gpt-MT/evaluation/system-outputs/wmt-best/isen/test.is-en.en

Shouting at the world
The marketing campaign Looks Like You Need Iceland seems to have got off to a good start, and the cries and shouts of nature are beginning to attract people from far and wide.
"You have the riddle, I need Iceland," says a woman somewhere in the world, commenting on an ad from the Looks Like You Need Iceland marketing campaign on YouTube.
Another viewer says they will keep Iceland in their hearts forever, and a young woman says she has to get to Iceland as soon as possible because her fiancé lives there.
Unfortunately, she is in the United States, so she expects to have to wait a few more months.
Another viewer asks if the walk to Iceland is possible, because there are no planes.
The story does not say whether he comes from another time zone.
Egill Thordarson from the advertising agency Peel, which was involved in the production of the adverts together with the international advertising agency M&C Saatchi, says the response has been better than expected.
"I have been involved in many Inspired By Iceland campaigns that have been very successful, but this new campaign is already breaking records.
Basically, it's about creating PR value, it's about getting foreign media to cover the campaign, and it's been incredibly successful.
In a relatively short period of time, we have received coverage in about seven hundred media outlets around the world, reaching a total of more than two billion people.
The value of this coverage is estimated at 1.8 billion ISK.
It's not bad."
The main market is the United States and the campaign has been very successful there, although Americans are not going to the country any time soon.
According to Egil, well-known markets such as Denmark, the UK and Germany have also responded well, as has Russia, which is a pleasant surprise.
There were also reactions from exotic regions, such as India, which were not specifically mentioned.
"These ads have travelled further than we expected," says Egill, adding that more than four million people have watched the content on YouTube.
"We couldn't have asked for a better start."
The photos at the opening were taken by Árni Sæberg, a photographer for Morgunblaðið, during the filming of advertisements entitled "Let It Out" in the middle of last month.
The filming took place far and wide, such as on Skólavörðustígur in Reykjavík, in Reynisfjörður, at Skógarfoss, on Sólheimajökull and in a cave at Hjörleifshöfði.
The directors were Samúel Bjarki Pétursson and Gunnar Páll Ólafsson of Skoti productions and the cinematographer Óttar Guðnason.
The roles were played by Anna Jia from Iceland and Murphy Cardenas from Cuba and Hungary.
Dozens of Icelanders were involved in the making of the commercials, but at the same time as the filming took place in South Iceland, another group was in West Iceland and the Westfjords.
According to Egil, "Let It Out" is only the first part of the Looks Like You Need Iceland campaign, but there are plans for a winter campaign in collaboration with M&C Saatchi.
"This is just the first phase of this work for Íslandsstofa," says Egill, adding that the collaboration with M&C Saatchi has been very successful.
"It's great to work with them.
In such projects, it is very important to have foreign partners with knowledge of the markets we are talking to."
Explosive: Discuss the situation on the labour market, pension funds and much more
Ásmundur Einar Daðason, Minister of Social Affairs and Children, will attend Sprengisand, which starts at ten o'clock on Bylgjan today.
He is also the Minister of Labour and discusses the situation on the labour market as such, the Icelandair case and other issues.
He also discusses rural affairs and the transfer of jobs to the countryside, which has been controversial in recent years and decades.
Ragnar Þór Ingólfsson, chairman of VR, will also appear on the show, where he will discuss his criticism of pension fund investments and put forward ideas for the labour movement and employers to withdraw from the boards of the funds in order to reduce the risk of conflicts of interest.
There will also be a discussion with Ívar Ingimarsson, a travel agent in East Iceland, and Árnheiði Jóhannsdóttir, director of the North Iceland Marketing Agency, about the state of tourism in rural areas.
They will look ahead to the autumn and wonder if this summer's success is a misleading portent of things to come.
You can listen to the show below, which starts at 10 a.m.
This is what it looks like now, 25 years later
Actress Elisa Donovan had a successful career in teen shows of all kinds.
However, she gained worldwide fame for her role as Amber in the film Clueless 25 years ago.
She also starred in Sabrina: The Teenage Witch with Melissa Joan Hart, A Night at the Roxbury, and Beverly Hills, 90210.
Donovan is now 49, married with one child.
She hasn't been around much lately, but she did get to look back and comment on Clueless on Australian TV recently.
She speaks fondly of Brittany Murphy, who died unexpectedly in 2009, saying she was a great person.
"I have to admit that I based the character mostly on girls I met at school who weren't nice to me.
As soon as I read the script, I knew who this character was," Donovan said of his role in Clueless.
Didn't want to leave the police station after a night out
Around fifty cases were brought to the attention of the police in the metropolitan area today, and the police diary states that the cases were diverse.
The day at the police station on Hverfisgata began with the police having to deal with a man who had just been released from prison after spending time there for drunk driving.
The man did not want to leave after he was released and did not obey police orders to leave.
The man earned himself an extended stay at the police station for his actions.
A man was arrested in the morning on suspicion of burglary at a business in Kópavogur.
Police also had to deal with two men in Breiðholt following reports of an assault.
A woman dining at a shopping centre in Kópavogur was unable to pay her bill at the end of the meal and the police were called.
A vehicle was also reported stolen in the city centre this morning.
The driver of a white Renault van looked away for a moment and she was taken into custody.
The car has not been found.
The Curse of Glee - The Horrible Fate of the Glee Stars
A theory has taken hold on the Internet that the Glee cast is cursed, after actress Naya Rivera drowned in California, becoming the third cast member to die prematurely.
Glee is a popular show about singing, dancing and having fun.
The series was about a high school cheerleading squad, their loves and their fates.
It wasn't always easy being in the glee club, but through song and dance, the show's characters seemed to be able to overcome any situation that arose in their lives.
But off-set, major disasters have befallen the show's cast and crew, so much so that theories have arisen that the show is cursed.
Naya Marie Rivera played Santana Lopez on the show, a cheerleader who didn't call everyone grandma.
After the series ended, Rivera married actor Ryan Dorsey, with whom she had her first and only child, Josey.
In 2017, Rivera was arrested for domestic violence against her husband and they divorced.
However, Dorsey refused to press charges and the domestic violence case was dropped.
Rivera was reported missing on July 8 after her 4-year-old son was found drifting alone in a boat on Lake Piru in California.
The boy was found asleep in a life jacket on the boat and was able to tell authorities that he and his mother had gone swimming and that Rivera had put him back on the boat but never returned.
A massive search was launched for Rivera.
A day after the search began, the local sheriff's office said it believed Rivera had drowned.
Five days later, Rivera was found and officially declared dead.
It is believed that she was caught in a strong current in the water and used her last claim to save her son.
The cause of death was listed as accidental drowning.
Cory Allan Michael Monteith played Finn Hudson on the show, the American football player with the angelic voice who was instrumental in bringing the Glee Club to prominence.
Outside of the show, however, Moneith struggled with personal demons.
He had struggled with addiction since the age of 13 and found it difficult to escape.
By 2013, his colleagues on the show had had enough and intervened, urging him to get help.
Moneith then went to rehab and things seemed to be looking up.
Just two months after completing his treatment, Moneith was found dead in a hotel room after a night out with friends.
Banamein turned out to be a deadly combination of drugs and alcohol.
It was not believed to be a deliberate act.
Moneith had been to rehab and his tolerance to drugs had decreased so much that a dose he had previously tolerated well proved fatal.
He was only 31 years old when he died.
His death weighed heavily on his co-stars, but at the behest of his co-star Lea Michele, it was decided to continue filming the show, dedicating an entire episode to the memory of Moneith and his character Finn.
Mark Wayne Salling played the role of Noah "Puck" Puckerman in the series, Puck was an American football player, like Finn, and had little respect for his fellow students in the glee club, until he gained the courage to admit that he liked to sing and dance.
Two years later, Salling was arrested at his home in Los Angeles on suspicion of possessing child pornography.
During a search of his home, an enormous amount of child pornography was found and the case was soon made public.
It was clear that Salling was finished.
He was subsequently charged and convicted of the offences.
He faced four to seven years in prison, as well as having to register as a sex offender and seek treatment for child molestation.
Before a judge could impose the sentence, Salling, who was out on bail at the time, was found dead near his home.
The cause of death was suicide.
It wasn't just the show's actors who fell from grace.
Jim Fuller was the show's assistant director.
He died in his sleep in 2013 at the age of 41.
A woman named Nancy Motes also worked on the show.
She was the younger sister of superstar Julia Roberts and didn't tell her sister the whole story, but she did accuse Roberts of being manipulative and disrespectful.
Motes took her own life in 2014 after suffering from severe depression.
She left a letter for her fiancé in which she blamed her mother and sister, among others, for what happened to her.
"My mother and my so-called siblings leave me nothing but the memory that they were the ones who caused my worst depression."
Lea Michel was the star of the show.
She has recently been accused of bullying and bullying her co-stars on set, as well as having an over-the-top sense of style.
Jesse Luken guest starred on the show in 2012.
He was arrested and charged with drunk driving in 2019, which caused a scandal.
Actress Heather Morris played a major role in the series.
She suffered in 2010 when unscrupulous hackers got hold of nude photos of her and posted them on the Internet.
Actors Melissa Benoist and Blake Jenner both appeared on the show and dated off-screen.
Benoist later revealed that Jenner was abusive during their relationship.
You can put flowers on almost anything
It boosts children's development when they get to play in the garden with their parents, grow flowers and watch them grow.
It can also be done with flowers, as the Swedish photographer Anna Kubel points out.
Just spending time with the kids in the park is something you never forget.
They will remember the flowers, the fragrance and, of course, the precious time they had with their parents.
Bought a boat after 10th grade
"I don't think there are many fishermen working in the country's kindergartens," says Axel Örn Guðmundsson, who fishes in the summer and studies psychology at the University of Iceland in the winter.
Beach fishing is a very comfortable summer job when you are studying.
If you fish well, you can make a good income, and I think it's great to be able to avoid taking out student loans.
The income will also last me well into the winter," says Axel Örn Guðmundsson, a 25-year-old psychology student, who has been fishing off the coast this summer, as in previous summers.
Axel had just docked in Tálknafjörður when a reporter caught up with him late in the evening at the beginning of the week.
"The winter I was in tenth grade, I took the captain's license for boats under twelve meters long, and I bought my boat the summer after I finished elementary school.
I have been beach fishing on my boat every summer since.
I bought the boat used by my friend, Hartmann Jonsson, and I named the boat after him.
Hartmann had grown up by the time I bought the boat and was no longer at sea, and he was very pleased when he saw that the boat bore his name.
Hartmann died a few years after I took over the boat," says Axel, adding that he bought the boat for three million.
"I made an agreement with Hartmann to pay half, one and a half million, at the beginning of the summer and the other half at the end of the summer when I had finished fishing.
So I owned the boat outright at the end of my first summer on it."
But how could a boy have a million and a half to spend on a boat when he had just finished primary school?
"I had deposited and collected my money, I had been working with my father at sea when I was a boy, I was fishing with him all summer and I got my share.
