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Denmark postal service to stop delivering letters

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Denmark’s state-run postal service, PostNord, is to end all letter deliveries at the end of 2025, citing a 90% decline in letter volumes since the start of the century.

The decision brings to an end 400 years of the company’s letter service. Denmark’s 1,500 post boxes will start to disappear from the start of June.

Transport Minister Thomas Danielsen sought to reassure Danes, saying letters would still be sent and received as “there is a free market for both letters and parcels”.

Postal services across Europe are grappling with the decline in letter volumes. Germany’s Deutsche Post said on Thursday it was axing 8,000 jobs, in what it called a “socially responsible manner”.

Deutsche Post has 187,000 employees and staff representatives said they feared more cuts were to come.

Denmark had a universal postal service for 400 years until the end of 2023, but as digital mail services have taken hold, the use of letters has fallen dramatically.

Fifteen hundred workers facing losing their jobs, out of a workforce of 4,600.

“It’s a super sad day. Not just for our department, but for the 1,500 who face an uncertain future,” employee Anders Raun Mikkelsen told Danish broadcaster DR.

Denmark ranks as one of the world’s most digitalised countries.

There’s an app for almost everything: few people use cash, and Danes even carry drivers’ licences and health cards on their smartphones.

Bank statements, bills, and correspondence from local authorities are all sent electronically.

Public services send communications via a Digital Post app or other platforms and PostNord Denmark says the letter market is no longer profitable.

Letter numbers have fallen since the start of the century from 1.4 billion to 110 million last year.

Decline in letters in Denmark

The decision will affect elderly people most. Although 95% of Danes use the Digital Post service, a reported 271,000 people still rely on physical mail.

“There are many who are very dependent on letters being delivered regularly. These include hospital appointments, vaccinations or decisions regarding home care,” Marlene Rishoj Cordes, from Aeldre Sagen (DaneAge) told Denmark’s TV2.

PostNord has weathered years of financial struggles and last year was running a deficit.

Danish MP Pelle Dragsted blamed privatisation for the move and complained the move would disadvantage people living in remote areas.

The introduction of a new Postal Act in 2024 opened up the letter market to competition from private firms and mail is no longer exempted from VAT, resulting in higher postage costs.

“When a letter costs 29 Danish krone (£3.35; $4.20) there will be fewer letters,” PostNord Denmark’s Managing Director, Kim Pedersen, told local media.

He said Danes had become increasingly digital and the decline in letter volumes had become so pronounced that it had fallen by as much as 30% in the past year alone.

The company said it would switch its focus to parcel deliveries and that any postage stamps bought this year or in 2024 could be refunded for a limited period in 2026.

PostNord also operates in Sweden. It is 40% Danish-owned and 60% Swedish-owned.

(BBC News)

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ICC issues arrest warrants for Taliban leaders for persecuting women & girls

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The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for two of the Taliban’s top leaders, accusing them of persecuting women and girls in Afghanistan.

The Hague-based court said there were “reasonable grounds” to believe Supreme Leader Haibatullah Akhundzada and chief justice Abdul Hakim Haqqani had committed a crime against humanity in their treatment of women and girls since seizing power in 2021.

In that time, they have implemented a series of restrictions, including on girls over 12 accessing education, and barring women from many jobs.

In response, the Taliban said it doesn’t recognise the ICC, calling the warrant “a clear act of hostility” and an “insult to the beliefs of Muslims around the world”.

There have also been restrictions on how far a woman can travel without a male chaperone, and decrees on them raising their voices in public.

In a statement, the ICC said that “while the Taliban have imposed certain rules and prohibitions on the population as a whole, they have specifically targeted girls and women by reason of their gender, depriving them of fundamental rights and freedoms”.

The United Nations has previously described the restrictions as being tantamount to “gender apartheid”.

The Taliban government has said it respects women’s rights in accordance with their interpretation of Afghan culture and Islamic law.

Akhundzada became the supreme commander of the Taliban in 2016, and has been leader of the so-called Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan since US-led forces left the country in August 2021. In the 1980s, he participated in Islamist groups fighting against the Soviet military campaign in Afghanistan.

Haqqani was a close associate of Taliban founder Mullah Omar and served as a negotiator on behalf of the Taliban during discussions with US representatives in 2020.

