ARCTIC: Trump-Putin War Summit & more – 19th Aug 2025

Bures from Keswick Village! This is the Rorshok Arctic Update from the 19th of August twenty twenty-five. A quick summary of what’s going down North of the Arctic Circle!

The eyes of the world turned to the Arctic this week when Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin held a summit together in Anchorage, Alaska, on Friday the 15th. According to a Reuters report from Saturday the 16th, the two leaders spoke regarding the war in Ukraine. Trump said that he believes a deal to end the war is close, but gave no details on what the deal might include.

Russia’s lofty ambitions to be the most powerful Arctic nation took a blow this week. On Wednesday the 13th, the Russian business news agency, Vedomosti, reported that Rosmorport, Russia’s state-owned port operator, has canceled a $200 million US dollar contract to build two icebreakers, apparently due to Western sanctions against Russia preventing them from purchasing technology, parts and labor from the West.

The planned ships would have been the first of their kind, able to navigate through ice up to 1.5 meters thick. Instead, the US and EU can rest assured that their sanctions are having the intended impact on Russia’s economy.

Let’s go back to Alaska for a bit, as there’s great progress being made to protect women. On Thursday the 14th, Canadian broadcaster CBC reported that the governments of the US state of Alaska and the Canadian territory of Yukon have signed a joint agreement to address the problem of missing and murdered Indigenous women, girls and two-spirit people, a non-female or male third gender role recognized by North American Indigenous communities.

The border between the Yukon and Alaska has proved a problem for law enforcement, as local Indigenous communities have permission to cross between the two countries freely, but legal jurisdictions don’t cross the same borders. With this agreement, cross-border collaboration has been agreed at the governmental, state and community levels to prevent gender-based violence.

Elsewhere in the Yukon, Indigenous communities are calling for more involvement in national defence and security planning. CBC reported on Thursday the 14th that The Assembly of First Nations, Canada’s assembly of First Nations leaders, demanded that federal and territorial governments involve communities that will be most affected by Canada’s planned expansion of defence infrastructure in the far north.

Among the twelve recommendations made by the Assembly are establishing information sharing protocols with First Nations, and issuing defence funding to Indigenous communities to address climate change impacts, which the Assembly considers the most pressing threat to life in the Arctic.

Moving over to Europe, the EU is looking to vastly expand its Arctic presence. According to a report by the media organization, Project Syndicate, on Friday the 15th, Iceland, Norway and Greenland are all making moves toward joining the EU. Iceland has a referendum planned in twenty twenty-seven regarding membership, and public polls in both Norway and Greenland show record support for the EU.

Norway’s Arctic territory of Svalbard has hit a significant milestone. On Thursday the 14th Crown Prince Haakon gave a speech in the town square of Longyearbyen, for the anniversary of the inclusion of the archipelago into the Norwegian crown.

While Norway held celebrations over its authority over the high Arctic islands, the Russian government had complaints leveled against Norway.

On Wednesday the 13th, the Russian foreign ministry held a press conference where it accused Norway of anti-Russian discrimination and the militarization of Svalbard. With the town of Barentsburg still a Russian settlement on the islands, the country sees any perceived increase in Norwegian military presence as a threat toward its own national security.

Scientists in Svalbard have made a worrying discovery about the future of glaciers across the Arctic. According to a story published by The Guardian on Friday the 15th, Dr Arwyn Edwards, a leading glacier ecologist, has discovered there is a host of microbes that live in glacial ice which produce a dark pigment to protect themselves from UV rays.

This was never an issue until the Arctic started warming under climate change, which in turn accelerated the growth of these microbes. They are producing more dark pigment, which is darkening the ice across the Arctic. Once darker, the ice starts absorbing more heat from the sun, causing glaciers to melt ever faster. Dr Edwards says a number of Svalbard’s glaciers are now terminally ill, and soon the islands will lose some of their largest and most important ice fields.

Also on the decline in the north is one of its most vital inhabitants, the reindeer. In research published by the University of Copenhagen on Wednesday the 13th, scientists used data looking back over 20,000 years to see how reindeer have reacted to past climate changes. This data was then used to forecast how reindeer will cope by the year twenty-one hundred, and the outlook is not good.

Every population of reindeer in the Arctic will have shrunk, with North American reindeer numbers declining by eighty percent.

Reindeer aren’t just Santa’s favored form of travel; they are an ecological and cultural pillar of the north, shaping the ecosystem, and act as the primary livelihood for many Indigenous communities in the Arctic.

Let’s move over to Greenland where protests have erupted over the treatment of Indigenous families by Denmark. According to Greenlandic newspaper, Sermitsiaq, on Tuesday the 12th, protesters confronted visiting Danish lawmakers in the capital city of Nuuk. The Danish Municipality’s decision to take a newborn daughter from her Greenlandic mother over concerns about her ability to raise her child sparked the demonstration.

This decision comes after decades of complaints that Danish authorities treat Greenlanders overly harshly when it comes to child welfare, and Greenlanders, including the island’s Premier, Finance Minister, and Families Minister, all gathered to make their fury at Denmark’s treatment known.

Over in Sweden, one of the country’s most beautiful buildings is on the move. On Monday the 18th, Reuters reported that in the northern city of Kiruna, the over 110-year-old Kiruna Church will begin a two-day journey to a new home on Tuesday the 19th. The church, lifted onto a specially built trailer, will travel five kilometers, about three miles, down an Arctic road to the new Kiruna city center.

The relocation marks the start of a massive thirty-year project to move the entire city and its thousands of residents. The reason lies beneath Kiruna: the iron ore mine that produces eighty percent of Europe’s iron. Owned by LKAB, its expansion is considered so vital to Sweden and Europe that authorities chose to relocate the city rather than limit the mine.

All of the Nordic nations have a chance to celebrate their cultural impact this week. On Monday the 18th, the Nordic Council Film Prize announced its six nominees for the grand prize. One film each from Denmark, Norway, Greenland, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and the Faroe Islands has been nominated. There is a huge range of topics being covered this year, ranging from a Greenlandic documentary on life in prison for Inuit women to a Faroese drama about the fragility of small-town life in such a remote nation.

The winner will be announced on the 21st of October, winning an almost $50,000 US dollar prize, shared equally between the winning screenwriter, director and producer.

Finally, a landmark book hopes to show just how important the Arctic is to us all. On Monday the 11th, the Arctic Economic Council announced it has published The Arctic Encyclopedia. Within the pages of this book are the testimonies of more than 200 people across thirty-six countries from around the world, each contributing their own 300-word tale of just why the far north is so important to them.

The online edition of this landmark book is available for free, and it is a must-read for anyone who loves the Arctic. Check it out with the link in the show notes.

Aaand that’s it for this week! Thank you for joining us!

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Mana