I also put my confirmation money into my boat fund."
Axel was born in Ísafjörður, where his mother's family is from, but he has lived in Kópavogur since he was a boy.
"I am allowed to fish here in the western area because I am domiciled with my grandmother in Isafjordur.
I learned these areas here in the west from paddling with my dad.
I move from one fjord to another depending on how I feel, because this fishing area covers the entire Westfjords.
Although I prefer to stay in the west, I have also fished around the Snæfellsnes peninsula and beyond.
I've also fished in the south, but it's mostly greylag," says Axel, who always wakes up early in the morning and says he sometimes talks to the seagulls and sings to the sky, in solitude for hours out on the open sea.
"The internet connection at sea is good, so I can make calls, listen to podcasts and music.
I don't mind being on my own.
Of course, I try to avoid getting into trouble, but of course there has been occasional bad weather, but never much danger," says Axel, who is lucky in that he is never seasick.
He says the length of the working day depends on how the fishing is going at any given time.
"In coastal fishing, I never fish for more than 14 hours at a time, but I have also been fishing in other systems, for example in the rental quota, but then I have been continuously grazing at sea for one and a half days."
The arrangement in coastal fishing, he says, is such that he can catch 770 kilos a day, which he finds inhibiting.
"Other restrictions are that I am not allowed to fish on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and I can only fish twelve days a month, the four months of beach fishing, in May, June, July and August.
In my opinion, fishermen should choose their fishing days according to the weather and nothing else.
This unnecessary pressure is on people to row instead of having 48 days over the whole summer and being able to make their own choices.
So the territorial division could also go for my sake, and the sea areas that are well located near the fishing grounds should be allowed to enjoy it," says Axel, who draws most of the cod from the salty sea in his coastal fishing, but also only saithe and occasional other species.
Axel works during the winter with the university at the nursery school Núpi in Kópavogur.
"I don't think there are many sailors working at the country's kindergartens," says Axel proudly, adding that he only intended to work at the kindergarten temporarily.
"I stuck with it because I think it's a great job.
I hope that the psychology course will be useful to me at the preschool level in the future," says Axel, who also has a degree in business administration.
Error in registration prevented homecoming contagion
An error in the registration form that people fill out when they arrive in the country meant that a person living in the country was not called back for a sample.
There is no requirement to register an ID number if the person fills out the form in English, as is the case when it is done in Icelandic.
"This will be examined this week," says an expert in the quarantine department of the medical directorate.
Three domestic infections were detected in the virology department of the hospital yesterday.
One of those who tested positive arrived in the country on 15 July, two days after the rules on so-called repatriation came into force.
Those who were resident in Iceland are then screened on arrival in the country and invited back for sampling four to five days later.
According to RÚV's midday news, however, the person in question had complied with the old system.
The sample taken at the border was negative and he was not called back for screening for the virus.
Kamilla Rut Sigfúsdóttir, an expert in the quarantine department of the medical directorate, told the news agency that this was due to an error in the electronic registration form.
If people fill out the registration form in English, they are not required to enter their social security number, as is the case in the Icelandic version.
After all, it was primarily designed for foreign tourists.
Therefore, the person did not receive an automatic invitation to take a sample.
However, Kamilla says many people have followed the rules on returning home, even if they have filled out the registration form in English, and in some cases employers have also been vigilant about sending people back for sampling after they have arrived in the country.
"This will be looked at this week to see how we can make it easier for people to access this and bring it to their attention."
The man is in isolation and six people have been quarantined.
They are all being tested, but two have started to show symptoms.
Containment is ongoing for the three cases identified yesterday, but is largely complete for the two cases reported on Friday.
In both cases, the sequencing of the Icelandic genome has revealed that there are variants of the coronavirus that have not been found here before.
In the second case, the focus has been on Israel, although it is known that the person who brought the virus to the country had also travelled to other European countries.
Kamilla says it should be clear tomorrow where the other virus is coming from.
A total of 15 people are currently in isolation, according to COVID.is.
135 are in quarantine.
Four out of five infections are unrelated
Five domestic outbreaks have been detected in the country in recent days.
Of these, four are completely unrelated and, for example, the source of the infection that occurred at the Rey Cup sports tournament yesterday has not been found.
Infection is still ongoing.
Originally, thirty people were sent to quarantine, but the number was reduced to sixteen.
A total of 34 people are in quarantine as a result of the new cases detected yesterday.
This is the second time in a short time that an infection has been detected at a sporting event, and it has raised questions about whether such events should be held.
Jóhann K. Jóhannsson, Communications Manager at the Civil Protection Department of the National Commissioner of Police, says that it is possible, as long as people follow the guidelines and rules.
"We are constantly reminding everyone living here of the need to maintain individual infection control.
We also need to remind people who are holding events that there are certain rules that need to be followed.
Then you can hold events," says Johann.
He says that infection can be prevented by maintaining individual infection control measures.
In addition, the rules and standards are under constant review.
"What needs to be done, and what the Civil Protection Department and the Ministry of Health are constantly urging people to do, is to pay attention to these individual infection control measures.
Both at home and in the service industry.
That people wash their hands and use alcohol.
It prevents the infection from spreading," says Johann.
"We need to urge people to continue on the good path we were on, in order to be able to sustain the progress we have made so far."
40% of COVID-19 victims had type 2 diabetes
Over the phone, Devon Brumfield could hear her father struggling to breathe.
Her father was diabetic and she urged him to seek medical help.
The next day he was dead.
The death was attributed to sudden respiratory failure due to coronavirus infection.
Diabetes was listed on the death certificate as an underlying condition, and Brumfield, who also has diabetes, is terrified that something similar will happen to her.
Reuters reports that Brumfield's fears are not unfounded.
Figures from a new study commissioned by the US government show that almost 40% of those who died had type 2 diabetes as an underlying condition.
When the proportion of those who had not reached the age of 65 is considered, the proportion rises to half.
The study by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) looked at more than 10,000 people in 15 states who died from the coronavirus between February and May.
Jonathan Wortham, an infectious disease specialist at the CDC, said the findings are striking, especially for people with type 2 diabetes and their loved ones.
Reuters conducted a survey and the responses from the 12 countries that responded indicated similar proportions.
Ten states, including California, Arizona and the District of Columbia, have yet to report cases.
"Diabetes was already a slow-growing epidemic.
Now COVID-19 has broken through like a powerful wave," said Elbert Huang, director of the Center for Chronic Disease Research and Policy at the University of Chicago.
Diabetes is more common among blacks and Hispanics, who have also fared worse from the coronavirus.
One of the best defences for those with type 2 diabetes is to keep it under control with exercise, a healthy diet and the help of a healthcare professional.
However, the coronavirus pandemic has made it difficult for many to maintain a routine.
And the high price of insulin has forced some to continue going to work, risking exposure to the virus.
Reuters notes that U.S. authorities may have been aware of the risk that people with type 2 diabetes could be exposed to the virus.
During the SARS coronavirus outbreak in 2003, more than 20% of them had the disease, and during the swine flu pandemic in 2009, this group was three times more likely to be hospitalized.
When MERS struck in 2012, one study found that 60% of those who died or were admitted to intensive care had diabetes.
Charles S. Dela Cruz, a researcher at Yale University, said that because the effects of the COVID-19 virus may last longer, the outbreak has exposed a number of previously unknown complications.
"I fear we are going to see a tidal wave of problems when this is over," said Andrew Bolton, president of the International Diabetes Federation.
Doctors have warned that the coronavirus pandemic could indirectly lead to an increase in diabetes-related complications, including kidney disease and kidney dialysis.
New research also suggests that the coronavirus could lead to an increase in the number of diabetes cases.
Reuters reports that scientists are trying to understand the link between the coronavirus and type 2 diabetes.
The virus attacks the heart, lungs and kidneys, organs that are already weak in many people with diabetes.
In addition, the high ratio of glucose and lipids in diabetics can cause a true "cellular storm," as it is called when the immune system overreacts and attacks the body.
Damaged endothelial cells can also lead to inflammation, which in turn can cause deadly blood clots.
"It's all one big puzzle," says Dela Cruz.
"It's all connected."
This story has been corrected.
"We were offered champagne, then they left the room"
The couple, Ásrún Magnúsdóttir and Atli Bollason, accepted an unusual offer from the artist Ragnar Kjartansson to have sex in front of a camera for a work the artist was installing in Paris.
"We loved each other, so it wasn't complicated."
Atli Bollason will never forget the first time he met his wife and mother of his children, Ásrún Magnúsdóttir.
"I was very impressed with her.
It was just the radiance, of course, but I also thought it was incredibly cute.
And I still do," he says.
Ásrún also remembers this, as her husband regularly recalls their first meeting.
"I keep hearing this story.
The last time was just this weekend," she says, who was also attracted to her husband at first sight.
"I felt and still feel so much excitement around Atli, which I like.
There's a lot going on and a lot going on, and I was fascinated by it."
Atli says the couple have stressed the importance of going their own way in their relationship.
"We don't tie our bags with the same knots as our fellow travellers.
We avoid the routines we see around us."
That's probably why they welcomed the invitation from the artist Ragnar Kjartansson, even though it was unusual to say the least.
"Our mutual friend Kristín Anna contacted us and asked if we could come eat dessert with her, Raggi and Ingibjörg, Ragnar's wife, at Snaps."
They accepted the invitation, met the trio at Snaps and had dessert wine and dessert.
They listened to Ragnar, who guided them through his plans for an art exhibition he planned to stage at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris in the autumn.
"He had a multi-channel video piece called Scenes from Western Culture.
He put it in simple terms."
Ásrún says he described the work as banal and decadent scenes from everyday life in the West.
"He had sketches of all the scenes he was going to shoot, and the last thing he told us was that he wanted to know if we were interested in being involved."
The scene Ragnar asked the couple to take part in was supposed to show a young middle-class couple making love in a minimalist room.
"It's intercourse with a beginning and an end," says Atli.
The couple didn't know Ragnar very well, although they knew of him and he knew of them, "but they knew us and thought we would fit in.
They said they didn't want to advertise for people.
Maybe they thought they wouldn't get the right people, but people who get sexual gratification from performing for others."
They said goodbye to Ragnar and agreed to think about it, but it didn't take long.
"When we launched Snaps, we said, 'Isn't that what we're here for?'
It was just like that.
I trust Ragnar as an artist and his whole team," says Ásrún, and Atli agrees.
"It's about love and intimacy"
The scene was filmed in a fancy apartment on Mýrargata.
There was a very small film crew; the cameraman, Ragnar, the sound man and the couple.
After the recording was turned on, everyone left the room to wait outside in the car, except for Atli and Ásrún.
"We hadn't decided what we were going to do.
We were given some small instructions, but we tried to forget the time and place.
To be unaware of what we were doing and for whom.
There was no game, we just loved each other, so it wasn't complicated," says Ásrún.
But was it romantic?
"Yes, it was a bit romantic," says Atli, and Ásrún agrees.
"We were offered champagne before they left the room.
It was a bit like being on holiday in a nice hotel in Paris."
