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The Arctic Council was created in 1996 to discuss issues affecting the polar region, ranging from pollution to local economic development to search-and-rescue missions. The Arctic Council comprises the eight Arctic states of Russia, the United States, Canada, Finland, Norway, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark. Russia's possible degree of involvement with the Council once Norway takes over is still unclear. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had earlier extended an invitation to Arctic officials to attend a transition ceremony in Salekhard, Siberia. Russian Arctic Ambassador Nikolay Korchunov, chair of the Senior Arctic Officials on the council, told Reuters the transition would "presuppose active and responsible participation of all Arctic Council member states in this preparatory process."

☆ Nordic countries plan joint air defence to counter Russian threat
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

COPENHAGEN, March 24 (Reuters) - Air force commanders from Sweden, Norway, Finland and Denmark said on Friday they have signed a letter of intent to create a unified Nordic air defence aimed at countering the rising threat from Russia. The move to integrate the air forces was triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February last year, commander of the Danish air force, Major General Jan Dam, told Reuters. Finland has 62 F/A-18 Hornet jets and 64 F-35s on order, while Denmark has 58 F-16s and 27 F-35s on order. The signing at the Ramstein Air Base in Germany last week was attended by NATO Air Command chief General James Hecker, who also oversees the U.S. Air Force in the region. The Nordic air force commanders first discussed the closer cooperation at a meeting in November in Sweden.

COPENHAGEN, March 23 (Reuters) - Denmark on Thursday invited the Russian-controlled operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help salvage an unidentified object found close to the only remaining intact gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. "With a view to further clarifying the nature of the object, Danish authorities have decided to salvage the object with assistance from the Danish Defence," the country's Energy Agency said in a statement on Thursday. "The Danish Energy Agency has in that context invited the owner of the pipeline, Nord Stream 2 AG, to participate in the operation," it said, adding it was awaiting a response from the operator. The pipeline operator is controlled by Russian state-owned gas company Gazprom (GAZP.MM). It was not clear if he referred to the same object that Danish authorities will attempt to salvage.

☆ Bang & Olufsen shares drop after disappointing China sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-17 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/2] Headphones are displayed in the Bang & Olufsen flagship store in Copenhagen, Denmark October 23, 2019. REUTERS/Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen/File PhotoSTOCKHOLM, March 17 (Reuters) - Shares in Bang & Olufsen (BO.CO) plummeted 11% on Friday after the Danish audio and video equipment maker reported a preliminary operating loss for the third quarter and lowered its full-year profit outlook due to disappointing sales in China. The company posted an operating loss before special items for the third quarter of 43 million Danish crowns ($6.14 million) between December to February. Sales in China declined by 65% in the third quarter, the company said. Shares in B&O were trading 11% lower by 1513 GMT, headed for their biggest daily decline since December 2019.

☆ Putin says Nord Stream blasts carried out on 'state level'
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-14 | by ( Caleb Davis | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

March 14 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Tuesday that last year's blasts on the Nord Stream gas pipelines had been carried out on a "state level", dismissing the idea an autonomous pro-Ukraine group was responsible as "complete nonsense". The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines connecting Russia and Germany under the Baltic Sea were hit by a series of unexplained explosions last September, in what Moscow has called an act of "international terrorism". 'ANTENNA'Commenting on a report suggesting that a pro-Ukraine had attacked the pipelines, Putin said this was "complete nonsense". Theoretically, of course, the United States is interested," Putin said. The United States strongly denies any involvement in the Nord Stream blasts.

☆ Denmark investigates yacht linked to Nord Stream blasts
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Nikolaj Skydsgaard | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

CHRISTIANSÖ in the Baltic Sea, Denmark March 9 (Reuters) - Danish police have searched for a yacht on a tiny Baltic Sea island near the Nord Stream pipeline blast sites, the local administrator said on Thursday. German authorities confirmed on Wednesday they had raided a ship in January that may have been used to transport explosives used to blow up the pipelines. Authorities in Sweden, Germany and Denmark, who are currently investigating the blasts, say the explosions were deliberate but have not said who might be responsible. Christiansö is part of a small archipelago about 18 km northeast of the Baltic Sea island of Bornholm. The archipelago with just 98 inhabitants is a former naval fortress but remains under administration of the Danish defence ministry.

