Billy Long, whom U.S. President Donald Trump has nominated as ambassador to Iceland, says in an interview with Arctic Today that he apologizes for remarks he made earlier this week about turning Iceland into the 52nd state of the United States, with himself as its governor.

Any attempt by the United States to seize Greenland by force would have “monumental consequences” for the Western alliance and the global order.

A petition has been launched on island.is calling on Minister for Foreign Affairs Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir to reject Billy Long as the United States ambassador to Iceland, following remarks he made informally to members of the U.S. Congress yesterday, as reported by Politico.

Iceland’s Parliament, Alþingi, meets today, Wednesday, following a nearly month-long Christmas recess. Parliamentary sittings were adjourned on 18 December 2025.

Farmed fish from a land-based aquaculture facility escaped into the sea in Tálknafjörður toward the end of last month. The operator did not activate a contingency plan in response to the escape, but maintains that most, if not all, of the fish were dead or injured.

A delighted ticket holder won ISK 7 million as the first prize in the main draw of the University of Iceland Lottery last night. The winner got married this autumn, and the couple had not yet managed to book a honeymoon, but now they plan to book their dream honeymoon.

Police have stopped and arrested the driver of a passenger car at the off-ramp from Reykjanesbraut to Ártúnsbrekka after pursuing the vehicle around the capital area for some time.

A major fire broke out in a warehouse on Gufunesvegur shortly before 5 p.m. yesterday. When the Capital Area Fire and Rescue Service arrived on the scene, the building was fully engulfed in flames. The fire was reported at 5:03 p.m.

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled that the Icelandic state violated the rights of a young woman who reported a rape to the police, after the case was dropped at the time. A spokesperson for Stígamót says the perpetrator’s confession was on record in the case and questions whether the Icelandic justice system is capable of handling such cases.

Gale-force winds are affecting the Eastfjords, and an uncertainty level has been declared at Fagridalur due to avalanche risk near Grænafell. This was stated in a post by Eastfjords Police on Facebook.

A total of 83,950 foreign nationals were registered as residents in Iceland on January 1, an increase of 11 since December 1, 2025.

In the sauna Sækot by Ægisíða in the Vesturbær district of Reykjavík, a distinctive sauna culture has taken shape in recent years around what is known as Gusa. There, heat, cold, music, scent, and social connection come together in an experience many describe as both a form of health practice and a journey away from the stresses of everyday life and into calm and well-being.

An earthquake swarm began on the Reykjanes Ridge shortly before 6 a.m. last night. The largest quake measured magnitude 3.4.

Icelanders need to deepen cooperation with our allied nations.

Since 2012, Jónas Breki Magnússon (who is always called Breki) has worked as an independent gold and silversmith in Copenhagen. Asked how things are going, he gives a candid answer: “I own nothing, but I don’t owe anything either. I just have a workshop, not a shop. I sell only online, at breki.dk. Running a store would never work—I’d just be chatting with customers all day and wouldn’t get any work done,” he says with a laugh.

Lake Askja is now frozen after remaining ice-free beyond the turn of the year. Ingibjörg Jónsdóttir, associate professor of geography at the Faculty of Earth Sciences at the University of Iceland, says the lake froze on January 4 during relatively calm weather, after temperatures dropped sharply following the warm spell over Christmas. The image is a satellite image from Sentinel-2 (Copernicus EU), with the satellite’s orbit at an altitude of 786 km above Earth.

A helicopter from the Icelandic Coast Guard is currently transporting 14 shipping crates of fish skin from the company Kerecis to the United Kingdom. The fish skin is intended for use in treating patients who were injured in the fire in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, on New Year’s Eve.

Inga Sæland, leader of the People’s Party, states that the education system has failed the nation’s children, particularly in terms of reading comprehension. She intends to look to Finland for solutions to the problem.

The Reykjanes District Court has sentenced a foreign man to seven months in prison for a serious drug offense after he smuggled nearly one kilogram of cocaine into the country.

Guðmundur Ingi Kristinsson, Minister of Education and Children’s Affairs, has decided to step down from his post for health reasons.

In recent months, there has been an increase in foreign nationals coming to Iceland, posing as tourists but then being caught selling drugs.

Icelandic authorities were informed in advance that there was a possibility the Russian oil tanker Marinera would be stopped within Icelandic jurisdiction.

The City of Reykjavík is seeking to hire a specialist to reduce sickness absence among its employees.

It appears that U.S. personnel have boarded the oil tanker Marinera, formerly known as Bella-1, and taken control of the vessel. A U.S. official confirmed this to CBS News in the United States, according to the BBC.

The Icelandic Meteorological Office has issued a yellow weather warning for South Iceland and Southeast Iceland due to northeasterly blizzard conditions.

The Icelandic Coast Guard is monitoring the movements of an oil tanker that entered Iceland’s southeastern exclusive economic zone shortly after 4 a.m. last night.

Environmental and safety concerns are the main reasons why New Year’s and Twelfth Night bonfires have been reduced in number and are now being phased out in many places. Rising costs for firewood and waste disposal have also played a role.

The circumstances surrounding the traffic accident that occurred on Suðurlandsvegur yesterday morning are under investigation by the capital area police.

Police in the capital area called in the National Police Commissioner’s Special Forces to assist with a police operation at a residential property in the Rimahverfi neighborhood last night. The Special Forces’ involvement has now concluded, but police are still working at the scene.

There was broad consensus among members who attended a meeting of Alþingi’s Foreign Affairs Committee this morning regarding the situation that has arisen in international affairs following the events of the weekend.

“In 2018 I took part in a competition for affordable housing. There was a small group of us competing and we won. That gave us the opportunity to choose one of seven or eight plots in Reykjavík, and we chose Skerjafjörður because planning there was the most advanced and the process was expected to move relatively quickly.”

Suðurlandsvegur has now been fully reopened and emergency responders have concluded their work at the scene. A traffic accident occurred on the road earlier this morning, and it was closed for a period as a result.

Margrét Halla Hansdóttir Löf has appealed the 16-year prison sentence she received at the Reykjanes District Court on December 16.

The Icelandic health-tech company Kerecis will increase production to assist victims who suffered severe burns in a major fire in Switzerland in recent days.

The Independence Party is polling at 35.5% support in Reykjavík in a Gallup survey, equivalent to nine seats on the city council. The party gains 2.2 percentage points compared with the previous poll and has not measured this high in the capital since the 2008 financial crisis.