The team was delighted with the couple's performance in the moving piece.
"When Tom watched it, he cried, he thought it was so beautiful," says Atli.
"It's as much about the love and intimacy as the sex itself," says Ásrún.
The couple's parents have seen the work and Atli says that his mother heard her son's voice at the Reykjavik Art Museum and then realized that he was part of the work.
"Then she turns around and starts thinking about it," Atli says.
"My mum and dad saw it in Paris.
We hadn't told anyone this, but then my dad just sent me a message and said, 'It's nice to bump into the little family at the Palais de Tokyo,'" recalls Ásrún.
And did participating in the project deepen the relationship between Ásrún and Atli?
"At least we're still together, so maybe it deepened something.
At least it deepened my relationship with my in-laws," Ásrún says with a laugh.
Ásrún herself saw the work in Copenhagen with a colleague.
"I found it a little difficult not to be with you, but with someone else," she says, turning to her husband.
"But it was nice to see it because it's just one scene in a much bigger piece and when you see it with the other pieces it's really cool.
I was able to detach myself from it a little bit and just be proud.
And there was the little bean in my stomach," says Ásrún, who was pregnant with the couple's second child when the scene was filmed.
"It was just beautiful."
Anna Marsibil Clausen interviewed Ásrún and Atli in Love Stories on Rás 1.
Swansea won the first semi-final
Swansea beat Brentford 1-0 in a dramatic game.
This was the first match of the teams in the semi-finals of the play-offs for promotion to the Premier League.
The game took place at the home of Swansea in Wales.
The score at half-time was 0-0.
The Swansea home side were awarded a penalty in the 64th minute but Andre Ayew failed to convert from the spot.
Just two minutes later, Brentford's Rico Henry was shown a red card.
Brentford played the rest of the game a man down and in the 82nd minute Swansea's players took advantage of the difference.
Andre Ayew then made amends by scoring a superb goal to give Swansea a 1-0 win.
Swansea lead 1-0 going into the second leg at home to Brentford on Wednesday.
Five years without an ambassador since 2009
Jeffrey Gunter Ross, the U.S. ambassador to Iceland, is in the media spotlight after CBS reported this morning that he wanted an armed bodyguard because he feared for his life.
However, it has not been easy for the President of the United States to appoint an ambassador to this country.
Since Carol Van Voorst left the post of US ambassador at the end of April 2009, the country has been without an ambassador for a total of 62 months, more than five years.
Van Voorst left office under peculiar circumstances, but Spotlight reported in 2009 that she should have been awarded the Order of the Falcon.
On her way to a farewell meeting with the president of Iceland, she received a phone call from the president's office informing her that she would not be given the honour.
After leaving Iceland, she taught international relations at the Army War College.
Sixteen months passed before Van Voorst's successor arrived, in September 2010.
To some extent, this can be attributed to the fact that Robert S. Connan had been appointed as ambassador, but then resigned.
The job eventually went to Loius Ariega, who had worked in the foreign service for decades.
He then retired in the fall of 2013 and took up the post of ambassador to Guatemala.
This was followed by another ambassadorial period.
Robert Barber won congressional approval in January 2015 and came on board soon after, but by then there had been no ambassador in place for 13 months.
Barber was a political appointee, not a diplomat, but had worked as a lawyer and supported Barack Obama's presidential campaign.
He left his post as soon as Donald Trump assumed the presidency, on January 20, 2017, as is customary for politically appointed ambassadors.
The Trump administration was unusual in appointing both ambassadors and high-ranking government officials in Washington.
It took two years for the U.S. Congress to summon Jeffrey Ross Gunter to question him and confirm him as ambassador to Iceland.
In his parliamentary testimony, he said he had never been to Iceland but had often been to Western Europe, while his wife, who has since died, was of Dutch descent.
A political appointee, Gunter was previously a dermatologist in California and has been a prominent member of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
The group was founded by casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, an ardent supporter of Donald Trump.
Gunter came to work in Iceland in May 2019, but at that time there had been no ambassador in the country since early 2017, for two years and four months, which is the longest in Iceland.
The reason is both how long the Trump administration was nominating people for key positions and that in recent years the work of the US Congress has been very slow, including the confirmation of ambassadors.
Since 2009, Iceland has been without an ambassador for more than five years.
However, this has not prevented the construction of the embassy, which recently opened its headquarters in Engjateig.
The construction is estimated to have cost about 6.5 billion, but thick security walls surround the building and bulletproof glass is in all the windows.
But that does not seem to have been enough to reassure the current ambassador, who is said to fear for his life and has asked for an armed bodyguard.
Former ÍBV player was subjected to racism in Iceland - "It was a mistake to come to Iceland"
Former ÍBV player Tonny Mawejje says he experienced racism when he was in Iceland and that he regrets coming to the country.
This was revealed in an interview with Tonny published by the Ugandan media outlet Daily Monitor.
Tonny recently joined Uganda Police FC, a team that plays in Uganda's top division.
In the interview with Daily Monitor, Tonny talks about many things, including his time in Iceland, where he played for ÍBV, Val and Þrótt.
"When I came to Iceland, I didn't play in midfield like I used to.
The captain of the team was in that position, but he also had the jersey number I wanted, so I didn't get either of what I wanted," says Tonny, who played on the right wing during the season with ÍBV.
One of the things Tonny talks about is the racism he experienced in Iceland.
He says this is a problem many black players face when playing in Europe.
"It happened to me once, but since I didn't understand the language, I just ignored what was said to me.
Later I heard about it and asked my friend what it was all about.
He then told me that my opponent made racist comments about me after I tackled him."
In 2014, Tonny left Iceland for Norway, where he joined Haugesund.
There, he says he made the mistake he regrets the most.
Tonny had not been able to establish himself in the first team at Haugesund, but he wanted to play more to get into the national team.
Then he asked to go back to Iceland on loan, but he then joined Val.
"It was a mistake to come back to Iceland on loan.
I think if I had stayed longer in Norway I would have got the chance I wanted," says Tonny, who hoped that if he played well in Norway he would probably get further.
He wants to say that the loan to Iceland has put an end to his dreams of joining a big club in Europe.
Worm found in woman's throat
Doctors at St. Luke's International Hospital in Tokyo found a 3.8-centimeter-long black worm in a woman's tonsil.
Doctors were able to pull the worm out with forceps.
An investigation revealed that it was a parasite.
CNN reports on this.
The woman had eaten sashimi, which are thin slices of meat, a few days earlier.
The woman recovered quickly after the worm was removed, but parasites like this are often found in raw meat or fish.
Since sushi became popular in the West, the number of cases in which parasites have been transmitted to people has increased, according to CNN.
Fears that a second wave is starting in Europe
Spain is now the focus of concerns about a second wave of the coronavirus in Europe, where the government has taken measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus outbreak.
In Catalonia, all entertainment has been put on ice for two weeks, but there are more cities than Barcelona where infections are on the rise.
Other European countries have also taken action because of the increase in infections in Spain, but in the UK everyone has to go into quarantine on their return from Spain, as in Norway, and the French have been warned against travelling to Spain.
Infections are also on the rise again in France and Germany, where governments are trying to find a balance between containing the spread of the virus and restarting the economy.
The situation in Europe is good compared to the rest of the world, but the incidence of infections worldwide is approaching 300 thousand per day, with the highest number of infections in the Americas and South Asia.
Confirmed infections have reached 16 million globally, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, with 644,000 deaths linked to the virus.
Gerður's mosaic finally comes into its own
In front of the Customs House in Reykjavik there is a large and deep hole.
Above it are men with orange helmets.
There is also a large grave.
And more smaller machines.
The street is closed to traffic.
But the sidewalk is passable, and many people now stop and admire the artwork made of millions of mosaic tiles - as if they had never seen it before.
Maybe they've never seen it before.
At least, it didn't feel like it.
The work has so far been somewhat hidden, directly in front of it were parking lots that were always besieged.
People parked there, locked the car in a hurry and then jumped off to do their errands in the city center.
"Lively and diverse public spaces" and "attractive cityscape" are the guiding principles of the ongoing renovation of Tryggvagata.
The aim is to beautify the area and allow Gerður Helgadóttir's mosaic work on the Toll House to enjoy a better view.
There will be a square in front of the work, and since the area is well exposed to the sun, it is considered suitable as a resting area for passers-by.
The artwork will be illuminated and the material can now be enjoyed better than before on this 142 square meter area.
The area will also feature small "fog sprayers," a kind of water sculpture, which will offer play and give the area a certain mystique.
This is how the improvements are described by the City of Reykjavik, which is carrying out the project together with Veitur Utilities.
Pipes for water supply, heating and electricity will be renewed.
Many of them are old, but the sewage pipes and cold water pipes date back to 1925 and have served residents and businesses in the city centre for almost a century.
Once the road is reopened, cars will be able to drive on it again.
However, it will be a one-way street, creating a quieter and more accessible space for pedestrians.
According to the information about the Customs House on the website of the Commissioner of Customs, the building was commissioned in 1971 and its architect was Gísli Halldórsson.
Because the harbour damage extended through the house, it created 250 square metres of windowless wall space facing the street.
The building committee and the architect agreed that such a surface would have a negative impact on the overall appearance of the street, unless special measures were taken to enhance the appearance of the building.
The parties therefore agreed that a permanent work of art should be installed there.
During this time, much was said about Gerd Helgadottir, an artist, according to the summary.
She had done a lot of mosaic work in Germany and elsewhere.
The idea was to contact her first before deciding whether to hold a competition for the work.
It had often been discussed that the work had to mirror life at the harbour, as the harbour had been the lifeblood of Reykjavik since it was built.
When we spoke to the artist, she was taken aback by such a work.
It was agreed that she would receive drawings and other assistance before leaving the country, where she would work on the proposals abroad.
Gerður was given the time she decided she needed, and when she returned home she put forward a number of proposals for discussion.
It was agreed without delay to ask her to do the work.
At the same time, it was requested to conclude a comprehensive agreement with her and the famous art company in Germany, Brothers Oidtmann, with whom Gerður had long worked on the installation of famous works of art throughout Europe.
Agreements were reached and Gerður worked on the artwork for the installation in the workshop of the brothers, who then took care of the installation in the Customs House.
All the work was done exceptionally well, both by Gerður Helgadóttir and the Oidtmann brothers, the summary says.
It has withstood the harsh Icelandic weather ever since.
It took Gerdi about two years to complete the work, which was completed and installed in 1972 and 1973.
The artist died two years after the Customs House was completed, at the age of 47.
Prepares to move more institutions out of the country
Minister of Social Affairs Ásmundur Einar Daðason announces that more public institutions will be moved to the country in the near future.
The minister said this in the programme Sprengisandi on Bylgjan at lunchtime.
It was recently announced that the fire department of the Housing and Construction Agency will be moved north to Sauðárkrókur in the autumn.
Six experts in the field of fire safety work at the agency, but none of them intends to follow the agency north, and the National Association of Fire and Ambulance Services has criticized the relocation.
"I think we should take further steps in this direction.
