Newsletter: The Pulsating Arctic

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The Arctic's beating heart is the people who live here. People who do not take no for an answer, who build their own schools and create good lives in the most remote and rugged places. And who are proud of their Arctic identities. 

This indomitable will characterized the Andøya mayor as he thanked the local community for the fact that Andøya Spaceport in Northern Norway could open Europe's only operational launch port for satellites and bring Norway into what is called "New Space," the commercial and privatized space age.

It is this will that journalist Hilde-Gunn Bye also meets on her way together with Editor-in-Chief Arne O. Holm in the Life on the Arctic Coast series. 

This week, you can meet Raimo Sørensen, who started working at the fish landing in Kjøllefjord, North of Finnmark, over 20 years ago. He is now the chief (Norwegian only). 

War and security 

The Arctic cannot close its eyes to the vast suffering we are witnessing in the Gaza Strip, even if the bombing is taking place far from the Arctic and the High North. 

“I cannot help myself from writing about it. I cannot allow myself to not write about it. Because our own allies are looking, with eyes wide open, at thousands of children being murdered”, writes the Editor-in-Chief in this week’s commentary. 

In an interview with our journalist Astri Edvardsen, Professor Michael Petersen at the US Naval War College says the US should look at Norway's handling of Russia to obtain better security in the Arctic (Norwegian only). 

And a new implementation plan for the US Coast Guard’s Arctic strategy clears a path for acquiring a commercial icebreaker to overcome the “icebreaking capacity gap.” 

Cultural news 

Arctic music is celebrated during the Iceland Airwaves festival in Reykjavik. Listen to the captivating contributions in the article. 

On Tuesday, the Nordic Council's Children and Young People's Literature Prize was awarded to the Icelandic author and illustrator Rán Flygenring for the picture book Eldgos. 

On Facebook, you can find postcards in the form of Holm and his mobile home, with little reports from the innermost corners of the Nordic region. Feel free to follow us on social media. 

Wishing you all the best for the weekend on behalf of the editorial staff,

Trine Jonassen, News Editor