On Tuesday morning, yet another volcanic eruption began on the Reykjanes Peninsula. As the town of Grindavik was evacuated once again, rescue personnel were threatened with firearms.
Just a few weeks ago, increased seismic activity was recorded on the peninsula, indicating that new volcanic eruptions were imminent. By this morning, over 200 earthquakes had been registered, and by lunchtime, lava began to flow from a crater.
Since December 2023, Iceland has been hit hard by volcanic eruptions. This is the eighth eruption at Sundhnúk crater.
Threatened with Shotgun
The town of Grindavik has once again been evacuated, but not without problems. A rescue worker was reportedly threatened with a shotgun by a resident when trying to evacuate the town. No one was injured and the person in question has been arrested. Furthermore, around eight people reportedly chose not to evacuate from the town.
Grindavik has been hit hard by the outbreaks. Despite protective walls, which were set up around the town, the lava still flowed in and set buildings on fire. However, most buildings have been destroyed by the earthquakes. Before the eruptions started, around 3,500 people lived in Grindavik, but now almost all the houses have been sold to the state and most people have moved away.
May be the last eruption
On Wednesday morning, it was confirmed that the eruption was over. The last eruption was described as milder, but that there was still a significant amount of magma. Benedikt Ófeigsson, head of deformation measurements at Veðurstofan, Iceland’s meteorological authority, believes this may have been the last eruption in the current eruption sequence on the Reykjanes Peninsula.
– I think we can reasonably say this looks like the final phase in the sequence. Magma flow has slowed down significantly over the past year. But whether there could be one more eruption – that’s something we simply cannot know while it’s still unfolding, he told Icelandic state broadcaster RUV.
We don’t have a billionaire owner, and our unique reader-funded model keeps us free from political or corporate influence. This means we can fearlessly report the facts and shine a light on the misdeeds of those in power.
Consider a donation to keep our independent journalism running…
Despite promises of groundbreaking climate solutions, Swiss carbon dioxide giant Climeworks’ facility in Iceland has not only captured far less than promised – it has also emitted more carbon dioxide than it has absorbed.
Critics say the whole operation is deeply deceptive and one of many examples of scam projects created to profit from the alleged climate crisis.
Climeworks, a Swiss company that markets itself as a pioneer in direct carbon capture (DAC), has failed to achieve its targets in Iceland despite significant investment and media attention.
According to data from the verification company Puro.Earth and the company’s own annual reports, Climeworks has only captured around 2,400 tons of CO₂ in Iceland since 2021 – far below the promised capacity ceiling of 12,000 tons. In addition, the company’s own emissions from its operations have exceeded its capture: in 2023 alone, Climeworks emitted 1,700 tons of CO₂, significantly more than its total capture.
Climeworks’ first facility, Orca, was unveiled in 2021 with a capacity of 4,000 tons of CO₂ per year. In reality, it has never even reached half that target. The larger Mammoth facility, which could capture 36,000 tons annually, has only managed to collect 105 tons after ten months of operation.
According to CEO Jan Wurzbacher, Mammoth requires 5,000–6,000 kWh per ton of CO₂ captured – a process described as extremely inefficient. To offset Iceland’s total emissions (12.4 million tons in 2024), 72 terawatt hours of energy would be needed – four times the country’s annual electricity production.
Professor: “A scam”
Climeworks’ Icelandic subsidiary has negative equity of ISK 3.6 billion (€25 million) and is entirely dependent on funding from its parent company. The value of the Orca machine has also been written down by €1.25 million due to underperformance.
Despite this, the company has sold future carbon credits equivalent to one-third of Mammoth’s planned capacity for the next 25 years – even though over 21,000 private subscribers who have paid in advance risk having to wait decades for their certificates.
Mark Z. Jacobson, professor of environmental science at Stanford University, calls the entire DAC industry a big scam and fraud.
– Direct capture is a scam, carbon capture is a scam, blue hydrogen is a scam, and electrofuel is a scam. These are all scam technologies that do nothing for the climate or air pollution.
“Semi-magical technology”
Michael de Podesta, a British pensioner who paid ISK 135,000 (€940) for 2.2 tons of CO₂ capture, expresses similar concerns in his blog, and after looking into the company more closely, he believes he has probably been scammed.
“This has all the hallmarks of a scam. There are undoubtedly a lot of highly paid people traveling the world to sell their services to large corporations to remove carbon credits in the future. They are using a semi-magical technology that doesn’t work as well as expected (better known as Orca) but will work perfectly in a larger version (Mammoth)”.
“I am urged to convince my friends to join the project. The answers are scarce and full of PR chatter. Climeworks’ operations look like a scam and talk like one. But is it a scam? I don’t know. I think it could work, but the company’s answers are so opaque that it’s hard to say”, he continues.
He will not know for sure until 2027 whether Climeworks has actually captured the 2.2 tons of carbon dioxide he has paid for.
Millions from the US
It is also worth noting that the company has received or been promised around $800 million in public subsidies, including $625 million from the US Department of Energy and $5 million from Switzerland. Despite this, the cost per ton of CO₂ captured remains at $1,000 – ten times higher than the original target.
Due to the failures of DAC, Climeworks has now instead begun to focus on “enhanced weathering”, a highly controversial method in which crushed rock is bound with CO₂. However, researchers believe that this is a sign of desperation to fulfill credits that have already been sold.
