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Iceland sees higher voter turnout in EU referendum than 2024 elections
Voter Turnout
By noon, Reykjavík recorded a voter turnout of 13.7% in the North constituency and over 14% in the South for the EU referendum, surpassing 2024 parliamentary election levels.
By noon, Reykjavík recorded a voter turnout of 13.7% in the North constituency and over 14% in the South for the EU referendum, surpassing 2024 parliamentary election levels.
Strategic negotiations
A yes vote would initiate renewed discussions with the European Commission across 35 critical areas, emphasizing economic and human rights frameworks crucial for Iceland’s potential EU membership.
A yes vote would initiate renewed discussions with the European Commission across 35 critical areas, emphasizing economic and human rights frameworks crucial for Iceland’s potential EU membership.
Public Opinion
“I think that we should be a part of a bigger unity. I think it’s worth looking into it,” said Unnur Jokulsdottir, a voter in Reykjavík.
“I think that we should be a part of a bigger unity. I think it’s worth looking into it,” said Unnur Jokulsdottir, a voter in Reykjavík.
Iceland’s EU referendum sees high preliminary voter turnout in expected close race
Published on
Iceland’s capital Reykjavík recorded a higher voter turnout in the high-stakes EU referendum by noon than at the same time during the country’s parliamentary elections in 2024, preliminary figures showed on Saturday.
In the hours after voters began casting their ballots in the referendum that will determine whether to reopen EU accession talks, 13.7% had voted by noon in the Reykjavík North constituency, compared to just over 10% in the 2024 election.
In Reykjavík South, just over 14% had voted by noon, compared to just over 11% for the parliamentary election.
More than 20% of voters cast early ballots in advance of election day, Iceland’s national broadcaster RÚV said.
A close race is expected, with a final poll on Friday indicating 50.4% of voters plan to vote yes and 49.6% no.
Backers of EU membership say it’s best for Iceland to get closer to its European neighbours to combat issues that don’t respect borders, such as climate change. They also say the euro would bring more stability than Iceland’s volatile króna currency.
Opponents say the current setup is just right and that Iceland already enjoys all the benefits of European integration without the sovereignty compromises that inevitably come with full membership. They cite trade deals, such as one with China, that are more favourable.
“I think that we should be a part of a bigger unity. I think it’s worth looking into it,” Unnur Jokulsdottir, a 71-year-old retiree, said after casting her ballot in Reykjavík’s City Hall.
In contrast, Olafur Thorsson, a 53-year-old fish trader, said he was sceptical.
“I used to like the European Union back when it was a good thing. But today it’s become a sort of big economic prison,” he said.
The country of just under 400,000 people applied to join the EU in the wake of a 2009 financial crisis that devastated its economy.
membership talks were then suspended in 2013 when a eurosceptic government came to power.
A yes vote would trigger renewed negotiations with the European Commission covering 35 areas, from the economy to human rights.
The issue of fisheries — a pillar of Iceland’s economy and over which Reykjavík wants to retain exclusive control — would have to be hammered out with Brussels, which this time around appears more willing to compromise.
On the global stage, the return of war in Europe with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has shaken established security doctrines.
Trump’s unpredictability and his threats to take over neighbouring Greenland — which he has mixed up with Iceland on several occasions — have added to Icelanders’ concerns.
Their island is strategically located in the sub-Arctic, has no military and depends on NATO and a 1951 bilateral agreement with the United States for its defence.
The result of the vote will be followed closely by the EU, which has not welcomed a wealthy, net contributor to its budget since 1995.
Additional sources • AP, AFP
October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
The cost-of-living crisis is far from over, yet the government’s 50% increase to the bus fare cap is a political choice, adding hundreds to annual costs.
To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
G20 waters down support for Ukraine amid pressure for peace talks
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November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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