Great Belt closed over navy missile malfunction

The Great Belt, an important shipping strait between Zealand and Funen, was closed for several hours on Thursday after a missile malfunction on a navy frigate, the military said according to newswire AFP.

The malfunction happened during a missile test on the Niels Juel frigate in the port of Korsør, west of Copenhagen, which created the risk of a missile launch.

“The problem happened during a compulsory test where the launcher had been activated” and could not be deactivated for several hours, the Danish Defence Command explained in a statement.

As long as the launcher was not deactivated, there was “a risk that the missile would be fired and would travel several kilometres”, the military said, adding however that there was no risk of the missile exploding.

Vocabulary: at eksplodere – to explode 

Cycling hero Vingegaard breaks collarbone in race

Two-time Danish Tour de France winner Jonas Vingegaard picked up a nasty injury after a crash in the Euskal Herriko Itzulia (Tour of the Basque Country) race yesterday.

The Team Visma rider has broken a collarbone and several ribs, his team confirmed in a post on social media X. His condition is stable and he was conscious, but was set to be kept in hospital overnight.

The Dane was one of 12 riders who left the road on a bend and crashed into guard rails. Vingegaard was attended by medics for 15 minutes before being transported away wearing a neck brace.

The injury comes at an inopportune for a potential defence of the Tour de France, won by Vingegaard in 2023 and 2022.

Vocabulary: kraveben – collarbone

Popular second hand sales app fires all staff

Trendsales, a popular Danish app for buying and selling used clothes, has fired all of its employees, the company’s director, Mads Aarøe Mathiesen has confirmed to newspaper Ekstra Bladet.

That comes after Trendsales was acquired in March by multinational app Vinted, a would-be competitor in the reselling space.

The consequences of the layoffs and the acquisition are currently unclear, but Mathiesen told Ekstra Bladet that Trendsales will not close completely.

“I don’t want to make any conclusions yet, but I can tell you that we are working together with Vinted on what the future platform will look like. But it is still too early for us to talk about it,” he said.

Trendsales had 79 employees as of January according to Ekstra Bladet.

Vocabulary: et opkøb – en acquisition

Saharan sand could dampen weather this weekend

A rainy week has been forecast to give way to a dry, warm weekend, but a previously unforeseen arrival could mean things don’t quite live up to expectations.

The beginning of this week saw record rain levels for April, but Denmark residents hoping for pleasant spring weather could take comfort from the weekend forecast: an almost dry Saturday and Sunday with temperatures up to 18 degrees Celsius and even 20 degrees locally.

But the unexpected arrival of fine sand from the Sahara desert in air blowing across Denmark could mean the temperatures disappoint.