Carlsberg shares have risen more than 60% during Hart's tenure, outperforming AB Inbev and Heineken, whose shares have dropped around 47% and risen around 45% respectively. Carlsberg's shares fell 3.5% at market open in Copenhagen, but later pared losses and were 0.7% lower at 1118 GMT. "Cees 't Hart has delivered remarkable results during his time at Carlsberg," Supervisory Board Chair Henrik Poulsen said. It is also seeking an option to buy back the Russian business in the future. With only around 16% of revenue coming from Eastern Europe, Carlsberg's biggest markets are Western Europe and Asia.

☆ Lego looks to build on 2022 sales growth with more China stores
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-07 | by ( Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

COPENHAGEN, March 7 (Reuters) - Toymaker Lego said store openings in China and strong demand in Western Europe and the Americas had delivered 17% sales growth in 2022, adding that it expects to outpace the market this year. Lego plans to open another 145 stores this year, mostly in China, which Christiansen said in an interview he expects will help it to grow sales by a high single-digit percentage. "After a few extraordinary years we may see a return to more normal growth," Christiansen said. "High growth in sales has helped us compensate for those extra costs on freight, energy and raw materials," he said. As part of its strategy of placing production close to its key markets, Lego plans to begin operating new factories in Vietnam and Virginia, U.S. in 2024 and 2025, respectively.

[1/5] The logo of Nord Stream AG is seen at an office building in the town of Vyborg, Leningrad Region, Russia August 22, 2022. Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, each consisting of two pipes, were built by Russia's state-controlled Gazprom to pump 110 billion cubic metres (bcm) of natural gas a year to Germany under the Baltic Sea. Three of the pipes were ruptured by unexplained blasts in September, and one of the Nord Stream 2 pipes remains intact. Engie (ENGIE.PA), Gasunie (GSUNI.UL) and Wintershall DEA (WINT.UL) (BASFn.DE) - stakeholders in Nord Stream AG, the operator of Nord Stream 1 - declined to comment. The similar-sized Nord Stream 2 had been completed in September 2021 as tensions with Russia were growing and ran in trouble as Germany's regulators refused to certify it.

Russia wants the 15-member council to ask for an independent inquiry into the blasts on the pipelines connecting Russia and Germany, which spewed gas into the Baltic Sea. "The authorities of Denmark, Germany and Sweden have been in dialogue regarding the investigation of the gas leaks, and the dialogue will continue to the relevant extent." Russia has asked U.S. economist Jeffrey Sachs, of the Center for Sustainable Development at Columbia University, to brief the Security Council at Tuesday's meeting. The consequences as concerns greenhouse gas emissions are substantial and worrisome," Denmark, Germany and Sweden wrote. This means a vote could coincide with meetings of the U.N. General Assembly and Security Council to mark the first anniversary of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

Much as he would have liked to significantly increase supplies, Biosca-Reig said he couldn't justify investing millions of euros in new production lines unless he was paid more for the generic drug to cover sharply rising costs. European generic drugmakers say the tender system and regulated prices have fuelled a race to the bottom, and European firms are being undercut by suppliers from Asia. BRUSSELS, WE HAVE A PROBLEMThe European Medicines Agency (EMA) and European Union lawmakers acknowledge there is a problem. Half the generic medicines sold in Spain are priced below 1.60 euros per box or bottle, the country's generics manufacturing association said. But companies with smaller market shares, such as Israel's Teva (TEVA.TA), which has 5% of the region's amoxicillin market according to Medicines for Europe, are constrained.

☆ Maersk expects 2023 profits to plummet as volumes, freight rates fall
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) on Wednesday reported fourth-quarter earnings slightly below expectations and forecast a 2023 core profit significantly below last year's as volumes and freight rates fall. The company said in a statement it expected underlying earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) between $8 billion and $11 billion this year, compared with $36.8 billion last year. Underlying EBITDA stood at $6.52 billion in the fourth quarter compared with $7.99 billion a year ago and a 6.95 billion forecast by analysts in a poll gathered by the company. Revenues fell slightly to $17.8 billion in the period as the number of containers it loaded on to ships fell by 14%. Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Anna RingstromOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Carlsberg expects lower beer consumption to hit 2023 growth
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-07 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

