Head of defence suspended over frigate failure 

Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen has suspended the head of the military, Flemming Lentfer, following technical problems which caused a Navy frigate to suffer outages while in a live combat situation in the Red Sea.

The technical problems were reported to the Defence Ministry shortly after the incident, but did not reach Poulsen until later, according to an internal military review reported by media yesterday. Poulsen has rejected this version of events and said “had no knowledge of the report that came from the captain [of the ship] on March 13th”.

In a press briefing yesterday, Poulsen said he had relieved Lentfer of his duties as he no longer had confidence in the head of the military, but did not specify the reason for this.

“With the challenges we are facing, we need a new head of the military,” the minister said.

Vocabulary: hjemsendt – suspended

Narcotics seizures at Danish borders doubled in 2023

Danish customs officers found and confiscated some 2.9 tonnes of narcotics on the country’s borders last year, the Danish Customs Agency (Toldstyrelsen) said in a press statement.

That is almost twice as much as the 1.5 tonnes discovered in 2022.

“We are generally seeing more narcotics at the border. This is particularly true for cannabis, which we are increasingly finding in packages at post and courier terminals around the country,” border control director Jeppe Kjærgaard of the Customs Agency said in the statement.

Around 1.9 tonnes of all the seized drugs were cannabis, three times as much as in 2022. The agency also found 54 kilos of cocaine and 47 kilos of amphetamines.

Vocabulary: at beslaglage – to confiscate

Around half of all 1,000-krone notes handed in

Half of the 1,000 krone notes previously in circulation have been handed in ahead of the denomination’s upcoming withdrawal as valid currency, the Nationalbank says.

1,000-krone notes worth a total of more than 9 billion kroner have been exchanged, while some 12 million of the notes are still circulating.

All 1,000-krone notes and all other Danish banknotes dating from before 2009 will become invalid on May 31st 2025, with new series of banknote designs to be introduced by 2029.

In the past, Denmark has not generally taken old banknote designs out of circulation, and notes from as far back as 1944 are still technically usable at present. However, old notes “don’t live up to modern standards” and are therefore being withdrawn en masse, the central bank has previously said.

Vocabulary: indleveret – handed in

Education minister wants to make it easier for schools to suspend children

Education Minister Mattias Tesfaye said yesterday he favours a change in the rules governing Denmark’s state schools to give schools more power to suspend children.

Tesfaye’s comments followed an Education Ministry review of disciplinary problems including abusive behaviour at schools nationally.

That came after several individual cases were reported nationally, in which minors had been abused or assaulted by other minors at schools, including at Borup School in Zealand town Køge and Agedrup School in Odense.

The ministry review found no evidence of a general increase in serious violations of school rules. However, students are more likely to “overtly react” than before, especially in younger age groups, it said.