In summary, critics point out that Climeworks’ operations have been characterized by exaggerated promises, technical shortcomings, and financial irresponsibility since its inception. Despite being ranked as one of the world’s leading green tech companies by Time Magazine, its contribution to climate action is described as marginal at best – and at worst as directly counterproductive and harmful.
Minister for Gender Equality, Nina Larsson (L), wants misogyny to be classified as terrorism – in the same way as violent Islamism, right-wing, and left-wing extremism.
– Equality is under attack, the minister proclaims.
She points out that acts of violence driven by misogyny have been committed in other parts of the world, and even if such attacks have not occurred in Sweden, she still demands that Swedish authorities take preventive action.
– We think it’s important to take the plunge and describe the threat for what it is, that it’s terrorism, that we can then get better data, better analysis so that we can understand and counteract this type of violence, she says in an interview with state television SVT.
Domestic violence should not be included in the definition. Instead, Larsson wants to focus on “violent extremism with misogyny as its basis, where incitement and violence are used to intimidate and reduce women’s power and space“.
– These are very serious crimes aimed at intimidating the ordinary Swedish population who want to live in a democratic and equal society, she warns.
“A growing problem”
In the program, she is pressed on the practical consequences of a terror classification. She believes that this could lead to a more coordinated approach, where societal resources are targeted more effectively, the knowledge base is deepened and interventions can be designed with greater accuracy.
– But if we can point out that extremist misogyny is also a major societal problem that reduces people’s freedom, then we also have the opportunity to get a better basis and much more accurate measures, I think. Just as the police are working with the current extremist environments.
It is not yet clear how the other government parties view the proposal – but Nina Larsson hopes that her party will get support on the issue.
– This is a growing problem and I think more and more people see the importance of moving forward and finding concrete measures with this. So I believe and hope that I will get the government on board with this.
Highlighting the influence of Jewish lobby groups over American or European politics is usually a very sensitive issue – and anyone who does so can expect to be subjected to smear campaigns and accusations of anti-Semitism.
On Wednesday, however, Swedish state television chose, unusually and to the surprise of many, to draw attention to the lobby groups’ enormous power over American politics, and SVT’s foreign correspondent, Stefan Åsberg, stated that these interests are in practice powerful enough to decide who will be the next president of the United States.
– These are well-organized groups with vast resources that sometimes more or less determine the outcome of presidential elections, he said, adding:
– It is also important for members of Congress to forge close ties with these lobby groups, whose task is to influence US politics and ensure that, if possible, leaders who favor relations between Israel and the US are elected.
Senaste nytt från SVT:
”Välorganiserade judiska grupper bestämmer vem som blir president i USA” pic.twitter.com/2wQaWdRK0Y
— Zeke Wolfenstein (@ZekeWolfenstein) May 21, 2025
The US has long been Israel’s most important ally and has a long history of economic and military cooperation, including supplying weapons and military technology worth billions of dollars every year.
However, according to Åsberg, the relationship between Trump and Netanyahu seems to have weakened somewhat, due to the large-scale war crimes in Gaza.
– There is a red line even for the US and Donald Trump. The US is affected by the enormous death toll in Gaza, not least all the children whose lives have been lost in the Gaza Strip. He is definitely losing patience with Israel.
All Republicans have personal Israel lobbyists
Although the Jewish lobby’s influence over the US is often a sensitive topic, it is also well documented. As recently as after the last election, groups such as AIPAC openly boasted about how virtually all of the candidates they financed won their primaries – and how they also “defeated 11 anti-Israel candidates”.
AIPAC endorsed 362 candidates and won in every primary we had a candidate on the ballot!
We helped our friends win and defeated 11 anti-Israel candidates.
According to estimates, AIPAC spent around $100 million ahead of the last election – partly on smearing and opposing candidates perceived as pro-Palestinian or critical of Israel.
Libertarian Congressman Thomas Massie also caused a stir when he revealed in an interview with Tucker Carlson that all Republicans in Congress have a personal Israel lobbyist from AIPAC with whom they are in close contact and who tells them how to vote on various issues.
When Tucker Carlson said that this sounded “absolutely insane” and wondered why this was not common knowledge, Massie explained that none of the parties involved would benefit from these close ties becoming public knowledge.
– It doesn’t benefit anybody. Why would they want to tell their constituents that they’ve basically got a buddy system with somebody who’s representing a foreign country? It doesn’t benefit the congressman for people to know that. So they’re not going to tell you that.
Screen time on Tiktok is significantly higher in Finland than in the rest of the world, a new survey shows. In Sweden, Youtube is most popular.
In Finland, around 1.5 million people use Tiktok. It is the app that Finns use the most, with YouTube coming in second.
On average, Finns spend 54 hours and 37 minutes a month on Tiktok, according to a report by consulting firm Kepios. This is almost 20 hours more than the survey average of around 35 hours per month.
In Sweden, the most time is spent on YouTube, with Swedes spending an average of 28 hours and 46 minutes each month. Close behind in second place is Tiktok, which people spend almost as much time with: 28 hours and four minutes on average each month.
Finns are also the ones who open the Tiktok app the most times per month compared to the rest of the world. On average, they open the app 587.7 times a month, almost 20 times a day, while the global average is 358.7 times.
The report is based on data from Android phones in November last year and adult users only. The total number of users is therefore likely to be much higher, as many people under the age of 18 use Tiktok and also YouTube.
