Iceland Review

Iceland has signed a free trade agreement between the European Free Trade Association and Vietnam, opening broader access to a market of more than 100 million people.

The ICE-SAR rescue vessel Sigurvin safely towed the 475-tonne fishing boat Hildur to Dalvík on 20 October.

Iceland has broken ground on its first prison designed and built specifically as a high-security facility, at Stóra-Hraun in South Iceland.

The newly appointed operational commander of the Joint Expeditionary Force, Major General Olly Brown, has made his first official visit to Iceland.

Iceland’s infrastructure minister, Eyjólfur Ármannsson, is open to considering Heimaey, one of the Westman Islands, as a location for self-driving vehicle trials.

Iceland’s education ministry will provide municipalities and compulsory schools with their own PISA 2025 results on request.

Israeli airline Arkia plans to launch nonstop flights between Israel and Keflavík in June 2027.

Harvard scholar and Nudge co-author Cass R.

This week, some music fans will finally reunite with a band they have been waiting to see since 2005.

Iceland’s education minister, Inga Sæland, says artificial intelligence and translations of foreign textbooks are among the options being considered for new teaching materials.

Hotel Kulusuk in East Greenland has closed for the winter and laid off staff after winter flights from Iceland ended.

A caller to Iceland’s emergency line was lying on a loose roofing sheet to prevent it from causing damage.

Iceland’s emergency services have handled around 20 cases involving satellite messages since the summer.

According to a new survey, nearly three in ten Grindavík residents expect to be living in the town within a year.

Iceland Airwaves has completed its 2026 lineup with eight final additions and published the full festival schedule.

A first municipal breakdown of Iceland’s 2025 PISA results shows pupils in Reykjavík and Kópavogur above the national average in reading, mathematics and science before demographic adjustment.

Iceland has published its first comprehensive strategy for public services, covering national government and municipalities.

Iceland and Canada have pledged closer cooperation on Arctic security, trade and geothermal energy following talks in Reykjavík between Foreign Ministers Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir and Anita Anand.

Iceland’s private-sector wage agreements will remain in force after unions and employers reached a settlement shortly before Thursday’s deadline.

The Central Bank of Iceland has kept its key interest rate at 8%.

VR’s board voted unanimously on Wednesday evening to terminate its collective wage agreements on Thursday, October 8.

Iceland’s environment ministry is bringing the weakening of Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) into the national-security debate at this week’s Arctic Circle Assembly in Reykjavík.

Any expansion of the US military presence in Iceland would require the consent of Icelandic authorities, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said at a Reykjavík press conference on October 6.

Canada’s Foreign Minister Anita Anand is due in Reykjavík on October 8–9 for the Arctic Circle Assembly and meetings with Icelandic leaders, Canada’s government announced on October 7.

Icelandair will launch flights between Keflavík and St Louis next May.

The Icelandic Met Office has issued a yellow landslide alert for the Eastfjords as further rain falls on already saturated ground.

Iceland’s Environment and Energy Agency says available research points to a very low likelihood that oil or gas exists in recoverable quantities in Drekasvæði, northeast of Iceland.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Höfði on October 6, just days before the fortieth anniversary of the Reykjavík summit.

Icelandair carried 466,045 passengers in September 2026.

Icelandic police recorded 346 reports of sexual offences from January through June 2026, the highest first-half total since 2021.

Four major Icelandic union groupings have agreed with the Confederation of Icelandic Enterprise, SA, to extend their collective agreements through the end of 2027.

The leaders of Greenland and the Faroe Islands are meeting Iceland’s Prime Minister, Kristrún Frostadóttir, today.

In September 1987, British trendsetting music publication Sounds introduced Icelandic pop band The Sugarcubes with a description of the island’s nature.

More pupils in Iceland report feeling good at school.

VR and the Federation of Icelandic Commercial Workers (LÍV) have authorised their negotiators to terminate the collective wage agreements.

The twentieth lighting ceremony of the Imagine Peace Tower will take place on Viðey this Friday, 9 October.

Iceland’s Transportation Safety Board has recommended changes to surveillance equipment and helicopter operating procedures.

Almost every week in Iceland, and especially in its vibrant capital, Reykjavík, there is a festival to celebrate.

A community project in Vík í Mýrdal is bringing residents of different backgrounds together through language practice and cultural events.

A new section of Arnarnesvegur, a road in Reykjavík between Rjúpnavegur and Breiðholtsbraut, is due to open to vehicles at 14:00 on Monday, October 5.

Iceland’s government has submitted a bill that would prevent monthly rent increases and limit regular rises during a lease.

Two foreign tourists in their 60s died in a four-car crash on the Ring Road in East Iceland on Saturday, October 3.

The Icelandic Met Office issued a yellow landslide warning for the northern Westfjords on Saturday, October 3, after recent rockfalls and landslides left slopes vulnerable to further rain.

Tourists and foreign residents were involved in a serious four-car collision in East Iceland on Saturday, October 3, police have confirmed.

Work has begun on a state programme to restore 225 hectares of wetlands across five government-owned farms, with the first ditches being filled at Sogn in Ölfus.

Iceland trails its Nordic neighbours in patent activity and faces a heavier regulatory burden, according to a new report presented as Nordic ministers launched a joint growth initiative.

Defence ministers from the ten countries in the Joint Expeditionary Force met in Iceland on Friday to discuss closer regional defence cooperation, support for Ukraine and threats to critical infrastructure.

As autumn settles over Iceland, the days grow shorter, the nights darker, and the landscape takes on a different kind of beauty.

Motorists have received incorrect invoices from the newly introduced toll system in Hornafjörður, southeast Iceland, with some charges running to hundreds of thousands of krónur.

Iceland’s Education Ministry has clarified how proposed numerical grades at the end of compulsory school would work.