AMERICA - What Other Countries See

NORWAY - Electric Cars and Greener Future

aka "America's Lost Leadership in Innovation"

"How Norway's government made electric cars irresistible" PBS NewsHour 5/29/2017

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Norway's vast wealth comes from decades of gas and oil production, yet its citizens are turning their backs on fossil fuels and embracing electric cars like nowhere else.  In fact, the Norwegian government is planning to end sales of gasoline and diesel vehicles by 2025.  Special correspondent Malcolm Brabant reports on the Scandinavian country's investment in a greener future.

FLIGHTS TO PARADISE - Norwegian Airlines

"How a low-cost airline cashed in on cheap flights to paradise" PBS NewsHour 5/5/2016

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  Sometimes called "the Southwest Airlines of Europe," Norwegian Airlines makes a profit even though it undercuts prices of U.S. and foreign competitors.  Economics correspondent Paul Solman reports from the islands of Guadeloupe on how the low-cost airline took a risk that the bigger carriers wouldn't touch.

PAUL SOLMAN (NewsHour):  France in the Caribbean, the islands of Guadeloupe.  Pretty much as paradisal as their P.R. footage portrays them:  French, exotic, with more than a hint of spice.  All just four hours from New York and, if you book early, for $69 or less, November through April.

WOMAN:   Flying to Guadeloupe?

PAUL SOLMAN:  Because upstart Norwegian Airlines, some call it the Southwest Airlines of Europe, is now undercutting the few big post-merger carriers and their few foreign partners, which among them control U.S. skies for travel abroad.

Anders Lindstrom of Norwegian.

ANDERS LINDSTROM, Norwegian Air:  So the fare is not unique for a European airline, it just that really highlights how overpriced the American aviation market really is.

PAUL SOLMAN:  Founded in 1993, the low-cost airline is profitable, due to several advantages: high load factors; our plane was 90 percent full; brand-new Boeings, the most fuel-efficient planes on earth.  But mainly, says Lindstrom —

ANDERS LINDSTROM:  We don't have all the decades of maintenance costs and labor costs that the airlines traditionally do.  So, we're starting with new aircraft, new crew, which really keeps fares low.

PAUL SOLMAN:  And, of course, low fares tend to mean full planes.  But in the end, says aviation industry watcher Michael E. Levine —

MICHAEL E. LEVINE, New York University:  The main difference is labor arrangements.  They're a new airline, their pilots have low seniority, they have more productive labor arrangements.

PAUL SOLMAN:  Arrangements like not using hubs and instead flying non-stop point to point so pilots and crew can live near the airports they fly from.  And that's the Southwest model, right?

One type of aircraft, all the pilots qualified to fly it.

ANDERS LINDSTROM:  Yes, it's a simplified version, and that's something goes across all low cost airlines around the world.

NORWAY - Skydiver's Close-Call With Meteor

A multiple frame picture of the meteorite falling.  Credit and copyright: Anders Helstrup, used by permission.

"Norwegian Skydiver Almost Gets Hit by Falling Meteor — and Captures it on Film" by Nancy Atkinson, Universe Today 4/3/2014

Excerpt

It sounds like a remarkable story, almost unbelievable: Anders Helstrup went skydiving nearly two years ago in Hedmark, Norway and while he didn’t realize it at the time, when he reviewed the footage taken by two cameras fixed to his helmet during the dive, he saw a rock plummet past him.  He took it to experts and they realized he had captured a meteorite falling during its “dark flight” — when it has been slowed by atmospheric braking, and has cooled and is no longer luminous.

Norwegian astrophysicist Pål Brekke confirmed to Universe Today that the story is true.  “I was part of the investigation – and kept secret for two years – in hope of finding the meteorite,” Brekke said via Twitter.

Since the search for the meteorite has come up empty so far, Helstrup’s story and video has been released in an effort to recruit more people to look for the rock.

