Today’s big topic: Excess-mortality figures in Europe surprise Danish researcher: »It is unusual for this group to be hit«
Chantal Molignier, 76, turns on a fan in her home on one of Paris’s hot summer days. According to a study in the journal The Lancet Planetary Health, global warming in the coming decades will have consequences for older people, who are particularly vulnerable to extreme heat.
What’s happening?
The night of June 25 is not one Catherine Le Gall will forget.
No fewer than six people died in the hands of the staff in the emergency department at Argenteuil Hospital just outside Paris, where she is chief.
The emergency doctor’s brutal night is a local snapshot of the excess mortality that struck in several parts of Europe. In that week, about 16,000 more people died than would normally be expected in that week in June, according to figures from the Statens Serum Institut, which monitors mortality year-round in 27 European countries through the EuroMOMO surveillance network.
»We haven’t seen a similar spike in excess mortality since the summer of 2022, when Covid was still present in several countries. The mortality is truly unusual in countries like Belgium, France, and Germany, and they can’t explain it by anything other than people dying from the heat. The pattern matches the intense heat waves«, says Lasse Vestergaard, a senior physician at the Statens Serum Institut.
Why it matters!
Emmanuel Raju leads the Center for Disaster Research at the University of Copenhagen and works with the London research group that links extreme weather to greenhouse gas emissions. So he is, of course, familiar with the consequences of European summers growing hotter. Still, he is somewhat surprised by the high mortality. He had expected authorities to be better prepared for the heat.
»The high number is because one heat wave followed another, like beads on a string. In the end, it hits people, and that’s why heat waves need to be high on the agenda«, he says.
Heat waves bring drought and wildfires in their wake. Together, they strain both emergency preparedness systems and health care.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– »Mom, don’t be alarmed«
Maria Anthonova Hansen didn’t want to keep her daughter from being part of her class community, but after a party for first-year students in upper secondary school, she is calling for greater safety and security. When her daughter came home, she had washed off most of the blood, but red splatters still stained her clothes and legs. »I knew alcohol would be involved. But I didn’t know it would end like this. I didn’t expect it to be that violent«, she says.
Maja Bødtcher-Hansen, chair of Danske Gymnasier and principal of Frederiksberg Gymnasium, has urged parents to take more responsibility.
– Tv 2 executive and journalist convicted in nursing home documentary case
The Eastern High Court has found TV 2’s chief executive and a journalist guilty of unlawfully sharing information and images of an elderly resident in connection with the documentary broadcast ’Nursing Homes Behind the Facade’. As part of the ruling, TV 2 has been ordered to remove the offensive footage, which has been widely discussed in the media.
The footage concerns Else, a 90-year-old woman with dementia at the Kongsgården nursing home in Aarhus. In the program, viewers see, among other things, her hanging in a ceiling lift while staff wait for her to defecate into a diaper placed on the bed. TV 2 executive Anne Engdal Stig Christensen said in a written statement that she believes the ruling is an infringement on the media’s freedom to inform.
– Is this the turning point in the fight against Big Tech?
A turning point in the fight to protect children and teenagers on social media. That is how the American tech expert Nathaniel Lubin describes the outcome of the headline-making lawsuit that the state of New Mexico recently won against Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. A lawsuit that resulted in fines of nearly $1 billion for Meta and required the tech giant to make a series of significant changes to the platforms – which, according to the ruling, are designed in ways that harm children’s mental health. The next chapter in the wave of lawsuits being brought against Meta in the United States has just gotten underway. Nathaniel Lubin, a former digital adviser to Barack Obama, was called by the state attorney general as a witness in New Mexico because of his work on digital media and their health consequences.
He tells Politiken that the decision could have far-reaching implications, because it is no longer about individual cases that can be brushed aside with fines or settlements that effectively silence the accusers. Now, for the first time, it is about Meta and social media being found liable in court for constituting a nuisance and causing harm to the broader public. It is about the design – not just the content.
This weekends itinerary
Where to eat?
No more takes on brunsviger, please, writes Ibyen’s (Funen-born) reviewer.
It’s still ice-cream weather, and in Vesterbro a new gelato bar has been drawing lines all summer. But not every flavor is worth the hype.
If you’ve also been wondering what people are lining up for on Istedgade, the answer is Isted 107. The shop itself is so small that I probably would have biked right past it if it weren’t for the crowd outside. Some people are already holding cups and soft-serve cones, while others gather by the window, trying to catch a glimpse of the selection inside.
It almost feels pointedly boring to choose vanilla at a place that’s put so much effort into everything else. But a great vanilla can beat almost anything – and that’s the hill I’ll die on.
Here, it’s rich with vanilla, creamy and light, with distinct vanilla seeds. I got chocolate sprinkles on mine, but it really doesn’t need them.
Read more here.
What to drink?
Esso sits on a corner you could easily miss. I know I have. Heading to the train from Valby toward Trekroner, eyes flicking between the red light and the travel app — hoping the train is delayed just long enough for me to catch it – I’ve slid past more than once without noticing the place.
Esso opened with the ambition of serving truly good coffee in Valby, and it’s fair to say they deliver.
The flat white (40 kroner) is well balanced – made with beans from Just Coffee, fine microfoam, and a rounded espresso. The iced latte (50 kroner) is at the same level, with a clear coffee flavor that doesn’t get lost in the milk.
You can sit here and people-watch without being disturbed. The selection isn’t big, and the most popular items go quickly. You could say Esso rewards those who find their way here early.
Read more here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.