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Hafnfjörður opened the Christmas village early this year, on November 16th, where this picture was taken.

Christmas programs all over the country this weekend

30 Nov The country is in the Christmas spirit this first weekend of Advent and there are a variety of Christmas related activities on offer all over the country.

Stefánsdóttir says many parents are in a very difficult situation due to teacher strikes.

“Inexcusable” that children are still at home

29 Nov “Given how this looks in the media, of course, you are not sitting at the negotiating table yourself, but our children have been at home for four weeks without anything happening. I think it is inexcusable and we want an explanation for this.”

The teachers', state's, and local government's bargaining committees met with the state mediator at 9 am this morning.

“A very difficult dispute”

28 Nov State mediator Ástráður Haraldsson says that there is still a long way to go in the wage dispute between teachers and the state, but the parties to the dispute met at the State Conciliation and Mediation Office (SCMO) at 9 am this morning.

Steinunn Þórðardóttir, Chairman of the Icelandic Medical Association and Ástráður Haraldsson, State Mediator.

“A big step forward for doctors”

28 Nov “This was finally achieved and we left the negotiating table very amicably last night,” says Steinunn Þórðardóttir, chairman of the Icelandic Medical Association, but agreements were reached in the wage dispute between doctors and the state and at other times last night.

A group of people tried to reach the eruption

23 Nov The police chief in Suðurnes requested the assistance of the rescue team last night in asking people to respect the recommendation not to go to the eruption in Sundhnúkagígar crater row.

View across the Blue Lagoon, the new lava, the defense wall, and a natural threshold that directs the lava to the west. The photo was taken with a 360° camera and is therefore a wide image and the proportions are slightly distorted. Next in the photo is the road that crosses the dam, but you can see that an old lava field lies just beyond it and to the west. The lava field acts as a natural threshold and pushes the lava to the west.

Photos: Natural threshold is taking over

22 Nov The lava flow that is now flowing along the defense walls and yesterday crossed the parking lots at the Blue Lagoon has reached a natural threshold just south of where the parking lots were and are starting to flow to the west.

Ásrún Kristinsdóttir talked to mbl.is last night.

"We were rather expecting a red Christmas"

21 Nov Ásrún Helga Kristinsdóttir, president of Grindavík's town council, says it was a surprise that the eruption should start now. Her husband and older daughter had to evacuate Grindavík under loud siren blasts.

It has been very busy today at arekstur.is and the company has received around 30 calls due to collisions.

The phone has been ringing off the hook

15 Nov Kristján Kristjánsson, manager at Árekstur.is (traffic collision helpline), says the phone has been ringing off the hook for about three hours. He asks people to drive carefully.

Memorable and engaging

14 Nov Members of the rescue teams at Landsbjörg are now mourning a good friend after the fatal accident on November 3, when Sigurður Kristófer McQuillan Óskarsson died during training at Tungufljót River.

Valdís Guðmundsdóttir and Hjörtur Már Gestsson at home in Álftanes with their children, Bragi Freyr and Áslaug Líf.

“We just had to start over”

14 Nov A lot has been built in Álftanes in the last few years, for example, terraced and apartment buildings, and in the last few months several people from Grindavík have settled in apartments there.

Last Wednesday, Jón Ingi Þorvaldsson set a world record in skydiving in the category of two patterns when he jumped together with 150 others from seven planes over the Skydive Arizona area, one of the largest skydiving areas in the world.

Jón Ingi Þorvaldsson is the new world record holder in the pattern parachute jump

10 Nov "It's naturally a huge honor to jump with this group. It's like getting the chance to do group gymnastics with Simon Biles and the entire US national team, Nadia Comăneci and ten other world champions between them, and then some amateurs like me."

Eyþór Arnalds: "I'm just getting started"

8 Nov "It's just anticipation," says Eyþór Arnalds, former leader of the Independence Party and musician, who will perform at the Icelandic music festival Iceland Airwaves tomorrow, Saturday.

Parents from two kindergartens in the capital area gathered in large numbers at the town hall to draw attention to their situation.

Say children a discriminated against by this selective strike action

5 Nov Parents of children in preschools where teacher strikes are currently ongoing, most of them from the Preschool Drafnarsteinn in Vesturbær but also from Seltjarnarnes’s Preschool, protested the strike action of the Icelandic Teachers' Union in Reykjavík City Hall today. The parents that mbl.is spoke to find it unfair that their children are the only ones on indefinite strike, but there is a strike at four kindergartens in the country as a whole, including one in Reykjavík.

Jónas Þór Viðarsson and Arnþór Þórsteinsson have now announced a Christmas concert to support Sigrún Björg Aðalgeirsdóttir, who was involved in a traffic accident in Kelduhverfi in Öxarfjörður.

"Everyone is willing to help"

5 Nov "In these small communities, if something happens, everyone just shows up and lends a hand," says Jónas Þór Viðarsson, a musician who, together with his colleague Arnþór Þórsteinsson, plans to hold a Christmas concert in support of Sigrún Björg Aðalgeirsdóttir, who had, along with her infant son, in a traffic accident in Kelduhverfi in Öxarfjörður last month.

Representatives of the Civil Defense and the Icelandic Met Office met last night.

Met at night due to a suspected magma run

4 Nov The on-call shift of Civil Protection and Emergency Management met with the Icelandic Meteorological Agency before the decision was made not to launch the entire system following the suspicion that a magma run had begun at Sundhnúkagígar crater row.