“It has been a little hard to keep it as a secret,” Helstrup told Universe Today via email, “but everyone has been loyal to the project and helped us out!”

Helstrup has been searching with friends, family and volunteers after getting advice from experts from the Geological Museum in Oslo, Norwegian Space Centre and Norwegian meteor network, making painstaking efforts to pinpoint the location of where the meteorite fell.

“The meteorite has for sure some possible hiding spots,” Helstrup said.  “There is a forest with lots of different places it can easily disappear.  Even if there is several areas where it would be found easily, there is a river, some marshy spots and areas and lots of high grass.  Therefore the best chance of a finding would be in springtime.  But we have high hopes!”

Finding the rock would provide the definitive confirmation it really was a space rock that Helstrup captured on film.  And in fact, it is Helstrup who might be most skeptical this was a meteor.  There are experts who say there is no doubt.

“It can’t be anything else,” said geologist Hans Amundsen, quoted in the Norwegian publication NRK.  “The shape is typical of meteorites – a fresh fracture surface on one side, while the other side is rounded.”

He added that the meteorite may have been part of a larger rock that had exploded perhaps 20 kilometers above Helstrup.

What if the rock would have hit Helstrup or his diving partner?  Amundson said the rock would have cut him in half.

“Imagine a 5 kilo rock hitting you in the chest at 300 kilometers per hour,” Amundson says in the video.  “That would have led to quite an accident investigation.”

This is unique because this is the first time a meteor in dark flight has been captured on film.

“Fireballs entering the atmosphere have been filmed many times,” says Morten Bilet in the video.  Bilet is a meteorite expert.  “This is unique because it was filmed during its so called “dark flight” – after it has been burned out.  That’s never been done before so this is something new and exciting.”

NORWAY - Mass Killer Breivik Sane, Gets 21 Years

"Found sane, Norway killer Breivik gets 21 years in prison" by Valeria Criscione, Christian Science Monitor 8/24/2012

A Norwegian court found Anders Behring Breivik was sane when he killed 77 people last year in a bombing and shooting rampage, and sentenced him to a maximum of 21 years for 'terrorist acts.'

In a historic and widely expected verdict, a Norwegian court has declared mass killer Anders Behring Breivik sane and guilty of murdering 77 people during the country’s worst peacetime tragedy.

Judge Wenche Elizabeth Arntzen sentenced the self-confessed gunman to the maximum punishment of 21 years of permanent detention, and a minimum of 10, for “terrorist acts” during a combined car-bomb attack on government buildings and shooting rampage at a political youth summer camp last year.

Judge Arntzen announced the “unanimous” decision of the five-judge panel just minutes after a neatly coiffed and well-dressed Mr. Breivik swaggered into court smiling broadly.

He remained unemotional as victims and their families sobbed in court and held hands as the details behind the 77 killings, most of whom were teenagers, were read aloud by the judges, who were also visibly moved by recounting once again the brutality of the unprecedented attacks.

The guilty verdict comes as welcome relief to victims and their families, who have been looking for closure 13 months after the tragic event. Breivik signaled as recently as last night that he would not appeal if found sane.

Svein Holden, Oslo public prosecutor, declined to comment during a short court break if he would appeal the verdict. The prosecution has argued that Breivik should be sent to compulsory mental healthcare because there was doubt over Breivik’s sanity.

Sanity has been at the core of this paradoxical case after two conflicting forensic psychiatric reports came to opposite conclusions. The first forensic psychiatrist team found the 33-year-old Norwegian was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, while the second concluded he was not psychotic.

The self-described “militant nationalist” had hoped to be found sane so that his political ideology could stand stronger. Breivik attacked the Labor-led government quarters last July with a homemade fertilizer car bomb, killing eight, and subsequently drove to the island of Utøya, where he killed 69 at a Labor party youth camp. He blames the ruling Labor party for the “ethnic cleansing of indigenous Norwegians” through multicultural policies that he says have allowed “Muslim colonization.”