The ICC investigates and brings to justice those responsible for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, intervening when national authorities cannot or will not prosecute.

However, it does not have its own police force and so relies on member states to carry out any arrests.

The prospect of warrants being issued for the two Taliban leaders was first raised in January, when the ICC’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, alleged they were “criminally responsible for persecuting Afghan girls and women, as well as persons whom the Taliban perceived as not conforming with their ideological expectations of gender identity or expression, and persons whom the Taliban perceived as allies of girls and women”.

At the time, the Taliban’s foreign ministry responded to the threat of arrests, saying the ICC had turned a blind eye to what it described as “numerous war crimes and crimes against humanity committed by foreign forces and their local allies”, referring to US-led forces present in the country before 2021.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the arrest warrants for the two Taliban leaders.

It called on the ICC “to extend the reach of justice to victims of other Taliban abuses, as well as victims of the Islamic State of Khorasan Province forces, former Afghan security forces and US personnel”.

“Addressing cycles of violence and impunity in Afghanistan requires that victims of all perpetrators have equal access to justice,” it said in a statement.

(BBC News)

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Acropolis closes as heatwave grips Greece

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The Acropolis is closing temporarily on Tuesday as soaring temperatures continue to grip Greece.

The popular site in the capital city of Athens was shutting from 13:00-17:00 local time (11:00-15:00 BST), the country’s culture ministry said.

Highs of 42C (107F) are forecast for parts of the European country on Tuesday and a category four wildfire warning, signalling a very high risk, is in place in several regions.

It comes as wildfires were reported in other parts of the continent, including France and Spain’s Catalonia region, weeks after they were hit by a deadly early summer heatwave.

Changes to the Acropolis’ opening hours were announced on Monday after extreme heat returned to Greece on Sunday.

Its closure on Tuesday – with highs of 38C expected in the city – is not the first time extreme heat has shut the popular attraction – having done so in June and last July.

Authorities said the closure was for the “the safety of workers and visitors” at the site, which is visited by tens of thousands of people every day, totalling 4.5m in 2024.

The country’s labour ministry has also imposed a mandatory five-hour work stoppage for manual, outdoor workers between 12:00-17:00 on Tuesday in the areas set to see the worst heat.

The current heatwave is due to continue into Wednesday, with forecasts of 40-42C for southern parts of the country, before starting to break on Thursday.

Meanwhile, 41 wildfires broke out across Greece on Monday, according to the country’s fire service. Of those, 34 were contained early while seven remained active into Monday evening.

A Category 4 wildfire warning was issued late on Monday for five regions: Attica, the Peloponnese, central Greece, Thessaly and western Greece.

The public was urged to remain vigilant and emergency services were on high alert, the country’s civil protection said.

Elsewhere, more than 1,000 fire fighters were tackling a wildfire in southwestern France early on Tuesday. Residents near the town of Narbonne evacuated their homes, and a motorway linking France and Spain was shut.

In Catalonia, more than 2,000 people were under lockdown early on Tuesday as a wildfire that broke out on Sunday continued to rage in the eastern province of Tarragona, according to local media.

Much of western and southern Europe was hit by a scorching early summer heatwave, which saw thousands evacuated, and homes and business destroyed.

Heatwaves are becoming more common due to human-caused climate change, according to the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

It has said hot weather will happen more often – and become even more intense – as the planet continues to warm.

(BBC News)

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Netanyahu visits US as Trump puts pressure to agree Gaza ceasefire deal

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After 21 months of war, there are growing hopes of a new Gaza ceasefire announcement as Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets US President Donald Trump in Washington.

Trump previously told reporters he had been “very firm” with Netanyahu about ending the conflict and that he thought “we’ll have a deal” this week.

“We are working to achieve the deal that has been discussed, under the conditions we have agreed,” the veteran Israeli PM said before boarding his plane. “I believe that the conversation with President Trump can definitely help advance this outcome, which we all hope for.”

Indirect talks between Israel and Hamas on a US-sponsored proposal for a 60-day ceasefire and hostage release deal resumed in Qatar on Sunday evening.

However, it is unclear whether key differences that have consistently held up an agreement can be overcome.

Only cautious optimism is being expressed by weary Palestinians living in dire conditions amid continuing daily Israeli bombardment, and the distressed families of Israeli hostages still held by Hamas.

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