear party stamp on the state budget they’ll unveil later this year. It’s also […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: The potential tyranny of the minority mobilized the majority in Norway over the weekend, and that seemed to surprise Prime Minister Erna Solberg. Her government gave in to demands from the small Christian Democrats party to change Norway’s abortion law, and now they’re paying the price in the form of major protests and […]
COMMENTARY: Some high-profile Norwegian politicians are trying to force the use of the local language in immigrant homes. A reality check seems in order: One question is whether Carl I Hagen of the Progress Party, who put forth new demands for Norwegian language expertise this week, would really drop his own Norwegian if he ever […]
NEWS ANALYSIS: Celebrated but controversial, Bjarne Melgaard is today considered by many to be Norway’s most important living visual artist, and lately he’s been setting off some Olympic sparks. For more than two decades his work has spanned an array of disciplines including painting, sculpture, installation and film as well as forays into music and […]
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