State mediator Ástráður Haraldsson says that there is still a long way to go in the wage dispute between teachers and the state, but the parties to the dispute met at the State Conciliation and Mediation Office (SCMO) at 9 am this morning.

“This was finally achieved and we left the negotiating table very amicably last night,” says Steinunn Þórðardóttir, chairman of the Icelandic Medical Association, but agreements were reached in the wage dispute between doctors and the state and at other times last night.

The construction of the new Grindavíkurvegur Road has begun. Contractors began work on it at four o'clock yesterday. This is the fourth time this section of road has been laid over lava since the eruption started in November last year.

Early voting has been increasing day by day and already over 25 thousand Icelanders have voted in the governmental election that will be held next Saturday.

The government has issued a 3,800-tonne quota for deep-sea beaked redfish in the current fishing year despite scientific advice that such fishing should not be conducted to protect the stock.

“Do you have any stories about teachers at the school that could be included in my next book about the worst teachers in the world?” asked British author and comedian David Walliams when he made a surprise visit to Áslandsskóli School in Hafnarfjörður yesterday and spoke to students and teachers. Yesterday was the first day at the school after a temporary teachers’ strike.

Work on preparations to erect a new electricity mast within the Svartsengi defense walls has begun. The aim is to bring the line into operation as soon as possible and conditions permit. The new electricity mast will raise the conductors by 12-14 meters.

The Blue Lagoon expects a bus stop to be near the lagoon when it opens. Buses would arrive and depart there regularly.

The central and southern craters have most likely completely extinguished the eruption of the Sundhnúkagígar series.

The raising of the defense walls from the place where the Blue Lagoon parking lot used to be to the Njarðvíkur pipeline is well underway and was ongoing throughout the night. It is expected that two defense walls will be raised by 3-4 meters.

Work was done all night on cooling the lava at the eruption sites at Sundhnúkagígar crater row as well as on expanding and widening the defense walls, so that red-hot lava does not get over them.

The first round of doctors' strikes, due to start at midnight, was called off late last night after an agreement was reached on the main points of a new collective agreement. However, individual points in the agreement still need to be finalized and negotiations were planned to continue into the night.

Last night, volcanic pollution (SO2) was measured in Grindavík and on air quality monitors south of the eruption sites at an unhealthy concentration for sensitive people.

"Activity last night was fairly steady to begin with, but at 5 am this morning the volcanic activity decreased and at the same time the visible activity in the central crater, the crater that has been the most active so far, decreased."

The Blue Lagoon has decided to extend its closure until November 29, but it was originally scheduled to reopen tomorrow. Until the opening, various options will be examined regarding where parking can be set up, but lava flowed over the main parking lot of the Blue Lagoon the other day.

The police chief in Suðurnes requested the assistance of the rescue team last night in asking people to respect the recommendation not to go to the eruption in Sundhnúkagígar crater row.

There was some trouble with tourists in the vicinity of the eruption site last night and the conditions in Svartsengi are dangerous.

The lava flow that is now flowing along the defense walls and yesterday crossed the parking lots at the Blue Lagoon has reached a natural threshold just south of where the parking lots were and are starting to flow to the west.

People stayed in 20 houses in Grindavík last night and harbor activities have begun in the town. In comparison, people were staying in 56 houses the previous night before evacuations were taken. There are hopes that the Njarðvík pipeline will remain intact so that it will not be repeated when the water went down in Reykjanes last February. Responders are mainly concerned about gas pollution.

The activity in the eruption is fairly stable and does not appear to have particularly diminished overnight.

The entire parking lot of the Blue Lagoon is now under lava, except for a few street lamps that stand at the end of what used to be a parking lot. Then the lava seems to have spread a little and, among other things, just now passed over a sign directing visitors to the car park.

Lava is now flowing right next to the parking lot of the Blue Lagoon and will probably cross the lot shortly. However, it is not believed that the lava will enter the defense wall, reservoir, or the power plant in Svartsengi.

Part of the parking lot at the Blue Lagoon is already under lava. Helga Árnadóttir, manager of sales, operations, and services at the Blue Lagoon, says she has been in contact with emergency responders.

Ásrún Helga Kristinsdóttir, president of Grindavík's town council, says it was a surprise that the eruption should start now. Her husband and older daughter had to evacuate Grindavík under loud siren blasts.

A volcanic eruption has begun on the Reykjanes Peninsula after increased seismic activity was detected near the Sundhnúkagígar crater row.

Good progress is being made in the salary negotiations of the Medical Association of Iceland with the Icelandic government, but the doctors' strikes will begin in five days if an agreement is not reached before that time.

The Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Iceland has decided to lower the bank's key interest rate by 0.5 percentage points.

The Cyber ​​Security Team of the Telecommunications Agency will, together with the Civil Defense, hold an exercise early next year, simulating the situation that could arise if all three submarine cables connecting Iceland to Europe are cut.

Stein Ove Tveiten, the outgoing CEO of Arctic Fish, says Iceland has the means to develop sea pen fish farming sustainably. However, he fears that ideas to make it subject to a heavier tax burden in Iceland than in other countries will hamper growth opportunities.

Those who have sold their houses in Grindavík to the real estate company Þórkatla can now enter into an agreement for the use of the house and pay only for heat and electricity.

"Perhaps it will soon reach a similar volume as before the last eruption," says Benedikt Gunnar Ófeigsson, head of deformation measurements at the Icelandic Meteorological Office, in an interview with mbl.is about the situation of magma accumulation under Svartsengi. He adds that the uncertainty is, however, always there.

The last parliamentary session of the term is over, the budget has been passed and the parliament has been officially adjourned.

Teachers have agreed to set aside their demands to find benchmarks in the private market to match their pay and are willing to try working with new methodologies.

It is not considered bad to wear clothes from the French fashion house Chanel from head to toe, but that is what the musician Laufey Lín Jónsdóttir did at the premiere of Wicked recently. The evening was eventful and she spent part of the evening with one of the world's most famous singers, Ariana Grande.

On the World Day of Remembrance for Road Traffic Victims, which is today, November 17, attention is focused on the dangers of drivers falling asleep at the wheel. Studies show that sleep and fatigue are among the main causes of fatal traffic accidents, and the focus is, therefore, a given.