this post was submitted on 28 Aug 2026
261 points (98.2% liked)

World News

57937 readers
1712 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world

Ask Historians !askhistorians@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] bartvbl@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

My favourite clip of him: https://youtu.be/jXw9jGTdBy0

And a very nice speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zvB0jZKRKrk

(Both have English captions)

[–] deifyed@lemmy.wtf 37 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In this dysfunctional world going straight to hell, Harald was a voice of reason and love

[–] CultLeader4Hire@lemmy.world -2 points 1 week ago

Eh, nothing reasonable about being a king in 2026, reason and love would have had him stepping down and removing the waste going to the royal family

[–] MolochHorridus@piefed.social 36 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Good time to dismantle monarchy, Norway.

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 24 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Meh, as far as kings go, he was alright. I've also met the new king (Håkon), and he's pretty decent too.

[–] CobraCommander@quokk.au 43 points 1 week ago (1 children)

And the crown princess was friends with Epstein and her son raped women.

End The Monarchy.

[–] frongt@lemmy.zip 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Sure but that's not a product of the monarchy, the majority of Epstein's associates weren't royals

[–] CobraCommander@quokk.au 17 points 1 week ago

Her power and influence as a monarch is reason she was his friend. She had undue privileges by virtue of being royalty, that is something we can easily rectify by removing royalty from existence.

[–] scarabic@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Couldn’t they both be decent without being king?

Occasionally lucking into a good one, is not an argument for maintaining a monarchy.

[–] Akh@lemmy.world 13 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Harold was a good one though

[–] koella@lemmy.zip 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Exactly, let's quit while we're ahead.

Going out on a high note.

[–] Griffus@lemmy.zip 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] daychilde@lemmy.world 5 points 1 week ago

Haruld was terrible.

[–] aSaabD00d@lemmy.today 23 points 1 week ago

I feel envious of all these people getting to die of old age

[–] DarrinBrunner@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

Keep fishing, Death. Here's another roll of quarters.

[–] Batmorous@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago

Rest in peace sir. Thank you for all that you have done for Norwegian people and people around the world.

[–] 50MYT@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Where is the claw machine played by death meme

[–] Crackhappy@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)
[–] AbidanYre@lemmy.world 1 points 1 week ago

And Peter Cullen.

[–] Malica@lemmy.zip 15 points 1 week ago

Death got it wrong again

[–] oyzmo@piefed.social 14 points 1 week ago

A beautiful and kind mind has passed 😢 rip

[–] Witchfire@lemmy.world 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Can he do the world a favor and take another certain octenial with him? RIP

[–] Lor@mander.xyz 7 points 1 week ago

Hvil i fred, King Harald V.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 6 points 1 week ago (6 children)

King? Is Norway in the past or something?

[–] thedarkfly@feddit.org 3 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

If your question is genuine: Kings in European constitutional monarchies (or at least in Belgium) play a political part outside of the political circus of constant posturing.

First, they help to broker deals between parties elected by the people. In Belgium we have the awesome proportional representation, meaning that we escape the drawbacks of first-past-the-post. But we have a shitton of parties that need to negociate and compromise. The king is the showrunner but only elected officials are in power in the end.

Second, they perform diplomatic missions. These missions rely on personal bonds maintained over decades are more stable than for a president that can change every few years. The phone calls of the King allowed Belgium to obtain needed gear during the covid pandemic. We can also see how quickly relations can suffer when a bad president is in office. A King means stability.

Finally, the King must know his place. If he steps out of line and expresses the tiniest personal political opinion, he's sidelined real quick. That happened in Belgium when the King refused to sign legalization of abortion. The parliament declared him unable to reign and the law was passed anyway.

[–] Tattorack@lemmy.world 12 points 1 week ago (1 children)

The Nordics and some other countries in Europe uphold a powerless monarchy.

... Essentially they're a kind of celebrity...

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works -2 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They aren’t powerless at all. In fact the monarch family in question are proven Epstein rapists, and yet they are not in prison forever. That is political power, plain and simple.

[–] Trashcan@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

The monarch family in question has a convicted rapist (aka Temu Jeffrey) and the wife of the king (more known as Queen.Nette Marit) has some rather questionable by ties and contacts to Epstein. It's her son by different marriage/family that is the rapist.

So - in no shapes, events, terms or folding of space did Temu Joffrey (Marius Borg Høiby) get into rape vicinity of Epstein. And I beboerne er can rule out lesbian rape by the now Queen.

Meaning these two things (rape and Epstein vicinity of unknown intimacy) exist, but the vend diagram is not touching

[–] clanker_victim_555@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

That's a weird take to have while a monarchy is forming in full view of the whole world in real time.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 3 points 1 week ago

You might note that absolutely nothing good is coming from that transition.

[–] FluidBeef@quokk.au 8 points 1 week ago (1 children)

They’re called kings but they don’t even make insane pronouncements or make nonstop executive orders demanding that the tide will not come in.

[–] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 5 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Excuse you. They aren’t called tides anymore. They’re called Water Flows of America.

[–] ikidd@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 week ago

Merica-flows

[–] PrimeMinisterKeyes@leminal.space 4 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Of 30 countries in the EEA, 8 are monarchies: BE, DK, ES, LI, LU, NL, NO, SE.

EDIT: If I counted correctly, Europe as a whole has 4 more monarchies than that: AD, MC, UK, VA

[–] marius@feddit.org 2 points 1 week ago (1 children)
load more comments (1 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›