I am preparing further steps in this direction.
Further transport," said Ásmundur.
He says he is convinced that the vast majority of the population would like to see a greater distribution of public services across the country.
"I think it is necessary to take further political decisions on the transfer of public jobs to the country, as I was doing with the Housing and Construction Agency," said Ásmundur, but he also took the example of other institutions that have been transferred to the country and were of great importance to communities in the country, such as the transfer of the Food Agency to Selfoss, the National Land Survey of Iceland to Akranes and unemployment insurance in Skagaströnd.
All the highlights from the second day of the Championships
The 94th Icelandic Championships in Athletics ended today at Þórsvöllur in Akureyri.
Several records were set on the second day of competition.
An exciting competition in the women's shot put was expected in Þórsvöllur, but Vigdís Jónsdóttir from FH set an Icelandic record in the shot put in 2014, which stood until Elísabet Rut Rúnarsdóttir from Ireland broke the record in May last year.
Vigdís won back the Icelandic record earlier this summer and has been in fantastic form lately, but she has tripled the Icelandic record so far this summer.
Elizabeth Ruth has been struggling with an injury and didn't make it today.
She had only one good throw out of five, throwing 25.69 meters, which is far from her best.
Vigdís threw the furthest of all today, or 60.08 meters in her last attempt, setting a tournament record.
Her national record, which she set earlier in July, is 62.69 metres, so she was some way off that.
Gudrun Karitas Hallgrímsdóttir from Ireland had the second best throw of the day, but she improved her best result with a throw of 50.18 meters.
In the men's category, Hilmar Örn Jónsson, the Icelandic record holder in the shot put, won a safe victory, but he threw 73.84 meters in his next-to-last throw and set a tournament record.
His national record in the event is 75.26 metres.
Guðni Valur Guðnason, Olympic champion and Icelandic record holder in the round throw, won a competition in the shot put at Þórsvöllur yesterday, but today he competed in the round throw, which is his main event.
Guðni Vals' Icelandic record is 65.53 metres, but he threw 59.13 metres today and secured the victory.
Valdimar Hjalti Erlendsson threw the second longest today, but he had one valid throw that was good enough for second place, 49.43 meters.
Hafdís Sigurðardóttir, the Icelandic record holder in the long jump, won the long jump competition with superiority, but Hafdís jumped the longest 6.25 meters today, which is almost 40 cm from her Icelandic record.
In the women's 200-meter race, it was the Irish athlete Guðbjörg Jóna Bjarnadóttir who was the fastest, but she finished in 24.04 seconds, while her Icelandic record in the event is 23.45 seconds.
Guðbjörg Jóna was victorious in Akureyri, where she won two gold medals yesterday, in the 100-meter race and in the 4 x 100-meter relay, and then also in the 4 x 400-meter relay today.
In the men's category, Kolbeinn Höður Gunnarsson from FH was the first to cross the finish line in the 200 metres in 21.57 seconds, 0.3 seconds ahead of Óliver Mána Samúelsson from Ármann.
Like Guðbjörg Jóna, Kolbeinn Höður won gold in the 100 metres yesterday as well as in the 400 metres.
Won't be fined for 27 million kronor Bitcoin harvest
The Supreme Tax Committee has rejected the claim of the tax inspector who demanded a fine against a man for under-declaring his capital income, which came from the sale of the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.
The committee concludes that the tax inspector had not made a clear argument as to why it was necessary to fine the man.
The committee's ruling states that the tax inspector believed the man had filed materially incorrect tax returns for the 2016 and 2017 income years.
He had underreported his capital gains from the sale of Bitcoin to the tune of $27 million, either intentionally or through gross negligence.
The man should be punished for his actions.
The man denied this in a letter to the committee.
However, he admitted to having sold cryptocurrency for 27 million in 2016.
He would have acquired it through burials in 2009 and 2010, when such a thing would have been both easy and impossible with an ordinary home computer.
He then pointed out that when he sold the cryptocurrency, the tax implications of such a sale would have been very unclear and unpredictable.
One could hardly expect ordinary citizens to be aware of such measures on their tax returns.
He had not intended to avoid paying tax on the harvest and had declared his property on his tax return as a deposit in a foreign currency account.
He had asked both experts and the Director of Public Prosecutions about the situation, but to no avail.
Then he thought that it should be taken into account that he was neither born nor raised in Iceland and had only lived here for a few years when he started digging for Bitcoin.
He would therefore have been in a worse position than others to familiarise himself with complex rules on which the tax authorities had not formed a clear opinion.
The man therefore considered it appropriate that his taxes for these two income years be recalculated and a surcharge applied, but otherwise no penalty was imposed.
He also reiterated that he works in Iceland and has paid taxes in the country since 2012.
He would never have intended to shirk his duties unduly.
The demand for a fine would be out of all proportion and would plunge him into debt.
Brynjolf said: "This man understands what football is all about."
Brynjólfur Andersen Willumsson has been the talk of the town but has also impressed with his performances so far this season for Breiðablik in the Pepsi Max league.
The Blues will be in the firing line tonight when they take on ÍA in a live broadcast on Stöð 2 Sport.
Brynjolfur will then serve a one-game suspension for four reprimands during the season and will therefore not play with a new haircut as in the summer games so far.
He had "blah, blah, blah" written on his head before last Thursday's game against HK, which HK won 1-0.
"I don't know who exactly he was responding to with the payment, but speaking of character, this one was rather trying in the game.
He didn't hide.
He wants the ball every single time and if there was someone who was going to equalise this game, I thought he would do it or create it," said Gudmundur Benediktsson in the Pepsi Max stand, when Brynjolfsson was mentioned.
"I am supposed to be here for the people."
"It's hard to know where he's at sometimes.
He looks a bit left-field as the games go on, but he has a very free role in the team," said Hjörvar Hafliðason.
Þorkell Máni Pétursson says Brynjólf is a real entertainer and is happy to have such a colourful person in the league: "No one disputes that this is a character.
He's a fun guy, and I love his hair, and always being available for interviews.
There are an awful lot of people obsessed with him, which tells me that this man understands what football is all about.
"I'm an entertainer.
I'm supposed to be here for the people and enjoy it."
People are reading Brynjolf's interviews, people are tuning in to see what's next for him.
This man is a genius," said Máni.
KR player says he wants to leave the club - "I have been in contact with several teams in the B-league"
Tobias Thomsen, a player for KR in the Pepsi Max league, appears to be leaving the team.
According to Danish outlet Bold, Tobias is ready to return home to Denmark.
Football.net also reported on the case.
Tobias wants to start the season in his home country, but first he has to terminate his contract with KR, as the Danish league starts before the Icelandic one.
The club knows that I miss Denmark and has been very understanding," Tobias told Bold.
"I have been in contact with several teams in the B division and will probably switch before the end of the Icelandic season.
There are not many teams in Denmark that can afford to pay off my contract with KR."
He says he will probably have to take a pay cut in Denmark.
"Companies in Denmark have probably felt the economic impact of the virus more than in Iceland."
Bike restorer Bjartmar has recovered bikes worth millions - now answers for himself after DV coverage
For more than a year, Bjartmar Leósson has had a hobby unlike most others.
He sniffs out and rescues lost and stolen bicycles, e-bikes and scooters.
Bjartmar has earned the nickname "the bike whisperer" as a result.
Yesterday, there was quite a stir when a man published an account of his dealings with Bjartmar.
DV then referred to a discussion on the Facebook group Vesturbæinga, where it was stated that Bjartmar had spoken to the man in Austurvellir and said that the scooter may have been stolen.
There was no other way to read the original writings of the electrician than that Bjartmar had stolen from him.
That text has now been changed on Facebook and the headline of the original DV story has been updated accordingly.
Bjartmar says that the initial reports of the case are not at all representative of what actually happened yesterday in Austurvöllur.
Bjartmar said he had received information from a victim of electrocution that it was indeed his electrocution.
The alleged owner received the information from someone else, but the information turned out to be false, Bjartmar said.
"I saw the guy and I checked the shuttle, with the information that there was a shuttle that had been missing for a very long time and was being searched for.
I hesitated at first, but when I saw him getting ready to leave on the shuttle, I decided to talk to him.
The owner was sure of himself, so I decided to talk to him.
I'm generally very good at this sort of thing, but before I could finish what I had to say, the man had taken the words out of my mouth."
Bjartmar said the man on the electric scooter immediately offered to show him the receipt for the bike and called the police himself.
"Yeah, great," said Bjartmar, "let's get this straight."
Then the owner of the electric shuttle proved ownership of his electric shuttle and drove off.
Later, the rightful owner of the electric shuttle told his story on Facebook, as reported in a previous story.
In the more than a year that Bjartmar has been engaged in this practice, he says he can count the number of times he has fallen out with people on the fingers of one hand.
"I have had peaceful relations with the most difficult people in Reykjavik," said Bjartmar, pointing out that bicycle thieves are most often the smallest brothers and sisters of society, addicts, mentally disabled people and other people who for some reason are on the street.
"Addiction is a hard master and somehow you have to finance the next dose, unfortunately the theft of such liquid assets is an easy way to achieve that goal," says Bjartmar.
"My relationship with these people is actually so good that I've brought a lot of good people with me.
There are examples of people going to therapy and getting better and then coming to me and helping me with what I'm doing," he says.
In general, Bjartmar's interactions with cyclists are polite.
Some people know about him and what he is doing and peacefully offer to show him receipts, bike numbers and so on.
Bicycle theft is a major problem that has received little attention.
Furthermore, Bjartmar says that the police have even started telling people to talk to him about stolen bicycles.
Bjartmar disagrees with DV's previous reporting and says he is not some kind of self-appointed police in a personal quest for justice.
Asked if he is not on thin ice with his actions, and if this is not primarily the role of the police, Bjartmar says it certainly is.
"Of course the police are supposed to do this, but the fact of the matter is that the police are simply not doing it.
I have, for example, watched police officers drive away from a large pile of stolen bikes.
She is, quite frankly, powerless in these matters."
"When the police aren't doing anything about it, and it's right under your nose, and experience has shown that I can be successful in this area, then why not?" asks Bjartmar.
He says he has been so successful in tracking down stolen bikes that he sometimes bumps into his "clients" on the street, only to have them return the stolen bikes to him.
On the occasions when Bjartmar has called for police assistance, she has failed to show up.
"It's just not working with the police, and it's not my fault and it's not the fault of the owners of the bicycles," said Bjartmar, who is sorry that victims of bicycle theft have to suffer from the police's indifference in this area.
The success of Bjartmar is not disputed.
There are many stories of people thanking Bjartmari for returning their belongings to them.
Bjartmar himself says that he has long since lost count of the number of bicycles he has returned, but the amounts are certainly in the millions, if not tens of millions.
Electric scooters, e-bikes and electric shuttles weigh a lot, but an e-bike can cost up to half a million.
Bjartmar works at a preschool during the day, and every other weekend he works at a community center.
His bike search is unpaid work that he does in his spare time.
Pension funds and long shadows
2019 was a milestone year in the history of pension funds in Iceland.