COPENHAGEN, Feb 7 (Reuters) - Danish brewer Carlsberg (CARLb.CO) on Tuesday forecast organic operating profit growth in 2023 below last year's level as higher beer prices are expected to dent consumption. The world's third-biggest brewer expects organic operating profit this year to change by between minus 5% and plus 5%, compared with 12% growth last year. "While beer historically has been a resilient consumer category, the higher prices in combination with generally high inflation may have a negative impact on beer consumption in some of our markets, particularly in Europe," he said. Carlsberg said sales in the fourth quarter rose 6% from a year earlier to 14.6 billion Danish crowns ($2.11 billion), against 14.7 billion crowns estimated by analysts in a poll provided by the company. ($1 = 6.9344 Danish crowns)Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen, editing by Terje SolsvikOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Thousands of Danes protest cancelling of public holiday
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-05 | by ( Johannes Birkebaek | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] People take part in a protest outside of Danish Parliament building in Copenhagen, Denmark, February 5, 2023. REUTERS/Johannes BirkebaekCOPENHAGEN, Feb 5 (Reuters) - Thousands of people gathered in Copenhagen on Sunday to protest a bill put forward by the government to scrap a public holiday to help finance increased defence spending. Unions organising the protest estimated at least 50,000 people took part, which would make it Denmark's biggest demonstration in more than a decade. The government has proposed moving forward by three years to 2030 a goal of meeting a NATO defence spending target of 2% of GDP. It says most of the extra 4.5 billion Danish crowns ($654 million) needed to meet the target could be covered by the higher tax revenues it anticipates from abolishing the holiday.

☆ Danish Crown says Chinese pork demand subdued, set to cut 550 jobs
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-30 | by ( Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Chinese pork demand is weak despite relaxation of the country's COVID policies as many people continue to avoid restaurants, said Jais Valeur, the head of Europe's biggest pork producer. "Right now I don't see any signs that Chinese imports are on the rise," Valeur told Reuters in an interview, adding that the Chinese market would probably normalize within six months. Slow Chinese demand has a knock-on effect on the European market. The outbreak of African swine fever in some European countries, including Germany, prompted producers in Spain to boost output aimed at the Chinese market. "All that meat is now flooding the European market, where consumers are now coping with inflation and are worried about the future," Valeur said.

☆ Top container shippers Maersk, MSC to end alliance from 2025
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-25 | by ( Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

COPENHAGEN, Jan 25 (Reuters) - Denmark's Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) and Swiss-based MSC, the world's largest container shipping companies, said on Wednesday they had agreed to end a vessel sharing alliance in January 2025, allowing them to pursue individual strategies. Both companies saw the alliance as a way to manage more capacity after purchasing new mega-ships. "Today, we have a much different strategy, where we more look at how to integrate container shipping at sea with our land-based logistics business," Maersk's head of ocean shipping Johan Sigsgaard told Reuters in an interview. Maersk expects to be able to deliver ocean shipping at the same scale when the partnership with MSC ends without rising the cost of moving each container at sea, Sigsgaard said. MSC, privately owned by the Aponte family, overtook Maersk as the world's biggest container in 2021.

☆ Hackers hit websites of Danish central bank, other banks
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

COPENHAGEN, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Hackers have disrupted access to the websites of Denmark's central bank and seven private banks in the country this week, according to the central bank and an IT firm that serves the industry. The websites of the central bank and Bankdata, a company that develops IT solutions for the financial industry, were hit by so-called distributed denials of service (DDoS), which direct traffic towards targeted servers in a bid to knock them offline. A spokesperson for the central bank said its website was working normally on Tuesday afternoon and the attack did not impact the bank's other systems or day-to-day operations. Access to the websites of seven private banks was briefly restricted on Tuesday after the DDoS attack on Bankdata, a company spokesperson said. The banks included two of Denmark's largest, Jyske Bank (JYSK.CO) and Sydbank (SYDB.CO), he said.

☆ Denmark's central bank raises key interest rate to 1.75%
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

COPENHAGEN, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Denmark's central bank raised its key interest rate by 50 basis points to 1.75% on Thursday, following a rate hike earlier in the day by the European Central Bank. Denmark, the first country in the world to impose negative rates in 2012, broke with a decade-long experiment of negative interest rates in September when it lifted its key rate into positive territory. "The interest rate increase is a consequence of the increase by the European Central Bank of its main monetary policy rate," the central bank said in a statement. Earlier on Thursday, the ECB raised its benchmark deposit rate by 50 basis points to 2% and signalled further tightening. Denmark's current account rate, which is the benchmark rate, and the certificate of deposit rate were each raised by 50 basis points from 1.25% to 1.75%, the highest level since 2009.

