While walking around the Westfjords, 31-year-old hiking enthusiast Kristján Atli Sævarsson from Sólheimar raised 5.2 million ISK for the purchase of a new pottery kiln at Sólheimar—far surpassing his original fundraising goal.

It has long been foreseeable that Landspítali’s housing situation would become unsustainable. Construction will need to continue over a longer period, possibly even after the new hospital is operational, due to major societal changes in recent years.

Due to insufficient funding, Landspítali (the National University Hospital of Iceland) may be forced to choose which patients receive appropriate drug treatments and which do not, according to a recent report from the hospital's drug committee.

Residents of Grafarvogur took matters into their own hands last night and mowed the field near Sóleyjarimi, after Reykjavík City repeatedly ignored their requests to tend the area this year.

A heated exchange unfolded in Alþingi this morning as Guðlaugur Þór Þórðarson, MP for the Independence Party, accused the government of breaking public finance laws by failing to submit a financial strategy as legally required.

Icelandair is putting a new Airbus flight simulator into operation, bringing the total number of simulators used by the airline in Iceland to three—all located in Hafnarfjörður.

Lilja Árnadóttir Olvik has made a splash on the Norwegian TV series Bakermesterskapet Junior, a baking competition for young people. At just ten years old, she was the youngest contestant by two to three years.

Lilja Sif Pétursdóttir, Iceland's representative in the international beauty pageant Miss Supranational 2025, was crowned Miss Supranational Europe in Poland this evening—one of the competition’s most prestigious titles. She also received the title of Miss Photogenic 2025, awarded to the contestant who performs best in front of the camera.

The Irish police have completed interviews with 46 individuals in Iceland as part of their investigation into the disappearance of Jón Þröstur Jónsson, who went missing in Dublin on February 9, 2019.

Rannveig Grétarsdóttir, owner of the whale watching company Elding in Reykjavík, says she expects visitor numbers for whale watching tours this year to be similar to last year, when the number of tourists declined somewhat.

“We’re celebrating the 95th anniversary of SUS here at Þingvellir, which is a highly symbolic location for us,” says Viktor Pétur Finnsson, chairman of the Young Independence Party (SUS), in an interview with mbl.is. The occasion marks 95 years since the founding of the youth wing of Iceland’s Independence Party, which currently boasts nearly 15,000 members aged 15 to 35.

Public information meetings on the updated emergency response plan for a potential volcanic eruption beneath Mýrdalsjökull glacier were held in Vík í Mýrdal last night—first in English and then in Icelandic.

No country in the world experiences such significant financial shifts when inflation surges as Iceland does, due to the widespread use of inflation-indexed debt among households and businesses. “This has serious and harmful consequences, and we are not on the right track,” says Vilhjálmur Birgisson, chairman of the Icelandic Federation of General and Special Workers (SGS), in an interview with mbl.is, following the recent spike in inflation.

Reservoir levels at Landsvirkjun’s hydropower stations are in good shape as June draws to a close, and there are currently no signs of electricity shortages for the coming winter.

Einar Á. E. Sæmundsen, park manager at Þingvellir National Park, says visitor numbers have noticeably increased so far this year.

Land inflation beneath Svartsengi continues to fluctuate daily, and volcanologist Þorvaldur Þórðarson says these irregularities may signal that volcanic activity is starting to slow down.

Plans are underway to begin laying two new power cables to the Westman Islands around the end of the month. A specialized cable-laying vessel, owned by the Norwegian company Seaworks, is expected to arrive in Iceland by midweek to carry out the operation.

The City of Reykjavík is preparing to launch a pilot project focused on waste sorting in public areas. The initiative was recently introduced to the city’s Environment and Planning Committee and is expected to begin in the near future.

Sigurður Fannar Þórsson has been sentenced to 16 years in prison by the Reykjavík District Court for the murder of his 10-year-old daughter near Krýsuvík on September 15, 2024. According to the court ruling, he struck the girl 9–10 times in the back of the head with a hammer.

The use of the internet to recruit drug mules for smuggling narcotics into Iceland is on the rise. This may partly explain why such a high proportion of mules caught at the border are foreign nationals. It could also reflect the growing presence of international criminal organizations operating in the country.

Emergency responders in South Iceland, along with the Icelandic Coast Guard and the Grindavík Fire Department, took part in a large-scale training exercise at the Selfoss airfield on Saturday, from 12:00 to 18:00.

Minority leaders on Reykjavík City Council have expressed serious doubts about Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir’s recent proposal to impose a resource tax on the use of natural resources for home heating and electricity. The idea was introduced at a public meeting in Ísafjörður last week.

Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir, Iceland’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, says the U.S. attack on Iran last night is a serious cause for concern regarding the escalating conflict between Iran and Israel. She emphasizes that such conflicts cannot be resolved through military action but require diplomatic negotiations and peaceful dialogue.

Dozens of pilot whales were stranded in Ólafsfjörður earlier today.

Icelandic Members of Parliament Hildur Sverrisdóttir of the Independence Party and Lilja Rafney Magnúsdóttir of the People's Party were honored with a blessing from Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican today.

A new technology that uses artificial intelligence to predict the distribution of commercial fish stocks—such as cod, haddock, and redfish—could save the Icelandic fishing industry billions of ISK, according to Svanur Guðmundsson, a fisheries scientist and CEO of the Blue Economy.

The French woman currently in custody, suspected of killing her husband and daughter at the Reykjavík Edition hotel last weekend, has reportedly lived in Ireland with the deceased for the past ten years.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office has been steadily increasing monitoring around the Ljósufjöll volcanic system in West Iceland, where seismic activity has been on the rise in recent months.

Steinþór Einarsson has been acquitted of all charges related to the death of Tómas Waagfjörð following a violent altercation in Ólafsfjörður in October 2022. The Supreme Court has upheld the Court of Appeal’s (Landsréttur) ruling to overturn an earlier eight-year prison sentence handed down by the District Court of Northeast Iceland.

The situation on the Reykjanes Peninsula remains largely unchanged, according to Benedikt Ófeigsson, deformation monitoring specialist at the Icelandic Meteorological Office. While inflation beneath the Svartsengi area is ongoing, the likelihood of a new event in the volcanic system is not expected until autumn at the earliest.

An American couple hit a cyclist with their SUV in Reykjavík just over a week ago and fled the scene after falsely claiming they were going to look for a parking space. The victim, Búi Aðalsteinsson, described the incident to mbl.is as something out of a movie.

President of Iceland Halla Tómasdóttir delivered her first National Day address today on Austurvöllur square, June 17.

An earthquake measuring 3.7 on the Richter scale was recorded near Grjótárvatn in Mýrar at 6:05 p.m. today.

Several foreign news outlets—particularly French ones—have reported on the double homicide at the Edition Hotel in Reykjavík, where a French woman is suspected of killing her husband and adult daughter.

The two individuals found dead at the Reykjavik Edition Hotel yesterday were French tourists, and the third person, who was seriously injured and transported to hospital, is also French. She has now been designated a suspect, and the case is being investigated as a homicide. Her injuries are not considered life-threatening at this time.