Authorities could face bill of up to 23m krone for wrongful charges over seven-year period to mostly foreign couplesAuthorities in Copenhagen could face a bill of tens of millions of krone after it emerged that the city had illegally charged wedding fees to about 12,000 couples over seven years.Most of those who were charged during the period are understood to have been from outside Denmark and did not have permanent residence in the country. Continue reading…

Danish company makes $9bn cash call as it says business model has been derailed by US policiesEurope’s largest wind power company has blamed Donald Trump for derailing its business model, after it announced a $9bn (£6.7bn) fundraising and its market value plunged by almost a third.The share price for Denmark’s Ørsted tumbled to an all-time low after it told investors on Monday that the “extraordinary situation” facing the industry meant it would need to tap shareholders to cover the costs of its plans. Continue reading…

Aalborg zoo points to importance of mimicking natural feeding, but critics say its campaign devalues petsAfter a Danish zoo posted a reminder of its long-running programme allowing people to donate their healthy, small pets to be “gently euthanised” and fed to predators, reaction poured in from across the globe.But beyond the battleground playing out on social media – where some protested against the idea of using pets as prey and others praised the zoo’s efforts to drum up a practical food supply – some were swift to point out that the zoo was simply laying bare the reality of keeping carnivores in captivity. Continue reading…

In an industry dominated by male creative directors, a quiet shift is taking place in Copenhagen, where women are not only leading labels but redefining what success looks likeFootball fans will be familiar with the manager musical chairs, but fashion has been strangely similar over the last year. Since mid-2024 there have been 17 new designers appointed to head up houses including Gucci and Dior. But, in an industry fuelled by womenswear, just four of these appointments have been women.And there are other depressing statistics. Of the top 30 luxury brands in the Vogue Business Index, a mere five creative directors are women. At Kering, the luxury conglomerate that owns Balenciaga and Valentino, there is just one: Louise Trotter at Bottega Veneta. At LVMH, the fashion behemoth that counts Loewe and Dior among its brands, again, just one label is helmed by a woman – Sarah Burton at Givenchy. Continue reading…

Danish company to cut costs and consider layoffs after competition from Mounjaro and the copycat market Sales of Novo Nordisk’s injectable diabetes drugs including Ozempic have slowed sharply amid fierce competition and the threat of US tariffs, prompting it to cut costs and sharpen its commercial focus.The Danish drugmaker, whose booming sales of GLP-1 diabetes and obesity drugs in recent years had turned it into Europe’s most valuable company, has lost nearly $100bn (£75bn) in market value since cutting its full-year sales forecast last week, when its share price slid 30% in its worst week in more than two decades. It fell a further 3% on Wednesday. Continue reading…

Ilulissat’s mayor has called for protests as local operators are frozen out of a booming visitor tradeIt is known as the “iceberg capital of the world” but to the mayor of Ilulissat in northern Greenland, it is also a town divided where friends and neighbours have stopped talking to each other in a dispute over the cruise ships that bring tourists to see its frozen wonders.Its Unesco-listed icefjord draws thousands of visitors in the summer months, each potentially bringing lucrative business to the town. But frustrated local tour operators say they are being shut out by larger companies from elsewhere in Greenland and Denmark, who are undercutting local businesses or excluding them entirely – while local boats sit unused in the harbour. Continue reading…

Danish agency for palaces and culture requests removal of 14-tonne sculpture from Dragør Fort in CopenhagenA debate has erupted in Denmark over the fate of a mermaid statue that is to be removed from public view after being decried as “ugly and pornographic” and “a man’s hot dream of what a woman should look like”.The Danish agency for palaces and culture is reportedly removing the 4×6 metre Den Store Havfrue (the Big Mermaid) from Dragør Fort, part of Copenhagen’s former sea fortifications, because it does not align with the cultural heritage of the 1910 landmark. Continue reading…

Zoological institution offers to euthanise animals that need to be put down so ‘nothing goes to waste’A zoo in Denmark is appealing for donations of healthy small pets to be “gently euthanised” and fed to predators.Aalborg zoo has urged willing chicken, rabbit and guinea pig owners to hand over their pets to be eaten whole by animals including European lynx. Continue reading…