☆ Meta halts construction of two data centres in Denmark
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

Facebook-owner Meta already has two large data centres in Odense, but only one of the three other centres currently under development there will be completed. Last month, Meta said it would cut 11,000 jobs, the first in the company's 18-year history, after disappointing results in several quarters. The company's traditional data centres house servers for apps such as Facebook and Instagram. But the calculations needed for AI require a new generation of data centres, Münster said. Construction on the two halted data centres in Odense began in August.

☆ Danish PM picks right-leaning rivals as key ministers in new government
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-15 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

COPENHAGEN, Dec 15 (Reuters) - Denmark's Social Democratic Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Thursday appointed right-leaning political rivals as key ministers in her new reform-oriented bipartisan government. Opposition leader Jakob Ellemann-Jensen of the Liberal Party was appointed deputy prime minister and defence minister, while former prime minister and leader of the newly formed Moderates party, Lars Lokke Rasmussen, was appointed foreign minister. Nicolai Wammen of the Social Democratic Party retained his role as finance minister. Outgoing climate minister Dan Jorgensen will now head a new ministry for development cooperation and global climate policy. Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen and Nikolaj Skydsgaard; Editing by Frank Jack Daniel and Tomasz JanowskiOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

SummarySummary Companies Maersk needed 'new energy' in CEO position - chairmanClerc takes over as shipping boom comes to an endImportant to keep costs down amid high growth - ClercCOPENHAGEN, Dec 12 (Reuters) - A.P. Moller-Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) said on Monday it had appointed company veteran Vincent Clerc as its new chief executive to lead the shipping giant through a period of slowing container demand. "The strong tail winds that benefited the supply chain industries during the pandemic are coming to an end," Maersk Chairman Robert Maersk Uggla told a press conference at the company's headquarters in Copenhagen. Shares in Maersk have roughly doubled since Skou took over as CEO in 2016. Copenhagen-based Maersk is one of the world's biggest shipping and logistics companies, handling supply chains for large customers like Walmart and Nike.

☆ Energy efficiency rate accelerates amid high prices - IEA
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

COPENHAGEN, Dec 2 (Reuters) - Global progress toward energy efficiency has accelerated this year as a result of high energy prices and disruptions to fuel supply but still not enough to meet climate change targets, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Friday. The Paris-based watchdog has called for governments to prioritize efforts to improve energy efficiency in buildings and transport, as ambitions to reduce emissions and curb rising temperatures cannot be met by only focusing on building out renewable energy. "The oil shocks of the 1970s led to a massive push by governments on energy efficiency, resulting in substantial improvements in the energy efficiency of cars, appliances and buildings," IEA head Fatih Birol said in a statement. "Amid today's energy crisis, we are seeing signs that energy efficiency is once again being prioritised," he said. Preliminary data indicate that global investments in energy efficiency such as heat pumps and building insulation will increase 16% this year to $560 billion, according to IEA.

☆ Maersk, IBM discontinue shipping blockchain platform
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

COPENHAGEN, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Shipping company Maersk (MAERSKb.CO) said on Tuesday it would discontinue a blockchain platform announced in 2018 in partnership with IBM (IBM.N) with the aim of limiting the industry's costly paper trail. The platform called TradeLens will be phased out by the end of March next year, Maersk said. "While we successfully developed a viable platform, the need for full global industry collaboration has not been achieved," the company said in a statement. Reporting by Jacob Gronholt-Pedersen; editing by David EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Over recent years, NATO allies and Russia have scaled up military exercises in the region; Chinese and Russian warships conducted a joint exercise in the Bering Sea in September. Four Arctic experts say it would take the West at least 10 years to catch up with Russia's military in the region, if it chose to do so. "NATO is increasing its presence in the Arctic with more modern capabilities," NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg told Reuters. Now NATO and Arctic allies are changing their stance. Sweden and Finland have begun investing in surveillance and deterrence capabilities and military hardware including jets so their air forces can fight alongside Arctic NATO allies.

The main active ingredient in Ozempic is semaglutide, which is also the key ingredient in Novo's obesity drug Wegovy. Several less efficacious obesity drugs from multiple drugmakers have previously been approved, but bungled launches and serious side effects led to tepid sales and even some market withdrawals. Novo faces looming competition from Eli Lilly (LLY.N), whose weekly injection Mounjaro won U.S. approval for type 2 diabetes in May and is under fast-track review as a weight-loss drug. Amgen (AMGN.O) also has an early-stage, once-monthly obesity drug that is being keenly watched. Elon Musk, the world's richest person and now Twitter owner, has offered his own endorsement of the weight-loss benefits of semaglutide on the social media website.

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