Summary of the day
A mother and child caught in an avalanche in Finnish Lapland have been found dead as extreme cold continues to hit the Nordic countries.
Cold weather and snow continued to cause disruption across the region.
In Sweden, where record low temperatures have been recorded this week, rescue services and the army were working on Thursday morning to free passengers in about 1,000 cars trapped overnight in a snowstorm in the south of the country.
Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II rode through the streets of Copenhagen in a horse carriage for the last time as monarch despite the cold weather.
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, asked for an MP whose gun was fired at a New Year’s Eve party to be suspended from her far-right Brothers of Italy party.
The Vatican’s doctrinal office has issued an extensive statement on the approval of blessings for same-sex couples, after a December announcement on the issue opened up a rift with African churches.
Serbia’s defence ministry said the country should reintroduce compulsory military service.
The opposition in Serbia doubled down on its campaign to challenge the legitimacy of last month’s elections.
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Serbia’s opposition is doubling down on its campaign to challenge the legitimacy of last month’s elections, after full results gave the country’s ruling party a large win in a parliamentary vote.
Serbia held the snap election, along with local elections, on 17 December, but critics of the government said the vote was fraudulent – in particular in Belgrade, where opposition politicians argue they would have won the city assembly election in a fair race.
The election commission’s numbers “proved that captured institutions in our country are being abused [with the aim of] whitewashing of the electoral fraud and major stomping on the will of our people”, said Borko Stefanović, the deputy president of the Party of Freedom and Justice, part of the Serbia Against Violence coalition.
Concerns about how the elections were conducted prompted several politicians to go on hunger strikes and fuelled tense protests in late December, with at least 38 people detained. An international observation mission also concluded that Serbia’s elections took place under “unjust conditions”.
But opposition politicians say they are not giving up and insist the vote – especially in the capital – must be rerun. “Since our coalition has won in Belgrade, Vučić’s regime is now trying to cover it and to use the silence of our western partners,” said Stefanović. “This shall not pass.”
Read the full story here.
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Here are more images from Sweden and Denmark as the cold weather continues to cause disruption:
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Serbia's defence ministry proposes return of military draft
Serbia’s defence ministry said on Thursday that the country should reintroduce compulsory military service, the Associated Press reported.
The proposal for service of up to four months is made “in order to increase the defence capabilities of the Serbian Armed Forces, through the rejuvenation and improvement in the training of the active and reserve forces,” the ministry said in a statement.
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Italian PM asks for MP who fired gun to be suspended from her party
Giorgia Meloni has asked for an MP whose gun was fired at a New Year’s Eve party to be suspended from her far-right Brothers of Italy party, she said.
Meloni has been under pressure from opposition leaders to take action against Emanuele Pozzolo, who confirmed that the pistol belonged to him but denied firing the bullet, which injured a member of the security entourage of the Italian justice ministry undersecretary Andrea Delmastro.
“Pozzolo has a gun licence for personal defence, and he was carrying on New Year’s Eve,” Meloni said at a press conference on Thursday. “I assume that anyone who has a licence, has a weapon. This is not the question. The question is that whoever owns a gun must look after it with responsibility.”
She said she could not draw on the dynamics of the incident, but “someone was responsible and the person responsible was the one who brought the gun”, so she had asked for Pozzolo to be referred to the Brothers of Italy arbitration committee for eventual suspension.
Prosecutors are investigating Pozzolo over allegations of wounding, dangerous discharge of a weapon and failure to properly look after a weapon, they said in a statement. They have also seized the 0.22 calibre North American Arms mini-revolver and the bullet removed from the thigh of the victim.
According to Italian media reports, the gun was triggered after being passed around guests at a party in Rosazza hosted by Delmastro’s sister Francesca, the Piedmont town’s mayor.
The injured man, who is the brother-in-law of one of Delmastro’s bodyguards, is reportedly planning to take legal action.
During her traditional end of year press conference, which was postponed twice after Meloni came down with the flu before Christmas, she also said that the dangers posed by artificial intelligence (AI) will be a priority issue for Italy during its G7 presidency.
“I am hugely concerned about the impact on the labour market,” she said.
With an eye to stemming illegal immigration, Africa will be another priority, she added.
“In Africa, a certain paternalistic, if not predatory, approach has not worked,” she said:
We need to build relationships as equals, serious and non-predatory. This can be done through investments and strategies.
