So what is happening in those barely populated areas linked to the North Atlantic ocean?

Outdoor games,

Northern Sweden and Finland play key role as NATO kicks off Trident Juncture

Bars in downtown Reykjavík ran out of beer serving thirsty US sailors and marines

Several bars in downtown Reykjavík ran out of beer while serving thirsty US sailors and marines who were in port over the weekend participating in the NATO military exercises Trident Juncture.

Bars in downtown Reykjavík ran out of beer serving thirsty US sailors and marines

I'm not sure the point of that article. Were the bars under stocked? Unaccustomed to military ships on shore-leave? Were the personnel exceptionally thirsty or numerous? Hell, were they sailors, Marines or soldiers, or all the above? (all different things)

That is one of those articles where reading the headline is all you need. Nothing else was really said.  

They were American.

Oh, right. Them assholes. Spending their money in a foreign port, smh.

That was a fringe story to a bigger event, and somewhat exaggerated. Reykjavik is not that small town, and 6000 is not that a lot of soldiers. But military exercises tend to be in thinly populated areas that suddenly get a lot of people running around, driving around, and yes, drinking around. That they were American is besides the point, particularly in Iceland that is as Trans-Atlantic as you get. Geologically Reykjavik is on the American side of Iceland.

Back in my days the British had the bad reputation. They may have been specially trained soldiers, but also started the bar fights and trashed places. I think they cleaned that up decades ago. Today the running, shooting, driving and drinking passes on with little inconvenience to the locals (and some extra income for the local suppliers).

For lack of an extraction plan:

First ever Arctic bank robber gets caught cold

An armed man has robbed a bank in the world's northernmost settlement on Norway's remote Arctic archipelago of Svalbard but he was caught shortly afterwards, authorities said on Friday.

The heist was the first ever bank robbery in living memory in the territory, which is located in the Arctic Ocean, about halfway between continental Norway and the North Pole.

For lack of an extraction plan:

That seems like something you'd think about in advance.

People don't act normal when living six months with no sun.

You may have a point. Another criminal with extraction issues, though much further to the south.


Would-be thief calls police from inside car he was trying to steal

We should replace our jails by Volvos.

Don't know if you heard the Volvo 2020 vision,

"Our vision is that by 2020 no one should be killed or seriously injured in a new Volvo car."

2020 is next year, so they might need a new vision soon. What about this proposal?

"Our vision is that by 2022 no one should be able to escape from a new Volvo car."

Hehe, sounds challenging.

https://www.eu-startups.com/2018/12/citybee-raises-funds/

With the costs of payments, insurance, and repairs, owning your own car can be a hassle. Vilnius-based car-sharing startup CityBee relieves you of these concerns by letting you easily rent a car through its app, starting at just €.14 per minute.

[...]

After acquiring all the planned vehicles, the Lithuanian startup will become one of the largest providers of car-sharing services in all of Europe, alongside giants like DriveNow, which is owned by BMW and has 6,000 cars.

We've been satisfied Cambio subscribers for almost 4 years now, by the way.

This year I did not find any time to watch the skiing competitions or even follow news about them. By now it has turned out that Estonian high-profile skiing was pretty much knocked out by the crackdown at the World Cup in Seefeld, Austria. In the Estonian team, the highest coaches and team doctors have been implicated and it looks like all members were complicit.

https://news.err.ee/914922/two-estonian-skiers-held-in-austria-world-championships-doping-probe

Even though it said doping, I guess I wasn't really expecting the words "organized crime ring."

''We had been monitoring suspects during the World Cup, round-the-clock, and we saw these five athletes on a regular basis with organised criminal groups, both before and during World Cup," Mr Csefan said, adding that a total of 120 people were involved in investigations and seizures, and 16 locations had been searched.

It was undeniably organised. The Estonian tandem Mati Alaver, headcoach of the national skiing team since 80's, and Vitali Bernatski, doctor-pharmacologist, have been internationally suspected since 2011 at the latest.

In other news, I missed the Estonian elections last week. Here is a random commentator https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99FB-1_KstI

Basically, the so-called Reform Party, equivalent of Swedish Moderaterna, regained the lead after one term in opposition. Otherwise they have always been in the lead ever since the inception of the party. The EKRE party that doubled its own share in parliament since last elections is not just euroskeptic, but the equivalent of Sverigedemokraterna of Sweden. Luckily it is not quite the equivalent of Nordiska Motståndsrörelsen.

Nice to have news from the Baltic countries: ABLV bank was raided again.

On Saturday, June 13, one of the largest law enforcement searches in Latvia's history took place in ABLV Bank-related addresses, Latvian Television reported on June 13.

[...]

In 2018, the Latvian State Police opened a criminal case on possible money laundering schemes at ABLV Bank, which was then undergoing a liquidation process following U.S. allegations of large-scale money laundering.

Latvia's anti-corruption force was in action January 28, 2020, with a raid on the offices of ABLV bank.

Later in the day the LETA newswire reported the raids were related to suspicions of the laundering of several hundred million euros through ABLV Bank.

[...]

Bauska did not specify in which specific criminal case involving ABLV Bank the searches were conducted on Saturday, as there are dozens of pending cases, but the investigation is very complicated and extensive.

Nice to have news from the Baltic countries

Do you have any individuality or you are all the same thing?

Do you have any individuality or you are all the same thing?

Hmm, yes and yes For the outside world, we seem to be the same thing, but you can google up the differences that locally are insurmountable.

The Baltics are like the Balkans, only that they are not alike at all. Yet there are some people (such as the whole English-speaking world) who assume Baltics and Balkans are the same.

And Belarus is taking a shot at a Russian bank.

Belgazprombank is majority owned by Russia's state-run Gazprom natural gas company and Gazprombank, which is affiliated with it. The raid on the bank highlighted growing frictions between Lukashenko and the Kremllin.

The first ever traffic accident involving a self-driving (or AI-driven) vehicle in Estonia.We are totally evolving at break-neck speed in break-neck direction https://delfi.ee/90443113

I wonder who assumes the legal consequences in the case of an autonomous vehicle to cause an accident or even kill a human being.

In this case it was easy as the autonomous vehicle did not cause the accident. The party for insurance purposes is the owner of the vehicle. The vehicle's max speed was set to 15 km/h.

But yes, it's an interesting question supposing that the vehicle gets in its head to "speed head-on at obstacles" instead of "stop before you hit the obstacle". The owner would be responsible for material damages, but lives... I assume lives cost very little, legally.

Sweden: Churchbells ringing at night due to technical failure https://sverigesradio.se/artikel/tekniskt-fel-bakom-domkyrkans-nattliga-klockringning

Sweden: Churchbells ringing at night due to technical failure

It's a miracle ersi, it's a miracle.