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No, Norway and Sweden haven't banned digital transactions

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No, Norway and Sweden haven't banned digital transactions

The claims appear to have sprung from reports that the Nordic countries have started advising citizens to keep a supply of cash at home in the case of a digital banking crisis.

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A false narrative spreading online claims that Norway and Sweden are doing away with e-money and are returning to a fully cash-based society.

For example, one post circulating on social media says the countries are now going back to paying in cash because they’ve supposedly realised that it’s the most secure payment method, as digital accounts allow the authorities to block your transactions.

Another popular post says that Sweden is going back to cash because digital payments are potentially a threat to national security.

However, these claims aren’t accurate.

They appear to have their origins in news reports over the past few months that both countries are putting the brakes on their plans to become cashless societies, apparently over fears that fully digital payment systems could leave their financial and state institutions vulnerable to Russian cyber attacks.

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For example, The Guardian recently reported that despite the Nordic countries’ ambitions to reduce their reliance on cash, they are now starting to see electronic banking as a potential threat to national security.

An image or link to this report is often shared by social media users alongside a claim that the countries are getting rid of e-money altogether.

As things stand, Norway and Sweden have the lowest amount of cash in circulation as a percentage of GDP in the world, according to recent figures from Sveriges Riksbank, the central bank in Stockholm.

Fellow Nordic country Denmark also ranks quite low, as does the UK, while the eurozone as a whole still has significantly more cash in circulation.

But now, Sweden is encouraging citizens to use cash regularly through a variety of different measures.

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Over the past few months, the defence ministry released a brochure entitled “If Crisis of War Comes” in which it advised people to keep a week’s supply of cash at home to remain prepared.

Sveriges Riksbank also said that the country needs to make sure that no one is excluded and that everyone is able to pay in the event of a large-scale crisis or war.

Norway meanwhile recently brought in legislation that fines retailers if they don’t accept cash, and also advised people to keep some cash on hand in case digital payment systems are attacked.

Nevertheless, Sveriges Riksbank told EuroVerify it’s not abandoning digital payments, and that it’s continuing with its plans to bring in an “e-krona” — a digital version of Sweden’s national currency.

Norges Bank, Norway’s central lender, also fully denied the claims that the country wants to move away from an electronic payment system and back to cash.

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“Increased use of electronic payment methods has brought great benefits to society as a whole, banks, and their customers,” a spokesperson for the central bank said. “However, there is still a need for cash. Cash is not an end in itself, but has properties and functions that other payment methods and instruments do not have, and which are important to ensure an efficient and secure payment system.”

There’s no evidence that either country is trying to phase out e-money and return to a 100% cash-based society.

The misleading narrative online appears to feed into fears of digital currencies, in particular the digital euro envisaged by the European Central Bank (ECB).

Opponents of the digital euro say it could damage privacy, financial control and security, and even fully supplant cash.

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For example, they say that every transaction could be monitored by central authorities, leading to financial surveillance, and that the government would have more control over the currency, opening up the possibility of currency manipulation.

It’s also been suggested that the elderly or those in rural areas could lose out, as they wouldn’t have the same access to digital services as those in more urban areas.

However, the ECB and its president, Christine Lagarde, have repeatedly said that a digital euro would complement cash, not replace it, and that it would be safe, make payments more efficient, and be easy for all to use.

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“The use of cash to make payments is declining and the shift towards online shopping and digital payments is accelerating,” the ECB says. “The digital euro would be an electronic form of cash for the digitalised world. It would give consumers the option to use central bank money in a digital format, complementing banknotes and coins.”

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“Like cash, the digital euro would be risk-free, widely accessible, user-friendly and free for basic use,” it continues. “Moreover, the digital euro would strengthen the strategic autonomy and monetary sovereignty of the euro area by boosting the efficiency of the European payments ecosystem as a whole, fostering innovation and increasing its resilience to potential cyberattacks or technical disruptions, such as power outages.”

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Vanity Fair parts ways with Olivia Nuzzi amid Robert F. Kennedy Jr. controversy

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Vanity Fair parts ways with Olivia Nuzzi amid Robert F. Kennedy Jr. controversy

NEW YORK (AP) — Vanity Fair is parting ways with West Coast editor Olivia Nuzzi amid ongoing controversy over her relationship with profile subject Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while she was the Washington correspondent for New York magazine.

A joint statement Friday from the magazine and Nuzzi said that they “have mutually agreed, in the best interest of the magazine, to let her contract expire at the end of the year.” She had been hired as its West Coast editor in September.

Nuzzi, 32, had been a star reporter for New York magazine known for colorful political profiles until the fall of 2024, when it was revealed she had an intense personal relationship with Kennedy, a presidential candidate at the time she wrote about him and now head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Nuzzi was fired by New York for not disclosing her relationship.

She reflected on their relationship and the fallout from it in the memoir “American Canto,” which refers to Kennedy as “The Politician” and ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza as “the man I did not marry.” It was excerpted in Vanity Fair but competed for attention with a series of Substack posts by Lizza that contained embarrassing allegations.