Although civil servants had been receiving pensions from the King of Denmark since the 19th century, in 1919 a civil servants' pension fund was established, which eventually became the pension fund for all civil servants.
The basis for the current pension funds of ordinary employees was then laid by the general collective agreements on the labour market in 1969, which provided for occupational pension funds with compulsory membership and full fund collection from the beginning of 1970.
Legislation based on these agreements was passed in 1974, and the pension system continued to grow thereafter.
The workers' pension system was not the only radical change brought about by the trade union movement in the 20th century.
Unemployment insurance had been won in a similar way in the historic strike battles of 1955, and the unions also gradually won their demands for sick leave and health funds, substantial holiday entitlements, shorter working hours, housing reform and much more.
All these rights cost a great and rigorous struggle, but proved, in retrospect, to be a much greater and more lasting improvement than the increase in the amount of money in the wage bill, which disappeared just as hard in the heat of the inflation that characterized the post-war period and up to 1990, as many people remember.
The lead-up to the establishment of public pension funds in 1969 was both long and complex.
Although it was eventually agreed that the funds would in fact become the property of the fund members, the trade union movement had to agree that their boards should be made up of representatives of employers and fund members alike.
In the years following the establishment of the funds, the requirement for a majority of workers on the board of the funds was often discussed in the employees' association, but it never came to pass, and so we are still stuck with the abnormal arrangement that representatives of the fund members are not in the majority on the boards of the funds.
Article 36 of Act No. 129/1997 on compulsory pension insurance and the operation of pension funds deals with the investment policy of the funds.
Point 1 states that "a pension fund shall be guided by the interests of its members."
Point 5 also states: "The pension fund shall set ethical standards for its investments."
The shareholders' policy of the Merchants' Pension Fund includes the following provisions, in addition to the aforementioned legal provisions:
The pension fund is a signatory to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment (UN PRI), along with many of the largest pension funds and institutional investors in the West and Europe.
The rules address how a focus on environmental and social issues, as well as good corporate governance, can help improve the investment performance of portfolios.
In this way, the interests of investors and the goals of society as a whole are aligned.
LV believes that it is important for companies, especially those listed on the stock market, to set a public policy on: good corporate governance, social responsibility and environmental issues.
The Gildi pension fund, one of the largest in the country, has adopted a "responsible investment policy" with similar provisions.
It's all recalled here as an introduction to Iceland's latest buzzword, "shadow management."
Since the word is new in the case, there is no hope that it has been fully defined, but it seems to me that the following definition is now "most accepted": Shadow management is when a union leader says in the media that he is going to send recommendations or instructions to the company's representatives on the board of the pension fund about how they should take a position on a particular issue.
If they do not comply, they will be removed from the board at the earliest convenience.
If the leader does not take this to the media and does not talk about dismissal, however, it is not "shadow management," since such communication between people is, of course, common in the financial world as elsewhere.
I leave it to the reader to ponder which path he finds "shadier."
There are two men in particular who have tried to shape that definition as of this writing, on the morning of Saturday, July 25, 2020.
They are Hörður Ægisson, a journalist at Fréttablaðið, and Ásgeir Jónsson, the Governor of the Central Bank.
The occasion for both arose after Bogi Nils Bogason, CEO of Icelandair, had announced his intention to terminate the company's contracts with flight attendants and flight attendants (dismiss them), and Ragnar Þór Ingólfsson, chairman of the Reykjavik Merchants' Association, then sent out the recommendation to the company's representative on the board of the Merchants' Pension Fund not to support the fund's possible purchase of shares in the company, otherwise they might be dismissed.
Some time later, Bogi Nils withdrew his decision, and subsequently Ragnar Þór went the same way with his recommendation, which of course was based on Bogi's decision.
Nevertheless, Hörður and Ásgeir saw a reason to discuss the matter in the Friday edition of Fréttablaðið with big words about shadow management, lawbreaking and the need for changes in the law.
There, a small number of people really had to cast a heavy vote, even though the blessed thousands had been in attendance and were also quickly wiped out.
Since the subject is important, let's consider the subject itself at the end.
I have already mentioned the aspects of the law on pension funds that are relevant to this issue.
This means that fund managers must protect the interests of fund members and have ethical standards in investments, and these points are elaborated in more detail in the statutes of both Gildis and the Merchants' Pension Fund, as I mentioned.
However, pension funds should NOT look only at the short-term profitability of their investments.
This would be a very dangerous policy, and one does not have to look far for examples of this in the past, where large loans from banks and funds have gone to unscrupulous adventurers and environmentalists, with disastrous consequences.
The CEO of Icelandair was obviously on thin ice when he came up with the idea of wiping out an entire group of employees, thereby significantly reducing the goodwill that the company has enjoyed in the Icelandic market and weakening its position with investors.
Fortunately, he saw sense and withdrew it.
Time will tell whether this is enough for the pension funds' investment in the company to be considered responsible towards the fund members in the end.
The writer is a former professor of physics and history of science.
One of the infected people did not return home.
One of the three people diagnosed with Covid-19 in the country yesterday arrived from the Baltic state on 15 July, about a week and a half ago.
He is an Icelander who, however, does not live here on a regular basis and therefore did not receive clear instructions to carry out a so-called repatriation test after arriving in the country and to undergo another sample collection a few days after arrival.
He tested negative at the border.
"But he is in Icelandic society and really should go to that resort," Kamilla Jósepsdóttir, an expert in the field of quarantine at Landlækni and deputy quarantine doctor while he is on summer vacation, told Fréttablaðið today.
"He used the English registration form and there is no obligation to register the ID number and if the ID number is not registered then you are not automatically invited to the second sample."
She said the man could have used the English registration form because he actually lives abroad, but because of his connections in the country as an Icelander, he should have used the Icelandic one.
However, he did not realize this.
"When the ID number is not registered, you have to apply for the second sample yourself.
Neither he nor his employer seem to have realised that it was the right thing to do," says Kamilla.
"So it is clear that we need to strengthen the information about this while we find some way to make an automatic notification system even if Icelanders do not register their ID number.
Or to somehow make it more obvious who the participants in Icelandic society are in the registration system," she explains.
Fortunately, the person in question met very few people when he arrived in the country, even though he is defined as a participant in Icelandic society, a true Icelander.
Only six people have been quarantined since he was diagnosed yesterday, and all of them were in contact with him.
They are yet to be swabbed, but two of them are showing symptoms of Covid-19 infection.
The man tested negative at the border on July 15.
Kamilla said it was likely that he was so recently infected with the virus that it had not yet been detected in him when the sample was taken at the border.
However, she does not want to rule out the possibility that the man was infected here in Iceland but did not bring the virus with him to the country.
"It's not entirely possible to argue that this is definitely an imported infection because it's been so long since he arrived in the country that he could have been exposed here like these two who have caused a bit of a stir in connection with the sporting events."
However, she says this is highly unlikely due to the small number of people who live here.
"It's actually very unlikely," says Kamilla, but notes that it can't be ruled out until Icelandic genetic analysis has sequenced the virus in humans.
"If we get a virus type that hasn't been seen here before, it's almost certain that he brought it into the country."
Pepper spray and stun grenades used against protesters
Clashes broke out between police and protesters in Seattle last night.
Police used pepper spray and stun grenades, while protesters smashed windows and set fires.
45 protesters were arrested and 21 police officers were injured.
Protests against police brutality and racism were held across the US last night, with a demonstration in Seattle in support of protesters in Portland, Oregon.
In Austin, Texas, a protester was shot and killed.
According to the BBC, the attacker has been arrested.
In Seattle, thousands gathered in a peaceful protest.
A group of people then set fire to a construction site and smashed windows at the city's courthouse.
Police then declared the protest a riot and clashes broke out between groups of protesters and police.
In Aurora, Colorado, Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old black man who was killed by police in August last year, was remembered by protesters.
A car drove through a group of protesters in the city, but no one was injured.
In Louisville, Kentucky, hundreds of black National Guardsmen gathered to demand justice for Breonna Taylor, a 26-year-old black woman who was killed by police in her home last March.
The group carried firearms and marched in formation to a closed intersection, where police separated them from a group of counter-protesters who were also carrying firearms.
There were also 75 arrests in Omaha, Nebraska, where protesters remembered James Scurlock, a 22-year-old black man who was killed by a white bar owner in May.
Solskjaer: Not the game that defines our season
Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer does not want to overstate the importance of today's Premier League clash with Leicester.
If United lose the game, and Chelsea fail to beat Wolves, Solskjaer and his men will finish fifth and miss out on a Champions League place.
However, they could still qualify for the Champions League by winning the Europa League next month.
"We are not at the end of the road.
If we get a point against Leicester I think people will say we haven't had a bad season.
"But whatever happens, it's not the end of our journey because we've still got a long way to go to catch the two teams above us," Solskjaer said.
It is clear that nerves will be frayed at 3pm today but Solskjaer tried to act as if it was any other game.
"If you want to be part of Manchester United, you have to get used to being under pressure in the last game of the season.
This is nothing new, and this is what the club is built on.
We've given ourselves a great opportunity to finish the season strongly and now it's up to us to take it," said Solskjaer.
"It's not the most important game of the season, it's just the next game.
You can ask anyone in football, the next game is always the most important.
Results don't define our season, we've already had a lot of moments that define this season."
"The arrival of Bruno Fernandes changed a lot for us and I think overall we are in better shape and much stronger mentally than last season," said Solskjaer.
65,000 infections per day
There were 65,490 new cases of coronavirus in the US yesterday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
A total of 4,178,021 cases have been confirmed since the start of the outbreak in the country.
900 people died from the virus yesterday, while in the previous four days the number of deaths from the virus was more than 1,000 per day.
A total of 146,460 deaths from the virus have been confirmed in the United States.
According to a forecast by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the death toll from the virus will reach 175,000 by August 15.
Fears of a second wave
The Spanish government is struggling to contain the spread of COVID-19 in the country.
Spanish health authorities reported more than 920 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday and Friday.
There have been no new cases in a 24-hour period since the beginning of May, and the news comes as Spain begins to lift one of the strictest curfews in Europe.
The backlash led to British authorities now requiring passengers arriving from Spain to quarantine on their return.
A week earlier, Spain was on Britain's safe list.
The situation is worst in Catalonia, in north-eastern Spain, where the government has imposed wider restrictions to try to stem the rise.
In the capital, Barcelona, entertainment venues will be closed for the next two weeks and wave houses will have to close at midnight.
A curfew is also in place for 200,000 people in the western region of Catalonia.
It is believed that Britain's decision will have a negative impact on the Spanish economy, which relies heavily on the arrival of foreign tourists and is badly affected by the epidemic.
Tui, the UK's biggest tour operator, cancelled all flights scheduled for today to Spain and the Canary Islands.
Governments around the world are said to be preparing for a second wave of the outbreak, but there appears to be little appetite for a return to the widespread curfews that have devastated economies.
For example, Boris Johnson, the British Prime Minister, has taken it very badly and likened it to a nuclear weapon that he does not want to use.