Christian Einshøj’s debut feature unearths home video footage taken by his father, as he and his siblings explore their long-buried feelings about their brother’s deathIn his debut feature, Christian Einshøj tends to the hidden wounds of family by rewinding to the past. Originally from Denmark, he spent his childhood in Norway with his parents and two brothers, Frederick and Kristoffer. The relocation was supposed to be temporary. Tragedy, however, struck: Kristofferbecame ill with a terminal condition and his death cast a dark shadow over a once tightly-knit household. Einshøj’s parents were had another son, Alex, but they would never return to Denmark to live as a family again.Through voiceover, Einshøj recalls this painful history with profound introspection, as well as humour. Grainy home videos, largely shot by Einshøj’s father, Søren, resurface, but while Søren used his camera to preserve Kristoffer’s memories before his death, Einshøj turns to film-making as a means of reconciliation. Unable to process Kristoffer’s death, Søren retreats into the numbing grind of work. Meanwhile, Einshøj has grown apart from his surviving siblings, both of whom experience periods of depression as a result of their shared trauma. Continue reading…

Founder and frontman of the Strawbs, the folk-rock group best known for their 1973 hit Part of the UnionThe one song by the Strawbs most likely to feature in pop quizzes is Part of the Union, the rowdy working man’s singalong that reached No 2 on the British singles chart in 1973. Yet, written by band members Richard Hudson and John Ford, it could hardly have been less typical of the output of Dave Cousins, the band’s founder and mainstay. Cousins, who has died aged 85, piloted the group through countless changes of personnel and musical styles for more than 50 years, and was at the helm for the band’s final performance at Fairport’s Cropredy Convention in 2023.He drew early inspiration from Lonnie Donegan and was greatly influenced by folk musicians such as Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger. Hearing a recording of the bluegrass musicians Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs prompted him to learn the banjo, and he formed the Strawberry Hill Boys with Tony Hooper and Arthur Phillips. He drew extra creative fuel from Bob Dylan and California jangle-rockers the Byrds – Cousins’s voice carried echoes of both Dylan and the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn – and recalled how he used a guitar tuning taught to him by Joni Mitchell on the Strawbs’ debut album. Continue reading…

Christina Block is standing trial in Hamburg accused of kidnapping two of her own children from her ex-husbandFor over half a century Block House has ranked as one of the most recognised restaurant chains on the German high street – a collection of family-friendly steakhouses whose staples include the “classic Block burger” and filet mignon.But for months the Hamburg-based chain has been making headlines for an altogether different reason: a bitter and extraordinary custody battle between the heiress to the family business, Christina Block, and her ex-husband over the youngest two of their four children. Continue reading…

Unlike nursing homes or living alone (and lonely), cohousing emphasizes community and mutual supportEarlier this year, Angela Maddamma, 72, loaded all her belongings into her car. She drove from a house in suburban Richmond, Virginia, where she had lived for 20 years, to her new life about five hours west, in a senior cohousing project called ElderSpirit.Cohousing communities are “thoughtfully designed neighborhoods with private homes” arranged around common areas, where people may gather and build relationships with their neighbors, according to the Cohousing Company design firm. Cohousing is typically multigenerational – of the roughly 170 total cohousing units in the US, most are home to people of all ages, from young families to seniors. But about 12 are senior-specific. Continue reading…

