Icelandair and Southwest Airlines have officially signed a partnership agreement, marking Icelandair as Southwest’s first-ever partner airline. The agreement, formalized at the Icelandic Ambassador’s residence in Washington, will go into effect in February and aims to provide passengers with enhanced connectivity across the two airlines’ networks.

The union of secondary school teachers (FF) agreed today to start preparations for indefinite strikes in a “certain number” of secondary schools next month.

54,789 tonnes of farmed fish were produced in Iceland last year, which is more than ever before. This is 9.6% more than was produced in 2023. The biggest difference is in salmon, whose production increased by 5,730 tonnes between years, but the largest increase in relative terms was in Senegalese flounder, which was 43% higher in 2024 than the previous year.

Two American children, who the police in Canton, Ohio have sought since October 25, 2024, were found in Reykjavík on January 10.

There are plans to start producing hydrogen and building a hydrogen refueling station next to the Landsnet substation and the Veitur distribution station at Korpa in Reykjavík, to use the hydrogen as a fuel for transportation.

There will be considerable changes this afternoon and evening when it gets quite cold. The Icelandic Road Administration's meteorologist warns that black ice may form on wet roads and be slippery.

“We have built bridges like this before that have proven successful, but it is quite clear that something has gone wrong,” says Pálmi Þór Sævarsson, regional director for the Icelandic Road Administration in West Iceland, about the bridge over Ferjukotssíki that collapsed yesterday due to high water levels in the Hvítá River.

"I remember it vividly. As if it had happened yesterday. Incident by incident. It's just stuck in my mind and has always been there," says Anna Lind Ragnarsdóttir, a native of Súðavík, who experienced the avalanche in Súðavík 30 years ago.

Last night, at around 4 a.m., rescue teams in Borgarfjörður were called out due to reports of tourists in trouble at Kattarhryggur, on their way up to Holtavörðuheiði.

An earthquake swarm began in Bárðarbunga at seven o'clock this morning, and the largest earthquake, magnitude 4.5, was measured at 6:29 am.

Gunnar Þór Hallgrímsson, a professor of zoology, found 19 dead greylag geese in Vatnsmýri in Reykjavík yesterday. There is every chance that bird flu killed the geese.

Gunnar Þór Hallgrímsson, a professor of zoology, found 19 dead greylag geese in Vatnsmýri in Reykjavík yesterday. There is every chance that bird flu killed the geese.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office says that in recent days, slowly increasing flash turbulence has been detected on the seismometer on Mt Grímsfjall. This indicates that a glacial flash flood has begun from Grímsvötn lakes.

The band Nýdönsk's latest album and fourteenth, Raunheimar (Real World), will be released on Friday, January 31. The band will perform at a release concert in Harpa's Norðurljósasalur at 7 pm on the same day and at a side concert at 10 pm.

The situation in Greenland has once again come into the international spotlight after Donald Trump, who will take office as US President later this month, once again declared that the country needed to come under US control.

"This is all so scary that I've never been this scared since I moved to Los Angeles."

Seven were taken to the hospital in Selfoss with minor injuries after two buses collided on Suðurlandsvegur near Hella this morning.

The CEO of Skeljungur in Iceland says high taxes are the main reason why fuel prices are currently the third highest in the world.

The number of births decreased slightly between years at Landspítali National Hospital. Last year, 3,057 births were registered there, but in 2023 there were 3,166.

A magnitude 4.1 earthquake struck last night north-northeast of Bárðarbunga and is the biggest earthquake in Iceland so far this year.

The torpedo bomb that got caught in the fishing gear of a trawler was pulled out into Eyjafjörður this evening and placed in a place where it will be destroyed by publication. This is stated in a statement by the Icelandic Coast Guard.

The Akureyri Fishing Company's fish processing plant was evacuated shortly after noon today due to a torpedo bomb that entered the fishing gear of the trawler Björg EA. The bomb landed in the last part of the fishing trip. Björg EA arrived in Akureyri this morning, according to a post on the Samherji website.

There was great joy in Gufunesbær in Grafarvogur last night as residents bid farewell to Christmas.

In October, Gudni Albert Einarsson, CEO of Klofningur ehf., sponsored the Tulsi Chanrai Foundation, an eye care hospital in Calabar, Nigeria, for approximately $15,000, which is about 255,000 Nigerian naira.

The Independence Party chairman Bjarni Benediktsson has no intention of running for chairman at the Independence Party’s next national convention. He also intends to resign from his parliamentary seat.

Today, the sixth of January is the last day of Christmas. The day is often called the Thirteenth and many places hold bonfires and various entertainments for the occasion.

The amount that accumulates due to the large number of horses in the capital area, along with stricter regulations regarding landfills, is the main reason that horsemen in several municipalities in the capital area are now required to take horse manure for disposal at Sorpa.

Horsemen in the capital region are furious over the local authorities' decision to ban the spreading of horse manure in open areas and to use them for fertilizing. Now the manure must be returned to the waste disposal company Sorpa, which charges a collection fee of almost 26 krónur per kilo.

The Met Office's water level gauge at the Flói Irrigation Dam near Brúnastaðir in Flóahreppur showed last night that the water level had exceeded the height of the dam and was therefore starting to overflow.

Two earthquakes, one of magnitude 2.4 and the other 1.8, occurred in the Bárðarbunga caldera at 11:00 this morning.

Water from the Hvítá River in Árnessýsla, near the farm of Brúnastaðir in Flói, is now overflowing the river bank and finding its way into an irrigation canal that lies there. The mouth of the canal is blocked by ice and the floodgate in it is closed. Therefore, water flows into the canal at the river's overflow. This has been happening for over an hour. The progress is rapid.

A total of 14 people were awarded the Icelandic Order of the Falcon at Bessastaðir yesterday.

The people of Hafnarfjörður and nearby areas didn't let the extreme cold stop them from taking to the sea and swimming in a cabin on the first day of the year. The company Trefjar provided a cabin that was hoisted onto the bank at Langeyrarmalir and invited the sea swimmers to warm up after their swim.

Iceland Monitor wishes you all a happy new year and thanks you for your support over the past year.