French Prime Minister Jean Castex has said the nation "would not survive, economically or socially" if a nationwide curfew were to be imposed again.
Many officials hope that local resources that reach residents of individual towns, cities or regions will be enough to contain the virus in the next round, if it comes.
Five new infections in Iceland - three in the country
Three domestic cases were detected yesterday, as well as two more at the border.
Five people tested positive for Covid-19 in Iceland yesterday.
The civil protection agency said in a statement that one of the cases was linked to the outbreak reported yesterday at the ReyCUP football tournament.
He has been placed in isolation and 16 people who were in close contact with him have been quarantined.
The infected person was a participant in the social activities of a sports club in Reykjavik and, according to the announcement, "only part of the sports team" is in quarantine.
Others sent to quarantine are connected to the man in other ways.
The source of this infection is undetected and the infection control team of the State Police is in full swing.
The organizers of the ReyCUP tournament have followed the guidelines and rules of the quarantine doctor and civil protection, which are still in force, and appropriate measures have been taken.
However, pictures from the tournament yesterday attracted attention, as they could be seen celebrating their team's success on the pitch in a very close-knit group.
Just before 11am today, the organisers posted the following message on their Facebook page.
It reads: "NOTE: Parents please respect the rules that contestants pick up their own stuff at school.
Parents are NOT allowed to do that.
Thank you for your understanding."
Another infection was detected yesterday, but it is related to the infection reported the day before.
The announcement said: "Icelandic genetic analysis has sequenced the infection and revealed a new type of virus that has not been detected here before."
The infected person is in isolation and 12 people are in quarantine due to the infection.
The third case is from a man who arrived in Iceland 11 days ago, on 15 July.
It was detected in the southwestern corner of the country.
He is now in isolation and six people who were in close contact with him are in quarantine.
Two of them are already showing symptoms of the virus.
In addition, two cases were detected at the border and the results of further investigations are awaited, as required by the infection control procedures at the border.
Finally, the announcement states: The Civil Protection Department of the National Commissioner of Police and the Office of the Surgeon General urge people to exercise caution and pay close attention to individual infection control.
If there is the slightest doubt as to whether symptoms of the Covid-19 virus are present, the person is asked to take a sample at the nearest health centre.
Patreksfjörður says the camp site is fully booked for the shopping weekend
The camp site at Patreksfjörður is fully booked for the weekend, according to a statement from Vesturbyggð.
Guests are advised to check other accommodation options.
Vesturbyggð mentions Bíldudalur, Tálknafjörður, Melanes on Rauðasandur, Hotel Flókalund and Hotel Breiðavík as other options.
There is plenty to do in Patreksfjörður this weekend, because, as in previous years, Skjaldborg, a festival of Icelandic documentaries, will be held in the town.
It has been held since 2007 and has become a strong tradition in the town.
Judging by the crowds at the campsite, we can expect a good turnout this year, if the weather doesn't put a damper on things, but DV said earlier today that the forecast is not good.
However, the worst of the weather can be expected on Sunday, and there is hope for the people of Patreksfjord.
The website bb.is first reported the news, saying that all other accommodation in the town was already fully booked.
Entire apartment building collapses in city's best location
Romanian workers live for free at Dunhaga 18-20.
In the meantime, the owners are seeking a building permit for renovations, but their case has languished in the system for three years.
In one of Reykjavik's oldest, greenest and most expensive neighbourhoods stands a stately three-storey apartment building.
On the ground floor of the building there is about 600 square meters of commercial space.
At the back of the house are the doors to two stairwells, each holding four fairly substantial apartments.
They range from 93 to 130 square metres, although most are over 100.
The house has a lot of history.
It was built in 1959 and has housed, among other things, a video rental store, a shoe store, a dairy store, a gunsmith, a fish store and, most recently, a university print shop.
The house has, to put it mildly, outlived its usefulness.
The house is now heavily damaged, as can be seen in the accompanying photos.
The owner of the building is D18 Ltd.
According to the register of companies, the owners of D18 ehf. include Magnús Magnússon and Guðrún Helga Lárusdóttir.
Magnús led the ownership group of Borgun and was the representative of the holding company Borgun.
Steel Ship Ltd. is one of the owners of the Borgun holding company.
Steel Ship Ltd. is the investment company of Guðrún Helga Lárusdóttir and her children.
Gudrun also owns a third of D18 ehf.
Guðrún and her husband, Ágúst Guðmundur Sigurðsson, once ran the shipping company Steel Ship.
D18 ehf. bought the house in the summer of 2009 and it has hardly been maintained since then.
Neighbors say the condition of the house has steadily deteriorated since then, though mostly in recent years.
On the neighborhood's Facebook page, one resident said the house "hasn't been very lively the last few years."
This may have something to do with the fact that the owners have been looking to change the house and grounds for several years.
Other neighbours said the house had not been in order for a long time.
"It's long overdue to do something decent with this spot and it's a shame it's dragged on like this."
He also says that he is angry with the owners of the house for not having the drive to finish it, to find some common ground with the neighbors of the house and to stop this "lawyering."
"Just do it in consultation with the community so we can hurry up and get it done."
The "legal button" to which the resident refers is the planning process for the field, which has been ongoing since at least 2017.
The owners of Dunhaga 18 and 20 then applied for permission to build a floor on top of the existing apartment building and behind the building, a new lift building and an extension on one floor plus a basement.
The building permit granted for this project was appealed to the Committee on the Environment and Natural Resources, and the committee annulled it because the project was not based on a zoning plan and the zoning notice was not sufficient.
The City of Reykjavik then started the planning process and completed it with an advertisement in the Government Gazette in July last year.
That plan was also challenged, and the commission repealed it in March 2020.
At this point, nearly three years had passed since the initial application for a building permit and the owners of the building were just getting started.
By this time the house had fallen into considerable disrepair and the neighbours were beginning to tire of it.
When DV asked the neighbors of the house about the situation and the neighbors' reactions, the answers were varied.
Some understood the intentions of the owners of the house, others not at all.
Others directed their anger at the city, while others did not.
Others were just angry, but not necessarily at anyone.
Still others called the parking lot a nuisance, but neighbors have used the unused Dunhaga 18-20 parking lot for their vehicles.
One plaintiff in the case said he was fed up with the administration:
"For us to have to go through the process three times is just unbelievable.
It's as if the city of Reykjavik can't read."
Today, the house stands empty, abandoned and neglected.
A monument to the city administration and the noble intentions of the owner and their many years of work, which is now in its infancy.
When a reporter arrived at Dunhaga 18's yard, he was greeted by an open door and piles of garbage.
A Playstation and a recent television lay among other debris on the ground - victims of the Icelandic summer wet.
The old office of the University Press was open and there were quite a few cats there judging by the smell.
It is clear that someone has nested in one corner, but no one is visible.
Stacks of sofas and beds and several pallets of geology papers, no doubt destined to become a book, lay scattered about.
The stairwells of the apartment building were both open and full of life.
A reporter was lucky enough to bump into a resident of one of them.
The Romanians were cooking a potato dish for dinner and invited the journalist in.
The Romanians work for the staffing company Ztrongforce Ltd.
They have been there for some time and DV sources say that the company has paid nothing for the premises except for heating and electricity.
Due to the condition of the house, it is not justifiable to charge rent.
Judging by the stacks of mail in the lobby of the building, it is clear that a number of foreign workers have lived there in recent years.
The operation of temporary employment agencies has not been spared by the Covid-19 situation, as the decline in tourism has led to a decline in the construction sector, and these two industries have been the most efficient in using the services of temporary employment agencies.
Nevertheless, the householders at Dunhaga 18 seemed to have plenty to do, hanging their work gloves and mittens out to dry after a long day's work in the rain.
It should be noted that despite the deplorable condition of the house, the apartment the boys shared seemed to be well maintained.
When the reporter said goodbye to the boys in Romanian, the irony suddenly became clear to him: In the best location in Reykjavik, 1,500 square meters of real estate is dilapidated.
The owners want to improve the house, and the neighbors want to improve the situation, but they disagree on the definition of "improvement."
In between, the city's planning department sits at the starting line, the victim of endless appeals and appeals in the planning process and the slippery slope of the Environmental and Natural Resources Appeals Board.
Romanian workers live in the house, perhaps they are the ones who will improve the situation when the Icelanders stop arguing.
The article was originally published in the weekend edition of DV on 17 July.
In an effort to combat obesity in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic
The British prime minister, Boris Johnson, is to give £10m to an anti-obesity campaign, which will include a ban on fast food advertising, after he fell seriously ill, partly as a result of his weight.
Mr Johnson is due to unveil the campaign, called Better Health, tomorrow (Monday), which will encourage doctors to prescribe cycling for their overweight patients, as well as increasing the number of cycle lanes.
Fast food advertising on TV will also be banned before 9pm, according to UK media reports.
"COVID-19 has woken us up to the short- and long-term risks of being overweight, and the Prime Minister is determined that we must use the time to get fitter, more active and eat a healthier diet," a government spokesman said.
Johnson himself has had weight problems, but he was admitted to intensive care when he contracted the coronavirus in the spring, and it is partly because of his weight that he is thought to have become so ill.
Women are better suited to lead change
She said the new constitution was the biggest step the nation could take towards greater decentralisation, transparency, anti-corruption and the common good.
"We need to shift gears a little bit now, and who better to lead that change than a community that is more comfortable with those values.
There are women," Helga said.
"Women in Iceland are famous for their women's solidarity.
To stand together and be together in leading change.
So now it's up to us to lead that change."
She said she was a little worried about the focus on Iceland as the "best in the world" in both gender equality and human rights.
"Then we are not as ready to look at what needs to be done.
As Germans are very aware of their history and look at everything that needs to be done.
That's a lot.
We have to know where we're coming from and know the history and listen.
Listen to the voices of marginalized groups.
We don't all live by the same rules here," Helga said.
When asked, she said that women are in many ways in good shape in Iceland, but added that, as in many other places, Icelanders have very masculine values.
She said that politics is about self-interest, domination and power, which are the forces that perpetuate inequality in all societies.
"Women have now formed this group and come together and are just a bit annoyed that parliament is going to ignore this referendum from 2012," she said.
"It's these feminine values that we're thinking about.
From human rights and nature conservation, cooperation and that we all really sit at the same table," she said, adding that the aforementioned values were the core values of the new constitution.
"We are a very rich country in natural resources and it is ridiculous that there are people living in poverty here.
It's ridiculous, we can do it differently," Helga said.
"It is absurd that it is a law of nature that women's work is always paid less.
It's ridiculous that flight attendants and nurses have to fight endlessly just to get a decent wage."
You can sign the petition for a new constitution here via e-Iceland.
Attempted robbery of a pedestrian in the city centre
A man was arrested in the city centre last night after he threatened a pedestrian and tried to take money from him.
The police also stopped the production of drugs in Árbær, where two people were arrested in connection with the case.
Then the police stopped the driver of a motorcycle in the hills, where the driver was driving at 146 km/h, where the speed limit is 60 km/h.
