How to stay cashless when the crisis hits

Would you be able to buy food and medicine if the internet suddenly went down and you could only rely on the cash in your wallet? Many of us wouldn’t, as cashless payments like Apple Pay or debit cards have become the norm.

Card payments depend on functioning international data links and if internet connections are lost, so are cashless payments. Just a few weeks ago, many businesses in Spain and Portugal had to revert to cash-only transactions during the huge power blackout, serving as a clear warning for what could happen elsewhere. To avoid a scenario like this, the Nordic and Baltic countries have been developing offline card payment systems.

Norway, Denmark, and Latvia have already launched their systems. They work like the ones used by airlines mid-flight: cards are swiped while offline and transactions are processed when the system is back online. This means you have to use a physical card and type your pin code for it to work.

Latvia has set a limit of €200 per card to allow only essential purchases, like medicine and fuel. Estonia is planning a similar solution, limiting offline payments to specific locations, like gas stations, pharmacies, and grocery shops.

In Northern Europe one of the main concerns is the risk of sabotage that could result in connection cuts, particularly following the many recent instances of damage to subsea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea. Meanwhile, the Estonian and Finnish central banks have warned of Europe’s heavy reliance on US companies like Visa and Mastercard for card payments – a reaction to the current US government’s unreliable course.

Offline payments are extremely crucial for resilience in Northern Europe, as they are highly digitalised countries where cashless payments dominate. These countries have some of the fewest ATMs per 100,000 people in Europe and in Finland only 10% of people use cash as their main payment method.

Sweden and Norway have the lowest amount of cash in circulation, as a percentage of GDP, in the world. In the meantime, cash circulation is still important in other parts of the EU. In Malta, Slovenia, and Italy the share of cash payments is over 60%.

Push for action from an unexpected front

Israel’s blockade of humanitarian aid into Gaza continues, worsening the unprecedented humanitarian crisis, while EU action remains… circumspect. In Norway, an unexpected voice has taken over the push for justice.

The Norwegian Confederation of Trade Unions (LO) is pressuring the country’s government for a full economic boycott of Israel as of September 2025. LO has more than one million members – for comparison, Norway’s population is 5.6 million.

LO demands that Norway’s colossal Oil Fund (the world’s single largest investor), as well as Norwegian companies and financial institutions, withdraw from companies that contribute to the Israeli occupation. With its vast membership, LO has substantial influence in Norwegian politics and also contributes financially to election campaigns.

So far the Norwegian government is not planning any sanctions. Foreign minister Espen Barth Eide argued last week that Norway does not have a tradition of boycotting alone and that a unilateral boycott would do more harm than good – instead, he said, that would require work in the UN and EU.

However, the EU and UN responses to Israel’s war on Gaza have been limited to a few official statements, like this one from the European Council. Meanwhile, Israel continues its attacks and enforces the humanitarian blockade, putting even more Gazans at risk of dying from starvation. This has now made more European leaders call for a review of the EU-Israel trade deal made in 2000.

This could have a big impact as the EU is Israel’s biggest trading partner. A number of EU leaders have also pointed out that Israel is breaching article two of this agreement, which states that the deal “shall be based on respect for human rights and democratic principles”.

Wartime neutrality – allegedly

This time 80 years ago, Europe was still celebrating the end of World War II and the first thoughts of how to rebuild were only just beginning to take shape. Meanwhile, Sweden was instrumental to reconstructing Europe, as their official policy of neutrality kept its workforce and production facilities intact. But neutrality in times of war often actually meant collaboration with the Nazi regime.

To mark the 80th anniversary, Swedish television has released a series called "Sweden and the war". Based on private film clips that had never been shared before and newly recorded interviews, the documentary explores how ordinary Swedes lived at the time. This is a topic mostly reserved for discussions among historians, and isn't a big part of school education, according to the documentarists.

When the war broke out, the Swedish government’s main priority was to avoid getting involved, not only due to the tradition of non-alignment, but also due to the lack of military preparedness. Out of pressure and a fear of invasion, a deal was made for Nazi Germany to access Swedish railways, transporting more than two million soldiers to and from Norway.

On the trade front it was business as usual: Sweden kept selling its iron to Nazi Germany, which was used to make weapons for their military. While this strategy proved itself to be successful in terms of keeping Sweden unoccupied, in practice, it meant that Sweden was effectively assisting Germany in the war against the Allies.

At the same time, many Jews from surrounding countries fled to Sweden. It hosted resistance movements and refugee networks, such as those operating in the Baltics.

The kids just wanna have their playtime

You probably remember how much fun you had as a kid playing hide and seek, the floor is lava, or making up a whole new game of your own with your friends. But playing is much more than fun and games.

From childhood brain development to teenage social bonding and even adult creativity at work: play helps us grow, connect, and stay mentally sharp. Scientists say playing in old age can even slow cognitive decline more than reading or writing.

In Finland, play has been at the centre of early education for a long time – a rare sight in preschools across Europe. And six- and seven-year-olds had a clear message in Finland’s latest Children’s Barometer: they love preschool when they’re allowed to play. Assignments, guided activities, and even rest time ranked as the most boring parts of the day – especially for boys, who also said they didn’t always get help when they needed it.

We know, it might not be surprising that kids find assignments boring. However, the kids’ answers are important. Finland’s approach is that preschool isn’t supposed to feel like school. Instead, children need space to explore, move, pretend, and play – because that’s how they learn best.

The experts behind the study stress that Finland must hold on tight to this approach, as academic pressures creep into earlier stages of childhood and more children in primary school are already feeling stressed.

When play falls into the background, the consequences are clear. One example is in England, where children’s decline in playtime has an impact on kids’ health and overall happiness. It has become so urgent that a national commission has been set up to investigate the issue.