Many Norwegians – including Breivik – had been expecting he would be found sane. A recent poll by Norwegian newspaper VG found that a strong majority of Norwegian forensic psychiatrists believed Breivik was mentally competent. In addition, victims and their families were hoping that he would be held accountable for the killings.

“This was the judgment I had hoped for,” Tore Sinding Bekkedal, an Utøya survivor, told Norwegian newswire NTB shortly after the verdict. She added Breivik suffered from “political madness,” but that he was not a psychiatric case.

Breivik is expected to announce his decision not to appeal after the verdict is fully read later today. He has indicated that he will most likely disregard his counsel’s advice to use the two-week waiting period to announce an eventual appeal, Breivik's lawyer, Geir Lippestad, told Norwegian broadcaster NRK last night. The prosecution also has the similar ability to appeal the verdict.

If he accepts the sentence, Breivik will most likely serve the next 21 years at Ila prison, but risks sitting behind bars for the rest of his life. Although Norwegian law does not permit life sentences, there is a possibility for extending custody in five-year intervals if there is a risk for repetition of the crimes. During that time, he has plans to write a trilogy of political books in English detailing the attacks and his ideology.

NORWAY - Massacre Update

"Norway Massacre: What's Ahead for Admitted Mass Killer Breivik?" PBS Newshour 4/17/2012

Excerpt

MARGARET WARNER (Newshour): Breivik capped off a day of chilling testimony by telling the court, "I would have done it again."

For more on the trial and the tragedy for Norway, we go to Anders Tvegard, the U.S. correspondent for the Norwegian Broadcasting Corporation.

NORWAY - Mass Killer Insane

"Psychiatric evaluation finds Norway killer insane" AP, USA Today 11/29/2011

Confessed mass killer Anders Behring Breivik was insane when he killed 77 people in a bomb and shooting rampage in Norway, and should be sent to a psychiatric ward instead of prison, prosecutors said Tuesday.

A psychiatric evaluation ordered by an Oslo court found that Breivik was "psychotic" during the July 22 attacks — the country's worst peacetime massacre — which means he's not mentally fit to be sentenced to prison, prosecutors told reporters.

The conclusions, which will be reviewed by a panel of forensic psychiatrists, contrasted with comments made by the head of that board after the attacks. Dr. Tarjei Rygnestad at the time told who told The Associated Press that it was unlikely that Breivik would be declared legally insane because the attacks were so carefully planned and executed.

"The conclusions of the forensic experts is that Anders Behring Breivik was insane," prosecutor Svein Holden said, adding Breivik was in a state of psychosis during the attacks.

In their report, the experts describe a man "who finds himself in his own delusional universe, where all his thoughts and acts are governed by these delusions," Holden said. "They conclude that Anders Behring Breivik during a long period of time has developed the mental disorder of paranoid schizophrenia, which has changed him and made him into the person he is today."

In Norway, an insanity defense requires that a defendant be in a state of psychosis while committing the crime with which he or she is charged. That means the defendant has lost contact with reality to the point that he's no longer in control of his own actions.

The 243-page report will be reviewed by a panel from the Norwegian Board of Forensic Medicine, which could ask for additional information and add its own opinions.

On Tuesday, Rygnestad, who heads that board told AP that his comments in July were based on "secondary information" and that a person's mental state can only be determined through in-depth analysis. He said he had not read the full report yet.

NORWAY - On Attacks, From the Norwegian Foreign Minister

"Breivik Taken to Utoya to Confirm Attack Details, Re-enact Events for Trial"
PBS Newshour (Part-1)


"Norway's FM: Many Questions Yet to Be Answered on Attacks" PBS Newshour 8/15/2011
(Part-2)

Excerpt from transcript

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): Mr. Minister, thank you very much for joining us.

Your country went through such a terrible shock. In a nation with fewer than five million people, where so many must know one another, is it harder to get through something like this?