In addition, he had previously been disqualified from driving.
The police in the capital area had a busy night and more than 80 cases were recorded in the police log from five yesterday to five this morning.
At that time, there were a lot of noise complaints because of the parties.
In the early hours of Saturday, there were reports of 11 noisy parties, which was high on the police's agenda.
Last night, however, 22 noise complaints were made to the police.
Six remained in custody last night.
In Árbær, police were called last night when parties set off fireworks.
However, they had already fled by the time the police arrived.
Nine drivers were also stopped for drink or drug driving.
Four people were arrested over a fight in the city centre last night, one of whom was remanded in custody.
Two people were taken to hospital after falling on their faces, one in the city centre and the other in the West End.
One person was taken to hospital after being injured while jumping on a trampoline in Kópavogur.
In addition, police officers stopped a driver who was towing a caravan in Kjalarnes yesterday.
The bicycle equipment of the caravan was, according to the police log, in a "very bad condition" and it was immobilized.
You can stay in Monet's house for the weekend
The house where Impressionist painter Claude Monet spent the last 40 years of his life is now available to rent on Airbnb.
The next available nights in the house are during the shopping weekend.
The house is small and cute, located in the town of Givenry in Normandy, France.
The world-famous painter lived in the house from 1883 until his death in 1926.
The house has three bedrooms, two sitting rooms and three bathrooms.
Monet was first inspired to paint his famous gardens in this house.
If someone wants to rent the house, they must rent it for at least two nights.
According to the Airbnb site, it's next available in a week, on the Sunday of the shopping weekend, so it might be ideal for some holiday shoppers to hurry up and book the painter's house.
The two nights over the shopping weekend cost no more than 964 US dollars, or just over 130,000 Icelandic krona, depending on what Fréttablaðið finds out.
Dozens in quarantine and some of them starting to show symptoms of the disease caused by the coronavirus
Five people have been diagnosed with the coronavirus in the country in the last three days, and most of the infected are unrelated.
Dozens have been quarantined as a result and some have begun to show symptoms of the disease caused by the virus.
Three people were diagnosed with the coronavirus domestically yesterday and two at border screening.
An expert at the medical examiner's office said the growing number of domestic transmissions does not necessarily mean the virus is spreading more widely in the community.
"It's been sequenced from the previous domestic transmission and it's a virus that hasn't been seen here before, so we don't have any particular reason to think it's been circulating in the community for some time.
This is probably something that has just arrived in the country, but of course we have to be very vigilant now," said Kamilla Sigríður Jósefsdóttir, an expert in the quarantine department of the Office of the Chief Medical Officer.
Most of those infected have been in contact with individuals who came from abroad.
Further tests will be carried out in the near future, but some people who were in contact with those infected have begun to show symptoms of the coronavirus.
"Now we don't have influenza and we don't have other respiratory infections, so we can be quite liberal with doing these tests on people who, during the influenza season, would have found a reason to do something else first," Kamilla said.
The infection is mostly over, but it is possible that more people will have to be quarantined.
Two of the infected were diagnosed after attending sporting events.
It has raised questions about whether it is defensible to hold such events.
The head of communications for the Civil Protection Agency says it is possible as long as people follow the rules and regulations.
Kamilla says it is almost impossible that the infected were infected at the sporting events.
"If there are no more people going into isolation from these individuals after being around them at these sporting events, then we can claim that our quarantine measures at the tournaments have worked.
But that remains to be seen," Kamilla said.
The procedures of the Civil Protection Department are under constant review.
"We need to be ready to intervene with further advice or restrictions if it seems warranted," Kamilla said.
In just over a week, the crowd limit will be extended to 1,000 people.
This new situation could have an impact on concessions.
"A definite meditation on cooking" - Check out Eliza Viðar's menu
Elísa Viðarsdóttir is an accomplished footballer and plays for Val.
She is also a master's student in nutrition, a mother, and works as a food scientist.
She needs a lot of energy for the day's work and usually takes the time to cook good and nutritious food.
A normal day for me starts with getting to work at 8am," says Elisa.
"After work, I go to the store so I can prepare dinner before I pick up my daughter from preschool around 3 p.m."
Eliza finds it very nurturing to pick up her daughter early from nursery.
"It's good to have some time with her before I go to training the next day.
After a workout, it's nice to come home and just have to heat up the food.
At night, when the girl is asleep, we like to watch one episode to clear our minds."
Elisa doesn't follow any particular diet.
She's finishing up a master's degree in nutrition, so she knows what she needs to eat to have enough energy for work, school, family and exercise.
"What works for me is eating a variety of foods that are a good mix of protein, carbs and fat.
I think the most important thing is to have a healthy relationship with food and not to classify food as bad or good, rather nutritious or nutrient-poor.
It's okay to eat everything, just not all at once and not all the time."
Elisa is very interested in cooking.
"I find it very meditative to stand in the kitchen and cook, so I do a lot of that.
I have to say that my confidence is with me in the kitchen and I really believe that I am a good cook."
Breakfast: Oats, chia seeds, hemp seeds, salt, a little lemon juice, soak in almond milk overnight.
Top this meal with whatever you have on hand.
Usually it's banana and crispy muesli & COFFEE.
I'm a big coffee drinker.
Intermediate: Unbelievably different, but fruit or vegetables, flatbreads, plain skyr with banana and muesli, bread with toppings and then I could eat hummus with a spoon out of a box if that's the case.
Lunch: I often make all kinds of hearty salads from what's in the fridge, quinoa or barley, falafel buns, rock salad, oven baked vegetables with a good dressing is a bit of what I'm working with.
If the planning gets completely out of hand (which happens a lot) then the egg machine at work has come to my rescue quite often and then it's 2 slices of bread with butter, cheese and a boiled egg, don't stress any more.
Intermediate: Get me something high in carbs for exercise, bread with toppings, cereal or fruit.
Dinner: Fish is a frequent choice in my house, otherwise some delicious vegetarian dishes.
Clashes between police and protesters in Seattle
City authorities in Seattle, Washington, have declared a state of emergency following mass protests in the city centre.
Police yesterday used stun grenades and pepper spray to try to clear a large area seized by protesters that stretched for several blocks near the city's parliament building.
Police announced on Twitter that at least 11 protesters had been arrested and that an investigation was under way into the vandalism of a police station in the city yesterday, possibly with some kind of bomb.
City and police officials said protesters pelted police with rocks, bottles, firecrackers and other projectiles, and one officer was taken to a hospital with injuries.
The protests in Seattle were peaceful for a long time.
They were there to show solidarity with protesters in Portland, Oregon, a city that has seen repeated violent clashes between demonstrators and heavily armed squads of federal agents.
There, as in other U.S. cities, people are gathering under the banner of Black Lives Matter, remembering George Floyd, who was killed by a police officer in Minneapolis on May 25, protesting systemic racism in American society and demanding improvements.
Not revoked until after the vote
It is not yet clear whether the dismissals of Icelandair flight attendants, which are due to take effect next month, will be revoked.
Electronic voting on the collective agreement of the Icelandic Association of Flight Attendants on behalf of flight attendants at Icelandair will end at noon tomorrow.
The chairman of the company, Guðlaug Líney Jóhannsdóttir, says he is confident that Icelandair will not make a decision on the layoffs until the outcome of the vote is known.
"It definitely hangs together," says Gudlaug Líney.
"There have been no cancellations, this has to be done so that the machines can be manned.
Then, of course, people are anxious to know whether they will have a job at the end of the month."
The vote is on an agreement signed a week ago, in the early hours of 19 July.
It is expected to last until the end of September 2025 and is based on a contract that flight attendants had previously voted down.
On 17 July, the Board of Directors and the Board of Trustees of the Icelandic Association of Flight Attendants agreed to call a general work stoppage at Icelandair, which was approved by the members in a vote.
It never came, but this was decided following Icelandair's decision to stop negotiations with the flight attendants' union, dismiss all its flight attendants and seek agreements with another union.
In addition, the company's pilots were to temporarily take on the duties of security personnel on board.
Asked how she thinks the vote will go, Líney says it's hard to say.
"People are in pain after this action by Icelandair, when all the company's flight attendants were dismissed and it was announced that an agreement would be reached with another union.
Now we'll see if it has an impact," she said.
940 flight attendants worked for Icelandair at the end of April, but 900 of them, about 95%, were laid off.
Their notice period varies; for those with the shortest working lives, it is three months and ends at the turn of the month in July-August.
This group includes about 90% of Icelandair flight attendants.
What will happen if the deal is not approved?
"Then we would like to continue the dialogue with our partners.
With this agreement, we are meeting the requirements of Icelandair.
If it is rejected, it is clear that the flight attendants feel they have gone too far."
The vote on the collective agreement is over and Icelandair will present its second quarter results tomorrow
Voting by flight attendants on a new collective bargaining agreement ends at 12 noon tomorrow.
Icelandair's results for the second quarter will also be published tomorrow, but preliminary results indicate that the company's revenue has fallen by 85 percent from the same period last year.
Electronic voting on the collective agreement between the Icelandic Association of Flight Attendants and the Confederation of Icelandic Employers began on Wednesday, 22 July, and will end tomorrow, Monday, 27 July, at 12 noon.
Those who can vote on the contract are Icelandair employees who pay membership fees to the Association of Flight Attendants.
Icelandair and FFÍ signed a new collective agreement on the night of Sunday 19 July, but on the previous Friday Icelandair had terminated negotiations with the company after flight attendants voted down the previous agreement in early July.
Icelandair had laid off all of its flight attendants and cabin crew on Friday, but they were brought back after a new collective agreement was signed.
Under the new collective bargaining agreement, flight attendants will have to fly five hours more per month for the same base pay.
The collective agreement is valid until 2025, but it has integrated provisions for pilots and flight attendants on how long they can fly in one shift.
The agreement was presented to FFI members at a meeting at the Hilton Nordica hotel last Monday, and many flight attendants interviewed by the news agency expressed dissatisfaction with the agreement.
However, most seemed to agree that the deal had to be approved in order to keep the FFÍ alive.
Icelandair's results for the second quarter will be announced tomorrow, but the company's EBIT, its operating result before financial items and taxes, is negative by 100 to 110 million US dollars, or about 15 billion Icelandic krona, according to preliminary results.
Icelandair sent preliminary calculations to the stock exchange last Wednesday, stating that the company's revenue amounted to about $60 million in the quarter, or about 8.3 billion ISK.
Cash and cash equivalents were approximately $154 million at the end of the quarter.
Icelandair also plans to issue shares in the company in August.
Icelandair plans to finalize agreements with fifteen creditors, the government and the Boeing aircraft manufacturer by the end of the month before launching a share offering.
A new variant rather than a new type of virus
"A new virus just means that it was a person who came from abroad.
This is not something that has been simmering here in Iceland," says Már Kristjánsson, chief physician at the infectious diseases department of the National Hospital, about the reports that a "new type of virus" has been detected in Iceland.
Three domestic infections were detected yesterday and two at the border.
One person who was diagnosed had taken part in the social activities of a sports club at the Rey Cup football tournament, but the source of the infection is unknown and the infection is ongoing.
