Cruise-ferry lines in Norway that run to Germany, Denmark and Sweden claim they welcome competition from a new player that announced its entry into the market this week. The recently formed Holland Norway Lines has launched plans to sail between Norway’s southern city of Kristiansand and Eemshaven in the Netherlands next spring.
“Competition is good and sharpens us all,” Nina Moland Andersen, sales and marketing chief for Norwegian-based Color Line, told state broadcaster NRK. “Even more people will be able to choose the sea route.”
Holland Norway Lines’ planned route using a vessel chartered from the Tallink Group, which is active in the Baltic, will take 18 hours and run three times a week from Kristiansand to Eemshaven.
Norway will scrap quarantine hotels and ease entry restrictions for travellers from the UK and EEA or Schengen countries where infections are low enough, the government confirmed on Friday.
The government also said it would scrap the distinction between ‘necessary’ and ‘unnecessary’ trips, meaning arrivals from the United Kingdom and EEA and Schengen countries will no longer need to enter quarantine hotels and can quarantine at home or another suitable location.
“We are now changing the rules for quarantine hotels. We are removing the distinction between necessary and unnecessary travel when entering Norway, “
Justice Minister Monica Mæland said in a statement.
Previously those returning from unnecessary trips would have to enter quarantine hotels for a minimum of seven of Norway’s ten-day quarantine period.
Those returning from essential trips were exempt.
Essential trips included those taken to visit your children, go to a funeral, or to see a relative or close relation with a severe or terminal illness, as well as strictly necessary maintenance on a holiday home in Sweden or Finland.
Erasmus+ supports traineeships (work placements, internships, etc) abroad for students currently enrolled in higher education institutions in Programme countries at Bachelor and Master level as well as for doctoral candidates. These opportunities are also open to recent graduates.
By doing a traineeship abroad with Erasmus+, you can improve not only your communication, language and inter-cultural skills, but also soft skills highly valued by future employers, as well as become more entrepreneurial. Read more about the benefits of an exchange abroad.
Access to Erasmus+ Online Linguistic Support will help you learn the language used at your workplace.
Duration
Your traineeship abroad can last from a minimum of 2 months to a maximum of 12 months.
You can benefit of an exchange abroad with Erasmus+ multiple times, either as a student or as a trainee, but your total time abroad (study abroad periods included) may not exceed 12 months within one cycle of study.
For “one-cycle” courses such as medicine or architecture, you can go abroad with Erasmus+ for as long as 24 months.
You can also go for a traineeship abroad as a recent graduate. In this case, your traineeship must occur within one year of your graduation and you must apply while still being enrolled in your higher education institution.
Conditions
This opportunity is open for students registered in a higher education institution holding an Erasmus+ Charter for Higher Education.
Your traineeship must be relevant for your degree-related learning and personal development needs and, wherever possible, be integrated in your study programme.
You may carry out a traineeship at any organisation in an Erasmus+ Programme Country (with the exception of EU institutions, bodies and agencies).
How to apply
You can apply through the international or Erasmus+ office of your higher education institution.
You are selected by your sending higher education institution in a fair and transparent way. Find out more here.
A new study about the possible origin of the coronavirus has found that Covid-19 is not natural in origin.
The study, led by Norwegian virologist Birger Sorensen, has found that the coronavirus’s spike protein contains sequences that appear to be artificially inserted.
“The inserted sequences should never have been published. Had it been today, it would never have happened. It was a big mistake the Chinese made. The inserted sequences have a functionality that we describe. We explain why they are essential. But the Chinese pointed to them first”, Sorensen said.
Researchers work in a lab of Wuhan Institute of Virology (WIV) in Wuhan, Hubei province, China, 23 February 2017 (issued 16 April 2020).
The researchers found that the virus had been doctored to bind to humans. They pointed out that it has hardly mutated since it began to infect humans, suggesting that it was already fully adapted to humans.
Former MI6 head Richard Dearlove has backed the claim.
Many European governments realised how seriously the cultural sector has been affected by the impact of the ongoing pandemic. Norway is part of this group, where The Royal Norwegian Ministry of Culture secured more than NOK 120 million (€11.7 million) as a compensation for festival organisers and subcontractors.
The amount is distributed by Norway’s cultural council (Kulturradet), which has so far paid approximately NOK 1.4 billion to more than 2,000 applicants through various compensation packages for 2020. The latest one covers the period of May to August 2020 for some of the biggest players in Norway’s festival sector.
Kristin Danielsen, the director of the cultural council said:
“The largest players in the sector are also large employers and an important part of the cultural sector’s business chain. Therefore, I would have liked to have had the application process completed earlier.At the same time, it has been important for us to process the applications thoroughly. These are community funds, and it is our responsibility to manage them in the best possible way.”
The scheme is designed to compensate organisers and subcontractors that were financially impacted by the Norwegian government’s ban on live events which was extended into late 2020, causing the cancellation of the country’s biggest festivals. Following the example of Germany, Belgium, Austria and the Netherlands, Norway’s ministry of culture also announced a NOK 350 million cancellation insurance fund for festivals earlier this month, allowing organisers to plan for this summer without the financial risk posed by a potential COVID-19 outbreak.
The Norwegian Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Tina Bru, announced an investment of 120 million NOK (€11.3 million) in a new wind power research center in Norway. The NorthWind research centre will be at the cutting edge, working on innovations to make wind power cheaper, more efficient, and more sustainable. One of the centre’s main priorities will be offshore wind research.
“Rapid growth in offshore wind power internationally offers great opportunities for Norwegian businesses. Research and development is crucial to secure lower costs, less environmental impact and improved operating models for such projects. I believe a longterm research centre with industry partners, the research community and the government will contribute to further development of offshore wind power in Norway,” said Tina Bru, Norway’s Petroleum and Energy Minister.
About NorthWind
NorthWind is financed by the Norwegian government through The Research Council of Norway. NorthWind is a Center for Environment-friendly Energy Research (FME) and will be in operation from 2020 to 2028. The Centers for Environment-friendly Energy Research carry out long-term research targeted towards renewable energy, energy efficiency, carbon capture and storage (CCS) and social science aspects of energy research.
But Facebook said the law left it “facing a stark choice: attempt to comply with a law that ignores the realities of this relationship, or stop allowing news content on our services in Australia”.
