🏘️ Good neighbors make safer streets. A new report shows that 1 in 4 people feel their neighborhood ties have weakened in the last five years, even though 81% say good neighbor relations matter. Trust and social events help prevent burglaries and boost well-being, but conflicts and lack of energy keep people apart. In some places, yearly block parties keep the spirit alive. Experts say a wave, a welcome, and a little effort go a long way.
⛪ No one should leave this world alone. That was the idea behind Grete Jungløv’s farewell in Ebeltoft, where 125 strangers filled the church to grant her final wish, a full funeral. She had no close family, but local care workers and the new Afskedsvenner network stepped in. The grassroots group, now with over 2,600 members, helps ensure that even those without relatives are laid to rest with dignity.
🚴♀️ Want to be a care worker in Odense? You’ll need to ride a bike. As Denmark’s population ages and the need for SOSU (social care) workers grows, Odense Kommune is tackling a surprising barrier: many international students can’t cycle. In a city where home care staff travel by bike and where many SOSU workers aren’t Danish, that’s a problem. So the municipality and the Red Cross launched bike training courses.
🧹 Why sponsor a jersey when you can sponsor a cleanup? A builder from Viborg convinced 120 young handball players to spend their Saturday picking up trash instead of just wearing his company logo. His logic? Real sponsorship means effort. Other local businesses joined in, and together they cleared tons of litter around Viborg.
🐇 What if your next dinner wasn’t chicken, but rabbit? A renowned chef is urging us to rethink rabbits, not as pets, but as sustainable protein. He says rabbit meat is climate-friendly, easy to cook, and surprisingly similar to chicken.
🪖 From punchline to pride. Once mocked as “weekend warriors,” Denmark’s Home Guard is experiencing a historic surge in respect and recruits. With war in Europe and rising security needs, the volunteer corps now guards harbors and infrastructure, and will soon take on more military tasks. Membership is no longer a joke; it’s a statement. As one longtime member said, “It used to be something you hid. Now people brag about it.”
✋ Only two people refused military service last year. That’s a dramatic drop from the 1970s, when over 4,600 chose civil duty instead. Experts say the fall in militærnægtere reflects rising pride in military service and fewer reasons to object. But with plans to extend conscription from 4 to 11 months and recruit 2,000 more young people, some predict the number of objectors could rise again.
📚 Solvej Balle is making literary waves. The Danish author has been shortlisted for the International Booker Prize for Concerning the Calculation of Volume I (Om udregning af rumfang I), a series about a fictional character, Tara Selter, being caught in a time loop. It’s one of the world’s top honors for translated fiction.
📚 Is AI stealing from authors? That’s the alarm from creatives after revelations that Meta may have trained its Llama 3 model using pirated books, including works by Danish authors like Jussi Adler-Olsen and Suzanne Brøgger. The alleged source? LibGen, a Russian pirate library with over 7.5 million books. Danish rights groups call it “history’s biggest copyright theft” and demand transparency: who’s using what, and how?
🐋 A humpback whale is getting a second life. The 8.5-meter-long whale that washed ashore at Følle Strand will become the newest skeleton on display at Fjord&Bælt in Kerteminde.
🏖️ Beach surfing is back. After being banned last month due to traffic rules, the sail-powered three-wheeled beach buggies are now legal again on nine beaches. The transport minister overturned the decision, calling the original ban “unfortunate.” The new rules come into place in mid-May.