Two hours after Keira Alexandra Kronvold gave birth, her daughter was taken from her – the third child to be removed from her care following a now-banned assessment that disproportionately targets Inuit women in Denmark. Will she win the fight to get Zammi back?‘Now your two hours begin.” The countdown started when Keira Alexandra Kronvold had just given birth in the early hours of 7 November 2024. Keira, 38, was originally granted just one hour with her daughter, Zammi, before her baby was to be removed from her and taken to foster parents – but the midwife begged authorities to give them more time. Before Zammi’s arrival, the midwife asked if Keira had any wishes. “I said, ‘I want hand and footprints. I want to grab her, I don’t want you to catch her when she is born. I want to catch her myself.’”During labour – which lasted just an hour and a half – Keira kept checking whether her 20-year-old daughter, Zoe, who had never seen a birth before, was OK; and she was determined not to scream, to avoid waking up the other mothers and babies on the ward. But when Zammi arrived, everything else – the months of stress, worry and pressure – gave way to pure joy. “I just laid back,” she says, arms cradled and slowly reclining on her sofa, as she re-enacts the moment at home in the town of Thisted, northern Denmark, “because I had to keep her warm. She was so beautiful. That emotional feeling is indescribable. Right there: unconditional love, pure happiness, all that joy.” She wished Zammi a happy birthday and told her how much she loved her. She cried tears of joy, counted Zammi’s tiny fingers. Continue reading…

While Copenhagen’s fortunes grow alongside rise in Swedish commuters over 16km bridge, benefits for Malmö are proving less obviousAfter 19 years of commuting to Denmark from Sweden, Helen Sjögren is so used to crossing the bridge that she identifies as Scandinavian rather than Swedish. The researcher at a Danish pharmaceutical company lives in the Swedish university town of Lund with her three children but has become accustomed to Danish working practices, and the idea of working in Sweden is now difficult to imagine.“Because I’m Swedish, colleagues would expect me to behave like a Swede,” she said, referring to their reputation for seeking consensus. “So I would be seen as rude – too direct to fit in Sweden.” Continue reading…

Amendment to law will strengthen protection against digital imitations of people’s identities, government saysThe Danish government is to clamp down on the creation and dissemination of AI-generated deepfakes by changing copyright law to ensure that everybody has the right to their own body, facial features and voice.The Danish government said on Thursday it would strengthen protection against digital imitations of people’s identities with what it believes to be the first law of its kind in Europe. Continue reading…

US-made unmanned vessels will monitor maritime activity as part of trial, amid criticism over closer ties with AmericaDenmark is deploying floating drones on the Baltic Sea to protect undersea infrastructure and bolster maritime surveillance amid the growing threat of hybrid attacks from Russia.The arrival of Saildrone, a California-based company, has prompted criticism in Denmark over forging tighter bonds with the US in such a sensitive area as digital security. Continue reading…

Parts of the Seine are opening to bathers and Berliners are pushing authorities to permit river dips, while other hotspots continue to delight city dwellersThe last time there was full-scale river swimming in Berlin’s city centre, before access was outlawed a century ago, there were probably fewer inflatable unicorns and fluorescent pool noodles.But this week, a “Dip-Dip-Hurrah” demonstration to push for the lifting of the roaring 20s-era ban saw about 300 people, many with colourful swimming caps and assorted flotation devices, bob down the Spree River as the golden-hour sun bathed the old Prussian monuments of the historic Mitte district in a warm light. Continue reading…

‘Spectacular’ discovery at site of about 30 graves includes pearls, coins, ceramics and a box containing gold threadA 10th-century burial site believed to have belonged to a Viking noble family has been discovered in northern Denmark, packed with a “spectacular” trove of ancient objects, a museum has said.The discovery came almost by chance when pearls, coins, ceramics and a box containing a gold thread were unearthed during construction work near Lisbjerg, a village located 4 miles (7km) north of Aarhus, Denmark’s second-largest city. Continue reading…

In a Danish palliative care unit, the alternative to assisted dying is not striving to cure – offering relief and comfort to patients and their familiesBy Line Vaaben. Read by Freya Miller Continue reading…

French president is first foreign head of state to visit Arctic territory since US president made commentsEmmanuel Macron has criticised Donald Trump’s threats to take over Greenland as he became the first foreign head of state to visit the vast, mineral-rich Arctic territory since the US president began making explicit threats to annex it.“I don’t think that’s what allies do,” Macron said as he arrived in the Danish autonomous territory for a highly symbolic visit aimed at conveying “France’s and the EU’s solidarity” with Greenland on his way to a summit of G7 leaders in Canada. Continue reading…