Mette Frederiksen bypasses vote of no confidence over handling of mass cull by calling 1 November ballotDenmark’s prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, has called a general election for 1 November after a member of her ruling coalition threatened to withdraw its support over her handling of the country’s controversial Covid mass mink cull.The Social Liberal party issued an ultimatum demanding that Frederiksen, the centre-left leader who became Denmark’s youngest prime minister in 2019 aged 41, call elections before parliament’s first debate on 6 October, seven months before they were due. Continue reading…

Queen Margrethe refuses to back down on stripping four grandchildren of royal titles but says she ‘underestimated’ effectDenmark’s Queen Margrethe has apologised for upsetting family members with her decision to strip four of her grandchildren of their royal titles, but has refused to change her mind.The palace last week announced the four children of Margrethe’s youngest son, Prince Joachim, would no longer be called prince or princess but instead Count or Countess of Monpezat – the birth title of her late husband, the French-born Prince Henrik. Continue reading…

Russia is suspected to have carried out explosions to put pressure on western energy suppliesLiz Truss has said a series of explosions that severely damaged Russia’s undersea Nord Stream gas pipelines were an act of sabotage.In a joint report delivered to the United Nations last week, the Danish and Swedish governments have claimed that the leaks in the Nord Stream gas pipelines, which can carry gas to Germany, were caused by blasts equivalent to the power of “several hundred kilograms of explosive”. Continue reading…

The giant asset management firm used to target places where people worked and shopped. Then it started buying up people’s homes. In one country, the backlash was ferociousBlackstone is the largest commercial landlord in history. Over the past two decades, it has quietly taken control of apartment blocks, care homes, student housing, railway arches, film studios, offices, hotels, logistics warehouses and datacentres. Blackstone doesn’t just own real estate, it owns everything – or that’s how it can feel when you start to examine its bewildering array of assets. If you wear Spanx, have ever matched with someone on Bumble, stayed in a Hilton hotel or a CentreParcs resort, visited Legoland, Madame Tussauds, the London Dungeon or an elderly relative at a Southern Cross care home, you have encountered a company that forms, or has recently formed, part of the Blackstone empire.The New York headquarters of Blackstone are located in a skyscraper on Park Avenue. Every Monday, the firm’s founder Steve Schwarzman and chief operating officer Jon Gray gather with senior partners around a large conference table on the 31st floor to discuss investment memos sent the previous week by teams in the company’s 26 offices in the US, Europe and Asia. It’s here that Blackstone’s investment decisions are made. Last year, the company invested $270bn, bringing the total value of the assets it manages to $881bn, slightly more than the gross domestic product of Switzerland, and more than twice that of Denmark. The Monday meeting resembles an intense seminar whose participants zero in on the weaknesses in proposals that pass before them. Some investments can return to this table three or four times for approval before they’re ultimately killed. Continue reading…

Official reason to allow children ‘to shape their own existence’ while mother of two princes losing titles ‘shocked’ by decisionDenmark’s Queen Margrethe, Europe’s only reigning queen and the continent’s longest serving monarch, has stripped four of her eight grandchildren of their titles, the palace announced.The official reason was to allow the four children of her youngest son, Prince Joachim, to live more normal lives, and follows similar moves by other royal families in Europe to slim down their monarchies, the palace said. Continue reading…

Norway to make military visible at oil and gas installations as bloc rounds on Russia for suspected act of sabotageRussia-Ukraine war: latest updatesNorway’s prime minister has said its military will be more visible at oil and gas installations as politicians across Europe warned the suspected sabotaging of the two Nord Stream pipelines could herald a new stage of hybrid warfare targeting vulnerable energy infrastructure in order to undermine support of Ukraine.Jonas Gahr Støre told a news conference Norway would step up its military presence at Norwegian installations after the country had become Europe’s largest supplier of natural gas. Continue reading…

Ursula Von der Leyen warns of ‘strongest possible response’ to attacks on European energy infrastructureSabotage is the most likely cause of leaks in two Baltic Sea gas pipelines between Russia and Europe, European leaders have said, after seismologists reported explosions around the Nord Stream pipelines.A seismograph on the Danish island of Bornholm, near where the leaks occurred, twice recorded spikes on Monday, the day on which the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines underwent dramatic falls in pressure, the German geological research centre GFZ said. Continue reading…

Magdalena Andersson said the leaks in Nord Stream 1 and 2 were probably due to sabotage but stopped short of identifying a culprit. The Danish PM, Mette Frederiksen, said it was too early to conclude what caused the leaks but also said sabotage couldn’t be ruled out. Seismologists detected unusual activity underwater on Monday and identified two blasts near the pipelines. Björn Lund, a seismologist at Uppsala University, said his institute regularly records large explosions in the Baltic Sea, and is able to differentiate them from naturally occurring earthquakes. Lund explained that ‘there is no doubt this is not an earthquake. This is a blast that has been occurring in the water column or close to the bottom.’US secretary of state, Antony Blinken, who was on a trip to India, said he believed the leaks would not have a significant impact on Europe’s gas supply but an investigation was underway to ascertain the cause of the leaksFears of sabotage as gas pours into Baltic from Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelinesWhether or not Russia was behind the Nord Stream blasts, little was at stakeContinue reading…

Kremlin officials have talked up implications of the gas pipe explosions but there is no reason to expect a western military responseIt may never be possible to determine definitively whether Monday’s underwater explosions at the two Nord Stream gas pipelines were the work of Russian sabotage, but it is certainly the way to bet.The incidents took place close to – but just outside – the 12-mile territorial waters of Denmark’s Bornholm in the Baltic Sea, the kind of calibration that might be expected from a state actor mindful of the country’s Nato membership. Continue reading…

