Iceland Roundup: Reynisfjara Disappears, TB Outbreak, Epstein, Inflation, Data Safety

The Reykjavík Grapevine’s Iceland Roundup brings you the top news with a healthy dash of local views. In this episode, Grapevine publisher Jón Trausti Sigurðarson is joined by Heimildin editor Aðalsteinn Kjartansson and Grapevine friend and contributor to round up the stories making headlines in recent weeks.

On the docket this week:

On Thursday, it was reported that a child at a preschool in the Reykjavík suburb of Breiðholt was left alone on the grounds for their parent to find, after all staff had already left the premises. This story coincides with Reykjavík’s 63 preschool headmasters telling the city just before the weekend that it has until the end of the month to resolve the city’s preschool problems, which, amongst other things are caused by the shortening of the work week to 36 hours, without allowing preschools to hire additional staff.

The chairman of the Medical Doctors’ Association told the news this past week that conditions in hospital emergency rooms have never been worse, with around 100 patients currently waiting in overcrowded hospitals for nursing home placement. This follows reports that seven healthcare employees contracted TB from a patient who died in January, as well as last year’s news that emergency room patients were being kept in the hospital parking garage;

The Central Bank announced last week that it would not raise interest rates, despite inflation now measured above 5.2%. If this trend continues, the collective bargaining agreements currently in place . Blame for inflation is already being debated: the government is being criticised for tax increases and other mark-ups, while pointing the finger back at the private sector;

We have also learned of further connections between Ghislaine Maxwell, the former associate of Jeffrey Epstein, and the Arctic Circle Council. Technically, this was already known, but many had forgotten until more Epstein documents were released in January. In 2020, the local news outlet Kjarninn.is reported that Maxwell had spoken at the annual Arctic Circle Council in 2013 and 2014, where she met the council’s co-founder Scott Borgerson, whom she subsequently married;

Heavy ocean currents, combined with easterly winds, have almost entirely swept away the beach at the famous tourist destination Reynisfjara. According to local media images and an interview with one of the landowners on mbl.is, the iconic basalt columns, one of Iceland’s most photographed sites, are now directly exposed to the waves, with the sand in front of them gone;

Last summer, Icelandic hosting service provider Mörður Áslaugarson highlighted in an op-ed on visir.is that companies such as Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Apple are compelled to hand all data from Icelandic government institutions to the U.S. government. While this revelation has not made much of a splash locally, it is relevant in the context of the EU’s initiative to find new ways to store EU government data — 80% of which is currently on U.S.-owned services. This initiative comes amid a changing global security landscape, where the U.S. is increasingly viewed as a potential threat.