News Snippets from the European Press

Norway: Plum crazy A warm May produced abundant plums in August and farmers were initially pleased with the quality and quantity of the fruit but are now less than happy, as the market is flooded and too few are sold.  “Forty per cent will go straight into the garbage bins,” one wholesaler said of plums stored in their warehouses.

Denmark: Egypt venture The Danish Cultural Institute in Damascus (Syria), which has been closed for the last 12 years has now opened a branch in Cairo (Egypt) to facilitate an interchange of each country’s culture and society.  Denmark is also opening a catering school in the capital to help young people find jobs in the hospitality industry.

Game play: Copenhagen has assigned €67,000 from its 2025 Budget to study the possibility of hosting the Olympic Games in 2036.  Culture and Leisure councillor Mia Nyegaard also confirmed that Copenhagen intended to make an official bid to host the Youth Olympic Games which could be held as early as 2030.

Italy: Fair shares Young female graduates in Italy can look forward to earnings that are approximately half of the salaries received by young male graduates, an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development(OECD) report found.  Italy’s 58 per cent pay gap was the widest in the 38 countries examined, the OECD found.

Getting on Italy’s doctors are currently the oldest in Europe and an estimated 13,156 of them will be eligible for retirement in 2025, the Geriatric Society Hospital and Territory (SIGOT) revealed.  Fifty-five per cent are over 55, compared with 32.7 per cent in Spain, 44.5 per cent in France and 44.1 per cent in Germany.

Belgium: Bug out EMPLOYEES at a secure centre for asylum seekers in Steenokkerzeel (Brabant) called a lighting strike after bedbugs were discovered in the staff room.  The management said that a minimum service would be maintained during the stoppage and a specialist firm had been called in to deal with the infestation.

Time to go Antwerp Zoo announced that Hermien, a hippopotamus, would be put to sleep at the end of this month. “Hermien is not doing well,” the zoo’s chief vet explained. “In the wild hippos live to be about 35 and Hermien will soon turn 44,” he said, adding that she had numerous age-related ailments and health issues.

Germany: Bright idea The government is allegedly deliberating whether to class motorway repairs as defence spending as it tries to hit Nato’s required contribution of 2 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.  Berlin said that since tanks and other military vehicles used public roads, their upkeep should be included in the defence Budget.

Bridge drama A section of the Carola Bridge in central Dresden collapsed in the early hours of September 9.  Although the bridge was empty at the time and no-one was injured, the city authorities warned that the incident would cause transport chaos and both road and river traffic would be halted for some time.

Netherlands: Frisian find Two fragments of texts dating from the 13th and 14th centuries written in Old Frisian have been located at Vienna’s national library.  Both had belonged to a former director’s private collection and Rolf Bremmer, a professor of Frisian, said their discovery was so special that the news made his heart “skip a beat.”

Going up Leaked details of the next Netherlands Budget revealed that the government expects to increase the monthly health insurance payment to €158 in 2025, compared with the present €150.  Sources quoted in the Telgraaf newspaper said that the hike was due to higher wages in the healthcare sector and inflation.

France:  Old timer Remains of a Neanderthal male, named Thorin in a nod to Tolkien, were found in Malataverne in southern France in 2015 but still have archaeologists puzzled.   They are difficult to date as a genetic study suggested they could be 105,000 years old, while carbon dating showed that Thorin lived 37,000 years ago.

Slow down On October 1 the speed limit on the Paris ring road will drop to 50 kilometres per hour, city mayor Anne Hidalgo announced.  The measure faces opposition from both drivers and the Transport ministry which said that Hidalgo’s decision was unilateral and her powers did not extend to the “nationwide rules of the roads.

Finland: On exercises Three aircraft from Germany’s 71 Tactical Air Wing Richthofen were recently posted to the Rovaniemi Air Force base in Finland, located 147 kilometres from the Russian border.  The training exercises were part of Germany’s revamp of its Agile Combat Employment (ACE) capabilities, Air Force sources said.

Mussel mess: A heavy machinery operator who devastated an important population of pearl-bearing freshwater mussels in Suomussalmi (Kainuu) worked for Stora Enso, which manufactures wood-based materials. Police are investigating the incident that killed thousands of mussels and endangered thousands more.

Ireland: Double standard A cyclist who presented police with footage from his helmet camera that showed drivers using phones and parking illegally, was fined after the same footage showed him jumping a red light.  He has received a fixed penalty notice although police declined to confirm whether the drivers had also been fined.

New options Additions have been made to Ireland’s Leaving Certificate curriculum and pupils can study Drama, Film and Theatre Studies or Climate Action and Sustainable Development.  Aimed at students “not fitting the mould of more traditional subjects”  they will be available at 100 schools in September 2025.

Portugal: Guard duty Shortage of human resources was Portugal prisons’ system greatest problem, warned the president of the National Prison Guard Union (SNCGP) Frederico Morais.  If the authorities wanted to prevent more prisoners from escaping as five did on September 7, approximately 1,500 more guards were needed, Morais said

All electric The world’s first certified 100 per cent electric aeroplane, the Pipistrel Velis Electro, is currently being used to train pilots in Viseu, northern Portugal.  With electric propulsion and powered by batteries, this made a considerable difference to the cost, explained Jose Madeira, director of the International Flight Academy (IFA).

Sweden: Busy drones Sweden’s aviation authorities are investigating the sighting of at least one drone over Arlanda Airport on September 9 for the second night running.  The latest incident occurred less than 24 hours after several were spotted there, forcing flights to divert to other airports in what police said was a “deliberate act.”

Word for word Halmstad councillor Anna Fallkvist resigned after using the Swedish version of the n-word while telling an anecdote at a non-public meeting at the town hall.  “I used the wrong word, which has upset people,” she told the SVT broadcaster. “It was wrong of me to express myself in a way that has offended people.”