This is the Reykjavik Grapevine’s Daily News, a daily MICRO podcast with the key stories from Iceland. 

We are brought to you by Grapevine Store where you can buy the Icelandic products you should have bought while you were here, including Icelandic candy, wool products, and handmade souvenirs like carved wood birds, including the Arctic Tern, or Kria, which just left Iceland for the year. 

Today is Monday, August 18, 2025. These are the top news stories.  

On Saturday, August 16, the highest temperature of this century in Iceland was recorded. Egilsstadir airport documented a temperature of 29.8 degrees. This was higher than the predicted 27 degrees. Separately, Reykjavik experienced unusual weather, with a thunderstorm on Friday, during which our editor’s son had a near miss with a lightning strike near the University of Iceland.

Nationally owned energy company Landsvirkjun has been fined 1.4 billion ISK for abusing violations of the competition law between 2017 and 2021. The fine, issues by the Icelandic Competition Authority, is based on business practices that present new and smaller competitors form gaining a foothold in the electricity marker. Landsvirkjun has stated they intend to appeal the decision.

Professor emeritus of Icelandic Grammar Eirikur Rognvaldsson has written a strong argument against the Icelandic National Broadcasting Corporation for running an advertisement in English. The professor has argued that such an advertisement undermines the very existence of the service by using a language other than Icelandic.

Strætó has announced improved bus service in the capital area. From August 17 onwards, transit company Strætó bs. will improve its services with more frequent trips and shorter wait times.

On major bus routes, no more than 10 minutes should pass between buses during rush hour. Additionally, the proportion of residents living within a 400-metre radius of a bus stop jumps from 18 percent to 50 percent. The changes are a first step towards a new route network, to be implemented in 2031 when Borgarlínan bus rapid transit system is set to roll through Reykjavík streets. 

In a conversation with RÚV, Strætó bs. CEO Jóhannes Svavar Rúnarsson stated that preparations have been underway for at least six months, citing the increased number of employees and vehicles as key factors. See more here.

Finally, Icelandic film When The Light Breaks has been nominated for a Nordic Council Film Prize. The film, directed by Rúnar Rúnarsson, won best movie of the year at the 2025 Edda awards, and, according to the Nordic Council, explores “the fragility of life and how everything can change in an instant.” More on that here.

Today’s news from Iceland were read to you by Jón Trausti Sigurðarson and Bart Cameron

For more news, and for in-depth writing and reporting from Iceland, please log in to our website at Grapevine.is, or pick up our paper, which is a real thing, distributed everywhere in Iceland. .  

What is the future of Iceland's tech, economic and entrepreneurial sectors? What role does Iceland have to play in global development? Join host Bala Kamallakharan, founder of Startup Iceland, as he explores answers to these questions with some of the brightest minds working in Iceland today.

Helgi Hrafn Gunnarsson is a software developer and a parliamentarian. He was the member of the parliament who presented the bill to make Iceland join the European Space Agency so any Icelander can become an astronaut. We talk about the unique opportunities Iceland has in relation to space.

Futurecast is also available as a video on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/jpEmoQcIavM

Today on FutureCast we are chatting with Ari Jónsson. Ari is a NASA Ames Center Research Scientist and Stanford Alumni. He is currently the CEO of AWAREGO and Rector of Reykjavik University, a role he has held since 2007, and he will soon be moving on to become CEO of the institute. Ari is on the board of Iceland Venture Studio and is also an investor. Through his work over the years he has been a good friend, mentor and co-conspirator in building the startup community in Iceland. We will be speaking to him about Space, the opportunities that Iceland offers and his time at NASA.

Trans children have been made a hot subject of discussion lately, especially in the UK and the US, where numerous state legislatures are trying to ban crucial health care for these young people. But what happens when a trans kid gets support? To explore that, news editor Andie Sophia Fontaine speaks with Marselín Guðmundsdóttir, who came out as trans while still in her teens.

In the 7th Episode of FutureCast the host Bala Kamallakharan is speaking to Anna Worthington De Matos, the Founder and CEO of the Munasafn RVK Tool Library. A not for profit project that aims in extending the life of tools and things through the practical applications of Circular Economy. She is also the organiser for Reddingakaffi events, where so far 642KG of materials have been kept from going to landfills by repairing everyday use items. She believed the best way to implement Circular Economy is to give people accessibility (to information, education, funding, contacts etc). She is in the process of founding the Hringrásarsetur Íslands NGO, which will be the umbrella organisation for all the projects developed aiming on the expansion and implementation of the Circular Economy in Iceland.

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Kathryn Gunnarsson is the founder and CEO of Gecko, a Talent agency focused on STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) fields in Iceland. There has been a great demand for experts in this field and a number of expatriates have moved to Iceland to work in these fields. We talk a lot about Future of Work, how to build diversity at work and how you build networks and networking platforms like Startup Iceland and other strategies that enable people to integrate and build their careers in Iceland.

The host, Bala Kamallakharan talks to Thor Sigfusson, the founder of Iceland Ocean Cluster. Thor is a visionary, and one of the pioneers in the 100% utilisation of fish – or zero waste – in Iceland. They talk about the circular economy, food waste, innovation in the seafood industry, how to utilise the network to help founders, funding, and how the next generation is taking on new challenges in this industry.

The 4th episode of #FutureCast is a conversation with David Gunnarsson, the CEO of Dohop. David and Bala Kamallakharan, the host of FutureCast, have known each other for over a decade and Bala has been following the Dohop journey from the very early days. They talk about doing the impossible, i.e. raising funding for a travel company during a pandemic when almost all travel is prohibited. They also discuss how David got into the business of startups and what it means to build a company focused on technology whilst dealing with some of the traditional businesses like Airlines and the travel industry. This is a Christmas special, as it was a miracle for the startup community in Iceland to have one of the companies that was founded during the financial crisis raise significant funding for growing the team in Iceland.

Kjartan has been part of the gaming industry in Iceland for as long as I can remember. He spoke in the first ever Startup Iceland in 2012 about CCP Games. Kjartan and 6 other co-founders, veteran developers from Iceland and Finland came together to form Mainframe games. They are creating a cloud-native Massive Multiplayer Online game, a vibrant world with new ways to engage and connect with our friends. It’s the game of a lifetime... We talk about his PhD in Chaos Physics, his passion for art (he is a very good artist) and advice for founders.