Arctic
Svalbard, the northern sea routes, and the politics of the far north.
The EU puts security at the head of a new Arctic strategy built with its northern neighbours
The European Commission's new strategy for the Arctic, adopted on Tuesday, organises cooperation with partners including Norway around four priorities: security, climate, economy and people.
The oldest ice is melting, and the Stone Age is coming out of it
Forty-eight prehistoric arrows recovered from Jotunheimen this season, the oldest six millennia old. The finds get older because the ice they come from is older, and it is disappearing.
Brussels keeps its Arctic moratorium as Norway licenses on
The Commission says the moratorium on new Arctic oil and gas development stays in the updated Arctic strategy, due Oct. 20, 2026. Norway's APA 2026 round expanded into the Barents Sea anyway.
What the Svalbard Treaty actually bans
Article 9 prohibits naval bases, fortifications and warlike use. It does not make the archipelago fully demilitarized, whatever the shorthand says.
The seed vault's 70th deposit: 15,387 samples into the mountain
June's deposit from 11 genebanks took the Svalbard vault past 1.4 million samples. The February deposit added 7,864 more.