The infection was also detected in a person who arrived in the country on July 15, and two people who were in contact with him began to show symptoms of COVID - 19.
Then the infection was detected yesterday, which is related to the infection reported the day before, and after sequencing by the Icelandic genetic analysis, "a new type of virus that has not been detected here before" was found.
Infection control has been completed in relation to that infection.
It should be noted that this is not a new virus, but the same virus that has spread all over the world, namely the new coronavirus SARS-CoV-2.
It is more accurate to talk about a new variant of the virus rather than a new type of virus.
Asked what it means and whether it could indicate that a second wave of the epidemic has begun, Már said that it is currently a single case and it could be that nothing more will come of it.
"But on the other hand, if there are cases in the country that are not connected from abroad and have the same genotype as this particular variant, then it would be possible to draw that conclusion [about the second wave], but it is premature at the moment," explains Már.
Happiness in the hot tub
Is the secret to Icelanders' happiness hidden in their hot tubs?
The BBC presenters lead the way in a hilarious video that sheds light on the country's pool and hot tub culture.
The Icelandic bathing culture is unique in the world, and it is claimed that nowhere in the world are there so many bathing places per capita.
The natural geothermal heat is the basis, but also the tradition of swimming that prevails here.
Swimming lessons for children were made compulsory in 1940, but senior citizens are no less diligent in using the hot water to improve their health.
Swimming is described as an integral part of the general well-being of the country.
Everyone is equal in the pot, regardless of class and status.
Away from their mobile phones, people talk to each other on a personal level about home and space or enjoy the soothing power of water: meditating and recharging the batteries of the soul and body.
One hundred days to go until the election
One hundred days remain until Americans go to the polls to elect a president for a four-year term.
Donald Trump is seeking re-election, but he faces an uphill battle.
Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, has a wide lead over Trump nationally, according to polls.
According to a new AP poll, a record number of Americans think the nation is on the wrong track.
Trump's handling of the novel coronavirus pandemic is also deeply unpopular, and more Americans than ever think the president has handled the economy poorly.
More specifically, only two in 10 Americans say the country is headed in the right direction.
Thirty-two percent say they approve of Trump's response to the outbreak, and 48 percent say he has handled the economy well.
In March it was 56 per cent and in January it was 67 per cent.
According to the FiveThirtyEight average, Biden is at 49.9 percent nationally, while Trump is at 41.9 percent.
Trump himself has tried to shift the focus from his performance on the pandemic to Biden, pushing so-called culture wars and touting law-and-order policies.
However, Biden's campaign is working hard to keep the focus on Trump and believes it has a good chance of winning if the election is really about how Trump has performed in the job over the past four years.
Trump's unpopularity also looks set to hit Republican lawmakers, with forecasters fearing the Democrats could even win a majority in the US Senate, which has so far proved elusive.
Politico recently reported that if party and candidate support remained at current levels, the Republican Party would suffer its worst defeat in decades.
Suburbs were particularly bad for the party in the 2016 general election, and that trend looks set to continue.
Trump has tried in recent days to scare suburbanites into following him, including by saying that a Biden presidency would devastate America's suburbs and stoke racial divisions.
Among other things, Trump has repealed a regulation from Barack Obama's time in the White House that was intended to increase diversity in the suburbs.
He then urged the "housewives" of America's suburbs to read an article by the former deputy governor of New York, in which she argued that Biden would destroy America's suburbs, and Trump agreed.
"Biden will destroy your neighborhoods and the American dream.
I will preserve it, and even make it better!" he said.
America's suburbanites are an ever-expanding group of voters.
According to NPR, they make up about half of all voters in the United States.
Ever since George W. Bush was re-elected in 2004, the candidate who has received the majority of this group's votes has become president.
Except in 2012, when Mitt Romney won a majority of votes from this group but lost to Barack Obama.
Polls have shown that although Trump secured a narrow majority in the suburbs in 2016, his support there has fallen sharply.
Though polls vary, Biden has held a lead of about 15 percentage points over Trump in recent surveys.
Regis Philbin is dead.
American broadcaster Regis Philbin has died at the age of 88.
Philbin worked as an actor, host, presenter and singer for about six decades.
He is best known for hosting the popular talk show Live! with Regis from 1988 to 2011 alongside Kathie Lee Gifford and later Kelly Ripa.
He has also hosted shows such as Who Wants to Be a Millionaire and America's Got Talent.
According to Guinness World Records, Philbin is the person who has spent the most hours on U.S. television.
He won six Emmy Awards during his career and was nominated a total of 37 times.
His family said in a statement that Philbin died of natural causes.
Scores of colleagues, friends and fans have paid tribute to him on social media in the past 24 hours.
Will the Olympic flame be the light at the end of the tunnel?
After the final decision had been made to postpone the Olympic Games, an event that until now has only been interrupted by world wars, the president of the International Olympic Committee said that the famous Olympic flame would be "the light at the end of the tunnel," presumably referring to the coronavirus pandemic that the world is currently going through together.
High achievers have an extra year to prepare, and Japanese authorities are absorbing the cost of the delay.
But the stakes are high for everyone.
When it was announced that Tokyo, Japan, would be the venue for this year's Olympic Games, the cheers from the Japanese delegates were genuine.
They alternately cried and laughed, as Tokyo had applied to host the 2016 Games but bowed out in favor of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
This time, Tokyo and Japan were to bask in the world's attention.
The Games were due to take place from 24 July to 9 August, but have been postponed by a year and will instead begin on 23 July 2021 and end on 8 August.
If the Games cannot be held then, if the coronavirus still poses too great a threat, the Games will be cancelled.
But no one wants to think that thought through.
The Olympics are no ordinary sporting competition.
No expense is spared, the show should always be spectacular and strive to top the last play.
The selection of a city for the Olympic Games is based on the selection committee's assessment of the cities' presentations.
The more spectacular the presentation - the higher the chance of winning.
Tokyo spent $150 million trying to win the right to host the 2016 Olympics.
The second time, when bidding for the 2020 Games, $75 million was put into the promotion.
In 2013, when it was decided that Tokyo would host the Games this year, the Japanese authorities had already spent 30 billion crowns on the project.
But that amount is just a drop in the ocean compared to what it costs to build an Olympic village, stadiums and generally strengthen the country's infrastructure to cope with such a tournament, prepare it and host the Games themselves.
Organizers in Japan have said the Tokyo Olympics, which should have been underway by now but have been postponed for a year because of the coronavirus, would have cost $12.6 billion.
However, a report by Japan's National Audit Office released at the end of last year said the cost was almost double that figure.
The cost of postponing the Games is unlikely to be fully assessed, but it has been estimated that it could cost between $2 billion and $6 billion on top of the original cost.
The total cost to the Japanese Olympic Committee and Japanese taxpayers could therefore range from $15 billion to $30 billion.
The figures are so high that the entire tax revenue of the Icelandic state would only cover about half of an Olympic Games, assuming the lowest possible costs.
The Olympics are an event of such magnitude that they have often become a topic for economists, who try to crunch the numbers and look at the benefits of the Games.
In short, quite a few people seem to have come to the conclusion that the impact of the Olympics is less than positive for the economies of the cities that host them.
There are some short-term effects, for example, the number of jobs increases greatly in the short term, but in the long term, cities are often saddled with debt and the high operating costs of little-used structures.
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is saddled with significant debt from the 2016 Games and has been struggling to pay for the upkeep of all the major sports facilities built for the Games.
Figures released after the London 2012 Games have revealed that only 10 per cent of people who gained Olympic-related employment in the city were previously unemployed.
This means that only a small number of new jobs were created.
In general, cities have not done particularly well financially from hosting the Olympics because of the crippling costs associated with the structures built for the games.
However, the benefit is often considered to be in the increased traffic of tourists who want to visit the Olympic cities after the Games, which, however, there is a lot of uncertainty about the 2021 Games.
It is also unclear whether it will be possible to accommodate all the spectators who usually attend the Games.
The main issue, however, is the honor that the cities receive for being selected, which is difficult to quantify.
Because despite the enormous cost, it can also be said that the joy that the Games bring is not of such a nature that you can put a price tag on it.
But while the show is grand and no expense is spared, it's not just about the money.
It's the sports heroes who are at the forefront.
For some high achievers, the postponement of the Games is a welcome surprise.
Australian pentathlete and Olympic gold medallist Chloe Esposito, for example, is pregnant and would have been out of action this summer, but hopes to be fit for the 2021 Games.
She is therefore among those athletes who are only too happy about the postponement, for understandable reasons.
For those athletes who had planned to retire after this year's Games, had they been held on time, the postponement of the Games means in some cases that they will retire before the Games take place.
Simply don't trust your body to go through another year of rigorous training.
Few athletes captured the hearts of spectators at the 2016 Rio Olympics quite like gymnast Simone Biles.
She came home with four golds and a bronze.
Biles has appeared in several interviews in her native United States recently to discuss the Olympics.
She's aiming for the 2021 Games, but she's not sure if she'll still be at the top of her game next year, when she'll be 24.
Although it is not generally considered a high age, it is higher for a gymnast in the front row.
"It's a touchy subject," Biles said with a smile in an interview posted on the Olympic Committee's Instagram page, when asked if she plans to go as far in the 2021 Games as she did in Rio in 2016.
"I honestly don't know if I'll still be at the top of my game after another year of training," Biles said.
She has previously spoken about how her body can't take the strain of gymnastics for much longer.
Nevertheless, she is training hard for the 2021 Olympics.
Biles admits it was an uncomfortable feeling to have to suddenly stop training at the height of the pandemic when gyms were closed.
There were no exemptions for Biles, while all sports facilities were closed for seven weeks.
All her Olympic golds couldn't buy her any more access than anyone else, she had to find ways to stay in shape just like everyone else.
The basic shape is certainly a bit better than most people's.
"We're on a tight schedule right now.
It was hard to start training again after the gym opened.
We've had a slow start but we're back on track and I'll be stepping up the training as the year goes on.
Of course, we don't know exactly how these games will be or if they will be held, but we still practice assuming that they will be.
I've worked too hard to leave the sport now," Biles said.
Like everyone else, she is haunted by the doubt, or rather the awareness, that the Games may not be held in 2021 either.
To predict it, however, is hopeless.
No one can know what the state of the coronavirus pandemic will be in July 2021, and there is nothing to do but prepare for the Olympics, assuming that they will be held in a year.
Maybe the Olympic flame will be the light at the end of the Covid tunnel.
Postponed wedding due to pandemic
Modern Family actress Sarah Hyland has decided to postpone her wedding due to coronavirus.
She was set to marry former Bachelorette contestant Wells Adams this summer.
"I think there are more important things to think about right now," the actress told People.
"We definitely want to get married one day and have the wedding of our dreams and have everyone we love there.
But we decided to put that on hold and focus on what's important right now, and that's helping share information about the importance of wearing masks and staying home.
I pay more attention to world affairs than weddings these days.
There's a lot going on and we should be paying attention to what's going on in the world."