JONAS GAHR STORE, Norwegian Foreign Minister: Well, I think it's hard for any country experiencing the effects of terror on civilians.

The strength of my country is, I believe, that we come out with a sense of togetherness when something like this happened, because the killed ones came from all over Norway. So almost every community in one way or another was affected. So, there was a strong sense, you know, quite quickly that across all imaginable dividing lines, it was time to come together to support those who -- who were left behind and those who survived.

So, you know, terrible for all, but there was also a strong sense in the response.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Your government has just appointed a commission to investigate what happened. Is the main question out there what the media reported as a slow response, or what?

JONAS GAHR STORE: This is not an investigation.

I mean, police will deal with the -- the suspect, who has admitted to the crime. But we need to know as a country -- a number of questions need to be answered: response time, emergency preparedness, how the media reacted, how we were able to follow up and care for the people who were hurt, how the hospitals responded. So, it's really about digging deep into all aspects and ask all questions, so that we can be certain that we have turned every stone.

JUDY WOODRUFF: Is there a better understanding now of why Anders Breivik did this?

JONAS GAHR STORE: I mean, my answer is no.

I mean, he left a manifesto. He has apparently, according to police, been explaining why he did it. What they say, the police, is that they are pretty certain he was alone, he planned it and he executed it himself. And I think the whole rationale of this man, as we read it, comes from somebody inside the bubble who has launched his own war.

So, yes, the writing is there, but I think it's quite unimaginable for most Norwegians to understand.

Another excerpt

JUDY WOODRUFF: Having said that, do you think your country has been changed by what happened?

JONAS GAHR STORE: You know, my take is the following.

We will be marked forever after by the 22nd of July. Such an experience collectively has marked us, in addition to the terrible suffering of those who were directly hit. But we have pledged, I think, as a society, as a country, that we will be recognizable. Norway will be recognized as an open democracy with the rule of law, with the universal human rights, and with the broad international engagement on the international scene taking upon ourselves responsibilities, because we are a privileged country.

Does this sound familiar? IMHO this mirrors the values for our American Forefathers, of America as a nation.

NORWAY - Victims and Survivors

"Breivik's Lawyer: 'He Expected to Be Killed'"
PBS Newshour 7/26/2011

NORWAY - Terrorist Jailed and National Mourning

"Breivik Sent to Solitary Confinement as Norway Mourns Attacks' Victims" PBS Newshour Transcript 7/25/2011 (includes video)

JEFFREY BROWN (Newshour): And we turn to Norway, as that country mourns the victims of Friday's bombing and shooting attacks, and begins the court process against the killer.

We start with a report from Carl Dinnen of Independent Television News in Oslo.

CARL DINNEN, Independent Television News: The man in the red top just about visible in the car park is the killer. Anders Behring Breivik was rushed to and from court with a police escort today. In the backseat, he smiles, looks relaxed. Although Breivik admits the killings, he denies he's guilty of a crime.

One small mercy today, the police admitted he had shot dead 68 people on the island of Utoya, not 86, as they had originally thought.

OYSTEIN MAELAND, Norwegian Police: The police and other rescue personnel had a very demanding task on the island just after they arrived. And it was necessary to give priority to those who were injured, and to secure the whole area. In these complex situations, the number of deaths first reported were too high.

CARL DINNEN: Speaking from France today, Breivik's estranged father said he wished his son had killed himself.

In Oslo, hundreds had gathered outside the courthouse. But the court ruled that the remand hearing would be heard in closed session.

What are the reasons for holding a closed hearing today?

GEIR ENGEBRETSEN, Oslo District Court: It's because of the needs for the further investigation and also the security questions in this very, very special matter.

CARL DINNEN: But after the short hearing, the judge emerged to relay, through his translator, Breivik's first explanation for his murderous actions.

