Tag Archives: Iceland

The Guardian reports: Emergency teams worked through the night to bolster defensive barriers around the evacuated fishing town of Grindavik as lava from the fourth volcanic eruption on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula since December flowed towards it. After weeks of warnings that semi-molten rock was building up under the ground, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said the eruption, at 8.23pm local …

The BBC reports: A volcano has erupted on the Reykjanes peninsula of south-west Iceland after weeks of intense earthquake activity. About 4,000 people were earlier evacuated from the fishing town of Grindavik and the nearby Blue Lagoon geothermal spa was closed. The region around the capital Reykjavik has been experiencing an increase in earthquake activity since late October. Images and …

Bloomberg News reports: The people of Iceland are bracing for what could be the country’s most devastating volcanic eruption in 50 years, with a small fishing town at risk of being destroyed. There’s a significant likelihood of magma busting to the surface over the coming days at Grindavik, home to over 3,600 people, the Met Office said on Sunday. More …

Grand Rapids’ ABC News affiliate reports: A woman who grew up in West Michigan is now going viral for a video showing herself isolated in an airplane bathroom after she tested positive for COVID-19 in the middle of a flight. About an hour into the five-hour Icelandic Air flight to Reykjavik, Marisa Fotieo said her throat started to hurt. She …

Reuters reports: The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) advised against travel to the Czech Republic, Hungary and Iceland because of a rising number of COVID-19 cases in those countries. The CDC raised its travel recommendation to “Level Four: Very High” for the three countries, telling Americans they should avoid travel there. The CDC separately lowered its COVID-19 …

CBS News reports: The U.S. Ambassador to Iceland wants to carry a gun. Despite being assigned to one of the safest countries in the world, Jeffrey Ross Gunter has been “paranoid” about his security since coming to Reykjavik last year, according to a dozen diplomats. As a result, Gunter wanted the State Department to obtain special permission from the Icelandic …

Clip recap: I’m in Reykjavik to cover Iceland Pride! I have updates on Rentboy.com, on a group of heroes fighting back against Trump’s military ban, and on basic rights being put to a vote in the worst possible way. Let’s dive in on a hinsegin dagar edition of Weekly Debrief.

The Iceland Monitor reports: A gay couple traveling around Iceland, taking in its nature and culture, are the protagonists of a new video advertisement from Icelandair. The company’s brand manager says it’s natural and important to show diversity, Gay Iceland reports. Jón Skafti Kristjánsson, brand manager at Icelandair a customer-oriented airline and travel service company serving 44 gateways in Europe …

Icelandic Water today launched a print and video campaign which gently teases the United States over the possibility of having our first women president. After all, the announcer notes, Iceland elected its first woman president nearly four decades ago. “What is this, 1980?” The print campaign also wryly observes an uptick in Americans who are considering moving overseas. See it …

The Iceland Monitor reports: Icelandic water company Icelandic Water Holdings has released a new advert for its Icelandic Glacial water, giving a modern, positive, inclusive spin on an advertising classic from the 90s. Speaking to gayiceland.is, Chairman and co-founder of the company Jón Ólafsson says that “it felt like the right thing to do, just very natural, to include a …

The clip was made for virtual reality headsets. Bjork writes: This came about as a spontaneous fruit of mine and andrew huang’s collaboration . we had already done black lake , the “family” moving album cover and the black lake “book cover” trailer and then found us in iceland one day with nothing to do and a 360 camera lying …

Via the Washington Post: Planet Romeo, an Amsterdam-based dating and community site, collaborated with the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz in Germany to carry out an online survey of 115,000 gay men around the world. They combined rankings on public opinion, public behavior and life satisfaction – how gay men feel about society’s view on homosexuality, how gay men feel …

Via the BBC: The government of Iceland has announced it is no longer seeking EU membership for the North Atlantic state. Foreign Minister Gunnar Bragi Sveinsson said he had already informed current EU president Latvia and the European Commission about the cabinet’s move. Iceland gave no reason for dropping its bid to join the 28-member bloc. But after winning the …

A lot of Icelanders were unhappy to hear that notoriously anti-gay evangelist Franklin Graham (son of Billy) was coming to speak at a religion conference. Here’s what they did about it: Graham is set to appear Sept. 28-29 at the Festival of Hope, which he reportedly organized at the request of Icelandic churches. The event is free, but, according to …

Stereogum explains the latest from Sigur Rós: The video that I saw for Sigur Rós’ “Stormur” will not be the video that you see for the track. It won’t be the video any of my co-workers sees or any of the rest of the Stereogum community checks out. The band has set up a website that collects videos from Instagram …

While many nations have formally denounced Russia’s ban on “gay propaganda,” Reykjavik is doing something about it. According to the contract between Reykjavik and Moscow drawn up in 2007, the cities were going to cooperate on family issues. But now, a statement from the city council reads: ‘In light of the developments concerning the affairs of gay, bisexual and transsexual …

The world’s first openly gay prime minister has stepped down on schedule. Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir retired from politics yesterday ahead of general elections today. Sigurdardottir became the world’s first openly gay or lesbian head of state in February of 2009 when she was appointed Prime Minister of Iceland after Independence Party leader Geir Haarde resigned over his handling …

From the coming album Kveikur, due in June.

Source.