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VIRAL

This Danish video is giving everyone the feels

An English-language version of a video by Danish broadcaster TV2 has gone viral, with media around the world praising its message of unity.

This Danish video is giving everyone the feels
TV2's video has been seen well over 20 million times in its Danish and English versions. Screenshot: TV2
The video shows a group of diverse Danes who discover that, beneath the surface, they have more in common with each other than what their outward appearances might suggest. 
 
“It’s easy to put people in boxes: there’s us and there’s them. The high earners and those just getting by. Those we trust and those we try to avoid. There’s the new Danes and those who have always been here,” the video begins.
 
But when the video participants are asked to step forward under new labels such as step-parents, bullying victims and those who have had sex within the past week, the ‘boxes’ quickly disappear and new groupings form over shared experiences. 
 
“Maybe there’s more that brings us together than we think,” the video concludes. 
 
 
The video has clearly struck a nerve, getting millions of views and media attention. 
 
One version of the video has picked up nearly 15 million views on Facebook, and a number of large media outlets have shared the video as a message of unity at a time when the public, both in Denmark and beyond, appears bitterly split over politics. 
 
Mashable said the ad “may be the best antidote to Trump” while the Huffington Post framed the timing of the release as a political statement. 
 
“The English-language version of ‘All That We Share’ was posted to YouTube on Jan. 27 — marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, as well as the day President Donald Trump released an executive order blocking citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries from entering the United States for 90 days and halting the Syrian refugees program for four months,” the site’s Michelle Butterfield wrote. 
 
TV2’s original Danish version has been viewed 5.4 million times, roughly equivalent to every single person in Denmark having seen the film. 
 
 

NORWAY

Norway Uni pulls coronavirus message citing ‘poorly developed’ US health system

One of Norway's leading universities has been forced to change a message warning overseas students of the US's "poorly developed health services", after it was dragged into a storm of criticism on social media.

Norway Uni pulls coronavirus message citing 'poorly developed' US health system
Norwegian University of Science and Technology is one of Norway's leading universities. Photo: NTNU
Over the weekend, the Norwegian Institute of Science and Technology posted a message on its Facebook page for its students on international postings,  advising them to heed the latest advice from Norway's foreign ministry on the coronavirus pandemic, and return back to Norway. 
 
“This applies especially,” the message said, “if you are staying in a country with poorly developed health services and infrastructure and/or collective infrastructure, for example the USA.” 
 
But on Monday, after a storm of social media criticism, the message was changed, stripping out all mention of the US. 
 
Anne Dahl, communications advisor for the university's rector, told state broadcaster NRK that the university had decided to change the post because the furore was distracting people from the serious underlying message. 
 
“We do not want the expression of a single phrase to overshadow important information, so the specific wording about the US was removed,” she wrote in an email. 
 
The original wording was quickly picked up by Twitter commentators in the US. 
 

It then got viral news coverage, with both conservative outlets like Fox News, and left-of-centre newspapers like the UK's Independent picking up the story. 
 
Several people flocked to the original post to attack the university in the comments. 
 
 
 
 
The post was then changed on Monday to remove all reference to the US. 
 
 
 
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