WOMAN: "The accused explained that the Labor Party has failed the country and the people, and the price of their treason was what they had to pay yesterday.

The operation was not to kill as many people as possible, but to give a strong signal that cannot be misunderstood, that as long as the Labor Party keeps driving its ideological line and keeps deconstructing Norwegian culture and mass importing Muslims, then they must assume responsibility for this treason. And any person with a conscience cannot allow its country to be colonized by Muslims" -- end of quote.

CARL DINNEN: In court, Breivik also claimed there were two more cells in his organization. While the police investigate his claims, he has been remanded in solitary confinement for the next eight weeks.

A short time earlier, at 12 noon Oslo time, there was a minute's silence. Norway's king, queen and prime minister led the act of remembrance from the steps of the university.

In Oslo, the trams stood still. Near Utoya, the rescue workers paused. And across Scandinavia, the moment was marked. Then, by the field of flowers at the cathedral, some people began to sing the words of a famous poem written for the young people of Norway.

(SINGING)

My personal heartfelt condolences to the Norwegian people.

NORWAY - Ghost of Nazi Germany?

One has only to think back to the rise of the Nazi Party (National Socialist German Workers' Party) in 1919, and the results of gaining power, to be alarmed by what is happen in today's Europe. Let us hope this does not repeat.


"Oslo Suspect Wrote of Fear of Islam and Plan for War" by STEVEN ERLANGER and SCOTT SHANE, New York Times 7/23/2011

Excerpt

The Norwegian man charged Saturday with a pair of attacks in Oslo that killed at least 92 people left behind a detailed manifesto outlining his preparations and calling for a Christian war to defend Europe against the threat of Muslim domination, according to Norwegian and American officials familiar with the investigation.

As stunned Norwegians grappled with the deadliest attack in the country since World War II, a portrait began to emerge of the suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, 32. The police identified him as a right-wing fundamentalist Christian, while acquaintances described him as a gun-loving Norwegian obsessed with what he saw as the threats of multiculturalism and Muslim immigration.

“We are not sure whether he was alone or had help,” a police official, Roger Andresen, said at a televised news conference. “What we know is that he is right wing and a Christian fundamentalist.”

In the 1,500-page manifesto, posted on the Web hours before the attacks, Mr. Breivik recorded a day-by-day diary of months of planning for the attacks, and claimed to be part of a small group that intended to “seize political and military control of Western European countries and implement a cultural conservative political agenda.”

He predicted a conflagration that would kill or injure more than a million people, adding, “The time for dialogue is over. We gave peace a chance. The time for armed resistance has come.”

The manifesto was signed Andrew Berwick, an Anglicized version of his name. A former American government official briefed on the case said investigators believed the manifesto was Mr. Breivik’s work.

The manifesto, entitled “2083: A European Declaration of Independence,” equates liberalism and multiculturalism with “cultural Marxism,” which the document says is destroying European Christian civilization.

The document also describes a secret meeting in London in April 2002 to reconstitute the Knights Templar, a Crusader military order. It says the meeting was attended by nine representatives of eight European countries, evidently including Mr. Breivik, with an additional three members unable to attend, including a “European-American.”

"Norway Attacks Put Spotlight on Rise of Right-Wing Sentiment in Europe" by NICHOLAS KULISH, New York Times 7/23/2011

Excerpt

The attacks in Oslo on Friday have riveted new attention on right-wing extremists not just in Norway but across Europe, where opposition to Muslim immigrants, globalization, the power of the European Union and the drive toward multiculturalism has proven a potent political force and, in a few cases, a spur to violence.

The success of populist parties appealing to a sense of lost national identity has brought criticism of minorities, immigrants and in particular Muslims out of the beer halls and Internet chat rooms and into mainstream politics. While the parties themselves generally do not condone violence, some experts say a climate of hatred in the political discourse has encouraged violent individuals.

