The New Backyard

Finland’s Crisis Classroom

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 16:00:57 GMT

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The Constitutional Law Committee put a school preparedness bill on its November 12 agenda. The proposal, submitted by the Finnish government on October 8, would allow temporary changes to classes during a serious disruption. Older pupils could learn from home when necessary. Preschoolers, children in grades one through th…

Who Pays to Secure Denmark’s Water?

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 15:01:13 GMT

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On November 12, Danish lawmaker Carsten Bach of the Liberal Alliance asked Environment Minister Maria Reumert Gjerding who would finance mandatory emergency preparedness and security measures at drinking water and wastewater utilities. He also asked whether lawmakers should consider a separate financing rule for extraordi…

Who Holds Power in a Swedish Crisis?

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 14:03:40 GMT

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On November 11, the Riksdag, Sweden’s parliament, voted 322 to 21 to amend the constitution. Starting January 1, 2027, the government can activate emergency powers in a severe peacetime crisis when it clearly cannot wait for Parliament to decide. It must then submit that decision for review as soon as possible. This was t…

Norway and Britain’s AI Pact

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 13:01:26 GMT

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Norway and the United Kingdom signed a statement of intent in Oslo on November 12 to explore joint testing of artificial intelligence and secure hosting for public-sector computing. Torgeir Micaelsen, Norway’s minister of digitalization and public governance, and Kanishka Narayan, Britain’s minister for artificial intelli…

Who Runs the Faroese Police?

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 12:01:09 GMT

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The Foreign Affairs Committee of the Faroese Parliament filed its report on November 12 on a bill to transfer policing, prosecution and corrections to the Faroe Islands. The committee majority wants to wait for a fresh assessment, while the minority favors a transfer in 2030, two years later than the original proposal, ac…

Estonia’s Locomotives for Ukraine

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 11:00:56 GMT

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Estonia’s cabinet set aside €4.5 million on November 12 to send at least six locomotives to Ukraine. The money comes from the government reserve and allows deliveries to begin immediately, the cabinet said. The engines will be supplied according to the technical requirements and needs set by Ukraine.

The decision follows t…

Finland’s Barracks Under Strain

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 10:01:08 GMT

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On November 13, Commodore Mikko Laakkonen, commander of Finland’s Nyland Brigade, said his staff conduct hundreds of interviews a year in preliminary investigations. He told Ruotuväki, the Finnish Defence Forces’ newspaper, that the workload was undermining training, straining staff and putting conscripts’ legal protectio…

Denmark Questions Platform Liability

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 09:01:07 GMT

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On November 13, the Justice Committee of the Folketing, Denmark’s parliament, held an open hearing with Danish Justice Minister Nicolai Wammen at Christiansborg Palace in Copenhagen. The committee asked what the government can do at home and internationally to pursue criminal cases against companies that distribute such m…

Too Young for a Sentence

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 08:00:53 GMT

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On November 12, the Gävle District Court found that a boy who was 13 at the time of an October 2025 shooting had committed six counts of aggravated assault, according to the Swedish Police Authority. The court ordered him to pay about €34,500 in damages to the six people he wounded. His age at the time put him below the t…

Norway’s Defense Contracts

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 07:01:59 GMT

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Norway’s parliament opened a public hearing on November 13 after its auditors found that the Norwegian Armed Forces had bought goods and services worth about €69 million under expired purchasing agreements. The Ministry of Defense has since disclosed further purchases under agreements that had already reached their spendi…

Huang’s China Entanglement

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 06:01:31 GMT

AI-generated photo illustration. Conceptual montage; not a photograph of a documented event.

On November 12, Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs disclosed that Alice Huang, the businesswoman linked romantically to Nvidia’s founder, had been questioned in an investigation into server purchases, warned for knowingly giving police inaccurate information an…

After the GPS Warnings

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 06:00:48 GMT

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By the end of October, pilots in Eastern Finnmark had broken off three approaches and changed course or turned back five times in cases involving satellite navigation interference. Kamzy Gunaratnam, Norway’s transport minister, gave those figures in a reply to parliament published on November 3. The records combine cases where …

Cuba in Trump’s Sights

Odd Inge Teige — Sat, 14 Nov 2026 05:01:10 GMT

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on November 12 that he would consider military action against Cuba, tying his ambition to settle the island’s future to the end of his presidency in January 2029.

“I want to get Cuba done before I leave,” he told conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

When Hewitt suggested a military campa…

A Lawyer for Faroese Victims

Odd Inge Teige — Fri, 13 Nov 2026 22:30:45 GMT

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Denmark’s Parliament, the Folketing, scheduled a first reading on November 12 for a bill that would let victims in Faroese stalking, grooming and psychological abuse cases ask a court to appoint a lawyer. The judge could turn down a request if the alleged offense is less serious and legal help is clearly unnecessary.

The F…

Greenland’s Defense Pact Reaches Denmark

Odd Inge Teige — Fri, 13 Nov 2026 21:01:31 GMT

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Denmark’s parliament, the Folketing, held its first debate on the Arctic defense agreement with Greenland and the United States on November 12. Inatsisartut, Greenland’s parliament, approved the agreement on November 3. Danish lawmakers have until November 13 to submit questions. The second and final reading is scheduled …

Lithuania’s Balloon Raids

Odd Inge Teige — Fri, 13 Nov 2026 20:01:42 GMT

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Police detained five people and searched 16 properties in southern Lithuania on November 11 in an investigation into a suspected network smuggling cigarettes by weather balloon. The Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau announced the operation on November 12. It worked with the Kaunas Regional Prosecutor’s Office.

Police said …

Latvia’s Hospital Contracts

Odd Inge Teige — Fri, 13 Nov 2026 18:30:53 GMT

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Three people have been charged in one of two Latvian hospital procurement cases referred to prosecutors, Gatis Doniks, a prosecutor with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, said at a briefing on November 12. The referrals are part of seven investigations into suspected agreements between employees of public hospitals…

Estonia’s Code for AI

Odd Inge Teige — Fri, 13 Nov 2026 17:03:05 GMT

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Estonia’s cabinet approved a bill on November 12 to amend the Public Information Act and let people register a unique agent code. The proposal, presented by Estonian Minister of Economic Affairs and Industry Liina Vahtras, would link a person to software acting on their behalf. The Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communi…

When Bears Come Close

Odd Inge Teige — Fri, 13 Nov 2026 16:03:16 GMT

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A 50-year-old guard at the Salmonica Travel lodge on the Kamchatka Peninsula, in Russia’s Far East, stopped checking in on November 7. A helicopter search spotted his snowmobile. Investigators found his remains and said on November 12 that a forensic examination would establish the exact cause of death.

At the lodge, inves…

Grindavík Wants a Way Home

Odd Inge Teige — Fri, 13 Nov 2026 15:31:20 GMT

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The Grindavík Town Council declared on November 12 that it had lost confidence in the way Þórkatla, a state-owned property company, had handled its plan to sell homes back to displaced residents in southwestern Iceland. The council called for the company to revise the terms with residents. The same day, Þórkatla postponed…