The Danish armed forces have released aerial footage showing gas bubbling from the Russian-owned Nord Stream 1 pipeline in Swedish and Danish waters, shortly after a leak on the nearby Nord Stream 2 project was discovered. The leaks were located north-east of the Danish island of Bornholm, a spokesperson said. It was not immediately clear what the cause wasRussia-Ukraine war: explosions reported near Nord Stream pipelines as gas leaks into Baltic Sea – liveContinue reading…

Conservative People’s Party leader takes poll hit after undisclosed meetings and accusations about husbandOne of the leading contenders to become Denmark’s next prime minister has stumbled in the polls after revelations of undisclosed meetings and accusations that his husband had made up family links to a former president of the Dominican Republic.Søren Pape Poulsen, the leader of Denmark’s Conservative People’s Party, announced last week that his marriage was over after it emerged that his husband, Josue Medina Vásquez Poulsen, had no biological relationship to a former president of the Dominican Republic whom he had claimed as an uncle. Continue reading…

Denmark ‘gets ball rolling’ at UN ahead of protests as poor nations call for greater collective commitmentYouth groups in Africa are preparing to embark on a series of climate demonstrations on Friday to highlight the problem of “loss and damage” to poor countries blighted by climate breakdown, as only one rich country has so far stepped up with funding for the problem.Actions will take place on Friday in Ghana, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Togo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, with more to follow in some other African nations over the weekend. Continue reading…

Danish queen, now Europe’s longest-serving monarch, cancelled duties after Tuesday night testDenmark’s Queen Margrethe II has tested positive for Covid-19 after attending the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II, the royal palace has said.The royal household said in a statement that Margrethe, 82, who has been on the throne for 50 years, cancelled her official duties after the Tuesday night test. Continue reading…

Monarch marks 50th anniversary of accession with muted celebrations out of respect for Elizabeth IIMourning for Queen Elizabeth II – latest updatesQueen Margrethe II of Denmark, Europe’s longest serving monarch and only reigning queen after the death of Queen Elizabeth II, has marked her jubilee with a series of low-key celebrations in a show of respect for her third cousin.Margrethe, 82, an immensely popular monarch known for her artistic streak as well as her chain-smoking, is said to have made the decision herself. She had originally been due to mark the 50thanniversary of her accession to the Danish throne in January, but festivities were considerably scaled back because of the pandemic. Continue reading…

Michael O’Leary | Joined-up thinking | Mythic rail journeys | A rejection from Raymond Briggs | What to call an egg prickerOne shred of good news in this energy crisis is that it’s going to be more expensive to fly, and the hubristic idea of £1 flights could be gone for good (Ryanair boss blames Brexit for airport chaos and says era of €10 airfares over, 11 August). Michael O’Leary, for all his faults, is one of the few people with a public voice who has called Brexit what it is: a heap of lies.Rachel MeredithLong Marston, North Yorkshire• The lack of support for people facing crippling energy bills this winter is clearly designed to force people back into the office, as nobody will be able to afford to heat their home and run a computer all day. Joined-up government was the last thing I’d have expected from this lot.Chris WebsterGümligen, Switzerland Continue reading…

Danish director, who won Palme d’Or for Dancer in the Dark, said to be ‘in good spirits’Lars von Trier, the acclaimed and controversial Danish director, has been diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, his production company has announced. In a statement released on Monday, Zentropa – which von Trier co-founded in 1992 with producer Peter Aalbæk Jensen – said the director is in “good spirits and is being treated for his symptoms” while he completes the upcoming final season of his TV trilogy series. Continue reading…

Ruling targets Danish firms that have exported white cheese labelled as ‘feta’Twenty years after feta cheese was recognised as exclusively Greek, the EU’s highest court has gone one step further and announced that Denmark would be breaking the law if it continued to allow dairies to sell counterfeit feta outside the bloc.In Athens, the news elicited immediate glee. “This is a wonderful day for authentic feta cheese,” said Christos Apostolopoulos, who heads the Association of Greek Dairy Industries, which produces 80% of the country’s stock. “We are very pleased and delighted. Our complaints have finally been heard.” Continue reading…

Firm’s bosses knew it was fooling authorities with tool showing phantom cars, documents showIt was a trick as audacious as it was ingenious. When police or regulators opened the Uber app, they would see exactly what the public saw: dozens of cars crawling around the city, waiting to be summoned.But there was one crucial difference: these cars were fake. Continue reading…

Mette Frederiksen calls for unity as country mourns three people, including two teenagers, killed after gunman opened fire at Field’s shopping centreThousands have gathered in Copenhagen to pay tribute to the victims of a weekend shopping centre shooting that left three people dead, including two teenagers.“Cruel, unjust and senseless. Tonight, we all mourn,” the Danish prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, told the massive crowd that gathered on Tuesday outside the Field’s shopping complex, where the attack occurred. Frederiksen called for unity in the face of the tragedy. Continue reading…

Gunman acted alone and appears to have selected his victims at random, officials in Denmark sayA shooting at a Copenhagen shopping centre in which three people were killed and four others seriously wounded was not terror-related, Danish police have said.Søren Thomassen, Copenhagen’s chief police inspector, said the gunman, a 22-year-old Danish man who confessed to the shooting on Sunday night, had apparently picked his victims at random when he opened fire at the Field’s shopping centre on Sunday afternoon. Continue reading…