Frederiksen issues warning after being targeted in fake video 

Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned yesterday evening of fake content online after a video of her with false subtitles was spread on social media.

“There’s so much on the internet that isn’t real,” the PM wrote on Facebook.

“I encourage all of us to remember to be critical when we keep ourselves updated. And to use media that live up to our publishing standards,” she said.

“Russia is also using fake news and manipulation campaigns to destabilise European democracies, so we must be careful,” she also wrote.

Danish media including BT and Berlingske have reported on the video, which has primarily circulated on TikTok and uses incorrect subtitling to make it appear as though Frederiksen is mocking Taiwan in parliament.

Vocabulary: at håne – to mock

Foreign minister open to new registration practice for Taiwanese

Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen says that his ministry will look into whether Denmark can register visitors from Taiwan as Taiwanese, rather than being from China as is the current practice.

The foreign ministry will look into why the existing practice is used and what is done in other countries, he said.

“On that basis we can see whether we can find an alternative solution which is compatible with our ‘one China’ policy,” he said in a comment to Berlingske.

Denmark does not recognise Taiwan as an independent country but as part of China.

Vocabulary: en praksis – a practice

Copenhagen Fashion Week bans skin and feathers from wild animals

As of next year, it will no longer be permitted to display skin or feathers from wild animals at Copenhagen Fashion Week, organisation World Animal Protection Danmark said in a statement.

“Copenhagen Fashion Week waited a bit too long before finally dropping the use of fur last year, but from there they have really pushed things along,” Stephanie Kruuse Klausen, the organisation’s campaign leader, said in the statement.

The ban, which is in effect from 2025, will apply to items such as crocodile skins and ostrich feathers.

It will not apply to domestic animals, World Animal Protection Danmark confirmed. This means that, for example, leather from cow hides can still be used.

Copenhagen Fashion Week takes place twice yearly, at the end of January and the beginning of August.

Vocabulary: struds – ostrich

SAS loses half a billion kroner in one month

Scandinavian airline SAS lost 2.3 billion Swedish kronor, around 1.5 billion Danish kroner, in the months November 2023-February 2024, including 500 million kroner in February alone.

The figures come from accounts which the company is obliged to report each month as part of a bankruptcy protection (Chapter 11) process it is undergoing in the United States.

The accounting shows that in February, SAS operated with a loss of 822 million Swedish kronor, which corresponds to 535 million Danish kroner or 835 million Norwegian kroner.

Although the company’s February losses are larger than expected, turnover at the airline is in line with expectations, an industry analyst remarked.