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Today in Denmark: A roundup of the latest news on Friday

Find out what's going on in Denmark today with The Local's short roundup of the news in less than five minutes.

Today in Denmark: A roundup of the latest news on Friday
Alcohol-free beer is becoming a more common preference in Denmark, according to new supermarket figures. Photo: Henning Bagger/Ritzau Scanpix

Sales of alcohol free beer on the up 

Denmark has something of a reputation for being a heavy-drinking nation, but there are signs that some are changing their habits.

Sales of alcohol-free beer at supermarket company Coop doubled between 2013 and 2020, news wire Ritzau reports. Coop owns several major Danish supermarket chains including Irma, SuperBrugsen, Fakta and Kvickly.

“There’s a clear trend in the sales of alcohol-free beer nationally. We’ve seen it with increasing strength from 2013 onwards, and in 2020, which was an unusual year, alcohol-free beer was among the seven product groups which increased the most,” Coop head of information Jens Juul Nielsen told Ritzau.

Better products and choice, as well as increasing focus on health amongst customers, are factors in the trend, Nielsen said.

Potential change to travel guidelines in weekly update

The foreign ministry updates its travel guidelines every Friday, meaning rules affecting whether incoming or returning travellers to Denmark can change, should the country from which they are travelling be given a new colour.

Denmark’s Covid-19 travel guidelines designates countries and regions under four different colour categories: green, yellow orange and red.

Last week’s update saw parts of the UK change to red and a number of popular holiday regions in Greece and Spain switched from green to yellow.

READ ALSO:

We’ll report any significant changes once they come in.

Copenhagen Airport baggage handlers resume work after brief action

Baggage handlers from the SGH company resumed work late last night after striking on Thursday, resulting in delays to a number of departures, Ritzau reported.

SGH is one of a number of companies that handle luggage at Copenhagen Airport, meaning some services were affected.

According to union media Fagbladet 3F, the action was taken in protest at a lack of options for workers to plan their schedules and a heavy weighting of weekend and night work.

Mixed weekend weather predicted

If you’re planning a barbecue this weekend, it’s probably a good idea to have it on Saturday.

Today will see a cloudy start clear up with temperatures reaching up to 25 degrees Celsius, while Saturday is expected to bring sunshine and up to 27 degrees, according to national meteorologist DMI.

Wet weather is forecast throughout Sunday, however, with clouds and rain likely from the outset.

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TODAY IN DENMARK

Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Friday

Ministry issues Israel travel warning, former Danish PM’s husband gets seat in UK parliament, tourists keen for Danish fish and more news this Friday.

Today in Denmark: A roundup of the news on Friday

Former PM Thorning-Schmidt’s husband elected to UK parliament 

Amid the landslide victory for the Labour party in last night’s UK general election comes the news that Stephen Kinnock, the husband of former Social Democratic Danish prime minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt, has been elected to parliament.

Kinnock, the son of Neil Kinnock who led Labour in the 1980s and early 1990s, won the Aberafan Maesteg seat in South Wales.

Thorning-Schmidt has been part of Kinnock’s campaign and was yesterday photographed alongside the UK’s incoming prime minister Keir Starmer.

Vocabulary: forhenværende – previous

Foreign Ministry advises against all travel to Israel

The Danish Foreign Ministry has officially advised against all travel to Israel due to the risk an escalation in hostilities between Israel and militant organisation Hezbollah in south Lebanon.

The updated travel advisory was issued by the foreign ministry yesterday afternoon.

Previously, the ministry advised against all non-essential travel to the area.

In the advisory, the ministry states the situation can deteriorate “with no or very short warning”.

Vocabulary: at fraråde – to advise against

Fresh fish tempts tourists to Denmark

Fishing boats moored at the quayside and fresh fish sold on the harbour are draws for tourists according to a new University of Copenhagen study.

The study, which looked at the link between numbers of fishing boats and hotel guests, found that one extra fishing boat at a local harbour increased hotel stays by 1.1 percent or 90 guests.

“Tourism is affected in a markedly positive way by active fishing vessels landing at local harbours,” Max Nielsen of the univiersity’s Department of Food and Resource Economics said according to DR.

Vocabulary: fiskekutter – fishing boat

Trains keep to timetable but disruptions expected

Many trains in Denmark arrived on time during the first half of 2024, according to data released on Thursday by Banedanmark, the company responsible for rail infrastructure.

But maintenance planned for the second half of the year could result in a worsening of the figure, the company warned.

“I’m satisfied that rail traffic in the last half of the year has run well, including when you compare to many other countries,” Banedanmark’s traffic director Peter Svendsen said in a statement.

Some 78.5 percent of passengers with national rail company DSB arrived on time, meaning a target of 75 percent was achieved. Over one-fifth was thereby late by at least three minutes.

Over 90 percent of passengers arrived within 10 minutes of the scheduled arrival time.

 

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