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This story will be updated throughout the day (most recent: 4 p.m.). Photo of Madelin Stiberg’s upside-down lifestyle under the first midnight sun of the year by Audun Domaas Pedersen.
Some of Longyearbyen’s smallest residents were the focus of the first small step in reopening public facilities after five week of shutdowns due to the coronavirus pandemic, as locals kindergartens and those nationwide were allowed to reopen Monday under tight safety guidelines.
But that glimmer of normalcy continues to be outnumbered by a range of other immediate and longer-term adverse impacts, including a reduction in the already low level of local coal mining, the bankruptcy of a SvalSat customer that was supposed to provide internet coverage across the entire Arctic via satellite, and Norwegian Air announcing more mass layoffs and the bankruptcy of four subsidiaries (although for now its reduced operations in Norway are not further affected).