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Vatican issues statement on blessings for same-sex couples after criticism
The Vatican’s doctrinal office has issued an extensive statement on the approval of blessings for same-sex couples, after a December announcement on the issue opened up a rift with African churches.
It states:
The cases of some Episcopal Conferences must be understood in their contexts. In several countries there are strong cultural and even legal issues that require time and pastoral strategies that go beyond the short term.
If there are laws that condemn the mere act of declaring oneself as a homosexual with prison and in some cases with torture and even death, it goes without saying that a blessing would be imprudent. It is clear that the Bishops do not wish to expose homosexual persons to violence.
It remains vital that these Episcopal Conferences do not support a doctrine different from that of the Declaration signed by the Pope, given that it is perennial doctrine, but rather that they recommend the need for study and discernment so as to act with pastoral prudence in such a context.
It adds:
In some places, perhaps, some catechesis will be necessary that can help everyone to understand that these types of blessings are not an endorsement of the life led by those who request them.
Even less are they an absolution, as these gestures are far from being a sacrament or a rite. They are simple expressions of pastoral closeness that do not impose the same requirements as a sacrament or a formal rite. We will all have to become accustomed to accepting the fact that, if a priest gives this type of simple blessings, he is not a heretic, he is not ratifying anything nor is he denying Catholic doctrine.
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Danish queen braves cold to take last horse carriage ride as monarch
Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II had ridden through the streets of Copenhagen in a horse carriage for the last time as monarch despite the cold weather, Reuters reports.
She will hand over the throne to her son Crown Prince Frederik next week.
Here are photos:
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Avalanche leaves two people dead in Finnish Lapland
A mother and child caught in an avalanche in Finnish Lapland have been found dead, while around 1,000 cars were trapped overnight in a snowstorm in southern Sweden as extreme cold continues to hit the Nordic countries.
Police said the child was found dead in Pyhäkuru on Thursday morning near the place where his mother was found on Tuesday after being hit by an avalanche during a ski hike.
“The sequence of events after the emergency call is hardly fully clear, but very poor weather conditions combined with an avalanche seem to have caused this sad and unusual accident,” said the crime commissioner Kirsi Huhtamäki, who is leading the investigation.
In Sweden, where record low temperatures have been recorded this week, rescue services and the army wereworking to free passengers on the E22 between Hörby and Kristianstad in southern Sweden, some of whom had been trapped for 24 hours. The road is not expected to reopen until Friday morning.
Temperatures in the north of the country fell below -40C for the second consecutive day on Wednesday. It comes after Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka in Swedish Lapland recorded -43.6C on Tuesday night – the lowest January temperature recorded in the country in a quarter of a century.
Rescue services in Kristianstad said on Thursday that armed forces vehicles were collecting people who were stuck in their vehicles on the E22.
“The road is long, about 3 miles,” they said. “Cars and trucks need to be removed and the road must be cleared of snow before it can be opened to traffic.”
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And here are images from Finland.
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Here is a photo from Denmark, where vehicles were also stuck after a snowstorm.
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It’s (very) cold in Finland
Here’s an update from the Finnish Meteorological Institute.
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Here are photos from northern Europe, where cold temperatures and snow this week have led to major disruption.
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Cars stranded in snow in Sweden
Cars are slowly being rescued from a road in Sweden where 1,000 vehicles were trapped by heavy snowfall.
Around 200 cars were still stuck on the E22 as of 10am local time (0900 GMT), Dagens Nyheter reported. Some have been trapped since Wednesday morning.
The road is expected to reopen on Friday morning, according to Swedish authorities.
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Extreme cold and snowstorms disrupt travel and schools in Scandinavia
Extreme cold and snowstorms have disrupted transport and closed schools in Scandinavia while strong winds and heavy rain in western Europe have caused flooding and at least one death.
Temperatures fell below -40C in the Nordic region for a second day in a row on Wednesday. In Kvikkjokk-Årrenjarka in Swedish Lapland, the mercury dropped to -43.6C, the lowest January temperature recorded in Sweden in 25 years, the country’s TT news agency reported.
Extreme cold, snow and gale-force winds disrupted transport throughout the Nordic region, with several bridges closed and some train and ferry services suspended. Several schools in Scandinavia were also closed.
Police across most of Denmark urged motorists to avoid unnecessary trips as wind and snow battered the northern and western parts of the country.
The wave of cold air from Siberia and the Arctic region has also swept down over western Russia, with temperatures in Moscow and other areas plummeting to -30C, well below the average temperature for early January.
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