Their feud quickly gripped media insiders as Lizza alleged that Nuzzi had an affair with another profile subject and had given Kennedy political advice, both considered off limits for journalists. Lizza even posted salacious, cringeworthy text messages from Kennedy to Nuzzi that he had intercepted.

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Nuzzi denounced her ex-fiance’s posts, in a Substack interview with Emily Sundberg, as “fiction-slash-revenge porn.”

Friday’s announcement came only days after the publication of “American Canto,” disdained by critics and apparently of little interest to the reading public. The book ranked just 6,094 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list as of Friday afternoon.

Critics were harsh: “A tell-all memoir? Ha. This is a tell-nothing memoir,” wrote Helen Lewis in The Atlantic.

Through a miserable week, Nuzzi posted a humorous Substack column of “Signs Your Book Rollout Has Gone Awry.”

Among them: “Monica Lewinsky reaches out to check on your mental health.”

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Canadian politician arrested after claiming threatening voicemail was AI

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Canadian politician arrested after claiming threatening voicemail was AI

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A Canadian politician who claimed a voicemail she allegedly left a potential mayoral candidate last summer was artificial intelligence has been arrested and charged with making threats.

Ontario Councilor Corinna Traill was arrested on Wednesday and charged with two counts of uttering threats, the Peterborough Police Service in Ontario said.

In September, former mayoral candidate Tom Dingwall wrote on his Facebook that in August Traill left him a voicemail, telling him not to run for mayor so a friend of hers could run unencumbered.

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Ontario Councilor Corinna Traill was arrested on Wednesday and charged with two counts of uttering threats, the Peterborough Police Service in Ontario said. (Corinnatraill.ca; Kirill Kudryavtsev/ AFP via Getty Images)

“Miss Traill made it clear that if I did not, she would come to my home, kill me, and sexually assault my wife, then sexually assault her again,” he alleged.

He called for Traill to step down, adding, “To be clear, no elected official, paid to represent us, should utilize intimidation or threats to dissuade anyone from pursuing elected office or engaging in public service, especially to the benefit of their friend.”

In her own statement posted to Facebook in September, Traill denied having sent the voicemail.

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“I want to state clearly and unequivocally: I did not create this message,” she wrote. “I have been advised that artificial intelligence technology was involved. Portions of the voicemail were my voice, but other parts were artificially generated.”

She wrote at the time that her team was trying to figure out who created the message.

“For more than a decade I have worked to represent the best interests of our community, advocate for our residents, and ensure that local decision-making reflects the values and priorities of the people I serve,” she added. “That dedication will not waver in light of these circumstances.”

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Traill has been released from jail on her own recognizance and is expected to next be in court in January, the police department said.  

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Traill for comment.

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US Supreme Court to consider Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship

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US Supreme Court to consider Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship

The Supreme Court is likely to hear oral arguments early next year, with a ruling in June on a matter that has been blocked by several lower courts as being unconstitutional.

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The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide the legality of President Donald Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship, as the Republican administration continues its broad immigration crackdown.

Following its announcement on Friday, the conservative-dominated court did not set a date for oral arguments in the blockbuster case, but it is likely to be early next year, with a ruling in June.

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Several lower courts have blocked as unconstitutional Trump’s attempt to put restrictions on the law that states that anyone born on US soil is automatically an American citizen.

Trump signed an executive order on January 20, his first day in office, decreeing that children born to parents in the US illegally or on temporary visas would not automatically become US citizens.

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Lower courts have ruled the order to be a violation of the 14th Amendment, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Trump’s executive order was premised on the idea that anyone in the US illegally, or on a visa, was not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country, and therefore excluded from this category.

The Supreme Court rejected such a narrow definition in a landmark 1898 case.

The Trump administration has also argued that the 14th Amendment, passed in the wake of the Civil War, addresses the rights of former slaves and not the children of undocumented migrants or temporary US visitors.

In a brief with the court, Trump’s solicitor general, John Sauer, argued that “the erroneous extension of birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens has caused substantial harm to the United States”.

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“Most obviously, it has impaired the United States’ territorial integrity by creating a strong incentive for illegal immigration,” Sauer said.

Trump’s executive order had been due to come into effect on February 19, but it was halted after federal judges ruled against the administration in multiple lawsuits.

District Judge John Coughenour, who heard the case in Washington state, described the president’s executive order as “blatantly unconstitutional”.

Conservatives hold a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, and three of the justices were appointed by Trump.

Cecillia Wang, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has spearheaded the legal challenges to the attempt to end birthright citizenship, said she is hopeful the top court will “strike down this harmful order once and for all”.

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“Federal courts around the country have consistently rejected President Trump’s attempts to strip away this core constitutional protection,” Wang said.

“The president’s action goes against a core American right that has been a part of our Constitution for over 150 years.”

The Supreme Court has sided with Trump in a series of decisions this year, allowing various policies to take effect after they were impeded by lower courts that cast doubt on their legality.

Among these policies were Trump’s revocation of temporary legal protections on humanitarian grounds for hundreds of thousands of migrants, deportations of migrants to countries other than their own and domestic immigration enforcement raids.

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