“I’m not surprised when things like the bombing in Norway happen, because you will always find people who feel more radical means are necessary,” said Joerg Forbrig, an analyst at the German Marshall Fund in Berlin who has studied far-right issues in Europe. “It literally is something that can happen in a number of places and there are broader problems behind it.”

Personal Opinion: This is what happens when a person has a weak personal identity. So weak that they feel threatened by difference; different religions, ethnic groups, political views, etc.

They do not realize that this attitude is an exact mirror of the terrorists that threaten all societies.

NORWAY - Two Terror Attacks

"Norway Reels as Death Toll Rises From Day of Unexplained Horror" PBS Newshour 7/22/2011

Excerpts from transcript

JUDY WOODRUFF (Newshour): At least 17 people were killed today in two terror attacks in Norway. An official said the total could go higher. So far, one person, a Norwegian man, has been arrested.

In the first attack, a bomb exploded outside government buildings in Oslo, where at least seven people died. Officials said 10 more were killed in the second attack, on a nearby island, when a gunman opened fire at a youth camp.
----
BILL NEELY, Independent Television News: Fear in his voice, death on the streets of Oslo.

Anywhere, this scene would be shocking. In peaceful Norway, it is stunning. But for Norway, there was more horror to come -- on a peaceful island near the capital, the scene of a massacre, the bodies of more than a dozen people motionless on the shore, a double mass murder, connected, say police. But who did this?

"Were Norway Attacks Somehow Politically Motivated?"
PBS Newshour 7/22/2011

EUROPE - Oslo Norway Bombing

"Big Blasts at Government Buildings in Oslo; 1 Dead" by ELISA MALA and J. DAVID GOODMAN, New York Times 7/22/2011

Powerful explosions shook central Oslo on Friday afternoon, blowing out the windows of several government buildings, including one housing the office of the Norwegian prime minister. The Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reported that at least one person was killed and several more injured, but a spokeswoman for the prime minister said he was “safe and not hurt.”

Stunned office staff and civil servants working in the vicinity of the bombed building said two explosions could be heard in close succession. The sound of the blasts echoed across the city just before 3:30 p.m. local time. Giant clouds of light-colored smoke continued to rise hundreds of feet into the air over the city as a fire burned in one of the damaged structures, a six-story office building that houses the oil ministry.

Photos and television footage showed windows blown out in the 17-story office building across the street from the oil ministry, and the street and plaza areas on each side were strewn with glass and debris (video, opens in new page).

Norwegian police did not immediately return messages requesting comment.

The cause of the explosions was not immediately clear, but a Reuters reporter described seeing the mangled wreckage of a car near one of the buildings.

The explosions ripped through the modern cluster of government buildings around the Einar Gerhardsens plaza at a time when many Norwegians were on vacation and many more had left their offices early for the weekend.

At the bomb site, police evacuated and roped off the area around the buildings as tension mixed with shaken fascination. Many residents milled around the area, some snapping photos of the destruction. Store windows were blown out for several blocks around the plaza.

While Norway has seen little political violence in recent years, the country has a small fighting contingent in Afghanistan and was one of several countries cited by Ayman al-Zawahri, the Al Qaeda leader, as potential targets for attack. In 2006, Norwegian newspapers reprinted Danish cartoons that angered Muslims by lampooning the Prophet Muhammad.

A Norwegian security analyst, who asked not to be named, the country has historically seen a low risk from terrorism but cautioned that the nature of the explosion was still not know. Three Norwegian men were arrested in July 2010 on suspicion of terrorism and were said to be a terrorist “node” in a larger global network, American counterterrorism officials said at the time.

The city filled with an unfamiliar sense of vulnerability. “We heard two loud bangs and then we saw this yellow smoke coming from the government buildings,” Jeppe Bucher, 18, who works on a ferry boat less than a mile from the bomb site. “There was construction around there, so we thought it was a building being torn down.”

He added: “Of course, I’m scared, because Norway is such a neutral country.”